It's ON!

So, having been challenged to the task by Eebee (sorta...) I too have decided to find out what significance my birthday has for the human race in general. Thus I am about to do a search for 15 February. Here goes...

...

...

Well, Eebee, it appears that disaster follows in my wake too.

• 1898 - USS Maine exploded and sank in Havanna harbour, killing 260 people.
• 1933 - Giuseppe Angara tried to kill Franklin D. Roosevelt, shot at him, missed and instead killed Chicago mayor, Anton J. Cermak.
• 1942 - Singapore fell to the Japanese after the British surrendered, resulting in the capture of 80 000 prisoners of war and the start of the Sook Ching massacre.
• 1961 - Sabena flight 548 crashed in Belguim, resulting in the deaths of the entire United States figure skating team, their coaches and families; 73 deaths in total.
• 1970 - A Dominican DC9 plummetted from the heavens and crashed into the sea during take-off from Santo Domingo; 102 dead.
• 1982 - An oceanic oil rig, Ocean Ranger, sank during a storm off Newfoundland, killing 84.

On the plus side though:

• 1764 - St. Louis, Missouri was established! While this means little to me, I'm sure many of you St. Louis'ians are rather chuffed! ;)
• 1879 - American President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill that permitted female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Go women-folk!
• 1971 - Decimalisation of British coinage was completed on Decimal Day. Yay for the Brits! They finally saw the light and converted to a LOGICAL decimal system! 10 points!
• 2003 - The worlds biggest peace protest action against the Iraq war took place in over 600 cities worldwide involving an estimated 8 million to 30 million people taking part!
• 2005 - Youtube was launched in the United States! Where would we be without it!! :D

Famous people...?

• Ice-T!
• Jane Seymour!
• Matt Groening!
• Birdman! (not too proud of that one...)
• Toto (An italian who was really big...in Italy...)
• A whole stack of other folks who might be famous...somewhere...but I know nothing about.

Crowd: Surprise! Luke: Dammit!

Today started off pretty awful. I had to be in at university at 08h00 in order to invigilate a test that the second year students were writing on tree identification. There are three major problems with this scenario. Firstly, it is at 08h00! I'm not used to being conscious any earlier than 08h00! So having to get up 2 hours before and fight the traffic wasn't the best way to start off the day...

Secondly, it's a test. So that means, no interaction with the students at all, no communication, nothing. Simply walk around the room ensuring that you look stern and making sure nobody tries to cheat. Lastly, it's freaking TREE IDENTIFICATION!!! They get books to do it all by and have over an hour in which to do it! It's really not that difficult (...unless you use that one, really crappy book, in which case, God help you because you'll never find what you are looking for...), and yet, students will sit and stare into their book, occasionally glancing at the specimen before them for more than the allotted time, and STILL fail the test! That, and it's really difficult to get enthused about trees...

Despite all the negatives of invigilating an exam, I left the test feeling content and looking forward to doing a good days-worth of work. In truth, I was also feeling a little ill after the chocolachino I'd had at the beginning of the test to try and keep me awake (I think my stomach isn't used to having to deal with a large, caffeinated, hot, 2-sachets-of-sugar'ed beverage, so early in the morn, given that I rarely drink coffee, or milk for that matter!). But I persevered and got back to my lab.

After a brief email check, I was distracted by one of those Gmail headliners linking to another site. It was one of those discovery.com links about some fossils that had recently been found on the Isle of Wight (VERY cool for those interested in such things...check it out!). After quizzing Helen's knowledge of palaeontology, I began to work.

At some stage during this all, I realised the Helen had been taking an unusually high number of bathroom breaks all morning. I was mildly concerned as to her situation, but, as one does not discuss these things, the state of her digestive system remained a mystery...

Eventually Helen decided she needed to go to the library and return a book and asked if I would like a walk. I, in hindsight, should have stayed to work, as I had by that point achieved very little in the way of actual work (Some of my friends who used to be part of the lab had arrived and we'd been chatting, catching up...you know how it is!). None the less, we departed.

