big bank holiday weekend coming up here, and all the londoners will be exiting the city en masse. hopefully not going here, where j and i are planning to go camping. also hoping the meteorologists in the uk are as historically misguided as usual, and the rain they’re predicting does not materialise. in any case, there’s plenty you can do holed up in a tent for three days… (board games! i mean board games!! get yer minds out of the gutterz)

we love tim wakefield. we love the knuckleball. “new yorker” calls it “vindication for an awkward art”.

they wanted to rescind this guy’s citizenship and couldn’t. so they did the next best thing and sent him to the states.

getting my digs in where i can: bush or chimp?

wanna know what’s really in those “classified government documents”? the memory hole de-digitises state documents, and rescues other information kept from public circulation.

hopefully getting married in south africa will not be as difficult as this

gas prices got you down? shop around. (personally, i know my mum would *love* this. she turns shopping for gas into an art form.)

interesting article on semiotics graduates

that should keep y’all reading, giggling and thinking through the long weekend. see you on the other side…

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okay, I admit, I’ve been terrible at updating lately, and consequently have probably managed to lose the few readers I garnered along the way. I’ll be better – promise.

Some random foolishness:

is this what the fucking presidential election of the united states has been reduced to?!?! fighting via google?!? it’s a sad state of affairs, my friend.

mugabe, grasping at straws, says they are being choked by vast amounts of grain, and archbishop desmond tutu is evil

I love gary trudeau. Lots of people don’t. But do people really think this has *anything* to do with Iraq?

ladies and gentlemen, stripping away your privacy has just become easier!

you now have to give a fingerprint in some stores to pay by credit card or cheque – one company making money off invasion of your bio-privacy: biopay

if he helps bring down bush, michael moore will become my new personal hero.

I haven’t said anything much about the abuse of iraqi prisoners, because frankly, i just don’t even know where to begin. however, as an aside: moblogging the war. susan sontag’s thoughts.

the weekend roundup:
blissfully (almost) unstructured. Friday night we just chilled at home, ordered in
takeaway (rare treat!) and played board games (yep, we’re geeky like that.) Saturday, for some reason, my alarm went off at 6:30, and i woke up ready to getgoing to work, only to realise it was Saturday and I had nothing to do. I love when that happens! Went back to sleep, went to the gym late, and then had ppl over for dinner, stayed up drinking and talking til 4. Sunday was rock climbing (a late start, so we didn’t get there til 12:30) – sooo satisfying. I really pushed myself, and felt comfortable on the wall. Had a few pints on the way home, then just had a lazy dinner and watched bad telly. could you ask for anything more?

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Congratulations to all my gay friends back home! For that matter, congratulations to everyone. Gay marriage isn’t just a victory for gays – it’s a victory for civil rights groups everywhere. As the article puts it, somewhere there is a child watching right now… and this will change his or her life.

The analysis and endless legal battles will certainly continue tomorrow. But today, it’s all about the joy and beauty of people falling in love, getting married, and living happily ever after.

For today, the fairytale belongs to everyone.

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very busy weekend ’twas!

friday night was jonno’s birthday drinks, which involved mass quantities of beer, far-too-animated bullshit debate, and the inevitable stumble home which ensued.

saturday, the weather was glorious, so we headed to the park, where kerryn taught me to throw a curve pitch (he said i had a “natural action”, and having been groomed for the minor leagues, he should know). admire my mechanics below:

there was a whole lot of ball huntin’ in the grass (*i* didn’t lose it!), running around after escapee wild throws (i take credit for only a few), and some very dirty feet. then we played a knucklebiting game of scrabble, ate strawberries, and toasted ourselves to a light sunburn.

then saturday night, we went to see legend bad religion play at the astoria. they fuckin’ rocked. blew the house away (not to mention the satisfactorily righteous thrashing of the current political shenanigans or bush & co., which warmed the cockles of my heart). there were, of course, the obligatory torturous opening bands they like to subject you to once you are trapped and cannot leave, but luckily, it was more than worth the wait. jonno and kerryn moshed till they could mosh no more (i just jumped around a whole lot), and left the altar or their heros simultaneously awestruck and thoroughly gratified.

sunday morning and afternoon were spent rock climbing. i invested in a proper pair of climbing shoes, and climbed till my hands and arms were jellied. i want to buy a nice harness next, but at least now, i no longer have to worry about getting a fungal infection from the hired shoes (climbing shoes are generally worn sans sox, and being made of leather and gummy soles, cannot be laundered. you can only imagine how manky they get…)

sunday evening we went grocery shopping (woo hoo! there is only so much pasta one person can eat in a week) and then popped in to the barbeque next door, before retiring to watch “25th hour”.

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busy weekend.

friday night, impromptu drinks with the saffas at a local tooting pub, where there was too much vodka and not enough food to be had.

saturday, were meant to be painting my room at my old flat, but by the time we roused ourselves, went to the gym (the best cure for a hangover), went shopping for paint, went shopping for carrot cake ingredients, and got back to the flat, next doors braai (bbq) was in full swing so we spent the evening gorging ourselves on mountains of meat, drinking tons of beer, and listening to heavy metal.

sunday was a tiring day. got up and went to the old flat, and spent 9 hours trying to paint white over pink. three bits of hard won knowledge to impart:

1. you get what you pay for when buying paint
2. no matter what the label says, white covers *nothing* in one coat, except perhaps white
3. never paint anything you don’t own outright

after a long hard day of manual labour, came home and cooked dinner, and shredded my knuckles making a carrot cake for…

monday, jonno’s 27th bday (yup, you read that number right…)

champagne and cake for breakfast, followed by a lovely trip to greenwich for some sun and lunch, and a movie and more cake in the evening. all in all, not a bad way to spend your birthday…

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ahhh, the end of a three day weekend.

friday night was blah. jonno had a work gig, and everyone else was gone for the weekend, so i went to the gym, then vegged at home and just lay like broccoli.

saturday was chilled – breakfast in bed, did a few errands (took the ring in to be re-sized) wandered around the south bank, walked across to embankment, bought some saffa goodies and a wallet for j, headed up to covent garden and had a few beers, bought donnie darko dvd, and came home and watched movies.

sunday was a gloriously sunny day, so kerryn came over and cooked breakfast (two days in a row i had men making me breakfast! a girl could get used to that!) and then we picked up tonya and chris and headed to kent for some outdoor rock climbing. took ages to find the place (we took a brief detour through the local production of robin hood!), but we finally stumbled into it, had a picnic lunch and after much dithering about, and setting up, re-setting up…we finally climbed some frikken rocks! amazing rush, particularly outdoors, where if you fall or slamm into the wall, the stakes are just a teensy bit higher. i left some skin on the rocks, and the rocks left some imprints on my skin. after a nice long day in the sun, we headed home, and watched another dvd.

monday was pissing rain. went to the gym, went to my old flat and cleared out some more stuff. went shopping and bought some cake ingredients, came home and baked a big ole chocolate cake. mmmm.

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