This time of year in Johannesburg is just absolutely fantastic, cool crisp mornings and warm days. Last Sunday Jason and I did our first ride from my house out to Northern Farm for a long time which I thoroughly enjoyed in spite of some of the sights on the way.
We were barrelling along next to the river and just about to go under the N1 when we were forced to a skidding halt by a large green metal fence which has mysteriously appeared across our path. There was no way around it so we had to backtrack and try going down the other side which proved a little trickier than expected. Basically we had to walk along a 6" concrete strip with a 5m drop on the one side and very steep embankment on which we wheeled our bicycles on the other. To make it a little more difficult, there were pillars supporting the road overhead to get around as well. As we approached the other side we could see people milling around but it was only when we got quite close that we could see the wreckage of a car which had obviously come off the highway. What a mess, but it was only when we got really close that we realised that there was a dead body lying close to the vehicle. Worst of all, we had to jump/run down these giant steps and walk right past the body which was staring sightlessly into the sky.
We speculated that since the dead person was definitely not dressed in a manner one would expect the owner of the now totalled car to dress; that he was was a car thief who had either lost control or taken an off-ramp which wasn't and fell the 15m or so from the bridge. I was surprised at how little I felt looking at the body, I would have expected that the experience would have been more emotionally traumatizing but it wasn't.
We received a bit of a scolding from the site foreman about how dangerous it was for us to pick our way through his construction site to which we politely asked that he provide an alternative route for us to use. We also asked that someone at least put a blanket over the body. Back on the track and pounding the hills was great fun but it is quite amazing at how the paths have changed since we last rode this way.
We met Kathy and Kelly at the coffee house at Northern Farm after our ride and while Kathy and I chatted and drank coffee, Jason took Kelly for a ride which Kelly seemed to really enjoy which bodes well for the future.
Jason and I rode back to his place, our legs starting to get a little sore so it was great to be fetched by Caron rather than having to ride all the way home.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
It's just the flick of a switch
Sometimes people do something that is just so mindbogglingly stupid that it has to be reduced to print. Yesterday some electricians were installing the cables to link our new generator to our distribution board and one of them was standing (strange but true) on our existing generator and knocked the mains isolator to off; accidentally I am assuming. This wouldn't have been a problem because the generator he was standing on promptly started to take up the load. What really took the cake was that he actually turned the generator off at the control panel, probably because it was making a helluva racket. The first I knew about it was when my internet connection died, I walked into the server room and saw whole racks with no "das blinkin lights". Apoplectic with anger I stormed down to find out what had happened and I just couldn't believe it when I pieced the story together. The moral of this story is that something one considers to be blindingly obvious, isn't obvious at all to other people. Condescending as it may seem, there really are times when the obvious absolutely has to be stated; even at the risk of appearing patronising.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Becoming a statistic
I arrived home from work on friday to find my front gate next to the opening it is meant to close; not good! Walking into the house I found my mother and father-in-law sitting in the lounge, a bit shell shocked that some miscreants have invaded our privacy and made off with our possessions.
Piecing together the modus-operandi it was obvious that a crow bar is a very useful implement if you are a thief. A crow bar can be used to break open pretty much anything short of a bank grade safe and this is what they used to break the rack on the front gate enabling them to open the gate. Any physical security measure that is actually workable vs a crow bar; something has to break and it isn't going to be the crow bar. The crow bar also made short work of the sliding door and they must have been in the house no more than five minutes but in that five minutes they made off with both Caron's and my PC as well as my brand new LCD TV. Very inconvenient because the took my entire photo collection, including the backups on CD leaving me with only one remaining copy which I desperately hope is ok.
Roland law of escalating security: Accept that you are going to get ripped off every now and then, insure accordingly and without making it easy for the opportunist miscreants, don't make it difficult for the real criminals. You are entering an arms race where the opposition isn't bound by the same morals that you are so don't enter the race.
By way of examples;
Car hijacking used to be unknown but then everyone put alarms and immobilisers into their cars making it all but impossible to steal an unoccupied car. The bandits escalated to stealing the car while you are inside; personally, I would rather not be inside the car.
Once upon a time, criminals would steal or copy a credit card so VISA and Mastercard put PIN's on the card to prevent this. What do criminals do? well they kidnap (worst case scenario but it has happened) you and your card and force you at gunpoint to divulge the PIN. Personally, I would rather they just took the card and left me alone.
The moral of the story is that if you make it difficult enough for criminals, they aren't going to stop stealing because it is difficult, they're just going to change modus operandi and because their reluctance to the use of physical violence is less than most peoples, it is most of the people that lose more than just their possessions.
Don't get me wrong, I don't condone in any way criminal behaviour but in the bigger scheme of things, possesions are just money and if you value them more than you value your and your families well being you really should start examining your priorities as a human being.
One of the things we purposefully did was to make one of the entrances to the house easy to break into so thieves can get in and out with whatever they are taking as quickly as possible. While making physical entry easy, we do have an alarm so that they know that they have only 5 minutes before big guys with big guns arrive to take them on. This is a conscious effort not to prevent theft but to limit it in a similar manner to a credit card. Yes, it can get copied and used fraudulently but at the end of the day, there is only so much the criminals can get away with.
Surprising, even now after a few days, I am unable to actually get cross about the missing possessions. Sure it is annoying and it is going to cost a bit to replace everything but nobody was harmed and it isn't anything worse than an expensive inconvenience.
