Jelly-legs

Well guys, I am currently barely able to remain upright on my legs. As Helen already blogged, on Thursday a whole herd of us wits students went off to play paintball! It was awesome! I felt terrible though because I accidentally shot Kathleen! She is a pacifist and was only there to take photos. I didn't see that it was her, I only saw a head with a mask on and so I assumed it to be the enemy and opened fire. I hit her on the mask...a thousand appologies Kathleen! I got shot over 20 times and each shot seemed to sting more than the last but I would do it again any day! My back is currently covered in large ring-bruises (thanks to Oliver - you underhanded dog you! ;-) ) but that is not my problem! My legs are SO sore that I can't bend them!

The problem is that I have been sitting infront of a computer all year and so I have not really used those muscles in my legs for about 8 months! I nearly fell over when I tried to get out of bed on Friday morning! So, I have made a decission to try and get fit this holiday. I've been swimming a lot since the exams ended. I mainly do butterfly because it seems to be the most exhausting, so I figure that is must be doing me the most good...

The photo for today is of Laura looking annoyed at the camera, held by Vanessa, as I dish up our dinner. It was from our first Wits run field trip. It was for a course where we had to make and insect and plant collection. We were the only ones that had made pasta for dinner! All the rest of the normal people had brought things like 2 min noodles or cup-o-soup. We even had salad with kroutons! That's what happens when Laura is in charge of catering. Don't get me wrong, it was great! We arrived at this place, called Ezemvelo, and from the second that we stepped off the bus to when we got back onto it two days later, it poured. I have never been so wet in all my life! It got to the point where as I walked, water would gush out of my shoes, but in the time between lifting my foot and putting it down for the next step they would fill up with water again! It was such fun!

On the last night, we were all so wet and tired of running around looking for flowers that we all climbed onto a single air matress (spelling?) and didn't move all night. There were about 5 or 6 of us all crammed onto a 2.5m x 2.5m matress. It was snug to say the least. On the last day I had to borrow some tracksuit pants from Laura because I didn't have a single dry item of clothing left. For weeks afterward, we made jokes about me getting into Laura's pants. We all thought that they were hysterical but in hindsight, they weren't all that funny.

Sometimes this site is REALLY dumb!

I just tried to log in and the website kept saying that my computer was blocking the cookies from Blogger. So it suggested that I alter my security settings, which I did. I set them higher and it let me in! How does that make any sense?

Today was really nice because for the first time in a very long time, I spent a good part of my day outside, in the sun, playing with the dogs and swimming. It was really nice and I realised how much I've missed it.

I did go in to Wits today to speak to Neville about some of the stuff I found out at the zoo the other day (When I finally learnt all the chimps ACTUAL names). He came up with a really cool idea for enrichment of the chimp enclosure that would encourage them to use more of the space. I elaborated on it so that it'll become a great way to increase the amount of time that the chimps are occupied and make them use more of their space. In short, they should be happier at the end of it all.

I also gave Neville a thank-you/christmas gift for all the stuff he's helped me with this year and put up with. He was chuffed.

Tomorrow I'm off to go and play paintball for the first time in my life! It's kinda scary considering all the horror stories I've heard about people losing eyes and bruises that remain with you for your life etc...I'm rather psyched on the other hand and I'm sure it will be awesome! Some of the Honours people refuse to come or participate (TAO! - we all want to shoot this one in particular!)

Anyhoo, it's 22:45 and I'm feeling really tired so I'm going off to bed. Yes, I know I'm like an old man but I haven't been sleeping lately and so I'm really tired. Hopefully tonight I can get a good night's sleep!

By the way, the pic today is of a tree from Suikerbosrand that I took a photo of. We named it something but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was called.

Afterthought: I finally have the first Chicane album! It's awesome!

My current best-restaurant-of-all-time!

Does this photo remind anyone else of the surface of the sphinx in Egypt?

Well guys, as the title suggests, today I was introduced to my new and current favourite-eatery-of-all-time! It is none other than Kuwai (Spelling?). I'm allowed to spell it wrong because I've never been there before.

They make the most amazing food! It was...wow...I had something that had lots of humus on it and pepperdews and stuff which was delicious! And they have the only smoothies on the planet that I have ever actually liked! I had something with lots of mango in it and it was brilliant!

I would like to thank Laura and Sarah for broadening my horizons with todays lunch. I am eternally indebted to you!

And the best part of this amazing place is that the vast majority of their food is vegetarian friendly! There is a lot of vegan stuff too! Thus, it is also automatically healthy! Hooray! Finally, good food, that's healthy!

