Oops! Mike, could you scrap number 35, please? This topic is for my sister, who will soon join us here for a little while.

Sonja Smith

Sonja and Ri�tte at the photographer's...

See, Wolf??? Nothing a good photographer can't fix! Don't we make a fine pair of horses?? (thank you , Wer)

Riette, I thought you and Sonja were twins? (or are you fraternal?) I love that picture of her with Zurich in the background--she has the hair color I could never get out of a bottle no matter how hard I try.

you-all are so cute! i especially like the one on the right....you both are more relaxed!

Yes, Autumn, we're not the same - which makes it easier, I feel. It's so much easier to love another person than it is to love oneself... Most of the time I just think of her as my sister, who happens to be the same age. Mum never treated us the same either, and so we never had the rivalry-thing or stuff like that, which helped alot. We never felt the need to seperate physically or emotionally to be able to become our own person, and just became best friends in the world over the years. She really is the best sister imaginable.

Oh, and Sonja is also the BEST face maker in the world. I was also trying to make funny faces on the photos, but just ended up laughing my ar$e off at her. The one on the left is her 'Afrikaner' look, and the other is her 'Tina Turner' look, you see. I haven't a clue how she does that nostril thing - she actually has a very pretty, and fine little nose, but somehow she manages to stretch it until it goes like that!! This is the sort of thing we STILL do at night when everyone else is asleep, giggling n our pillows etc. etc. No-one ever gets me to laugh as much as she does, no-one TALKS as much as she does, but in front of other people she's always a little shy and mistrusting, which makes our private sisterhood even more hilarious. People expect me to be the one going on like that, not knowing what lurks under her solemn facade - and she, little pervert, enjoys every minute of it!

My sister and I are close too, though not quite like the two of you I suspect! We are 7 years apart.

Oh, a sister's a sister, I think. I don't find my two any different from how we were - they have the same fights, and the same sort of friendship. I can't imagine it would be any different for Sonja and me with an age difference either, since we're both utterly close to our brother (who is 6 years younger) as well. Do you have other siblings too? Does your sister live in the same town? Do you see each other often? How about you, Wolf?

i've got a brother who's 4 years younger. i don't know him at all. we were close growing up and i would stick up for him. we fought too. but now that's he's older, i really don't know who he is. i left home when he was going into high school, then he joined the army and got out. all i know now is that he went to school for a degree and that's it. i think he's still living with my parents. i really don't know. the rest of the story will have to be told in inner sometime.....

Okay, I won't ask - sorry if I touched on the wrong subject.

no, no, riette. it's not a sensitive subject anymore. *hugs*

Here you go. �big hug�

Wow, it's getting warm and cuddly in here.

I have an older brother (4 years older) and younger brother (6 years younger). My "little" (he's 6'4") brother & I were SO close growing up. He still lives with my folks down the street, my older brother lives around the corner, and my sister lives 2 miles down the highway. We're all "close" whether we want to be or not!

i think that's neat. growing up in the military and being in it puts folks far from their families.

That's a lifestyle I'm just not cut out for. I don't adapt easily.

If you have a normal family, it must be great with everyone living so close. All those get togethers and barbecues and things. That sounds great. I'd give anything to be so close to my mum, sister and brother. But the rest can stay right where they are - don't want them anywhere near me!!

Ha, it's a package deal!

Yep, that's the pain in the butt about the whole thing.

Sonja here: I can't believe you gave them those photos, Ri�tte! You should get Mom to come here and see it! And I'm very sorry for saying all those bad things about you when you only say good things about me.

Really, get mom online!

NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!! I have endured enough embarrasment!

Oh, and I hope you can all see now who the evil one really is...

Sonja, were you the sister who got Riette to innocently ask us what "white trash" is? If you are, thank you. I laughed so much I almost got in trouble here at work.

Can't wait for her to read this!

I thought you knew what it meant! Jy sal skyt wat jy nie ge�et het nie!

