Ouch

So, the other day, my friend invited me to go paddling with her. I was a bit uncertain, but seeing as I like spending time with her and I'd paddled in rivers before, I told her I'd go. So she fetched me from my house and off we were to Ushaka beach to get all sportchick-y. We arrived in a short while, and I hopped out the car wearing my new RayBans, feeling incredibly cool and confident. Then we went down to the paddle storage area, sorted out the paddle, and made our way to the big, blue ocean. (Still feeling confident at this point.) Megs was first to give the paddle a go. However, she happens to be quite a machine, and made launching through massive waves look easyish. Not too stressed, I decided I'd relax. I decided to catch a bit of a tan, and fell asleep. I woke up to my dear friend emptying the her water on my face. "Right, my turn," I thought. "Can't be too hard..."
I have never been so wrong in my life.
The wind had picked up, and was positively howling. Now, I am definitely a runner, so swimming isn't my strong point as it is. Throw in a massive paddle, violent waves and dangerously placed rocks, and what you get is a big owie. I attempted to get through the waves a total of eleven times. I failed to get through the waves a total of eleven times.
I walked away from that experience with sunburn, slightly sprained hand, bleeding foot, bashed-up shins and an extremely bruised ego.
I stick to cheerleading now.

Home is where the heart is

The land of so little, yet so much
A long path we have come along
Many lost in old ideals
A long path we still have to go

The pain of the past
The tears of the parentless children
For so many
There will never be a comfort

Segregated
Split apart, divided
Predujice and unfairness reigns
The human spirit proves hard to crush

AIDS claims another child
A mother watches her daughter die
Consumed by trying to survive
Mourning is overshadowed by life's struggles

Amongst the death and destruction
Springs a shoot of life
Such contrast
Is the green among the grey

A land that once had dragged its feet
Stands with pride
A nation united
A nation as one

South Africa;
An abundance of hurt
And abundance of Hope
The rainbow is brighter than anyone could have imagined

Dreamer

What is a dreamer exactly?

"dreamer - someone guided more by ideals than by practical considerations"

The world sees this a bad thing. However, I whole-heartedly disagree.

What's wrong with looking at things and seeing potential instead of seeing just destruction?

What's wrong with seeing people for more than they actually are?

What's wrong with seeing the building blocks of your future home instead of just a pile of rubble?

What's wrong with not letting yourself be weighed down by what the world thinks is okay?

What's wrong with wanting to live above the darkness of your situation?

What's wrong with having a dream and chasing it?

What's wrong with wanting to see beauty in the ugliness?

What's wrong with not being stupid enough to let people tell you what you can and can't so?

What's wrong with wanting hope?
What's wrong with not being the world's idea of perfect? 

What's wrong with being a Dreamer?

Nothing.

Sorry, say that again. In English this time.

"hey u, wuu2 sekc?" "wtv lomb" "kwl woym" "u;)" "hehe baby u sucha qt" "mwazz lv u gawjus"

That coversation, if you can call it that, came up on my homepage today. I felt something inside of me wither up and die. At the risk of sounding like a grump, I am about to launch into a post about the rash that is SMS Language 101.

Please don't me wrong, I have nothing against the occasion "u" or "ur" or even "plz" in a text.

But when people start using words like "OMGROFLLMAO" seriously, there's cause for concern. The problem, you see, is that although the lingo was actually invented to make our lives easier, it's become so confusing and annoying that it's really more of a pain in the ass than anything else. 

Tragically, it hasn't just stayed on cellphones. It has hop-skip-and-jumped it's way onto the web, too. Facebook is full of ''lol''ers, which is also terribly annoying. If someone says something remotely funny, the "lmao"ers and "rofl"ers are never far behind, with a quick comment or wall post. The worst, however, is now that people use this "OMGROFLLMAO" in reality. I have heard many a time, people saying "lmao" instead of actually laughing. What the frick. Or wtf, so you know what I'm talking about.

Guys, as much as I thoroughly trying to guess what you are actually trying to spell, remember that you speak English, and not Retard. Seriously.

