Day 174 - "You're on candid camera!"

Thursday, 17 May 2007
Day 174 - "You’re on candid camera!"


I have been staying over at a friend’s house this past week. You all remember that I stayed with ‘ThisIsMe’ a few weeks back while her ‘better other’ was out of town. This week ‘ThisIsMe’ is out of town and her ‘better other’ and I are ‘looking after each other’.

They both stay a few kilometers out of town in a flat on a plot. Their landlord is an old friend of my dad who used to work with him. Last night, their landlord absolutely does the unthinkable…

He phones my dad and tells him, that he has got me, Christiaan, with him at one of the local clubs in Polokwane and I am wasted (like totally drunk of my rocker). My dad, after hearing the news, is apparently furious and ready to come and pick me up and I imagine never letting me see sunlight again. I can only imagine the expression on their faces last night.

Luckily he tells my dad he joked, before my dad storms out of the house. Probably not the best joke to make to the parents of a recovering heroin addict, but in his defense he doesn’t really know the story. The more I think about it, my parents probably skip a beat everytime that phone rings and I am not there. They’ve had their fare share of phone calls (from myself, friends and the police) revealing yet another stupid thing I’ve done. And for somebody to phone and actually make such a joke probably wasn’t something they wanted to hear.

While I normally don’t drink (that much) anymore or spend time (to often) in clubs – I am still very happy that I didn’t do any of that last night. We can all joke about it today, just relieved that is not my life anymore and for once it is not true anymore.

Day 173 - "The Blog Times"

Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Day 173 - "The Blog Times"


My mom and dad started reading my blog this week. Up to now, nobody in the house has read any of the blog entries. And I totally understand why. They don’t need a blog to tell them what they have been living through the past few months. They were there, they saw first hand what I was going through and they themselves experienced what it did to their own lives. No blog… no grouping of carefully picked words can even touch on the pain and despair, hurt and anger that sometimes lay in the house.

I knew that there would come a time where they probably would feel comfortable enough to experience some of it again. I was pleasantly surprised to hear they started reading it and they even suggested my brother start reading it as well. Even though I figured they would eventually be reading it, I think I was pretty honest with my feelings on those days, regardless of how they might be perceived when read in the future.

Most of the people at the office are also now reading the blog. I send the entries to their e-mail a few days after it has been posted. Deciding not to give them the online blog address was a very conscious decision. Since I share my feelings very openly I didn’t want people at the office to know daily exactly how I feel and this while sitting in the same office as me.

The purpose of this blog was always to be shared with anybody and everybody. I have not been proud of some of the things I have done and mentioned here, but it doesn’t make it any less true. I wonder how many people would let their family members or co-workers take a daily peek at their blogs?