Piecing together the modus-operandi it was obvious that a crow bar is a very useful implement if you are a thief. A crow bar can be used to break open pretty much anything short of a bank grade safe and this is what they used to break the rack on the front gate enabling them to open the gate. Any physical security measure that is actually workable vs a crow bar; something has to break and it isn't going to be the crow bar. The crow bar also made short work of the sliding door and they must have been in the house no more than five minutes but in that five minutes they made off with both Caron's and my PC as well as my brand new LCD TV. Very inconvenient because the took my entire photo collection, including the backups on CD leaving me with only one remaining copy which I desperately hope is ok.
Roland law of escalating security: Accept that you are going to get ripped off every now and then, insure accordingly and without making it easy for the opportunist miscreants, don't make it difficult for the real criminals. You are entering an arms race where the opposition isn't bound by the same morals that you are so don't enter the race.
By way of examples;
Car hijacking used to be unknown but then everyone put alarms and immobilisers into their cars making it all but impossible to steal an unoccupied car. The bandits escalated to stealing the car while you are inside; personally, I would rather not be inside the car.
Once upon a time, criminals would steal or copy a credit card so VISA and Mastercard put PIN's on the card to prevent this. What do criminals do? well they kidnap (worst case scenario but it has happened) you and your card and force you at gunpoint to divulge the PIN. Personally, I would rather they just took the card and left me alone.
The moral of the story is that if you make it difficult enough for criminals, they aren't going to stop stealing because it is difficult, they're just going to change modus operandi and because their reluctance to the use of physical violence is less than most peoples, it is most of the people that lose more than just their possessions.
Don't get me wrong, I don't condone in any way criminal behaviour but in the bigger scheme of things, possesions are just money and if you value them more than you value your and your families well being you really should start examining your priorities as a human being.
One of the things we purposefully did was to make one of the entrances to the house easy to break into so thieves can get in and out with whatever they are taking as quickly as possible. While making physical entry easy, we do have an alarm so that they know that they have only 5 minutes before big guys with big guns arrive to take them on. This is a conscious effort not to prevent theft but to limit it in a similar manner to a credit card. Yes, it can get copied and used fraudulently but at the end of the day, there is only so much the criminals can get away with.
Surprising, even now after a few days, I am unable to actually get cross about the missing possessions. Sure it is annoying and it is going to cost a bit to replace everything but nobody was harmed and it isn't anything worse than an expensive inconvenience.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Themeda 2008 Continued
Something I forgot to mention about our ride yesterday; I really need to buy a handlebar mounting for the GPS, we missed a turn off and rode a steep kilometer long hill only to have to turn around and go all the way back to the bottom. Very frustrating but it was quite close to the start so we didn't take it as badly as we would have if we were at the latter stages of the ride.
While we were on the way home we were discussing whether Jason and I should or could ride down robbers pass and back up to Themeda while still giving everyone enough time to do whatever else needed to be done. Jason wasn't very sure but Cathy was egging him on, not so quietly either I have to add. So it was decided; we were going to ride down robbers pass and turn around and then ride all the way back up.
Sunday morning cracked and we had breakfast as we watched the ruby sun rise in the distance. The first 30minutes of the ride were exhilarating; that was the downhill section. The following 90 minutes was quite hard work. Below is the profile of the ride, not too much flat it has to be said!
I would definitely think twice before tackling this on a road bike even though it is considerably lighter and has no damping to soak up energy; the gearing on a mountain bike over-rides all other factors. I felt absolutely fantastic after the two hours of riding.
We parted company with Jason and Cathy who had to go and pick up Kelly from sun city while we "went to mecca" as Jason was fond of saying. Mecca being our unwanted, unloved piece of turf in white river.
Not much has changed in the estate, a couple more houses but looking at our forlorn bit, we really should get someone in to remove the trees, their stumps and flatten the ground, filling in the ditches and dongas. Very depressing seeing all the work that should be done on a piece of ground one doesn't actually want. Oh, well - there are worse things in life I guess.
On the way to white river we stopped in at the Africa Silk shop in graskop to buy some more mopane worm silk cushions. We bought some a couple of years ago and they have turned out to be great. While we were there Caron got into a bit of shopping frenzy and we left the shop proud owners of a new silk duvet. The outside is cotton but the actual filling is silk and this just has to be the most amazing duvet, it is very thin and light but amazingly warm. Strangely, each duvet has a serial number on it which they keep tabs on so they know exactly who actually has their duvets.
I finish with Carons' version of riding a bicycle.
While we were on the way home we were discussing whether Jason and I should or could ride down robbers pass and back up to Themeda while still giving everyone enough time to do whatever else needed to be done. Jason wasn't very sure but Cathy was egging him on, not so quietly either I have to add. So it was decided; we were going to ride down robbers pass and turn around and then ride all the way back up.
Sunday morning cracked and we had breakfast as we watched the ruby sun rise in the distance. The first 30minutes of the ride were exhilarating; that was the downhill section. The following 90 minutes was quite hard work. Below is the profile of the ride, not too much flat it has to be said!
I would definitely think twice before tackling this on a road bike even though it is considerably lighter and has no damping to soak up energy; the gearing on a mountain bike over-rides all other factors. I felt absolutely fantastic after the two hours of riding.
