lions and dogs and muggers, oh my...
firstly a warning: todays post has more than its usual load of pictures.
right... on to the good stuff.
last night moonflake and i visited my parents. supper was great (stew with bacon bits and stout for flavouring... mmmm). my dad arrived home a little late (everyone else had already eaten) due to some meeting he had attended, but when he got back he gave moonflake and myself a lion's claw each. the claw is set in a little silver whatsit so it can be hung from a chain or something.
very cool. my dad is keeping the main claw which is scarily big when you stop and think about the size of the paw that it must come from...
anyway. after chatting for a bit and watching a little tv we were on our way back home.
upon arrival at the gate to our flat, a small dog runs in ahead of the car. i park the car thinking we're going to have to open the gate again to let the poor dog out, but while locking up the car moonflake notices the poor thing is shivering quite a bit so i go over to it and pet it on the head.
lo and behold the poor thing is quaking like a bad natural disaster movie because she's soaked to the bone. she must have fallen into the canal or something.
well she had no tags or collar, and had a slightly snaggled ear, so we assumed it must be a stray or a runaway. now we can't take it upstairs with us for the night because the flat allows no pets and the garden is a real adventure to get to if the poor thing needed to get out urgently in the middle of the night.
also we had no food in the house for it (unless it would have eaten provitas). so we pack everything from the back seat of the car into the boot and i pick her up and put her into the car. she was very quiet and friendly and i think she was happy to get a little attention and get out of the cold. moonflake got a rag which i keep in the car to wipe the windscreen and used it as a blanket/towel as it was just the right size. now with dog comfy and wrapped up in the back seat we went off to try discover a 24 hour vet/ animal shelter (as it was about 10pm).
now the only vets i know about are in claremont, so we drive through to there and quickly find the blue cross animal hospital... the parking lot has cars in it and there are lights on in reception so i park the car and get out to go check if they are open and will take a stray. also in the parking lot is a car with 4 people sitting in it.
so i cross over to the door and try look inside through the blinds.... it looks deserted, so i look for opening hours and find an intercom which i ring. while i'm doing this i notice an occupent from the other car has gotten out and was walking towards my car (where luckily moonflake had locked the door)... "uh-oh" i think to myself and prepare to head back, but then he seems to go past the car, and since i noticed an entrance to some housing just past where i had parked i assumed he was going there. still i decided that it was time to go.
i take a few steps away from the door and i hear a noise from the intercom which could have been an aswer but was (in hindsight) actually the thing hanging up after no response. so a turn back to say "hello?" and ring again when i hear a thick xhosa accent, slightly slurred, wafting back from my car asking if anything was wrong. hell yes something was wrong... a dodgy dude had come between me and my car in a poorly lit parking lot. as i return to the car this guy's buddy comes out and crosses over to my car too.
explaining that we have a stray and are looking for a 24h vet, these two drunkenly try to explain something about how they work here and the back is open enough to let a dog in or something... the slurring and accent were not helping understanding, neither was the adrenalin that decided now was a good time to come out, neither did the fact that my brain was checking their hands for weapons while simultaneously mapping a path to the car door around these two that didn't leave my flanked with one of them behind me, and checking the whereabouts of my wallet, keys, phone, and knife.
thankfully i have played d&d enough to get my back to the car while keeping them both in my forward quadrant, all the while looking intrested in what they had to say and explaining how i'll just take the dog to another vet, while being prepared react to sudden movement.
a quick knock on the car window to signify that i'm ready to dash in an lock resulted in moonflake unlocking my door and a slid in and slammed the door while explaining (again) that its ok thanks... we'll go to another vet.
and by that i meant get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. now i may be jumping to conclusions but those 2 were super dodgy. i doubt either of them worked there ("the back door is open enough to get the dog in..." what?) and they were either attempting to move in position to mug me, or were going to ask for money to take the dog ("we're not really supposed to do this, but we can blah blah blah...") and then wait till we were gone and throw her back onto the street. i've seen people do the whole crowding, agressive, prep to be mugged thing and that is waht these two were doing. moving in closer than needed and talking lots, switching from one guy to the other and back to keep a person unbalanced and not concentrating. i was expecting them to ask for 20 rand to take the dog and then jump me as soon as the wallet appeared... fat fucking chance.
so we fly out of there like a bat out of the proverbial hot place. there was so much adrenalin in me at this point that my foot was shaking on the clutch whenever i changed gears. we decided to pull over and call my dad since he works in claremont and generally deals with sam's (our dog's) health. so we pull into a garage with 24h store and park. i get the bright idea to ask one of the paramedics that were standing around having a cigarette/ coffee/ whatever.
