The year in review

Well it's around about the three-month mark since I last posted, so I am returning to my dear neglected blog. It's always around this time of year when the Christmas decorations start going up in the shops that I find myself reflecting on the past year and what I have achieved.
This year seems to prove more than ever the cliche that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I haven't ever had a more tumultuous year with so much change and development. I have worked in two different jobs, resigned from both of them, gone back to the one, lived alone for the first time, loved it, made some amazing new friends, met some great people, reconnected with people from my past, fought with my family, made up with them, said goodbye to many friends and a sister, and welcomed home some long-lost buddies. I am almost self-supporting now, and have learnt a lot about managing money and where my salary goes every month.
The one aspect of my life that never seems to change, no matter how stormy it may be, is in relationships. I am 23 and have never been in love. I have had one "official" boyfriend for less than three months and two other relationships that were short-lived and never got off the ground. This time last year I was bleak about that fact. Today, I wonder if there's any hope for me at all, or whether I am doomed to be that perpetually single girl.
I know that the solution should be to stop caring about it so much, to date (semi) indiscriminately and without concern about where it's all going, but I am not a frivolous person and struggle to muster the enthusiasm for flirting with someone I don't really feel attraction for. The whole process is just exhausting if you aren't excited about that person.
So while I feel like I have achieved a lot in the last year, I also feel in this way I have achieved very little - while I think I know more about and understand the dating game a lot better, I don't have anyone to test this newfound knowledge on!
Is there anyone out there who's been in a similar position to me?

A DIY project

Something I've always wanted to try is Red Velvet cake. Apparently it's been around since the 1970s, and its distinctive red colouring is a result of a reaction between buttermilk and acidic vinegar in the ingredients. These days, red food colouring is commonly used to achieve the same effect.

There is a kind of glamour about it though, and I'm thinking that with the long weekend coming up I'll try to make my own. This is the first year that I have a properly functioning oven, so it may actually be a success!

An interesting story about Red Velvet cake - Wikipedia reports a story about the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York's "secret" RV cake recipe: a woman eating at the restaurant was so impressed with her slice that she asked for the recipe - only to discover later that she had been charged $100 for it on her bill. Outraged, she sent the "secret" recipe to her friends as a chain mail in retaliation.

A 'real' professional

Well, it's Day 2 of my new job and I've spent approximately all day amusing myself on the internet.

I'm working as a copy editor for a media company that produces two magazines and several contract titles (i.e. the in-house publications for a few companies). Because it's the beginning of the month there is very little to do: most of the articles haven't come in yet, so I've basically been sitting around for the better part of two days, waiting for stuff to do. Don't I feel all grown-up and important now?

This grown-up thing is going to get pretty old pretty soon, I think. Leaving home in the dark and returning in the dark is a novelty that has already worn off.

How 22 year olds have fun in Cape Town

This afternoon some of my friends and I are going to Sexpo, a sexuality and lifestyle expo at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. I went last year, so there's a good reason I'm going this year.
I enjoyed it - mostly for the fact that I was a little bit in awe of the whole thing, but probably not for the reasons you think. Sure, there were human size penises and boobs wandering around, and strippers poledancing, and vibrator demonstrations and all of the other things you'd expect to find at such an event.

What I love about Sexpo though, is that all of these naughty things are taking place in an atmosphere which is welcoming, educational, and friendly. Nobody made me feel dirty for being there, the whole experience was very matter of fact and normal. The shop assistants, many of them normal-looking women, were friendly and helpful. The clientele ranged from just-turned-18s who looked a bit nervous to be there, as if someone might throw them out at any moment (wait, maybe they weren't 18); people my own age, middle aged couples, old couples, gay couples, interracial couples, and also lots of friends (probably not family).

I had expected to be made to feel like a complete fraud for going there and looking at these things when I had nobody with whom to share them, but one of the overarching themes of the exhibitions was, as one brand of sex toys puts it, "love yourself".

That's something everyone can learn from.

Election overload

I am breathing a sigh of relief today, when, once the results are out, hopefully we can put all this election crap to rest. I look forward to a time when something else is the first item on the news again, and we can all get down to wrapping our heads around the fact that that shiny headed creature with an uncanny talent for hauling himself out of trouble is our new president. Biko must be turning in his grave.

The Good Samaritan

The other night when I was out, as I was leaving the bathroom, a girl behind me reached towards me and tucked the label of my dress back inside the garment; it had obviously been sticking out.

I was so touched by this gesture of kindness from a complete stranger, and from a girl, no less, because at nightclubs the usual form of female interaction is something between latent competition and outspoken derision.

It's a tough, scary world for us girls - betrayal and disappointment lurk around every corner. We would do well to stick together and look out for each other - God knows there are too few decent guys to do it for us.

Missed the boat

With the number of people I have reading this blog (i.e. one, that is, Twanji, who only pretends to read it because I pretend to read his), I have a feeling that my posts here are more private than the things that I write in my journal at home.
Well, if I kept a journal, that is.

But it feels good to write again, I'm kind of hoping that exercising the muscle will bring back those mad skillz I had back in Varsity. I was putting together my writing portfolio for a job application last night and found myself saying, "Damn, girl, but you can write!", and I think I might have lost some of the magic.

I also have a feeling that I should have started this years ago, in the heyday of the blog, when all of our new media classes were devoted to the blogging phenomenon. But in this, as in most areas of my life, I have been a late bloomer.