We parted company with Jason and Cathy who had to go and pick up Kelly from sun city while we "went to mecca" as Jason was fond of saying. Mecca being our unwanted, unloved piece of turf in white river.
Not much has changed in the estate, a couple more houses but looking at our forlorn bit, we really should get someone in to remove the trees, their stumps and flatten the ground, filling in the ditches and dongas. Very depressing seeing all the work that should be done on a piece of ground one doesn't actually want. Oh, well - there are worse things in life I guess.
On the way to white river we stopped in at the Africa Silk shop in graskop to buy some more mopane worm silk cushions. We bought some a couple of years ago and they have turned out to be great. While we were there Caron got into a bit of shopping frenzy and we left the shop proud owners of a new silk duvet. The outside is cotton but the actual filling is silk and this just has to be the most amazing duvet, it is very thin and light but amazingly warm. Strangely, each duvet has a serial number on it which they keep tabs on so they know exactly who actually has their duvets.
I finish with Carons' version of riding a bicycle.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Themida 2008
We were actually meant to be riding the Jock but I just didn't feel up to 150km of quite hard riding; it's not that we've exactly stopped riding, we're just taking it easy. Very easy!
Since Jason and Cathy had already palmed off their offspring it seemed like a free weekend was too good to waste so we met at Themida near Crystal Springs in Mpumulanga for what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic weekend; I wish they were all like this.
Traveling down to Themida on the friday evening we stopped in Dullstroom for supper at the something pickle which proved to be an inspired choice; roaring log fire, attentive camp waiter and very delicious food. I could have stayed right there for the weekend.
We arrived at about 20:30 having been driving for 4:30, grabbed the keys from Jan the proprietor and gingerly drove down increasingly poor tracks to the huts. We stayed in numbers 7 & 8 which are a little apart from the rest of the huts and the solitude is refreshingly delicious. There is no electricity so everything is run on gas which lends a particular feeling of isolation to the cottages. Jason and Cathy arrived at about 10:30 and I think they were very relieved to have actually found us because the final kilometer really starts to feel like one is totally lost.
Saturday morning we were up moderately early; it's very easy to sleep well at themida because there just isn't any noise at all at night and due to the design of the rondavels, they remain quite dark even at midday. Having learnt from my previous experience where a 3 hours estimated ride turned into an 8 hour epic, we were quite circumspect as to what distance we would do and had mapped out a 32km route with graeme last week. It was just as well, the 32km took us a full four hours to complete which was enough to really feel like one has been on a ride but not so much as to make it start to be an epic.
The ride is shown below in both topography view and profile and is definitely not for the novice mountain bike rider. The logging roads we were on most of the time hadn't been used in quite a while so they were quite difficult to ride on not to mention steep.
At one point you can just make out that we went backward and forth a couple of times trying to find the path that the GPS was leading us on. Blindly following the GPS was quite interesting and a little bit of an adventure because, as we found out last time, something that looks quite innocent on google earth can be quite an obstacle in real life. I could see the hesitation in Jason when we left a perfectly good mountain path to blunder down a very steep pine covered forest slope to emerge a few hundred metres on another, not quite so good, path.
Going down one of the trickier sections I ran the wrong line and a rock stopped my front wheel dead leaving me balancing on the front wheel with my back wheel trying to overtake my front wheel. I'm happy to say that I handled the situation with suitable aplomb and didn't bale like I did later. We didn't see a single person for almost the entire ride and it was only on the last climb that we happened upon a gang of tree pruners and it was right in front of them that I chose to fall off, much to their mirth. Two whities cycling in the middle of nowhere and one of them falls off. Much mirth!
Jason and I in some of the indigenous forest we cycled through, it was fabulous and quite a bit cooler and wetter than similarly positioned pine or gum forests.
Arriving back we spent the afternoon relaxing and sleeping. I woke up at about 16:00 while Caron continued to sleep and spent a very enjoyable 2 hours reading and watching a wild horse have a dust bath in the distance. I really could end every day like this!
We had decided to go down into pilgrims rest for supper expecting there to be numerous restaurants open but there was actually only the hotel which served a buffet for us to choose from. Not bad food but at the price, one felt that one needed to eat an awful lot of food so all the hard work done in the morning was for nothing. The Pilgrims street lights have to be the most eco-friendly in the world - not because pilgrims is particularly environmentally conscious but they are so pathetic that it is not possible for them to actually use any power. I tried an experiment and switched my headlights off and I can truthfully say that I was not able to see anything at all despite the presence of the street lamps.
Since Jason and Cathy had already palmed off their offspring it seemed like a free weekend was too good to waste so we met at Themida near Crystal Springs in Mpumulanga for what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic weekend; I wish they were all like this.
Traveling down to Themida on the friday evening we stopped in Dullstroom for supper at the something pickle which proved to be an inspired choice; roaring log fire, attentive camp waiter and very delicious food. I could have stayed right there for the weekend.
We arrived at about 20:30 having been driving for 4:30, grabbed the keys from Jan the proprietor and gingerly drove down increasingly poor tracks to the huts. We stayed in numbers 7 & 8 which are a little apart from the rest of the huts and the solitude is refreshingly delicious. There is no electricity so everything is run on gas which lends a particular feeling of isolation to the cottages. Jason and Cathy arrived at about 10:30 and I think they were very relieved to have actually found us because the final kilometer really starts to feel like one is totally lost.
