adrian is rad

I’ve been really enjoying going through and reading a number of the pieces on this list of best of journalism 2009. Possibly my favorite is the Michael Lewis piece on the financial collapse of Iceland.

It’s been hot here. Hot like I remember from Boston, from Pittsburgh. Drenched with sweat and skin melting off your skeleton hot. But the heat wave broke the last couple days, particularly with the rain today.

Not really. But the place I lived was torn down and the new house that was built there was sold for that much.

Last night I put ice cream between two Hob Nob milk chocolate digestives. It was incredible.

Some days I have no choice but come to the conclusion that I’m the smartest person alive.

I bought a bike this week. It’s road bike, a few years old. It runs well. I’m going to modify the set up a bit to make it more into an around-town bike, but I’m liking it so far.

(I’m definitely getting rid of the red bar tape.)

I never mentioned this. It’s a start.

It’s appropriate to say “I’m just looking around” in response to “Can I help you?” in just about any store, except hardware stores. You should always be looking for something in a hardware store unless you want funny looks. If you don’t have something in mind, I suggest “picture hooks.”

I got new scissors today. The packaging is marked “Cutting Series.” I wonder what other series of scissors they have?

Two instances:

• A couple weeks ago, running late for lunch with the friend, I parked at the wrong restaurant, so went to get back into my car to drive to the right one. I got in the left front seat and looked for the steering wheel.
• A few days ago, distracted by a whole host of things, I made a left on red. That is not legal in South Africa.

Remember that time I wanted to get new underwear and I couldn’t find where to get the ones I wanted. I went to Macy’s and Nordstrom’s and all those places and you said, no, you should just try Walgreen’s. I said, no, no, Walgreen’s won’t have them! I mean, Walgreen’s!

And then I found them at Walgreen’s?

That was funny.

A runner got arrested for flicking off SA President Jacob Zuma.

Maxwele was jogging on Cape Town’s De Waal Drive just before 6pm last Wednesday when a convoy of six government cars sped past him.

“I waved them away, as if to say ‘hamba’, because of the noise. After that a black BMW X5 pulled up and three guys jumped out, pointing guns at me,” Maxwele told Sowetan.

Say you want about the current or past US administrations but I think they would at least respect one’s right to flick them off.

Part 1: It’s raining on my plants. This wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t in my room. My hats—I have a collection, six, hanging by my plants—are also getting wet. The carpets. But no electronics. That’s good. The hallway above was flooded by the cleaning lady. She is coming down to clean up the mess. No big damage.

Part 2: I took a minibus taxi for the first time in Cape Town today. (I’ve taken them in rural areas before.) They’re pretty easy: just flag one down, get on, pay the fare and then tell them where you want to get off. They usually have a two person team: the driver and the shouter. Well, I’ll call him the shouter—he shouts out the destination and also takes your fare. On the way back, the shouter’s line was “Cape Town! Waterfront! Table Mountain! 2010!@” I laughed at this along with some of the other passengers.