Week 2

Well, this week has flown by as in I’ve been busy but in many ways not a lot very exciting to talk about. You know, wake up, go work out, go to work, work, go home, make dinner, maybe go out for drinks. Dull stuff, really. So, what have I been up to this week?

My first week of CrossFit has gone fine. Monday was quite technical, Tuesday I just about died doing the … wait a minute, no one cares about this but me probably. Anyway suffice to say I was quite sore from Tuesday, and this morning I managed to finish the workout faster than anyone else (I was very proud of myself, haha). Of course when everyone finishes within 15 seconds of each other, does it really matter that much?

All sorts of fun dealing with Western Union so that I can do a money transfer to buy the car (because I can’t just transfer large sums of money into the bank account of someone I barely know, now can I?). So, I filled out an application as a resident of South Africa. But then they require ID that confirms my address, which of course I don’t have. And it’s a bit of a mission to get a local bank account here. So now today I have filled out a second application as an American resident. Hopefully that goes a little more smoothly, we’ll see.

So last night (Wednesday) I was cooking dinner and we had the window open and heard a massive sound which I thought sounded like one of the elevators crashing down a floor. Except that I happen to know that such a thing is pretty impossible, with even semi-modern elevators. Although these elevators are another story entirely: one of them refuses to stop on our floor. To go to the 10th floor you have to press both 10, and some number higher than 10. Another one, whenever you press anything, highlights 6. But it doesn’t stop at 6. Another one will often drop by about 4 inches randomly when it stops at floors. One day last week, when I was late, one of them wouldn’t close the doors no matter what I did.

Anyway turns out this was not an elevator problem, or a gunshot as some other people thought, but a cat that jumped or fell or something from the 16th floor down to a tin roof on the 2nd floor. I had gone downstairs not long after hearing the noise to send a large email (you pay by the KB here, if I haven’t mentioned before, but at the coffee shop/bar downstairs it’s free). When I headed back upstairs I saw a commotion – something small wrapped up in a towel so I went to check it out. Turns out it was a tiger striped orange cat, and some people had gathered to help the owners figure out what to do (they were a little freaked out). And yes, apparently the cat did land on its feet.

They rushed the cat off for emergency care, and apparently it showed up the next day (today, as it happens) at my roommate’s work where they x-rayed it and not even a broken bone on the thing. Amazing!

OK so after that excitement I went up to finish dinner and check Justin Stanford on Top Dogs on SABC3. I appreciate anyone who’s both smart and unconventional. Also, he’s doing his part to make the world a better place with initiatives like Silicon Cape.

Next up, Thao and I watched LOST. Downloaded, yes, streaming video doesn’t work over here as speeds aren’t fast enough. Good fun.

So today at work we met to discuss how the curriculum we are working on at the moment with how to do a feasibility study fits in with the incubator methodology. Then I spent some time incorporating feedback from our researcher into our market research slides. It scares me a bit how proficient I’m getting with making good-looking Powerpoint slides.

Dinner was Namibian boerwors, beet greens, and salad. This veggie bag is probably 20% more veggies than I would typically eat in a week, so there’s precious little room for rice, beans, and quinoa in my diet at the moment. Although the brown rice I had with yellowtail the other day did come out pretty well perfect. Maybe I should consider measuring my liquid in milliliters more often …

Heading out just now to drinks night @ Knoxville (a swanky bar in Tamboerskloof), where they have free sushi and drinks for the ladies on Wednesday. Yet today is Thursday. Clearly someone didn’t put a lot of time into planning this … but I know where I’ll find myself on some upcoming Wednesday night!