I wanna hold Your hand...

I don't usually post lyrics on my blog, but i have had the two songs from the HLP slideshow that was shown at church in my head pretty much all week, and the amazingness of the words keeps bringing me revelation after revelation, so i wanted to share

The first one is from a Tree63 song called Be All End All from their album "The life and times of absolute truth"

Be All End All
Start me finish me

I'm absolutly in pursuit
Of something absolutly true
And all around has come undone: You're the only one

... that phrase "i'm absolutely in pursuit of something absolutely true" has reminded me that no matter what is happening in my life at any point, i am hoping in one constant and absolutely true thing - God.

The second one is a song by Starfield entitled The Hand that Holds the World
I've just added the verses that spoke to me the most, but the whole song is basically great :)

No greater joy
Is there than this
To know for what
We're meant to live

I want to stand before the King
Join in the song that heaven sings
I want to hold the hand that holds the world

Your daughters sing
Your sons rejoice
They gather here before Your throne

You are, You are
The author of creation
We are, the chrildren of your heart

God is just the most amazing teacher... i am blown away by an increased revelation of God's gentleness... He cares enough to hold us in His hand when we could flit past His pinky like a speck of pollen... we are beyond tiny compared to Him, but He holds us in His hand... by choice.

p.s i know the pic isn't exactly of holding hands, but it's a beautiful example of gentleness and basically i just thought that it was a ridiculously delightful pic! :)

The Dotty Ladybug

So... today officially marks the month anniversary of my last blog post. This is SHOCKING! And for all you regular blog checkers (Fish i know you're out there) i appologise for the unrewarded hits to this little slice of cyberspace (i especially apologise to D who is SO wonderfully faithful with her blog... check it out here).

What has inspired this (eventual) blog post was my observation of two very dear little ladybugs on the Drostdy lawns on Friday morning... the more i watched them the more i felt deliciously inspired to write a random story about a ladybug named Minnie... then i lost the plot of my story but decided that it was still high time that i wrote a blog post :)

Some funny things that I have heard this week thus far (and it's only Monday)

Fish sent me an msn today saying "can you hear the musical sounding music?"

My sister e-mailed me (a very happy thing to recieve) and was talking about someone being on fire for God (i often say 'sold out for God') but my sister typed it as 'souled out'... it was so delightful i laughed till my neighbours must have thought i'd gone mad.

Yesterday the girl who is going to be Mary in the Nativity play at church was being told by Charlie that she was going to play the role of Mary, and her response was "I'm going to be a fairy?" hehe... gotta love kids! :D

I'm starting to feel that this post is irredeemable as anything except twaddle, but will publish it for your amusement (hopefully). I hope that the week ahead goes super well for all and that amongst all the crazy work which seems to be looming, there is the time and space to be refreshed, to feel loved and to love :)

God Bless :)

This pic is a monument to the ladybug Minnie whose tale remains untold... and plus it reminded me SO much of myself when i was little because for dress up parties i always used to go as a ladybug and my sister as a donkey... the photos are quite something to see! (plus i was also blond when i was little... just a(nother) random fact... hehe)

Very Punny

I was doing one of my cartoon site checks and found some very punny ones that I felt like sharing

this one is specially for Derralyn 'cause of how much she hates the movie 'Snakes on a Plane"



















These Madam & Eve one's are deliciously amusing, although some of them are a little old in terms of context:
(if you can't read the strip cartoons so well then just click on them and they will come up bigger in a separate window)

i laughed outloud for a long time when i read this one









this one is so relevant to the journ course that I'm doing at the moment about Semiotics (part of which involves studying the meanings and connotations of words)









this one is just a classic :D

City of Gold

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee everybody i'm off to this wonderful city to spend some time with my fam, do some work and CHILL! :D Hope u all have a good vac... see you in ten days.

Bearded Envy

This weekend I had a number of conversations about the unusual topic of facial hair.






One of these conversations concluded with the unanimous feminine agreement that the yetti/lion look that is sometimes sported by men is basically just gross.

The other conversation, however, was focused on two guys trying to convince myself and the lovely Hannah that facial hair (of the bearded/moustache variety) is very very cool and we should aspire to grow some of our own. Despite valient efforts to do so, we gracefully gave up and accepted our un-bearded/beardable state... without too much convincing.

