Rowan Spazzoli

I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect on what happened on Monday. In the space of a few hours my life and some of the lives of people close to me were shaken up. We lost a huge amount of stuff, including laptops, phones, wallets and cars (one written off in an accident and the other rendered useless when the keys were stolen).

In spite of all this, we were incredibly lucky.

My friend heard the thieves in the house but thought it was me getting a glass of water. If he had gone outside there is no telling what they would have done to him. He was lucky.

The thieves came into my room armed with a massive knife from the kitchen, which they dropped just outside the door to the room when they left. I slept through all of this. I have no idea how they would have reacted if I had woken up. I was lucky.

The friend that came to rescue us from this situation slipped off the road and rolled her car, destroying it completely. Yet she was able to walk away almost completely unharmed, with only a bruise on one side of her body. She was lucky.

The Luckiest

The upside of this whole situation was how lucky we were. Things were bad but they could have been drastically worse. And the items can all be replaced, we can’t.

To top this all off, there was a strange cosmic moment that happened at the car accident. Once the car came to a stop, my friend’s phone, which had had no music playing before, suddenly started sounding out a few chords. And as the dust settled and she realised she was okay, she begun hearing the music playing next to her. She recognised it immediately.

The song was “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds.

We were the luckiest.

Image was taken from my residence at UCT in 2011 🙂

Blog number: 166/365

Song of the day: The Luckiest (About Time Version) – Ben Folds 

With all that’s gone on in the last two days, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with what needs to be done. There’s a massive list of admin to sort out including:

• Applying for a new drivers license
• Getting a new phone and computer
• Getting new prescriptions for my meds
• Ordering new keys for my apartment and for my car (which includes getting certified copies of various documents)
• Getting the insurance sorted out on every single one of these items
• Fetching my car from Malmesbury, where it was towed to
• Catching up on work I missed
• Organizing a new SIM card
• Getting back in to my accounts
• Getting a new credit card

To be honest, it makes me feel rather anxious, especially considering I’m supposed to be going to Joburg and Sedgefield next week. Also, the financial impact of this all is massive.

But I’m going to take it one at a time. There’s no rush, and if I let people down it’s entirely understandable. I’ll rebuild, piece by piece.

Image was taken on our 2016 trip to sedgefield

Blog 165/365

Song of the day: O fortuna – Carl Orff

There’s something special that happens when a group of people go camping (or, generally, when they’re away together on holiday). There comes a point at night when the conversation always seems to go further than it would under any other circumstances.

The evenings will start with general small talk. But at some point the conversation will turn towards taboo topics. And everyone begins to open up.

I’m not sure why this is the case. I do know that it is in these rare moments and conversations that I’ve learnt an incredible amount about myself and others.

I don’t think these conversions should ever be planned or forced. But it is possible to create the environment for them, and the opportunity for people to open up .

They’re a special little pocket that allow for people to be vulnerable. And, more importantly, it allows them to develop their friendship in a way that might not have been possible before.

Image was taken at the farm we’re staying on tonight 🙂 (image isn’t loading as the signal on the farm is bad but I’ll upload it soon)

Song of the day: Adele- Someone like you

Blog 147/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

This morning I put on a blue v-neck shirt that I’ve been wearing for years. It’s always been just the right size. But today it felt tight. Really tight. And in my semi-conscious pre-coffee state I decided that I had officially become fat.

It was on my mind the whole day. When I chose lunch, I decided to go for the healthy salad option. I didn’t have my usual mid morning snack. And I resolved to start running more.

While walking on the promenade this evening Jared was eyeing me out with suspicion. Clearly he had noticed I had gotten fat too.

“Is that my shirt?” he said.

It was

And it was 3 sizes smaller than my shirt.

And then we went and grabbed ice creams.

Stand up comedy

On an entirely different note, I’ve been contemplating doing stand up comedy for a while. I really enjoy telling stories and love the thrill of public speaking. So this evening I committed to doing a stand up comedy gig at some point this year. I’m going to try and find an open mic night or something and give it a go. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the second famous comedian by the name Rowan.

Image was taken post-ice cream. Holly, I know you’re reading this and I’m really sorry about the picture. You can shout at me next time you see me.

Song of the day: North End Nightlife - Headphone Activist

Blog 107/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

One of my closest friends moved out of Cape Town at the end of last year. Before he moved, we spent a significant amount of time together, usually two or three times a week, where we mostly played loads of computer games. I was quite bleak that he left, but it was definitely the best decision for him.

This evening we played Seven Days to Die online while Skyping. The game is a massive, open, post apocalyptic world where you basically just walk around and try to survive. You can build stuff, scavenge or kill zombies.

We played for almost three hours, pausing only briefly for water. Our digital characters explored alongside each other while we had a really in depth catch up. It felt like we were in the same room, and the distance between us was suddenly nothing.

I found it the whole experience really soothing. Because I realized that even if we were on complete opposite sides of the world, as long as we had an internet connection we’d always be able to hangout, just like old times

Image is from the game, when the land rendering glitched out and we were left with these bizarre cliffs

Thesis update: no major progress from yesterday

Blog 59/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here