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Wednesday 5 November 2008

A looong decade of me

Shebee tagged me to write a timeline of the last 10 years of me. What a cool tag. I thought I was a slug inching across time, but I was surprised. Stuff did happen. Be warned. HUGE overshare to follow.

1998 Matric, highschool, Durban. I was a penniless boff whose only ticket out of an unhappy home life was a full scholarship to the University of Cape Town, and the only way to get it was to do well in final exams. I had been nowhere, done nothing, seen nothing. All that was going to change. About bloody time.



1999 UCT first year! Everything happened. It was the best. It was the year I stopped harbouring an eating disorder, and I discovered a million types of food I had never tried before. I fell pathetically in love with a boy; he was in love with my new best friend. She was in love with him too. He dumped his girlfriend for her. She chose her boyfriend over him. I loved him so much I thought if I waited forever he would discover he loved me too.



2000 Boy I was still in love with found himself his future wife. I thought that I would die. I ended up on a climbing roadtrip with a stranger with whom I am still in a relationship to this day. I was 19. G wooed me at the bottom of Kloof gorge. I will never forget it. This year I had sex for the first time. I can't believe I ended up fulfilling my high school's endless indoctrination: only have sex with one person (it was supposed to be in wedlock but that is a technicality). It was most certainly not my intention.



2001 What a dark year. Terrible things happened. Do you really want to know? If not, skip to next year. Fuck it. Shebee was honest. My brother shot himself in the head and died. Well. That was not easy to write. And AND G left me to go to Antarctica for 15 months. AND he had training for 4 months in Potchefstroom first. People told me to forget about him. No way in hell! We spoke on the phone a lot. A LOT. Oh and I flew in a plane. Cape Town to Durban. That was a first.


2002 I did my Honours. It was intense. I became a hermit. At the end of the year I got a job at Kirstenbosch which ruled. My family had all moved to the UK over the previous few years.

2003 G came home! I was offered a masters at Kirstenbosch. But G was at the age limit for getting a UK 2 year work holiday visa so if we didn't go then, we could never go. Adventure won. My grandfather faked me some kind of trust fund so I could pretend I had enough money to qualify for the visa. When we arrived we did some crazy ass jobs picking apples and working in factories. And travelled all over the UK.



2004 G left to work in Dubai for 3 months. I was sad. Did lots of random mind numbing work. When G came back we picked some blueberries and ended up working in a coffee shop in Cambridge. We travelled a bit in Europe.



2005 G got a real job and a work permit. We decided to stay a bit longer in the UK. I was set to renew my UK visa when G broke up with me. I was devastated. We managed to resolve things. I spent ages looking for a job that required my Biology skills. To keep myself busy I started studying UNISA English and Philosophy. This made me insanely homesick, which I have been ever since.



2006 New job doing microbiology. I am afraid to blog about work in case of homing pigeons and stuff. I will say that in the 2 years I was at this job I was taken to the edge of sanity many times. That edge gave me the heebies. Us employees stuck together like glue, it was the only way to cope. G and I went to Thailand. It was awesome. I went to a dentist for the first time since I was 11.



2007 I was very happy. We visited Switzerland. I was climbing like a demon and was into capoeira. Then lots of bad stuff happened to many of my loved ones, especially one person who I care very much about. She knows who. Then I got a shoulder injury. No climbing. Then I got a back injury. No capoiera. Cue the wonder that is:



2008 KAK. We planned to come home but could not find work. I left my job because it was time. My plan: to travel and get a job afterwards. But. I was bedridden for weeks due to back problems. I had an operation on my shoulder. Turns out I was misdiagnosed and spent months recovering from an operation I did not need. My Schengen visa for Europe got refused so I had to cancel everything and lost lots of money. I was sad. I sat around for months looking for work. I questioned my very existence. I eventually found work. I start in a month. Oh yeah, and I started this blog. Thank God one good thing came out of this non-event of a year!
*


Shoowee, talk about overshare. From the above I have discovered: I am dull. I like being dull. I let events steer me rather than me steer events. I tend to waste time, like this entire year.


I want to read everyone's timeline because I think they will be as revealing as mine and Shebee's. The entire channel-crossing blogroll. Do it. But I tag Tamara, Kitty cat, Being Brazen, Lopz, Redsaid and Miss T.