So beards are obviously God-given... he made the men-folk like that, but then he also inspired someone to invent that wonderful thing called a RAZOR.. hehe :)

Gareth (the pastor at my church) even made a joke about shaving in the morning service this week and said he'd had to shave with a knife that morning because airlines had lost their luggage... it was pretty funny and i was sufficiently amused for the morning :D

I tried to find some cool quotations about beards but alas there is an alarming scarcity of such delights and all the one's I found were ridiculously sexist... so instead I found this wonderful picture which jsut proves that when they set their minds to it, nobody can beat the Irish at doing things to the max!

Expectant

I read an incredible book in the vac called Red Moon Rising - a book which seriously changed my life and opened my eyes and my heart to the power of prayer... especially in light of the prayer movement going through church, i highly recommend it. There was one part of the journey of the movement which the author describes in a chapter entitled "Taking Jericho" which stands out HUGELY for me in my understanding of stepping into God's presence and our fundamental relationship with Him:

"I want to be different before I do anything different. So I'm waiting for God, and God is waiting for me to see if I am really waiting for Him, and not just wanting things from Him"

i'm not even going to elaborate on that, because i think it's so powerful on it's own (so is this pic of waiting which i found) just to say... God does make us desperate for His presence and we can ache to be in a deep place with Him, not because He's mean or wants to tease us, but because He knows that He's worth it, and He wants us to know that too.

Encourage, v. To inspire with courage sufficient for any undertaking; to embolden, make confident.

In the past few days I have encountered oodles of people who are feeling sad, lonely, bleak, debreaked (depressed and bleak... a word that Becs and I made up), tired (in lots of different ways), sick and discouraged. So... this post is an attempt to shine some of God's awesome hope for you and to (hopefully) remind you that how life is now is not how it's always going to be... God's strength is more than enough for us to get through the hard times :) As ever, i am putting these things in a list:

Things of hope, joy and promise:

1. It's no coincidence that Jasmine season is at this time of the year when life seems pretty tough for most people because God wants to fill the air aound us with sweet aromas that remind us of His love... NO MATTER WHAT... the Jasmine doesn't disappear just coz we having an icky day... and neither does God's love.

2. God knows how we feel... the weather's kind of been reflecting this lately with all the rain me thinks... God knows and whether we believe it or not, He feels it with us.

3. God is a God of HOPE and not despair
"Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you" Zech 9:12

4. The crystals in my room are still making rainbows and ANYONE is welcome to come and chill with the explosion of rainbows anytime :) (they usually last from about 8-11:30am)

5. Cadbury's, Nestle and Beacon have not stopped producing chocolate... consume!

6. There are no exams this term

7. Spring is on it's way... the Oak trees are showing the new seaon in their awesome lime green leaves... maybe your new season of hope is just one day away

8. There's is someone praying for you... even if you don't know who or where in the world they are... God's making sure of it

9. The pink fluffly joke is still funny... so is the Batman joke and the Pokemon joke:
(the pink fluffy joke has to be told live) but here are the other two:

What do you call Batman and Robin after they were driven over by a car?
Flatman and Ribbon

How do you get Picachu (sp?) on a bus?
Poke-him-on

hehehe :D

10. God PROMISES "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you" Joshua 1:5(b)

much luv :)

I love technology

Sometimes living so far away from home (950kms) i feel like i lose touch with some of the stuff that goes on with my family... smses like the ones i have received this week, however, put me right back there in the midst of the madness that is the Berry family:

the first one i got from my dad earlier this week:

"Lindz mum has shown me how to use predictive text smart hey love dad"

(it still makes me laugh every time i read it) but it is an improvement on his smsing technique because in the past he would just leave out approximately every second vowel and then deciphering the smses would be a guessing game of the English language... now he just leaves out punctuation :p

then i got another sms from my mom this morning, part of which read:

"I am sitting here with 90 grade ones watching a pooh movie - exciting stuff"

(my mom is a grade one teacher and she usually has a class of about 30 kids... but today the other two grade one teachers were both absent)

The beauty of smses is that they can keep you in touch with the little things, which are sometimes the things which matter the most!

:D i love the madness of life and the greatness of my family :D

Today

Things i like today

1. Hope
2. Jasmine
3. Castles
4. Friends who show you these things :)

I just have to brag...

