Today started off really oddly! I got up to take my sisters off to school and to my amazement, discovered that Joburg was doused in a blanket of fog! We never get fog! We don't really get much in the way of exciting precipitation. We get hail which is probably the most interesting precipitation we get, but otherwise it is all rain, frost and dew. Never fog!
Anyway, the traffic was an absolute bitch today as a result! It never ceases to amaze me how people become uncontrollably incompetent behind the wheel the second there is a notable weather phenomenon! There were accidents on practically every highway. It is actually rather scary when you think about it! There are all these lunatics driving around and you are there too, mild-mannered and sitting in your car, surrounded by looneys!
After dropping my sisters off at school I decided to return home and catch half an hours sleep before heading off to Wits. Unfortunately, as with most things in my life, it didn't go according to plan. I overslept by two hours! I was really tired this morning when I got up to take them off to school so that's why I returned to bed.
So I got to Wits really late today. I immediately started to do the marking for my first years. Their prac is tomorrow afternoon and I'd rather have their stuff all marked for them by that time. However, I did a bit of marking but then I was interrupted by a million and one people coming in to chat to me. Once they had all left I got back to my marking.
I'm not exagerating when I say this but literally, the second my pen returned to the page, my cousin, Duncan, arrived to visit! It was really great to see him again and I wasn't all that into my marking anyway. So, we chatted and he had some hot chocolate. By the time he left, it was already lunchtime! So I went online to try and check my mail. Half-way through doing this, Laura arrived to have a sub-comm meeting in the honours room.
Now, if you will remember, a while back I quit the sub-comm. However, due to the fact that I failed to send a letter of resignation, I am still on the sub-comm. So I was forced to attend the meeting and in the process was persuaded to remain on the sub-comm. Curse my inability to say no!
So, after the meeting, I had half an hour to kill before another meeting. This time with the head of the Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES) school, Kevin Balkwill, who I needed to help me identify some plants that I had collected over the weekend as potential baboon food sources. Kevin was 15 min late and as a result I had to cancel the meeting as I had to go and fetch my sisters from school to take them shopping for art supplies.
At this point I would like to point out that I realise the ridiculousness of the name of the school that I work in. A friend pointed out though that the alternative to APES would have been PEAS (Plant, Environment and Animal Sciences) so it would have turned out silly either way...
So, I then left Wits, taking Vanessa home at the same time. I then got home, collected the siblings and went shopping. I found a present for Helen, who is having her 21st birthday party on Saturday. She was a mission to shop for and wasn't at all cooperative when it came to finding out what she wanted for her birthday...
So this evening was the first in a long time that I was actually home for the preparation of dinner. After that was all done and subsequently eaten, I went to try do more marking. Three of my students have just not handed in the work and so I can't mark them. However, out of the remaining twelve that have handed in, only 4 have passed. I feel really bad for having to fail them but they just havn't done the required work...
So now I am on the internut, downloading some script writing software and doing the blog. I should go to bed now and will do so in due course. Adios me amigos. Donde estas el pero?
This is a real sign that I have seen with my own eyes! I didn't take the photo but (excuse the pun) I was present for the taking of the photo!
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