Xandoz

20 May 2011 About a month ago, I lost one of my closest and oldest friends; my horse Daisy. Anybody who knows me, knows how special she was to me and I knew her for 11 years. She's sadly had to be put to sleep at the age of 30 years old, due to colic. As a result, I'm not feeling very creative and cannot create my best work to swap with. I'm stepping back from Swap-bot for a little while, til things tide over and I feel I can truly put my all into my work. I may not be reachable on PM, but if there's a swap you haven't received from me by 6-8 weeks after the maildate, please contact the swap host for my email address and email me about it. I will resend if need be.

I live in South Africa so my swaps may take a little while to reach their destination. I will not flake! And I pledge to rate all my recieved swaps

If you don't recieve a swap from me, please contact me before rating. I cannot control what the post office does with my mail, therefore, cannot control if the odd swap goes missing in post. I will be more than happy to resend, but please don't rate me 1 before contacting me as I feel this is unfair. I need a chance to correct the swap before you rate me.

Likewise, I will never rate a 1 on swap without first allowing the sender to resend if need be.

Lastly, if you're expecting a swap from me, don't visit my Flickr. You may be in for a spoiler.

I work as an afterhours receptionist at a vet and I absolutely love my job!

I'm 25 years old and live in Joostenbergvlakte, in Cape Town, South Africa.

I'm an only child to divorced parents but have many "adopted siblings" in the form of great friends.

My best friend of 17 years lives in the UK and I visit there every couple of years. My bucket-list of places to visit include France, Italy and New Orleans for a Mardi Gras.

I love animals immensly and own quite a few myself. I have 2 cats (both domestic shorthairs), 2 dogs (a jack russell x dachshund and a boston terrier), 2 horses (an arab x boerperd and a basutho pony mix), a ringnecked parakeet and roughly 50 rats.

I love anything gothic and "dark". And things related to the fashions of the past few centuries, such as corsets.

I also have an interest in body modification, particularly Body Piercing and Tattooing.

I love music across all genres although Metal, Rock and Alternative are my favorites.

I love bands such as Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Nickleback, One Republic, Disturbed, Evanescence and have just discovered Within Temptation, which are spectacular.

I love some more classical music, partically anything with Violins in it. I love the sound of violins and particulalry love rock/alternative songs that feature violins.

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice is my all-time favorite set of books. I reread them every year.

I also enjoyed the Twilight series, Harry Potter and basically anything that is fantasy/horror.

I enjoy books about training animals too, especially horses and dogs.

Interview with the Vampire and Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas are my favorite movies. I absolutely adore Jack Skellington and anything to do with the movie.

Horror is my favorite movie genre, although I do think in the last few years, there have been very few decent horror films. Paranormal Activity was excellent.

I love epic films, such as Lord of the Rings and anything done well on a grand scale.

I also love raw "in-your-face" films, not so much for the shock value, but for not disguising issues. Movies such as American History X, Precious, Schindler's List and the like amaze me and have more educational value than any other type of film, I think.

Favorite movie-makers are Jerry Bruckheimer and Tim Burton. I've never watched a movie that either of them have made that I didn't enjoy!

I'm a vampire junkie, so was a HUGE fan of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series back in the 90's and now I'm watching and re-watching the Vampire Diaries.

I also enjoy Heroes, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

Other shows I love watching are Super Nanny and The Dog Whisperer, for the psychological viewpoints of behaviour modification, and Top Gear, not because I know anything about cars, but because the presenters are friggin' hilarious

Not so much favorite crafts as hobbies, but I do horse riding. I'm currently retraining alot of bad habits out of my new mare, Dixie.

I play World of Warcraft, although admittedly haven't played in a couple of months as my laptop is unable to support the game. But I love the whole idea of the game and the characters and whatnot anyway. I'm hoping for a decent gaming pc soon so I can getting wowing again.

I also enjoy sewing, cross-stitching, reading, watching tv and movies and training animals.

I'm also a hobby breeder of pedigree rats and am one of only 6 breeders in the whole of South Africa.

Anything to do with The Nightmare Before Christmas (HUGE wishlist item!!!)

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! (We don't get them here and they are my heaven.)

Quirky and Unusual Postcards. (Seriously, anything but South African Tourist PCs and Ad PCs, unless the ads are vintage)

Postage Stamps. New and Used.

Rubber Stamps

Pretty, Artistic and/or Unusual Paper

Embellishments

Small Cross-stitch kits (like bookmarks and such,that come with the aida, thread and picture)

Halloween/Horror

Vampires

The Vampire Chronicles

The Vampire Diaries

True Blood

Werewolves

Dark things/colours

Polymer Clay

Corsetry and things of fashions past

Medical things (X-rays, internal organs, etc)

Dogs (particularly sighthounds and Boston Terriers)

Horses and English Riding

Horse bits (snaffles, pelhams, etc.)

Rats

Warcraft and World of Warcraft (Horde and Alliance)

Natural Disasters

Plushies

Ancient Egypt/Greece/Rome and their mythology

ATCs

Things from/about other countries

Tattoos, Piercings and Body Modification

Anything to do with the paranormal

Will add more as I think of them...

Anything religious

Very girly things

Marzipan, liquorice, fruit cake, Turkish Delight

Saddlehorse riding

PNH (Parelli Natural Horsemanship. If you know horses, you'll probably know what this is)

Floral designs

Kawaii

"Cutesy"-type anime (except Pokemon)

Cars

um....

I've recently changed my mailing address as I've obtained a PO Box at a post office closer to my house. However, if you, as my partner, ends up sending a swap to the previous postal address, don't stress. I can still collect post from there too (it's my dad's PO Box)