Ok, yesterday was just proof that God is truly a Dad who wants us, His children, to have EVERYTHING!!! He's all about blessing us as much as He can... yesterday was a fantastic example of this. I seriously had one of the best days EVER! I'm working at 702 at the moment... will be till next Wednesday, and yesterday I got to go to court to cover a hectic drug bust by the Scorpions which was super interesting, then... (huuuuuuuuuuge drum roll)... i got to see the Soccer World Cup trophy IN REAL LIFE... no kidding, it was literally 5m in front of me at some fancy schmancy 702 function ... and there were lots of famous ppl there and stuff... it was MUCH funness! Really, the statue is amazing to see... it's very very shiny :) Also, i got to drive a company car... it was a soopa cool black Toyota RunX... with power steering... twas great! Ok... brag session ova... hope all are well and thriving :D

The Bald Prima Donna

I am starting to lose my hair... this is a sure sign that I need to go home very soon.

Other signs of this include:
1. irrational grouchiness
2. empty corridors in res
3. i keep checking my plane ticket/transport reference number every 5 minutes
4. i have no novels that have nothing to do with my academic subjects in my room and this is turning my brain into a mixture of su doku and tv mush
5. i keep thinking I can smell hotdogs (this is relevant to nothing in particular except insanity)
6. exams have fried my brain and i am no longer able to hold an intelligible conversation... everything i say seems to consist of 'ja' or 'no' or a nervous giggle
7. depressing dining hall population statistics
8. frequent blog checks of blogs that haven't been updated in weeks
9. everything i write these days seems to have reduced itself into a list
10. my rooibos tea is finished... all i have is caffine... maybe that's what's putting me on edge
11. my milk is finished

6:34 PM - Amendment
ok, i was in a kinda grumpy mood when i first published this post and have since been reminded of some pretty cool things about being an exam straggler in res

1. you get to spend oodles of time in the dining hall just chilling with great people... especially spiritual fam like tonight :)
2. you get to play your music really really loud and no-one comes to complain
3. i can take time to pack up my room
4. i actually got to watch something on tv today... and i had free choice of what to watch
5. there's a definite and pretty cool spirit of comraderie that all the remaining examinees have... even with people you barely speak to the rest of the semester
6. lots of my great friends are still here and i get to see some of them evey day
7. you can eat 4 pieces of toast in a sitting and no-one judges you
8. more exam treats since eveyone is gone
9. God's love is with me 24-7/365

The Man in my Life

Today is Father's Day... what a great opportunity to honour this wonderful man who i am very grateful for and whom i love SO much... this is my dad and just some of the things i love and appreciate about him are; that he's a survivor, his sense of humour, lemon meruinge pie, My Fair Lady, his love for people, his abililty to enjoy childlike delights, honesty, the sisters I have because of him, his addiction to shopping for specials (in the world of Dennis, if something is on special you must buy at LEAST five items of that thing) and his wonderful and infectious laugh.

Ok, this can't get too soppy... so i'll leave it at this:

Dennis Ogilvie Berry... i love you and I'm hugely privileged to be your daughter!

"...parents are the pride of their children" Prov 17:6 (b)

In the Unexpected Places...

I wrote my South African Literature paper today (yesterday now) and despite my strong dislike for lots of the stuff produced by Douglas Livingstone as well as a great deal of scepticism regarding some of his misguided opinions about creation, there is one really great section in one of his poems that I really identify with and appreciate:

it's from the poem Crystallogenesis

"Life I know as
a boundless search for
things greater than
life to add to life."

cool hey :)

The Day of Youthfulness

I've been thinking a bit about the fact that it's Youth Day tomorrow and I keep having flashbacks of a school visit to the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto. One of the things that struck me the most about everything we saw was that all the children and young people in the pictures and stuff had given up their childhood to fight for a cause bigger than themselves. This is also kind of true for Christianity in that we give up ourselves for a cause far greater and worthier than ourselves... but beacuse of the GREATNESS of God and the way He made us, we can be these awesomely radical people living for God AND still have the space to be complete children! Talk about having your cake (with blue icing, silver balls and hundres and thousands) and eating it (without ANY cutlery or serviettes) hehe. So then... in light of the privilegedness (is that even a word?) of our situation, my challenge to you tomorrow is to do as many childish things as you possibly can... here are my suggestions:

• buy an icecream and eat it while sitting on the pavement
• have an afternoon nap
• hug recklessly
• climb a tree
• eat suckers
• colour something in (in something other than blue/black pen)
• tell someone your dad is Superman (not far wrong... He's actually much cooler)
• tell someone the pink fluffy joke (if you don't know the pink fluffy joke first go and buy your icecream then come and meet me on the pavement for a reckless hug and prepare yourself for GREAT corniness)
• eat fun cereal
• drink juice that is of a distinctly unatural shade of either red/green
• watch a cartoon movie
• avoid the bath
• drink milk and eat cookies
• entertain thoughts about the fascinating nature of ants
• stick your tounge out at someone

also... tomorrow is the Comrades... run Forest run!

