Hello, 2013

</2012>

<2013>

WELL, HELLO!

So, everyone's doing end of year posts and/or start of year posts. I figured I'd do one too.
I just read a long, personal and intricate post from a dear bro and understood a lot more about his year.
I'm not going to be as detailed in my recollections or as personal, but I will blab about 2012 a little.

Okay, so from this side of the looking glass, 2012 might have seemed quite a crappy year, a tiring adventure and overall, the end of my favourite era in life, but I think if I look at the positives, 2012 was great in some ways.

I'll try to be at least MOSTLY chronological so that things make sense here.

Anyway, so the year started off with me at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, finishing off my BCom ISTN degree.
As much as I was tired of studying and writing exams, campus life has been my favourite part of life.
There was enough freedom for me to enjoy everything and to feel liberated but not so much freedom that I had too much responsibility placed on my shoulders.
I admit that I'm able to do so much more now, but I think I will always miss that point of my life.
Well, I had a great time being with my friends and relaxing for most of the day, every day. I miss them so much and it's quite disappointing not to be able to see them often as I did before. I think that's why I miss this area of life so much.
Things were much more fun when I could wake up in the morning, get to campus and trot off to find Cavie and the gang.
I do so miss sitting next to them in the LAN or at a bench near the pond.
(Sigh... okay, yes, I did initially write that about Cavie and then I realised that it sounded mean to leave out the others. Guys, I loved hanging out with all of you. You all gave me company when I needed it and you all helped me have an awesome semester for 2012. Sean, Amy, Prashna, Cohen, Smee, Brad, Hen, Adrian, Byron, Sanchia, Jes and Yashaar. I'm just mentioning the people that I hung out with most often. Hope I didn't forget anyone. I know Tant wasn't physically with us, but she was always there to chat and stuff. WAIT. WE MET HER! I can totally say that now.)
Anyway, so I passed my final set of exams in June after much studying, sweating and staying up late (to play games between studying, of course).
I officially have a degree :)

Unfortunately for most of this time, my beloved Verushka had been working (since January) so I was unable to freely see her. That was the one real pain between January and July.
Although, since she was a lot more mobile than me most of the time, she popped in to visit a few times :)
-and thankfully, we were able to meet on weekends, etc.
I was so happy each and every time I saw her.
I thank her for the many times she went out of her way to see me or help me out.
<3

I realise now that I didn't enjoy my July holiday as much as I wanted to.
I wish I did. I SHOULD HAVE SLEPT MORE.

Otherwise, the next big thing was that I got a car and a job.
ERMERGERD.

Ifrit has been an incredible help. I've become quite used to driving on my own now.
I even enjoy it. Muse has become my driving music (Muse-ic?) recently and I'm quite happy about that.
I currently have all 6 of their main albums in the car.

Work has been boring and tiring, then hectic, then interesting and now boring again due to the lack of anything during the holiday season. I'm hoping to get back to more interesting work such as configurations and setting up other device software.

My parents and granny have been out for the holiday period so I've had to take care of more stuff at home.
Parents went to Egypt and my granny was in Johannesburg.

What I am really happy about is that I got to spend a lot of time with Verushka recently.
I even got to see her around Christmas and New Year.
Her and her family have been very sweet with insisting on having us over for supper, tea and anything else that they were doing at the time.

I also got to spend a lot of time with Previn and Daelin since they were down. In fact, they were awesome in inviting Verushka to their house as well.

Daelin was quite entertaining this holiday. Ironically, Johnnie Walker stopped him from walking.
He's fine now guys. Don't worry.

I watched some awesome movies (Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Life of Pi)
Found an awesome website (StumbleUpon)
Finally had a good drink on New Years Eve (driving set me back there. Thankfully I didn't have to drive on NYE.)
Played, laughed, loved, lived.
All in all, 2012 wasn't so bad. A lot of new experiences. A few things came to an end. I learnt a lot and experienced a lot of new things.
I know I mentioned it at the beginning, but I chose not to mention much of the negative stuff about the past year because there's no point starting this year with troublesome thoughts.

Coming this year:
-Graduation
-Metallica
-more work stuff
-more blog posts

And... um... yeah. Think that's about it for now. Gonna have some lunch and stuff.
Cheers.

DEGREE. AMBUSH. WEDDING. DRAKENSBERG. BIRTHDAYS

Okay, so I've had a relatively busy period of life since exams.
Here's a summarised version:

THE DEGREE

So I passed all my exams this semester and because of that, I completed my degree :)

CONFIRMATION OF DEGREE

Rather happy that that's over but it's not fun to be without campus friends and stuff now.
Especially since the gee-eff is in Mozambique since last week.
I feel so alone :/

Took forever to finish campus stuff by the way :/
With the amount of checking and confirming I had to do.
Apart from having to deal with staff replying to my emails with "goway" :|
Seriously. WHO DOES THAT?
Otherwise, it's been job hunting and stuff. Bleh. It sucks. DO NOT LIKE.

---

So anyway, the reason that everything's been busy and stuff since exams is not just because of campus stuff or job hunting. It's mostly because my cousin, Reuben, was getting married! (Again, congrats/condolences!)
I have a relatively large amount of overseas relatives so because they were down, we were trying to see them almost every day.
I got to see Mary Rose, Indran and Caelyn. Got to take care of Caelyn for some time this holiday.
Hayley, Sastri, Devak and Jai were also around and we got to see them for a while too :)

Before I got to hang with them and stuff, however, I was ambushed.

