Seven Red Crosses on a Calendar

Well, the first week of 2006 has almost come to an end and boy, what a week it was! Traditionally the first week of a new year is slow. Very slow. Everything has come to a halt while everyone is away enjoying the aftermath of the festive season. Only a skeleton crew remains at the diehard businesses that capitalize on this scarcity at the expensive of some unlucky suckers’ holiday. Usually this isn’t a problem for those on holiday, but when you actually need to do things in this unperturbed week, then you quickly start to miss the availability of services and people that you normally take for granted.

I visited two different police stations on three occasions. It came down to it that I had to report the theft of my cellphone at the police station which is nearest to where the crime took place. So I had to get in the car and (with the help of Sparrows) find the police station in the centre of Cape Town. After many hours of trail, my black-listed SIM-card was reported stolen (this is purely a legal formality – I’ll never see my cellphone or old SIM card again, even if the police accidentally tripped and fell into a black market cellphone dealership; besides, the phone wasn’t insured and I didn’t know my phone’s serial number, like everyone else does). Now began the arduous task of getting a SIM swap which would allow me to keep my old number. At first the local network service shop screwed the swap up, but they got it right the second time. Currently I’m borrowing my dad’s phone (formally mine) until other plans can be made (he’s using the old back-up phone). When the new SIM card registered for the first time, I was greeted by the old familiar sight of a Snoopy and Woodstock mobile logo that is still (apparently) stored on my SIM card... it was a dualistic feeling of reminiscence and regression...

I also began to re-assemble my phonebook: a slow task that’ll take weeks because some people are currently, well, unreachable, as far as my capacity goes. I’ve made some good progress, but I find myself in a position where I need to contact a broad variety of people anyway, so the searches continue...

My mom has been having a particularly difficult time the past two weeks. While we were all staying at my gran’s, she was the one that took care of her, which is becoming an increasingly difficult job. Her hearing is failing, she’s becoming increasingly forgetful and confused and is stubborn and unreasonable whenever my mom and her siblings try to convince her to go to a doctor or move to a retirement village. She now often cries and believes there is some conspiracy to remove her from her house and her loved ones. I don’t know how my mom keeps it up, but it must be utterly devastating to see your mother break down in such at way. At home my mother is also struggling to survive the end-of-holiday blues as the expenses have been more than she would have liked. She is very strong (stronger than she should ever have needed to be), but she is going to need a break in one way or another very soon.

Things are a bit hectic at home at the moment. The new boarders are all moving in, so stuff has been moved around in connection with that. Preparations are also being made for my move into the new flat at Stellenbosch, so things are being moved around in connection with that. Also, I’ve started this massive cleaning endeavour which requires things to be moved around. In short: my room looks like a battlefield and the living room… well, the living room is better, probably only a frontline infirmary. But I still cringe at the thought of the state everything is in and even more so when I think of what needs to be done. Those that know me will be wondering about this cleaning-up business: it just ain’t me! Well, yesterday I received the news that Nikki is, against all hopes and expectations, coming down to see me before the end of the holiday! Yay! She really wanted to be here for my birthday and now it looks like she’ll be getting her wish. Of course I’m ecstatic to know she’s coming, but it is going to be a miracle to match the hospitality I was shown while visiting her, so now I’m trying to get the house in order with a vigour that has never been seen before. Mm, at least I’ll be able to relax when she’s finally here. Can’t wait! :-) She’s flying down next week, so better get cracking...

My mom and I went to look at the new flat today (my cousin was there to move in some stuff and to attend a wedding in the area tonight) to figure out which furniture I need to take with me. The flat is... different than what I expected. But one shouldn’t have any expectations in the first place. With a little elbow grease the place can be very nice, but because it is only ever rented out, who bothers with that? The big thing about the flat is that it just needs a good cleaning at the moment. We’ll see what we can do about that before I move in. I’m not ungrateful or have regrets about the flat; I think it’ll be an interesting challenge to make it cosy and “home” with what we have to work with. I’m thinking of moving in at the start of February, but my cousin will be moving in in about a week or two.