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2011
March 08
I am totally loving my Scottish roots right now. Not only do the men wear skirts but they seem to love coming up with random names for food. I just found out that they make a special food called FESTY COCK for Shrovetide. Wiki the info if you're interested. What brought on this exciting titbit of information? Well today is official Shrove Tuesday. Also known as Fat Tuesday in America (ah... Americans...). Today is basically the last day before LENT: when you should traditionally give up something for the next 40 days. Good excuse to start dieting, stop smoking, cut back on booze or just generally make life more difficult than it has to be. In the old days, today was the day people would try and finish up all those rich/fatty ingredients which they'd cut out for lent: ie. Sugar, fat, eggs.. etc... So what's the best way to use all those ingredients up?? PANCAKES. Yep. Today is pancake day. (long-winded way of making a simple point)
Apparently I should give something up for lent. From the 9th March until the 23rd April. 40 days of penance. I've been living in Thailand for 5 months. When I first arrived I had 4,000 baht a month to live on (not including my rent). That's 131 US$, 81 UK pounds or 904 SA Rand. In other words... NOT A LOT. So for 3 months I basically had to survive on cheap Thai street food (and very little of it). It was fine. I survived. Lucky for me the street food here is AMAZING, CHEAP and SO SO SO GOOD. No stomach bugs either. Since I started getting a REAL salary, I've cut back on street food and converted slowly to more expensive western food and western lifestyle. Which is fine, but at the end of the day I feel more and more disconnected from Thai life. Which was actually a lot of fun. So for lent... I'm giving up western food and going back to only surviving on street food. Thai food. Should be fun. Means I get to experience my favourite Thai lunch restaurant with the old lady that gives me a hug when she sees me. And with the people who keep suggesting I try this and that... which normally ends in me trying not to gag while I swallow lumps of congealed pigs' blood, entrails and very fishy tasting fish. I'm up for the challenge. Plus, it'll mean me saving up a little bit so I can afford other important things in my life. Apparently I have to start budgeting in extra food allowance for Nick and Truter when/if I see them later this year. Fail.
So that's that. Need to update things on this website as well. Maybe I should take up certain 'tasks' over Lent. Keep my website updated, start running again, avoid the BTS skytrain as much as possible, start painting again, only check fb once a day, read more books (ie. No movies) and start sending letters/postcards to friends. All possibilities. What are you giving up or doing for lent? Support a charity case. Me. :)
2010
November 16
Ah. The problem with facebook is that it's so easy and user-friendly and idiot-proof. Which means that by the time I've finished procrastinating/stalking on fb for a few minutes/hours, then I'm too braindead and lazy to work on my actual website. FB status updates just take so much less effort! What a waste! Each day as I'm walking to/from work and see all these random things which are so "thai" and awesome, I keep thinking about my lonely/barren blog which could be cluttered with awesome insights. But by the time I get to work/home, I'm too tired or distracted to work on it. Eish. Anyway! That's my lame excuse. I'm now living in Bangkok, Thailand. Working as an Intern with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC). Some of us have to start right from the bottom hey. I miss the student life and waking up excited about work/things that need to be done. Instead I drag myself out of bed with the knowledge that it's going to be another LONG day sitting at my desk in fake air-conditioning staring at my computer praying for some 'real' work. Going home is a different story. Always excited for the afternoon/evenings. Have some awesome friends and people in my life here. And ultimate frissssbeee! It's those perks that make it worth staying in Bangkok next year. Yep. Trying to get a job based here in Bangkok. Would really like to stay a little longer. But only if I get a REAL job with REAL pay, etc. Mmm. Anyway. 1 hour 45min til hometime. Nice!
August 16
I was inspired by a friend's website... and someone else making fun of my lack of updates (it's been almost a year now)... AND in honour of WAB - work avoidance behaviour - I'm sitting here trying to remember how on earth this webediting program works. My master's dissertation almost ALMOST makes more sense than this. Mmm.
