Some hard-thought memories

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I thought I’d take the time to exhibit some nostalgia and accompany my first photo album of “University Memories” with some of the best adventures I’ve had over the past four years. Please, I say please, either comment or send me an email ([e-mail]) or Facebook message if you have any fond memories with me that I’ve left out!

I’ll just do it in summation as an essay on each will surely take aaages. They’re not in any chronological order, simply what I remembered when I remember it 

I remember:



 A particular friend of mine (claiming she was spiked) taking a bath at around 2am in the morning. 100% naked and not caring, whilst splashing and making gurgling sounds like a baby for fun. I was called as a backup (or just to witness some nakedness).

 Another anonymous friend who’s name would send enough cheeks into giggles. Drunken episodes with the firehoses in Aca, as well as the extinguishers. Getting into tussles with the Allstars bouncers (me included, somehow). Let’s all agree; hang with “The General/ Sergeant & Co”, and you without a doubt will find yourself involved in some amazingly complex situation sometime within your evening…without you knowing how you got there. I’ve written down in my notebook ‘lamp in bath’ next to his name and who knows what that means. I do remember that biltong was often used to quiet the Aca guards…not chicken. A brick was once thrown at me for rather studying than going out; needless to say I never refused a beer thereafter.

 The man above was also involved in a wonderful tale concerning a sheep, lots of poo in an Aca dorm, an owl and two straight men turning gay for a few minutes.

 Hippo loved overturning those dustbins and tank would accompany him by overturning the tables. A good night was always evident in the morning when I had to test my bike trial skills over various objects outside my door in the morning.

 Boredom in Aca was conquered by hunting the cabbards (or cats). Sticks, cattys, bricks and wild men were all utilized in these hunts. Captain Morgan, Wild Horse Mr. Amstel and perhaps a certain Black Label spurred us on. (Un)Fortunately a kill was never made, well not whilst I was around. Perhaps my demented screams during the chase never helped.

 Boredom was also conquered by playing one-bounce soccer. It was a sort of initiation into the block and little did I know I was playing with accomplished marksmen. Plans were laid and the ‘newbies’ always seemed to be put up against the wall first for a good reckoning. Within time we got our own back, and then took shelter in our flats, quickly.

 Whether on-purpose, through recklessness or by accident windows were inevitably broken. I once threw a lighter out of anger at the third storey of a building and it exploded against the window. The window didn’t break, but I think the person’s underpants within the flat did. The scream I heard from that floor sent me into both a hurried retreat and fits of laughter. A game with a rugby ball was often played called ‘blame’. This consisted of having to drop-kick within a designated area on the opposite building. A miss put the blame onto you and the next person got to kick the ball as hard and wherever he wanted to; then being able to put the blame on you.

 A certain group of people suddenly coming en-masse out of the woodwork in Aca if you stayed there more than 2-days into the holidays. The amount of people I’d never seen before was astonishing.

 Serenading Bronwyn with a rendition of ‘Devil Town’ with Paul and Gary. Only to get shouted and, laughed at and drunkenly stumble back to our quarters.

 Meeting a particularly handy DIY man, who could patch anything up, for the first time and consuming a rather large amount of Milo in his flat. Gollum quite nearly became my nickname as it appeared that Milo was rather ‘precious’ to me.

 Me falling asleep with my eyes open on the couch one evening and on various occasions; entering a sort of ‘dream-state’ both in class and as life generally went by.

 Gary D. being woken up by a mole digging into his shoulder on the engineering lawn after quite a heavy night and finding himself unable to make it all the way (200m more) to Academia. However, that mole also squirted him in the face, as it turned out to be an automatic sprinkler.

 Bush-diving into and from various objects. A special mention must go to the time when an electric box served as a platform and restio bushes were the choice of cushioning.

 Megs and Patches running over cars and consequently Megs concussing herself by falling off the roof of one early one morning when dew covered the cars.

 Christy and I giving false names (mine being Charles Bradshaw) to USBD to escape a black dot for walking home with a sign from the science building. We also made up student numbers and were impressively able to recollect them when asked a second time.

 Watching various brave souls down liquids from the 3-storey funnel in Aca one night.

 Being in the company of the weirdest looking man I have ever encountered. We named him Jesus; due to his beard and mysterious appearance and disappearance.

 Watching an old man getting trundled into the back of a police van after shouting at the police for miss-handling the burglar they had just caught, who was also in the back of the van.
 Sleeping on the Betty’s Bay dune, making tea out of boiling water in a plastic bottle and witnessing an absolutely amazing sunrise.

 All the conservation field-trips. The cabin. I really admire our ability to still hand in a worthwhile report. Fun times with the lecturers sharing a beer and teaching us how to slackline. Mouton & Co. trying to scare us late at night. Cobus’s birthday celebration, the ring of men and springbokkies.

 Sleeping on the cool-bay dune. Witnessing Matty & Co fight in their underwear after a swim. An everlasting memory that one…

 Jump rock and the fear you feel when falling and realizing just how f$%&king high it is.

 Witnessing the fires that ravished the hillsides of Stellenbosch. James and I went to lend a hand and pissed as much as we could; we managed to set one bush stop at least one bush from burning.

