Posts Tagged ‘new year’
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Oh look, it’s that time of the year again when we make resolutions and vow to be better people than we’ve been in the past. Well, here are mine:
first a look at last year’s:
1. See more live music –> DONE!
2. Try new things –> DONE!
3. Don’t take ur friends for granted – don’t always wait for them to make plans, initiate them sometimes, call/send an sms just to say hi, visit cape town more often –> DONE! (could have done it more, but i think i did quite a bit of this – I did spend more weekends in Cape Town than in Stellies though)
4. Stop being judgemental -> still working on this one…really, i’m trying
5. Sort out ur finances –> so bad…so so bad. i upgraded a phone contract that had ended and an ipad on contract. i suck at money issues. i moved to a cheaper flat though…and cancelled another phone contract that had expired.
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this year’s resolutions:
1. No new phone/cool gadgets contract no matter how cool or tempting that new toy might be (still working on them finances)
2. Hit the gym at least 3 times a week (more fitness than weight loss, but that would be nice too, but not so much i need to buy a new wardrobe)
3. Play guitar at least 3 times a week (i’m thinking i wanna start playing in front of people…might help me improve)
4. Finish that bible reading plan I started last year (i’m a month behind…was supposed to finish on Jan 3rd, then i’ll start a new more study-oriented one)
5. Find something in CT to replace VisionK (i live in a high school…a girl’s high school…a girl’s high school hostel…maybe…)
6. Read more (not just blogs, like books). Write more (not just blogging, but other things)
7. Dream big. Plan those dreams out. Live them.
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I was gonna write about my new year’s eve celebrations in this post, but it’s already a little long so I think I’ll save it for later…
anyway, if you’re looking for ideas or prompts for your own resolutions, b-fish is writing a series over at his blog on just that…take a look!
Happy 2012
Posted on: January 9, 2012
Happy new year people. I know, a whole week has gone bye. Still getting into the swing of 2012. I’m excited about this year. This will be the year of dreaming big, taking risks, and living life to the full.
I really wanna do this taking risks and dreaming thing with extra sauce this year…go big or go home vibes.
Ok, this wasn’t really a post, just a hi, how’s 2012 so far kinda thing. Regular programming will resume tomorrow. And I promise to try to stick to my posting schedule this year.
Coolness. Thanks for stopping by and hope you stick around for a while.
Happy New Year!
Posted on: December 18, 2010
ok, not for another couple of weeks, but this will be my last post on this blog for the year. I haven’t been posting that regularly as is because i don’t have internet connection at home anymore and that’s been a bit of a problem. but i will be back online next year and i promise to post more regularly again.
anyway, what i wanted to say was, i am very amped for new years this year. i haven’t been this amped for new years since i was a kid and i got to stay up till midnight and watch fireworks and be in awe. then new years kinda lost it’s magic. but the magic has returned!
last year for new years i went to a music festival in kwazulu natal…and it was awesome. this year i’m going back, and i couldn’t be more excited about it. 30 Dec to 1 Jan, Midmar Dam, Howick, KZN, South Africa. 31 Bands – everything from mosh-pit crazyness, to accoustic vibes, to versus the wolf (yes, they get a special mention).
i am so excited in fact that i volunteered to go a day early to help with setting up and stuff. eek! also, i might attempt mobile-blogging during the event…we shall see how my phone battery holds up. you can check that out at musicalgoodness.wordpress.com
anyway, that is all from me for a while. i will see all of y’all back here in 2011. hope you have an amazing Christmas/Hanukkah/kwanzaa/holidays/whatever you celebrate, and an amazing 2011.
lots of love,
Tsholo
Dec ’09 – Jan 10 holidays
Posted on: January 19, 2010
- In: likes | music | my life
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Dec ’09 – Jan 10 holidays
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Holidays started at 5pm on December 22nd – last day of work for 2009. On the 23rd I moved my stuff out of my flat, but didn’t have keys to my new flat yet so I stashed my stuff in the Anderson’s garage…yay for church being church! then my sister and i boarded a bus and drove 12 hours to Thaba Nchu in the Free State to my grandmothers house, which is where i grew up. so many childhood memories…and yet my small little town keeps growing and i barely recognise some of the places anymore…guess that’s what happens when you don’t go home in 5 years. we spent Christmas in the Free State surrounded by my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc…then on the 29th we boarded the bus again and headed to Howick, Kwa-Zulu Natal for “Arise Fest”. It should have been an 8 hr journey, but because of delays ended up being 14 hrs…oh, and actually the bus only took us as far as Peitermaritzburg (mouthful) and then my friend Katie picked us up from there and we went with her to Howick.
i generally don’t celebrate new year’s day/eve/whatever…for me it’s just another day/eve/whatever. i was born on april 4th, therefore for me the year ends on the the 3rd and starts on the 4th…of April, that is. i actually just prefer sleeping on the 31st rather than doing the whole count-down thing. i don’t mind going out on that night…but then it’s like a normal going out night. well, this year Arise Fest – a christian music festival – was organised from Dec 30 to Jan 1st so I decided to go because i’m a live music junkie – turned out to be the best thing i could have done. i was introduced to much new music…and they were all south african musicians/bands. anyway, i think i’m gonna take a break from buying international music and get more acquainted with the local scene.
