As the Coffee Spills

Time Start : Monday : 17:35

Another entry so soon ?

Well I thought I would try out the “more entries, less content” thing, after the drudgery of the large Christmas catch up. As it turns out, our well planned weekend did not go entirely according to plan.

It started off more or less the way it should’ve. Wayne received an SMS at 6am wishing him happy birthday, sometime after that I managed to pry open my eyelids and slump on his shoulder whilst he opened his prezzies, he got a fair stash this year (some of his gifts are still on their way) :

Wayne’s Bday Stash :
Book : And Another Thing: The World According to Clarkson Volume Two: Vol. two by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : Born to Be Riled by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : Don’t Stop Me Now by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : On the Edge: My Story by Richard Hammond
DVD : Jeremy Clarkson – At Full Throttle
DVD : Mary Poppins (2 Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
DVD : Spaceballs [1987]
DVD Season Box Set : Scrubs : Complete Season 4
Gadget : GPS Map of North America (for the Honeymoon)
Music : Best of Hootie & The Blowfish : 1993 Thru 2003
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish – Scattered, Smothered & Covered
Music : Ministry Of Sound – The Annual 2008 – Various (3 CD Set)
Music : Wow Hits 2008 – Various (Double CD)
Misc : R200.00 Gateway Voucher
Misc : Pen Set
Misc : Top Trumps – Top Gear
Wii Accessories : 6 in 1 Sports Accessory Pack
Wii Game : Carnival
Wii Game : EA Playground
Wii Game : Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Wii Game : Prince Of Persia: Rival Swords
Wii Game : Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis
Wii Game : Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

After opening all his goodies, Wayne got ready and went to work. Unfortunately for me however, somewhere midweek I became aware of a niggly bladder infection, which rather than going away on its own seemed to worsen on Friday evening.

Saturday I headed off to the doctor to get some antibiotics, especially since I was going to be away for the weekend. Being a joint practice where a small number of doctors take turns being in office at different times, it wasn’t all that surprising that my regular doctor, Dr Scott was not in first thing on a Saturday morning. Dr Roberts was on duty and not only wanted the usual urine stick test from me, but insisted that I fill a sample jar for him as well.

This not being the easiest thing to do, firstly since I didn’t really have to go in the first place and secondly, because peeing into a tiny sample jar has to be one of the most unnatural things for any human female to do. Anyway, difficulties aside, somehow I managed to do both a urine stick test and simultaneously succeeded in fulfilling Dr Robert’s request and triumphed over the loathed sample jar.

After finally being called into Dr Robert’s office and no longer having to display my sample for everyone to see, he took one look at the urine stick test and after pointing out which squares meant what, he informed me that I’d need some antibiotics. He glanced at my sample on his desk, which he referred to as “liquid gold”, and then proceeded to chuckle to himself, obviously quite pleased with his apparent wit. Dr Roberts then queried whether or not I would like to have the sample sent off for “Culture Tests” – not only would this prove to be costly and in this case, unnecessary, but the most I would learn from it was exactly what I’m infected with. I declined his offer, at which time he retorted, “ok, well we won’t be needing this then, if you don’t mind…” and promptly tossed the jar into the trash receptacle under his desk. *Visions of Strangulation*

After the usual blood pressure tests and such, I informed him of the antibiotics I was previously on for the identical symptoms and that I had had no side effects with them. However, Dr Roberts had his own plan in mind and supplied me with a light antibiotic which would not make me drowsy, could be taken with or without food at seemingly any time and which was not affected by alcohol, so it was fine if I toasted at the wedding. All this sounded quite delightful, I was advised to take 2 tablets when I got home and another 2 tablets in the evening, it didn’t really matter when as supposedly I couldn’t possibly overdose on these.

So anyway, that ordeal over with, I headed home, packed, Wayne arrived and off we went. Wayne’s GPS has a handy list of hotels in it for tourists, it even had the “Wartburger Hof Hotel” listed, 52 Noodsberg Road. As it turns out, the GPS software is “somewhat” misleading when it comes to the location of the “Wartburger Hof Hotel”, it *thinks* it is taking you there, but really it takes you to Noodsberg Road in Pietermaritzburg, instead of the R614 Noodsberg Road in Wartburg (32KM out of PMB). It was rather odd driving along the road and having the GPS announce “Arriving at Destination on Left” as we tilted our heads and looked over at “Wonder Kids Pre-school” with no sign of a hotel in sight… It was at this point when we phoned Wayne’s sister and got some real directions. Apparently the hotel has had this issue many times before and have tried time and again to inform the GPS software developers of this issue, but to no avail.