We all (Laura, Sarah, Helen, EEbEE and I) went to the movies today to see 'An inconvenient truth'. It was rather good except for the fact that the movie was primarily about how the first world was going to be affected by global warming. It appears that the REST OF HUMANKIND that lives elsewhere, will be entirely unaffected by the phenomenon.

I must admit that it makes me glad that I live in Joburg. At nearly 2000m above sea level, we're not likely to get flooded any time soon. Kind of ironic when you think that many of the people of this country can trace their ancestory back to the dutch and Holland is going to be completely wiped out by the warming!

In other news, I went off to the zoo again today and was taken on a tour of the new reptile enclosure (which hasn't opened to the public yet!). It looks amazing! I also got to go into the back of the chimp and orangutan enclosures! The orang is scary! He is massive! His middle finger is as thick as three of mine combined!

That's all...

The scary photo!

The Scary Halloween photo finally posted! Hooray!

OH my golly-gosh people of this small green and blue planet! I have nearly finished my honours degree! I'm not going to get used to this any time soon…It may seem incredibly odd to the rest of you but I am really rather freaked out by this thing of having finished! Helen and Eebee can attest to this as they suffered through the whole of Friday lunch with me going on about how cool it was that we had finished and did they realise that we were nearly done and that this was a major milestone in our lives and that we were finished and... (You get the idea)

Coincidentally, I have never been so tired in all my life! I haven’t had a good nights sleep in I don’t know how long! Speaking of which, I’m also losing track of time…It’s rather surreal to be told about something and think that it happened months ago and then realise that it only happened yesterday.

Oh my gas! I’ve also put on 5kg’s since the beginning of the year! I’m going to have to work it off. I really hate exercising so this is going to be tough…I’m sure many of you can sympathise. Exercising sucks! And I have all these papers that say that research has shown that exercising releases endorphins, which makes you happy. I think they may have conveniently left out the bit where all their study subjects were fed chocolate while running on the treadmill and THAT’s where all the endorphins came from! But seriously, I can’t get excited about jogging or cycling or anything…except perhaps swimming. I enjoy that, but in a more ‘I’m going to pretend to be a piece of driftwood and see where I end up’ kind of way.

I used to do swimming in school. In primary school I loved it and was on the swimming team and everything. I went to swimming training with some woman who used to be a friend of my mom’s from high school. I then arrived at high school, hated the idea of achieving anything in the name of school and stopped. I was forced a few times to swim in the school gala, once as a result of a practical joke on the part of a friend of mine. I was not impressed…

Wow…today I really can’t keep my mind on a single thing! ADD in a bad way…

So, what I’ve been up to lately…Well, on Friday I went with Helen to try and see if I couldn’t do some behaviour sampling for my Masters project. The chimps were not out and so I decided to take the rest of the day off and go home. I did that and swam a bit. That evening I went out for the first time in…I dunno, but the point is it’s been a long time! I went with Duncan and David to ‘Frankie Bananas’ here in Bedfordview. I’ve been there before with some of my colleagues from when I used work at M&A. It was cool then, not too crowded, but this time it was packed and it was full of the typical pretentious Bedfordview rich kids. Not cool. So, instead, we went off to the new club (I say new because it’s new to me) called ‘la Boom’ at Wild waters in Boksburg.

Yes, I ashamedly admit that I occasionally go to the ‘far east’ to party…

It was actually not bad. The crowd was a little I’m-16-but-I’ll-pretend-to-be-23-and-nobody-will-know, but I had fun. I loved their toilet signs. The theme for the place is sort-of South American…or something…and they have these signs outside the toilets that say ‘senoritas’ and ‘senoras’. Now, if my limited Spanish knowledge serves me well, senoritas means young girls and senoras means women. So technically, they have no men’s room! I think that they think that senoras is men, but it should be senores.

Anyhoo, Saturday I got up and went off to the zoo with my sister who came along as my time-keeper. She was a brilliant assistant. Don’t worry Helen, I’ll make the CD for timing…
After returning, we went off to return the DVD my sisters took out from the video store the night before and ended up getting two more DVD’s. My sisters insisted on getting ‘School of Rock’ again. I’ve seen it 4 or 5 times now and it is becoming a little tiring to watch over and over. My sisters think that it is the most amazing movie on the planet and can’t seem to get enough of it. I got something called ‘Bagdad Café’ which is really good! It is amazingly shot and tells a rather simple story in a beautiful way. I recommend it to all!

Then, today I went to church which was really tough as I fought to remain conscious. It wasn’t as long as I was expecting, which was nice, but the worship was horrid! Tone-deaf people should not be appointed to the position of lead singer in the worship team! What were they thinking! After that we all went to tea with my grandmother and then Gemma and I went off to the zoo again. There we discovered that I had been calling all the chimps by the wrong names. It was a little embarrassing.