Anyway. It's been a while. I finish my MSc in 2 weeks or so. It's been a rad, long year. I've visited a few countries (Ireland, UK, Spain, Holland, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong) and will be in another few (South Africa, Thailand, Laos) before the epic 2011 New Year party (somewhere in the world).... Let's not dwell on my carbon footprint. Please. I've tried a whole bunch of new and interesting beers (and food.. thanks China, I love you). All good hey. Not to mention the awesome new (and old... hi j.. haha) people/friends in my life. Score!
This blog is becoming a little too serious. I obviously need more caffeine in my system. Maybe I'll write something more fascinating next WAB session. I also wonder whether I should have a serious side to this site. In case future job people become nosey. Eish. (Note to self... become serious in life).
2008
May 07
Ah screw it... it's been 3 whole months since I've changed my website. And actually, it felt longer. 3 months ain't so bad. Back in the day, it took people 3 months to walk to Jo'burg from Cape Town. And a few years ago it took 3 months to send parcels from England to South Africa. Oh wait... parcels never left/arrived in South Africa... mmm
Let's see. News. Nothing much. Life goes on. Working on my honours/post-grad stuff. Doing research in urban food security. Hoping to carry out that research in Malawi during the June holidays. If I go, I'll take lots of pictures and post 'em. Otherwise... it's work work work and NO SOCIAL life. So sad. Living alone has its drawbacks. Namely... you begin talking to yourself and if all else fails... you turn to facebook for human contact. Mmm.
There's some news photos that I've uploaded. Haven't been all too snap happy, so probably 90% of the photos were taken by my friends. I stole them, with their permission. <cough>
Lacking inspiration to type, so I shall go and defend the world against... people like me.
February 01
Welcome mortals to a brand new year! And a sortof updated website to reflect this fact.
Umm. A break in the exciting paragraph that I was trying to construct up above... I've just noticed this thing which is really annoying me. I have a wireless connection where you buy bundles of MB at a fairly expensive price. You keep track of them in the form of credits. So... each time I log onto this wireless thing, I end up using about 10-50 credits. About 5 mins ago I went onto my webmail site for one of my old email addresses and tried deleting a stupid massive email that a friend had forwarded. I just checked my credits and that one little stupid action cost me 750 credits. 750 CREDITS... aggghhhh.... like what the heck man...
It's amazing how pissed off you can get at the small things in life hey. Anyway. It's a new year. I felt like I needed to update this website and blog coz of that fact. But also because a lot of important people seem to be checking out my site these days, so I might as well pretend to impress them! Ha ha... Stop sniggering people.
I'm still in Cape Town. If I had my way I'd be skydiving off the coast of some far-off island in the middle of somewhere exciting. Or even just trekking around Tibet or avoiding bullets in Lebanon. But here I am, trying not to think too hard about the fact that I'm doing a year of honours/post-grad studies at UCT. I'm still in denial and I guess that that sucks even more because if I actually resigned myself to the fact that I AM staying here, then I might actually try and make the most of that. (ie. start enjoying it). This year's gonna be a tough one. I know. I can already see it. Mainly because I don't want to be here, I actually have to work hard and not just pretend to work, and my uber cool digzmate, Truter, is no longer my digzmate. Now she's like Colin (she has her own key, comes and goes as she wants and heads straight to my fridge even before she says hi to me... an honorary digzmate!!)
Ok. I go now to forage for food. Don't judge me...
2007
September 03
Wow... You guys have NO idea how big and complicated my website is getting. I'm starting to get lost in the myriads of pages, links and admin. Nevermind trying to keep up with what pages need to be uploaded and what stuff should be lost to cyberspace forever and ever. Hmmph.
