Pfangirl Through the Looking Glass

As of Wednesday 31 May, I’m going to be a ‘vacation widow’ for a month as Paul heads over to the UK. It is only a month but it is still pretty sucky to be separated for so long. SMSes, email and online messengers aren’t quite the same as picking up the phone or seeing your loved ones face to face. Here’s hoping he finds and brings home some cool, cheap PS2 games to make amends. In the meanwhile I have a number of activities to keep me busy, including finishing a website design and content job, sketching some new Girls N Games cartoons, a pile of books to read, Jiu-Jitsu class and some serious gaming… on top of some video to DVD conversion jobs my mother has planned for me. Anyway, just as an update in terms of my activities the last few days: On Thursday I picked up my gi for Jiu-Jitsu, so I really look the part now. I’ll definitely have to arrange some photos of me looking martial arts-y (I do so enjoy choke submissions). I also bought Paul’s gi as his very early birthday present. He’...

I woke up on Friday at 5am with a sore throat and running nose (no doubt helped by last week’s stress). This meant I had a nasty head cold for the whole weekend. After the hair-raising drive home during the big storm on Friday evening, I was no mood to get back in my car and drive down to Paul’s where he was having a business meeting in the middle of a black out. Instead, I spent the evening working on my July GEAR column, which was surprisingly quick and easy to write, for a change. Must be the personal subject matter and the extensive brainstorming notes I’ve written for at least the next 4 columns. I also worked on Micah’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu website, which is now over half done. On Saturday I accompanied my mother to the Pavillion to buy some flannel PJs for the winter and some general other wintery clothing. I popped in at Look & Listen and, giving in to my consumerist urges, picked up the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? DVD and The Bard’s Tale PC game. Not that I’ve had time to play...

Shirley sent me a long email, and I resonded with a phonecall. We're sorted; back to where we were... with the additional ingredient in the mix of now trying to make more effort, both in terms of action and understanding. We both spoke out of hurt. Thank you Shirley. I respect what you had to say in your email. I'm sorry too.

This can be resolved… With a non-forum, non-email apology simply for the following very hurtful statement: The problem is that if it's not within your convenience., you couldn't give a shit. Your friends mean that little to you. Friends do not say that. The same applies to any of the similar statements that followed. I did not appreciate reading such judgemental comments on a forum populated by people that I like and respect. Gareth, you actually made me cry. Friendships are not CDs where you can skip over the scratched sections and happily continue on. The problem needs to be buffed out before Play can be resumed. Anyway, I will not be posting on The Pond for a good long time. Paul is tired of what it is doing to me, to us, and to our group of friends, and I agree with him. If people want to stay in contact with me, it’s going to have to be email, or SMS if you are so inclined.

G and I have posted the following on Noelles blogg in response to all the hassles and would appreciate it if it is left there. As for things and events noelle and i have missed I chatted to G about it, if people are upset they must say somehting. Imagine getting married and not talking to your partner about issues you have, it is a recipe for disaster. ==================================== Who ever reads this blog at some stage, needs to understand that the two boyfriends in this situation didn't have a clue as to what is going on. We both take offense to what has been said. I do not relish in the thought of sending money and helping others just to laugh at their missfortune in their time of need and have no way ever thrown it back in their face. We both would appreciate it if the three people involved would settle their differences off line and if they would like to debate important matters, that they do it off line in a private copacity. We both dont need this shit in our lives an...

As per Paul and G’s requests in the comments below, I am no longer going to continue my fight with Gareth and Shirley in the public realm. Things will be resolved face to face or over the phone… However, before all that, I do feel the need to defend myself and restore balance to a very one-sided and exaggerated account of events apparently being bandied about The Pond. As I’m not there to counter this cowardly personality bashing, I’ll have to do that there. I enjoy the company of people there, and value their opinions so I will not be bad mouthed in front of them. Let’s begin… Natasha and Matt hardly ever come to Durban events and yet they’re not prone to attacks. It’s just accepted they won’t come to a lot of things, no questions asked (You can’t tell me that they’re always busy?). I fail to understand why the same acceptance can’t be applied to Paul and myself. We don’t like clubbing. We don’t like going to Umhlanga. This preference has been established time and time again. Yet we k...

Here’s the question: Do you need friends who judge your every action and then loudly proclaim their opinions in a public realm? More specifically do you need friends who go onto a forum and announce that you are selfish, self-absorbed and don’t give a shit about them? Paul keeps telling me to stay away from forums. As far as he is concerned every fight that has flared up among our group of friends has involved forums and the online realm. I would say I have the tendency to agree although the involvement of the same people time after time does suggest the fights come down more often to a clash of individual personalities than the technology involved in the interactions. This said, the inhibition-shedding nature of online communication may be a major contribution to these fights. Hidden behind nicknames and avatars, people like to vent online. They are freer in their opinions and emotional outbursts. The problem arises when your online interactions involve people you see regularly face t...

