a great hullabaloo is made at the beginning of each new year to look ahead, anticipate and plan for the coming months. we're encouraged by numerous community sites (you know, BuzzFeed and Huffington Post and Mashable etc) to let go of what's behind and move forward, grabbing each new opportunity that comes flying towards us. (deep! also, terrifying.) even Dumbledore gave similar wisdom to our favourite Harry Potter when he said, "it doesn't do to dwell in dreams and forget to live." (or something very close to that. i was too lazy to look up the actual quote.)
i recognise the good in this, but in considering what to blog about next, i've decided that i would just like to reflect on the year that's ended one last time before saying "so long". i know, i know - i'm being clingy, which is never good, but 2014 was one of my favourite years to date and so i've established that steeping myself in its memories will make this year even better! ha ;)
JANUARY
The year started off amazingly because we were in California - i got to see the New Year in at my lovely aunt Kymmie's house, with Kym and Andrea and Celia and Zoey and other fine fine specimens of human being. after New Years, we had about a week left in Sacramento and it was mostly spent just BEING with family, which was great. on our last Saturday there, i went to watch Hunger Games: Catching Fire with Andrea and Keaton, and arrived back at my gramma's house to the most gorgeous and unexpected surprise birthday tea (!) with so many of my miraculous family members. it was overwhelming and really beautiful.
flying home made me unbelievably sad but there were three things coming up just on the other side of the flight which made the journey sweet: spending a little bit of time with my brother Huw and sister-in-law Mary-Elyse, two of my favourite people of all time; Judy and Mart's wedding; and then a week with Chris! Huw and ME were housesitting for some friends in this gloriously roomy place, and it was a great space to reorient timezone-wise. (there were two ludicrously large and unruly dogs there, too, but eventually we got the hang of them.) Chris came over for a few hours on one of the days, and it was magical. Sindi and i then caught a lift with two lovely friends-of-friends up to a magnificent place in Limpopo, where we got to witness Judy and Martin tie the knot :D Judy is one of the best people i know and it was such a blessing to be a part of the day. fliiiiip!
we drove back to Johannesburg the next day with some friends; Sindi was dropped off at the airport and i was dropped off at Chris's house. best. he took me to a tea shop called Contessa and we did tea tasting and i took many photos of his dogs and one sneaky photo of a reflection of us which he caught me taking… hee. <3
i flew home a week later, and the rest of January passed pretty unspectacularly - helping my mom out at her school, mostly. i met some of the most incredible kids, particularly the fantastic Emilio, who taught me numerous phrases in Italian ("ti voglio tanto tanto tanto bene!" being the most popular), and turned 21 on the 21st, on which i did some gardening and ate some cupcakes and read some books :)
FEBRUARY
February was a month of many firsts :) early in February, i returned to Grahamstown, almost single-handedly moved into my own flat and thus started my proper adult life (paying rent for a place, living alone, making food, washing dishes… all the best stuff). i also registered for my final year of my Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies, began DESIGN 4 with the coolest cats, officially started as The Oppidan Press's Assistant Chief Designer and started tutoring Journ 2s. life as a student in Grahamstown is generally predictable; once you've lived on campus for a year, it's easy to fall back into familiar rhythms. it was a little scary but a lot fun to move off of campus (just) and i can say that had i known what a pleasure digs life can be, i'd have moved out of res a few years earlier than i actually did! one tradition that remained the same (and has since our first year of varsity) was breakfast with my friend Sarah; this year, instead of eating together in the dining hall each morning, we alternated flats (since we lived in the same complex) :) another tradition that was formed early in the year was working into the early hours of the morning with my design girls in our lab. Bronwyn, Lucy, Kiera and Madien were the main culprits and i still miss them and those silly evenings a gargantuan amount <3 midway through February, i went to Port Elizabeth with Darsha to watch the South African cricket team take on Australia; we made Hashim Amla beards and i drank a Steri Stumpie and then we went to Walmer Park and did some shopping :) February was also the month when my class hopped on a bus and drove Cape-Town-ward for the Design Indaba conference, which was a mind-blowing experience. We had the most fun!