After successfully returning the book, we headed back down the passage to my lab. My supervisor was standing in the corridor, as he does sometimes, and started chatting to us about something. After a little chatter, I decided that I really had better return to work and turned to open my door, but not without noticing how many people were in the room opposite mine. This, too, is fairly normal and so I didn't think much of it.

However, as I opened my door and stepped into my room, I instantly knew something was up. There were baloons everywhere and people shouting 'Surprise!'. Indeed...I was!

It turned out that Helen had organised a surprise party for my birthday on Sunday! It was really awesome! So many people showed up (which kinda weirded me out a tad, as we never have more than 10 or so people come to our surprise parties...) and it was just really nice! I was a little annoyed at myself though. I totally didn't see it coming! Normally I kinda sense that, as my birthday slowly creeps up on me, someone is bound to organise a surprise party! They always do! Without fail! So 10 points to the organisers!

Thanks Helen! :)

PS. Note to self: don't eat two cupcakes and a Sparkle (A type of hard candy) in rapid succession ever again...

Damn! This CD is good...

So, on Friday I went and bought myself a CD. I was given a gift card by a friend for my birthday earlier this year and I hadn't used all the credit on the card yet, so I thought, before it expired (assuming that they can do that...) I'd better go spend the remaining money.

So I went off with my sister to go and select a CD. I was down to three options: The soundtracks of 'Hero' and 'V for Vendetta', both great movies with good music, or a compilation of the singles of Basement Jaxx, a UK dance act. It was a tough decision, but I went with Basement Jaxx and I'm regretting it now. However, the regret is for strange reasons...

The CD is AWESOME!!! I can't get over how cool it is! I love it! But I hate it at the same time! It's terrible because the music is so catchy that I end up with one song stuck in my head for hours on end. It's incredibly frustrating! Mostly because, as much fun as it is to sing to ones self, one can never do the original justice, leaving you with that well-that-was-crap feeling.

Hats off to Basement Jaxx!

Slurry birthdays

It is a tradition within the animal behaviour research group at the University of the Witwatersrand that when it is someones birthday, we throw a party. The parties are usually surprise parties, with some being bigger surprises than others. The last one was hosted yesterday. And it was a big surprise...

It was a joint party for Brian and Sneha, two fellow MSc students. Both had had birthdays in the last month, and we hadn't managed to organise parties for either of them on time, so it was a combined belated birthday party. After about two weeks worth of organisation and coordination between Helen, Megan and I we finally picked a date and set things up. I'm not entirely sure who did the actual setting up because, I left to go and do observations on the chimps at the zoo and when I returned, my lab was the picture of festive fun.

Through this, I learned a very valuable lesson, appropriate for anyone who is planning to throw a party at any stage in the future. Silly string is a bitch to clean up. It gets everywhere and appears to chemically bind to linoleum floors and almost all types of paint.

I also learned that a dust-pan makes an excellent silly-sting scraper.

The party was not expected and so Brian and Sneha were greatly taken aback. To add to this, shortly after being thrust through the door into the lab, they each had a cup shoved into their hand filled with jello-shots.

For those who have an intact liver or are innocent, jelly-shots are just shot-glasses of jelly (that's Jello for you Americans out there) that has been mixed with vodka or some other alcoholic beverage. I've only ever had them once. Given that I am a vegetarian, I don't eat gelatin, the principal component of jelly, and so was spared having to take jelly-shots. The others all told me that they were very strong...

It can't have been as bad as Govan's birthday last year though. At that party, it was a rule that if you walked through the door, you had to drink a mandatory 'shot' of vodka. It was 09h00 and a 'shot' was what most would consider to be half a cup. My supervisor has a heavy hand and sick sense of humour.

Part of the wonder of yesterdays birthday celebrations was the random birthday crap that Helen managed to buy at a ridiculous price from china town. This included balloons like the one pictured below which were always humorous and sometimes, a little creepy...

