sad sad sad

Tammy is SAD, with a capital S.

Not the 'poor me, I want to cry' sad, but rather the 'oh God, I am pathetic' sad.
Today on the subway I got a funny feeling about the family sitting across from me. I tried to figure out what it was about them that made me notice them, but I couldnt hear much of anything due to the groovy sounds of Freshly Ground pumping through the iPod.
I ended up quickly removing an ear phone to have a listen and what did I hear? Nothing less than 4 loud, proud South African accents, discussing Central pAHk.

This is how SAD I am: I turned down the volume on Freshly Ground (I NEVER DO THAT) and instead listened to the South Africans talking.
With my eyes closed, and my hooded head leaning against the greasy windows of the downtown F train, I was taken briefly home, to the land of silent R's and blunt ended JA's.

smile.

I s'spose its also pretty sad that I havent posted anything on this blog since September.

EXCESS

42oz = 1.2 litres

old posts as new posts

I knew that I had written some stuff that I hadnt posted. And here they are. This is what happens when you have no internet connection for so long. Needless to say, I am no longer in Freezes' class and I am no longer playing volleyball. But, there you have it - the August update.

old posts as new posts #1

Professor Freeze
So I signed up for this journalism class thinking I was going to be getting an introduction to writing and such like. Instead I find myself in a class that seems to revolve around George Bush's election campaign. The name of the class is actually “Introduction to Mass Communication” and in six meetings we have so far only watched a documentary video on the above mentioned farce, and ...hmm, what else? No, that's all. No lecturing, no required reading, no assignments until Friday. Freeze, whose name is actually Friese (but pronounced Freeze) came to class huffing and puffing as he does, and said “I have given you your oral assignments, yes?” We answer “no”. So he proceeds to give not all, but only 6 people in the class their assignments before deciding that we need to go outside!!! This, 15 minutes into a 50 minute class. So the whole class gets up, gather their stuff and trapse off to the lawn between two buildings and are finally settled down on the concrete paving (!!!- we werent allowed to sit on the grass!!!) about 30 minutes into the 50 minute class. Next, we are told to think of a topic that has been dealt with in Mass Media while he goes to get coffee. We have 2 minutes. Once he returns from his coffee run with a bottle of water instead of coffee, we have a short discussion on how it is actually tap water that has been purified. Brilliant! Then, we go around the group, all sitting on a slab of concrete, and tell him our topic; Lindsay Lohan in rehab; botched bank robbery; dead russian spy. Some ideas meet with his approval, he says “yes, good topic, next”. Others simply get a grunt.
The clock ticks the end of the lesson, and Freeze says “Have a safe weekend and dont forget, everybody, do your assignments”

old posts as new posts #2

Anniversary dinner.
Some say the first year of marriage is the hardest, others say its the easiest, either way its over for us. A year and a bit in fact, since I'm a bit late in the blogging again. On the actual day, Jesse had to work of course, and I got to stay home and talk to family on the phone all the way from AFRICA, (AFRICA? oh my gahd!) then continued to unpack a whole bunch of boxes. The very best part of our first anniversary was moving into our new home, WITH A DISHWASHER, oh yeah! We inherited a whole whack of stuff from the folks, so it still kinda feels like we are there, while not actually being there at all. Next it was off to volleyball, (I'm not totally sucking any more) and finally Jesse came home so we could celebrate. Turns out there are some people out here in the USofA who understand the essence of good service. We went to a busy restaurant called
“La Sorella di Francesca” and had the best meal Ive had in this country. The portions were American, while the fare was Italian, spectacularly so. We started with a first course of Bruschette con Funghi- rounds of toast rubbed with garlic, topped with a medley of wild mushrooms, diced tomato, fresh mozzarella and olive oil.
For seconds, we had a Caprese – big fat slices of fresh tomato, interspersed with equally fat slices of ultra soft buffalo mozzarella, topped with huge leaves of basil and drizzled with rich, dark green, E.V. olive oil.
For mains – 1) Castoletta di Maiale con Patate e carciofi- (this was unfrickinbelievable) pan seared pork cutlets served with oven roasted potatoes, artichokes, rosemary, garlic, white wine and pork jus. (ohmygodphmygodohmygod) and 2) Ravioli Tartufati- cheese filled ravioli parcels with a garlic, Parmesan, cream and white truffle oil sauce.
Aaaahhhhh!Heavenly, almost too decadent, over the top! The waitress was uber efficient, made superb wine recommendations and even tried to sell us dessert, no takers but we did take home two of the cutlets for the next days lunch, which was as amazing cold as it was the night before. (we didn't have a microwave back then) It was really refreshing to be in a restaurant that didn't have red meat on the menu, not counting the carpaccio on the starter menu.
Yes! This is it, my new favourite restaurant. So, as far as our first anniversary goes, from start to end: TEN OUT OF TEN...

How much is that doggy...?

