Last Sunday Jason and I did a 60km ride around what turns out to be quite a tough course, just one respectable hill after another. Of course you do get to go downhill sometimes but you hardly notice these in relation to the uphills. I actually did 85km since I rode to the meeting place and back as well. Great ride although I was a bit tired by the time I finally finished. Glynne was meant to have joined us so that there would be two of us wanting to have a nice easy ride and only one trying to beat lance. I lucked out, glynne didn't ride so I tried to keep up with Jason trying to beat the imaginary lance. I don't think Jason understands the meaning of "nice'n easy" and to make me feel worse, he had done the same ride during the week with the other Jason who couldn't get his heart rate over 150 without dropping Jason. How demoralising.
Went home for lunch and then met Kirsten and Carl along with the little ones for a mountain bike ride at Northern Farm. Everyone brought their bicycles except Caron who brought her book. I hope she feels embarassed reading this. Nice'n Gentle ride with the family, Megan is really, really coming on and she is going to enjoy it so much more when she gets a bicycle with some gears. Having a single gear bike is no joke, especially as a child. There is a bit of a movement to ride on single geared mountain bikes which I can only think must be absolute torture.
On the way home we were driving behind a nineteen voetsek (very old) nissan bakkie which looked like it had cellulite. There wasn't a smooth panel on the bakkie and the tailgate had been replaced entirely. Written on the tailgate were the words "Fore Sale", I wondered if the current owner was forewarning any prospective owners but I think it more likely that they just couldn't spell.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Qoute of the week
I emailed Paul only to receive an "out of office" reply stating that he was on leave from the last week in february to the first week in april. A whole six weeks which is very suspicious since he hardly ever takes leave, it is one of those unfortunate thnigs about owning your own company - it makes it really difficult to take leave. I sent him an SMS asking him who signed his leave form or words to that effect, his reply was very quoteable. "Leave for Paul is like a glitch in the matrix", I spent some time chuckling.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Human Rights Day
Wednesday was a public holiday in South Africa, one of the excessively many such public holidays which we have these days. On this topic, I have figured out one genuine benefit that Religion, not that Human Rights Day as anything to do with Religion, has brought to humanity and that is public holidays. Masses and masses of them, not that I'm complaining at all. I'm still working out other benefits that Religion may bring but I at least have one that I can definitely count on.
Off the top of my head Religion doesn't seem to have a particularly good track record as far as Human Rights is concerned. Sure there are Human Rights campaigners who were religious but that is not the question. The question is what Human Rights has Religion advanced as opposed to Human Rights advance by people who happen to belong to a Religion. That ought to get someone hot under the collar and hopefully some good examples.
It was Kirsten and Carls son, Alistair's birthday party on Wednesday at the RSME which stands for the Rand Society of Model Engineers who have a scale model steam engine track out in Roodepoort. This proved to be a really big hit with the youngsters who just loved being pulled around and around on the model steam trains. Couldn't quite see the attraction but the kids certainly enjoyed it. That seems to be a common problem with adults, you need seriously expensive toys to generate some excitement.
After the childrens party which I had carefully timed to ensure that I arrived at about an hour before it finished the family remained for a braai. Almost needless to say that the token vegetarian ended up braaing the wors and my vegetarian sausages or wood chips as Carl calls them.
Bruno asked me why I was a vegetarian (hormones, anti-biotics and energy savings relative to meat in case you were wondering) and I was pleasantly surprised at his response which was that these were good reasons for going veggie. Not that I can see him changing but at least he can see the logic. Tried to foister one of my wood chips off on Carl but he wasn't biting.
Went home to my empty house, strange how one gets so used to having someone around, before I went to Hyde Park for supper on my own, Mantovanis has a really fantastic vegetable platter. Phoned Kim to see if she was interested in going to a movie which I don't think she really was but I laid it on thick about how she never goes out etc, etc. She succumbed and we went to see "Because I said so" which was a definite chic flick. A couple of humorous moments but nothing too wild. It did manage to get Kim to shed a brief tear so it couldn't have been all that poor.
End of the Human Rights Day.
Off the top of my head Religion doesn't seem to have a particularly good track record as far as Human Rights is concerned. Sure there are Human Rights campaigners who were religious but that is not the question. The question is what Human Rights has Religion advanced as opposed to Human Rights advance by people who happen to belong to a Religion. That ought to get someone hot under the collar and hopefully some good examples.
It was Kirsten and Carls son, Alistair's birthday party on Wednesday at the RSME which stands for the Rand Society of Model Engineers who have a scale model steam engine track out in Roodepoort. This proved to be a really big hit with the youngsters who just loved being pulled around and around on the model steam trains. Couldn't quite see the attraction but the kids certainly enjoyed it. That seems to be a common problem with adults, you need seriously expensive toys to generate some excitement.
After the childrens party which I had carefully timed to ensure that I arrived at about an hour before it finished the family remained for a braai. Almost needless to say that the token vegetarian ended up braaing the wors and my vegetarian sausages or wood chips as Carl calls them.
Bruno asked me why I was a vegetarian (hormones, anti-biotics and energy savings relative to meat in case you were wondering) and I was pleasantly surprised at his response which was that these were good reasons for going veggie. Not that I can see him changing but at least he can see the logic. Tried to foister one of my wood chips off on Carl but he wasn't biting.
Went home to my empty house, strange how one gets so used to having someone around, before I went to Hyde Park for supper on my own, Mantovanis has a really fantastic vegetable platter. Phoned Kim to see if she was interested in going to a movie which I don't think she really was but I laid it on thick about how she never goes out etc, etc. She succumbed and we went to see "Because I said so" which was a definite chic flick. A couple of humorous moments but nothing too wild. It did manage to get Kim to shed a brief tear so it couldn't have been all that poor.
