Sunrise, January 1st, 2008

So, with the parents trying to discourage me from going and the husband fast asleep with tissue stuffed in his ears (he's out of industrial earplugs), I made the decision to go on out to Jammie Steps and watch the sunrise, even if it meant I had to walk out of the house at 5am and drive there myself. As I drove along, I realized that I'd almost left it for too late. The sky was already starting to lighten. I got to campus and made my way up the steps to where the Nordiens were stationed. It turned out, I hadn't missed much.

The air was still (apparently a big change from previous years) and smelled of trees. We watched as the clouds that were skudding over the mountain turned from purple, to pink, to golden, and finally a silver tinged white. The sky went from navy to a brilliant azure. It was breathtaking.

In a moment of introspection that was probably influenced by my hopes and fears for the changes that are come in the New Year, I realized that sunrises can be seen as a metaphor for life. You can't compare one phase of the sunrise to any other. You can only hope to find the beauty in each and enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm glad I decided to watch the sun rise today.

New Year's Thoughts

So, I think it's still early enough for me to be posting some New Year's thoughts. Let's see.

1. Even if you're covered in itchy spots, all the mosquitos in Observatory will try to feast on you in the early hours of New Year.

2. Even though you're going on 28, if you're living with your parents, they will call you at 3am to find out where you are and what you're doing on New Year's.

3. You may find your parents mysteriously examining the lawn at 3:30am when you arrive home from your New Year's eve gathering.

4. Your husband will simply refuse to accompany you to New Year's day sunrise, using the argument "But you can go without me. I *want* you to go".

5. Your friends will still think it's unreasonable to take a nap between midnight and sunrise on New Year's even though they know that your are mid-morning person. Laragh peeps will know that I only function efficiently after 11am. Everyone else should know that I'm likely to fall asleep standing up after 11pm.

6. There may be a lot less people around next year to appreciate my bad jokes. Given the circumstances last night, I thought "Who let the cat in?" was a perfectly valid comment.

And that's as far as I got with New Year's thoughts, as I (predictably) fell asleep early on. But hopefully, will still get to see sunrise. *fingers crossed*

Otherwise, I am up to the following:

a) Watching re-runs of selected Battlestar Galactica episodes. Ohmygod this show rocks!
b) Listening to the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 original soundtrack. Bear McCreary gets better and better all the time. Personal favourites thusfar is Storming New Caprica. That made me want to go back and watch that episode again. (And did I mention that this episode rocks?)
c) Reading The Running Man by Stephen King, written under the alias Richard Bachman. It is awesome! It's been a very long time since I've been so nervous that I had to skip forward a few pages just to make sure the main character didn't get splattered too bad.
d) Playing cooperative Gears of War on hardcore level with the hubby, this time as Dominic Santiago. Forgot how hard it was. Grrr! Hate those damn lambent wretches! Hoping to move onto a new game after this or possibly go back to playing Oblivion.

The Fruit and Flowers anniversary

So today was our fourth wedding anniversary - the fruit and flowers anniversary. Apparently it's supposed to symbolize blossoming and fertility and something to that effect. So, in sticking with the theme, we decided to have breakast at Kirstenbosch Gardens followed by a walk among the fruit and flowers and fertile things, like ladies with lots of babies. Boy does that make a person broody. But it was very sweet. Made us feel all fluffy and romantic too. We used to go there when we'd just started dating. It was August/September so barely spring so we'd take a flask, chocolate cake, and a newspaper, then sit on a bench and read different sections of the paper. It was very chilled, very mellow and this morning was very much like that. It's kind of hard to believe that it's been four years already! Sometimes it feels like we just started dating yesterday!

Unemployed girl

Yesterday was the day I'd been counting down to since July 11th, 164 days ago. The day I quit my job. I'd been building up to it slowly but surely. There were days when I was focused and worked hard but they were few and far between. There were days when I worked in short bursts, now writing frantically, now lounging apathetically, my head on the gel pad before my keyboard. And there were days when I sighed, moaned, groaned, and made repeated trips to the kitchen and the front desk (for munchies). Those increased in number as the number of colleagues I cared about decreased. Needless to say, I was completely disfunctional by the last day. I really did think I could finish that last topic but in the end, there were just so many distractions on the day, that I barely got into it.

The going away gathering was held early in the morning. I almost missed it. I was taken aback by the sincerety of Roger's speech. It was so tinged by nostalgia that I suddenly realized that I'd miss Laragh, particularly the Laragh that used to be, the one on Kloof Street with the intimate little rooms, run down though they were, with the friendly people who'd smile and introduce themselves, and show an interest in your life. The laid back Laragh.

I got a card that said "Congratulations". It had penguins on it, wishing another penguin goodbye as he flew off in a hot air balloon. It was sweet. Even the generic Good Lucks and Take Cares were sweet. Particularly sweet were Kirk and Karien's messages - short and sweet but signed "Love". I choked up.

My going away speech was impromptu but I really felt a gush of emotion for the place. Sure it hadn't all been rosy and great. There were some dire moments, it's true. But for the most part I was happy there, accepted by others, and valued for my contribution. For that I guess I'll always cherish it and look back at it with nostalgia.

At lunch I was ambushed by the Magic peeps. I suppose I should have expected it, since we've all become so adept at keeping secret the suprise gatherings and gift givings that we throw each other but I really didn't expect it. I honestly thought we were getting together for one last coffee break. There were Ethne and Sharon (my Alt+130 is not working on this laptop coz there's no keypad!), with chocolates and flowers, and a personalized card, which made the leaving so much more real. It wasn't just random people or casual acquaintances saying Goodbye from Laragh but also those who I'd been closest to during my time there, and those who'd managed to escape before me.

It was the first job that I've had where I can tell someone "Remember when..." and laugh about it. But it's over now. And I've three or four weeks left. Unemployed, future slightly uncertain, back in my mum's house, hoping things will go well and turn out they way we want them to.

US visas approved

At about 9:30 this morning, the DHL people came to deliver our passports. Sameer received them and found our passports inside. His first comment was "You look like you're on drugs in this picture." It's true. I do look like a bit of a druggy in the picture. It's all Ferzana's fault. I was trying to smile with my eyes. :P Anyway, my visa is valid until the middle of June but apparently we are allowed to stay on for an additional 60 days after that. Sameer's visa only expires some time in 2010! I thought that was kind of odd but anyway. So yay. Two down, one more to go.