Jonathan Hitchcock - Vhata Vas Hyah

A year ago today, on the 20th of February, 2005, I arrived by bus in the small town of Stellenbosch. My new boss, Gideon, picked me up from the bus-stop and took me for breakfast, and then to my new house. The next day, I started my first day of real work, in a real job.

It was quite a momentous occasion for me - I had spent seven years at Rhodes, outlasting almost everybody that I knew, and settling so deep into Grahamstown life that I could hardly imagine not being a part of it any more. Looking back, I am nothing but glad that I left - I have escape the rut that others have fallen into, and expanded in many areas. I miss the Good Old Days of Grahamstown, but life in Stellenbosch has its own attractions and its own charm. I've learned a lot, made many new friends, had many good times, and I'm generally pleased with the way it's turned out.

To a good year, and to many more, whereever they be!

Update: I AM NOT A GPRS EXPERT. I DO NOT WORK FOR MTN. I am just a guy who fiddled with his phone and managed to get it connected. Please, please, please stop leaving comments on this post asking me for help and requesting that I set your phone up for you. I know nothing about your phone. Please.

Now, dear Internet, because you are so mindless and inane that you can't tell the difference between one text box and another, I have disabled comments on this post. Now sod off and use your brain.

Original post below

One of the first things I did with my shiny new South African ID was to go and apply for an MTN contract. I spend a pantload of money on airtime, and it just makes sense for me to get a contract. A huge bonus, of course, is the nice phone I get with the contract. I chose the MyCall 100 contract, which gives me 100 free minutes, and 15 SMSes, for R59 per month (and I can get a 200 SMS bundle for an extra R45). And with this contract, I got the Nokia 6230i. It's a very pretty phone, and it can do lots of clever things. It has a camera, and I can send MMSes, and I can play nice music and I have all sorts of lovely toys.

The thing I really wanted, however, because I'm an incorrigible geek, was GPRS connectivity from my phone. I want to be able to whip my phone out of my pocket and google for something (or better yet, ask Spinach for something). I want to be able to ssh in and read my mail, or jump on IRC and find out if Sam is around. The web bit worked with minimal set up, but I could not connect using any of the applications I downloaded (MidPSSH, jmIrc, and WLIrc). I have managed to work out that this is because MTN sends me WAP settings, MMS settings, email settings, and Streaming settings (?), but not plain old GPRS settings.

Here is my solution, for the Nokia 6230i: In the "settings" menu, under "configuration", I went to "Personal configuration settings". I then chose to add a new setting, of type "Access Point", which I gave the name "MyMTN". Under "Access point settings", I chose GPRS as the data bearer, and then configured the bearer settings. I set the access point name to "myMTN", and used normal authentication. Apparently you can put in a username and password, but they are not required. I experimented with using "mtnwap", which sort of worked, but broke web access. Leaving them blank works best for me. Finally, back in the "configuration" menu, I set my new "MyMTN" setting as the preferred access point.

Now, when I connect with one of my applications, it selects MyMTN as the access point, and then asks me for authentication details. I just press "go" for both username and password (leaving them blank), and it works fine. If anybody knows how to stop it asking me for them, let me know, although I'm not too fussed.

Anyway, now I can geek away to my heart's content, and run up a huge contract bill.

My ex-landlady phoned me last night. Apparently there was some post for me at my old house. So I went to pick it up, and it was my South African ID book. I am now a South African citizen. It has been a long, long, long, long time coming. But now I can finally say that I am PSA!

This post is so late, it's not funny.

I live in Stellenbosch now, also known as the Boland. It is also home to Koos Kombuis and Valiant Swart. There is an awesome song by Koos Kombuis called "Lente in die Boland" (Springtime in Stellenbosch). Claire Hawkridge references it in her beautiful post from late last year. The song is awesome to listen to, it really gets you in the mood.

Here are the lyrics:

Lente in die Boland

by Koos Kombuis

Daar's 'n dorpie wat ek ken daar tussen die blou berge
En die lower van die eike oor die straat
Dis die land van Adam Tas en Simon van der Stel
Waar die mense van Gauteng soos die Capies kan leer praat
Dis daar waar ek gewot het, ek het daar leer skryf en lees
Maar die meeste van die tyd was ek in 'n party gees
Wie kan die werk verstaan, wie kan die drank weerstaan
As die onderdorp jou roep vir 'n groot, groot fees

Chorus:
Dit was lente in die boland, in ons mees gesuipte jaar
Daar was Tassenberg in elke glas, al die hormone het baljaar
Stellenbosch was niemandsland, eksamens ook net om die draai
Maar ons was jonk gewees en ons was dronk gewees
Die hele lewe was 'n bring en braai

