One Man and His Blog

My housemate D moved to the UK from South Africa a year ago, and moved into our house at the end of March.  He’s a great bloke, a good friend, and hilariously funny.  So you can imagine how gutted we all were when D came home tonight to announce that he’s probably going to have to leave the country in a few months.  And then you can imagine how gutted he is.

D has fallen foul of the new immigration laws.  He can’t stay without a visa; he needs the support of his employer to get the visa; his employer has said they can’t help.  This seems really sucky to me, as they’ve been really supportive of him in the past, and he’s had several promotions and commendations from his managers (I would boycott the employer in protest, but I don’t use their product in the first place, so that would be even more pointless) .  Barring a sudden whirlwind romance and wedding (and he’s not the kind of guy who’d fake that stuff just so he could stay), he would have to leave by this time next year – but he wouldn’t be allowed to work past the end of February, so in practical terms he’d have to leave then.

What’s also sad is that, while D is clearly proud of his heritage (as he reminded me following the rugby the other day) he really feels at home in the UK, and most of his close family are actually here rather than in South Africa.  He’s involved in loads of stuff in his church, including leading worship and youth work, and it’s clearly going to be heartbreaking for him if he has to turn his back on it all.

We’re all rather shocked and saddened.  It’s not a happy evening in our house.

I got home from work tonight to see an interesting little parcel on the stairs (the traditional spot where post is left in our house).  It had come all the way from Australia, which was a rather exciting discovery.  Yes, my WISE gift is here!

So yay for Yay, who has sent me an amazing assortment of very Australian items:  a postcard from Nut Country* in New South Wales, a fine selection of Aussie sweets – Coconut Ice, Mango Passionfruit Ice, Jupiter Caramel Bar and Maca Chino Macadamia Coffee Truffles - and a set of 16 Australian flag tattoos (we may have to have some sort of Australian themed party to show them off!).  Oh, and four gold and four silver Deputy Sheriff badges, which will also provide hours of entertainment!

So thank you Yay for tracking all these bits down, I’m looking forward to sampling the sweets and wearing my Deputy Sheriff badge and Australian flag tattoo with pride!

*Nut Country may not actually be the real name of this area, as the postcard appears to have been doctored somewhat (no pun intended, Yay… but it probably should have been).

I have a headache.  It’s probably due to dehydration, which is largely due to the fact that I have been so frantically trying to sort stuff out at work today that I kept forgetting to make a cup of tea.  And although I did drink some water, I probably should have drunk more.  So once I’ve written this, it’ll be time for a pie, chips, water and a couple of Ibuprofen.  That classic dinner combination.

Anyway, I’ve had a fairly tough few days, just in terms of having to think through a lot of stuff, and discussing things with people who were mostly (but not entirely) symapthetic.  However some good things did happen, not least an unexpected phone call from my lovely sister who talks sense (although if you’ve ever overheard us having a conversation, you might dispute that).

In other news, after many delays (some of which were within my control, so apologies there) my WISE gift will be in the post tomorrow.  In order to reach this point, I had to spend twenty minutes queueing at the post office after work… just to buy an envelope.  Now I get to put something in it, take it back to the post office tomorrow to find out how much it costs, and then hopefully the lucky recipient should have a belated-but-enjoyable surprise by the end of the week (so yes, it’s someone in the UK).

Since everybody else is blogging about their WISE gifts and stuff, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon.  In case you’re not up on it, WISE is the Wibsite International Secret Exchange, in which from time to time Wiblog bloggers across the world send stuff to each other through the post. (remember that?  It’s what we used to have before emails.  Turns out it’s still going too, and is more useful for sending bulky items.)

Being Mr Last Minute, I thought I’d wait til today before buying my lovely things.  The other reason for waiting was that the annual German Christmas market opened today.  So, WISE receiver, expect something pretty and something ornamental (with the emphasis on “mental”).

The arrival of the German market has now replaced the sound of Noddy Holder bellowing “Iiit’s CHRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSST-MMMAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS!” as my key indication that the festive season has arrived.  It’s nice to walk out of work of an evening and see a huge number of people eating wurst and crepes and garlic bread and drinking gluhwein.  Although it’s less nice when it gets really busy and it takes twenty minutes to walk to the bus stop because you can’t get round the dawdlers in front of you.  Maybe, if I ever get things sorted out with my camera (long story), I might bring you some exciting pictoral reportage.  Failing that, expect a restaurant review of the wurst stall shortly.

*which is kind of a hijacking of the German for “happy Christmas”.  A bilingual pun, if you will.  I’m such a show-off.

Since there are now instructions for adding images, and I just found this on my friend Steve the Junior Web Developer’s blog (his name isn’t actually Steve the Junior Web Developer, I thought that would just help explain why this would be on his blog) and found it particularly funny…

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you probably should get out more.  But meanwhile, you may have noticed my tendency to be vague about things, to talk about stuff and situations without ever really telling you anything.  This, my friends, is the problem I have with the internet – it’s a great place to share things, but due to the fact that anyone and everyone can then read what you’ve said, it’s not always appropriate to share very much at all.

As if to demonstrate this, there are currently three situations which I really want to tell you about, but because there are other people involved, I can’t really say much.  But let’s have a go anyway, eh?

Situation 1 has been rumbling around for a long time, and at the end of last week I realised I can’t just let it keep rumbling without doing something about it.  It’s going to be a (probably) long and difficult process to sort it out; I’ve been on the journey to sorting it for a while, but I’ve largely been sitting in the passenger seat, and now I need to start driving more.  While I’m getting there, though, I still have to travel through places I don’t particularly want to be in – but I know if I stay here, it will become a place I want to be in even less.  So now’s the time to start moving forward.