No one expects you to spell words found on the 'Ingredients' labels correctly, but I expect you to spell words like "don't" correctly with the apostophe in the right spot by the time you're sixteen.

So, as a gift from me to the "OMGROFLLMAO"ers out there, here's a link to an online dictionary.

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Please use it.

Scatterbrain Syndrome

Probably one of the most frustrating, annoying things for me is being a scatterbrain. Sure it has it's perks, like I get to wear that facial expression that JD on Scrubs used to wear whilst he daydreamed, before he got written out the TV show (boo).It's a fun expression and all, but mostly all that happens is I tend to leave stuff I desperately need somewhere that I've forgotten about, lose a whole bunch of stuff, drink prune juice instead of grape juice and walk into many MANY objects. Ya, not the greatest stuff, I think it's fair to say.

However, the ultimate annoyance has got to be when I put something down, and then forget where I've left it. My word, it gets to me.

For instance, I have 'lost' my cellphone too many times to count, but then I just call it off another phone and discover its sneaky hiding place. But my camera doesn't have a ring tone. Nor does it ring at all for that matter. And this afternoon, while I was chatting away merrily on the telephone, I picked it up, thinking "I need to charge this before I go" and left it somewhere.

Somewhere that must have magically become nowhere, because it evapourated into thin air. The irritation that caused me is quite shameful, as I shouldn't really get so flustered, but it erked me immensely. So, after and hour of frantic searching, I finally found it.

It was sitting on my art easel, in plain sight. Uuuuuuuugh! Never have I wanted to kick myself that hard in my whole life.

That was when I realised that i have a terrible case of Scatterbrain Syndrome.

And do you know what the cure is?

I don't know what it is either, I was hoping you'd tell me.

My personal Neverland

There I was, bored as hell, trying to find a DVD to watch, when I came across my old Peter pan video.

I thought of the idea of 'Neverland'.
I liked the idea of 'Neverland'.
I don't know about you, but it really sounds like a jol to me. A place where you never have to grow up. Where you can  climb trees and stomp in mud, and burst into tears because someone stole your crayon. I miss those days of dressing up, and cute little pig tails. Lil' kiddies just don't care about what others are thinking. I like it that way. It amuses me how they can be furious one second and happy the next. I never want to grow up. Why would I want to get old, boring and wrinkly. Gross. Luckily, my friends are anything but old. I can't see us getting all old and lame. The thing is we can't stop ourselves aging physically. (Unless you're a bit of a freak. Or Benjamin Button.) But we can stop ourselves becoming old at heart. I never want to be that old woman grumbling about "the kids of today" or be sitting next to my old husband who's yelling "Get off my lawn!" and some teenagers passing by. I like being young. I like that my friends are like it too. I like climbing trees, and I like that I can have fun with my friends without getting high or getting down and dirty at a club.
I guess I can safely say that I have my own personal Neverland.
And I'm never moving out.

Unseen beauty

So I was on my way to school yesterday, and as we drove over the hill, I saw the ocean. The sun was just rising, and the sea was sparkling like I'd never seen it do before.That's when a thought ocurred to me. Why had I never noticed it before now? It certainly had always sparkled each morning, yet after 6 years of taking the same route, this was the first time I actually stopped and acknowledged it.


How often do we actually just overlook the most stunning sights? We simply go from one activity to the next, so consumed in our own lives that we forget to stop and just look at the beauty that egulfs us.The beauty that was created for us. Life becomes so much of a chore to people these days, that they become completely blinded to the wonderous view that is slap-bang in front of them.


Technology is also a contributing factor, of course. Teenagers, especially, are so obsessed with seeing who's on mXit, updating their Facebook statuses or waiting anxiously by their Blackberries to see if that special guy or girl might just bbm them a heart, that they never look around to see the glory of the world.


I think if we stepped away from everything that distracts us, and open our eyes for the first time, we might just see the deep blue of the sky, or the intricate detail of a simple leaf.

It's time that we open our eyes, and finally see what's been staring us in the face.