Susantha

I'm not sure if you may remember Susantha? An international student from Sri Lanka who has zero computer skills and I ended up being his group partner three times in 2006. Well over the past semester I have helped him type out his assignments... yes you could use the "give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish he eats for a life time." However, I'm too busy doing my own work and he is normally doing his assignments 2 weeks after the due date... time is normally of the essence. Regardless, a few days ago he asked if I could help him out and I being the sucker I am agreed. Well yesterday he comes over and he has his two kids and wife in tow? Not exactly ideal homework conditions, but not much I can do. Well... we head off to the beach with his kids and play around for a bit and everything is good and dandy, but we finally get to the point where we have to do the work. His assignment is 15 pages worth of math equations that must be typed into word format. I have to admit that I had never had the extreme pleasure of having to type math equations into word for... MY GAWD!!!! Is there anything in the world more painful? We worked till about 1 A.M. and got about half finished when I kicked him out because his wife, two kids and himself were asleep on the floor.

Susantha comes back this morning at about 9AM and the same pain stakingly slow process of typing in math equations continues. Around 12:30PM and nearly finish I say that I need to get out of the house and get some fresh air. We head to the Jetty to grab some lunch and Susantha continues on with his barrage of questions as to where are good places to visit around Adelaide and how the next day myself, him and his family should all jump in the car and go to said places. Well as we eat away he asks what I have planned for the day and I mention not much... maybe a run later on. Well as we head to the car he asks "so no plans for the rest of the day?" and I'm "nope" (yes I know you know where this is going) Before I know it we are driving in his tin box on the freeway towards McLaren Vale (wine region) to have a visit. I WAS DUPED!!!

Now you may think that my biggest concern in all this was that I was essentially kidnapped, but really that was child's plays. The far bigger concern at hand was being on the freeway. Have you any idea what it is like driving in the Australian version of a Chevette with a taxi driver from Sri Lanka? Let me set the situation... were driving downhill on a highway with the speed limit 110kph in a car that I'm pretty sure has a max speed of 91kph... at any rate... on said hill we are only going 80 and Susantha is braking. I'm in the passengers seat with pee running down one leg, one arm gripping the door handle for dear life and the other arm pulling Susantha's leg off the brake while he is shaking me off yelling he doesn't want to get a speeding ticket to which I'm yelling back "but I don't want to die"

We made it there and back, but a little worse for wear...

Not much else new on the Adelaide front...it has only been going up to about the mid 20's the last few days, but I suppose it could be worse.

What do you guys prefer? The black background or the new one?

Oh one last thing... I finally figured it out why so many Indians and Sri Lankins want me to go visit them when were are done school.. no its not because I'm a nice guy, but in India and Sri Lanka it is quite common for people to open up their own academies i.e. schools and to have a wite english speaking male is like having the Pope as a priest at your church. If I went and taught at one of these schools it would be like winning the lottery for some of these future school owners.

WANKER OF THE WEEK

• Clearly that is a no brainer.. me... who else gets suckered into helping with the most tedious assignment ever and get kidnapped?

THINGS I LIKE THIS WEEK

• Very excited about going to New Zealand

THINGS I DO NOT LIKE THIS WEEK

• My hamstring is not feeling too good.


• My neighbour who always who stomps his feet up the stairs every single time... why.. WHY??