On a happier note, it's 4.31pm and I'm officially deadbeat from university work. The thing is, I actually have an essay I should be cracking at... but here I am. Getting lost in cyberspace. (And listening to Disney songs... <awkward silence>)
Yesterday my digzmates (Truter and Colin-who-pretends-he-lives-with-us) planned a trip up the West Coast to go check out the famous once-a-year blooming-in-their-millions fynbos flowers. I think they're fynbos... I should know. I do study this stuff... <note to self... pay more attention in lectures> But moving along swiftly... It was an AWESOME day out. The flowers were awesome, the views were breathtaking and the air was FRESH! I spotted a turtle (I know it's a tortoise, but you try screaming the word tortoise 50x in a row to bug your friends). The TURTLE made my day! So did the rock-jumping feats we tried along the coast. I took almost 170 photos. In your face Mr X who hates digital cameras coz they take away from the precision and guarded-picture-taking of REAL cameras. I'm proud to say that only 70 of the photos were blurry, unaimed and just plain cruddy! I'm getting better at this aren't I?
OK. So in the name of procrastination, I shall end here and pretend to work hard. On REAL work.
These blogs suck. I think I say it EVERY time. Maybe I shouldn't spend so much time shooting myself down... but it's true. I forgot what point I was trying to make. Something about how I should comment more on the intricacies of life and life's lessons which I'm rather slow at learning... instead of telling all these random INSIDE jokes which only Truter, Colin, and possibly my yellow duck would understand. DUUUUDE...
August 25
I now have a LOT more space for my website. Which means I can ADD lots more junk and not have to worry about deleting random old stuff. YEEHA! Just a shame that I don't inherit more "wit" with the extra webspace. Mmm. So, my friends, you'll just have to live with the joy-who-thinks-she's-funny-and-witty-but-who-is-actually-uber-lame... or so...
Since I've spent WAY too long trying to sort out admin stuff for this website, I can't be bothered to type a long interesting Blog. (Not that they're ever long... or interesting, for that matter). So.. I shall simply leave you with this rad quote from the series FIREFLY.
Mr
A: "I
guess you heard most of that..."
Mr
B: "...only
coz I was eavesdropping."
May your week be full of eavesdropping and may your outbox be full of emails to ME!
June 06
So apparently
LAMO blogs are those that
have people describing what they ate for breakfast and what
clothes they wore and who they smiled at in the street and how many
snails they stood on....
actually, the snails part WOULD
be interesting. BUT
I will now defy convention
and present to you.. this special morning... the... COOL-LAMO-WANNABE-BLOG-OF-JOYs-VERY-EXCITING-EXISTENCE-TODAY...
it
will be exciting! I woke up... (later than usual, oops...) and after
my morning toilette (the french makes it sound extravagant...
it was)... I had chocolate-icing-covered-brownies for breakfast.
(I didn't go for a run... it's raining and I was loaded with brownies
anyway). And then.... I smiled at my digzmate.
Which is cool. Coz she
deserves a smile in the morning. I then grunted at her early-morning
(late really coz I overslept, but it's all relative my dear friends...)
JOKES...
and now am faced with the ordeal of STUDYING
for my exam tomorrow morning.
I told you it was an exciting morning so far. And I've only been
awake 1 hour.
I didn't step on any snails by the way. I'm an ENVIRONMENTALIST.
I only feed snails to other creatures and use them to thicken soups.
Cool. BLOGS rock.
They're the... as my media lecturer says... "revenge of the pyjama-brigade
(ie. amateurs)..." and yes, I AM
still in my PJs............
o_O
April 28
It takes a REAL man to wear pink... That's my wise saying for this week's edition of... joy's not-quite-so-weekly blog. I feel like I've come a LONG way since my last blog. (Still undecided about whether blogging is for losers or not... but one step at a time here). There's been a few too many issues in my life. Coupled with LOTS OF WORK... this makes a recipe for umm... procrastination and stress. Although I'm generally not a stressed person. OK. STOP. THIS IS ALL CRAP. REWIND.