Dancing in the Moonlight

It was a dark, stormy night... ok it wasn't actually... It was a cool midwinter evening and there was this funny twitching ninja-man who sent a rather random message to this other funny fish-girl who came to disturb another D-girl and Berry-girl to go in search of the moon. "To go in search of the moon?" you ask. Well it is at present a lovely phase of night-time when there is a full moon in our part of the world and, according to the twitching ninja-man, the moon was a particularly spectacular shade of RED this evening as it was rising in the sky.

Since a walk to the Drostdy lawns did not yield a sighting of any such red round thing in the sky (except for a few mistaken orangy lamps) the three brave adventurers: the daring D, the fearless Fishy and the brave Berry ventured out into the vast wilderness of the Bot gardens where, at the very top of the hill they were privileged to spend precious moments amongst the bats admiring the delightful artistry of their daddy, the King, who turned His red moon into a glowing golden yellow orb for the delight of his daughters :)

Who could ask for a better Monday evening than having a chance to dance in my soul under the moonlight of God :)

Jamming it up together...

One of the first things I remember about the beautiful Carla Brownrigg is her telling me that this picture reminds her of how God loves us and how it's a great pic to represent our relationship with him

so taking the idea from that... this is what worship felt like tonight

God is great beyond words :)

Interesting Forms of Procrastination

1. blogging
2. changing the colour of your blog (*cough*sturgeons*cough*)
3. trying to resurrect a wilting flower under the light of a desk-lamp
4. staring blankly at a computer screen whilst eating hot chocolate powder
5. spending an entire afternoon with very special friends eating pecan-nut pie and wafting in and out of stores such as PEP, the Second Hand shop and Mae's Fashions trying on ridiculous outfits and making shopkeepers tremble with our hysterical fits of laughter evey five minutes
6. downloading a new Internet explorer... for no apparent good reason
7. reading books that have nothing to do with subjects to be studied
8. su doku

feel free to add to these... i'm sure that by the 23rd a wierd and wonderfully impressive list will have developed :D

Cherry-Berries

A decidedly delicious childhood delight was munching bowls full of cherries and cream out in the garden with my sister. We would make a wonderful mess, have red-stained mouths and, to use one of my mom's favorite phrases, be as happy as crickets! (weird saying, i know... but it makes me laugh :D)

But why this random outpouring of my history with cherries? Well it stems from a highly startling conversation which I just had with two lovely people from my res in the dining hall during our delectable swot week brunch. It turns out that they are two young women who have NEVER EATEN CHERRIES!!!! I was seriously amazed and for a gobsmacked moment could say nothing! Then the funny part came where they asked me to explain what cherries taste like... i umed and aahed for a while and then lamely muttered something along the lines of "not as sweet as grapes...." what do you say!? it's like trying to describe the colour blue to someone who's blind!?

Also, more reasons for the cherriness of this post include much communication with the wonderful Leraine since she is now back from her stint as a bushbaby... Leraine calls me cherry berry and thus inspired the title of this post.

This is a pic of my afore mentioned berry partner in cherry-crime... my wonderful sister Kirsty, whom I am missing very very much at the moment and who is almost a super-cool qualified physiotherapist... she's even going to work at the Comrades this year and is the captain of the Wits physio strapping team (strapping is a hardcore skill) for the Comrades... yup folks, i am a super priveleged little sis to have this wonderful, godly, talented woman in my life!

ok... swot week has just about arrived and I am intending to do some SERIOUS work, but will definitely do some blogging for all you addicts out there! hehe :) Stay warm, hope you have a wonderful Sunday :D

Oh my word!

This is a VERY important post to inform everyone that Miss Leraine Wilkens has amazingly finally updated her blog for the first time since NOVEMBER last year!!!
This incredible event is worthy of a look all you munchkins... check it out here :)









Has anyone seen this lunatic? Fort England wants her back...
please dial 0800-D-I-E-S-E-L-S-M-O-M asap if found! :D

Courtship Shoe-mortship

After listening to Josh Harris' sermon entitled Courtship Schmoutship (click here for website link) and going to some of the Finding Love that Lasts seminar held by the church last Saturday I have had many thoughts and wonderful new revelations about the concept of courting and of the beauty of singleness.