 The night where I broke into (admittedly) at least 20 Academia flats, both from friend and total stranger. Events ensued which I will never be able to repeat. These included stealing a couch and placing it on a bicycle shed. This was followed by entering a flat, taking Pringles and Salticrax and consuming these on the couch much to the amusement of a passing security guard. Robin and I explained to the guard that we’d found it like that; which he believed quite easily after munching some of our snacks. The rest of the break-ins yielded a bowl of Coco-pops consumed in someone’s living room (sorry we didn’t wash the bowls), rearranging Matty McKechnie’s living room; oven in place of TV and TV in place of oven. The Playstation hooked up to the oven and everything. Jaco found us in his kitchen; he was studying at 2am and he gave us some juice and slowly ushered us out.

 The legendary speech of Guy’s Grandma and Grandpa at his 21st. The dancing of those two was also utterly amazing.

 Streaking and just generally getting naked far too much.

 John and I sneaking into the Bosch pool on the way home from a night out and him having great difficulty getting over the wall. The comments were amazing, including, “Spiderman, where you?”. Then later bush-diving into the neighbours hedge only to find out the next day we were inches away from a rather large amount of barbed wire – never dive into a bush you can’t see through!!
 Someone dumping on a piece of cardboard and laying it in front of another person’s flat after a heated argument one evening. Needless to say, argument settled.

 Watching Rugby in Meg and Lau’s room. Plus the mess that was made and unfortunately left behind.

 Late nights watching series/ DC late at night after coming home.

 The endless stories from Patches and his memorabilia from his time at Stones. Plus the plants stolen from around their flat complex.

 Stealing hay for the cowboys party at Helderberg, then delivering them back in the morning.

 Driving on the Rooiplein, twice and James freaking out the second time. Doing doughnuts around the statue and remarkably not being caught on camera or by USBD. Then driving up the most random patch of hill on the way to Jonkershoek and ending up in some piece of the forest. Then stealing a wine barrel from an apartment complex and driving around with that on the laps of those in the backseat. What an epic, epic night.

 Playing night golf in Aca, out over the nature-reserve and seeing if we could drive balls in the ‘rich-people’s’ houses.

 Rory shooting his arrow over the field next to his house and into the highway. He shat himself as to the possibility of hitting a car.

 Trying to siphon one night petrol from one car to the other. After being called a wussy many-a-time and the others not accepting my pleas not to do it; my foretelling of my supper lying on the road came true. No matter, as the local street dogs enjoyed a second-supper soon thereafter much to our amazement/ amusement.

 Braaing an organ, amongst other rather large objects. Then witnessing a very non-sober Justin convince the firemen everything was ok…skills.

 Cycling around the house with James H. Squire and witnessing a bamboo-battle. The general craziness around the bar at the Simonsberg Boys’ house.
 All my roadtrips! Grahamstown, St. Francis, Zambia, Small-town-tour, Beaverlac, The East-Coast Epic, The Tourist-tour deluxe and many more…

 Having pesto and banana smeared all over my windows at Academia due to a disgruntled lady-friend having boyfriend trouble. Apparently her anger incarnate would be ‘understood’ by me and I’d take it best. Academia asked if I had received any threats lately and if I was meddling with any gangs. After calming down Aca police and waking up to the biggest ant invasion in history (which began my fear of the tiny creatures) the girls came and cleaned it, along with a cup of tea and a laugh.

 A particular lady friend killing her pet chameleon after being asked to look after it by her boyfriend and us burying it behind block 8 – go look at the tombstone if you’d like (picture in “University Memories” album).

 The nights at Mystics and hanging upside-down from the rafters. Colin dancing the night away with his backpack on and experiencing the most intense neck-pain the next day.

 Watching men AND WOMEN pee on the dance-floor in Terrace and being able to sneak in…the good-old days.

 Nights of beers and Mario-cart and a German in the flat.

 The immense insect project and kak mark I eventually got for it. Well not that kak, but it could certainly have been better if we’d all actually started earlier and understood how to do it! Those lessons with Prof. Geertsema and his womanizing/ slightly ethically-debatable behaviour…but he’s awesome.

 Sonja Matthee and her violent bursts of rage at us not considering ticks a worthy case-study.

 Elzanne and her amazing ability to arrive wistfully ate…so so so so so so often. Then Justin Henry coming in after her with a devious smile on his face, followed by a huffing-and-heaving Clare and Jean.

 Me and my chicken pie.

 Using the Afrikaans word for cardboard box to describe what I thought of taxis one lesson, not knowing the weight it carried within the Afrikaans sphere of things. My bad…

 Listening to Wilhelm in class and his perplexed looks. “Why does Australia need so many rugby fields?” he asked after the teacher told us that Australia cuts away approximately 50 rugby fields worth of vegetation every year.

 Colin and his affairs with a certain biiiiiiaaaaaaaatch demi. You were a brave, brave man and trod where we feared to even think of stepping.

 Afternoons and evenings on the climbing wall and the utter confusion with which we tackled the various routes.

 Dancing to crazy music and playing darts with Tom in my Aca flat.

 The experiences from working at Starke Ayres/ The World of Birds/ The Aquarium and Starlings. Everybody has to work in a restaurant/ coffee shop sometime in their lives. The things/ people you sometimes have to deal with are amazing.

 Teaching Ally how to drive and having to pull the handbrake up one-too-many times.

 Falling into the name “Disco-Stu”.

 Scoring an own-goal in my first-ever soccer match.

 Tuesday night skates and Franshoek. The downhill races and the downhill family. Awe

 Sleeping outside of Jonkershoek nature reserve one night. As well as sleeping on top of the Coetzenburg mountain and confusing the ground with the sky.


And the rest is for you to remind me of…more tales of my current expedition to follow!

Cheers,
Disco

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