turns out one of them knows of a 24h animal place in rosmead opposite the rosmead spar, so we go there. (thanks guys... you were a real help:)
we get there and it is 24 hours and they do take strays. a short formfilling later and our little stray was whisked off in the arms of some caring man who tells us he will phone all the vets tomorrow and see about finding the owner. he also thins that she has an owner but has been stray for a while now because she was starving. also she was very old he tells us. thanking him we left to go home to sleep knowing that we had saved a poor dog from hypothermia, probably got it a meal and warm place to stay, and avoided being stabbed/ shot. life was good :)
right... enough of the doggy saga and on to some interesting and humorous stuffs.
i found a game for the nintendo ds called "londonia gothics" and clicked through their site (all in japanese) only to discover that there is a rather nasty enemy called a deathbag (see picture). it looks like you can get a bunch of dresses for the main character and dress her up (her name is alice) and stuff... difficult to figure out but it looks cool.
meanwhile the guys over at liksang.com (exporters of games and related) have an amazing piece of hardware for sale (see picture below for proof). a "gba opening tool" for removing the screws in your gba. it a screwdriver guys... admittedly the screws are funny and you can't use a normal screwdriver, but seriously...
hey :) today is my lucky day 'cos i won schpat's 1000'th visitor competition. i went over to his page, read his blog and his counter was at 995. i go read a comment and then return to his main page and bam! 1000. i'm sure he'll post the pics i took as proof.
more gaming news:
pheonix wright, ace attorney is on its way... you play an attorney. you don't need to figure out what is going on, you just need to find a way of proving it in court. this means you have to talk to all the other characters in the game, collecting their stories and evidence and building an airtight case. sounds like loads of fun.
i'm still waiting for trauma center: under the knife. i finally found a (tiny) picture of the boxart so i thought i'd post it here :)
in real life news:
scientists have unveiled the chimp genome. if you found the schpatdope on dna interesting then check it out. they're going to uncover loads of info about the human genome through comparison... all good stuff.
and now to sign off with a picture of alice from londonia gothics (because its a cool picture!)
right... on to the good stuff.
last night moonflake and i visited my parents. supper was great (stew with bacon bits and stout for flavouring... mmmm). my dad arrived home a little late (everyone else had already eaten) due to some meeting he had attended, but when he got back he gave moonflake and myself a lion's claw each. the claw is set in a little silver whatsit so it can be hung from a chain or something.
very cool. my dad is keeping the main claw which is scarily big when you stop and think about the size of the paw that it must come from...
anyway. after chatting for a bit and watching a little tv we were on our way back home.
upon arrival at the gate to our flat, a small dog runs in ahead of the car. i park the car thinking we're going to have to open the gate again to let the poor dog out, but while locking up the car moonflake notices the poor thing is shivering quite a bit so i go over to it and pet it on the head.
lo and behold the poor thing is quaking like a bad natural disaster movie because she's soaked to the bone. she must have fallen into the canal or something.
well she had no tags or collar, and had a slightly snaggled ear, so we assumed it must be a stray or a runaway. now we can't take it upstairs with us for the night because the flat allows no pets and the garden is a real adventure to get to if the poor thing needed to get out urgently in the middle of the night.
also we had no food in the house for it (unless it would have eaten provitas). so we pack everything from the back seat of the car into the boot and i pick her up and put her into the car. she was very quiet and friendly and i think she was happy to get a little attention and get out of the cold. moonflake got a rag which i keep in the car to wipe the windscreen and used it as a blanket/towel as it was just the right size. now with dog comfy and wrapped up in the back seat we went off to try discover a 24 hour vet/ animal shelter (as it was about 10pm).
now the only vets i know about are in claremont, so we drive through to there and quickly find the blue cross animal hospital... the parking lot has cars in it and there are lights on in reception so i park the car and get out to go check if they are open and will take a stray. also in the parking lot is a car with 4 people sitting in it.
so i cross over to the door and try look inside through the blinds.... it looks deserted, so i look for opening hours and find an intercom which i ring. while i'm doing this i notice an occupent from the other car has gotten out and was walking towards my car (where luckily moonflake had locked the door)... "uh-oh" i think to myself and prepare to head back, but then he seems to go past the car, and since i noticed an entrance to some housing just past where i had parked i assumed he was going there. still i decided that it was time to go.
i take a few steps away from the door and i hear a noise from the intercom which could have been an aswer but was (in hindsight) actually the thing hanging up after no response. so a turn back to say "hello?" and ring again when i hear a thick xhosa accent, slightly slurred, wafting back from my car asking if anything was wrong. hell yes something was wrong... a dodgy dude had come between me and my car in a poorly lit parking lot. as i return to the car this guy's buddy comes out and crosses over to my car too.
explaining that we have a stray and are looking for a 24h vet, these two drunkenly try to explain something about how they work here and the back is open enough to let a dog in or something... the slurring and accent were not helping understanding, neither was the adrenalin that decided now was a good time to come out, neither did the fact that my brain was checking their hands for weapons while simultaneously mapping a path to the car door around these two that didn't leave my flanked with one of them behind me, and checking the whereabouts of my wallet, keys, phone, and knife.