My sister and I had a bit of a REALLY BLIND moment later. We were supposed to fetch my gran from my aunt’s house at 15:00 and we finished at the zoo at 14:30. So we thought we should simply fetch her straight away. The trip should have taken about 30 min anyway but as it was Sunday, shortly after lunch, everyone was off the roads. So, it took us 10min. And so, despite our attempts to get stopped at every traffic light, we arrived 20 min early. We decided rather than to show up 20 min early, to go and get a cool drink from the petrol station up the road and chill for 15. We did this and went to fetch her.

Hmm…I guess you had to be there.

That’s all for now! I’m off to write my book report for tomorrow! Have a good one people!

Finally done: take 2

I'm very tempted to write out that 'Hello world...this is me...' line again.

Well guys, I sent off my stuff to Neville last night and he sent me back the stuff from two days ago. I always expect the worst when recieving comments on my work from him and so today when I opened the file I kept chanting 'It's gonna be bad' in my mind. So I opened the file and found a comment at the bottom that basically said that what I had spent all day typing up on Monday was completely off topic and had to be rewritten. This was my introduction and seeing as my discussion section, which I completed yesterday and was rather chuffed about, is based on my intro, that has to be rewritten too. I wanted to cry.

It was bizzare because usually, I would get really annoyed that he had said that but this time, I just wanted to die instead. Don't worry, I'm not suicidal...

So I spent the whole day today rewriting my intro. I finished it about half an hour ago, at around 10:00pm. So, tomorrow I shall go and see Neville, find out which parts of my discussion I can salvage and then rewrite that. Then I shall send it off to him, have it ripped to shreds again, rewrite it and send it off for the last time, print three copies, bind them, create a *.pdf file of the whole thing, hand them all in and go off to Helen's house to go get smashed. Then the only things I'll have left until my honours year is over will be my two outstanding essays (not outstanding as in good), the two exams I have to write consecutively, a book review and a stats project! There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Blogger hates my photos...it won't let me upload again. Boo...

Well, that's all for now! I'll blog again when I'm able. How was everyone's Halloween?

Finally done...

Well guys, I've done it! I have written up the last section of my report, my discussion section! I'm almost free of this horrible project! Well actually, it's not been all that horrible. Writing up is just horrible, not the rest of the project. Driving around for hours in Suikerbosrand is horrible when you don't see any baboons and your academic career depends on it. But the rest of the project isn't too bad.

Now, just to wait for Helen to let me know whether she is proof reading it for me or not and then I can send it off to my supervisor and be free of it! Until tomorrow morning that is...

I'm so excited about the end of this year! I can't wait to go catch mole-rats again! It'll be in the desert! Hooray!

Brain is fried...will write again when I can actually come up with more interesting sentences than 'It'll be in the desert!'...

Happy Halloween all...

(I tried to put in a scary photo of me, from when I had long hair, for Halloween...but alas blogger won't let me, so you'll have to ask me individually to send it to you if you really want to see it...)

My 62nd post!

Hello world...this is me...life could be...fun for everyone!

Sorry, those are some lyrics from a song that I heard a VERY long time ago and suddenly popped into my head as I was typing. It was by some random chick called 'Vitamen C' or something...who knows...

I have been reading like a mad thing for the last...3 days and came in to Wits today to fix up all my results so that I can rewrite that section of my report. It's been great fun (Sarcasm...)! This is one of my pretty graphs. Now, if only I could figure out what the hell is going on in it...

So, I arrived at Wits and went to say hi to Helen who has also been furiously working away at her results. EEbEE arrived too and we chatted for a while. We all then went our (I momentarily couldn't spell separate) separate ways and worked for a bit.

After some angst over trying to get the stupid computer to print, I decided that it was lunch time. So I went to tell Helen to stop working and get ready for lunch. I also went to call EEbEE but had to go to the loo first. On my way back from the loo, I went and knocked on the door to EEbEE's room. Just then, I realised that I could hear him talking to Helen in her lab so I walked of to chat to them. Half way there I heard someone walking through EEbEE's room to answer the door. So, being my irrational and silly self, I thought that I couldn't let the person see that it was me who had knocked on their door, and so, scampered down the passage to Helen's lab.

In hindsight, I realise that that was really silly of me and that I probably should have just owned up to my heinous crime of...knocking on the door...

As I spun around the corner into Helen's lab I found out from EEbEE that the person in the other room was Lindo, who had only just gotten to sleep after staying awake all night! I feel terrible...

So we went off to lunch and got Falafels from the 'Anat falafel' in Campus Square. They were AMAZING! I've not had one for so long that I had forgotten just how good they could be...mmmmm...

