Hope

"[W]e are reluctant to hope when we have once settled comfortably down to despair" - E. M. Forster

You don't always move forward in a straight line

Master's

I've applied my derrière to my chair today. Sometimes when I'm on a roll, I find that it breaks my concentration to look for a book and then find the quotation I almost know by heart. I use little text tags to hold the place of such a quote so that I can continue with the writing. To just get past my wonderful writer's block, I started by replacing <quote> and <ref>  with the specific quotes and references. I also have a "M date" tomorrow with a fellow student. I've written one page today.

How did the matric reunion go?

Well, well, well. What an interesting experience. 

I wavered between taking a friend along as a buffer, but in the end I decided to go on my own so that I wouldn't have to worry about amusing a companion. Instead I made a beeline for the people with whom I really wanted to chat. And yes, I enjoyed myself immensely.


Who else got fat?
Out of my fellow female attendees, I was the only one who managed to literally double my weight. I didn't care, they didn't seem to mind and I felt pretty. So, if you except me from the proceedings, the boys put on weight and the girls changed their hair colour.

Did everyone "grow up"?
Yes and no.Yes, there was a general improvement in manners and many people were just honestly glad to see each other. I went about greeting people and even got hugs from people that were a tad, how shall we call it, impulsive and impolitic in school or towards whom I acted in an impulsive and impolitic fashion. In other words, there was quite a bit of Wodehousesque "these fellows and damsels were at the old school with me. What ho!"

The other part of the experience was the regression factor. Highly amusing. If I concentrate very hard I could probably dredge up old grudges. Be angry about that boy who grabbed my derrière in matric. But seriously, why bother? I have a lovely life and we were teenagers then, for crying out loud! Some people came to the reunion with the express intention of settling some of these old scores or at least sticking to the cliques from school. Some kept score of who greeted them.

Did people change?
Not really. People have just become more who they were in high school. Poise and manners were popular acquisitions.

A picture is worth a thousand words
Some of my photographs. They reflect my sense of humour.

The head girl of our year and the Oompah Loompa band

 

Reunion coming up (update)

Final countdown
I started this blog in grand anticipation of my ten-year matric reunion. I was going to have a driver's licence, be much skinnier, and sommer (just because) for good measure be done with a pesky Magister Artium. So how far did I get?

Master's: not so good

Source: Wikimedia commons

My blog settings is that my blog should be for all ages. No parent should be horrified that their child accessed some Renoiresque girl's ranting about her degree and her weight. So I will use caution and only say:

<insert colourful language here>

Right, now that we've gotten that out of the way... When I started the blog I was adamant that if no chapters ensued by the end of the two months, I would give up the experiment and start job hunting. Guess what? It's five months on and yet, not a single complete chapter.  

<language containing even more of the picturesque>

I'm very tempted to give this whole thing up as a bad job. I'm thoroughly stuck and I'm being unfair to my good supervisor. And still, I'm stubborn. I don't want to give the whole thing up as a bad job. In other words, I'm extremely frustrated.

Project Nymphette: going well

Photo by Chris Mellows

 I have lost quite a bit of weight since the start of this project. I would guess at least 6 kg. According to the BMI, I still have 45 kg to go. They can forget about it. I've been that weight and it's just too skinny for me. I've lost most of the double chin. I can feel my ribs. I've lost clothing sizes. All this reminds me of a recent funny story.

Fun fact: you cannot wash shadows off

I don't always follow all the steps of my so-called beauty regime (just face  wash, toner and a cream), but I try to. I just wash my face by feel in the bath, but the toner and cream are usually applied while facing a mirror. Some time ago I started noticing that my neck seemed to be dirty. There were two (slightly) darker triangle-shaped spots that I just couldn't get clean. You guessed it, my bone structure is resurfacing and my collar bones and neck created some non-washable shadows.

Driver's licence
I haven't mentioned that part of the plan so far, since it does seem rather, well, embarrassing that I don't have one yet. It's a long story (all procrastination stories are). At any rate, I've returned to my driving instructor. Wish me luck

Support
My mom has been very sweet and I really appreciate it. I have more lurkers than followers, but the lurkers tend to encourage me in person on through gtalk. Thanks to everyone who takes an interest in the process!