Warm n Fuzzy

Today I received a "Warm n Fuzzy" card.

Let me elaborate...

It's a tradition to have the Papua New Guinea group write nice things on "Warm n Fuzzy" cards to their fellow group members. Now, as I was unable to go on the trip this year, I did not expect a "Warm n Fuzzy" but today I was touched to receive one in the mail (posted by Johanna, one of the group who went for one week instead of two - she returned last Saturday, the rest will be coming back this week). I was moved that they thought of me, despite the excitement of being in PNG and all the extraordinary things they were seeing and doing every day. I can't express enough how awesome it was to get it. They said the sweetest things - although a "warm n fuzzy" card by its very definition is SUPPOSED to make you feel good about yourself... hehehe... could be they were holding back the things they really wanted to say ;) - and some of the messages had me crying a bit (yes yes, I'm sentimental, a soft touch and all that).


Anyway, it looks like the group is having an amazing time (have a look at Johanna's pics if you don't believe me - you'll be able to see em on her blog soon!). I was devastated not to have been able to go this year but just knowing that it's been going so well, knowing that they're all having a good time and that an elementary school is being built in a place that desperately needs it, is more than enough to make me proud to have had some small role in the planning and execution of this project.

The beads are omiyage from Johanna

Anyway, to the ladies who returned last week, and to the rest of the group who will be returning this weekend, arigatou gozaimashita!! I'll treasure this forever and thank you for thinking of me!! You certainly brightened up this cold and snowy day for me!

Love ya all!!

Recent pics

The Little Flowers who knew they could!

A snow-covered tree in Kamo
More Winter Trees in Kamo

Sunset

Graduation Day
CENSORED BY THE PTB!!

Deccy and Pam's farewell

Getting Drunk at Chez Natasha's

Lead Cast Members - Final Performance

Elephants - Final Performance

Joycie's Sexy Silhoutte

It just never ends....

Howzit people?!! So... news... I have to move AGAIN! The news (which I got yesterday) simply devastated me as you can imagine. I really grew to love Niitsu, the city, my school, my flat... and I was enjoying my life here and now this. The thought of moving again exhausts me... packing up my belongings, carting them BACK to Chuetsu (this time Sanjo or Tsubame), I may even get Nuria's job. The prospect of living in Nuria's flat is just weird to me - I would feel like a guest from the moment I moved in! I mean, it'll always be Nuria's place to me, if you all get what I'm saying?! If it was a stranger's place that would be okay, I could make it mine, but to move into a flat that I've been a guest at so many times in the past... that thought is just freaky!

Anyway, they couldn't tell me for sure yet! Oh well, never a dull moment, ne?! I'll have yet another first year to deal with... how long have I been here again?! Nearly two years?! Still feels like my first to me, so hey, this job NEVER gets old!! Oh GOD, changing my billing address again! Having another electricity company fracas like I've had every year for the past two years, until I finally manage to put the bill onto my bank account... groooannnnnn!! And the WORST thought of all, is having to get rid of everything in the flat I'm currently staying in!! Because I won't be replaced by a new ALT, everything in here MUST GO!! I can't move with all this stuff because the flat I'll be moving to will more than likely be furnished, so I suppose I'll be having a jumble sale! At least I know this stuff now! Last year I had a problem in Kamo when the school told me (the day after I'd moved the stuff I wanted to Niitsu) that my old flat had to be completely empty of everything except the things the school had provided!! Let that be a warning to you prefectural ALTs out there who have to move, your school may not tell you until it's too late, you have to get rid of everything that doesn't belong to the school (this is years and years of crap that former ALTs have accumulated!)! The task is a huge headache, so good luck with that!

Oooh and one more thing - they're going to hit you with a housecleaning bill! Mine was Y25 000 last year!!