Saturday morning we were up moderately early; it's very easy to sleep well at themida because there just isn't any noise at all at night and due to the design of the rondavels, they remain quite dark even at midday. Having learnt from my previous experience where a 3 hours estimated ride turned into an 8 hour epic, we were quite circumspect as to what distance we would do and had mapped out a 32km route with graeme last week. It was just as well, the 32km took us a full four hours to complete which was enough to really feel like one has been on a ride but not so much as to make it start to be an epic.
The ride is shown below in both topography view and profile and is definitely not for the novice mountain bike rider. The logging roads we were on most of the time hadn't been used in quite a while so they were quite difficult to ride on not to mention steep.
At one point you can just make out that we went backward and forth a couple of times trying to find the path that the GPS was leading us on. Blindly following the GPS was quite interesting and a little bit of an adventure because, as we found out last time, something that looks quite innocent on google earth can be quite an obstacle in real life. I could see the hesitation in Jason when we left a perfectly good mountain path to blunder down a very steep pine covered forest slope to emerge a few hundred metres on another, not quite so good, path.
Going down one of the trickier sections I ran the wrong line and a rock stopped my front wheel dead leaving me balancing on the front wheel with my back wheel trying to overtake my front wheel. I'm happy to say that I handled the situation with suitable aplomb and didn't bale like I did later. We didn't see a single person for almost the entire ride and it was only on the last climb that we happened upon a gang of tree pruners and it was right in front of them that I chose to fall off, much to their mirth. Two whities cycling in the middle of nowhere and one of them falls off. Much mirth!
Jason and I in some of the indigenous forest we cycled through, it was fabulous and quite a bit cooler and wetter than similarly positioned pine or gum forests.
Arriving back we spent the afternoon relaxing and sleeping. I woke up at about 16:00 while Caron continued to sleep and spent a very enjoyable 2 hours reading and watching a wild horse have a dust bath in the distance. I really could end every day like this!
We had decided to go down into pilgrims rest for supper expecting there to be numerous restaurants open but there was actually only the hotel which served a buffet for us to choose from. Not bad food but at the price, one felt that one needed to eat an awful lot of food so all the hard work done in the morning was for nothing. The Pilgrims street lights have to be the most eco-friendly in the world - not because pilgrims is particularly environmentally conscious but they are so pathetic that it is not possible for them to actually use any power. I tried an experiment and switched my headlights off and I can truthfully say that I was not able to see anything at all despite the presence of the street lamps.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
While we were riding innocently along ...
Cycling has taken a bit of a back seat of late; I think I overdid it in the run-up to the Sani2C and I've been enjoying being a slacker but it's time to start turning the pedals again. We've never really stopped riding but it's the distance, frequency and intensity that have all gone down several notches.
We've been riding on the road and off the road on alternating weekends which has really been a great was of getting back into it. A couple of weeks ago we did a road ride; it was 4 deg. when we started and 3 hours later when we stopped it was 7 deg. and there was a nasty wind the whole way. I was so cold that I didn't actually warm up the whole day. Thankfully those kinds of rides are the exception rather than the rule.
The next weekend we rode off-road at Northern Farm which is owned by Johannesburg municipality and has something to do with the disposal of processed sewage. Not quite sure what they do with it but I think that they plough it into the fields and then grow crops and breed cows - the point I'm making is that it is a working farm and there's a fair amount of cow dung around. So there we were; barreling down a hill, Jason speaking ten to the dozen as he is wont to do when mid-sentence there is an explosion of hacking, coughing and spluttering from him. A clod of cow-dung had flicked up and landed right at the back of his throat where you put pills so that you can't hack them up. As the coughing and spluttering continued I remarked that he should be thankful that it was only cow-dung at which point he started to look distinctly ill and declare that injections to prevent typhoid, dipthoid and any other kind of oid was going to happen as soon as he got home. Of course I was laughing so much at his antics that I could barely stay on my own bike.
It's now two weeks later and he is still alive and well so I think it was just cow-dung after all!
We've been riding on the road and off the road on alternating weekends which has really been a great was of getting back into it. A couple of weeks ago we did a road ride; it was 4 deg. when we started and 3 hours later when we stopped it was 7 deg. and there was a nasty wind the whole way. I was so cold that I didn't actually warm up the whole day. Thankfully those kinds of rides are the exception rather than the rule.
The next weekend we rode off-road at Northern Farm which is owned by Johannesburg municipality and has something to do with the disposal of processed sewage. Not quite sure what they do with it but I think that they plough it into the fields and then grow crops and breed cows - the point I'm making is that it is a working farm and there's a fair amount of cow dung around. So there we were; barreling down a hill, Jason speaking ten to the dozen as he is wont to do when mid-sentence there is an explosion of hacking, coughing and spluttering from him. A clod of cow-dung had flicked up and landed right at the back of his throat where you put pills so that you can't hack them up. As the coughing and spluttering continued I remarked that he should be thankful that it was only cow-dung at which point he started to look distinctly ill and declare that injections to prevent typhoid, dipthoid and any other kind of oid was going to happen as soon as he got home. Of course I was laughing so much at his antics that I could barely stay on my own bike.
It's now two weeks later and he is still alive and well so I think it was just cow-dung after all!