End of the Human Rights Day.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Change Control ... Again
Ughh! Change control rolls around so quickly and it really does destroy a weekend although if I was honest, which I'm not on this particular topic, I would have to admit that I seriously helped to decimate this weekend. The weekend proceeded as follows:
Wake up at 04:30 to start cycling, it is totally pitch black at anytime before 06:00, and it is even starting to get a little chilly. After this summer, this is a very welcome relief from the heat. One of the reasons that I quite like Johannesburg is that by the end of summer, one has had quite enough of the hot weather and having some cold weather is rather appealing. By the end of winter, on the other hand, one is very glad to be leaving the cold behind and looking forward to some hot summer days. So we have the best of both worlds without either being really extreme.
Back to cycling, spent almost 3 hours on the mountain bike trying to keep up with Jason who just seems to get stronger and stronger. Very infuriating. We went through Northern farm and out the back and once again, I forgot my entrance ticket and had to borrow Jasons. Took a trip up some quite tough gravelly climbs to find the most fantastic views looking north over a valley with the Magaliesburg mountains in the distance. Absolutely fantastic views, it's hard to believe that they exist less than an hours drive from Johannesburg. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have my camera with me since camera = weight = slow = dropped = teasing for being dropped. Therefore NO camera!
Met barry and helena for breakfast at fruits and roots and they've taken my favourite meal off the menu. I can't believe it, fortunately they still serve it if one asks for it so no big deal. Met a couple of friends of theirs whose names I now forget but one of them is a photographer/journalist/art critic which was pretty cool. She is about to leave on a photo holiday which is a novel concept for me and sounds like something I might be interested in doing at some stage in the distant future. A bunch of people who have a common interest, photography, get together and go somewhere which is photographically interesting and then spend their time touring and taking photographs, I can think of worse ways to spend a holiday. The other lady, whose name I also forget, was absolutely fascinating. She must be a psychologists dream client and I only spent an hour or two with her.
After the breakfast they were all going to a nearby gallery so I tagged along wondering what I was letting myself in for which was just as well because I got cornered by said neurotic and ended up discussing fine art with her, a topic I am most definitely not even vaguely qualified to do.
Standing looking at a painting and being asked questions like "what does this say to you?" just confounds me, it isn't saying anything, we are just thinking/assuming that the artist is actually trying to pass on a message. Who's to say he is?, maybe it's like some kind of in joke amongst artists to see what people think that they are trying to 'say' through their work. I find it a bit like wine tasting where there is the 'in' crowd and the others. The 'in' crowd talk in terms like flavours of berries for wine and angst and anger in terms of art and for those who don't speak the language, pity on them, they're missing out. It all seems a bit pretentious to me, why can't people just enjoy or appreciate wine or art because they do, why do they have to have a reason why they do? I re-iterate my ignorance of art so anyone reading this whose toes I have just stepped on, it's only my opinion not a fact.
I spent most of the afternoon adding labels to this blog and before I knew it, it was time to go to work and start the change control. Frigging long and complicated change control and we only left at 04:00 having worked for a full 7 hours upgrading the system while only actually taking it down for a period of 3 minutes during the time. I had to get up again at 05:30 which meant only an hour and a half of sleep and even this was interrupted by the mother of all cat fights directly outside my window at 05:00.
Met Michael at 06:30 and had a very pleasant 60km ride. Alison, his wife, has just found out that she is pregnant so they are both very happy that they are once again going to be proud parents. Can't quite share the enthusiasm but I try my best. Really pushed hard up Judges avenue hill near the end of the ride and made about 90 seconds on Michael which I was very pleased with. Michael, not so, he thought I was just rubbing it in which wasn't actually the intention. I have finally figured out how to stop my heart rate monitor from beeping when it goes over a predetermined level which I do fairly regularly so now everyone can cut out their jokes about flatlining and beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeep.
Had lunch at kim and laurels with another couple who were very pleasant company. At one point in the conversation, samuel, who is being indoctrinated by his father, interjects and asks who goes to church. All hands stay firmly below the table much to samuels dismay, he is living in the company of heathens it turns out. He's going to have to come to terms with this because, outside of a monastery, it isn't going to change.
Started feeling really tired by the time laurel and I went to see "Notes on a scandal" which was great even though it can't be described as light entertainment by any stretch of the imagination. Judi Dench and Kate Blanchette were both fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a thought provoking movie to go and see.
Did you catch the subtle puns?
Wake up at 04:30 to start cycling, it is totally pitch black at anytime before 06:00, and it is even starting to get a little chilly. After this summer, this is a very welcome relief from the heat. One of the reasons that I quite like Johannesburg is that by the end of summer, one has had quite enough of the hot weather and having some cold weather is rather appealing. By the end of winter, on the other hand, one is very glad to be leaving the cold behind and looking forward to some hot summer days. So we have the best of both worlds without either being really extreme.
Back to cycling, spent almost 3 hours on the mountain bike trying to keep up with Jason who just seems to get stronger and stronger. Very infuriating. We went through Northern farm and out the back and once again, I forgot my entrance ticket and had to borrow Jasons. Took a trip up some quite tough gravelly climbs to find the most fantastic views looking north over a valley with the Magaliesburg mountains in the distance. Absolutely fantastic views, it's hard to believe that they exist less than an hours drive from Johannesburg. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have my camera with me since camera = weight = slow = dropped = teasing for being dropped. Therefore NO camera!
Met barry and helena for breakfast at fruits and roots and they've taken my favourite meal off the menu. I can't believe it, fortunately they still serve it if one asks for it so no big deal. Met a couple of friends of theirs whose names I now forget but one of them is a photographer/journalist/art critic which was pretty cool. She is about to leave on a photo holiday which is a novel concept for me and sounds like something I might be interested in doing at some stage in the distant future. A bunch of people who have a common interest, photography, get together and go somewhere which is photographically interesting and then spend their time touring and taking photographs, I can think of worse ways to spend a holiday. The other lady, whose name I also forget, was absolutely fascinating. She must be a psychologists dream client and I only spent an hour or two with her.