Amen.

yeah, what she said!!!! riette, you're silly. your sister is your foil-meaning she offsets you and compliments you. yeah, get mom on the line. hey, how many questions have i asked and am still allowed to come back? (i've got to find that "white trash" one, need a good laugh)

I think it's in the Boston topic in travel. And she told me that I would excrete stuff I didn't even eat when she finishes with me! ha-ha!

LOL!!!!

I know - she has that effect on people sometimes.

booh

Sonja, what are your main interests?

Now let's see. Eating and sleeping would just about cover it, I think. No no. I don't really have main interests, I don't think. The only thing in the line of hobby that I have, is an interesting CAT scan collection. I work pretty long hours, which doesn't leave much time for that sort of thing. I do enjoy going to the movies on a weekend though. Boring, I know.

How did you come by all those CAT scans?

no kidding! we're all curious now....

I'm a CAT scan operator and medical transcriptor. When I go back to Namibia I always help out at my old job at the private hospital there, Medi City. The personnel there is like my family, and the sort of 'Chef Arzt' knows just the sort of cases that interest me. And so when I go back, he's always got a pile of extra scans lying there, waiting for me to sort through. Not sure if it's legal to make extra scans of people heads for collecting workers, but he does, and I don't know who the people are. I don't have medical degrees, but I think it important to at least have an idea of what one is dealing with when you scan people's heads.

Do you have one of your own head?

SHE DOES!!! She paid a bomb for it, because she just had it done! And, believe it or not, everything is normal!!! (Or so she claims....)

Maybe she could post it here in this topic and we could do an analysis?

LOL! I don't have them here, otherwise I WOULD have posted you some interesting ones. Threw my own away a while ago already though - there is nothing interesting about a healthy brain.

That's a foul thing to say, girl!

I'm a little mixed up. Once when I was in the hospital I had what I thought was a CAT scan, but it was of my spleen, not my head. I just lay on a table, going back and forth under a little "bridge" and holding my breath. Does that sound right? Or are they always of your head?

No no, it was a CAT scan. (CAT is just a shorter way of referring to computed axial tomography scanning!) But I only collect brain scans - I've always found the human brain a very fascinating organ.

Ahh! Well, if you ever decide to branch out to spleens, feel free to add mine to your collection. It has a cyst the size of a grapefruit on it! It's been there since infancy. Too cool!

Oh WOW!!! Could you post it this topic? I'd LOVE to see it!

What sort of a cyst? Do you have it checked regularly to make sure it remains benign?

oh god! we have been reduced to cysts for excitement. haha!! isn't an MRI the same thing as a CAT???

Disgusting, isn't it?

The MRI is more advanced than ultra sound and CAT, Wolf. I've not worked with it before, but it's a machine with a donut shaped structure in the middle, which contains the main magnet. The main magnet creates an energy field, and that's how the scanning process works. The CAT scan has the sort of capsule-like structure where the patient is scanned.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging - lovely stuff

I think you've found yourself a soulmate, girl.

Thadda man speaks the language of luv!

It's all calcified so they know it doesn't grow or change--ewwwww!! I'm grossing myself out!

Cool!

Totally total cool!

I went to a lecture on MRI and medical physics at the royal institution in london (which is the most famous place for physics in teh whole widest world!). I hardly understood a word of it, but at least I can say I've been - that fact on its own pretty much got me my university place! :-))))

Did you hear that, girl???

Sure did. I'm aroused.

OOOOOH!

I just want to say goodbye to you all, as I am flying home (Africa home) tomorrow evening. It was great to be here, and I'll see you again the next time I visit Ri�tte. Please take care of her for me.

We'll miss you! If you find a friend or cybercafe with access, please slip in and touch base with us! I hope you can find a way to keep with us!

sonja, i thought you were here for good! well, you are of course. please try and keep in touch with us.

we'll miss you, sonja, come back really soon!!!

*kisses, hugs, and waves*

It's been almost 7 years since Sonja left.