All in all, a fun time was had by all and we undoubtedly look forward to the next one...which should be Megan. Oh what pleasures await...!

Waiter...there's a fly in my California Iced Tea!

So yesterday was Helen's birthday (Happy Birthday again Helen!) and to celebrate, we went out to dinner in Fordsberg. Now, Fordsberg is a little dodgy area, mostly Indian and Arab inhabitants, that is very close to Wits. We were first introduced to it by a friend during our honours year, 2006 (Eebee, you is ROX!!!). The area is absolutely over-run with indian resturants, which is why we go there.

The food there is fantastic and is ridiculously cheap! So, as students, it is just our cup of tea...not literally.

So Duncan, Helen, Tom and I all piled into my car and we sped off into the night. We soon arrived at the resturant that we usually go to and after a slightly confusing conversation with the car guard (he seemed to think that I wanted him to wash my car) we went off to get food! Our food was really good and once the meal was over and we had paid the bill, I suggested that we go somewhere else to pass some time as I didn't feel like going home yet.

So we piled back into the car and sped off into the Johannesburg darkness once again. After some constination, it was suggested by Tom that we try out a new bar that had just opened up in Greenside, called 'Gin'. After a distinct lack of any opinion from everyone, it was decided that this was to be our destination.

We arrived and parked in a conveniently placed open parking bay (directly outside the bar!). We all piled out and scampered into the bar. The place was interesting and, for me anyway, played good music. All things were looking well and we went out onto the balcony that overlooks the road over the rest of the bar. We got ourselves a table right on the edge of the balcony and parked off. It was a little chilly but we managed to keep warm by bobbing about to the music which was very Vogue supermodel-ish.

Eventually, a waiter appeared and we called him over. He wasn't all that clued up on the menu and after we asked him for the cocktail menu, he reluctantly went downstairs to fetch it. He then reappeared with a large signboard with the cocktail menu written on it. We all felt bad for having asked him to go and fetch it. It did look a bit heavy and certainly not the size thing that you would want to be carting up and down a narrow staircase. And after much discussion about what cocktails were blue on the list, we placed our orders.

A while later, and after much jiggling to the music, he emerged from downstairs with our drinks. As it turned out, mine was the only blue cocktail, which upset Helen. Mine was also drinkable because hers was about 70% tequila, 29% Gin and 1% colouring. None the less, we all started drinking our booze and having a merry old time.

About a third of the way through mine, I noticed something swishing around at the bottom of my glass. I figured that it had to be a lemon pip as my drink was very tangy and definitely contained lemon juice. I didn't think much of it.

Then it swished up to the side of the glass and I realised, to my horror, that the lemon pip was black and had a pair of wings...

It was so revolting! I called the waiter over and pointed it out to him. He was somewhat incredulous but upon inspection of the 'pip' admitted that it was indeed a fly. He appologised and disappeared, only to reappear with another one, on the house.

At this point, I was really not going to drink anything that he brought me, free or not! Helen, seeing an opportunity was thrilled and took the blue cocktail. The irony was that the new cocktail tasted almost identicle to her first one. The only difference was that they had changed the food colouring for a blue one. So, after about 3 sips, Helen decided that it was enough and we all concluded that we should call it a night.

Moral of the story: AVOID GIN!!!

Birthdays, Blood and Movies! - Part 1

Today is a very special day. Not only is it my cousin, Duncan's, birthday, but it is the first birthday he has had all year! So a very happy birthday to him! Big up Dunx!

Yesterday I did all (or at least I thought it would be all) my admin for the week. I have accepted the fact that my Monday's seem to be turning into complete write-off days as far as achieving any work is concerned. I always seem to end up wasting my entire day to admin, TA'ing or simply lying in my chair at my desk thinking, 'I really should be working...perhaps I should go for lunch now, seeing as it is only 45 min to lunch. It practically IS lunchtime!'