Situation 2 is rather complicated.  If we use the journey analogy again – I’ve spent a while driving down this road, only to find myself at a dead end.  Except I’ve been having some trouble accepting it’s a dead end, and have been looking for ways around it.  However, I’m now starting to think I should head off in a different direction instead, and then my sat nav appears to have already programmed itself to take me there, even though I’m still not quite convinced it’s where I want to go.  This is potentially quite an exciting adventure, but I feel I need to make my mind up where I want to end up, and I’m not sure I really know yet.

Situation 3 is thankfully a more positive one.  I’ve spent a long time driving, and needed a bit of a break – someone to take the wheel for a bit.  A few people have considered it, but for one reason or another it hasn’t really worked out.  Now, though, it looks like we’ve tracked down someone who’s a great driver – much better than me – who can share some of the load.  This has been a long time coming, and I’m so grateful we’ve finally reached this point.  I’m not stopping driving altogether, you understand – just allowing myself more time to doze in the passenger seat while someone else is at the wheel, thus ensuring I’m fresher and better prepared for when it’s my turn to do some driving.

So there it is.  A mixture of positive and not-so-positive issues from my life, disguised as non-specific motoring adventures.  I look forward to the day when I can tell you that I’ve reached my destination on that first journey, and when I’ve worked out where I’m actually going on the second journey.  Right now, I’m just glad the third journey is finally sorted, as it gives me hope that the other two will be sorted too one day.  And then, maybe, just maybe, I might be able to tell you where I’ve been going and stop all this vague stuff.

Have you ever had someone make a throwaway comment to you, only for you to realise you can’t throw it away?

I only ask because someone said something to me earlier, and even though I think there may have been an element of tongue-in-cheekness about it, I recognised it as a more extreme version of a thought which had already crossed my mind.  And as I’ve started typing this, I’ve realised I need to think and pray about it more.  Darn you, throwaway comment person!  Now I have to use my brain!

Meanwhile, the techy stuff continues to gradually make more sense to me.  Sort of.  I was thinking earlier of starting a thread on the boards which could act as both an FAQ type thing and a “hey look, I’ve found you can do this, how exciting!” type thing as well.  However, I seem to be having a bit of trouble with the boards, in that every time I click a link to them, the page appears for a nanosecond before redirecting to a “page cannot be displayed” page, although I can then click the back button to return to the page I was trying to look at.  However, I can’t actually log in to write anything on the boards, as I get redirected but clicking back takes me back to a screen where I’m not logged in, and every time I try to log in I go through the whole palaver again.  Ho hum, I’m sure it’ll all make sense one day.  At least I’m only one fifth Anglican* though, otherwise I’d really be struggling with all this change… :p

*it’s a long story.  I might tell you it one day, if you’re unlucky.

…we both have a new pad and face the difficult task of redecorating the place to our own satisfaction.  As you can see, I’ve made a start on mine, and I dare say I’ll do a bit more in the coming days.  But anyway, enough about me – onto the real man of the moment…

As both of my regular readers may recall, I’ve been backing Obama for a rather long time, so I’m understandably pretty happy with the results.  But, of course, as is always the way, we won’t know whether he’ll do a good job or not until he starts doing the job.  He’s talked the talk, but now comes the difficult bit.  And given his immense popularity, you can bet that the first time he slips up, or even makes an unpopular decision, his critics will come down on him like a ton of bricks.

Ah yes, the critics.  An old friend who I grew up with now lives in America, and on election day her facebook status proclaimed that the US would be “pretty screwed” if Obama won, which several of her friends had then echoed enthusiastically.  I’m not sure how she’s formed this opinion, but she obviously feels quite passionately about it.  And since the result was announced, I’ve heard from a few other people who think Obama doesn’t have enough experience for the task ahead.  But then isn’t that the problem with every job?  You can’t have experience of being the president until you’re the president, right?  Barack’s made the shortlist, had his interview – in front of an intervew panel of about 130,000,000, which has to be pretty daunting – and the panel have decided they want him for the job instead of the other guy.  As George W Bush apparently said when he called to congratulate Obama, “now go and enjoy yourself” (probably the wisest thing Dubya’s said in eight years in office).

Anywhat, I could go on but frankly, as usual when I get started on a Big Serious Issue, I’m not entirely sure what point I was trying to make.  So I’ll stop there.

As for me and my new digs here – well, firstly, thanks for dropping by.  If you’ve got some time to spare, please have a look at the rest of the Wibsite and especially at the other Wiblogs, as they’re very very good.  The arrival of this new improved Wibsite also coincides with my feeling that I want to do a few different things with my blog.  There may well be more of the “what I’ve been doing lately” stuff that I normally churn out, but I’m also thinking of sharing some more of my thoughts on life and the world around me (much as I have above).  Also, I think there may be some regular CD / film / book reviews (although knowing how infrequently I actually complete a book, they may not be so regular) and possibly a bit of creative stuff from time to time.  And, of course, some exciting tales of what God’s up to and all that.  Apart from that, though, there won’t be much going on here.

Feel free to sign the guest book, and drive home safely.

Woo, look everyone – superduper new improved Wiblog!!  So this is just a test post to see if I can work out how to drive this baby; if you can read it, then I’ve probably got it right.

Anyway, it’s late / early (depending on your perspective, and possibly where on Earth you are) so I won’t start playing around with this now; I’ll just say another big thank you to the Wibsite Overlords who have made all this possible.  One day I might even meet you in the flesh, and no doubt I will owe you a drink or seven.

Right, now to think of something witty and insightful to say…  Well, there’s got to be a first time for everything, eh?