Thinking In Orange » facebook http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com Thouranges... Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:37:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Childhood memories http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/2007/childhood-memories/ http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/2007/childhood-memories/#comments Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:58:52 +0000 Alex http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/?p=42 So I updated my facebook question today. I didn’t like their selections, so I thought I’d make one up myself. The first thing to pop into my head was “If you were a kitchen utensil, which utensil would you be?” I’ll give you some hints: Meat mallet – because I’m always beating on everybody; Spatula because I’m always the one trying to get the most out of a situation; Cleaver – I cause division everywhere I go. Yeah… not that great, so I went with the second candidate: What’s your favorite childhood memory?

Mine is of my dad swinging my sister and I around on his arms. My dad’s a builder (an honest one – they do exist) and when he got home in the evenings my sister & I used to run down to his workshop to greet him, he’d usually meet us halfway there. We’d each grab an arm and he’d spin us around in circles with our feet off the ground.

I remember thinking that I must have the strongest dad in the world.  I also remember being jealous of my sister if she got there first and got an extra swing, and I’m sure she felt the same if I beat her out the door. Silly really.

I suppose some folks would feel bad for my dad not having a son, and while he did and still does have a wealth of ‘boy’ knowledge to share, he never made us feel that we were any less than he could have wanted. He did however do his best to teach us some mechanics. Some of  that has stayed with me, I’m happy to admit.

He phoned me today to tell me that pending some blood test results on Thursday, he’s got the all clear from his doctor for the bladder cancer he was diagnosed with 2 years ago. Spare a prayer for us that the test results come back good …

]]> http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/2007/childhood-memories/feed/ 0 Ten years on and still the same http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/2007/ten-years-on-and-still-the-same/ http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/2007/ten-years-on-and-still-the-same/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:48:31 +0000 Alex http://blog.alexvanniekerk.com/?p=25 My sister-in-law sent me an invite earlier this week to join Facebook. I was quite surprised, she’s a neurologist, I’m a techie, and she got there first? ah well.

So I joined. (Search for me as ‘Alex van Niekerk’ if you’re on there, I could use some extra friends, my friends count is pretty dismal) Then I started browsing around, found my old high schools on there.

This shouldn’t surprise you: I was not popular in high school. I wasn’t unpopular either. Mostly I just wasn’t noticed. Skinny, pale, not rich, quite quiet & introverted, you know the type. Since then I’ve found my niche. I’m quite happy with who I turned out to be and the life I’ve made for myself.

But browsing through the photo’s and friends of the popular folk from high school was quite weird. They all still stick together. And they all still look to damn good. I’m quite sure that karma was supposed to make them fat & ugly by now. It took me back to that same place I was 10+ years ago. Again I felt like the pale, left out geek (I’m not that skinny anymore) and it was surprising how raw it can still feel.

Don’t get me wrong. I know who I am, what makes me me, and it’s not being a groupie. I don’t actually want to be a member of the ‘get-along gang’. I’m just annoyed to know that it still exists and it’s still beyond my reach.

*Sigh*

I have sent only one friend request to an ex school person, and I think I’ll keep it that way. Keep moving on, some issues are too old to redress.

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