THE AMBUSH

It was a dark and stormy night.
Okay, no. It was a calm and relatively average day.
I went to visit Verushka in order for her to help me with my CV and job hunting.
We spent most of the morning doing that. Suddenly and unfortunately, Verushka received some stressful work-related news (her own work, that is) and I decided to stay a little longer and make sure she was okay. Not too long because her family was coming over for supper that evening.
It was getting towards late afternoon and we had just about sorted everything out when SUDDENLY... some family arrived. :/
Panic stained the air.
Thankfully, Trishanta and Yulishka arrived first. I knew them and apart from seeing their disturbing faces, I was okay with them being there.
I needed to escape quickly so I started getting ready and then was struck with another blow when I heard a second car pulling up the driveway.
[Horror movie music starts playing in the background]
Relative after relative was introduced to me. I received stares, nicknames, and then... compliments, jokes, warming smiles.
This family wasn't so bad :)
In fact, they were very much like my own. A large family, but one that I enjoyed being around.
Of course, I was not used to everyone yet, but they seemed like actual good people.
Slightly calmer now, I managed to mingle a little and to even laugh and talk.
All in all, an okay experience.
Perhaps I would not mind seeing these people again.

---

ANYWAY, the actual big event. The wedding:

THE WEDDING

Reuben's wedding required us to help out quite a bit and to see most of my family very often. I don't mind seeing my family as I'm very comfortable with most of them.
I would say everything went swimmingly: the bachelor party, nalangu, and the wedding itself.

I don't have a picture of the bridal couple, but I managed to take this delightful pic of Jai feeding Caelyn.

Anyway, glad that everything went well and all the best for Reuben and Kemsila in the future. :)
They do, in fact, make a wonderful couple. (Good luck, Kemsila. You'll need it.)

---

DRAKENSBERG

So after the wedding, we were free to spend more time with Indran, Mary Rose and Caelyn.
We actually went to Drakensberg for a couple days. Thought I'd just briefly mention it (LOLbrief).

Caelyn on the swing

Mum, Orisha, Mary Rose, Papa and Indran during our short hike.

 Yep. Was rather entertaining. The little lady kept us busy and when we actually got to spend time with Indran and Mary Rose, they were excellent company as usual. :)

---

BIRTHDAYS

After we got back, I attended two 21st birthday events. Yashaar's and my cousin, Brandon's.

The traditional cake photo. (Well, him as well, but I meant the birthday cake that is ON his face.)

Sorry, Brandon. I didn't take any photos at your party :/
Oops.
But another happy birthday for each of you! All the best, God's richest blessings, etc etc.

---

Um... I think that's about it for the holiday summary?
Yeah, okay. More posts to come shortly. Then after they're done, they'll appear on this  blog. Yay.

Because YOLO

My Lucky Birthday 2012

So, today (11 May) was my birthday.

By the time I finish posting this, it'll probably be well past 12 so I had to add the date.

... So I remember when my birthday was...

No, I'm not that old. I just often have trouble remembering what I'm saying, what I'm doing, what is going on around me, and what I'm saying.

SO...

Was a relatively cool day.

Started off with some special people being the first ones to wish me. You know who you are. :)

Economics reared its ugly head and threatened to ruin the day, but some of my family, my awesome friends and that girl, Verushka decided to save me and stuff.

I was treated to many amazingly-well-thought-out messages.

Then... long story short :

Wasn't a complete disaster, though.

Whoever phoned me, I was able to answer without having to see anything on my broken screen.

In addition, I was able to see some awesome Facebook posts and tweets directed at me.

Of course, I was also able to see a few of my good friends at campus and they made sure to wish me in person. They even forced a Happy Birthday balloon and Nerd-card upon me, a slice of Bar-One cake which i definitely refused until I was forced (Shh! Verushka might be reading this!) and some even went as far as to give me a birthday Unreal Tournament game.

Yes. You, Thomas (Alright. Fine. "Sean.").

Adams waitress girl was pretty amped about it too. :)

Was phoned by Tanusha! YAY. She talked a lot of shit... but faeces is a common topic in our conversation, so that's no surprise.
I really should find out her name...

I was also taken to Spur for supper, where I enjoyed my second favourite rack. (You should know this one.)
Many phone calls throughout the day from people far and wide in the world.

End of the day? Who else could fill that position other than the same Verushka that started my day off?

Thank you for doing what you could for me. Your efforts are appreciated more than you know. :)

Even the smallest ones strike home. :)

---

My birthday balloon!

Prashna's "birthday card" (front)

Prashna's "birthday card" (back)

Cava's candle

Am I posting too often? Well, shuddup, I'm bored.

Yes, I'm aware that I'm posting pretty often.
Is it too much?
Too bad. :)
Meh. I'm sure I'll post less often as time goes by.
I'm in the initial excitement phase, I guess.

I really should be learning full-on for ECON201.
I'm writing tomorrow but I just CANNOT concentrate.
The flu isn't helping either.

Okay. Let me try to concentrate and study now.










So anyway, I find it fun to write crap here.
I never really saw the point of wasting my time on a blog before.
Heh. Pretty cool, actually.

Campus is boring now.
After being here so long, there's nothing fun to do anymore.
Well, this was just a random post.
Let me actually get back to studying.

SO, I figure in the future, I'll try and mention some of my favourite people in my posts, and maybe spark some discussion in others. I'll try and mention some stuff I think is interesting. Share some opinions on stuff.
We'll see.
I have plenty of time to figure out where this blog is going.
The night is still young. In fact, it's SO young that it's still morning.
... ... ...
Yeah, don't feel bad, I didn't laugh at that either.

Anyway, I shall soon post something that actually has some meaning/definition/reason to be read.
Promise.