After the breakfast they were all going to a nearby gallery so I tagged along wondering what I was letting myself in for which was just as well because I got cornered by said neurotic and ended up discussing fine art with her, a topic I am most definitely not even vaguely qualified to do.
Standing looking at a painting and being asked questions like "what does this say to you?" just confounds me, it isn't saying anything, we are just thinking/assuming that the artist is actually trying to pass on a message. Who's to say he is?, maybe it's like some kind of in joke amongst artists to see what people think that they are trying to 'say' through their work. I find it a bit like wine tasting where there is the 'in' crowd and the others. The 'in' crowd talk in terms like flavours of berries for wine and angst and anger in terms of art and for those who don't speak the language, pity on them, they're missing out. It all seems a bit pretentious to me, why can't people just enjoy or appreciate wine or art because they do, why do they have to have a reason why they do? I re-iterate my ignorance of art so anyone reading this whose toes I have just stepped on, it's only my opinion not a fact.
I spent most of the afternoon adding labels to this blog and before I knew it, it was time to go to work and start the change control. Frigging long and complicated change control and we only left at 04:00 having worked for a full 7 hours upgrading the system while only actually taking it down for a period of 3 minutes during the time. I had to get up again at 05:30 which meant only an hour and a half of sleep and even this was interrupted by the mother of all cat fights directly outside my window at 05:00.
Met Michael at 06:30 and had a very pleasant 60km ride. Alison, his wife, has just found out that she is pregnant so they are both very happy that they are once again going to be proud parents. Can't quite share the enthusiasm but I try my best. Really pushed hard up Judges avenue hill near the end of the ride and made about 90 seconds on Michael which I was very pleased with. Michael, not so, he thought I was just rubbing it in which wasn't actually the intention. I have finally figured out how to stop my heart rate monitor from beeping when it goes over a predetermined level which I do fairly regularly so now everyone can cut out their jokes about flatlining and beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeep.
Had lunch at kim and laurels with another couple who were very pleasant company. At one point in the conversation, samuel, who is being indoctrinated by his father, interjects and asks who goes to church. All hands stay firmly below the table much to samuels dismay, he is living in the company of heathens it turns out. He's going to have to come to terms with this because, outside of a monastery, it isn't going to change.
Started feeling really tired by the time laurel and I went to see "Notes on a scandal" which was great even though it can't be described as light entertainment by any stretch of the imagination. Judi Dench and Kate Blanchette were both fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a thought provoking movie to go and see.
Did you catch the subtle puns?
Anti-Punsters Unite
I have been soundly beaten (figuratively of course) for using such weak puns in one of my previous posts. I will therefore, in future, only use puns so subtle that you will never know that they are there. ;-)
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Bachelordom strikes again
Every time Caron goes away we play out this little game where she does the dutiful wife thingy and makes sure that there is enough in the refrigerator to keep me hale and hearty until she returns. The problem is that I don't really know how to cook outside of braaing and even worse, after a day at work, I have absolutely no inclination to start learning. So, while I have a refrigerator full or raw ingredients, I have no skills to convert this into edible food so I tend to do what all intelligent people do when faced with something they don't know how to do - they outsource it. In this context this means that I have been out to a restaurant every night this weekend except thursday when I went for supper at Kim and Laurels. As a result of this I am feeling like I have put on a couple of kilograms, actually I have put on a couple of kilograms so I think that I need to get back to exercising. In addition to not eating very well I haven't managed to cycle or run once this week principally due to work committments.
On friday I went out for lunch to the Ocean Basket which is a chain of fish centric restaurants and when I asked what the line fish was I was told that it was a "Cardinal" which I promptly looked up on FISHMS (+27 79 499 8795) only to be told that there is no such thing as a "Cardinal" fish. When challenged on the actual origins of the fish because it could possibly be imported the waiter and then the manager got vaguer and vaguer assuring us that "it was like Kablejou" and the real clanger for the conversation was when we were told that it comes from the west coast of Mozambique. A cardinal error since Mozambique does not have a west coast. In the end the manager brought up his fish list which didn't have it on it and even a search on the internet by the manager didn't locate the elusive fish. Must be very rare, we're so lucky to actually have the opportunity of eating it. Not.
Back at the office we contacted SASSI who knew of a "Cardinal" but it is an aquarium fish which means that we would need about 20 of them to make a decent meal. It is looking highly probable that the Ocean Basket has just unilaterally renamed a fish, problably with the express purpose of avoiding awkward questions as to why they are serving fish that isn't on the approved green list of fish which can be caught in a sustainable and renewable manner. Definitely smells a bit fishy to me. :-) More on this when a response from Ocean Basket is received.
On friday I went out for lunch to the Ocean Basket which is a chain of fish centric restaurants and when I asked what the line fish was I was told that it was a "Cardinal" which I promptly looked up on FISHMS (+27 79 499 8795) only to be told that there is no such thing as a "Cardinal" fish. When challenged on the actual origins of the fish because it could possibly be imported the waiter and then the manager got vaguer and vaguer assuring us that "it was like Kablejou" and the real clanger for the conversation was when we were told that it comes from the west coast of Mozambique. A cardinal error since Mozambique does not have a west coast. In the end the manager brought up his fish list which didn't have it on it and even a search on the internet by the manager didn't locate the elusive fish. Must be very rare, we're so lucky to actually have the opportunity of eating it. Not.
