Slow dancing in a burning room

John Mayer plays music with such passion. I love his music. As you can see by the entry title, I'm currently listening to his song "Slow dancing in a burning room" (the live in Los Angeles version) and just feeling pretty chilled. His songs always put me in that kinda mood. His cover version of Free Fallin' I especially love.

He's also pretty famous for songs such as "Waiting on the world to change", "Heartbreak Warfare", "Your body is a wonderland", "Gravity" and many others that I need not mention. However his version of "Free Fallin" sticks with me the most. Perhaps because - when I was little, say 7 or 8 - my dad used to drive both my sister and me to school. Those cold Johannesburg mornings. Back then we didn't own a cd player in the car, and he used to have old cassette tapes. I'd say this is where most of my musical taste and preferences originated from. He used to play the song "Free Fallin" by Tom Petty every few days and we all ended up either singing along or nodding our heads to the beat of the music in approval. It was difficult not to.

Here's the Tom Petty version (quite a large majority of people don't even realise it was originally done by him in 1989).

Enough about Tom Petty. A close friend of mine recommended an awesome new series to me, namely The Inbetweeners. I was a bit wary to begin with, because with British comedy I either love it or hate it. This though, I definitely love. It's highly entertaining, and pretty relate-able to those of you who have ever felt like you were/are an outcast. Definitely worth the watch. I've already finished watching the first season in 2 days, ha!

It's great to watch if you want to dictate the mood you're in, especially for my current circumstances. It puts me in such a happy mood. As you well know, I recently parted ways with the love of my life. This I'm slowly coming to terms with. Unfortunately however - it seems that when it rains, it pours. My aunt passed away a few days ago, I only found out yesterday via my sister. It really kinda surprised me, no one saw it coming. One day she was fine, the next day she was struggling to move and bedridden, the next day she was just...gone. Death is an interesting thing in life. We all are going to die at some stage, it's inevitable. Sure, that sounds pretty bleak, but let's be realistic. So it's difficult to be angry about it.

She really was an amazing person. To quote my facebook status :

"rip auntie shirley. your loving, kind soul will be missed. i know you will be with us in spirit. ♥"

She was definitely one of my favourite people in the world. Honestly, I only saw her once or twice every year or two. But when I did see her, she was so inspiring, so caring, so kind. It's difficult trying to come to grips with the fact that someone like that is suddenly no longer with us. I never even got to say goodbye, which kinda saddens me. However - with death - there really is nothing you can do to make yourself feel better. It doesn't even really matter what people say to you to try and console you, it simply matters that they were there. So thank you to those of you who were, I really appreciate it. I have made peace with it, although I will miss her forever.

On a similar note, my favourite Irishman around Union Square (my apartment complex) left us yesterday. That was pretty sad. He definitely raised most of our spirits whenever he cracked some wise ass joke or simply just spoke his mind. He was very opinionated, and got very passionate about proving his points. I can appreciate someone like that, and will definitely miss him. Good luck with you future endeavors Patrick.

Some group shots from his goodbye last night~

Two weeks left and I'll be outta here too. Slightly sad, but I will definitely be looking forward to it. "I'm so excite!"

On another British television note, An Idiot Abroad 3 has been confirmed. I'm so fucking happy about the announcement :D
I loved both seasons so far, and being a huge Karl Pilkington fan - this fits right onto my list of "awesome things I must watch". Click here for the actual announcement.

The more and more I think about it, the more realistic studying in South Africa seems. Not only will I be close to friends and family, it'll be much cheaper, easier to organise (no visa's, flights etc) and my dad has an empty apartment in Cape Town which I could use to get myself settled. Also - a big part of wanting to study in Ireland was, of course, the fact that the person I would hopefully see on a regular basis would be there, to share and experience life and love with on a daily basis. Now that that isn't exactly a certain option anymore, I'm swaying to the former option, with the latter being unlikely unless something drastic happens (with my current mindset/outlook).

Cape Town really is amazing. I miss the weather, the beaches, the people, the nightlife, everything. I better finish this off quickly because I'm fucking starved and my pizza is getting cold, plus the next two days I work consecutive double shifts (so I don't really want to stay up TOO late). In closing, matching up with my "Cape Town appreciation" theme, here is one of my favourite pictures of me in CT, on a hike up Lion's Head. Can't wait to do that hike again.

Almost seems like I'm walking on the clouds, wouldn't you agree? And yes, I do realise I'm as white as the clouds. I do not tan, such is my curse.

Goodnight ladies and gentlemen.