as i said, it was a christian music festival so most of the bands i’d never even heard of…no christian music stations in my town…and they are local so they don’t get any airplay on TBN. i decided to go cos John Ellis (formally of Tree63) and New Altum (one of my favorite bands right now) were playing, but i was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by all the talent that i encountered. i’ll list the bands at the end of this post. Arise Fest was organised by Arise Ministries who apparently do a lot of youth events in KZN…check them out if you live in that area. anyway, so we brought 2010 in with worship, and i hope to daily live in worship till there are no more calendars to buy.
on Jan 1st we went with Katie back to her house for breakfast and oh my stomach! i usually don’t eat breakfast, but on that day i ate! such a feast! thank you so much to the Wirth’s for their hospitality and the lifts from the bus station to howick, and back again. again with church being church…love!
ok so noon’ish we boarded the bus once more and headed back to Free State. got there in the evening, went straight to bed and woke up to a very rainy, wet morning so stayed indoors the whole day. the next day – the 3rd – we loaded up the car and began our 9 hr trip to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. I then spent the next few days either sleeping, reading, or on the beach watching surfers do their thing. was super awesome. i have to say, Summerstrand beach in PE has sealed it’s place as my favorite beach i’ve been to so far (side note: summer strand beach? summer – english; strand – afrikaans for beach; summerbeach beach? and why the double language? anywho…) the highlight of PE though, has to be when I got to watch my cousin and his band (New Afro Teens) open for an international artist – Puff Johnson, whom I don’t know but apparently she’s big on the R & B scene…but yea, my cuz (Melikhaya) has a VOICE!!! Talent in that kid! Anyway, early on the morning of the 10th of Jan my mom and I packed up our bags, said goodbye to my dad, sister and brother and headed back to the Western Cape, she to Cape Town, I to Stellenbosch. another 9 hr trip – of which I drove 6 hrs. I then moved some of my stuff into the new flat, met my new flatmates and…well, the rest – as they say – is chemistry.
List of Bands from Arise Fest
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the more church-worshippy vibes
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John Ellis (love love love John Ellis live, he makes being on stage look fun…but then he dissed me and my sister in front of hundreds of people – not cool, Johnny, not cool)
5 Fold(have heard Brad Klynsmith’s solo stuff before and still love “let me found…” and “Majesty”)
Hilton Greig Band
Harbourlight (bagged me a new autographed cd and they provided me with a soundtrack to my drive from PE to Stell)
Tomfoolish
Tracing Sunday (lead singer/guitarist is also lead for Arise Band and was main organiser for the festival if i’m not mistaken)
Arise Band (played us into the new year which was awesome. i would have been bummed if they had stopped to do the countdown cos…worshipping is so much more yay than changing a calendar!)
the more hardcore stuff
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New Altum (bagged me a pin…and a future_glasses tank – read about future_glasses here)
Truth Revealed
Show and Tell (the event managers had to stop their set cos things got kinda out of hand in the mosh pit and things were being thrown and hecticness)
for the less hardcore rock lovers among us
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Coals of Juniper (instrumental)
Scarlet Hill
the Ranks (bagged me a new t-shirt)
jersey
for the dancing fools
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superlative
Cr8 (dj)
and the hip-hoppers
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Remix’d
The accoustic sessions:
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Arlyn Culwick (accompanied by Stephen Wirth) – Arlyn’s voice is UH-MAZING!!! Wow! Also, got a cd of him covering Donovan’s “Young but growing”.
Miles – his guitaring left me speechless…oh my wowness!!!
Molly And I – who were also the Ranks, with lead/drummer switching and bassist and keyboardist switching…classic.
Crossingpoint (another hardcore one) was on the line-up but ended up not playing because the first night things went on way past the planned stopping time (i heard some people from another camp next to us came and complained about the noise and the lateness)…but it’s all good cos they sent me a tweet and apologised for not playing (shweeet!!!)
- Did I leave out anyone?
Anyway, I tweeted about Arise as much as I could and took as many pics as I could before the battery on my phone gave out on me so if you’re on twitter search for #arisefest. I also posted a few pics on my flickr page.
2008 in Review
Posted on: December 1, 2008
Year in review – 2008
This will be my last post for the year. It’s a super long one, but you have a few weeks to get through it…so here goes!
New year’s resolutions for 2008
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1. laugh more –> check
2. learn a new language –> half check (2 languages actually, still don’t speak them, but understand them a lot better)
3. make friends in bosch –> check
4. love God, love people –> ongoing
5. strive for perfection –> ongoing
God
One of my goals this year, was to love God more…and through that to love people more. Obviously this is a continuous goal…I don’t think I could ever say I have truly reached it, but I can definitely say I did make an effort to do so this year. And I can say that I saw very real fruits out of it – growing closer to God and building relationships with others and him just super challenging me (sometimes through those new relationships) and showing me areas of growth and just cleansing my heart and just de-cluttering the junk in there and leading and providing and being a Father and showing just how real and caring and compassionate and loving and forgiving and awesome he is.