Back at the office we contacted SASSI who knew of a "Cardinal" but it is an aquarium fish which means that we would need about 20 of them to make a decent meal. It is looking highly probable that the Ocean Basket has just unilaterally renamed a fish, problably with the express purpose of avoiding awkward questions as to why they are serving fish that isn't on the approved green list of fish which can be caught in a sustainable and renewable manner. Definitely smells a bit fishy to me. :-) More on this when a response from Ocean Basket is received.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Sodwana Bay
It seems like ages since I last went diving but in reality, it isn't so long ago. I met Barry at work and cleared out some emails before we departed on the 7 hour drive down to Sodwana Bay lodge. It was a very quiet drive and it doesn't even seem so long these days. We went down in my 320d which is proving to be the ideal car for long distance travelling, we drove from Johannesburg to Sodwana Bay and back to Pongola which is about 1000km on just over 3/4 of a tank of fuel. Just absolutely amazing and extremely reasonable on the pocket. My new glasses are making such a difference to my driving since I don't get anywhere near as tired with them on as I do when I don't use them.
Saturday morning we were meant to get collected from the Dive Shop but 20 minutes after the designated time, out lift still hadn't appeared so we resigned ourselves to lugging our dive gear over the dunes and drove down in my car. Once on the beach it looked like we weren't even going to get one dive in let alone two. Apparently, the coast guard had closed the entire coast because of the cyclone just south of Madagascar and this was only lifted at about 10:00 which meant we had just enough time to dive before the wind picked up and made diving impossible. The rest of the boat was a couple of small dive schools so everyone else was on either their first or second dives which is normally a recipe for interesting things to happen.
From the shore the waves didn't look that big and there seemed to be a big gap between the swells but once we got onto the sea the swells were largeish at about 3m but they were unusual in that they were travelling much faster than normal waves so the boat skippers were having real difficulty in getting the gap. A couple of times we almost got through only to be stymied by the back line and had to turn tail and run back in and wait for another so called gap. We had to punch through a couple of waves which is like driving through a wall of water with a not so hydro-dynamic inflatable boat. We also had waves break on both the port and starboard sides, quite an experience by the end of the weekend and quite a welcome for the novices. Once we got beyone the back line the sea was actually fine but the swells were big. We heard later that Durban actually closed the port which is a highly unusual occurrence and the shops near the harbour mouth got flooded and the durban boardwalk which is normally way above the high tide mark was flooded and half the beach dumped on it. In other words, NOT small waves which didn't bode well for the dive because big waves equals big surge.
Sure enough, the surge was huge and at times one could barely see the reef for the sand in the water. This dive was unusual because by the time we had descended to depth the novices were nowhere to be seen. Normally there is a problem with one or two but at least some of them normally make it down. There was so little to photograph that I think I only took 5 pictures and we aborted the dive after about 30 minutes due to the surge and lack of visisbility. Nevertheless it was great to actually get wet again.
Spent the afternoon watching the rugby on and off and reading "tour de force" which is proving to be a very interesting book. The way that Lance Armstrong comes across I'm not sure that he should be a model for other people to follow except if they want to win at cycling. Had supper and retired early pretty exhausted. There is definitely something about diving and detox that go hand in hand.
Sunday morning the waves were no better but there wasn't much wind so we managed to get in two dives, both of which we managed the whole dive instead of having to abort it. Met a Canadian girl travelling on her own who professed to be a professional photographer. Yet another Canadian to reinforce the general stereotype that they are inordinately insecure and lost, I wonder what it is about them. It's a bit like they speak, think and act like a yank but they're definitely not and outside of speaking, thinking and acting how do they exhibit their Canadianness? They can't, hence the tortured lost soul type. Also met two guys from Venezuella, Jorge and Guillermo who were a whole bundle of fun. A bit like teenagers, always on the prowl for the next lay. Very funny to watch. After the second dive we had lunch with them and talked a bit about Hugo Chavez who, in their books, is from the pit of hades. They clearly come from the have's and Chaves is taking from them and giving to the have nots and it isn't going down very well.
We managed two dives today and surprise, surprise nobody got lost although the diving was pretty miserable. Still loads of surge and sand in the water. Didn't open my camera and I have now done 3 dives on it. Note for the future, the battery will only last one dive if I take more than 25 frames on a dive. It would be great to be able to do more but it is still such an advance on the analog camera.
More rest and relaxation during the afternoon before a quiet supper and a cigar down at the bar below afterwards. Watched a bunch of teenagers vying for the attentions of the one and only blonde girl in the group while they pretended to play pool.
Monday morning the swells were still big but not huge. Unlike Saturday and Sunday when there was the dive group, today we were the only South Africans on the boat. We had Italians, Belgians, Canadian, American, Venzuelan and French diving with us. Talk about the united nations, I must say that it is really great to see so many different nationalities coming to see South Africa. The one Italian who actually works in Stockholm was particularly funny. He was huge, so big that he couldn't bend over far enough to put his fins on in the boat but besides that, he thought he was coming to the third world and having arrived in Sodwana Bay, he was still looking for it. He describes his experiences in Italian laced broken English. He says that he lands and the airport, she is beautiful. The roads, they are beautiful, the verges all trimmed just like in Germany. And his cell phone he says, it works everywhere. So where is this third world he asks only half believing our answer that it definitely exists.
While we were kitting up we happened to be standing next to the Canadian girl Laura who needed some suntan creme put onto her back. I'm sure that Guillermo and Jorge would have obliged but she looked around and found the least threatening male i.e. the oldest, grayest i.e. Barry to apply the lotion and I could't help but see the funny side. What I didn't know was that Jorge and Guillermo were keeping a beady eye on our side of the matt and just about killed themselves laughing at me suppressing my laughter. Lots of Spanish chatter and laughter.