In die Akker en Die Dros het ons oor naweke gedrink
en vir vriende en mooi meisies hulle glase vol geskink
Na die riviertjie by Die Laan het ons al steierend gegaan
om te kafoefel en te vry in die lig van die maan
Ek het haar daar ontmoet, sy was so oulik en so soet
Die nooentjie van my drome, ja, dis waar
Nou woon ons in 'n huisie, maar ek onthou nog daardie wysie
Van die gejol en die gefuif van ons beste jaar

Roughly translated:

There's a village that I know between the blue mountains
And the lower branches of the oaks over the street
It's the land of Adam Tas and Simon van der Stel
Where the people from Gauteng can learn to speak like the Capies again
It's there where I studied, it's there where I learnt to read and write
But most of the time I was in a party spirit
Who can understand the work? Who can resist the drink?
When the village is calling you for a great, great festival.

Chorus:
It was Springtime in the Boland, in our most drunken year
There was Tassenberg in every glass, all the hormones were raging,
Stellenbosch was Terra Nullius, with exams just around the corner
But we were young, and we were drunk.
Our whole life was a bring and braai.

In the Akker and the Dros, we had our weekend drinks,
And filled the glasses of friends and pretty girls
To the river at Die Laan we went, staggering
To kafoefel and to vry, by the light of the moon,
I met her there. She was so sweet and so cute,
The girl of my dreams, it's true.
Now we live in a house, but I still recall the tune
Of the parties and joyfulness of our best year.

Dis mooi. (Thanks to Deon Erasmus for the translation help).

Happy New Year anoll.

I went to Joburg for New Years, to see Tim and the Family girls. Let me tell you a bit about my holiday.

We went out for Thai food on Thursday night, and for drinks on Friday night, where I saw Avri, which was nice. The main event, however, was Saturday, of course. For this, we went to Makro and bought ingredients for Pino Coladas, Strawberry Daiquiris, Mojitos, and Frozen Margaritas. I'd like to say for the record that as we were walking out of Makro, for the first time ever, I could actually see myself living in Joburg, being a real person, and living a real life. Not now, not soon, but one day, maybe.

A bunch of people came round to Tim's complex (named "Graceland", for some reason. I couldn't find any fat, dead singers on the toilets, but still...), and we made cocktails and swam and played volleyball and had a braai. It was good. I took lots of really awesome photos. Then I put my camera down to let Avri and Cindy out the gate, and ten seconds later, when I went to pick it up again, it was gone. That was US$350 worth of excellent camera, and a whole bunch of priceless photographs. We were in the common area of the complex, so it could have been anyone from the area. Most unfortunate.

After the braai, we all trooped round to Guy Taylor's parents' house for the actual New Year's party. The house was absolutely massive, two swimming pools anoll. Very good. After screwing up my introduction to his mother (just because his surname is Taylor doesn't mean hers is), we went outside. His parents and their friends were being quiet and civilised inside. At one point, I decided I needed to go to the bathroom, so went inside. Now, the main thing about glass is that its see-through. That's the point of glass. That's why we use it. But why would you make a door out of glass? Honestly? It's just asking for trouble. Anyway, after I had recovered from a near-broken nose, wrung most of the red wine out of my shirt, apologised to the surprised adults on the other side of the door, and returned to the party outside, very embarrassed. Most unfortunate.

Just before twelve, we were invited to go upstairs for the countdown. Midnight came and went, as it tends to do. We then went back outside, whereupon Toni decided that I needed to go into the pool. I grabbed the nearest thing I could to stop myself going in, which was a tree. No, it wasn't a tree. It was a bloody great pot plant. So there was soil all over the pool, and I was sodden, as were my phone and wallet, which had been in my pocket. R.I.P. phone. Most unfortunate.

Finally, on our way out, I was trailing wet clothes everywhere, and they have a tendency to catch onto things. I don't know whether it was a two thousand year old Ming vase, or just a glass bowl, but it went *pangalangalang* in a most heart-rending way as it hit the driveway. Most unfortunate.

By Monday, I was ready to just get home, please, with no further incident. So Tim drove me to the airport, where we discovered that I'd missed my flight. Most unfortunate.

I managed to get on standby, and got home in the end. Also, my phone started working two days later, although it was too late as I'd already bought another one. All in all, the weekend gets a 9, though, it really was fantastic. Thanks to Megan for the photos. She, too, by the way, is absolutely fantastic.

To round off the whole episode, Tim got his car stolen from Rivonia on Thursday night, with two sets of golf clubs, a Nokia hands-free kit, a CD rack, and his ID book in it. Which really sucks.

In other news, I have just handed my thesis in.