Newnarb, Sbag, Nala and Yaj and a random something else.

The first part of this won't make sense except to that person who did a search for "PYC1502" and came across my blog: Don't read too much into it. And don't speak to too many other students about it because all the analysis will confuse you. It's more straightforward than you think. Just know your work REALLY well and then apply the analysis to your scenario and you'll do well. Good luck!PYC1502, I mean, not my blog. My blog should generally not be analysed, it's just rubbish mostly and if you analyse it, you will be very confused. I have notes if you need: 34984496@mylife.unisa.ac.za (once again, on PYC1502)

O.k, now onward: These people were part of a discussion of how other people see you and how close it is to how you see yourself. This after I read a post about myself written by a friend and it was quite surprising as to how whacked I seemed to someone else! Funny though. So to those people, here are my thoughts on you:

Newnarb

Newnarb can be described in two ways. One is more relevant to years ago and one more relevant to now with flickers of the first one cropping up now and then.
Newnarb has always been a bit on the introverted side. Not unhealthily so though, just not the person who goes screaming and streaking at parties. She used to have moments of doing very strange things like drinking shampoo and adding carbonation to coffee. That was in her wilder days.
Newnarb is very hard on herself because that's how she's been taught to be towards herself because almost everyone else she knows is too. Be it in her work life, her home life or her other relationships, she's expected to give a lot. The thing is, she's just so good at it. She'd do well to take a breather though.
She has two and a half halflings who she devotes much of her time and attention to and it leaves her feeling exhausted at times but she keeps going and is there for those who need her. A very good mom. She loves easily and is empathetic and has a good sense of humour. She's the sort of friend you can ball your eyes out to or sit and laugh at absolutely nothing.

Sbag


Sbag is quite a character. He's one of those people who also pushes himself a lot more than he should. He pushes himself to have so much balance in his life that it almost causes unbalance, which is sort of funny. He's the guy you have to book 2 months in advance lest he be off on a garden snail hunt or some other such interesting adventure. He has a terrific sense of humour but can be very serious when needed. If you have amusing ideas of what should happen to nasty people, he's the person you'd share it with. He sort of adds fuel to the fire but all in jest. A very deep and genuinely good person who goes between embracing his humanity fully and rejecting it fully. I've never cried in front of him really, once on the phone, but not someone you can display too much intense emotion to without making him rather uncomfortable.

Nala

Nala likes to pretend that he's so tough and serious and has no feelings but he's one of the sweetest and softest people I've ever met. I will probably be killed now so I'll stop there xxx

Yaj

Yaj is an unusal sort of fellow. Yaj has not completely unique ideas but ideas that a lot of general society would not understand or agree with. This has lead to many an argument but it's always interesting and there's no ill-intent meant from either side. In fact, the fact that I can argue with Yaj is one of the things I like most about him. He has a spine, a viewpoint and he'll listen to mine and will state his and we'll argue but we're always friends and don't try and imposethe beliefs on each other. O.k, perhaps I do a little but I'm trying not to. Yaj needs cooking lessons. Yaj has a great sense of humour and general love of life and informal knowledge and people. He's extremely introverted and constantly on the lookout for new ways to help him to get out of his shell more.

Guest Post - Tam

Auds asked all her friends for guest posts about anything we pleased and threw out random suggestions. Luckily Di and I have never had an incident with jam, or anything else...

I think I shall talk about activities. See, my boyfriend and I do Ballroom and Latin American dancing and he climbs and I sometimes climb when the heights are not too daunting and I'm feeling brave (not often - I stay on the ground and take pictures or belay - yes Gawie, I can now belay). So how does one combine these activities to find something that works for me, encourages fitness and builds strength (so the climbing will no longer be scary)? The answer - Pole Fitness!

No, I do not pole dance in nothing but a thong and those weird stick on things! (I don't know whether my mother in-law believes me) The strength work involved in pole dancing is used to create an aerobic and weight work out that leaves you exhausted and stiff (no pun intended). And if you don't believe that it's a real workout, go YouTube Zoraya Judd. She has a six pack that would scare most body builders.

So yes... I recently took up pole fitness and it's been fun. A tough ride for those of us who are not terribly fit and have no upper body strength to speak of, but it's worth every moment of struggle. And let's not even talk about the bruises....