However, this Monday was different to the usual. I was doing all my admin, as usual, and as everyone knows, doing admin alone is horrible, so I had dragged Helen along with me. I had almost done everything and I was walking into Senate House (practically the admin building of our campus) to post a severely overdue postcard to my friend Joe in England. As we arrived at the post office I had a minor moment of confusion as to whether airmail could be placed into the same postbox as local mail (I seem to remember that at some stage, this was considered a crime by anyone who worked in the post office; they are odd people...). It was then that both of us noticed the beds.

In the centre of the building, which is open so that the building is practically hollow, were numerous beds and tables. There were people all over the place and most were being tended to by nurses. Helen instantly recognised it as a blood donation drive. I instantly felt my stomach contract and every hair on my body stand at full attention.

After a little persuasion I managed to get Helen to leave. The problem is, you see, I can't handle giving blood. Just the thought of it totally freaks me out! I have a tendency to pass out when I lose blood in any way. Somehow I am fine with other peoples blood - that doesn't bother me in the least. But the second that I am seriously hurt or lose lots of blood, the lights trip. I'd love to give blood from a moral point of view and I applaude all those that do, but I am just too freaked out to try.

So while we continued on my admission (admin+mission=admission; I often make up new words, it's fun) Helen tried desperately to persuade me to just try donating blood. Eventually, I gave in and said that I would try, but if I freaked too much, I'd have to give up. She was okay with this and promised to hold my hand if I wanted. I said it wasn't necessary.

Come lunchtime, for this was the decided time for the donating, we both left to give blood. I was REALLY nervous and, quite frankly, terrified. As we walked, all I could think of was the time I had to give blood samples for a test once and passed out. Eventually we arrived after what felt a bit like a 3 day hike more than a half minute walk and we went to fill out our forms. The forms were laiden with stuff about how many sex partners I'd had and how I must NOT under any circumstances lie about this stuff, which I totally think is a good idea! After the forms were done, one of the nurses called me over for an iron level test. As I gave her my hand, Helen pipped up with, 'Don't look! This is the most painful part of the whole thing! It hurts like hell!', which naturally made me feel just dandy. But she really wasn't kidding!

That tiny little prick of the finger was BLOODY (excuse the pun) sore! I was amazed that it hurt as much as it did! While I was clasping at my severed finger, the nurse let a drop of my blood fall into a copper sulphate solution to see how much iron I have in my blood. As it turns out, tons! I was then sent off to the next nurse to have my blood pressure checked and to go over my questionaire. While there I was hit with the bad news that I couldn't give blood.

I like to tell people it is because of my promiscuity...

In truth, it was because I had been a little ill over the weekend and so I had to wait at least 48 hours before I could donate blood. And due to the fact that the blood people wouldn't be there in 48 hours time, I couldn't do it. To be entirely honest, I was disappointed. I had worked up every ounce of courage I had to do that and then I was turned away! Bummer...

Faithless kryptonite

So, to continue where I left off, I grabbed a couple of marulas and ran off to the swimming pool. I sat on the steps of the pool, partially submerged eating marulas. It was so nice! It has been ages since I've sat in the pool for an afternoon eating a fruit. It's a South African past time that at christmas, everyone eats a lot of watermellon and one of the things that many people do as kids is to sit in the pool and eat it. So, to sit and eat marulas like that is really nice.

After that, I went back inside and headed to my room to change. As I arrived in my room, I discovered that my sisters had gotten me some helium balloons for my birthday. I was thrilled! If any of you have ever breathed in helium and spoken you'll understand how three balloons can provide a great deal of entertainment. I immediately ran off to the kitchen with my newly obtained orbs trailing behind me in the air.

After thanking my sisters, I showed the dog the balloons. She didn't like them at all! So I tried to keep them out of her view. I immediately got to work at cutting the knot off the bottom of the first balloon. The scissors didn't work at all and so I had to run off to get another pair. Once it was open, I spent the next ten minutes in hysterics. The dog seemed unphased by the sudden change in my voice which was a little disappointing.

I then decided to phone Vanessa and speak to her with helium. I did so but she didn't seem very impressed. So I decided to try and see how the dog would respond to me callng her from the other side of the house in chipmunk. She reacted, in a big way.