Who really cares about my issues anyway? I don't! My housemate(s) and I have been "discussing" this issue of... self-defence mechanisms... when it comes to talking about deep and meaningful stuff (DMC). We both fall prey to it. So you can imagine what our DMCs are like. Not very deep and meangful. Hmm. (Why am I telling you all of this? I have no clue really). I think I need to get out the house or something. It's been a LONG day of sitting at home and attempting to write a very long and boring essay. (Right now it's SHORT, but still very BORING).
So maybe this IS the worst blog ever. Oh well. Just means I have to live up to its standards! Ha... I'm designing an HIV/AIDS website for one of my uni projects. Which means that this website'll be DIFFERENT for a few weeks. Sorry about that. But you gotta do what you gotta do... (to pass anyway)... It's so much easier designing a website than writing long and boring essays. DOWN WITH ACADEMICS. 7 months till I graduate! Yippee... I think I need a change of scenery. And right now, I need a change of weather. It's flippin FREEZING and it's not even WINTER yet. Hopefully I'll be able to FLY NORTH FOR WINTER... (literally... on an aeroplane... north of the equator... )
So here's to winter, academics and rewinding!
April 8
Some wise person said... "time flies when you're having fun"... so I've come to the conclusion that either that person's a loon, or I've obviously got a screwed up definition for "fun"... coz it seems like this term is NEVER ENDING. We're on our easter vac, and that should signal the mid-term break... ie. we're done with HALF the term and we only have to worry about another equal portion of it... but the thing is at our university, that this next term is actually L-O-N-G-E-R than the last. And I barely survived the last. Anyway. Enough ranting about the physics of time and... stuff...
I've basically spent a large portion of my easter vac on a "media school camp". I've been teaching journalism at one of the high schools in Philippi (xhosa-speaking informal settlement in Cape Town) for the last year and a half. We decided that a 4-day camp for the kids would be an awesome experience for them. And it definitely was. 4 of us innocent (and unarmed) university students embarked on this mission with 40 high school kids and not enough vegetables (or sleep... but apparently... whoever said you were supposed to sleep on CAMPS got it V-E-R-Y wrong...)
Hmm. I don't really know what else to say about the camp. It was fun, packed with activities and definitely worthwhile... for us teachers and for the students. It was also very VERY tiring and I'm sure there was LOADS of joy-cursing coz I ended up shouting at kids who thought they could stay up till 1.30am and spend that "lights-out" time chatting up the boys/girls in the segregated sleeping quarters. Hmm.... When I finally climbed into my own bed, in my own house, on Thursday evening (4 LONG days later)... I slept for 13 hours SOLID and it was the best sleep in the world. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.
Otherwise. Things are rad this side. As I said, I have ANOTHER long term to look forward to. The work's STILL piled up. And it's a B-I-G pile. And it's a L-O-N-G climb up. Doh!
March 14
Adoring fans. I'm on my knees (in theory), begging your forgiveness. It's been almost 2.5 months of complete silence and rejection of the special killjoyonline.com. My bad. I wrote a whole LOOONG list of excuses (it was a LOOONG boring lecture) and umm.. let me sum them up this way:
"i'm a moron who's lazy..."
Yep. Straight from the moron's mouth. You may quote me on that above statement although I will most definitely deny it. So.... what's been up and happening since I last graced the net with my humble presence???
Not much... honest. I'm back in Cape Town in my final year of painful, teeth-pullingly sadistic lectures and uni work. Oh well. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I was in a state of denial (being back in the 1st world is daunting) for about 3 weeks... and umm. It's my 4th week of being back (I think... who really knows). According to some fans... they're still waiting for the BIG JOY REVEAL coz I haven't exactly been real friendly. I BITE.
Anyway. I have nothing else to add. I'll post more when I'm feeling more creative and less... deep and meangful. Maybe I need to change the music I'm listening to ... to something less umm... suicidal and morose. (might help! haha)
P.S. I'm not suicidal. I'm actually in a HAPPY mood. I need chocolate though... Mmm..
Škilljoy