Sunbeds and Manto

I am loving the summer feeling in the air at the moment (although not so much the icy winds that seem to keep chasing after the sunshine). I have always thought that I don't mind winter as a season, but this year I have really missed my Vitamin D and the lack of natural light in the lab has made me long for glorious scorching summer sun.

And so in celebration of summer's approach I bought some 3/4 pants the other day. But when I put them on I was HORRIFIED by the pasty white colour of my legs. I've never been one who goes very brown and am usually ok with my legs being paler than most. But at the moment it is ridiculous. So I have taken to eating as many meals as possible out on the patio in order to try and change the colour of my legs.

But this exercise was not helped when on Sunday I was informed by a friend that I am not "a sunbed type of girl". This is not something I can deny. I have never been on a sunbed (i'm scared of going wrinkly like a prune) and tanning bores me but I was irrationally worried about this comment. Lame, I know :P

Also... I don't usually talk about politics, but since things have been so very wild and eventful, there is just one thing that I would like to mention:
Manto has stayed put.

Isn't that interesting?! And perhaps a little disappointing. Trevor's resignation I was sad about... but to be honest, Manto's I would have welcomed.

Things I like today:
- Pictionary
- caffeine
- my dad (it's his birthday! :D)

Things I don't like:
- my white laundry being made brown by dirty water
- tiredness
- coding that doesn't work

Berry's Back!

This year I may have dissapeared from this little slice of cyber-life. The main reason for this is that I had to do a boring (snooze) blog about open source for my degree for about 6 months and it killed my blogging creativity somewhat. There is also a little something called *cough*facebook*cough* which I might possibly spend a fair bit of time on *ahem*.

But now my tutlings are starting their very own blogs and it inspired me to give my bloggy a make over and come back to the fun side :)

yay!

Things I like today:
- sunny summer weather
- exciting holiday plans for December
- my sister

Things I don't like today:
- a runny nose
- my lab being invaded :(

Don't beg me daahling!

I recently re-watched The Incredibles and it was possibly even better than the first time. To be honest I didn't remember all the best things from the first time I saw it for a number of reasons. This time, I discovered a new favorite character.

Edna.

She is WONDERFUL! In the same line as Ezma from Emperor's New Groove, but not evil in the least :) She calls everyone "Daaahling", is the size of a midget (yes, I know that's not pc) and has the best lines in the movie.


I like her particularly because she reminds me of a crazy French waiter that I met when I went on a school trip to France a couple of years ago. He called everyone "Daaahling" because it was one of the few English words he knew, and he had us in hysterics every night we ate at the Auberge where he worked. Also, one of my aunts' name's is Edna and she is a rather unusual character herself.

I was also thinking about the Glass Man from Amelie this evening. I like him. He teaches me about perseverance, not giving up until you have done something to its very best point. I'm not very good at perseverance, but I'm persevering in learning and in trusting God to make me into someone who is dedicated and who will finish strong. I also want to have vision though, I don't want to do one painting my whole life, I want to create murals! Big ones, all over the walls of my life, but most times it's the small paintings that pave the way to the mural :)

Microwaves and Florists

It was recently my birthday. Three sleeps ago. My very own 21st birthday. And look, I'm all growed up now... ha! But I really was blessed out of my socks on that special day. My room looks as though I gave up on the student life and became a florist (specialising in gloriously beautiful and sweet smelling roses). I am also the proud owner of a MICROWAVE!! How cool is that... a bunch of my guy friends bought me a beautiful shiny white microwave. I'm still in the process of trying to find a name for it (all special appliances need names!). I'm looking preferably for a good Biblical name but am grateful that becasue we don't have to discriminate about food anymore, I will even be able to cook pork in my beautiful machine :)
(I have found a name for my dear friends who gave me the microwave and they will from now on be exclusively referred to as the Merry Band of Microwave Men :D)

Things I like today:
- flowers
- creative writing
- grace

I heard a rumour on this day, that you be having your birthday!

I have a dear friend called Leraine
Whose life another year did gain
I wish her great joy
And bid her 'ahoy!'
To say happy birthday (again)

The Remains of the Day

I feel as though I'm in a bit of a twilight zone at the moment. In terms of work, I haven't yet handed in and sorted out all my course work, so I don't have that strangely free feeling that usually accompanies exams. And my exams still feel like distant blips on the horizon (although I'm quite sure there's some self-deception in this feeling.. eep). Also, I have to be in Grahamstown till all the res-lets have left, so i will be chilling a fair amount after the 19th of June.

So all in all things are a little surreal at the moment, but I am taking GREAT joy in the fact that I have finally located a worthy source of novels in the Rhodes library... i've been searching for years now! Reading has always been my favorite thing to do in exam season, and I've begun with what looks as though it's going to be an amazing book: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro... there is an Anthony Hopkins movie that was made about it a while ago... I'm loving it so far. Talking about Anthony Hopkins... I'm keen to go and watch his new movie with Ryan Gosling (The guy from The Notebook - *wistful sigh*)... the movie's called Fracture, and my sis says it's brilliant. Despite my complete dislike for horror movies, after looking into it, I feel this is a thriller that will be good :D

In keeping with the randomness of this post...