Three hours later, we returned to Wits to continue our work (it took so long because we ended up on a mission to find me a 'Vanilla Coke' and ended up discussing various foodstuffs available for purchase at the 'Pick-n-Pay' as well as buying various different types of tea). I then did all my graphs and am now on my way home to work on writing up all this nonsense!

Have a smashing weekend world!

How do you do something good for someone you dislike...?

My current predicament is not as serious as the title of this post sounds. I have to produce two essays for my current theory topic and I am TOTALLY disinterested! The one lecturer is an asshole and his contribution to the course just left me feeling really lost and my brain was fried! I'm supposed to write this essay for him but I can't even think of what my topic should be...I mean, I've got a rough topic already but I can't think of what angle I should use...

Well, this week has been horrible. I've had so much work to do. I'm really worried that I'm not going to be able to finish in time for the end of the year! My supervisor came to see me yesterday and did the whole, "Should I be expecting some work from you?" thing.

On the flipside, I'm currently house-sitting for my aunt and uncle which is always fun! They have a heated pool! I have yet to try it out because yesterday, when I got to the house, it was raining and I was so tired that I simply went to bed. I awoke this morning to discover that their gardener had somehow let himself in and was rumageing through the flowerbeds. It was a little awkward because I don't know him from a bar of soap and had to go out to feed the dog. So I introduced myself to him and ended up having quite a conversation about the merits of not drinking and smoking. It was arb...

Anyhoo, I have to go home to get some lunch and start working on THE essay. Have a great weekend internutters!

PS: The photo has nothing to do with anything. I just think Zebra are cute!

Josh!!!!He's SO cute!!!

I have had the honour to see the baby chimp named Josh. He is the illegitimate progeny of a chimp owned by the Joburg Zoo and another on loan from the Jane Goodall institute. And he is SO cute! Here is a photo of a baby chimp:

Isn't it ADORABLE!!! Sorry, its my paternal instincts coming out here...

Anyhoo, today was rather dull...I went off to church with my family minus mom. She stayed at home to do...something...I don't know what. Church was rather odd. I have really been questioning my belief lately and I'm still not 100% which side of the fence I'm on. I mean, what if this is all that there is? This whole thing is really getting to me mostly because my parents are such religious zealots...okay, maybe not zealots, but they are pretty close! It's just irritating.

The other thing that is bugging me about the situation at the moment is that (Helen, you don't have to read this - we've discussed this before) I have many ideas and beliefs that conflict with those of my family. This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that my family are as openminded as a rock, so any opinion that I voiced would be torn to shreds and I would be left to bleed out.

I believe in evolution, to begin with. I don't see how evolution and God can't coexist. They are completely separate things! To begin with, God is an entity, evolution is a process, just like digestion is a process. You don't have christians running around declairing that digestion is evil just because there is no direct link between what happens in our stomach and God...Second, there is tons of proof for evolution and in contrast, there isn't all that much proof to say that the world was created in literally 7 days.

Another thing that I don't agree with is the whole homosexuality thing. I don't beleive that god could reject people based on a psychological issue they have! There is so much research that has gone into this and has shown that homosexuality is caused by genetic predisposition (to a minor degree) and the results of experiences of the people as they develop. So is God really going to say to someone at the end, 'Sorry but because your father didn't show you the right amount of attention when you were between one and four months old, you can't come in to heaven...'!? It's not even their fault!

Sorry, but this is all because of something that the pastor said today in church. He said that the church should rise up against gay rights and same sex marriges. Not that they are gay-haters, but they just don't think that there is any place for homosexuality in the world.

Idiot.

As we speak (not that we are), my father is on the phone to a friend of ours in England, talking about attrocities in the church...

Sorry Travis and Jeff but this is just how I feel right now. I'm not attacking you, I just feel that christians should be a little more openminded and use that beautiful organ God put into our skulls.

-

I finished my essay for Ecophysiology that is due for a months time, or something! Hooray! Now I only have to work on the one that's due for next week friday and the other two, my final project writeup and my exams and I'm scotfree!

Well now that my theroputic rant is over, I'm off! Have a smashing rest-of-weekend! Cheerio!

PS: I saw the movie 'Domino' last night...it's VERY violent and weird...

Don't do it!

Don't EVER take two theory topic in the last block of your honours year! Even if someone pays you to or promises you a small island off the coast of Costa Rica...DON'T DO IT!!!

A soothing photo of a South African sunset to calm the nerves...

Well all as some of you may have noticed, I have not updated in something like a million years. This is due to the fact that the more sadistic side in me thought it would be funny to slowly kill me by drowning me in work.