We eventually made it to the hotel, put down our bags in our room and got on the road again to locate the chapel. The church was down a dirt road a short way from the hotel itself. The service was done in half English, half German, but was a comfortable length and wasn’t overly drawn out. The big bowl of bran I’d had about 10:00am on Saturday was no longer sustaining me by 15:00, both Wayne and I were pretty hungry by this point. After attempting a group photo with all 210 of us, we milled about waiting for a few people to leave and then headed over to the reception.

By the time we were on our way to the reception, it was 16:40. We arrived at the reception finding outside on the grass, a table of unrecognisable snacks, along with some savoury biscuits and Pringles which I was able to categorize. We were offered a cocktail consisting of Pims and Lemonade, I then picked at a few Pringles and held my hunger at bay with some plain Salti-crax biscuits and 2 thin glasses of orange juice.

Time passed, the sin went behind some clouds, it got cold and the wind picked up. Some time around 19:00 the couple arrived… We had been standing outside in the cold for over 2 hours by then and most of the guests were hovering around by the toilets trying to stay out of the wind. By the time we were seated, I started to feel horribly nauseas and incredibly tired. Then there was a wait while everyone got drinks and the first half of the speeches began. I made my way to the toilet and lost my biscuits at some point during the speeches and returned hoping I would feel better, but I battled to keep my eyes open.

There was then an intermission between the speeches, which was followed by the second half of the speeches. The main course was eventually served just after 21:00… I had a small piece of gammon and went to lie down in the car. I woke up about an hour later and felt quite a bit better after taking a nap and made my way back into the hall. It was almost 23:00 and everyone was just finishing off their desert. Wayne wasn’t in the mood to dance by then, as I’d left him alone for too long and he was depressed that I wasn’t well, his “birthday curse” that something has to go wrong apparently.

It was really a letdown that I wasn’t well though as it is so seldom that you can go out dancing and not come home smelling like a tobacco factory. Some things you just can’t plan for though, I’m hoping to make it up to him when we head to JHB this weekend, I know he is really looking forward to it. Our flight times are as follows, we’re flying with Kulula.com :

MN632 Leave Durban Friday 1st Feb at 15:30
MN632 Arrive JHB Friday 1st Feb at 16:40
MN635 Leave JHB Sunday 3rd Feb at 15:00
MN635 Arrive Durban Sunday 3rd Feb at 16:10

One good thing about the wedding was that fortunately Eskom didn’t decide to do Load Shedding during that time, although there was a generator standing by. This is something we will have to talk to the Collisheen about for our wedding as well. For those of you who are out of the loop with South Africa’s present “Load Shedding” issues, here are some articles to bring you up to speed :

International Article from The Guardian : Load Shedding Overview
Government Apologizes
Load Shedding Traps People in Cable Cars
Eskom Shredded by MNET’s Carte Blanche Show

Load Shedding usually takes place in 2 hourly intervals twice a day, these are scheduled to be 12 hours apart. There are presently two schedules, one for Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and one for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The schedules are not always followed however and it seems at times and Load Shedding begins and ends whenever it likes.

Current Load Shedding Schedules

Fortunately we have not experienced many power outages at home, but at work we have had to invest in an 840KW generator, which can be heard thumping throughout the entire company when it’s running. Also, the power still goes out between switching from mains to the generator and again when it switches back again, this leads to a giant depressive “ahhhhhh” being emitted from multiple departments around the company. For those of us who do save regularly however, this can be someone sadistically amusing. The only unforeseen event was when someone in our department had their PC Motherboard die and this was probably due to a spike when the power came back one.

It is really odd that my dad would go from just meeting someone to having her move in, with her 18 year old daughter, along with their two dogs and Sun Conure to suddenly getting married. I have met Gayle a total of twice, quite briefly on the second count. My dad generally drags relationships out for as long as they will last and has never had anyone move in with him, nor has he ever uttered the word “marriage”, I suppose he always worried about someone taking him for a ride and emptying out his pockets. So what has changed? I can’t help but think that there is more to this whole thing than meets the eye.

Anyways, that’s all there is, there ain’t no more. Possibly I will have something eventful to report after our trip to JHB this weekend and the Miles Per Hour Show. Have a good one!

Also, yes *ahem* as Ewan pointed out, so much for the less content thing. I will try that again next time.

Time End : Tuesday : 13:23

~ by coffeemonger on Tuesday, January 29, 2008.