I refuse to pay!

Hi gang!

Sorry about yesterdays rather depressing post. It's something that has been on my mind for a very long time now and I had to get it out of my system.

Today's tale is a considerably more humourous and light-hearted one than that of yesterday. It occurred this very afternoon when I went shopping with my mother. We were at a 'Pick-n-Pay', one of South Africa's largest supermarket chains. As it just so happens, apart from stocking all kinds of vegetarian foods, Pick-n-Pay's have another thing in their favour: they sell airtime for less than it is worth!

At Pick-n-Pay's airtime, or cell phone credit for those who haven't the faintest idea what I'm on about, is cheaper than it should be. Most other places charge the exact amount for their airtime, but not good old dependible Pick-n-Pay! No sir!

So anyway, today I went shopping with my mother and we were at the checkout counter and the kind checkout clerk had run up all our items when my mother remembered that she had to buy some airtime. So she asked the clerk for one of the R29,00 vouchers. The clerk replied saying that it would be another R28,00.

My mother looked annoyed. 'No, I want the twenty nine rand voucher, please.'

The clerk looked confused, but patiently responded, 'Yes, that will be twenty eight rand.'

My mother continued, 'No, you don't understand. I want the twenty nine rand voucher, not the twenty eight rand one!'

The very patient clerk looked at my mother and explained, 'No, the twenty nine rand voucher is only twenty eight rand. You save one rand!'

My mother didn't buy into it at all...

This conversation continued for some time before my sister intervened and explained to my mother that at a Pick-n-Pay, the airtime was cheaper. Upon this realisation, my mother beamed and, after paying, walked over to me and proudly declared, 'Guess what? Airtime is cheaper here!'

It was hysterical!

Random heart-stopping Fact Of The Day

A male emperor moth can smell a female emperor moth up to 7 miles away

This terrifying image is what greeted me every Valentines day. It's a good friend of mine, David. Every Valentines day he dresses up as cupid (with a motorbike helmet) and delivers gifts to all his friends. It's a nice jesture but he hasn't done it for some time now. He is a little odd...

Special people

Hello all!

I have just finished reading Tom's little piece on relationships. It is rather an amazing coincidence, but I was going to blog on something similar! I wanted to blog about some of the special people in my life who I love.

It all started this morning with the traditional, after-church tea with gran. We arrived at her place and she had somehow managed to whip together the tea and some cake and stuff by the time we arrived which is unusual because we were not late at all. So either her vitamin supplements suddenly kicked in and she shot around her home doing everything at a ridiculous pace or somehow she bent time so that she could have more time to do things in than was actually passing...

Anyhoo, while there she produced some photographs that she had dug up. My whole family passed the photos around and as per usual, I was the very last to get to look at them (perhaps I shall rant about that at a later stage...). It was good though because it gave me more time to enjoy the delicious date (not of the romantic kind) cake that she served us with our tea.

Eventually, the photos came my way and they were of my mother and my aunt feeding my sisters with bottles at my great-aunt's old house when we were all very tiny people. One of the photos in the pile was this one here:

It is a photo of three cousins. From right to left, Me, Sarah and Duncan. I really have no idea how old I was in this photo but it just made me think about my relationship with these two nutters. The three of us have always been very good friends and have gotten into countless troubles together. We just gel so well and it makes me sad to think that I don't get to see them as much as I would like to anymore.

Some history: Sarah is four years older than Duncan and I, who are only about two weeks apart. I'm the older of us. Sarah and the two of us went through a not-so-close stage when she was a teen, but since then have all been close. Then, in the early years of Varsity, Duncan and I had a huge fight which lasted, I am ashamed to say, almost a year and a bit. We didn't talk at all and I think to a degree he still holds certain things against me. And with good reason, I suppose. And this makes me angry.

I can't believe that I would let myself get into a situation where this kind of thing would happen! And how could I have turned my back on both a friend and relative?! I say relative because he is more than a cousin to me. They both are. When my family was up in Italy and I was down here, essentially living alone, they kind of adopted me. I would go visit them on weekends and they would take me with them on holiday and everything. But now, after our fight, Duncan and I are never going to be the same, and it makes me very sad.

If you ever read this, Duncan, I just want to say that I'm very sorry and that if I could go back and stop all this from happening, I would...

And to the rest of you guys, if I EVER even look like I'm heading into the same sort of scenario with anyone, slap me silly and make me realise what I'm doing! I love you guys all so much and I don't think I could ever forgive myself if I hurt you all like I've hurt Duncan. You all is ROX!

Random Fact For The Day:

A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation results. This is true for all foods. Try it!

Today's zoo tale

Well gang, I have achieved one of my lifelong ambitions today! A few years ago I did a project with Laura and some others on Madagascar and Lemurs. From that point onward, I have always been obsessed with lemurs. This was long before the movie 'Madagascar' came out and when it did, Helen and I sat through it discussing which species each lemur was - very sad I know, but they are SO cute!