On the upside, I heard from a friend of mine the most hysterical story about how I got my middle name, Mangaliso (All the APES people can cease reading from here down).

Apparently, it all began when my parents came to South Africa on holiday. My mother was alledgedly pregnant with me at the time. For their supposed trip here, they had a tour guide by the name of...wait for it...MANGALISO! Now, he supposedly did such an amazing job of showing them around, that before leaving to return to their home in Italy,my parents swore to name their first son after the brilliant tour guide that made their holiday so special. Upon my parents apparent arrival back in Italy, I popped out and was named accordingly.

The truth of it all is that:

1. My parents lived their entire lives here in sunny South Africa. They only went to live in Italy in 1999.
2. I was born here at the Johannesburg General Hospital (dodgy, I know!) and never set foot in Italy until I was 13.
3. My name comes from the fact that my dad was one of the liberals that had a huge bone to pick with the Apartheid government and so as an act of deffiance, gave his son a (*Gasp*) 'black name'.

My parents never go on holiday anyway so this never could have happened. And, for those who are wondering, Mangaliso means blessing or miracle.

The end

Another weekend at the workplace

Hi all!

Yes, I am spending another weekend here at Wits instead of at home because I have too much work to get through. At the moment, I have two essays to do and a portion of my final writeup. The road seems very long...

At the moment here at Wits we are having an exhibit of all things natural and alive. It's called 'Yebo Gogga, Yebo amaBlomo' and happens every year. It's usually really cool and quite fun but unfortunately I can't really go check it out this time due to the above. I usually go help out and spend most of my time there showing school kids around and explaining stuff. I dumped my family there today and they seem to be enjoying it so far...

Anyway, I am off to go and see if Helen and interpret my statistics because I sure as hell have no clue what they mean!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Adios

The end is nigh!

Holy crap people! Hierdie jaar het vinnig weg gegaan! I really should be heading off to bed but I thought I should just do a quick post...

For you who are not in the AP&ES dept. or don't see me practically every day...or ever for that matter, tomorrow is the day that we have to give our end-of-year presentations on our honours projects. We are, or at least ought to be, shitting bricks at the moment.

I really know that I shouldn't be worried about it as I rather enjoy presentations but somehow always get into that whole oh-crap-I'm-going-to-have-to-stand-up-infront-of-all-those-people groove...It is really silly, I know.

Speaking of which, I love 'Scrubs'! It is brilliant! I watched season one today when I should have been working!

Well enough of that, I'm really off to bed now.

Wish me luck!

Oh my gas 2: The sequal

All I can say is, oh my gas. My mother has completely lost her mind...

I arrived home today rather late from university as I had to prep 7 dung samples in the hopes that they will be dry by Saturday and I'll never have to do any more dung analysis ever again. I was greeted at the door by my sister who had come to let the dog out. I entered the house as Gogga, the dog, pranced around my feet and occasionally crashed into stuff. As I rounded the corner into my room I noticed something odd. There was a large grey plastic packet on my bed.

I approached the packet cautiously, half expecting it to explode, half expecting it to contain loads of sweets with a corny note saying, 'For our sweet son'. It's the kind of thing my parents would do. The sweets...not leaving bombs on my bed for when I get home.

I looked in. It was full of plastic containers. For a second I was perplexed. It then hit me like a nursery school bully...

It was dietary suppliments! My mother has consulted her boss, the dietitian, about the fact that I am stressed at the moment and has organised me millions of pills and brightly coloured capsules to ease the stress of my everyday existence!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not ungrateful, nor am I opposed to taking vitamen and mineral suppliments. But I think that taking a total of up to 38 pills daily (even number sarah!) is a tad excessive! The doctor even gave me a timetable of how and when to take them! It includes a line about the importance of remaining regular, if you know what I mean...

So from now on I have to prep little party-packs of vitamens, zinc and calcium to take with me to Wits to have with my lunch. I practically don't have to eat anymore!

On the flip side, I watched my first-ever episode of 'Scrubs' today. It was REALLY funny! I need the box set...

Another thing that happened today was really awkward. I was in the honours room trying to work and I realised that Laura and Jason (her boyfriend) were making out in the honours room, behind some other peoples desks! It was horrible! I tried really hard to concentrate but I kept on hearing all these wet slurping and poping sounds with random rubbing sounds every now and again! It was so...eeeuuglh! Sarah and Margaret thought that it was all very funny when I told them...

Well, it's late and I have to write a Stats report tomorrow so I'm going to sleep now. It's so cool having a laptop and being able to sit in bed and surf the internut at the same time! Hooray!

I really wish I could get angry...

I've had a really bad day. It has made me wish I could be like most people and get really angry, kick something and feel better. I can't. It sucks. A good cry every now and again helps though...

