kicking it old skool

Haven’t blogged in a while. Well, not counting talking shit about cheese! Yeah, been busy as always, seems so cliché to say it. Been back here in London for about 2 weeks now, after heading out to CT a while back, so I’ve also had some time to process the whole thing.

In all honesty, it was more like a working holiday than anything else!! It was soooo awesome catching up with old frineds again! Crew 20twenty, I mean you! :) I forget how much I miss those AWD's and the banter.

Being the MC and best man for the wedding comes with it’s own set of stresses and strains. I think I managed to pull it off and as far as that goes, I believe it turned out to be a helluva party. The wedding itself was in Franschhoek, and man, you’d be hard pressed to beat that valley for beauty!! Everything from the church, the guest house (smack bam in the middle of a wine farm), the reception, all these places just have such rich history. The ceremony itself was beautiful and apart from the bride getting a little choked up when the vows very being read, went off without a hitch.

It was a tremendously proud and powerful moment for me. Standing there next to my Brother, his best man, having his back in this, at the cusp of the next major chapter in his life. Looking over my shoulder, seeing my folks, the pride in their eyes. The whole place full of so many people I know and grew up with, family, friends… just a tremendous feeling that I have not to date been able to accurately describe. It was at that moment, when the whole concept of marriage, commitment, trust, love… everything… just kinda made more sense. Can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for my brother and his now newly-wed wife.

I think the aura of the place, the town itself, just added to the sheer energy I was feeling at that point. I had goose bumps during most of the ceremony.

I can’t wait to get back there in December! I really missed the natural beauty that is home, and nothing was taken for granted. I distinctly remember, as an example, when we drove back from Franschoek how my jaw was getting lame from smiling so much! I made a promise to get back out there with my camera and just get lost for a while. No cell phones, no nothing. I did manage to snap a few pictures though, and some of the boys back home suggested alternatives to the pain that is uploading pics to my blog. But I guess anything other than the manual process will be better! So some pics to follow. Note to self: kick the wedding photographer’s ass for not sending me the wedding pics yet! Oh, and hey, get this: my one very very good friend, one of a handfull I've known for 22 years + and I are now family!! We're "aangetroude neefies" ! How cool is that!! He is my brother's wife's cousin, which now make us all family. Strange but true. I mean, we've always been family, but now it's official. :)

But I digress. We’re staring down the barrel of winter here in London. It’s getting dark at about 15:40 now (I shit thee not). Read an interesting article in the Metro (the discerning traveller’s choice) about how you can avoid Seasonal depression (wake up when it’s dark, go to work, come out from work and its dark again, wash rinse repeat, kill yourself). They reckon that you should still try and get out and enjoy the natural light (where?!), still organise outings with friends (which ones? They all killed themselves) and try and lead a normal life by fighting the urge to curl up in front of the telly with 10 bars of milk chocolate (which basically means you’ll end up being fat, pasty-white, depressed, Johnny-no-friends. You should kill yourself).

I think I’ll be alright though. I’m a techie at heart and we techies do bunkering really well. Just keep that 10MB/s broadband connection a commin’ and I’ll be sound as a pound (baby).

time takes its toll