The conditions, while hardly perfect, were much better than yesterday so I was very hopeful for the dive. My camera has been recharged and the memory stick cleared so I'm all ready for a great dive. We get out to the dive site and there are the usual sniggers as I get handed my weight belt. Most weight belts have between 5 and 8kg of lead on them, the heavier ones you need two hands to lift. Mine has 2kg on it and it looks positively anaemic. I should actually drop one or both of them but it is starting to look ridiculous to get handed a belt with a solitary kg on it so I have stopped at two. In reality I have another 2kg in my BC but nobody can see that so they think I am really only using 2kg's. As I pick up my BC and cylinder there is a loud pop and hiss of 210bar of compressed air escaping. I turn the valve off as quickly as I could and checked my O-ring. It looked okay to me but I waited for the skipper to come and check it which he did and it looked okay to him too but when he tried to pick up the bc and cylinder we had a repeat so he had to get a new O-ring for me. These two little leaks cost me 40bar of pressure so I was going down with only 170bar to last 50 minutes. I thought I would be up really early and I was pissed off that I wasn't going to have my full time down because of the O-ring.
I had an absolutely fantastic dive, it was still a bit sandy but nothing like yesterday and I saw so many things and I was just finning over to the dive master to tell him that I was low on air and going up when he signalled that everyone was to ascend. I made the entire dive on a miserable 170bar without taking any risks at all, very pleased with myself. When I get around to touching up the photographs I will put them in here but that is going to take quite a while. On the way back I was sitting next to Laura and opposite us were two of the Italians with these huge underwater cameras with twin flashes on stalks. They looked like something out of a sci-fi movie to which Laura comments that she has the same camera and casing and that she usually finds that the size of the camera and the size of the ego go hand in hand. Who was I to disagree!
Got back to the beach and washed all our kit and gave James and Ndu a tip each and said goodbye to everyone. I was walking around the outside of the tent saying cheers to Jorge and Guillermo when Laura appeared right in front of me and I almost didn't see her in time to stop. You know when someone invades your space and you have absolutely no idea why, she had scooted around the outside of the matt to find out what the tip that we had given James was but that isn't what Jorge and Guillermo thought was going on. They were hooting with laughter, chattering away and their parting sentence was an admonishment to me to "be good" to which I replied that I was always good, not that they believed me for one iota.
Drove the 7 hours back to Johannesburg and went straight off to a Cigar and Whisky evening. I can't believe what a difference these glasses make. There I was after having had an early morning, a dive and a 7 hour drive and still be wide awake up until 23:00 when I thought it best that I toddle off home. Great weekend, the last dive made up for all the other dives.
Saturday morning we were meant to get collected from the Dive Shop but 20 minutes after the designated time, out lift still hadn't appeared so we resigned ourselves to lugging our dive gear over the dunes and drove down in my car. Once on the beach it looked like we weren't even going to get one dive in let alone two. Apparently, the coast guard had closed the entire coast because of the cyclone just south of Madagascar and this was only lifted at about 10:00 which meant we had just enough time to dive before the wind picked up and made diving impossible. The rest of the boat was a couple of small dive schools so everyone else was on either their first or second dives which is normally a recipe for interesting things to happen.
From the shore the waves didn't look that big and there seemed to be a big gap between the swells but once we got onto the sea the swells were largeish at about 3m but they were unusual in that they were travelling much faster than normal waves so the boat skippers were having real difficulty in getting the gap. A couple of times we almost got through only to be stymied by the back line and had to turn tail and run back in and wait for another so called gap. We had to punch through a couple of waves which is like driving through a wall of water with a not so hydro-dynamic inflatable boat. We also had waves break on both the port and starboard sides, quite an experience by the end of the weekend and quite a welcome for the novices. Once we got beyone the back line the sea was actually fine but the swells were big. We heard later that Durban actually closed the port which is a highly unusual occurrence and the shops near the harbour mouth got flooded and the durban boardwalk which is normally way above the high tide mark was flooded and half the beach dumped on it. In other words, NOT small waves which didn't bode well for the dive because big waves equals big surge.
Sure enough, the surge was huge and at times one could barely see the reef for the sand in the water. This dive was unusual because by the time we had descended to depth the novices were nowhere to be seen. Normally there is a problem with one or two but at least some of them normally make it down. There was so little to photograph that I think I only took 5 pictures and we aborted the dive after about 30 minutes due to the surge and lack of visisbility. Nevertheless it was great to actually get wet again.
Spent the afternoon watching the rugby on and off and reading "tour de force" which is proving to be a very interesting book. The way that Lance Armstrong comes across I'm not sure that he should be a model for other people to follow except if they want to win at cycling. Had supper and retired early pretty exhausted. There is definitely something about diving and detox that go hand in hand.
Sunday morning the waves were no better but there wasn't much wind so we managed to get in two dives, both of which we managed the whole dive instead of having to abort it. Met a Canadian girl travelling on her own who professed to be a professional photographer. Yet another Canadian to reinforce the general stereotype that they are inordinately insecure and lost, I wonder what it is about them. It's a bit like they speak, think and act like a yank but they're definitely not and outside of speaking, thinking and acting how do they exhibit their Canadianness? They can't, hence the tortured lost soul type. Also met two guys from Venezuella, Jorge and Guillermo who were a whole bundle of fun. A bit like teenagers, always on the prowl for the next lay. Very funny to watch. After the second dive we had lunch with them and talked a bit about Hugo Chavez who, in their books, is from the pit of hades. They clearly come from the have's and Chaves is taking from them and giving to the have nots and it isn't going down very well.
We managed two dives today and surprise, surprise nobody got lost although the diving was pretty miserable. Still loads of surge and sand in the water. Didn't open my camera and I have now done 3 dives on it. Note for the future, the battery will only last one dive if I take more than 25 frames on a dive. It would be great to be able to do more but it is still such an advance on the analog camera.
More rest and relaxation during the afternoon before a quiet supper and a cigar down at the bar below afterwards. Watched a bunch of teenagers vying for the attentions of the one and only blonde girl in the group while they pretended to play pool.