thankfully i have played d&d enough to get my back to the car while keeping them both in my forward quadrant, all the while looking intrested in what they had to say and explaining how i'll just take the dog to another vet, while being prepared react to sudden movement.
a quick knock on the car window to signify that i'm ready to dash in an lock resulted in moonflake unlocking my door and a slid in and slammed the door while explaining (again) that its ok thanks... we'll go to another vet.
and by that i meant get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. now i may be jumping to conclusions but those 2 were super dodgy. i doubt either of them worked there ("the back door is open enough to get the dog in..." what?) and they were either attempting to move in position to mug me, or were going to ask for money to take the dog ("we're not really supposed to do this, but we can blah blah blah...") and then wait till we were gone and throw her back onto the street. i've seen people do the whole crowding, agressive, prep to be mugged thing and that is waht these two were doing. moving in closer than needed and talking lots, switching from one guy to the other and back to keep a person unbalanced and not concentrating. i was expecting them to ask for 20 rand to take the dog and then jump me as soon as the wallet appeared... fat fucking chance.
so we fly out of there like a bat out of the proverbial hot place. there was so much adrenalin in me at this point that my foot was shaking on the clutch whenever i changed gears. we decided to pull over and call my dad since he works in claremont and generally deals with sam's (our dog's) health. so we pull into a garage with 24h store and park. i get the bright idea to ask one of the paramedics that were standing around having a cigarette/ coffee/ whatever.
turns out one of them knows of a 24h animal place in rosmead opposite the rosmead spar, so we go there. (thanks guys... you were a real help:)
we get there and it is 24 hours and they do take strays. a short formfilling later and our little stray was whisked off in the arms of some caring man who tells us he will phone all the vets tomorrow and see about finding the owner. he also thins that she has an owner but has been stray for a while now because she was starving. also she was very old he tells us. thanking him we left to go home to sleep knowing that we had saved a poor dog from hypothermia, probably got it a meal and warm place to stay, and avoided being stabbed/ shot. life was good :)
right... enough of the doggy saga and on to some interesting and humorous stuffs.
i found a game for the nintendo ds called "londonia gothics" and clicked through their site (all in japanese) only to discover that there is a rather nasty enemy called a deathbag (see picture). it looks like you can get a bunch of dresses for the main character and dress her up (her name is alice) and stuff... difficult to figure out but it looks cool.
meanwhile the guys over at liksang.com (exporters of games and related) have an amazing piece of hardware for sale (see picture below for proof). a "gba opening tool" for removing the screws in your gba. it a screwdriver guys... admittedly the screws are funny and you can't use a normal screwdriver, but seriously...
hey :) today is my lucky day 'cos i won schpat's 1000'th visitor competition. i went over to his page, read his blog and his counter was at 995. i go read a comment and then return to his main page and bam! 1000. i'm sure he'll post the pics i took as proof.
more gaming news:
pheonix wright, ace attorney is on its way... you play an attorney. you don't need to figure out what is going on, you just need to find a way of proving it in court. this means you have to talk to all the other characters in the game, collecting their stories and evidence and building an airtight case. sounds like loads of fun.
i'm still waiting for trauma center: under the knife. i finally found a (tiny) picture of the boxart so i thought i'd post it here :)
in real life news:
scientists have unveiled the chimp genome. if you found the schpatdope on dna interesting then check it out. they're going to uncover loads of info about the human genome through comparison... all good stuff.
and now to sign off with a picture of alice from londonia gothics (because its a cool picture!)
posted by zenstar at 10:51 AM
3 Comments:
Sounds like they were setting up for a crime of opportunity, since I can't imagine that lying in wait at the parking lot of the Blue Cross will net you much in the way of victims. How old were they? They could also have just been looking for trouble rather than actually looking to steal or mug, like the dude who gave Al and I hassles one night in Obs. Adrenalin can be a motherfucker. When I got my cellphone jacked at knifepoint near Firleigh, I sprinted home, grabbed my hockey stick and ran around looking for the dude for a good while. Needless to say I didn't find him, or I might have a criminal record >=)
Oh, and wd on the 1k post cap =) You sure it's not another 'slightly edited' cap like your last time? =P
and everyone tells me i'm paranoid - last time i was in ct i got in the car to discover my phone was missing... there's me body-searching (minus the glove bits) some beggar and finding my cell - and all his friends lurking around flashing me dark looks.
i'm seriously grateful that i actually know how to fight - aside from the aggravation that i could have lost all my contacts and info (yeah, i still haven't backup that stuff up, 1 year later), i also went through that adrenaline rush: thank you SA!!!
w-v: Consider Tricks Because People Just Fork Out
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