So anyhoo, as part of my lemur fetish, I swore to myself that someday I would work on lemurs so that I could somehow hold one. Well, now I don't need to work on them!

I was walking around the zoo talking to my friend Althea, who works there as curator of the primates and reptiles. We were discussing how much work she had to do, which by the way is ridiculous! I was supposed to go with her to meet the famous Josh (http://thelifeofa20something.blogspot.com/2006/10/joshhes-so-cute.html). Anyway, we were walking and chatting and she mentioned offhand that we first had to go and give some medication to a lemur. I, naturally, was thrilled at the prospect of getting that close to a lemur and went along very willingly.

We entered the animal hospital at the zoo and Althea had a long chat with the resident vet while preparing a small dish of mashed fruit and milk formula. She then turned to me and explained that I was going to feed the baby lemur! I was over the moon!

She then went into the cage to collect the baby lemur and to administer the mother's medication. The little one was passed over to me instantly and I went off to feed him! It was so amazing! He was tiny and he was so soft! He also smelled so nice! In the same way that babies smell nice. He just kinda smelt small and cute, if that makes any sense at all.

Apparently his mother has developed some mammary infection, which means her milk secreting glands are not in a good way. As a result, she cannot produce any milk for her little baby and so he has to be fed by us humans. Normally a lemur of his age would not be weaned at all but apparently he prefers to eat fruit than to drink milk formula from a bottle.

So I got to feed the baby lemur. I had to keep putting the food right under his nose because he kept getting distracted by things and forgot that his food was there! It was so cute! However, he was very gittery! The slightest sound or sudden movement made him panic. I felt terrible when I had dipped my finger into his fruit to try and encourage him to lick it up and as I raised my hand to his face he got such a fright that he crapped himself!

He was SO cute and if I could, I would most definitely have one as a pet! I took a photo of him with my phone but alas, I have yet to figure out how to transfer photos from my phone to my laptop. When I do, you'll get to see him.

Random Fact For The Day:

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top

Oops...about your iguana...

Due to the fact that my supervisor will be, or should be, and possibly is, back from his holiday around now, I have been spending much of my time at the zoo trying to gather data for my masters project. I say trying because one might not really expect recording what a chimpanzee is doing to be a difficult endevour, but it is. Especially when the animal in question is a female with a very young baby who is very nervous.

This is what happened today. I was watching the chimp, rather successfully, until she decided to move to another area of her enclosure. I then moved to another area in order to get a good view of the chimp and try to figure out what she was up to. Helen was with me at the time and we both ran off to try spot the old female. She had other plans and eventually I gave up and we just went walking around the zoo. It was at this stage that we ran into the exciting occurance of the day!

We were walking past an enclosure that once housed some monkeys and now houses iguanas. Or, after today, iguana...We arrived at the scene just as one of the keepers realised that one of the iguanas had just escaped from the enclosure and was sunning itself in one of the flowerbeds! The keeper naturally tried to catch it and the thing ran off.

In no time a large herd of people, keepers and members of the public had arrived and were all trying to figure out what was going on. The keepers ended up chasing the iguana into a large storm drain thingy and spent much of their time wandering up and down the drain pipe. Helen and I both tried to do some searching ourselves but to no avial. It was gone.

So now there is an iguana in the drain at the zoo.

Darn...this isn't nearly as exciting as I expected it to be...I'll have to try harder next time.

Random Fact For The Day

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

Here is a photo of me trying to write out a diary of what I'd been doing on the molerat trip:

Ahem...there is a large bird in your bathroom...

Today I changed one of the lights in the garden. It was a job that was severely overdue and in a sudden fit of usefulness, I changed it. As I returned into the house, my father walked up to me and asked me if I had seen the bird. I gave him a blank look and explained that I had no idea what he was on about. He then explained to me that as I had walked out to change the light outside, a hadeda had wandered into my bathroom rather confidently. Apparently it had walked into the garage of our house, entered into the passage and had made its way into my bathroom.

My sister has a fear of birds (I don't get it at all but anyway) and she had been in my bedroom at the time, watching a DVD on my laptop. When my dad aparently told her about the hadeda, which was at that stage still in the bathroom, she had shreaked and locked herself in my room. Eventually my father managed to chase the thing out. I was rather upset that he hadn't managed to take a photo of the large ibis next to my loo so I could show you guys!

I guess this will have to do then. It's a photo that Helen took in Darling of some Hadeda's flying in a flock. And so you all know, hadeda's are very large birds. They are about 80cm long and weight about...well I don't know but I'm sure that it's a lot for a bird! Let's just say that if a house cat were to attack one from behind, the bird could easily take off and fly with the cat attached.


Random Fact For The Day:

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.

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.

Random facts

I was sifting through all the random crap that fills my harddrive and I discovered a text file that I had downloaded form who knows where that contains many random facts. I shall post one with each blog entry. Here is today's one:

A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.