Anyway, check it out if there's a studio near you. It's addictive


And that's me
Tamarah Johnstone-Robertson

Clarens - The jewel of the eastern Free State - pictures!! Oooh!!

After a conversation with a friend yesterday telling her how awesome Clarens in the Eastern Free State is, I decided to share my immense love of this place with everyone else as well as continue to tempt her to take a trip there to have some R&R.

If you're in Johannesburg, Clarens is a short 3 and a half hour pleasant drive away.

You'll know you're there when you see the rock formation below. This is called Titanic Rock. Doesn't it look just like the Titanic? So cool!!



The moment you get into the town of Clarens itself, you will notice how quaint and small it is. Unlike any place I've ever been to in South Africa (and I've been to quite a few places in SA), the effect of this totally different and sweet, little world is both calming and energising. It's like you've had a month's holiday after a weekend there.
The idea though is to appreciate Clarens for being so different in that you should find your accommodation, park your car and walk wherever you want to go and not use the car at all, even if it's raining.



What is there to do in this little town? Well, there are various things. The main attractions I suppose would be the amazing scenery, the art galleries and the food.

Being near the Lesotho border, the Maluti mountains are like...right there! If you're into taking hikes and walks or riding horses or taking pics of scenery...hang on, we've been called for pizza...and I'm back so anyway, if you're into the whole nature thing, this place is phenomenally beautiful!







Other than that, there are art galleries galore and restaurants that will have you dreaming of their food for years to come.

My personal recommendation is to go and have supper or lunch at Street Caffe (their burgers and fettucini alfredo are like no other that I've ever experienced) and then head to Clementines for dessert which should unmistakeably be their Lemon Meringue Ice-cream cake. It's R35 a slice (or was in December 2009) but is so worth it! Clementines also have a very good Ostrich Medallion dish! Yum! Yum!





The art galleries are not dreary and dull and you don't need to be one of those arty people to appreciate them. There's also a wine gallery if that appeals.


There are sports pubs and ice-cream shops that have decadent and interesting flavours and a few pancake shops too. Absolutely no chain stores when I was last there and I hope it stays that way.

If you're more into holidays with some sort of educational value, you can go and visit the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. It's very interesting and those pipes are so huge that it would take three of me (at 1.69 metres tall) on top of each other to touch the top of the pipe.



Clarens is the ideal place to get married if you're having under 50 guests and want somewhere beautiful and unique to have your special day.

One of the nicest wedding venues in Clarens is the Castle. It accommodates 20 guests for an intimate wedding and the decor is very 18th century and well, castle-ey.


If we didn't have so many people invited to our wedding, I'd have chosen to get married in Clarens in the one church in Main Road with food from Street Caffe and dessert from Clementines and then have the reception in the Castle.



Sigh! Clarens is my favourite place in the entire world thus far. I love everything about it. It's such an escape, the air is so clean and the water so sweet and the place filled with beauty and happiness and the chamomile tea better than any other in the country. If only there was a thriving job market there...

A song for Di

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo do dooooooo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo Clinton-chopface!

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo do dooooooo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo Clinton-chopface!

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo do dooooooo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo Clinton-chopface!

Working at the Wild Coast Sun - A life changing experience

In 1996, a group of 9 teenagers, ages 15-19, headed off from Gauteng to the Wild Coast Sun for a working Christmas Holiday. I was one of these 9.

We first had to go for 3 days of customer service and job-orientated training where we had to learn to deal with difficult customers, promote the games in the newly built games stalls (yes, you people who frequent the wild coast sun, we were the very first to stand in those stalls and get people to play) and how the prize system worked.

The idea was that we would stand in these stalls and encourage people to play the games and demonstrate how to play them and hand out various plush toys as prizes.

Part of our training was to get to know each other and so we all had to tell the person on our left what our biggest dream was and then they would tell everyone about that person's biggest dream. I didn't realise how seriously everyone would take it and so I told my friend, let's call him Frank ,that my biggest dream was to bite into a slab of chocolate. It was all fine until we heard everyone Else's serious and inspiring stories (saving lives, flying planes, changing the world, etc). Mine was, typically, last and so Frank managed to get it out amongst his frantic laughing at realising how ridiculous mine sounded amidst everyone Else's. It was awkward and I was met with very peculiar stares but it was most funny and even now, I can't help laughing!