It was really funny! She came taring down the passage barking like a mad thing and all her hair was standing up! Eventually I got close enough to her to calm her down a little because she was running around like a nutter.

At this point, there is a gap in my memory about what I did for the rest of the day...OH! Wait, I remember. I then watched 'Lucky Number Slevin'. It's really good! It was rather twisted but it was really well done! I subsequently watched a little of the extras from 'Jurassic Park: The Lost World'. It was really interesting.

Shortly thereafter, I went to find out what was happening with dinner as I only had half an hour before I needed to go to have celebratory cocktails with friends. It turned out that it wasn't even nearly ready. So I decided to go and have a shower before dinner. I did so and seeing as dinner wasn't ready, I then continued to watch the extras from the 'Lost World' DVD that my sister had got from work. Eventually, dinner was ready and I had to go. My family had a minor fit because I was trying to leave without having eaten. So I had to stay and eat before I could leave.

Eventually I got out of the house and sped off to get some petrol, fetch David and get to Melrose Arch in record time. After it all, I was only 20 min late which is rather impressive all things considered! I hadn't made a booking at all but luckily, the place wasn't too full, plus Bro. T managed to organise for us to all go up to the lounge area above the restaurant which was truely smashing (ten points Bro. T)!

We all had such a great time! Here is the full list of attendees:
Myself, Bro. T, Laura, David, Sarah, Tom, Athena, Sarah (my cousin), Graham (cousin's boyfriend), Sarah (Xena), Xena's boyfriend whose name I cannot remember, Vanessa and Brian.

We had such a great time! I had to leave relatively early though because I got a migrane and needed to go to bed as a result. But I had a fantastic time none the less! Thanks to all my fabulous friends who attended and to all those that couldn't for whatever reason. You is all ROX! I am really lucky to have pals like you guys! Ten points to you all!

The birthday gif list:

• One camping chair
• Three books ("Why Pandas Do Handstands", "Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze?" and "Animals: an illustrated A-Z")
• A National Geographic calendar with chimps on the front
• One monkey-thing that screams at you when squeezed
• Cocktail cards (recipes and all kinds on must-know stuff about cocktails)
• Some amazing white chocolate
• A CD voucher
• Marshmellow fluff
• 3 Helium balloons
• Faithless's new album ('To all new arrivals' - It's amazing! It's like Faithless, fused with a little Chicane and a little Fatboy Slim)
• A piece of stress kryptonite (Kinda like a stressball that is rock shaped and glows in the dark)
• A pack of Mike and Ike's (My favourite sopository-shaped sweets!)
• A CD that I leant to someone ages ago and have now recieved back!
• Three T-shirts
• A bottle of Malibu (From my grandmother!?)

Random Fact Of The Day:

Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode

Helium, marulas and fluff

Well gang, yesterday was the anniversary of my arrival on this planet, and what a joyous day it was! It began early...VERY early.

I had to get to Wits by 8:00am so I was up at 6:00am. It was very hard to wake up! I arrived in my kitchen to my mother singing happy birthday while my sister concentrated very hard on making her toast, as one tends to do first thing in the morning. About half way through my mothers musical episode, my father clicked that she was singing the birthday song and joined in. It was rather funny! They explained to me that they did have a gift for me but I wouldn't get it until later on that day because they had hidden it in Gemma's room, and given that she is the most feared member of the family to wake up, we all decided that it would be best to just leave it there until later that evening.

I then drove my sister off to varsity and battled to find parking as is customary of the beginning of the year. It's because we have a really stupid crowd that handle the admin at the university. They sold parking for 5000 cars but the campus actually only has 3500 parking bays available to people! And then they are so suprised when students complain because they have been forced to park illegally and have been fined. Thank goodness for all those eons of evolution that blessed us with 'intelligence'.

After the hike up the hill to my lab, I began to work at a paper review that I'm doing with my supervisor. I managed to do a surprising amount of work before Helen (henseforth known as Brother T) arrived and presented me with my first gift of the day! I have to admit that I was rather perplexed when I saw the jar shapped gift.