Monday morning the swells were still big but not huge. Unlike Saturday and Sunday when there was the dive group, today we were the only South Africans on the boat. We had Italians, Belgians, Canadian, American, Venzuelan and French diving with us. Talk about the united nations, I must say that it is really great to see so many different nationalities coming to see South Africa. The one Italian who actually works in Stockholm was particularly funny. He was huge, so big that he couldn't bend over far enough to put his fins on in the boat but besides that, he thought he was coming to the third world and having arrived in Sodwana Bay, he was still looking for it. He describes his experiences in Italian laced broken English. He says that he lands and the airport, she is beautiful. The roads, they are beautiful, the verges all trimmed just like in Germany. And his cell phone he says, it works everywhere. So where is this third world he asks only half believing our answer that it definitely exists.
While we were kitting up we happened to be standing next to the Canadian girl Laura who needed some suntan creme put onto her back. I'm sure that Guillermo and Jorge would have obliged but she looked around and found the least threatening male i.e. the oldest, grayest i.e. Barry to apply the lotion and I could't help but see the funny side. What I didn't know was that Jorge and Guillermo were keeping a beady eye on our side of the matt and just about killed themselves laughing at me suppressing my laughter. Lots of Spanish chatter and laughter.
The conditions, while hardly perfect, were much better than yesterday so I was very hopeful for the dive. My camera has been recharged and the memory stick cleared so I'm all ready for a great dive. We get out to the dive site and there are the usual sniggers as I get handed my weight belt. Most weight belts have between 5 and 8kg of lead on them, the heavier ones you need two hands to lift. Mine has 2kg on it and it looks positively anaemic. I should actually drop one or both of them but it is starting to look ridiculous to get handed a belt with a solitary kg on it so I have stopped at two. In reality I have another 2kg in my BC but nobody can see that so they think I am really only using 2kg's. As I pick up my BC and cylinder there is a loud pop and hiss of 210bar of compressed air escaping. I turn the valve off as quickly as I could and checked my O-ring. It looked okay to me but I waited for the skipper to come and check it which he did and it looked okay to him too but when he tried to pick up the bc and cylinder we had a repeat so he had to get a new O-ring for me. These two little leaks cost me 40bar of pressure so I was going down with only 170bar to last 50 minutes. I thought I would be up really early and I was pissed off that I wasn't going to have my full time down because of the O-ring.
I had an absolutely fantastic dive, it was still a bit sandy but nothing like yesterday and I saw so many things and I was just finning over to the dive master to tell him that I was low on air and going up when he signalled that everyone was to ascend. I made the entire dive on a miserable 170bar without taking any risks at all, very pleased with myself. When I get around to touching up the photographs I will put them in here but that is going to take quite a while. On the way back I was sitting next to Laura and opposite us were two of the Italians with these huge underwater cameras with twin flashes on stalks. They looked like something out of a sci-fi movie to which Laura comments that she has the same camera and casing and that she usually finds that the size of the camera and the size of the ego go hand in hand. Who was I to disagree!
Got back to the beach and washed all our kit and gave James and Ndu a tip each and said goodbye to everyone. I was walking around the outside of the tent saying cheers to Jorge and Guillermo when Laura appeared right in front of me and I almost didn't see her in time to stop. You know when someone invades your space and you have absolutely no idea why, she had scooted around the outside of the matt to find out what the tip that we had given James was but that isn't what Jorge and Guillermo thought was going on. They were hooting with laughter, chattering away and their parting sentence was an admonishment to me to "be good" to which I replied that I was always good, not that they believed me for one iota.
Drove the 7 hours back to Johannesburg and went straight off to a Cigar and Whisky evening. I can't believe what a difference these glasses make. There I was after having had an early morning, a dive and a 7 hour drive and still be wide awake up until 23:00 when I thought it best that I toddle off home. Great weekend, the last dive made up for all the other dives.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Vaal by the Weekend
We spent friday night at home mostly because we were both too tired to actually do anything at all and I honestly can't remember anything from Friday.
On Saturday morning we left for the Vaal for the weekend, packed the Mini to the roof with clutter and departed. The way that we pack one would think that we were either going for a week or that we were catering for a family, which I suppose we were in a roundabout way. Very quiet trip down, Caron driving and me reading the Mail and Guardian getting my weekly dose of bad news. It's not always bad, I think that it just seems that way.
Arrived, unpacked the caravan, set up the tent and got the boat ready to launch. Discovered that the battery was flat and that there wasn't any fuel left and since there wasn't any wind we thought we were going to need quite a lot of it. Filled up and added the two stroke oil which always, for some reason, requires some mental gymnastics even though it is about as easy an equation that one could get.
Launched the yacht and manually started the motor which proved to be relatively easy thank goodness. I desperately hoped that the battery would be enough to power the depth finder since I don't fancy navigating around the Vaal without one. Packed the yacht with the contents of the Mini and before we knew it, we were on our way for our first weekend on the other side of the Vaal dam. We had just cleared the DAC moorings when a very pleasant breeze sprang up and continued to freshen all the way around the back of the island and to Kirsten and Carls place.
Managed to get Caron to skipper a bit before the wind picked up and she started bleating about the yacht heeling over too much. One day she is going to get over this and realise that, no, the yacht is not about to tip over no matter how much it heels. Quite annoying while I wait for the realisation to dawn on her. It was actually a very nice sail and we left a much larger yacht trailing in our wake which made me feel very good even though there was no way to tell if they were or weren't racing me nor whether or not their yacht is meant to be faster or slower than mine. Since I am a below average sailor, either of these could be true. Rounded the northern tip of the island and started the beat up the channel to Kirsten and Carl's place while Caron clung onto the coach roof like a drenched cat, claws gouged into the coachroof. If I wasn't in so much trouble, it would have been quite funny. We were examining what we thought was their bay when the phone rang which was rather opportune since we could confirm the location and we proceeded to motor in and moor at their jetty. The trip took about 3 hours and I found it really nice to be sailing with a destination and a purpose, not just sailing for sailing's sake.