Another part of our training was role playing. My friend Frank and I teamed up for this, me being the difficult customer and him being the Games Stall attendant. I was a very difficult customer indeed and complained that my toy's head had just come off. This was, of course, ridiculous because there was no chance it's head would ever come off but it was all good fun and Frank was between very flustered and very giggly and we were super excited to get there and try our training out for real.


Upon arrival at our accommodation, we discovered that all 9 of us were sharing a 3 bedroom-ed apartment with a kitchenette with one bathroom. It didn't matter! We would sleep on the bathroom floor because we were on a wonderful working holiday! Yay!

The next day, we met our bosses. They took away all our off days so that we worked 7 days a week in shifts. These shifts were long and tiring and we all ended up getting very sick and living off dry two minute noodles because we didn't have the energy to cook them, plus they almost taste better dry!

On Christmas day, however, we summoned up the energy to cook a full Christmas Dinner and we spent all day preparing the meal. That evening, one of the guys stole one of my sister's roast potatoes and so she got up and proceeded to chase him around the entire complex screaming at him to give her potato back. Yes, it was that bad.

But it was not all bad, we had a lot of fun and it is mostly that that we all talk about.

There were a few of us who were more mischievous than others and myself and one of the guys, let's name him, Samantha, decided to go and toothpaste, let's call him, Petunia, while he was sleeping. We put a small blob of toothpaste on top of Petunia's head and ran away.
Moments later, Petunia stormed into the lounge announcing in the Queen's English that he had woken up with a burning sensation on his head and it was not pleasant. He later admitted that he was confused at first when he woke up and thought that he had somehow managed to get a giant humbug sweet on his head and that it was melting. The poor guy!

One of the funniest moments for me was my very first difficult customer who came to my stall when Frank and I were standing together. His complaint was that the toy's head was coming off. Frank and I took one look at each other and burst out laughing, all customer service training forgotten. The man was nice though and said that he'd just sew it back on.

There were other funny moments that involved my male cousin, heavily medicated from being ill, sitting on the pavement outside the Magic Company, waiting for the bus and asking an imaginary barman in the sky for a drink or everyone getting their clothes muddled up and that same male cousin ending up trying my sister's panties on and looking down at the very tight panties wondering what could've gone wrong with his underwear.

Other funny moments involved games of truth, dare and command where Samantha pounced on Frank as he climbed through the window (yes, we didn't use the door much for some odd reason) and kissed him, much to Frank's surprise! Or Samantha snuggling up to Frank in his sleep. Frank was left quite confused by all of it.

All in all, it was life changing for most of us because it was our first taste of Independence, difficulty and learning to adapt to challenging circumstances.

Even though the working conditions were far from ideal, the living arrangements crowded and getting sick unpleasant, I don't regret doing it because it dispelled my shyness. I could hardly say two words to strangers before the experience and now I'm quite comfortable speaking to anyone.

She feels like she's dying

Poor Di. She feels like she's dying. She made all sorts of threats and statements to us here at work in case she dies. She has a bit of a stomach bug but I suppose your stomach feeling grotty can make you feel so awful that death may seem like a good "out".

So, Di has no official will or statement of what she wants or what she wants given, etc, that I know of, or what should happen should she suddenly die and so this here, all these bits of info I've gathered from our 5 minute chat, is the closest to that:

- Liam has to hug her corpse. In return, there will be lots of hot women and alcohol for him to comfort said hot women with. They will/must be crying at all times.
- There must be lots of dogs and they must howl in sadness.
- Wiggy must be a paul bearer and she must get a big piece of cake.


That's about all. Some people are all about the simple pleasures in lif...er, death I suppose.

If Di dies, I'll be shocked. It's just a tummy bug, Di the pie, you'll be ok. Lie on the couch and go to sleep, I'll answer the phones :)

The difference between a friend and just being friendly

Although it is impossible to predict any one's future behaviour, their past behaviour is usually a good indicator of future behaviour.