MARCH
the Design Indaba ran over into March, so for the first few days of the month we were in Cape Town. I was lucky enough to spend some time with the beautiful Hayley, and on our final day in Cape Town i took a hike up a small range of mountains with her and some of her friends. i love that city and that view and that girl!
on our return to Grahamstown, i adopted a cactus whom i named Eleanor Jean; i gave up sugar for Lent; i bought and read two very fine books (Jane Austen's Persuasion and John Green's An Abundance of Katherines), Darsha, Natalie, Prinnesca and i went to the beach for Human Rights Day; Chris turned 23 and my class began designing the programme for the National Arts Festival.
APRIL
April started off fantastically - since i decided not to go home for my week of holiday, my mama arrived for a visit in the last week of term! i faked a haircut for April Fools, which everyone and their dog fell for. (i still haven't cut my hair! eep.) i also started CrossFit and refused to ever look back ;) Chris and i puppy-sat little Themba (who is now enormous, naturally).
Chris's graduation weekend was awesome - his ceremony, him looking all dapper in his suit, his ceremony, sharing horrified glances with his mom as girls in what appeared to be 12-inch heels waltzed across the stage, dinner at Gino's… the whole shebang.
grad also meant sneakily attending the garden party and there i got to see my Keegan - cue all the grinning!
i was still super involved with Oppi and i was so proud of our team (particularly Nats and Marc) for pulling off an incredible election debate on the last day of the month.
MAY
in May, i voted in my first national election, an experience about which i had such mixed feelings. i was overwhelmed to be informed that my design had been chosen for the cover of the National Arts Festival programme! my class took a trip to Port Elizabeth to learn more about the printing process, and while we were at the printers they were busy assembling copies of the programme… with thousands of my design scattered across the room. it was craziness. i also started drinking coffee in May, and we did more puppy-sitting, so May was a superb month ;)
JUNE
June was slightly average because it was the month of our final exam ever, for which i have only one word - uuuugh. Good things happened, though - my design for some banner signage was also chosen for the Festival! i had a cake day with my Natalie! i got to roadtrip back to KZN with two of my dear friends, Kiera and Madien, and we had the biggest veg session ever once we got to Kiera's house! We started watching Orange Is The New Black and didn't stop for at least six hours. it was magical! my family fetched me on Sunday and i spent a lovely, quiet week at home (mostly chillin' with my cats, and extending the strings on helium balloons for Paolo, Emilio and Luigi till they were running around with balloons crazy far up in the sky) before i was driven back to Umhlanga, where i bought a new cell phone (!) and then met back up with Mads and Kiera (and watched Silver Linings Playbook, because duh). eeeeearly the next morning, Mads, Kiera, Kiera's brother Brendan and i began the trip back to Grahamstown - a trip personified by Watsky's song Sloppy Seconds :)
JULY
July was Arts Festival month, and as such most of the start of it revolved around designing Cue, the daily Arts Festival newspaper. it was a pretty fantastic time based on the company (my favourite kids, minus one Amy Harkess!) Natty and i had a Mexican 4th of July, my mom and sister drove through, we went to tons of shows during the day, most nights i worked 6, often 7-hour shifts into the wee hours of the morning, i drank soooo much coffee (there was a Nespresso machine in the Journ department!) and i decided i'd sign on to being a Masters kid and interning under my lecturer in 2015. LOTS OF BIG STUFF HAPPENED. And then, before it felt like i could catch my breath again, term 3 started.
AUGUST
the first day of August was brilliant and crazy and perfect. it was my and Chris's third anniversary, and we had all of the Wimpy breakfast to celebrate. then, to cap off the already wonderful day, i got fetched from the Journ department by my favourite, one ALISON HOOKINS! all the way from Russia back to me! we ate cake and talked and she gave me a beautiful Gatsby shirt and flamingo earrings and panda pins and i couldn't deal. obviously. i got to hang out with her some for the rest of that weekend, which was jolly wonderful. then she left and i was moer sad, as one is when one has to say goodbye to one of the best friends one has ever known. (come back to meeeee, Ali Grace!)