The American Summer Movie session is slowly gearing up, and with international release dates as they currently stand in South Africa we’re pretty much going to be seeing the same films, at the same time as they’re showing in the States. Anyway, Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code opens this weekend, and while I see the film as a pretty pointless exercise (if you’ve read the book you know all the twists that make the religious thriller-mystery entertaining), I’m still grinding my teeth over the casting of Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. Robert Landon is supposed to be a middle-aged thinking woman’s hottie, which Hanks, with his large forehead and receding hairline, most definitely is not. Ideally, if this was 15-20 years ago, Landon would have been played by Harrison Ford. But last night I had a contemporary casting brainwave: Hugh Jackman. Perhaps a bit young, but he’s sexy and a good actor! He’s my Robert Langdon. Anyway, I’ve seen a few films at the cinema in the last few weeks. The Wild Dis...

I'm in the process of getting the Novagen Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy website up and running. However, with the national tournament under 3 weeks away, and people no doubt searching for information online, I thought I better include some details here (because apparently this blog is quite well meta-tagged, as I learnt on Monday evening;)): 1st South African National Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Cup Competition For the first time, South Africa’s top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu clubs are meeting to share their knowledge and pit their skills against one other. There are numerous weight categories to compete in, and there is going to be cash prize for the fastest take-down of the day. Date: 3 June 2006 Place: Gateway Theatre of Shopping Competitors' Entry Fee: R100 For more information, call Micah at 084 8000 232 or Abdul at 083 396 3258.

I’m not going to do a full rundown of the weekend except to say that involved a lot of eating out- with Micah at the airport Spur on Friday, just Paul and me at Kauhai on Saturday morning, and with Ian at Mimmo’s on Saturday- as well as blowing work off to spend time in the glorious sun. On Sunday, Paul and I headed up to Megan’s (Paul’s sister) farm for a Mother’s Day braai, as well as to see the 2 week old whimpering Border Collie puppies. They really are so beautiful, with thick coats, that irresistible puppy smell, and their eyes are just beginning to open. My personal favourite is a little girl who is completely black except for a white star on her forehead, and her little white booties. The Puppies Proud mom Jessica and the pups If I’m not plonking my ass down to read in the sun, I do find the farm pretty boring. However, Megan and Wolf have accumulated some extra animals since I was last up there. And these provided amusement on Sunday. These animals include Uggy the more-boar...

Let me stress from the outset, once again, that if you want to go to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, please, please, please enroll at the Pietermaritzburg campus. Durban is horribly disorganised- a prime example of a massive organisation powered by stupid ideas and filled with incompetant people continually passing the buck. Take last night's Humanities graduation at the Westville campus as an example... Set to start promptly at 6pm, it actually only began past 6:30, with the staff procession entering the sports hall where the ceremony was taking place. Most students were sitting in their seats from around 5:30-5:45. The post-graduates have their qualifications bestowed on them first (in the order of Doctorates, Masters and then Honours degrees). As the first Honours graduate I was about 50th or so, so I was finished quite early on in the evening. And the only reason I was there in the first place was because my parents wanted to see me receive my qualification... again (I went to...

I saw this over at Nat’s The Film Experience and thought I’d give it a try. Setting my little black 4GB Nano to Shuffle, the first 15 songs played gave me answers to the following important questions: 1) How does the world see you? The Might of Rome (Hans Zimmer, Gladiator) This piece accompanies the first shots of Ancient Rome as the camera breaks through the cloud cover; followed by the petal-strewn procession through city by Joaquin Phoenix’s new emperor. So apparently I appear powerful and in control to the world… Ha ha. 2) Will I have a happy life? Desert Rose (Sting) I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand I wake in vain I dream of love as time runs through my hand I dream of rain I lift my gaze to empty skies above I close my eyes The rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of love A beautiful, exotic sounding song about dreaming and longing; so I’m going to spend my life yearning… 3) What do my friends think of me? My World (Avril Lavigne) Can’t help if I space in...

I've been slack with the blog updates this week so far- I've been busy at work. So start off, here's my May GEAR column (the original; not the slightly edited version that appeared in the mag): The Life-Stealing Hobby Gamers spend a lot of time defending their pastime. We’ve toughened ourselves against attacks like the exhausted claim that gaming encourages violence. But there is one accusation that pierces through all shields. One thing that can’t be explained away is gaming’s tendency to life-steal. I’m sure everyone reading this column has at some point been told to stop playing games and do something else. Finish your homework. Go outside and exercise. Pleasure me now. Gaming can quickly change from an activity that passes time to an activity that utterly consumes it. And the worst offender is the Role Playing Game(RPG). The electronic RPG genre, for the uninitiated, owes a great deal to pen-and-paper forerunners like Dungeons and Dragons. Players are essentially improm...

Here’s a fact, ladies and gentlemen. The world is one big pissing contest. Particularly in the corporate world, it’s all about throwing your weight around, marking your territory, one dog sniffing and then pissing where another dog has just relieved itself 10 seconds before… I bring this up because today’s unnecessary work stemmed from just such a situation. JK is a brand manager at a big skincare company. JK is notoriously difficult to please, as proved by weeks of trying to satisfy her with a launch campaign concept. Once the campaign is approved, JK goes on a month’s leave. The copywriters and designers cheer. In her absence, JK has a replacement overseeing and approving the trade presenter and DVD product launch. The replacement is one of those minimalist types who likes bulleted lists and greatly reduced amounts of copy. Under the replacement, the trade presenters are designed and pretty much finalised- they just need to be sent to print. Today JK returns. And relieves herself all...