So i wrote a post last week but didn't get around to posting it.  Now it's old and i don't like it anymore (well, there are some parts i like but not enough), so i'm not gonna post it. Ever.  It'll die and disappear into the abyss from whence it came.  Like the Belrog in Lord of the Rings.  Which i was watching the whole of not last week but the week before.  I spent every night watching just a little of each movie.  Well, it was supposed to be just a little but it ended up being quite a lot - and in the end i was staying up to finish them off.  It's the entire collection of the extended versions of each film that i borrowed from Drew - each one runs in the region of 4 hours - a totally awesome and indulgent experience that i highly recommend.  Once a year.  A group of friends from church actually religiously (excuse the pun) do that every year.  They gather at someone's house and watch the entire quadrinity (which is a word i just made up - it's a trinity of four if you didn't catch) in a single day - a straight 12 hours of movie-watching.

So still training at work.  Maybe i wouldn't have to write that every time if i just gave you the full schedule.  It's 2 months of training from when i started; that's 15 March - 15 May.  Then we work for a month as like "trainees" and then we're done - full on into it.  They say that there's a 3 month probation but apparently that doesn't really count for much.  They're gonna be spending a lot of money on us - they have already - 50 000 for the engineering package, 34 000 for the rendering package.  And then we apparently get a really expensive, delicious laptop - which i don't actually want.  Laptops always pale in performance compared to a desktop computer.  So the point is, to fire us after the probation period would be a real waste of time and money.  And anyway, they won't fire me.  I'm too good (arrogance allowed for purposes of mustering self-belief).

Some interesting stuff has started happening.  This friday there was an opportunity to get out the office that i immediately latched onto.  We're supposed to be on the factory floor all day - in fact, we got crapped on for not staying on the floor and starting to write our reports.  But it get's very boring - and i was tired of just wandering around seeing things that i truly think i completely understand now.  So when i overheard one of the senior designers talking about a trade visit i asked if i could go along.  Little did i know where we'd be going for the 'trade visit'.  First stop Billy the Bums.  Where i arrive to find my colleagues seated at a table drinking draughts at 14:30 in the afternoon.  Which is probably not such a rare occurance on a Friday in South Africa, but the fact that the alternative was a hot, boring factory floor made the sight a sweet one.  I joined in, and soon we were joined by a bunch of others, and another senior designer, Mark, with a brief: to design a sales-boosting, consumer-generating solution for smoking areas in pubs.  So that's why we were there.  To work for the devil.  To create smokers out of non-smokers and heavier smokers out of smokers.  Seeing as i was already working for the devil, it didn't matter to me too much that our next stop was going to be Hooters in Umhlanga.  Where girls wear the shortest pants ever - not even long enough to cover their whole bum.  And you'd imagine from the name that they'd have their boobs sticking out - but no, actually, they didn't, which was quite a relief.  But ja - the whole Friday afternoon experience was totally awesome.  These guys just don't reject ideas.  We were coming up with the stupidest stuff (might have had something to do with the comsumption of alcohol) but it was all being considered and written down - the ideas included glowing furniture, robotic ashtrays, blimps, holograms, you name it.  We were sketching and laughing and talking rubbish and chatting up the waitresses (well, not me of course, but the single guys), and man, i was having a good time.  These guys are in some cases 1.5 or 2 times my age, but they treat me like one of the team - and i wasn't even technically supposed to be there.  And to top it all off, Mark then swiped his credit card and paid for it all.  Happy Days!

But i did have enough sense to end my Friday right there and go home to sleep off the week.  We were in the office until 11:00 on Thursday night half training, half helping out with a massive deadline for an international brief.  They made me feel better by giving me free Nandos.  Amazing how free stuff can win me over.  I'm so fickle.

I've kind of missed out details of the Easter Weekend here, but let me just say it was chilled.  The best part was spending the day with Matt & Vics in the Underburg.  I drove out there to meet them on the Saturday morning.  We had a nice big breakfast in the sun and then went tubing down the river.  After what felt like 2 hours of tubing Matt and I were insistent that the river had to pass a road at some point, and when it did, we'd stop and get out.  Then we'd leave the tubes there, walk home, and come back to fetch them in the car.  Well, as it started getting dark we began to doubt ourselves (just a little), but being the men that we are, we didn't show any sign of weakness.  It's known fact that boys don't know when to quit (quitters quit. Winners never quit.  We weren't gonna quit.  I'd rather eat my own hand).  We were feeling particularly boyish.  Why think about the consequences, that's what women are for, we were thinking about the enjoyment of the moment.  Eventually, after seeing no road and the river was getting ominously faster and deeper, we gave in to Vics's complaints of cold and had-enoughness and decided we had to stop before we became completely cut-off from civilisation.  When we did get out, we had no idea where we were, but with it getting darker and darker at a rapid rate it was no use waiting around - so we picked a direction and started walking.  Matt was our fearless leader, leading us through thickets of soft grass and fences of barbed and electric wire that wasn't actually on.  We had now resigned ourselves to a not-so-fun end to a fun day.  A long, arduous walk home, in the dark, with wet clothes and carrying a tube of plastic filled with air that was becoming surprisingly burdensome for such a light object.  But, low and behold, we weren't so far away after all.  A few hundred metres and we were already recognising landmarks, another few hundred and we were starting to see bits of the houses and cabins around our campsite.  I felt relieved.  But also extremely disappointed.  I had really had my hopes up for a rugged adventure with some fantastic tale wound up in it.  I wanted a really good story to tell (i hope this has been at least a decent story).  So we ended up heading into camp before it had even got dark for some delicious veggies courtesy of Vics and braaivleis courtesy of Matt.  While i sat and did nothing but talk.  It was such a great day.  I had bacon this morning and the smell immediately had me feeling sentimental about that day - and it's only a week ago.  Thanks Matty and Vics!

So ja, let's end it there.

A happy week to you all,

My car is in the process of being fixed after more and more things have been going wrong with it, so hopefully i'll be up soon to fetch it and see a whole bunch of you.

Love,
Jamo