Anyway, am not as devastated as I was last year (even though I like my current situation more than I did last year) because I've been hit with much worse (and tragic) news over the past week, so I know there are people out there with much bigger problems than me! My having to move is insignificant to all that! I've done this before and I know I can bloody well do it again! I just have to start packing earlier! Oooh and rent a truck this time, cos the wonderful people who helped me move last year (Mary, Nuria, Joyce and Pat) are leaving (well all cept Pat, but he'll have his own moving issues to deal with)... All I know is that it's going to be a lot to handle, emotionally... having to say goodbye to so many friends and having to move all at the same time! There's going to be an insane amount of crying, chest beatings and woe-is-me's!!

Daijou bu, ne?! Everything will be fine... I think... maybe... oh well, who knows!? Like I said, never a dull moment! It's like starting with a clean slate every year!

Excuse me? What?!

So there I was, reading a newspaper article about some astronomers being “awed” by a “milestone in cosmology”... and it occurred to me; I know NOTHING about Newtonian physics or Quantum physics!! Boy do I feel like an dolt!! The thought of the universe not BEING there before it was there is just too HUGE a concept for my meagre mind to grasp!! If it wasn’t there before it was there, what WAS there?! How could there simply be NOTHING?! Surely nothing had to consist of something? I don’t GET IT!!! It takes me back to the time when, between the ages of 3 and 12, I was often struck by the existential question; “If I wasn’t me, then who would I be?!!” (I was a deep kid... that’s probably why I sucked at netball) I can’t tell you how much that bugged me... because the thought of me being someone else was just BIZARRE... then I got too old to worry about the deeper meaning of life and why I existed as me instead of someone else and started concentrating on more important things like, “how do I get that cute boy down the road to notice me!”

Anyway, I digress as always, back to the subject at hand... the universe and all that! How do we know it wasn’t just always THERE?! When I was about 13 a friend and I were stargazing at a braai (bbq) and she asked me (I was never lucky enough to stargaze with a boy... oh no, not I - if that had been the case the universe would have been the furthest thing from my mind) what I thought was out there, like, beyond the stars!! I gave this question some serious thought (secretly impressed that I was involved in such a weighty discussion with a slightly older, definitely cooler, chick!) before, striving to be casual, I said, “Heaven?” Okay, stupid answer, so much for sophistication! And she went, okay heaven, so what about beyond heaven... uh... I admit I was stumped... I mean how the f*ck did I know, for God’s sake?! I was just 13… I didn’t think about stuff like that when I had stupid pimples sprouting and my hair never did what I wanted it to and my body was all weird... who gave a toss what was out there beyond heaven and that?! I think I must’ve muttered something like “I dunno, more stars and planets and stuff?” But then she said something that had me totally flummoxed and nearly did my head in… She talked about the universe being infinite, stretching on forever and ever (amen!)... “Just imagine that, Tessa!” Aaarghhhhhhhhhh!!

Forever and ever... and ever and ever...

I felt small, insignificant, humbled... like I didn’t feel that way everyday in the hell that was my High School life (no middle school in SA), she had to go and make it worse!!! I still struggle with the concept of infinity… some things are just too enormous for the ordinary human mind to grasp. Okay too enormous for MY ordinary human mind to grasp... I’m sure the rest of you will be thinking “What the HELL is she on about?! Everybody knows that the universe grew to astounding proportions in less than the blink of an eye. In the trillionth of a second after the big bang, the universe expanded from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space and at the same time, the seeds were planted for the formation of stars, galaxies, planets and every other object in the universe. Stupid COW!” Thanks guys... lord it over me, I’m dumb as a post!!

Okay, I don’t even know what the point of today’s entry is, except that I’m a bit bored right now. No excuse, since I started writing this at about 3 in the morning, when I should’ve been in bed like the rest of the world (well, like everybody except my upstairs neighbour – who has the terrible habit of moving heavy furniture around at about 2 in the morning! Lord knows what he’s doing!!). I couldn’t sleep... but the mere thought of quantum physics, space time continuums (like a LOT of other people my age I first heard that particular phrase in Back to the Future movies! I always felt so cool saying it “space time continuums, space time continuums”, it just ROLLS off the tongue doesn’t it?!) and the like, soon had me snoozing contentedly on m’sofa... so I had to finish this pointless entry this morning, at school! YAY, something to DO!!