at the beginning of August i signed up to take part in CrossFit Grahamstown's eight-week challenge, and got some sweet kicks, and learned how to skip, and got a speed rope! i visited a letterpress, made my own poster out of letterpress and completely buggered up the final product (but fixed it for my portfolio, thankfully). i housesat for my lecturer, improved my one-rep max deadlift from 25kg to 60kg, struggled through another of Grahamstown's water crises, and attended a cultural show with Darsha. also, i ate a Magnum which Chris bought me. (that is love!) and my phone was stolen. i was under the impression that August hadn't been such a crazy month, but in retrospect…
SEPTEMBER
i got to go home again in early September! once there, i got a Grumpy Cat mug, attended our annual local art exhibition, finally met Lady Grey the cat, painted some funky pottery, got to drink coffee and eat pancakes and bagels at a beautiful new cafe in town called Tally's Corner Cafe with Sindi and Alan, hung out at my mom's school and got to say the worst goodbye to Paolo, Emilio and Luigi. then, before i could blink i was back in Grahamstown; i started learning coding as a part of my web design intensive; spring sprung; i very suddenly applied for and was appointed Chief Designer for The Oppidan Press for the end of 2014 into 2015, with my sweet Amy-Jane being appointed Assistant Chief; i spontaneously celebrated National Coffee Day with Bronwyn at Homeground and we had our own spin on "Rocking the Daisies" ;)
OCTOBER
October marked Amy-Jane's and my first edition as Assistant Chief and Chief Designer of Oppi respectively, during which i discovered that it was a hair-raising process and i love her dearly! my darlin' Sindi-sister visited Grahamstown, i had a mole removed, the society of which i was chairperson - Inkwenkwezi - was awarded Community Engagement Society of the Year, and i drowned in piles and piles of work which i had put off from earlier in the year. (don't do this to yourselves, people!) in the midst of all the crazy, i came home to Chris one Saturday after a ridiculous paste-up session at Oppi and he handed me a beautiful bunch of coral-coloured snapdragons. that is probably the highlight of my year right there. my Giants won the World Series (!); Chris started getting back into athletics and he ran at an athletics meet in Port Elizabeth, where he did really well. (afterwards we had McDonalds, because MCDONALDS!) i also had a marvellous time at a party my dear friend Cathy held; one of the reasons i'm looking forward to this year is more time spent with her, something i am going to make a concerted effort to arrange.
NOVEMBER
crazy month! November marked the end of our web design course, which meant hours upon hours of us in the labs, trying to design portfolio websites for ourselves (and asking Josh to help us with everything). my incredible aunt Celia, along with Andrea and Kristen, went to see Relient K perform in Sacramento - and Celia skyped me in on the show, for over twenty minutes! it was the most phenomenal thing and i felt so blessed to be included in that way. November was also the month of some crazy weather, including a ridiculous lightning storm and a near-hurricane. i was accepted into the Masters programme, i had a dinner Skype with my family while my brother and uncles visited home, and i did more work than i've ever done in my life before. all of it paid off when i finally got everything back from various printing places, compiled it all and handed in my portfolio. i curled up that evening and got more sleep than i had probably gotten over the course of the rest of the month combined. the final week of November was spent with Chris, packing up all of his stuff and making some memories (last Wimpy date, last Cafe D'Vine date, last Pick n Pay run, all the sentimental stuff). we were invited over to the most incredible meal at the house of Lucinda; Lu started CrossFit with us in April and quickly solidified herself as an incredibly special friend and a core part of my CrossFit Grahamstown family (also deserving mention here are Chris, Kelvin, Derick and Gemma, all of whom were the most fantastic coaches, and Bruce and James, my favourite CrossFit couple ;) ). She gave me multiple lifts out to the box over the course of the year and is so encouraging and beautiful and inspirational! anyway, our farewell meal at her house, where we were joined by the usual culprits (here's looking at you, Kel, Bruce and James ;) ), was scrumptious and another blessing. On the 28th, i watched Chris drive off and then ran around packing up the last of my stuff before hopping on my own bus to the airport and then flying home.
DECEMBER
i had an Eshowe December! what that means is lots of time at my mom's school, lots of time at Tally's, Made @ Home and home-cooked meals. early in December, Sindi, Sindi's friend Mary and i drove down to Salt Rock to see Dear Reader perform live, which was easily the best musical performance i attended all year. (i'm not including Relient K, since i technically wasn't in attendance ;) ) i also got tons of pairs of new shoes! we finally received a package my gramma sent months ago and i got a pair of M&Ms covered pajama pants which are the business. otherwise, we had a very uneventful, peaceful, wonderful Christmas; we played way too much Bananagrams and i started doodling again. a minute before midnight on New Year's Eve, Chris phoned me - and that's how i rang in the new year.
2014, you were so good to me! i learned and grew and loved and ached so much this past year, and i can only hope that 2015 will be just as fulfilling and splendid. what were your highlights from last year? :)
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