Why the hell this still comes as a surprise to me is somewhat baffling but, blogger won't let me upload a photo!

I REALLY don't have time to post today but I thought that I should mention that yesterday, Helen was my knight in shining armour who saved

me from the perils of traffic by sending me directions as I tried to navigate my way from Ravonia to Wits without taking the highway. Spanks Helen!

It appears that the computer somehow sensed my current mood and decided that it probably was a good idea to cooperate (for once) and post my photo!

The point of this is to show just how amazing the sea is. I mean, who can honestly say that this image doesn't appeal to them on some level! I took this photo on my mini-holiday-ete (it was only three days of which I could only speak for one due to a brilliantly timed *and my first ever* case of larangitis).

Oh my gas!

Hi all!

I have a little bitching to do but I'll get it out of the way so that I can write happy things.

-Begin Bitch-

I spent 4 hours in the car today driving around! It has TOTALLY ruined my day! I hate other people on the road! Why can't they all live and work in another country or something! Bloody hell! The worst part was that it took me 2 hours to get my mom to work and then a measly half an hour to get to Wits! And there are so many idiots on the road that seem to think that somehow, by driving right up your arse, they'll get to work 5 min sooner...

It really makes you wonder about natural selection...I mean surely if natural selection actually worked, all the stupid people in the world would not be reproducing. However, by simply walking out of your house, the evidence says otherwise.

-End Bitch-

I really miss the sea at the moment. I realise how silly that may sound but I haven't had a holiday all year and the ocean has a particular place in my heart. Does anyone out there get me on this? I know Sarah loathes the beach for cullinary reasons (it interferes with sandwiches). I think that the sea is the most awesome place I've ever been to. I have a feeling that a rainforest may compete with the beach on the awesomeness scale but I've never been to one so I can't say for sure. I've heard that rainforests are not all as cool as they seem on TV. They have millions of bugs and parasites and stuff that makes life in them generally unpleasant.

Random, I know, but my laptop fixed itself last night! It was wonderful! It has had this trojan on it for ages that I knew was there but my antivirus software refused to recognise. I tried a million things to remove it but nothing seemed to work. Then, last night for no apparent reason, my laptop just decided to recognise it and do something about it! It was brilliant!

I'm trying to post a video that I took on my last trip to the ocean but it doesn't seem to want to work...Sorry...Blogger hates me...

Thats all for today kiddies! I'm starving and so I'm off to see what has happened to dinner...

Adios!

I'm here now!

Greetings

I have just returned from the funny workshop thing that I mentioned in the previous post. It was dumb. I did however get my quote of the day from it. It was said by a rather odd and daft sounding individual whose first name was Petrus and whose surname obviously didn't warrent space in my limited memory. He said:

'The tree are pumping up water, like a water pump'

I hosed myself! The other thing was that I was giggleing to myself, next to one of the only Afrikaans people I know, Marlien. It was really akward, but not that bad because then she told me how she loved ripping him off because of his inability to utilise the English language. That was all during talk number 4.

The first talk seemed to have no particular purpose. Some ex-Witsie stood up and went on about the media and something or other. I was enthralled as I'm sure you can tell from the astounding detail in my description. The most prominent thing that I can remember from her talk was that she said that she probably drank too many ciders while at Wits.

Talk two was from a woman who was very green. She was wearing this lumo-green thing and it made her stick out hectically! It was made so much worse by the fact that she was really loud, verbally. She did this talk thing on her company, Food and Trees for Africa. It all sounds like a really good idea but can potentially lead to massive problems in future if it is not governed properly.

I would like to take this oportunity to make a small shout out to my pal, Pinky!

The third one was by some lady who claimed to have discovered numerous things that are basically common knowledge. These included a particular type of plant, that gorilla's live in the Congo and that they are endangered as well as the fact that botanical gardens are actually Zoos for plants. She also ranted about how her supervisor refused to let her continue her study...It was dumb.

I may have tick-bite fever...

The rest of the talks were really rather inconsequential.

Today in a lecture, our lecturer was trying to explain to us just how it was that birds urine is collected. In case you are wondering why this should be a problem, birds only have one opening on the 'other end'. So, they don't urinate or deficate, they do both at the same time!

Anyhoo, he was explaing to us how this all worked and started off by saying, "You have to take a small tube, cut a hole near the top of it and insert the tube into...wait, let me show you." He then stood up. We all recoiled in horror, expecting him to drop his pants and shove something up his ass. It turned out he wanted to draw a diagram on the white board.

We were relieved...

And thus, concludes my latest post. I hope that it has lived up to your expectations! Have a brilliant day!