Anyway, no need to read this (although if you’ve reached this point, then I’m afraid it’s too late, you’ve read it already!)... It was just the ramblings of an overtired mind.

So... I suppose that in essence it boils down to this; like most people and creatures in this world, the universe was created with a "bang" (why call it a bang, anyway!? Why not an explosion?! Doesn't have the same alliterative appeal, I know... but it would not have spawned as many dirty jokes!) ! Talk about your humble beginnings...

Cast and crew before Sado Perfomance 

Cast and crew after the Sado Performance 

CHOKE ON THIS OZ!!!

Okay so nobody will care about this post, but I have to write it!! Yeah, I was gonna go all predictable and write about Sado and how great that was!! But hell THIS IS BETTER!! MUCH MUCH BETTER!!! Okay, so to those of you who just don't get the sport!! Too bad, you're losing OUT on some good shit... Try to read this though, it has action, intrigue, drama, upsets, thrills and spills!! Not to mention an all-important twist!!!

Anyway so this weekend Australia and South Africa met in the deciding match of a 5 match one day International tournament at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg - South Africa!! Australia... SMASHED the world record to set the highest run score in the history of the one day game (groooaaan!!), I got home from Sado, checked the match update, saw that we would be chasing 434 and just about died a thousand deaths!! My thoughts: NO WAY IN HELL ARE WE GOING TO BEAT THAT!!

But this is South Africa vs Australia... anything can happen! For some reason these two teams bring out the best (AND worst) in each other!! That JERK, Shane Warne, predictably slammed the South African team before the match, calling the current squad the weakest in history (okay so we lost... BADLY in Australia) and went on in his usual arrogant manner about how we couldn't beat the all powerful Aussies, etc etc and after their AMAZING record-breaking performance before lunch on Sunday, it looked like he would be right!! FOR GOD'S SAKE - we know how insufferable they are when they're right!! I mean they broke a ten year old record and we would have to break the record they had just set to win the game. Their outstanding performance shocked and silenced the 32 000 South African supporters in the stadium! Gosh, I know how every spectator must have felt by lunchtime, I've occasionally felt the same way myself over the years when watching SA play! That hollow, let-down, OH GOD NOT AGAIN, feeling we get when our team does something incredibly horrendous, or even worse, when we are just simply OUTPLAYED! Worse, OUTPLAYED BY OUR CRICKETING NEMESIS - AUSTRALIA - against whom we have the ignominious reputation of being CHOKERS!!

Halfway through the day, South Africa was apparently reduced to a virtual laughing stock!! The runs just kept being scored and our bowlers could do nothing much to stop it! It was humiliation vs Australia at its absolute worst!! Every South African cricket supporter's WORST nightmare come true! I can't imagine what captain Graeme Smith told the boys in the locker room, they must've been totally despondent! But then, they went out to chase that huge mountain of runs and something magical happened... I would have given my eyeteeth and left arm to see it!!

As one newspaper put it: "Australia had become the first team to score over 400 runs in limited overs cricket, easily surpassing the previous record of 398-5 scored by Sri Lanka against Kenya 10 years ago.
The record did not last for very long."

The Formidable Aussies!!

Even more simply put - we SLAUGHTERED THEM!!! We lost Boeta Dippenaar pretty cheaply and I know if I'd been watching I would have been squirming uncomfortably waiting for the batting order to collapse (yet again!)... but Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs found their BMTs (FINALLY) and put on one HELL of a show! I get a shiver just thinking about it, it must have been a thing of beauty to watch!! As one paper put it (and this is a brilliant quote about the captain's performance): "And so Smith took it upon himself to deliver, responding to his team's indignity with a brutal innings laced with fury."
Gibbs and Smith now hold the record for the highest partnership by a South African pair against Australia, scoring 187 runs. This was also the highest first innings score and the highest second innings score in one-day cricket history, and it was the highest run-chase in one-day cricket history.

Captain Graeme Smith & Herschelle the hero - 175 runs!!!

