Update time....

Happy Hallowe'en!
w00t! Over studying. Need to update this thing....

Apologies for the long break. Had other stuff. So this will be a reasonably long post. Pull up a bollard and have noodle.

First up: Birthdays: Brad's and Evol's.

Brad's was last week Saturday (blimey it's been a long time...). So Brad is turning 19. He calls us up and invites us for PIZZA! On him! w00t of note....
After that we decide that we are going for a walk. It's about 21:00 already (I think), but we go to the bot gardens. Strolled along the paths, Evol and I apparently on a sugar high (lies I tell you! Lies!) then decided to go up to the Monument. Sat around there for a while.
Then Brad mentioned this rock. The "BA Rock". So we went looking. Turns out it's right next to the highway away from Grahamstown. Climbed on top and just lay there, looking at the stars for a while (which were pretty good away from town [less light pollution]).
By then it was close to 02:00 so we traipsed back. Leslie was very sweet and walked Tally all the way up the hill, even though there were three of us to escort her. Poor guy. And he lives about as far down the hill as possible.

Next up: Evol's birthday. Was on the very last day of lectures that Evol was turning 19. So we went out to Spur for supper. Crumbed mushrooms.... Nyum-nyum.
After that, and solving some of the world's problems, we moved over to the Old Gaol. Which is an old gaol, now reformed to become a B+B. Kay met us there. :D Yay!
Heehee. Brad was pulling his moves on this girl, who seemed rather nice. Turns out she's a masters Fine Arts student. About as far from 1st year BSc with maths and physics as you can get.... Oh wells. They seem to get on OK and he's been to a party with her so we'll see....
Then on Saturday I skipped bouldering at Alicedale, rather reluctantly (I was looking forward to it) to go to Evol's surprise party, all machinated by the Zo herself, involving an awesome chocolate cake, tons of food, and a kidnapping to get him there.
See, she got Mark, Brad and me to come down early. Then she phones Evol (who is doing maths) and invites him for ice-cream. On her. As he gets near to Allen Gray, we jump out at him (not from behind, none of us want broken limbs) and tie a scarf around his eyes. We then lead him all over the place, including through the GLT, picking him up every now and again in an attempt to confuse him.
When we got to the bot gardens, everybody got in front of him and I untied the scarf. As it fell from his eyes, everybody yelled "SURPRISE!".
As they say in the papers, "a good time was had by all".

That night we had one hell of a thunderstorm. Stu's room got soaked, luckily the hail (!) missed his laptop. I got rained on sitting about 1.5m away from the open window. One thunder crack was so loud it set off a car alarm. It was pretty cool actually. Which caused another problem I'll mention further down. (Also water related....)

What else of note... Kay and I have been going steady for 3 months on the 25. Right before Zoe and Graham's 5 month mark (26) and Tally and Leslie's 1 month mark (I think 27...). Which is all rather freaky.... Actually can't believe it's been three months. Oh wells, they were good.

On Friday I had this drinks thing at the Geology Department. Trying to convince everyone to continue with Geology 2. I'd already made up my mind. I'm doing it. Met James (honours geology student and one of the demonstrators) at the Old Gaol later and he was telling me how he has three companies after him already with jobs. I'll take it to second year at least. Will see what happens after then. It's a possible major, along with comp sci.

I've been studying this week. Had my geology prac exam today. We'll see, but I think I did OK. Next up: chem. Blegh. So over it. All I need (and want) is a pass to be frank. Got this nasty clump: 7, 8, 10 and 11 November. Not gonna be pretty.

I'm feeling reasonably confident about geology, less so about physics (but I'll get there) and totally bummed about chem. Really should have paid more attention in lectures. 20/20 hindsight I guess.

Oh wells.

Heehee. Just had Remy and Sarah come knocking for trick or treat. Had to turn them away empty-handed. I gots no treat. :( Wonder if I can dress up as myself and get some chocolate from someone.... Probably not.

Oh yes, I might be getting up to Jo'berg in December. 10 to the 17. Hope so, Tally said she might be able to organise for me to stay with her or something at Sun City. Failing that, Evol said he has some floor space I can borrow. If that also fails, I think we'll stay in Pretoria or something. I want to get to a Hinis restuarant at least once though....

On a less entertaining sidenote: we have no water. To whit:
"The University and parts of town have no water. On investigation it has been told to me that the power lines feeding the Waainek pump station are down. Municipal electricians are trying to establish the fault and effect repairs as soon as possible. We are placing water tankers around the campus to assist with toilet flushing. I have asked the Municipality to assist in this regard, however the schools also need assistance. I apologise for this inconvenience and will keep you informed of progress."

No sign of anything yet.... Gonna be ugly in a couple days if they don't get something going. [crosses fingers]

Anyway, long post, but a great deal seems to have happened.
*Aston returns to bookses*