Christmas, boredom and piratey madness

Darius and I housesat Jude's place in Hilton over the weekend. My gosh, I thought Pietermaritzburg was the land of the dead until we spent the weekend up there. The video store is dismal, the drive to PMB puts you off going into town unless it's really necessary, and the Spar is, well, Spar. So glad I don't live there. It was quite nice to get some uninterrupted study time. And their garden is really pretty.

Other than that - I saw my first in store Christmas display on Wednesday when I was in Durban for a product launch. 3 months ahead. That means one quarter of the year is spent gearing up for a one day holiday. It's a good thing I love Christmas - it would drive me nuts otherwise.



And my first Ebay purchase arrived! I can't play with it yet (haven't bought a new Playstation), but soon I will be deeply involved in piratey madness!



Finished my last Book of the Week. It was very basic assertiveness / non-victim thinking, interesting but not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Also seemed to be of the opinion that niceness and weakness are the same thing, which is total rubbish. The new book is more practical, written by the lady who does Organizedhome.com.

Did a bunch of studying over the weekend. Not long to go until exams.

Ouch

It seems that it is that 'car crash' time of year. Darius and I watched in horror the car in front of us turned directly into oncoming traffic. Luckily, no-one was hurt. Feel sorry for the guy with the once-pretty Volvo though.



Darius and I got to see Mandy on Friday, she was in town for a short while ( too short! ) to see her mum. We went to see 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend' ( best bit: the nerdy soulless guy ) and sat at Boston BBQ for ages catching up. Mandy: the flat is awesome! I took full advantage of Candy Day - all-you-can-eat-pudding...mmmmmm.

Darius was horribly ill on Sunday - all sore and headache-y. Shame. I figure it was the snails...who eats snails at an all-you-can-eat place? He spent the day looking hurt and sullen, I spent it studying ( only 3 weeks 'til exams and I haven't finished the coursework yet! )

I've changed my Book of the Week. The last one was very good but was also very challenging: too many exercises etc. I have enough on my plate at the moment - I'll take it on again when I have more time.

Sorry D, but my heart now belongs to eBay

Life goes on much as it always has, not much to report.

Amount of candy eaten since end of candy fast: 1 can of Pepsi + 1 small bag candy from Sweets from Heaven. Good, huh?

Now that my candy addiction is being tackled my brain didn't find long to find a new dangerous obsession: eBay. Luckily, I have no money so I can't buy the stuff I want...but this is my top five Things-I-Want-To-Buy-Off-ebay:

5. Hello Kitty Uno
4. Dark Chocolate M&Ms
3. Old Computer games (Monkey Island etc.)
2. Pirate Rubber Duckies (like regular rubber duckies but wearing pirate gear)

By far the coolest thing, completely deserving of it's Number 1 spot:

1. Settlers of Catan 10th Anniversary 3D Version

I am SO adding that to the list of Wedding-Presents-We-Would-Love-To-Get-If-We-Had-Any-Rich-Relatives list.

In other news...this is my favorite Engagement Card so far:

This week's headlines:

Friday night D and I went to my cousin's 21st birthday party. It was very pink. I even wore a pink shirt, so my cousin owes me Big Time.

Saturday was spent with our mates at Golden Dragon, celebrating our engagement. Thanks for coming guys - it was a blast.



Last week two of my cousins were involved in car accidents (one near Durban and one in Dublin). Both are fine, thank goodness, but at least one car was totalled.



The candy fast is almost over - YAY! I am a bit concerned though. My cravings for candy have not significantly reduced, worse luck. I think perhaps I need to create a more long term solution - perhaps restricting sweet things to once a week.

Note to those of you who may get married at some point: Getting two sets of divorced parents into the same room at the same time is PAINFUL. It's like trying to capture seaweed with a bar of soap. D and I have been together almost 8 years and, so far, our parents have never met. Part of me wishes we could keep it that way. Common sense, however, indicates that perhaps they should lock eyes on each other before the actual wedding, so my mum is arranging an engagement party / lunch / meet-and-greet type thing. So far the date has changed three times, the place twice and the guestlist 1034 times and counting. I'm starting to think Alan was right when he said, "I only got two words of advice for you: E Lope".