Met everyone and had a quick cup of tea before we headed out on Carls current pride and joy, a 21' 200hp motorboat. Definitely not going to struggle to put a skier up out of the water and we had a great time playing around on the “Scooter” and the knee board. The scooter is a bit like a floating mattress with handles and upturned ends and is great for people who aren't able to actually ski. Managed to cajole Caron to have a go and she clung on for dear life for about 5 minutes before her wrist started to give way and she asked to stop. The scooter is a bit tricksy because one has to lie quite far back to prevent the nose digging in. Having been warned of this Caron promptly forgot about it an all but went arse over kettle, much to our amusement. My own turn on the “Scooter” was quite spectacular as the photograph below shows. In the wipe out, I hurt some of my ribs which were still sore a week later. After a couple of spills on the scooter I tried the kneeboard which was rather fun, especially since, even without any skills, one can do jumps and career around behind the boat like a madman. Before we knew it, everyone had had a turn and it was time to go home and start making supper. The never-ending chore.
Even though Kirsten and Carl had a bedroom available we decide to sleep on the yacht which was great. On the way down to the yacht we went past the club pub and there was some idiot singing away at the top of his voice which we hoped was not going to keep us awake half the night. Carl remarked that it only takes a small amount of alcohol to turn the average idiot into an exceptional moron. A perspective to which I heartily agree and a quote I shall remember.
We both slept in the bows of the yacht and had a great nights sleep. Caron complained because she hadn't turned over once and woke up in exactly the same position in which she had gone to sleep and when she does that, her back seizes up and it takes a couple of hours to get flexible again.
Had breakfast up at the house before we left Caron behind and went for a couple of hours sailing with everyone else. There was great wind, just enough to heel the yacht over and get her going but not enough to be difficult to handle. I think that everyone really enjoyed it. Megan doesn't accept that the first time she went on a yacht she was absolutely terrified. Had fun letting them helm and getting them to actually steer the yacht and I think that they really enjoyed the experience. Megan said that next time we sail over she wants to come and sleep on the yacht with us which I'm sure we could organise. Back at the house caron had had a great morning, drinking coffee and reading. Nothing too stressful.
After we returned we had a quick morning tea before Caron and I had to make tracks all the way home. Great sail all the way home, the wind veering between a dead run and a broad reach which pleased Caron no end since the yacht doesn't heel over too much. Arrived back at DAC and managed to get the yacht onto the trailer without too much difficulty although steering without the keel down and a fresh cross wind was not that easy.
By the time we had packed up and were on our way home to join Pippa and Glynne for supper we were about an hour late and to make matters worse, we couldn't get through to them. Fortunately, about an hour out of Johannesburg, Glynne phoned to say that they were going to have to cancel because he could hardly walk after the mountainbike race that he did on Saturday which neatly cleared up the problem of being late.
Bought a prawn curry for supper which was absolutely delicious. I can highly recommend Ghazal in Peter Place, Sandton for a very good indian meal. Both of us were feeling quite knackered having spent just about the entire day in the 35+ heat and while I wasn't sun burnt, I certainly felt pretty tired and we retired early for a really good nights sleep.
No cuts from the yacht. A miracle weekend.
On Saturday morning we left for the Vaal for the weekend, packed the Mini to the roof with clutter and departed. The way that we pack one would think that we were either going for a week or that we were catering for a family, which I suppose we were in a roundabout way. Very quiet trip down, Caron driving and me reading the Mail and Guardian getting my weekly dose of bad news. It's not always bad, I think that it just seems that way.
Arrived, unpacked the caravan, set up the tent and got the boat ready to launch. Discovered that the battery was flat and that there wasn't any fuel left and since there wasn't any wind we thought we were going to need quite a lot of it. Filled up and added the two stroke oil which always, for some reason, requires some mental gymnastics even though it is about as easy an equation that one could get.
Launched the yacht and manually started the motor which proved to be relatively easy thank goodness. I desperately hoped that the battery would be enough to power the depth finder since I don't fancy navigating around the Vaal without one. Packed the yacht with the contents of the Mini and before we knew it, we were on our way for our first weekend on the other side of the Vaal dam. We had just cleared the DAC moorings when a very pleasant breeze sprang up and continued to freshen all the way around the back of the island and to Kirsten and Carls place.
Managed to get Caron to skipper a bit before the wind picked up and she started bleating about the yacht heeling over too much. One day she is going to get over this and realise that, no, the yacht is not about to tip over no matter how much it heels. Quite annoying while I wait for the realisation to dawn on her. It was actually a very nice sail and we left a much larger yacht trailing in our wake which made me feel very good even though there was no way to tell if they were or weren't racing me nor whether or not their yacht is meant to be faster or slower than mine. Since I am a below average sailor, either of these could be true. Rounded the northern tip of the island and started the beat up the channel to Kirsten and Carl's place while Caron clung onto the coach roof like a drenched cat, claws gouged into the coachroof. If I wasn't in so much trouble, it would have been quite funny. We were examining what we thought was their bay when the phone rang which was rather opportune since we could confirm the location and we proceeded to motor in and moor at their jetty. The trip took about 3 hours and I found it really nice to be sailing with a destination and a purpose, not just sailing for sailing's sake.
Met everyone and had a quick cup of tea before we headed out on Carls current pride and joy, a 21' 200hp motorboat. Definitely not going to struggle to put a skier up out of the water and we had a great time playing around on the “Scooter” and the knee board. The scooter is a bit like a floating mattress with handles and upturned ends and is great for people who aren't able to actually ski. Managed to cajole Caron to have a go and she clung on for dear life for about 5 minutes before her wrist started to give way and she asked to stop. The scooter is a bit tricksy because one has to lie quite far back to prevent the nose digging in. Having been warned of this Caron promptly forgot about it an all but went arse over kettle, much to our amusement. My own turn on the “Scooter” was quite spectacular as the photograph below shows. In the wipe out, I hurt some of my ribs which were still sore a week later. After a couple of spills on the scooter I tried the kneeboard which was rather fun, especially since, even without any skills, one can do jumps and career around behind the boat like a madman. Before we knew it, everyone had had a turn and it was time to go home and start making supper. The never-ending chore.