To my surprise and joy, Bro. T had found me that most amazing stuff in the universe! It was marshmellow spread called 'Fluff'! It's from the US so all you americans that read this probably know what I'm talking about. It is amazing! I love it! It's particularly amazing because as a vegetarian, it is impossible to find marshmellows that don't have any gelatine in them. So, to recieve a gooey marshmellow spread that was vegetarian friendly was totally brilliant! Ten points to Brother T!

After mucking about in the lab and discussing the sheer brilliance of the substance in the jar, I went to get my supervisor to try some. He was also most impressed and suggested that I try it with chocolate spread and peacan nuts. Shortly thereafter, Bro. T and I went off shopping for a birthday present for Laura. It's her birthday on Sunday but she is having her party-thingy tonight at a place just up the road from my house, which is a pleasent change from me having to drive long distances to get anywhere. We bought her a ton of stuff and I am confident that she will love it!

While shopping, Bro. T and I decided to get falaffels for lunch. I havn't had one in such a long time so having one again was amazing! We returned to Wits to eat them and thoroughly enjoyed every bite except for one. There was a lump of chilli which left me rather red.

After that, we were joined by one of the honours students, Lauren, who accompanied us to the zoo, where I did my observations. After zooing, I decided that I'd had enough work for one day and seeing as it was my birthday and all, I went home.

At home I discovered to my joy that my uncle had somehow obtained marulas. For those who now question my sanity, marulas and a fruit that comes from an african tree. They are quite common in southern africa but are not grown commercially as far as I know. I've never had a marula before and I was really excited about trying one! They are really odd! They taste a bit like a combination between a mango and a litchi, if that is possible. They are really tasty though!

I have to go off for supper right now, so I will finish this post at a later stage!

To be continued...

I'm so old!

I really don't have anything particularly exciting to tell you guys...





On Friday, a pair of scientists came through to Wits to give a talk on defensive behaviour in lab rats and mice. The pair were a husband and wife couple who both work in the same field (close enough anyway). It was really odd because they were over here all the way from Hawaii (why anyone would leave there to come here is beyond me!) but they had little to no accent.





Actually, they probably did have accents but because most of the Americans that I have ever met were only from the southern states, the Hawaii'ian's accent didn't really sound like anything in comparison.





There was some confusion about when they would be arriving due to the fact that they send an e-mail saying that they would be there on Friday the 8th. And seeing as the 8th was actually a Thursday, nobody was really sure when to be expecting them. But they eventually showed up on the Friday. After they chatted to my supervisor for a while, we were all introduced to them, we being all my supervisor's students and Helen who unwittingly arrived to see me just in time for tea with the foreigners.





So we all sat around and had some tea, discussing our various areas of study and our projects. It was a little awkward because I was balancing on the edge of a desk and every now and again I had to stand to ensure that my legs didn't go to sleep. During the discussion, it became clear that one of the Hawaii'ian's concerns was being eaten by elephants which we all thought was very funny. Naturally we didn't laugh at them but all went quietly away after tea to snigger amongst ourselves. This was while my supervisor took them off to go and see the breeding populations of striped mouse that we keep and use for studies at the university.





Here is a picture of a baby one that we found in a nest when we were in Darling in November last year:

After that Helen and I went off to go and get some lunch which we had to eat along our way back to our building because of the fact that the Hawaii'ians talk was going to begin shortly and I had been given the task of ensuring that there was a laser pointer available for them as well as all the necessary connections for the speakers laptop and the projector. I managed to get everything all organised and got back with enough time to set it all up with the help of our groundsman, Mr. Schniederman (AKA: Spiderman).

The talk itself was fascinating! It was so cool and it helped me to understand the functioning of antidepressive drugs and the difference between the chronic and acute use of psychiatric drugs. It was very cool!