Of Hips and Femurs
Eish, how life changes! Last thursday my father-in-law was walking around what will be their cottage at Kim's house checking on the progress of the builders when he took a tumble. This is not too unusual but what was unusual was that he broke his hip. It was friday morning before he decided to go to hospital and after a quick diagnosis; a hip replacement was decided as the course of action. These doctors don't hang around these days and by the end of friday the operation was over and a brand new hip installed.
To make things more complicated, they've given notice at the flat that they're renting so they have to have moved house by the end of this month. Clearly father-in-law is not going to be doing an awful lot of moving given that he can barely shuffle along on crutches at the moment.
Every evening he has to have an injection for some reason and all the women are too squeamish so I get to do it. It must be every son-in-law's dream to stick needles into the father-in-law AND get thanked for it.
As a result of the operation, Aldon is recuperating at our house and as a result of that our nice peaceful, serene existence has been eviscerated. Loads of sisters-in-law and their spawn visiting at all sorts of time. Jessie (the psychotic cat) and Caron have taken to hiding in corners to escape the maelstrom.
To make things more complicated, they've given notice at the flat that they're renting so they have to have moved house by the end of this month. Clearly father-in-law is not going to be doing an awful lot of moving given that he can barely shuffle along on crutches at the moment.
Every evening he has to have an injection for some reason and all the women are too squeamish so I get to do it. It must be every son-in-law's dream to stick needles into the father-in-law AND get thanked for it.
As a result of the operation, Aldon is recuperating at our house and as a result of that our nice peaceful, serene existence has been eviscerated. Loads of sisters-in-law and their spawn visiting at all sorts of time. Jessie (the psychotic cat) and Caron have taken to hiding in corners to escape the maelstrom.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Afriski Winter 2008
Carl, Kirsten, Caron and I purchased a ski chalet last year in the Lesotho mountains so that we could have a short ski holiday without the expense and time required to go overseas. Although technically true, saying that we own a ski chalet doesn't quite describe it adequately at all. What we actually own is 1/26 of a chalet (4%) so the reality isn't quite as grand as it sounds.
Getting to the ski resort we have to pass over the Moteng pass which is over 3000m above sea level and can be very icy and treacherous so, in lieu of snow tires which would be impossible to obtain in SA, both carl and I have purchased sets of snow chains. It looks really funny putting chains on a 3 series but if we need to use them them we're going to really need them.
Carl wasn't able to ski due to his shoulder operation a couple of months ago but I think that a little missing out now will be much better than taking the chance of damaging his shoulder again. Still, it couldn't have been easy watching the rest of us kit up every day and bugger off to the slopes while he was left to his own devices or worse, left with sick children as happened the one day.
In between the frenetic activity on the slopes there was time to relax in the sunshine, indoors of course, and read a couple of novels. We were there for a full 5 days which sounds a lot given the size of the one and only slope pictured below but it goes quite quickly and the slope is actually perfect for learning or working on one's skiing technique.
I think that both the slope for learning on and the instructors were significantly better than we have experienced in europe. The one instructor in particular whose name was rudi from pitztal was particularly amazing both in how he skied and how he taught. Methinks pitztal is going to feature somewhere in my future travel plans.
Taking lessons turned out to be a great idea because we (kirsten and I) were just about the only ones taking intermediate or advanced lessons so we had individual tuition at the price of group lessons. When I was talking to moritz, the other instructor I had, he said that skiing was just such a new sport in SA that almost everyone was a beginner and most people were just happy to leave it at being able to get down a slope safely. Learning how to ski properly will come but at the moment there aren't that many people going the extra step.
Of course, as with any holiday, there has to be some irritating twit that spoils it and mine was an older, grey haired guy on 2' skis that kept on queue jumping. He didn't appreciate it when I pointed his behaviour out in front of the entire queue and tried to edge closer to intimidate me (I guess) because he was plenty close enough to spar verbally.
All in all; a really enjoyable way to spend a week. Work feels so far away when one is skiing.
Getting to the ski resort we have to pass over the Moteng pass which is over 3000m above sea level and can be very icy and treacherous so, in lieu of snow tires which would be impossible to obtain in SA, both carl and I have purchased sets of snow chains. It looks really funny putting chains on a 3 series but if we need to use them them we're going to really need them.
Carl wasn't able to ski due to his shoulder operation a couple of months ago but I think that a little missing out now will be much better than taking the chance of damaging his shoulder again. Still, it couldn't have been easy watching the rest of us kit up every day and bugger off to the slopes while he was left to his own devices or worse, left with sick children as happened the one day.
In between the frenetic activity on the slopes there was time to relax in the sunshine, indoors of course, and read a couple of novels. We were there for a full 5 days which sounds a lot given the size of the one and only slope pictured below but it goes quite quickly and the slope is actually perfect for learning or working on one's skiing technique.
I think that both the slope for learning on and the instructors were significantly better than we have experienced in europe. The one instructor in particular whose name was rudi from pitztal was particularly amazing both in how he skied and how he taught. Methinks pitztal is going to feature somewhere in my future travel plans.
Taking lessons turned out to be a great idea because we (kirsten and I) were just about the only ones taking intermediate or advanced lessons so we had individual tuition at the price of group lessons. When I was talking to moritz, the other instructor I had, he said that skiing was just such a new sport in SA that almost everyone was a beginner and most people were just happy to leave it at being able to get down a slope safely. Learning how to ski properly will come but at the moment there aren't that many people going the extra step.