In a show of patriotism, Gibbs kisses the flag on his helmet after scoring his century

I can imagine how the crowd in the stadium and the people watching at home must have felt witnessing that match... watching it turn around for South Africa, being in despair for the first half of the match and having it turn into tentative hope and then explosive euphoria as Herschelle and Graeme batted their way into the record books! And then as Mark steadied the innings after we lost Herschelle and Graeme... I can imagine the hearts in the throats as Makhaya Ntini (our last batsman in) scrambled for a single to put the better batsman, Mark, on strike... and then watching Mark score those winning runs, I would have been screaming and crying at the same time! It was reportedly a day grown men wept with joy!! I can certainly understand that! I wouldn't have budged from the telly at all while that drama unfolded!!

When we win & When we lose
For it to come down to the last over of the match... 7 runs off 6 balls!! No batsmen left and then scoring the winning runs off of the second last ball of the match!! It rarely comes that close! But when it does, it's the most thrilling, amazing thing!! You know,
you're either going to be screaming in the streets in victory or slumped in your chair in dazed, defeated disbelief!! I've seen matches that close before (usually against Australia) and I've experienced both the jubilation and the despair! Either way, in that moment, as the bowler runs up and releases that ball, you hold your breath and pray... if you're supporting the bowling side (in this case the Aussies) you're PRAYING that they get that last batsman out, or restrict him to no run... please dear LORD don't let him hit that ball! If you're on the batting side, you're begging God for a hit, a hit, any hit, please God over the fielder's head, into the outfield! We just need ONE MORE RUN TO WIN!!! JUST ONE MORE!! So let him get it, let him hit that ball into no-man's land, or over the top for four or six! Anything, just DON'T LET HIM GET OUT!!! God, how I LOVE this game! Shosholoza and all that, ne?!!!

Mark scores the winning runs
Mark and Makhaya celebrate

















When I think of the memorable matches we've won and lost vs Australia (some of best matches I've ever seen), I am astounded by how consistently these two teams deliver outstanding entertainment when they are competing against one another!! That AMAZING victory in Sydney more than ten years ago!! The agonising draw that put us OUT of the world cup in 1999 (That one had me wearing black for a week!! I cried BUCKETS after we came so close)... My favourite quote of the day has to be this one: "Seven years ago, in the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup, South Africa and Australia contested what has widely come to be regarded as the definitive one-day international - a match that built to a pulsating finale in which South Africa threw away their place in the World Cup final with what also came to be regarded as the definitive one-day choke. Today, however, South Africa can be called chokers no longer, after burying the ghosts of 1999 with victory in a match even more extraordinary and nail-shredding than its illustrious forebear."

Gavin Hood (Tsotsi director) brings his Oscar out to the watch the match (go figure)

Aaaah Australia, how humbling this must be!

Yesterday's match has already achieved the legendary status of being "simply the greatest match ever played"! Sighhhhhhhh!!! And I missed it :( Guys, I can't emphasise enough, how HUGE this is!! It's the greatest moment EVER in One Day cricket history and the moment belongs to US!!! And beating Australia in the process makes it even sweeter! Giddygiddygiddy!! After the shite run of national sporting results we've had recently (cricket included), this is (according to newspaper reports and just what I know about my home land) going to create as big a frenzy as the SA World Cup Rugby victory in 1995! The same upswelling of national pride - and coming so soon after Tsotsi's success, I can well imagine the ebullience this has resulted in!! I hate missing out on moments like these!

The headlines screamed it best today (certainly a reflection of public sentiment!! I can imagine everyone still being on a total high after witnessing a game like that - green with envy here)...

438/9 CHOKE ON THAT AUSSIES!!!! (from the Star in Johannesburg)

A funnier headline (probably in reference to Gibbs' take-no-prisoners attitude) : "Jou ma se (your mother's) 434 ... we'll just score even more."
Herschelle and Makhaya's victory lap! The boys are BACK!!!!

Yeah... cricket... I don't like it man... I LOVE IT!!!