After the talk was done, the Hawii'ians left with one of our staff members and my supervisor came to chat to Helen and I about their talk. It was actually quite a close call because we had actually just been onto the internet to read the CV of Helen's supervisor and to confirm that his dog had been in a KFC advert. All this while we were supposed to be working...heh heh.

During our little chat with my supervisor, he happened to mention something to me which left me somewhat perplexed because he said that he was so impressed that I was always working so hard on a Friday afternoon. But I never work hard on a Friday! I generally work until about lunch and then the rest of the day is spent messing around or up at the BioSoc bar.

So after he had left, Helen and I confirmed that the dog was infact the one in the advert. Soon thereafter, we decided to go home but just as we were about to do so - I was in my lab packing up at the time - Helen ran into one of the honours students who was on their way to open up the BioSoc pub and wanted us to go join them. So we did. It was really nice to go and spend some time with them there and to remeber the social aspect of the honours year which we no longer experience.

I then had to go and fetch my sisters and Athena to go off to supper. My sisters were actually going off to some club in Melville but I was charged with taking them there. So with a car full of people, I went off to Melville. Helen was with us too.

I disposed of my siblings and began the hunt for a parking bay that didn't require me to parallel park. I just can't do it. I must have failed to inherit the gene that allows me the ability to parallel park. So I found one bay that didn't require any parallelling and stayed there. The three of us then went off to 'Soi', my new-found favorite restaurant! The food was amazing and once we could no longer eat another thing, we decided to call it a day and head home.

As we left the main street in Melville, I was pulled over by cops who wanted to know if I had been drinking. Immediately I panicked because I had been drinking that afternoon and I began to wonder if that would show up on a breathalizer test, 4 hours later! The cop then demanded my drivers licence and asked if he could do a breathalizer test on me. I gave him my licence and said that I would take the test. Once I said that, he looked disappointed and gave me back my licence, sending me on my way. I must say that I was certainly not even remotely close to tipsy at this stage so I'm sure that the test wouldn't have revealed a thing but I freaked out just the same.

The rest of the weekend has been uneventful. I attended my cousins tacho evening last night which was fun. That's about all.

OOO! Today's my mom's birthday!

Random Fact For The Day:

Most lipstick contains fish scales

My project volunteers

Hi all!





I'm severely overdue, as usual, with this post. It's been a bit of a hectic few days so I havn't really felt all that much like attending to my blog.





First things first. Athena, as promised, here is a picture of a lemur. This one is a black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata variegata). This is the kind that I got to play with at the zoo, only mine was much smaller and had a tendency to look rather terrified at the sheer size of everything around him. The pic comes from http://www.trekearth.com/.

So, this weekend was the first of the sessions at the zoo with my volunteers. For those who are as lost as a russian in a swahili tribe, my masters project requires that I use volunteers to collect some of my data. It went incredibly well and Iwas left feeling a little spare becuase the volunteers, all high school students, caught on really quickly and were all finished up in no time at all! But I suppose that it's better that way than to have a group of morons who can't understand that they must write their name down and have a photo taken.

Saturday was also my sisters birthday! They are now 19yrs old. I somehow never thought that they would ever get to that age. They have always been my little sisters so to imagine them as old as I was at one stage seems rather odd. I know this is all very silly but that is how my mind works. They were ver uncooperative and said that we mustn't get them birthday presents. I refused to not get them something so I am going to take them to the movies some time.

They went off to a gig on Saturday evening and so I went to a pizza evening at my cousins house. It was really fun. David, Duncan and I filmed this ridiculously silly action movie over the course of the evening which was really fun! It is so funny! Probably only to us...but I enjoyed it so I don't really care.

Sunday saw a family lunch for my sisters birthday. We also had my sisters friend over. It was really nice and at the end of the day my sisters and I went off to the movies with some family friends. I must admit that it was a little awkward as I havn't really kept in touch with them for ages but it was nice.

We went to see 'The Fountain' which was beautiful. It did get rather annoying at times, such as the 5min shots of a bald Hugh Jackman floating through space in a bubble on his way to a large celestial dust cloud. Those bits were a little too '2001: A Space Odessy' for my tastes.