I'm trying to understand how someone who says they love their dog, can keep him locked up in a small apartment all day, with two toilet walks if he is a lucky pooch.
Everywhere you go you see people walking their dogs, which at first glance seems fantastic, its only when you look closer at the situation that you see that those walks are really the only time the poor animal gets to go outside. Now, I don't speak from experience, but I can only imagine that should the dog let a bit of an accident happen in the toilet department, his nose would be rubbed in it and he would get a tongue lashing like nobody's business. Unfortunately for the humans, dogs have this uncanny sense that if they don't release, their bladders might burst, funny how they know that...never mind the number two end bursting.. we wont go there.
I feel so badly for these dogs and cats, cats - well - cats sleep a lot anyway, they are not designed to run and jump and chase bunnies (oh okay, maybe they are) but I digress...these dogs of America don't ever get to run. I'm yet to see a dog running free of leash and human tugging on his collar. There is no such thing as letting your dog loose in the yard –well there are no fences, should pooch get too happy to be free, he might get hit by a car, so we cant have that... electric shocks for doggies that go too far from the front door, that is if he is allowed out without a leash. The woman who lives next door to us has too bulldogs, the quietest dogs ever, you wouldn't know they were there because in nearly 2 months of living here, Ive seen them out for a walk ONCE, and I'm here all the time. This woman goes so far as to put a cutsie sign on her door that says “spoiled rotten dogs live here” Damn!
Thats all I have to say about that.
There is another dog who lives here in our complex; (I use the word 'lives' very loosely) all day long he howls at the window pane, then his mom comes home to take him for a walk and he hops and skips like mad for 5 minutes on the grass before getting put back inside where he howls for the rest of the day 'til mom comes home, rinse, repeat.
Granted, this is the luckiest dog Ive met since being here, he at least gets to go out morning, noon and night with his night session lasting up to 10 minutes sometimes!!!!!
Yes, she loves her dog, they all do. I wonder how much of it is love for an animal and how much of it is for personal gratification.

THAT SCREAMING CHILD

Remeber the child who screamed for 9 hours on our flight from dakar to NYC. Well, this is it.. I've put it up here for your viewing pleasure, but more important than the picture is the sound in this video, enjoy!!!! Oh, and try to spot the Brooklyn bridge out of the window



then, If you thought we had it tough, check out this flight from hell...

Back in Action

While i thump along huffing like the big bad wolf, the other (18 year old!!!!!!!) girls run run run. So, yes, its official- i am totally out of shape, and its gonna take some hard work to catch up, but atleast Im getting back on the court and playing some ball. Havent played a game of Volleyball for about 11 years, so this should be fun regardless of the 18 year olds. Im old, fat and out of shape, but i can still smack a ball. so they better watch out! Here comes Tammy.

The truth the whole truth and nothing but

hmmm, America. we have tackled the cicada's, the back to front toilets, and the traffic cops. What else is there to discuss...? Well, let me start by laying down some facts:
1. Some people CAN drive manual cars.
2. Most cars DO have front license plates
3. Not all Americans are completely dof
4. You can buy normal tea in the shops, you just have to ask for British tea, or Black tea, go figure.
5. Fast food joints ARE ACTUALLY called restaurants.
6. Not everyone drives a monster truck, alot do, but not everyone.
7. Not all fire hydrants are red, there are alot of yellow ones - yes, yellow
8. If you break the law, you actually DO go to jail, unless you are a mate of George's.
9. Everything is not as perfect as you think, there are potholes in the roads, there are dilapidated buildings, they even let teenagers drive cars- see, far from perfect.
10. You can get MILK for your coffee, it might come with a funny look, but chances are they have it, sometimes.
11. Medical treatment is NOT cheap, medical aid is more expensive than in South Africa, even the dentist is cheaper at home.
12. Houses are NOT cheap, You can expect to pay the same numbers for a house here as in Cape Town, except that its 500 000 DOLLARS not RANDS.
13. All Americans are not rich, its just because everyone is up to their eyeballs in debt that they can 'afford' a hummer and a 5 bedroom house.
14. The speed limit is a joke! In the suburbs you have to drive at 40kms (30 Miles) WTF??? Makes me wonder why there are so many Corvettes around if you aren't even allowed to go 60.
15. Everyone is so paranoid about getting hurt. On the other hand everyone is so paranoid (rightly so) about getting sued. There are no MERRY-GO-ROUND's in parks, in case some kid comes off it and cracks his precious little head open. See you in court. So, no merry-go-rounds. AT ALL- ANYWHERE, I get grief for not wearing a helmet on my BICYCLE, incase incase... but there are no laws about wearing helmets on MOTORBIKES. You see 16year old's sending it on their super bikes with no helmets, but the little kiddies cant have a spin on a bloody MERRY-GO-ROUND, even one on bouncy tar. They can play in the sand pit instead (I hope its disinfected sand, wouldn't want to catch something, might catch a law suit)

Thus concludes my lesson on the Truths About America. Tune in next time....