Of course, as with any holiday, there has to be some irritating twit that spoils it and mine was an older, grey haired guy on 2' skis that kept on queue jumping. He didn't appreciate it when I pointed his behaviour out in front of the entire queue and tried to edge closer to intimidate me (I guess) because he was plenty close enough to spar verbally.
All in all; a really enjoyable way to spend a week. Work feels so far away when one is skiing.
Back in the Saddle
Although Jason and I haven't actually stopped riding, the frequency and intensity have gone down to about a 1 out of 10 which has been quite pleasant but the time has come, as they say, to pick it up again. Sunday we did a 70km route which was great albeit exhausting. When we started the ride it was 4.5 deg C but I thought it would warm up quite quickly so I was riding in shorts, my concession to the cold being a windbreaker and some newspaper and long fingered gloves. When we finished the ride three hours later it was 7 deg C which is not a whole lot warmer and I spent the entire day chilled but not quite frozen. It was great being on the bike again in the winter sunshine riding past the lionesses and their cubs and helping some other cyclists who didn't have multi-tools to fix their own bikes.
It was shortly afterwards that I was following one of the previously broken cyclists around a corner and as I was thinking that this was too fast around the corner, his front wheel slipped and he went tip over arse over kettle with me braking hard to avoid riding into him. No damage other than some nasty road rash and some bruising that'll remind him not to take corners that fast for a week or two.
We finished the ride at cycle lab and I was very thankful that I didn't have to ride the extra 10km home. I'm sure my legs will get back into the swing of things quite quickly but at the moment - it's quite exhausting.
We had a very rare family gathering at lunch time at Kirstens place; very rare that all the siblings are in the same town at the same time. Had a very enjoyable lunch with lots of wine before we all settled in to watch some of the tour de france. Carl has obviously become an addict judging from the depression that set in when Kirsten insisted on switching over to watch Wimbledon. Personally, I think she just wanted to watch Rafael Nadal show his biceps off.
It was shortly afterwards that I was following one of the previously broken cyclists around a corner and as I was thinking that this was too fast around the corner, his front wheel slipped and he went tip over arse over kettle with me braking hard to avoid riding into him. No damage other than some nasty road rash and some bruising that'll remind him not to take corners that fast for a week or two.
We finished the ride at cycle lab and I was very thankful that I didn't have to ride the extra 10km home. I'm sure my legs will get back into the swing of things quite quickly but at the moment - it's quite exhausting.
We had a very rare family gathering at lunch time at Kirstens place; very rare that all the siblings are in the same town at the same time. Had a very enjoyable lunch with lots of wine before we all settled in to watch some of the tour de france. Carl has obviously become an addict judging from the depression that set in when Kirsten insisted on switching over to watch Wimbledon. Personally, I think she just wanted to watch Rafael Nadal show his biceps off.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Politics, Religion and Wealth
"Also note this: secularism thrives in an environment that is economically strong, where good education is the norm. Faith thrives on economic uncertainty, and grows best in ignorance. Guess which one of those conditions is easiest to generate and maintain? Cultivating a healthy society that can grow and sustain itself, with a well-informed democratic populace, is hard work. Producing an economic rathole inhabited by frightened sheep is easy — elect a few incompetent leaders, throw away resources on futile, bloody projects, and unchain rapacious business interests to exploit short-term personal gains at the cost of sustainability, and you've got a recipe for a fast slide back into the dark ages."
The quote is from Pharyngula but could so easily have been describing our current government and situation.
The article also refers to the following very interesting interview by Bill Moyers
The quote is from Pharyngula but could so easily have been describing our current government and situation.
The article also refers to the following very interesting interview by Bill Moyers
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
More fund raising
It seems that this was my week for doing charity drives, Friday evening found both Caron and myself at a quiz evening at samuel and hannah's school helping to raise funds for the school. Maybe I should put it a different way, we were there so that the school had the opportunity to pick our collective pockets. Our table consisted of 6 women and 2 men which might explain why we did relatively well - out of the 18 teams we placed third which one can't help but feel pleased about. Better still, there were prizes for coming third - the very best kind of prizes as well; alcohol and chocolate.
Graeme Codrington and Hannah's rules
I had a very strange experience on thursday night last week. Kim and Laurel invited me to go and see Graeme Codrington talk at a charity fund raiser which, having no idea of who exactly he was, landed me in the Rosebank Union church. I haven't been in a church for a good many years now and it was quite strange to be back but in some ways, it was like I had never been away. The manner of the MC and the analogies and stories that he used were old 15 years ago, it was a bit like being in a time warp.
We had just sat down and there was "Hello Roland" from the row behind from someone that, although I recognised the face, for the life of me I couldn't remember a name. If I looked to the left and the right, there were people I knew so not only did the topics remain static but the people seem to have been pretty static as well.
The speech entitled "Hannah's Rules" by Graeme Codrington was quite good in the way he packaged the message that he was trying to get across. There wasn't anything really new in what he said and I really hope it wasn't news to the majority of people in the audience but it was nicely put together and every little bit of exposure helps. Hannah's rules comes from graeme's daughter who, although young, is already concerned with the environment and the ethics of people who damage the environment and she is just typical of the new generation of consumers and employees. If you, as a business person, want to remain in business in the coming years you need to recognise that the people you are going to be employing and selling your goods and services to are going to hold you to a different ethical scale to the one that you are used to. Be prepared for them or be irrelevant. Even better, being prepared for them can actually save you money in the here and now.
