6/5/09
One of the girls in the program, Deborah, left for home (Ireland) today. Since lucy has been in Zimbabwe and Deborah had to be out of her apartment by the 1st, she had been staying in Lucy’s room. She was great company and a fine roommate. As a parting “thank you” she got Sarah and I some muffins from Mugged. When I saw that one of them was a chocolate muffin, Deborah quickly became my most favorite person in the whole entire world. Sarah hadn’t tried the chocolate one before so I was excited to show her what she’s been missing. She found it just as delicious as I did and we tackled it. That muffin didn’t stand a chance. We lounged around the apartment enjoying our muffin and listening to the rain. It has been miserable for days. Sarah said that she felt like she could sleep for days. I told her the weather can make you feel that way. But this muffin, thankfully, makes me feel like I could fly.
This evening I set out to meet Doug and his friend Simon near Doug’s house (in Rondebosch). I plugged the address into the GPS and set out. I ended up down some desolate street lined with warehouses. I called Doug and we desperately tried to figure out where I was. The GPS was failing us miserably. For some reason, it wasn’t picking up a signal and thus, useless. To make the situation more dramatic, the beetle stalled out and wouldn’t start again. Doug struggled to maintain patient, and he did so remarkably. I could tell he was just really uncomfortable with me being lost and feeling helpless. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared sitting in my car and waiting. True to his nature, Doug came rushing to my aid in no time. Simon jumped out of the passenger seat and came up to my open door, “See you’re having some trouble here.” He had a scruffy, surfer look to him, and I thought immediately, I love this guy. He and Doug attempted to get the beetle going to no avail. The solution was to tow it. This doesn’t mean you call AAA. This means you tie a rope from one car to the other. Simon sat in my car (someone needed to steer and break, of course!) while Doug and I did the towing in his car. The first time I saw this was in the bush on safari…and I thought it was bush (limited resources, fend-for-yourself) thing. But I have seen a number of people doing this around town as well. Cops don’t even look twice. I found it pretty amusing…and kind of ingenious. We avoided so much wasted time and money with that system. However, I can imagine the mess doing something like that on a regular basis would cause. Still, another once-in-a-lifetime experience.
We left the beetle at Simon’s house since it was the closest, and headed on to meet Doug’s other friend, Mark, at a local pub. When we arrived, Doug swooped me over his shoulders and brought me into the bar. He told the girls waiting in the doorway, “This is the only way I can get her to go out with me.” I had to admit that that’s funny stuff.
Foresters was ridiculously crowded. It’s one of Doug’s favorite pubs because a lot of his friends are always there. It was a big place, with both indoor and outdoor seats. Tonight, there was a big cricket match going on and the crowd was rowdy. I know next to nothing about cricket so I don’t know the details, but I gathered that it was a very suspenseful, very riveting game. The side that the majority of the bar was rooting for won the match. I tried to understand the sport as we enjoyed pizza.
Afterwards Doug and I went to his friend John’s place to meet up with Debbie and those guys. I had met a few of the people that were there in Montagu that weekend. We sat around and ate custard and other various desserts. It was interesting to see Doug over the course of three days, hang out with 3 very different groups of people. Each group highlighted a different aspect of Doug’s personality. In turn, each group responded differently to him as well…it was fun to be a part of and reminded me of my own social groups. I try to surround myself with people who are different than me; people who can teach me things and keep me on my toes and thinking and learning. I enjoy meeting new people and discovering what they can add to my life. I over heard someone say once that, at our age (late 20s) we already have our core friends and that we aren’t going to really make any new ones anymore. I think that’s crap. I think you never know where or when you are going to meet someone who means a lot to you and makes footprints in your life. I also think that it can happen quickly; quick enough that it can be when your 12 or when your 80 and that person would have a very profound effect on your life.
One of the girls in the program, Deborah, left for home (Ireland) today. Since lucy has been in Zimbabwe and Deborah had to be out of her apartment by the 1st, she had been staying in Lucy’s room. She was great company and a fine roommate. As a parting “thank you” she got Sarah and I some muffins from Mugged. When I saw that one of them was a chocolate muffin, Deborah quickly became my most favorite person in the whole entire world. Sarah hadn’t tried the chocolate one before so I was excited to show her what she’s been missing. She found it just as delicious as I did and we tackled it. That muffin didn’t stand a chance. We lounged around the apartment enjoying our muffin and listening to the rain. It has been miserable for days. Sarah said that she felt like she could sleep for days. I told her the weather can make you feel that way. But this muffin, thankfully, makes me feel like I could fly.
This evening I set out to meet Doug and his friend Simon near Doug’s house (in Rondebosch). I plugged the address into the GPS and set out. I ended up down some desolate street lined with warehouses. I called Doug and we desperately tried to figure out where I was. The GPS was failing us miserably. For some reason, it wasn’t picking up a signal and thus, useless. To make the situation more dramatic, the beetle stalled out and wouldn’t start again. Doug struggled to maintain patient, and he did so remarkably. I could tell he was just really uncomfortable with me being lost and feeling helpless. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared sitting in my car and waiting. True to his nature, Doug came rushing to my aid in no time. Simon jumped out of the passenger seat and came up to my open door, “See you’re having some trouble here.” He had a scruffy, surfer look to him, and I thought immediately, I love this guy. He and Doug attempted to get the beetle going to no avail. The solution was to tow it. This doesn’t mean you call AAA. This means you tie a rope from one car to the other. Simon sat in my car (someone needed to steer and break, of course!) while Doug and I did the towing in his car. The first time I saw this was in the bush on safari…and I thought it was bush (limited resources, fend-for-yourself) thing. But I have seen a number of people doing this around town as well. Cops don’t even look twice. I found it pretty amusing…and kind of ingenious. We avoided so much wasted time and money with that system. However, I can imagine the mess doing something like that on a regular basis would cause. Still, another once-in-a-lifetime experience.
We left the beetle at Simon’s house since it was the closest, and headed on to meet Doug’s other friend, Mark, at a local pub. When we arrived, Doug swooped me over his shoulders and brought me into the bar. He told the girls waiting in the doorway, “This is the only way I can get her to go out with me.” I had to admit that that’s funny stuff.
Foresters was ridiculously crowded. It’s one of Doug’s favorite pubs because a lot of his friends are always there. It was a big place, with both indoor and outdoor seats. Tonight, there was a big cricket match going on and the crowd was rowdy. I know next to nothing about cricket so I don’t know the details, but I gathered that it was a very suspenseful, very riveting game. The side that the majority of the bar was rooting for won the match. I tried to understand the sport as we enjoyed pizza.
Afterwards Doug and I went to his friend John’s place to meet up with Debbie and those guys. I had met a few of the people that were there in Montagu that weekend. We sat around and ate custard and other various desserts. It was interesting to see Doug over the course of three days, hang out with 3 very different groups of people. Each group highlighted a different aspect of Doug’s personality. In turn, each group responded differently to him as well…it was fun to be a part of and reminded me of my own social groups. I try to surround myself with people who are different than me; people who can teach me things and keep me on my toes and thinking and learning. I enjoy meeting new people and discovering what they can add to my life. I over heard someone say once that, at our age (late 20s) we already have our core friends and that we aren’t going to really make any new ones anymore. I think that’s crap. I think you never know where or when you are going to meet someone who means a lot to you and makes footprints in your life. I also think that it can happen quickly; quick enough that it can be when your 12 or when your 80 and that person would have a very profound effect on your life.
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