I have thought about this statement for quite a while now and have found it to be very true in my experiences with people.

A while ago, someone was having a debate with me on the phone and they ended up yelling "You just alienate everyone!" and when I hung up, I took some time to ponder this and decided that it was not exactly true.

I examined all of the people who I've cut out of my life over time or had some sort of major fallout with and each time, it's for the same reason: We met, became friends, they did something really big and hurtful, I let it go, we all moved on and then later, they did something really similar to the first big and hurtful thing.
I decided that this wasn't a once-off thing on their part but rather something ingrained and part of them and something that will repeat itself forever.
I was not happy to be hurt and have my quality of life impacted on in a negative manner and so I cut them out. Very rarely have I ever regretted this decision.

Cold? I prefer to think of it as self preservation and not wasting my time or energy.

I have learnt, after losing two people I cared about so much in such a sudden manner, that life can be unpredictable and short and that you should appreciate those people in your life who are truly irreplaceable and precious. The people who are nasty and spiteful or just don't bother are not worth my effort or bother. I love the friends I have now and I make an effort to stay in touch with them and see them as often as I possibly am able because it is important.
They, in turn, make the effort with me and I appreciate it very, very much.

When I was younger, I spent many a night crying to my parents because so-and-so was being so nasty and I didn't know why and I just wanted to be their friend. I remember my dad so often saying to me, "You'll find that not many people are actually your friend, they're just friendly. So, don't treat everyone like they're your absolute best friend if they're just someone that you should only be friendly to."
This used to be very difficult for me to accept and it hurt really often because people turned out not to be who I expected them to be. I don't find it so difficult now though as I've stopped taking it so personally and view it more in the light of "At least I know not to waste my time anymore" and I manage to move on quickly without regret.

To the few but wonderful and amazing people I have in my life now:
You guys are great and I am very, very lucky to have met such wonderful people! Love you all lots! :)

Double lives?

Some days I have these bizarre inclinations to look people up on Google and see what it comes up with.

I have decided that Google knows everything and that what it comes up with is not only true and valid but also a giveaway of what they do secretly. Like, double lives!!

So, I've caught a few of you out! AHA! :

Diana -
In this life - An office manager
In her double life - A private investigator. That makes so much sense now!

Janeske -
In this life - A media studies lecturer
In her double life - She's a "good girl...most of the time." Ahem. I have no idea!

Chantall -
In this life - A moving things around to make it look pretty for a horse racing newspaper person (I apologise, Chants, I don't know what your job title is)
In her double life - An underwear model!! Oh goodness. Who woulda thunk? ;)

Tam -
In this life - A boutique wine dealer.
In her double life - Um, it's the surname, I battled and battled. I found something on having crazy wild nights and homeless people. Perhaps that's what she does; Give homeless people crazy wild nights out or something. Like charity with a very unique outlook.

Al -
In this life - He's a Pastel and IT consultant
In his double life - An artist. I think he's taking this pastel thing too far!

Jarrod -
In this life - Um, I think a Java (?) programmer for Telkom
In his alternate life - I'm afraid that all I could find was relating to cricket so yes, Jarrod is pretending to be a guy named Jacques and plays SA cricket.

Tess -
In this life - An assistant editor for a magazine
In her double life - A concert pianist. Probably doesn't want to be bombarded for autographs so she keeps quiet. It also said something about showering without cockroaches. I don't get it.

Kristy -
In this life - A nursery school teacher
In her double life - A martial arts expert with 6 black belts! Now *that* I could believe! It's always the quiet ones!

Nicola -
In this life - Also a nursery school teacher
In her double life - A physiotherapist. I could imagine that!

Marsha -
In this life - Owns a daycare centre
In her double life - A home improvements specialist. I don't get why she has to hide that??

Morne -
In this life - I could write it, but he would kill me
In his double life - A stuntman. Hmmm...

Gavin -
In this life - Some sort of IT consultant but don't know the specifics.
In his double life - He's a dad who hasn't paid maintenance??? No! Let me look again... arrest and imprisonment?? Heck and I thought cockroaches were bad!

Even if these supposed double lives aren't true, it could possibly give these people some idea as to their next career. Although, I wouldn't really recommend them all!