If you hate tags, I won't be offended if you don't do it. No worries.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well - I don't know what to say... You may be dull (but I don't think so - you're one funny girl) but you are STRONG. Look back at that time line and see what you have overcome! Terrible things - and yet here you are, kicking ass and still with your sense of humour intact.

That takes guts, courage - and a bit of craziness (which is good).

Tamara said...

wow... what a cool tag. Well done on your honesty and for pulling through the rough times. And I'm SO SO glad that you did start this blog - you're a regular in my day.

Cam said...

Dull, anything but Po. Dull is looking at a life with a blind fold on you're anything but.

Enjoyed reading that. :)

po said...

ladyfi: thanks! I think I am dull as in not much of a partier or a socialite. I am a nerd at heart. But you cant control when stuff happens to you!

Tamara: thanks, it is very revealing I must say. I am looking forward to reading all your timelines!

ches:Thanks. I enjoyed reading yours too. The stuff that comes out, hey?

Janine / Being Brazen said...

thanks for the tag....Great post...Loved reading a bit more about you :)

Ps - you dont seem dull at all

po said...

thanks BB: haha if you met me, all I talk about is politics and sport! And no one can shut me up! Or else I say nothing and just stare at people.

But I think the inside of my head is not that dull.

Anonymous said...

if you say you're dull one more time i'm making you eat a steak and egg gatsby from Athlone.

sometimes steering life yields boring results. you're some kind of a Super Saiyan now because of your experience.

And sanity is overrated by the way. i'm insane with traces of sanity, just to keep below the society radar

Janine / Being Brazen said...

WOW, i started writing my decade post and it is alot of oversharing....

Dont know if i can post it?? Its a bit freaky to see the last 10 year like that...

HA HA HA HA

po said...

mandrake: actually I agree with life steering me. Every time i have tried to take control of life it backfires hugely. I really prefer to let it guide me along.

But to be honest a steak and egg gatsby from Athlone sounds amazing right now. Do they deliver to the UK?

P.S. Consider yourself tagged if you want to do it!

BB: you are in control, but I say let it all out! Actually a lot of stuff is easier for me to write than to tell people out loud. I never tell people about my brother not because I mind people knowing, it just seems to hard to say, and I dont want to shock people.

Overshare is awesome.

Miss T said...

thank you so much for being open and honest and sharing that with us...will take you up on this tag

po said...

miss T looking forward to reading it.

Janine / Being Brazen said...

yeah overshare is awesome. I think i will just make my decade as brief as I can :)

Janine / Being Brazen said...

cause seriously i coulf write a book about the last 10 years if i went into alot of detail...lol

:)

6000 said...

That's bravery right there. I can't believe you admitted to being a microbiologist.

OK... [deep breath]... I'm a microbiologist too.

THERE! I SAID IT!

*klunk* (faints)

po said...

BB: mine was ridiculously long when I first wrote it. IT is still very long. Shebee is so impressive because she manages to say so much in so few words.

It is hard to choose what defines each year, right?

po said...

6000:
heehee I know! I mean, I know you are one too.

I am not one any more, my next job is with innocent little plants. But I have to come out of the closet and admit, I really really enjoyed working with bugs.

SonnyVsDan said...

this is wicked, I'm stealing yours and sheena's ideas, even though you don't know me.

Prixie said...

now u have me thinking about my life....sigh

Medio Pomelo said...

At last now I undrestand what a saffa girl is doing running on the machine that's set to miles/hour while thinking its kms/hour! :)
Great post and very brave. So you are still with G?? Cool story that one! Thanks for sharing.

po said...

sonnyvsdan: cool, it will be cool to read!

prixie: would you write one? consider yourself tagded if you would!

medio pomelo: yes we are still together. Hopefully forever! And yes, I dont think I will ever come to grips with the "mile" thing. When I see "m" on road signs I think it means metres!

Prixie said...

hahahaaaaa

i'll stew it over in my mind. but it just makes ti all the more real that 10 years, 10 YEARS! have passed by so quickly.

Janine / Being Brazen said...

I did mine -its sooo long :)


heehee

MsBehavn said...

Po, I loved reading your timeline. I know that I wasn't tagged to do one but I'll do one anyway.

I hope 2009 is a much easier year for you!

po said...

Msbehavn: thanks so much, I hope so too.

Will be very interested to read yours