Some weighty matters

It's been a busy time recently, what with a performance every weekend and planning the PNG trip during the week, I feel run ragged... nevermind, I'll miss it all once it's over! The PNG group leaves on the 18th, then huge sigh of relief! I can't believe how much work it entails!

Anyway all that aside... I hope everybody's been chipper and all that lately!?! It's been quiet at school, cos of exams and what-nots! Soon the kids will be on Spring Break and then we'll be getting new first graders to torment (yayyyyy!)...

Ooohhhhh Spring is in the air!! Am so happy!!! I can feel it getting warmer, I can't tell you how excited I am by this, how nice it will be to wear less layers (uh after losing a few layers of blubber of course)... I comfort ate during winter, cos it was so bloody cold, so now I suppose I have to diet, so's I can fit back into my cute clothes!! And I'll finally get to wear those dresses I bought when I was back home (damn, I hope they still fit?!!!) and those cute little tops... oh man, if only I could get rid of the butt and the thighs... have to formulate a POA... I'll walk and cycle more now that it's getting warmer, hopefully I'll eat less (well cept when I have pms... it's not right to starve yourself when you're feeling homicidal and suicidal all at the same time! That extra chocolate is ALL that keeps you from plunging off the edge!)... man it's difficult thinking about eating properly! It means I have to cook... I HATE cooking! I mean, I can do it, and do it quite well if I have to... but it's really NOT my fave pastime. I'm that girl who prefers toast to whipping up decent fare. Simone's always going all mother hen on me "You can't eat toast and cheese ALL the time, that's not real food!" Yeah yeah...

If we were further into the future, we'd probably be able to walk into some box type thing, punch in the desired body type and emerge as curvy or svelte as we want! Think about it, the machines would be as prevalent as print club booths, a couple in any mall or on street corners next to photo booths... how nice it would be to change our body, hair, make up at the push of a button... sighhhhhhhh!

I suppose I could try jogging, but I have a stupid dodgy knee - a direct result of a misguided youthful foray into jogging! Turns out jogging is not for me (don't see the logic in running when you're not heading anywhere in specific), then there's the gym... it's REALLY far from where I live (honestly), the MacDonalds' is closer (sighhhhh)... the one form of exercise I TRULY enjoy is swimming, anything to do with water, I love it! I think I'll find a swimming pool - yeah that will be my exercise of choice!! I also enjoy dancing... I wouldn't mind dance classes (although the knee would have to be strapped), Simone tried to get me involved in the ballet class she attends, but honestly, I went to one of the classes and the warm-up alone scared the bejesus out of me!! I just don't BEND that way!! OUCH! Some nice latin stuff would be lovely!!

As soon as I finish my current stash of choccies, I will turn over a new leaf and eat healthier stuff and exercise more!! It's bloody ridiculous how much weight I've gained in this Land of the Skinny People!!

Still, it's Spring... sighhh... I'm starting to think that maybe winter is better!! Easier to hide the extra weight under tons of layers!!

Pix from the last 2 perf w/ends

1. The "g'morning board"

2. Deccy san

3. Pamela showing off some cleavage

4. Ashleigh, Siobhan and Joycie

5. Peter and Joyce

6. Joyce, Jun and Kaori (+ baby)

7. Joyce whipping Karl's butt!

8. Tamara, Justine and Kat

9. Chigusa - Fumie's understudy

10. Will, looking a tad dishevilled

11. The elephants have a new recruit!!

12. James bein' rude!

13. Joyce n me

14. Lance harassing James

15. Sam and Siobhan

16. Lopaka

17. Brooke and Dan getting it on...

18. Will doing unspeakable things with an elephant trunk!!

19. Mary's transformation into an elephant!

20. Fumie and me

21. Pat chilling out!

22. Tomo-kun (Donald Duck's grandmum?!)

22. Joyce and Simone looking all hardcore

23. Lopaka and Simone looking even MORE hardcore!

24. Simone and me

25. James W with my bra wrapped around his head!

26. c'est moi (with a duck on m'head!)

27. Kat... uh - looking rosy cheeked and lovely as an English Rose

28. us

29. The production team