However, while I was doing some random surfing on the deep well of waffle and some good stuff (eg. blogs) called the world wide web, I found this GREAT pic of something that is arbly (and yet so aptly) named a 'court shoe'.

I hosed myself when i saw it because my mind immediately started running in the 'court' as in 'courtship' direction. And since my (usually) trusty OED (Oxford English Dictionary Online) failed to provide me with a satisfactory reason for the naming of these types of shoes as 'court shoes', I have decided to make up my own meaning which is that they are ideal for any woman who is involved in a courting relationship.. here are my reasons why:

1. They are pretty and feminine and special, which should be a magnified feeling for women in this season of their life. (I say magnified because women should feel special and cherished all the time and regardless of their romantic circumstance, but will probably feel it to an augmented degree when courting)

2. They keep her feet on the ground, but because of the heel, she still gets to float in the clouds :)

3. They are pink (ok, so this isn't really a reason, but part of the reason I like them is because they are pink!)

4. They have sharp points at the front because a short sharp jab under the table has occasionally been found to be helpful in enhancing a man's social etiquette and tact.

Just to mention (in case you didn't already figure this out) all above comments regarding shoes were made in complete jest and leave much to be desired and corrected (bring on trip an d-ship! hehe) but it was a totally thrivable experience for me to write such nonsense! :D

To conclude with some more wise and amusing biped humour from Jack Handey...
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”

Word Drought

I have been mulling over what to post about for a while now and sadly, i am having a slight word drought. Not that I have nothing to say (as if! hehe) but just that I don't really know which bits to put down or how to put them down... I will try to do so soon though! For the moment i've decided to use someone else's words. This is one of my favorite poems in the whole wide world, and I've been meaning to post it for a while now, it's beautiful...

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things -
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced - fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Ode to Derralyn Claire Martin

There once was a girl called Derralyn

Who was as pretty as a fairytale heroine

Her eyes were like stars

And her ancestors from Mars1

But her heart was as big as a watermelon2

1. Mars because Matin is just the 'earthified' version of Martian

2. This is a VERY big compliment and has no bearing on the fruitiness of her mind (although we're not exactly denying that!) Watermelons are one of my top 2 fruits and watermelons are very beeeeeeeeg (this is what i am referring to with her heart :D)

Dez was my absolute psycho hero and partner in crime on Thurs night/Fri morning :D

Lots has happened since then, but I am too tired to function properly so i shall write a post about it all later (like tomorrow or something).

Just to mention that the revelation of the day is that according to aptitude tests my triplet (Becs and Dez) are professionaly suited to being either a businesswoman/wife (Becs) or... A MANIKIN DRESSER (Dez)!!! I guess even that could be adapted to old Martin Luther's saying, "A milkmaid [manikin dresser] can milk a cow [dress a manikin] to the glory of God" :D hehe.

p.s. some new quotations up... check them out here

Alphabet Soup

As a denial rection to the shambles of my life as a journalist right now, i am going to continue this theme of random, yet hopefully slightly entertaining, posts which i began yesterday...

When I was a wee one, i never seemed to be able to motivate myself to study for class spelling tests... it ticked my mother off to no end. Thankfully though, i've always been a beeeeeeeg fan of reading, and this has redeemed my spelling issues to some extent - apparently if you see words often enough something soaks in! There remain, however, some words that i just never seem to grasp grammatically, I was thinking about these in my Classics lecture this morning, besides taking YEARS to learn how to spell 'beautiful' and having to make up a rhyme to spell 'colour' (Colin Ollen Likes Olives Under Rain), these are the one's i've come up with:

tounge - should be tongue
prescence - presence
definately (my mom's personal pet peeve) - should be definitely
recieved... i never did get the exceptions to the rule! - should be received
prehaps - perhaps

incidently, to try and recover some dignity now that you all know that i'm a hopeless speller, i will share my all time favorite word fact:

the longest word in the English language is not, in fact, as some jokers would like to believe, smile (it starts with an 's' and then goes on for a mile *cringe*) It is (drumroll please)...

floccinaucinihilipilification

(and the crowd goes wild)

pronounced: flock-i-naw-see-ne-heely-peely-fication
and it means "The action or habit of estimating as worthless"

cool hey :)

I'm not laughing at you...