Even though Kirsten and Carl had a bedroom available we decide to sleep on the yacht which was great. On the way down to the yacht we went past the club pub and there was some idiot singing away at the top of his voice which we hoped was not going to keep us awake half the night. Carl remarked that it only takes a small amount of alcohol to turn the average idiot into an exceptional moron. A perspective to which I heartily agree and a quote I shall remember.
We both slept in the bows of the yacht and had a great nights sleep. Caron complained because she hadn't turned over once and woke up in exactly the same position in which she had gone to sleep and when she does that, her back seizes up and it takes a couple of hours to get flexible again.
Had breakfast up at the house before we left Caron behind and went for a couple of hours sailing with everyone else. There was great wind, just enough to heel the yacht over and get her going but not enough to be difficult to handle. I think that everyone really enjoyed it. Megan doesn't accept that the first time she went on a yacht she was absolutely terrified. Had fun letting them helm and getting them to actually steer the yacht and I think that they really enjoyed the experience. Megan said that next time we sail over she wants to come and sleep on the yacht with us which I'm sure we could organise. Back at the house caron had had a great morning, drinking coffee and reading. Nothing too stressful.
After we returned we had a quick morning tea before Caron and I had to make tracks all the way home. Great sail all the way home, the wind veering between a dead run and a broad reach which pleased Caron no end since the yacht doesn't heel over too much. Arrived back at DAC and managed to get the yacht onto the trailer without too much difficulty although steering without the keel down and a fresh cross wind was not that easy.
By the time we had packed up and were on our way home to join Pippa and Glynne for supper we were about an hour late and to make matters worse, we couldn't get through to them. Fortunately, about an hour out of Johannesburg, Glynne phoned to say that they were going to have to cancel because he could hardly walk after the mountainbike race that he did on Saturday which neatly cleared up the problem of being late.
Bought a prawn curry for supper which was absolutely delicious. I can highly recommend Ghazal in Peter Place, Sandton for a very good indian meal. Both of us were feeling quite knackered having spent just about the entire day in the 35+ heat and while I wasn't sun burnt, I certainly felt pretty tired and we retired early for a really good nights sleep.
No cuts from the yacht. A miracle weekend.
Dubious Advertising
I've just re-read some of my recent posted blogs and my English is definitely deteriorating so I'll have pick up the game and try to get into the habit of taking a bit more time over the posts. Having managed to squeak through school with an e means that it'll never be great but when even I can see that it is less than ideal, it is definitely time to make an effort. Actually, I shouldn't be blaming myself. My proof reader, Caron, didn't pick up the miserable English so really, it's all her fault. Just like in the Garden of Eden! :-)
We're having a controversy around northern suburbs because we have had a spate of strip and other clubs of ill-repute advertising on bill boards. I'll leave it to your imagination as to the pictorial matter; suffice to say that it has managed to get some sections of the population up on their soap boxes about protecting their children which is fair enough. The issue is that there really isn't anything sexually explicit or illegal i.e. no nudity so while I'm tempted to agree that they shouldn't be allowed to advertise on billboards, at the end of the day, the billboards are no more explicit (those that I have seen) than a suntan cream or exotic vacation advert so what is being objected to is not so much the material on display but the fact that it is advertising morally unacceptable businesses. If I was a strip club owner, I think that I would be morally bound to object to the advertisements for large church gatherings :-)
I would however be quite keen on banning all roadside advertising, not from some moral standpoint but simply because advertising, by definition, is meant to attract your attention. In this case it is attracting your attention away from what you should be doing which is driving. No wonder we have such poor accident statistics.
What actually started this was an article in the local newspaper which given that the headline contained the word 'evil' and a picture of one of the offending adverts with a picture of a beautiful woman on it, one could easily draw a relationship between evil and women. Now, I know that the point of the article was not to portray women of any sort as evil, it's just that that is the way it came across. So if you are a women, firstly it could be argued that you are exploited by the businesses of dubious distinction and then portrayed to be evil by those opposed to said businesses. What a conundrum to get out of.
We're having a controversy around northern suburbs because we have had a spate of strip and other clubs of ill-repute advertising on bill boards. I'll leave it to your imagination as to the pictorial matter; suffice to say that it has managed to get some sections of the population up on their soap boxes about protecting their children which is fair enough. The issue is that there really isn't anything sexually explicit or illegal i.e. no nudity so while I'm tempted to agree that they shouldn't be allowed to advertise on billboards, at the end of the day, the billboards are no more explicit (those that I have seen) than a suntan cream or exotic vacation advert so what is being objected to is not so much the material on display but the fact that it is advertising morally unacceptable businesses. If I was a strip club owner, I think that I would be morally bound to object to the advertisements for large church gatherings :-)
I would however be quite keen on banning all roadside advertising, not from some moral standpoint but simply because advertising, by definition, is meant to attract your attention. In this case it is attracting your attention away from what you should be doing which is driving. No wonder we have such poor accident statistics.
What actually started this was an article in the local newspaper which given that the headline contained the word 'evil' and a picture of one of the offending adverts with a picture of a beautiful woman on it, one could easily draw a relationship between evil and women. Now, I know that the point of the article was not to portray women of any sort as evil, it's just that that is the way it came across. So if you are a women, firstly it could be argued that you are exploited by the businesses of dubious distinction and then portrayed to be evil by those opposed to said businesses. What a conundrum to get out of.
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