Things I like today:
- God's trustworthiness
- Novels
- British people
- Today's indoor weather
- Waking up with purpose
- My new shower cleaner

Things I don't like today:
- Women's magazines
- My lack of living arrangements for next year

Off now to max the remainder of the day, and hopefully make it a productive one :D

The Lightning Rod

Lots of my life with God and people at the moment seems about me having to pour out my heart and be honest about my feelings, which can be quite tiring... so... i reckon that on my blog I yet reserve the right to indulge in a little frivolity and random babblings. It is for this reason that I have decided to dedicate this post to the enigma of weirdness, fashion questionability and lyrical dodginess that is...

(drum roll please)

Rod Stewart!!! (and the crowd goes wild :D)

Basically, the obsession that Rebecca, Derralyn and I have recently developed with this super-duper-uber coooool rock star of the seventies came about because of a hysterical birthday card that Dez got for her 21st with a picture of Rod on it wearing very very tight leopard skin pants and which said "Do ya think i'm sexy" This, in a moment of complete procrastination obviously led us to seek the song "Do ya think I'm sexy" on the net etc....

we found the song

(hopefully this picture also dissuades all mullet enthusiasts!)

we laughed

we laughed some more

we wept with laughter

then we began googling pictures of this indescribable charcter

then we laughed so hard we couldn't breathe

then we found the music video on YouTube and were amazed at the alarming sight of Rod wiggling his bum for the camera....

then we laughed some more :D

and then we added msn comments that went something like this:

Becs: "Rod Stewart will teach my husband about being sexy"

Me: "Rod Stewart: the sexiest man in leather and spandex since 1978"

etc

Info about Rod includes the fact that he was briefly in a band entitled "Roddy Rod and the Dynamic Duo"... he voluntarily called himself Roddy Rod :s ...i have no words...

These are some of the most interesting lyrics from "Do ya think i'm sexy":

He say's I'm sorry but I'm out of milk and coffee

Never mind, sugar, we can watch the early movie

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy

Come on, sugar, let me know

If you really need me just reach out and touch me

Come on, honey, tell me so

all i can say is... you Rod my world :D

New Life

So I have to start blogging for two work blogs for journ and i thought that if i was going to be blogging for work-type stuff, then it was high time i started blogging here in this special place again :)


Plus, i'm very excited about all the cool new user-friendly editing options that Blogger has introduced... i think they're great! :)


As i have spent most of the time i wanted to use for blogging messing around with the new template formatting tools, i'll have to leave it at this short post to begin again. But i'll leave it with a Vimrod that I got a short while ago which made me laugh and think of my blog...

Alphabet Survey

So I was tagged to fill this survey in next...

[A is for age:] 20
[B is for beer of choice?] Eeeew... I'm really not a beer person... ciders are cool though :)
[C is for career:] Not a great time to be answering this one... my heart and head are in a bit of turmoil about this at the moment... focusing on the dream right now :)
[D is for your dog’s name:] Sadly both our family dogs passed away last year but mine's name was Mischief
[E is for essential item you use everyday:] My hairbrush
[F is for favorite song at the moment:] 'Jealous Kind' by Jars of Clay
[G is for favorite games:] 30 Seconds, Royal Snap
[H is for hometown:] Joburg... born and bred people, born and bred
[I is for instruments you play:] My piano playing is super rusty and I haven't practised in a while but I play the violin too
[J is for favorite juice?:] Orange juice and Cranberry Cooler (obliviously it's berry!! hehe)
[K is for kids?:] God has completely melted my heart for kids in the last few years, love them and can't wait to have my own :)
[L is for last hug?:] Sam... so lovely
[M is for malls:] Not overly fond of them when i'm in Joburg, but man i miss their convenience when I'm trekking up and down Gtown's High Street
[N is for name of your love:] Jesus... completely the Lover and Love of my Soul
[O is for overnight hospital stays:] When I was little... they had to take a bone marrow sample... praise the Lord for General anesthetic!!
[P is for phobias:] People chewing ice and the icy bits you find in re-frozen ice-cream, snakes, not a big fan of injections, doctors or dentists
[Q is for quotation:] "Hope is to hear the music of the future, faith is to dance to it now" Gavin Swanepoel, a His People pastor from Cape Town
[R is for your race:] I'm not really a big fan of athletics :p
[S is for status:] Single and content :)
[T is for things you like:] My family, books, English, people (esp friends), hugs, laughing, good coffee, visiting people's new digs', U2, Switchfoot, Tree63... really i could go on for ages, this is a decidedly un-specific topic
[U is for Useless thing you tend to waste time on:] Eric, my computer (the Net)
[V is for vegetable you love:] Green peppers, spinach
[W is for worst habit:] Many... getting obsessive about my room being neat... especially when there are other people in it, a sharp tounge, laziness, forgetting to take my vitamins etc..
[X is for x-rays you’ve had:] Many dental X-rays, but otherwise i can't remember any... i'm sure there must be some somewhere??
[Y is for yummy food you like:] Rusks, roast chicken and potatoes, chocolate, custard slices and lots more that i can't think of right now
[Z is for Zzzz ~ your ideal bedtime:] 10:30 pm

Okie dokes... the person I tag to post their version of this survey on their blog next is Brigitte ;)

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