Stupid mechanic...

Hi all

I realise that I did promise to post last night and failed to do so. I'm sorry. I was just so incredibly tired and I'd had a bad day of note so I went to bed instead. I will have to create a proper post later today because I have to go off to a workshop on biological control. It looks interesting and I really enjoyed the biocontrol stuff I did last year so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one.

The title refers to the idiot mechanic that alledgedly fixes my car. He was supposed to fix my breaks which were not entirely 100% functional and yesterday I was nearly in an accident as a result of his "fixing" the breaks.

Anyhoo, I'll write again later!

Have a great day!

Beautiful, strange

Heya!

How goes the universe? I hope you are all okay. It is terrible when someone you know ends up in a rut. So, what have I been up to?

Well, it is Saturday evening and I'm sitting at home right now. Sad, I know but I did do my bit of socialising today! I went off with Kathleen, Josh and Eebee to lunch at some funny little Chinese place in Cyrildene. We were originally going to go for dinner but somehow, it changed and we went for lunch instead.

We got to this place and had a look at the menu. There was a very small portion of the menu that we all could actually eat, given that I'm a vegetarian, Kath and Josh are both vegans and Eebee is halaal and so basically is a vegetarian whenever we eat out. We had to choose from a selection of tofu and vegetable dishes. Kath and Josh ordered this really cool soupstuff that was kind of like having boiled rocket and strips of tofu. It sounds rather unappetising but it was really nice! Certainly much nicer than what I ordered. I ordered some tofu slices fried in soy sauce and noodles.

The noodles were weird and very fat, not the skinny kind that you expect after having only ever experienced the 2-min kind of noodle. The tofu tasted like smoked nothing and had the texture of a partially scrambled egg...and given that I am not a fan of eggs, this was not cool!

Well after that, I went and had a can of coconut juice to wash it all down. I love coconut juice! It is my favourite! Most people would find it disgusting but I really like the stuff! So, I figured that since I had enjoyed it so much, I should try and broaden my horizons and try someof the other lesser known drinks available from the chinese community.

Big mistake...

If you are ever offered one of the following, scream and run!

The one on the left is the safest bet if you ever have to drink something on pain of death. It is guava juice (even though it is suspiciously white in colour...). The middle one is white guard juice which kinda tastes like ice-cream and maple syrup (trust me...not a good thing!). The most sinister of these is the one on the right: 'Grass Jelly Drink'.

Never again!

On a considerably lighter note, yesterday, I went in to Wits with my cousin, Duncan. We went off to Biosoc, which I havn't done in ages and I had a blast! I doubt that Duncan enjoyed it as much as I did but at least he came. I got to meet a whole bunch of new people, such as Pam, the teacher in training, and Richard, one of the readers of this very blog! If your name isn't Richard, I humbly appologise. My ability to learn and retain peoples names is really shocking. Sorry!

At Biosoc, some poor sod passed out on the grass which was a huge mistake on his part! He was promptly tied to the dustbin with hazard tape,had his shoelaces tied together, had a table cloth drapped over him and had a large sign with an arrow propped against his back. Poor bugger. For a brief period, it seemed he was going to be upchucking all over but luckily, nothing happed.

After the comparatively entertaining Biosoc, Duncan and I headed off to try the other bars on campus. We decided to head off to Baqt (Pronounced 'Bact') in the hopes of finding Laura there. She works there on a Friday as a barmaid. We met up with her and she gave us discounted drinks which was cool! Literally 5 min after we arrived there, it closed so we had to clear off. Laura said that we should all go to another bar called 'The Boz' which was supposed to be really, in her words, 'pumpin'.

It wasn't...

So Duncan and I decided to wait a while in the hopes of finding Laura. She never pitched, so we headed off home. Duncan dropped me off at home and we intended to go out again. However, after a bite to eat, I felt so sick that I couldn't go anywhere! All that alcohol had been very happy just sitting in my stomach on it's lonesome. Once food came into the equation, no-one was happy.

So anyhoo, after that graphic description, I shall bid you adeau (or however you spell it!). Cheerio all! I'll be going off to Biosoc again next week, so any readers of this, I expect you to be there too! Unless of course you happen to be on another continent or something...

Bye!

A quickie

Hey all!

I thought I should just write a short entry considering I havn't done anything for absolute AGES! Hope you all are well and that the universe is treating you okay.

I have been working like a mad thing all week! I have done so much since Monday, it is nuts! I have done nearly all of my preparation for the workshop on chimps at the zoo next Saturday and I have prepped dung, TA'ed and discovered the joys of polyurithane and acetone! I have also made an ass of myself twice over the course of a single day!

If I feel particularly inspired, I'll write more tomorrow evening...