Then yesterday was my sisters curriculum planning at Wits. So I took her in and showed her where she was supposed to be and all. I also went and did some work in my lab and went to the zoo.

And today was brilliant because my supervisor said that he thought that one of my ideas for my project was brilliant! It's a really good feeling when one's supervisor or boss applaudes you. I know this sounds very lapdog-ish but as I said before, I don't care.

And tonight it's off to dinner with Sarah and Tom (possibly others). Lookin forward to it!

Birthdays all over!

Well hello there children!





So, today's my dad's birthday. We, being my sisters, my mom and me, all felt terrible because we didn't get him anything for his birthday. But, in our defence, he didn't actually want any gifts! I find this hard to believe but that is actually what he said! He refused to have us buy him gifts. Odd man. We kinda cheated though and went and got him a kinder egg. He was pleased. My sisters made him a big blue and orange cake which they then decorated with yellow and purple icing. My family love making cakes in all these very loud colours and complimentary combinations. I think it's quite cool! Here is a photo of the cake:

I went out this afternoon in search of candles for the cake because we soon realised that we had nothing! NOTHING AT ALL! So I went and found a crazy store that had some candles and got him a singing candle! It was really funny because as the candle played 'Happy Birthday' the tune became increasingly slow and out of key because the battery was wearing out. Needless to say, my father was most impressed.

The next one on the list is my new-found friend, and fellow vegetarian blogger (Yay! We veggie-bloggers are way cool!), Athena. Her actual birthday is on Sunday if I'm not mistaken but she is having a birthday party at her house on Saturday. Only problem is...I have no clue when or where it is and what is required for this party! Let me just find out quickly...

Tom says that it's at her house at 19:00.

Then, next would be my sisters next week. I have no idea what I'll get them at all! I never know with those two. And they hunt in pairs so it's harder to get gifts because you inevitably get gifts that are somehow unequal in their 'coolness'. Curse the fact that they are twins! Why couldn't they just be courteous and be born a year apart or something!

And now for the part you've all been waiting for...

Random Fact For The Day:

In Lebanon it is legal to have sex with a female animal, but illegal with a male one

That was a little disturbing...!

I love my phone!

I love my new cellphone! It's so pretty and awesome and amazing and I love it! And today, at church my sister told a friend, in my presence might I add, that, and I quote, my phone was 'too cool for me'! How rude! Anyhoo, I threw something at her later on, as is customary for health inter-sibling relations ;)

Well the last couple of days have been awesome! On Thursday I went off to the zoo to observe my chimps for the first time in AGES. It was more out of fear of what would happen to me if I got to Wits to see my supervisor having done nothing at all all holiday. I doubt that he would really do anything appart from give me a rather unimpressed look and tell me to get my ass in gear and do some work. But none the less, I thought that a little work would certainly not kill me so I went off. It was great to see them again, especially because I realised that I am learning how to tell them apart which is brilliant!

Then, Friday was Tomkin's birthday! I, following a somewhat confusing conversation over chinese food, was convinced that his birthday was actually on the 7th (today) but no, it was on the 5th. We all went off to Gold Reef City, which was such fun! I havn't been to Jozi's only decent theme park in ages and so it was interesting to get to see it all again! It was so full though! There were hundreds of people with children all over the place.

Then, yesterday...is actually quite a blur in my mind. I can't for the life of me remember what the hell I did during the day. I know that I swam a lot. Our pool is amazing right now! The temperature is perfect! Anyhoo, last night was Tom's party, which was also awesome! I had such a ball! I saw Laura again, who has been away for a while, so we both caught up on what we've been up to. It was so nice to see her again and to just chill. Ten points Tomkins!

Otherwise, there has been little that is worth writing about happening in my life (save for one thing that I shan't write about). Hope yawl are doing smashingly!

Random Fact of the Day!

A shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.

A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

I'm doing two today because the first one was a little lame and somewhat well known.