Learning Russian

Missing the Bus

Thanks Ma!

Abyss in the Mirror

Lunch

Wimbledon Common

Temporary Flatmates

I need sleep...

The joys of sharing a flat

Right Brained Blogging

This will be my last written blog post. That's right, no more describing, no more labeling, no more interpretation of reality. I'm taking a virtual vow of silence. I'm turning off the running commentary. But don't worry, the blog continues. So how's this going to work then? Simple.

A titled souvenir from my day, each day. Yip, one souvenir a day, every day. No more, no less. Just that. That's it. Why? Because.

What's a souvenir? Tune in again tomorrow and every day after to see what I mean.

Chapter Two

It seems that nearly every blogger on the Internet at some stage apologises for neglecting his blog for a while. It's such a cliché that I'm not even going to do it. The reason for a shortage of new posts is usually one of two, either the blogger's life has become so boring that there really is nothing to write about or real life is keeping him/her so busy that spending time online to share his thoughts becomes less of a priority.

In my case it's currently a bit of both. I'm making a transition into what I call Chapter 2 of my London experience. I am now living in a completely different part of the City, getting used to new working conditions, enjoying having a bit more money and the changing of the season serves as a very visual metaphor for all the other changes taking place in my life. While flat-hunting, moving all my earthly possessions using public transport, learning new bus routes and getting lost on my way to the local supermarket is enough to keep me very busy, it's not necessarily interesting blogging material.

Also, going into this new phase makes one ask certain questions, like: “Where has the last 5 months gone?”, “What should I be doing with the next 5 months?” and “When my Visa runs out, will I be able to go home feeling that I have seen and done enough?”. I don't have answers to these questions, but at least I have pictures to show where I was while pondering all of this:



The sun broke through the clouds behind Lord Nelson on his Column. After a cloudy morning, Trafalgar Square was bathed in winter sun.



Everything had a fresh glow to it. I had to run up the steps of the National Gallery to find a spot to capture the almost surreal atmosphere. The unique colour of the light reminded me of the movie 300.



Click on this panorama picture to see more detail. The South African Embassy can be seen at the far left. I'm proud to say it's every bit as impressive as the Canadian Embassy on the right. This picture was taken around 13h00, but note how low on the horison the sun his hanging. Just about it's highest spot of the day...



The view towards Richmond Park from the balcony of my new flat, around 16h30. With a bit of imagination (or home-sickness) it almost looks like a winter sunset in the Bushveld back home...



Found in the garden of my old house-share home while visiting to watch the rugby over the weekend. Charming...



Autumn in Bishop's Park. Taking a walk after work early one morning.

Maia Hee

I know this is totally random and has nothing to do with anything, but lately real life has kept me so busy I haven't had time to stop and smell the roses, never mind blog about it. Fortunately for me, being back at work means a lot of lazy hours and Internet access, so I decided to take some time out to solve this little puzzle that's been bugging me. I have to make it very clear though, that I was motivated by pure curiosity, so please don't make the mistake of thinking I'm a fan of any of the “artists” featured here!

Most South Africans, whether they liked it or not, have heard this song (I really don't expect you to watch the whole thing, I know I couldn't):




I (and I suppose most other Nicholis Louw victims) always assumed it was a Nicholis Louw original. After all, it's so bad, why would he want to copy it from somebody else?

Imagine my surprise when I saw this on TV the other day:



What's going on here? The Nicholis Louw song came out before the T.I. Featuring Rihanna one, so it's not very likely that he copied them. But it's even less likely that they even know who he is, let alone use his song as a sample in their's. So, who copied who? After a bit of research I found this:



From what I understand, this song, Dragostea din Tei, is the original. It's sung by a Romanian group called O-Zone. Their music video is quite funny as well, for some reason it can't be embedded, but you can watch it directly on YouTube. It seems the O-Zone song was used as the foundation for both the Nicholis Louw and T.I. versions. But they were not the only ones! It has been covered in one form or another by a bunch of other people, including a guy called Haiducci:



But why? What is it about this silly song that people like so much? And who originally wrote it for O-Zone? Or did they copy it from somebody else as well? You have to wonder: "Is there no originality left in the world?" If there is, pop music is definitely the last place to look for it...

Halloween 2008

When under quarantine, you have to be creative to enjoy Halloween. To keep us entertained, the support staff arranged a little pumpkin carving competition. They supplied the pumpkins and we scavanged around for medical supplies and other useful stuff to produce "Billy", who obviously won first place.