At least it was for a good cause at least - I think!
We had just sat down and there was "Hello Roland" from the row behind from someone that, although I recognised the face, for the life of me I couldn't remember a name. If I looked to the left and the right, there were people I knew so not only did the topics remain static but the people seem to have been pretty static as well.
The speech entitled "Hannah's Rules" by Graeme Codrington was quite good in the way he packaged the message that he was trying to get across. There wasn't anything really new in what he said and I really hope it wasn't news to the majority of people in the audience but it was nicely put together and every little bit of exposure helps. Hannah's rules comes from graeme's daughter who, although young, is already concerned with the environment and the ethics of people who damage the environment and she is just typical of the new generation of consumers and employees. If you, as a business person, want to remain in business in the coming years you need to recognise that the people you are going to be employing and selling your goods and services to are going to hold you to a different ethical scale to the one that you are used to. Be prepared for them or be irrelevant. Even better, being prepared for them can actually save you money in the here and now.
At least it was for a good cause at least - I think!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
How do you answer this?
I was related a story this morning that I found really funny so amidst the doom and gloom of everyday life in south africa:
This actually happened in Holland where a South Africa couple were staying for a while. One morning they woke up and the wife asked the husband to go and get some food for breakfast and gave him 30 guilders with which to buy it. On the way, just around the corner in fact, he walked past a prostitute who gave him some 'come hither' looks and fancying himself as a bit of a player he entered into a conversation with the woman. After a bit of chit chat he got down to the nitty gritty and inquired about the price - 100 Guilders was the answer and so the bargaining began. She dropped her price down to 80 and he was offering 30 and eventually she asked how much he had at which point he opened his wallet and showed her the 30 guilders. "30 Guilders, I won't even do a hand job for that!" she retorted indignantly and they both went their separate ways.
A week later he was leaving his flat with his wife on his arm and they walked around the same corner and lo and behold, bumped into the same prostitute. "See what you get for 30 Guilders" she commented as they walked past.
Now, I ask you. What exactly do you say to your wife at that moment that isn't going to result in celibacy?
This actually happened in Holland where a South Africa couple were staying for a while. One morning they woke up and the wife asked the husband to go and get some food for breakfast and gave him 30 guilders with which to buy it. On the way, just around the corner in fact, he walked past a prostitute who gave him some 'come hither' looks and fancying himself as a bit of a player he entered into a conversation with the woman. After a bit of chit chat he got down to the nitty gritty and inquired about the price - 100 Guilders was the answer and so the bargaining began. She dropped her price down to 80 and he was offering 30 and eventually she asked how much he had at which point he opened his wallet and showed her the 30 guilders. "30 Guilders, I won't even do a hand job for that!" she retorted indignantly and they both went their separate ways.
A week later he was leaving his flat with his wife on his arm and they walked around the same corner and lo and behold, bumped into the same prostitute. "See what you get for 30 Guilders" she commented as they walked past.
Now, I ask you. What exactly do you say to your wife at that moment that isn't going to result in celibacy?
Friday, May 23, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Eish! Pollution as bad a Joburg!
This was inside the Liverpool street train/metro station which, one the face of it, looks quite clean.
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Maybe not so clean after all. The fluff and gunk in the air has collected on the wires put there to keep the pigeons off.
.JPG)
Maybe not so clean after all. The fluff and gunk in the air has collected on the wires put there to keep the pigeons off.
A day in London
While Caron was busy working I took the opportunity to take a trip into London to see some sights which I've been keen on for a while. First stop was the Photographers Gallery near Leicester tube station which turned out to be a real disappointment. It really only shows the work of a couple of photographers and even then, not anyone that is known so it was hardly inspirational.
Next stop was the Tate Modern about which I think the best that I can say is that the building and exhibition rooms are magnificent. There is obviously something about modern art which I simply don't get. If art is about communication then it is in a language I don't understand but I think I'm in good company because nobody else seems to understand it either. By way of example:
377ABCAF271C00024754319830000000
000000007D0000000000000084612B1B
27DD21B3222095FCE7DD53EB2367201A
3A42C41757219281AA7D467E5F6820D4
4C72118FDE0DFDA074D721D8BF347A07
0104060001093000070B0100022406F1
07010A5207ADC0048188ADB5E8230301
01055D0000010001000C241F00080A01
DF59D28B00000501112D004E00650077
0020005400650078007400200044006F
00630075006D0065006E0074002E0074
00780074000000140A0100B602F36064
BAC80115060100200000000000
Has real meaning and a message that I, as the artist, would like to communicate to you. I promise you, it really does. Don't get it? Well neither does anyone else but that doesn't mean that it isn't art - you just don't understand the message.
If art is about aesthetics then we all have different tastes but lets not confuse the issues and try and make art to be more than it actually is.
While I was pondering I ended up watching a mother and her children playing far below on the expanse of concrete that forms the entrance to the Tate. Taking the example below
.jpg)
Aesthetic? Probably - depending on the viewer. Meaning as in a message from me, the artist to you the viewer. None! I could make up some bullshit about waiting at the crossroads of life and pondering which direction to go but no, it is simply a picture of a little girl which I found aesthetically pleasing.
