The internet saved my sanity!

Yes, there are a gazillion web designers, internal company support dudes and other people in web related industries who would read the title and think I am on some very strong hallucinogenic medication. But s’true!

Put yourself in my shoes, I used to live in a city and work in the fast paced IT world where anything older than a nanosecond is outdated. As a result of this speed, humour, wit and ‘think-on-your-feet-ability’ is to be high in order to survive. And I adored the environment and most of the people I worked with.

Then I moved down here (voluntarily) …

For the first three months I used to wake up in the morning and have a panic attack measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale: aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh, where are the people, where is the noise, where is the traffic, what planet am I on? I mean, I can actually hear silence… and it’s weird. Gradually I got used to waking up to guinea fowl calling in the distance, nightjars singing me to sleep and the wind threatening to remove our roof morning, noon and night.

So, after integrating and calibrating the senses to the new environment I had to tune the brain into the intellectual station. And shock, horror, run for the hills, I discovered it is not unlike RSG, an actual radio station*. We got invited to the traditional braai and met the local kings and paupers (we fall into the pauper category ourselves). Before anyone gets the idea that I am a snob or a bigot, I want to say this. The farming folk in this area are really good, warm-hearted, salt of the earth people (there are strange ones here too and Flyboy works for them).

So, the general conversation at these get togethers involving braaied meat and copious amounts of police coffee (brandy and coke) go something like this:
Q: How many cows do you milk?
A: None, Flyboy works on a dairy farm. And you?
Q: We milk 1 million cows. How many children do you have?
A: None. And you?
Q: 8. How old are you?
A: 33.
Q: And you don’t have children? How long have you been married?
A: I am not married. Are you?
Q: Of course, I’ve got children. Oh. Well, I am going to go to the kitchen to see if the hostess needs any help.
(And then the females don’t surface until the food is ready leaving me the only woman amongst the men and I get dirty looks from the women later on).
Okay, it is not that bad and I do get along well with some people here but sometimes their meaning of life and my meaning of life are worlds apart.

The purpose of this long winded posting is to say thank you to those of you out there who blog and those of you out there who comment. Your efforts mean the world to my sanity. In my darkest hour, when there is no mental stimulation to be had in my immediate vicinity I can smile and remind myself that yes, there is life out there.

PS: I think Herbex works, I think I am thinner. And I think therefore I am. I think!

*Should anyone not familiar with SA find the Katt Box, RSG is an abbreviation for Radio Sonder Grense (Afrikaans) and a direct translation would be Radio Without Borders. Its target listener group is the farming community and covers basically everything from playing good ol’ traditional music (which I can’t stand – personal taste), recipes for mieliebread, food for the soul and the best way to cut a sheep’s tail in the most humane manner and then prepare the disconnected extremities for human consumption.