This morning has been a wonderfully amusing one... i've seen or heard or a bucketload full of things that have brought a smile to my face in a way that has made this random Monday morning very worthwhile! The pinacle of these amusing things happened on my way home from the journ dept a moment ago. Firstly i encounterd (and i mean encountered as in 'almost ridden over' kind of way) a man in a truck who was reversing down the wrong lane in Prince Alfred street.... once the whole possible-death thing was over, i laughed. Then whilst passing by one of the annex buildings before the philosophy dept i saw through the window (i always look through those windows... it's like getting to watch your very own human zoo everytime you go past... these people obviously don't believe in net curtains!) that someone had a stationary holder on their desk, but all that you could see in it was a toothbrush and toothpaste! The complete randomness of this on the desk of some (probably) aging academic made me hose myself all the way down to Allan Gray... talk about halitophobia (the fear of having bad breath) when you replace pencils with dental accessories. NOTE: After re-reading this I realise that it is probably not so funny and the amusingness of it is much more related to my mood than anything else.

Talking about dental accessories though, I was shouted at by my dentist this vac for my failure in having been brought up in a family of non-flossers. He is a dear aging Polish man who amuses me greatly (not intentionally though) and whose horror at my unflossed dentures (despite the fact that I've never had a filling) was so sincere and touching that it flung me into a momentary state of guilt and I went to purchase some of this floss stuff. Learning to use it however, has been a whole other DIY adventure... and not one that I shall ever submit my adoring public to!

Now it's time for lunch and then some of the profound wisdom of Gareth at SOAR, but for all those who I encounter for the rest of the day... you have been warned:

5:40 PM turns out that the halitophobia joke is on me... lunch today was SERIOUSLY pungently garlicy... so i had to run back to res before SOAR to...yup you guessed it...brush my teeth! *blush* hehe :D I guess the people who sat next to me at SOAR were grateful tho! :)

No Sacrifice

Jason Upton has an amazing new song called No Sacrifice and today the idea of this song has been running through my thoughts over and over. The essence of it is that compared to Jesus dying on the cross in a place of deepest human wickedness (of which we all had a part) anything that we have or will ever 'give up' for God is so insignificant in comparison that it doesn't deserve to be called a sacrifice. This is amazing to me because so often I make such a big deal about giving stuff up for God and I think its so hectic, but really I'm failing to see the big picture of the minisculeness of this compared to God's sacrifice! This ties in so much with so many of the lessons that I've been learning lately about God's wonderous love and grace. We were created by Him to be loved and He loves us SO much that any love we have for other people, and even loving God is just an overflow of His love... that's intense. So today I got a fresh revelation of the depth and awesomeness of what it means to be able to live for God.

"Your thoughts are higher than mine

Your words are deeper than mine

Your love is stronger than mine

This is no sacrifice

Here's my life"

Jason Upton - No Sacrifice

Slobberry

When I'm big and all growed up I want to be a land version of a beachbum who lives at Rebecca's house where I can watch any movie ever created, eat as much food as is humanly possible (including muchos chocolate) laugh until my belly aches and hug people to my heart's content.... aaah *sigh of deeep contentment* this weekend was wonderful! It was just so great to be surrounded by lovely friends at a house where a truly delightful family resides :) It was a time of much, much laughter and hapiness and there were many crazy photo moments... see pics for confirmation! I especially enjoyed being cozy around the fire, surrounded by a mocha creation from Becs' mom's amazing frothy machine... yummy. Now I have to go and do an English essay, study for some tests and work some kind of journalistic wonder by Friday... gtown madness begins again...

p.s. much to my delight the blogging bug has bitten again and resulted in several great new places to visit including (some of them even mention little ol' me!):
Becs: Beautiful Days
Derralyn: BeAnz
James: Calvin's Space

