ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA FAIR

Well - two more sleeps, and L and I will be on our way to Oz. (Note to self: must remember to pack soon.)

Will I miss work? What talent will I miss on the "X-Factor", who will win "The Farm" - will Ice Ice Baby incite a riot on account of his very American political views on humanity, war, religion etc? Will I remember to tape the L-word, and will Bath Rugby and Liverpool WIN some games while I'm away?

Ok - that last outpouring proves I need to get away...

Will I learn to surf properly? Will we get to have a sumptuous BBQ and champagne around a pipe-music'd pool, just 50m from the ocean? Will I get to swim in the Great Barrier Reef? Will there REALLY be crocs on Port Douglas beach? Will I beat my brother at squash and golf? Will we see any of the Melbourne Fringe Festival? Will there be any international sport to go and see? Will we get to go to the drive-in?

Where do I apply for the Visa?

It's a lekker small world when you go by plane.

AND TIIIIIME GOES BY. SO SLOOOOOWLY

Ug. I hate that song. Someone that thought they loved me (I was about 13) once mailed me the entire words from the song (pre Robson and Jerome) in a letter from his boarding school. Poor guy. (He didn't last long after that.) It was in the days when we used to put letters in envelopes and put stamps on them, rather than wrapping them in e-mail protocols - so I had to read all 5 pages of the thing.

Letters aside - why is it that time goes by sooo sloooowly, when you only have a few days of work left before leaving for sunnier climes?

It's a lekker slow world. (When you're not on holiday).

THE RING

One film I didn't manage to fall asleep watching (well, I almost made it) was "The Ring".

Seen it?

I saw it last night, and thought it was GOOD. The point is if you watch it, or at least the video within the film, you die within seven days. (Seven being the number of "wholeness", a "holy" number - a number often preferred in scary films.)

Eek. Leading up to the seventh day, you start to hallucinate - and start seeing things that were in the video. The thing that struck me the most in said video was a discarded ladder, propped against a wall.

So - when I started my journey into work this morning, I wasn't surprised that I walked past not one, but two ladders propped against walls. By the time I was on the train in, I had seen my sixth ladder of the morning. By six I started to think, "I'm glad I haven't seen seven, because that would be creepy" - whoosh - seven.

Gulp.

It's a lekker scary world, nē.

AG PLEASE DAVID, WON'T YOU TAKE US TO THE DRIVE-IN?

Yesssss. I'm off to Australia on hols in nine days.

Yesssss. David's taking us to the drive in.

Lekker lekker, soos 'n firecracker.

AG, PLEASE DADDY, WON'T YOU TAKE US TO THE DRIVE-IN?

That was a classy song I remember from SA. Akin to the chicken song here, I would imagine. I've been thinking about the Drive-In quite a lot recently. We had one in Durban - it rocked. It was in the days when you used to have to attach a great big mutha of a speaker onto your window and f*** about for hours to tune the thing in. Not like the posh ones now where you get the sound through the radio.

I used to love the Drive-In. They always showed two films - the first one was always one of the "Herbie" (of "goes bananas" fame) films, or a Muppets film, and the main feature was always the latest blockbuster like "Condorman". Classy flick. I always fell asleep by the second film - probably why I still fall asleep half way through any film I watch at home now.

It'd be very cool if they had Drive-Ins here. But I guess you'd only be able to go about 10 nights a year due to the foul weather, and there'd be no searing humidity, no crickets singing in the background. No gravel on the floor in case someone tripped up and sued. ... it just wouldn't be the same.

Off to see the Aged-P in Bournemouth this weekend. We plan to ply her with good wine and food and listen to her stories of yore. I do hope we cover the period of the late 70's to late 80's this weekend - she could fill me in on all the films I never got to see at the Drive-In...

It's a lekker world. Innit.

LEKKER - DAINTY, NICE, SWEET, TIPSY

I've always used the word "lekker" without ever having looked it up. It's one of those Afrikaans words that sneaks into even the most English of South African's vocabulary, and stays there. Even when the past has become another country - a distant memory. I've never looked it up until today - it's usually used to mean niiiiiiiiiiiice, but I'm happy that it's formal definition includes the word tipsy, which is niiiiiiiiiiiice in itself.

Anyway - I'm working from home today. One of the perks of working for a ginormous corporation, and being baseless, is that if you are as quiet as a mouse, no-one notices when you're not there. (Shhhhhhh.)

Beautiful.

It's a lekker world.