December2004December in a Nutshell30 December 2004 The beginning of the month saw MyrdemInggala moving in and there's been endless reorganising of the flat ever since. We've acquired a fridge and a washing machine and, of course, MyrdemInggala has brought her rather large selection of books. The open living area has been reorganised into something resembling a lounge and a dining room (although it's more of a current projects space). Lucas' room is now a study (computers and non-fiction). Tomorrow we will hopefully obtaining a microwave (we nod our heads and say thany-ye to MI's parental units). Some Wednesday in early December I got to attend the final day of SCAW (Scientific Clustering Applications Workshop) being held in the IBM offices near the Waterfront. The grassroots organisation (thanks Bruce) showed a bit but it was good to chat to other people interested in clusters and see what they were doing / planning. Since Bruce will be away in France next year some of the rest of us will need to get off our butts to organise SCAW 2005. The day after SCAW I returned to work to find everything had gone to pot (and a rather old leaky pot at that). The company on the one side had initiated legal action against the people downstairs. There has been much changing of locks and passwords. Since I managed to miss all the official announcements I'm a bit out of the loop (probably the best place to be). Hopefully someone will clue me in next year. The next bit of excitement was a brief stay in hospital. I got to work late (are delivery people ever on time?!?) and decided to stay on to make up the time. By seven thirty I was shivering a bit and had a massive headache so I packed up and left for home. Halfway back along Modderdam Road I developed horribly debilitating abdominal craps. Thankfully I managed to pull over into a petrol station. After lying on the station fore court and moaning in pain for about 10 minutes I called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived 20 minutes later the cramps had mostly gone but I had developed quite a nasty fever. I got put on a drip for the evening and MyrdemInggala's dad fetched me from Louis Leopold Hospital some time after midnight. Thankfully it seems that the cramps were caused by a virus which has been going around - my regular GP says he's seen lots of cases of it and I think some other people in the building have also been off work with similar symptoms. I was just unlucky enough to have it strike suddenly at such an inconvenient time. It took about a week for the light-headedness and tiredness to go away but I seem to be completely recovered now. Somewhere in the middle of the month the SCA craftmarket stall happened. My part was to make some box chainmail jewellery (with some help from Jo on one of the pieces). Since then I've also made a mail necklace for MyrdemInggala. I may tweak it a bit but I'm quite happy with it the way it is. Around the time of the market Karen and Neil gave birth (Karen obviously more directly) to a young daughter Emma (congrats!). Christmas of course also rolled 'round. We spent Christmas Eve having dinner with MyrdemInggala's parents and some of their friends. Quite an enjoyable evening, even though I had to get English summaries of most of the conversation (I'm used to it by now). The night before we made peirogi (a kind of dumpling) and on the day we decorated the tree (and in record time too - since we were horribly late). On Christmas itself we drove through to Hermanus to visit my mom and sister. Also handed over gifts for my sister to haul up to my dad and Margi in Gauteng. Drove back late on Boxing Day. Loot:
I spent the two days after Christmas finishing reading the two Dark Tower books MyrdemInggal got me. The series was never going to be tightly plotted (how could it when the first few books were published long before Steven King had any idea how it would end?) but on the whole was enjoyable. The first three quarters of the fourth book (which tell of the young Roland) are still my favourite part of the series. If you're still reading the series my advice is: don't expect too much from the ending. Our reading binge meant we total missed the major world disaster happening around us. The first we heard about the tsunami was while speaking to my dad over the phone on the evening of the 28th. Since then we've had some time to access the net. I'm stunned. Tonight we took out 'Shaun of the Dead' and watched it on MyrdemInggala's new DVD drive. Definitely one of the best zombie movies I've seen. Merry Solstice and Happy New Year everyone! Post Scriptum1 January 2005 In my somewhat sleepy state I forgot to mention two things in my previous post: On the last day of work for the year a chip broken off one of my teeth. Thankfully it was from a tooth which already has a filling and the inside of the tooth is still completely sealed (i.e. separated from the outside world). I'm having it repaired on the 4th. I think I was nearly mugged on the 30th. I had just started walking up a long hill on the way to fetch my car from the garage when a BMW pulled up behind me. A person got out and started walking up the hill behind me. Then the BMW drove past me up the hill. I'm thinking, it's a bit odd to drop your friend off at the bottom of the hill and then drive up it, but whatever. A little further up the hill, the BMW stops and the driver gets out and starts walking down towards me. I'm getting a little edgy at this point. When he's about two metres away (and his buddy about the same distance behind me) the driver says, "Have you got R2 for me?". At which point I darted over to the far side of the road. Then the two of them got back into the BMW and drove off. Blerg. :| Matric Reunion1 January 2005 At the beginning of December I went through to the Brass Bell for my matric reunion. Doesn't really feel like 10 years. Got to see bunches of people I haven't seen in ages (Bronnwyn, Ian, Dave). I had to run off early to help MyrdemInggala move in but it was a relatively cool evening. Points to remember when going to reunions:
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