Rainbows and Renovations

Hi all :) I can't actually believe that today is only the week anniversary of being back in Gtown! So much has happened already that I feel like I've been maniacally busy for a month! hehe... but i promise i'm not about to dedicate an entire blog post to an insignificant subject like business. What I've really got on my mind at the moment are two things... rainbows and renovations. In the vac I went with my mom and sister to an oragnic fleamarket in Joburg. The name conjures up images of a fairy world of vegan hippies, but really it's a very wonderful place to visit every now and again, and not even all the stall owners look like hippies! hehe... but you do get things like avocado honey there (avocado because of the type of tree the bees polinate... it adds a very interesting flavour to the honey). You can also find one of my most favorite things in the world there... rainbow-makers. Well, that's what I call them... other people would probably call them glass crystals and my mom bought one for me. This little object, once hung in my res-room window, results in much joy, hope and hapiness as I get a daily reminder of the promises of God (like he gave Noah with the original rainbow) when my room becomes ablaze with hundereds of little rainbows from about 6:45 till 11 in the morning while the sun beams through my window (7:15 is definately the defining amazing moment). I can't even begin to explain how delightful it is to wake up to a room which is singing God's praise and glowing with colour! As Nats said when I showed her... "It's like Pollyanna!" :D I wish everyone who needs the equivalent of a God-hug should come and be in the place of hapiness that my room becomes for a few hours everyday... I feel so privileged!

And so how do renovations relate to this? Well, they don't really, except that that's kind of where my heart is at at the moment. But no matter if it's hurting one day or peaceful the next, the rainbows are a reminder of the hope that I live with in Jesus. I once went to a workshop on a camp called "Renovating the Heart" and basically that's what's happening.... a new house is being bulit in my heart, and it's going to be a mansion! As it says in 2 Chronicles 2:9 "...the temple I build must be large and magnificent" anything less is just not good enough... I can't wait! :D

So now, it's back to the world of academics... but not for long... there's a public holiday in 2 more sleeps! yay! And then it's off to Cathcart to spend sometime with the delightful Jearey family and some of my many wonderful friends.

Hot Air Ballooning Through Life

I wish this post could start of with some magical moment that happened on my way back home after a lecture this morning... something like me spotting a brightly coloured balloon caught on a bush outside the Hamilton Building and as I appraoch it floats up into the air and flies away, and then I have a terribly sentimental and nostalgic reverie about my childhood.
Alas, (well probably more to your relief) no such thing happened this morning, and I can actually start the REALITY aspect of my post with a super funny story that I was telling Fish about the other day which got me thinking about the balloon theme :) For my sis' 21st in Jan (see 'Photies'), she wanted to get a few balloons blown up with helium to put around the place, and so on the morning of her 21st, my mom went to get them done. Someone had told her that she could either go to Spur or to Cardies, and since she was at Eastgate, and saw Spur first, she went in and enquired of an extremely skeptical waiter if he could get someone could blow up the balloons for her. The man looked at her with a mixture of alarm and sympathy as a result of what was apparantly a severe mental disorder on her part and said that he would have to go and speak to his manager about it. My mom thought their lack of enthusiasm was a bit weird, but when the manager appeared with the bewildered waiter a few moments later, she repeated her request. The manager's face adopted pretty much the same expression as the waiter's and then then he asked how many balloons there were. When my mom replied that there were about six, he said, okay, and asked her to hand them over. He turned to the waiter, gave him one, took another for himself, and then said to the poor guy, "Okay, you blow up half the balloons, and I'll blow up the other" and then began puffing with all his might into the balloon. Stuck somewhere halfway between being appalled and laughing hysterically, my mom begged them to stop and eplained that she wanted them to be blown up with HELIUM, not their useless CO2! They all looked a little shamefaced at the confusion, and then informed her that they didn't use helium anymore and she would have to go to Cardies to accomplish her mission. I was amused :D

The fact that I have been thinking about balloons, the fact that I nearly went to a lecture in my purple slippers this morning and the fact that I have started to find Chuck Norris jokes amusing (sorry fans), are all evidence of my brain's DESPERATE need for a holiday! I feel that this is not a bad thing since... (drumroll please) I'M GOING HOME TOMORROW!!!!! :D yaaaaaaay! The not so sparkly part of this is that I have to start/finish a 2000 word Journ essay before I can go overboard :( *sigh* prayers for this (the essay) would be muchly appreciated :)
Yay for having hope and peace in God... no worries in the beeeg picture :D Besides, I can't let journ stress me out, because as I learnt in a psych lecture about nutririon (!?) this morning (the one I almost went to in my slippers), the most stressful thing that you can do is to wake up! hehe... this was very amusing to me and I feel that since I am obliged to wake up every morning, I have already had my daily dose of stress! :)
Talking of daily doses, Vimrod is my new hero... see www.lastlemon.com/dailydose to understand the wonderfulness! See pic for one of my favorites...