Above all he really reminded me that He is real and He is in control and I just need to let Him take the lead.
Whewww…load off my shoulders!
Family
Still don’t have or think I will ever have the relationship I wish I had with my dad – too many unresolved issues. Don’t have the relationship I used to have with my mom – maybe it’s all part of growing up. My relationship with my sister continues to be super stable – so thankful for her. My relationship with my brother – since I moved out – has gone from him being a complete pain in the butt to him being a friend – and a partial pain in the butt, and so very thankful for him.
Friends
The crew remains to stay strong. We’ve had our fights, misunderstandings, share of back-stabbings, and (as Miss T says) more drama than a soapie…but we managed to work through them. Because as I’ve often pointed out, besides God and the YMCA, we have very very little in common, but there’s a whole lot of love. And they have gotten me through some tough times…and gotten me into a whole lot of trouble…but through it all we made it out together. And I hope that is a friendship that remains for a lifetime cos I really don’t want to ever lose any of them.
I have met some really really awesome people in Stell this year that I can now count among my list of friends (and I’m not talking about myspace/facebook friends, but real friends) and I am so very grateful for them. They have really been there for me through the painful growth that I underwent this year…and sometimes just having someone there to throw you a lifeline or a word of encouragement or just to say “I’m here” or just to listen as you try to figure stuff out is enough to get you through. So thank you so very much!
Work
Work is a whole lot of ups and downs. I love the company I work for. I love the people I work with. I don’t always like, nevermind love, the work I do. I love programming for fun…not so much as an 8 – 5 thing. I get so depressed at the thought of doing this for the next 40 or so years. I really really don’t see it happening. So I’ve decided to give it one more year of my life as I get everything in order and make sure that the next few steps are really from God and I’m not just going my own way. I have no doubt that God wanted me here at Indutech, or here in Stellenbosch for this period of my life. And I know that he will make a way when that period is over.
Play
I really had fun this year.
I guess not being around the crew all the time made our reunions that much more special. And because they had to be planned well in advance sometimes there were less of them, and therefore they became that more necessary. I really do miss those chicks sometimes.
And in Stell, living by myself has made it clear to me just how important it is to make time for people therefore I have had to make myself available for coffees and dinners and braais and movies…etc. And it has been a wonderful time of fellowshipping and getting to know people better and just having fun. Really has been great.
2008 highlight of the year
One thing that stands out above all others is Namibia. NamRock, Keetmanshoop, the church, the team…very fond memories that I shall treasure for life. And I am definitely going back again next year.
there are a host more highlights…but this one stick out the most
2008 lowlight of the year…and lessons learned
Harriet Beecher Stowe said “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone” and Sydney J. Harris said “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable” and David Grayson: “Looking back, I have this to regret…that too often when I loved, I did not say so”. So I fell for a guy – hard…painfully hard. In fact, as I told my friend, he’s the first guy I actually felt like I could put my heart on the line for…take the risk for. Except I didn’t tell him how I felt. What could have been, I’ll never know…maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference, and for a while I wondered what if, I lived on what ifs…then I decided to let it go. Lesson learnt 1: you lose nothing by telling someone you love them; you may lose out by not telling them. Lesson Learned 2: “When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us” (Alexander Graham Bell) so like Paul “… I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Philippians 4: 11 – or am in the process of learning or something. And I got to see what great friends I have through this little incident. My friends stood by me and were totally friends when i needed friends and again too grateful for words to describe. Love you all!
Plans for 2009
1. Need (not want, but need) to be at CSA 09.
2. Will be at Indutech (hopefully) for one more year
3. Stole this part from Brett, but it pretty much says what I would have said, just better…
And so 2009 will be a year of attempting to love the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and strength and mind and my neighbour as myself (Matthew 22). It will be a year of seeking to love and reach out to and befriend ‘the least of these’ (Matthew 25) and to look after the orphan and the widow (religion that God sees as pure and faultless, James 1). A year of striving to live such a good life (as an alien and stranger to this world) among the pagans that though they accuse me of doing wrong they will see my good deeds and glorify God (1 Peter 2). A year of living as an ambassador of God and His Kingdom (2 Corinthians 5) and being everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him (2 Corinthians 2) because the love of Christ compels me. A year of throwing off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and running with perseverance the race marked out for me (Hebrews 12) and of whatever i do, whether word or deed, doing it all in the name of Jesus Christ and working at it with all my heart as working for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3). I will seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6) and trust Him to add everything i need and more and i will do this by not conforming any longer to the pattern of this world, but by being transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12) so that i can know God’s will. I will make disciples (Matthew 28) and teach them to obey everything He has commanded me and be a witness to him locally and abroad (Acts 1). I will continue to wrestle with Acts 2 and 3 and the church that is portrayed there and the reality of the church in the world today and where the two can and need to be closer together. And every day i will try and live a life that denies myself, takes up my cross and follows Jesus (Luke 9).
Thanks for reading and thanks for a great year and see you in the next one.