Cheerio!

Weekend!

Today is Saturday! Hooray!

So, since the last episode of my life, I havn't really gotten up to all that much.

Yesterday was the day of a protest march against seal clubbing in Namibia. I was horrified to learn that in Namibia they still club seals for their pelts! There are practically no measures in place to control the seal hunting there and as a result, the government keeps the activity of their seal pelt industry under wraps. Here is some facts about it that were e-mailed to me by my friend Kathleen:

Harvests of 7 to 9 month old baby nursing seal pups (which are protected in South Africa) takes places at Cape Cross Marine reserve and Wolf/Atlas Bay in the De Beers controlled diamond restricted area in Namibia. Seals were banned from islands in South Africa and forced to bred in Namibia on the mainland to make their killing easier. Baby nursing seals are rounded up and herded in-land away from the sea. Held in groups they await their slaughter. Panic is high. Released in small groups with their mothers, these pups try to reach the safety of the sea, as they are forced to run between a guantlett of men with clubs. Most of the time, they are not killed with the first blow to the head, and lie there suffering until clubbed or stabbed in the heart, some time later. Harvest quotas are supposed to be set as high as 30% of the pups born. Cape fur seals, a completely different species to the harp seals, suffer natural mortality in first weeks from birth of 25-32% to this Namibian adds a sealing quota. Namibia has stated that the seal pup production is 73% pre-1993 population. Which means in 13 years there has been no growth and the population is 27% lower than 1993. The harvest for 1993 was set at 30% or 50 850 pups on 164 000. The harvest for 2006, with a population 27% lower, has been increased by 68% to 85 000 on a population of 119 000. Taking into account the natural mortality of 25-32% these pups suffer - the 2006 sealing quota of 85 000 will kill all the pups on the colony from 1st July - a seal pup genocide. Namibia bans seals from most islands larger than 3 ha, and forced these seals to bred on the mainland. Numerous former island seal colonies off Namibia are now extinct. Current sealing practices are not humane or sustainable - simple because if practiced on seals in their natural breeding habitat - islands, from which they are banned will directly lead to extinction of that seal colony. Sealers in Namibia, of which there are only 3 concession holders who employ less than 150 workers, use a common garden pic-axe handle as a club and are migrant, part-time workers who are un-trained. No fisherman are employed in sealing industry and therefore if sealing ends, none with lose their jobs or income. Seals on islands that have not been disturbed, culled or harvested - have shown no growth in the population since population surveys started in 1971. Seals currently only breed on 2% of the over 1000 ha protected for them, they are banned from the rest. Since 1988, seals have suffered 3 mass die-off's from starvation from over-fishing, in 1988, 1994 and 2000. Where one third to one half died of starvation. The population has still not recovered, as is still down 27% on 13 years ago. There is no profitable market for seal skins, which receive US $3 per pelt. 63% of the seal pups weight is discarded as waste. Namibia claims seals are a threat to fisheries, yet all breeding cows have been exempted from killing for 100 years. Sealing disrupts the population male-female ratio - because females are exempt, and mostly only the larger male pups are harvested, creating an unnatural female surviving pup population.

I was really sorry about not being able to attend. I think that it is disgusting that a practice that is so barbaric is still happening just next-door! I really wish I could have been there for it...

On the flip side, I am really glad that I didn't actually end up going because I attended a talk about infering animal behaviour from fossilized termite mounds. I realise just how nerdy I sound, but it was really interesting and it resulted in me meeting up with someone that may be my ticket to a free holiday in December!

About a year ago, I went with Helen to help one of the post-doc students with her field work. Her name was Lydia Du Toit and she was trapping mole-rats. We had such a jol and it I got invaluable experience from the whole thing. Unfortunately, Lydia left to live in Germany soon thereafter. She was a joint student of Wits and Pretoria University.

Ironically enough, yesterdays talk was by a guy from Pretoria Univeristy and he had brought one of his students along as well. It turns out that this student of his was the 'replacement student' for Lydia, and is German! And ironically enough, she is also working on mole-rats. She has absolutely no experience with trapping them and so, was looking for field assistants to go on her trip. So Helen and I volunteered ourselves for it and she said that she'll let us know when she's going to go!

*Fingers crossed*!

I also went to the zoo yesterday to see one of the zoo vets for Helen. I was basically acting as driver seeing as she wrecked her car. We got to see a baby Margay (type of wild cat) that had been born moments before that! We also were shown the zoo's new frog breeding project! It was amazing!

I then came home and had dinner with some family friends who are out here from the US. They live in Laguna Beach. It was so nice to see them again! You never really notice just how much you miss people until you see them again...

That's all for today yo'al!