D-lightful

Yesterday was an amazing day. It was D's 21st birthday and so a whole bunch of us went to spend the day with her and her fam in Port Alfred. I've never been blessed so much by someone else's birthday! It was so so so wonderful becuase I got to chill with great people, eat great food (cake!), and do it all in D's name... which is only a smidgeon of what she deserves, but to see how happy D was made my heart happy :D It was just the lovliest confirmation of why i'm totally justified in LOVING birthdays! hehe :) I won't get all sentimental and stuff now, because there were many lovely sentimental moments yesterday, but just to carry the haze of happiness and content that surrounds my heart because of yesterday with me for the rest of the week will be a totally fitting testemony to the amazingness of D's life!
It was great also to spend some road-trip time with the Fish and with Dale... it was scandalous to me to think that I had never road-tripped with them before (!!) and now I have happy Switchfoot/Jack Johnson memories to think of in the fishmobile :)

It is my aunt's wedding on Saterday and I am SOOOOOO excited about it! Everytime I even think about getting to see my family (including extended fam that I haven't seen in ages), my heart wants to pop out of my skin with happiness :D I bought my top for the wedding today (after a minor dilema about whether or not I could wear cream to a wedding... the result being that I figured (with the help of trusty advisors such as my Mom and D) that since the cream top would be accompanied by black pants, and the fact that the bride won't be wearing any shades of white/cream, it would be ok.) and now the fact that I am actually going to be home in four more sleeps is a delicious reality!

Till then though, I have MUCH work to do and many a thing to accomplish... onward Christian solidier! :D

p.s have finally added some of my photies from the vac and from my sis' 21st... check it out in the 'Photies' link.

The Powers That Be

So I have just read on Binks' blog about how she has a secret (well not nemore) super-power that she would like. I felt this was a wonderful topic to explore in the world of pink berries... so here goes...
I have always thought the top super-power is flight... i mean, how cool would it be to cut out serious travelling time (this is the Joburg girl in me speaking :p) when you need/want to be somewhere in a flash! Not that i think it should always be used, coz road-trips are a delight that should NEVER be detracted from, but for those spontaneous moments where it would be delicious to be able to dash home for one of my mom's amazing meals or to be able to see a friendly that you haven't seen in sooo long coz they're far away... also... you'd get to spend some quality time with the birds and you'd be able to see how ridiculous our issues are from far away!
ok... that's all for now... clearly it is past my bedtime... i must try and write some deeper posts soon... i think after a sustained period of non-blogging, this part of my mind has partially become blancmange (one of my all time favorite words :D)...should be 'more than fine' though...I live in hope (yes, this is meant to be deliciously ambiguous!) :)

This pic is wonderfully the best of both worlds... flying and road-tripping! hehe.

SockSoc

My lack of blogging since the begingnng of term has been absolutely scandalous, but for a long time, i just haven't felt like putting my heart and mind out there to the world... even if the world is a small group of people who know me and whom i luv muchly... but i am much better now... God is great and he is totally committed to me... so i am a work in progress... and it's so exciting! :D
What prompted me to post today is that I have had simply the most magical SockSoc day. Let me explain a little about the soc (soc meaning society.. for all you non-Rhodents) dedicated to randomness and spontaneously arb events. Tony and his friend Karen are the founders of this wonderful group and i'm not 100% sure how they would feel about me letting the secret sock out of the drawer (hehe), but I have much trust in you and your discrection ;) (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). this SockSoc-alicious day began at around eleven when Tony and I decided to meet for a 'reading rendezvous' (Tony's passion for alliteration) to try and make headway into the mountain of books etc that we have to read. So that worked till lunch, and then when we re-conveened we only managed to work for about 30 mins and then we started climbing trees and rocks and having fantastically arb disscussions about everything from 'super-hero complexes' to senile grandmothers who can still remeber church hymns.
It was lovely.
And now i feel truly rested and ready for the wonderful week ahead which has a public holiday (yippee! except for all the accompanying make-up lectures... yes... we luv journ) and I feel that i am also back in blogging mode... it's good :)

A Whole New World

So... i guess this is me... back in Gtown. I will probably not be able to post too frequently until res-net gets connected in my room, but I had to put up a post asap to welcome in the new year, the new first years, a new room in res, and most importantly... a new blog template to testify to all these new aspects of my life.
My vac was probably one of the most amazing and memorable holidays of my life! I didn't do nethin exotic or spectacular but I collected about a zillion great memories that will foever make me smile... and on that note... i have many great photos to add to the gallery, but I will also do that when res-net gets connected :)

I think a sunrise pic is appropriate for new stuff :p