Moving on. From the Tate I walked over the Millenium bridge which I found particularly aesthetically pleasing, to St. Pauls cathedral where I handed over 10 GBP of Caron's money to go inside. I like this kept husband thing! As I handed over the money the cashier told me to take off my cap and not to take any photographs because it is a place of worship. I wonder if they see the irony of paying to go into a church. St. Pauls is pretty damn impressive once one gets past the ghoulish aspects of bodies everywhere and just looks at the actual building. Comparing St. Pauls with the cottage below which is almost certainly of more recent vintage one would conclude that standards are going down here but like everywhere else that probably isn't true.
.jpg)
You get what you pay for and in St. Pauls case the cost must have been plenty - kindly provided by the colonies conquered by some of those interred within. So while some are feted here, they are more than likely hated elsewhere.
After St. Pauls I went to the prison that gave it's name to prisons worldwide when they are referred to as 'the clink'. Interesting but pretty brutal back in those days. I'm glad we have moved on - at least I think we've moved on. Sometimes I wonder though.
I finished the day off with a meal in a pub on the edge of the Thames while I waited for peak time to be over. When I had lunch at a sandwich bar quite close to the pub there were dozens of joggers running during their lunch hour even though it was decidedly chilly and they were wearing almost nothing. Judging from the figures that went past me I don't think that jogging is adequate to make up for the food consumption here.
Next stop was the Tate Modern about which I think the best that I can say is that the building and exhibition rooms are magnificent. There is obviously something about modern art which I simply don't get. If art is about communication then it is in a language I don't understand but I think I'm in good company because nobody else seems to understand it either. By way of example:
377ABCAF271C00024754319830000000
000000007D0000000000000084612B1B
27DD21B3222095FCE7DD53EB2367201A
3A42C41757219281AA7D467E5F6820D4
4C72118FDE0DFDA074D721D8BF347A07
0104060001093000070B0100022406F1
07010A5207ADC0048188ADB5E8230301
01055D0000010001000C241F00080A01
DF59D28B00000501112D004E00650077
0020005400650078007400200044006F
00630075006D0065006E0074002E0074
00780074000000140A0100B602F36064
BAC80115060100200000000000
Has real meaning and a message that I, as the artist, would like to communicate to you. I promise you, it really does. Don't get it? Well neither does anyone else but that doesn't mean that it isn't art - you just don't understand the message.
If art is about aesthetics then we all have different tastes but lets not confuse the issues and try and make art to be more than it actually is.
While I was pondering I ended up watching a mother and her children playing far below on the expanse of concrete that forms the entrance to the Tate. Taking the example below
.jpg)
Aesthetic? Probably - depending on the viewer. Meaning as in a message from me, the artist to you the viewer. None! I could make up some bullshit about waiting at the crossroads of life and pondering which direction to go but no, it is simply a picture of a little girl which I found aesthetically pleasing.
Moving on. From the Tate I walked over the Millenium bridge which I found particularly aesthetically pleasing, to St. Pauls cathedral where I handed over 10 GBP of Caron's money to go inside. I like this kept husband thing! As I handed over the money the cashier told me to take off my cap and not to take any photographs because it is a place of worship. I wonder if they see the irony of paying to go into a church. St. Pauls is pretty damn impressive once one gets past the ghoulish aspects of bodies everywhere and just looks at the actual building. Comparing St. Pauls with the cottage below which is almost certainly of more recent vintage one would conclude that standards are going down here but like everywhere else that probably isn't true.
.jpg)
You get what you pay for and in St. Pauls case the cost must have been plenty - kindly provided by the colonies conquered by some of those interred within. So while some are feted here, they are more than likely hated elsewhere.
After St. Pauls I went to the prison that gave it's name to prisons worldwide when they are referred to as 'the clink'. Interesting but pretty brutal back in those days. I'm glad we have moved on - at least I think we've moved on. Sometimes I wonder though.
I finished the day off with a meal in a pub on the edge of the Thames while I waited for peak time to be over. When I had lunch at a sandwich bar quite close to the pub there were dozens of joggers running during their lunch hour even though it was decidedly chilly and they were wearing almost nothing. Judging from the figures that went past me I don't think that jogging is adequate to make up for the food consumption here.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Stonehenge
Stonehenge has always, for some reason, been one of the 'things' which I have wanted to go and see and although I have been to the UK many times I've just never managed to get there. I had always thought that it was quite close to London - it is if you look on a map of the whole of the UK. In reality it is actually quite far away from London; a good two hours drive.
John and Julie, friends of Carons, picked us up at 08:30 for the two hour drive down to Salisbury and Stonehenge. I must say that I did enjoy seeing Stonehenge even though it could be adequately described as "just a pile of stones in a ring" and nobody actually knows why or how it was built although I have a theory (as in "just a theory" aka a hypothesis) of my very own to throw into the ring.
.jpg)
If you look carefully on the bottom left you can get a sense of the size of the stones but don't be fooled - the people in the photograph really were a group of midgets. :-)
My theory on the purpose of Stonehenge is supported by the following photograph of the supposed "heel stone":
I don't think that, from this evidence, that there can be any doubt that the ancient Britons were worshipping those denizens of the sea - the moray eels. One could also speculate that since creatures of the sea are also held sacred by pirates who worship the FSM that Stonehenge is actually an ancient temple to the FSM. Tenuous but possible I say!
.jpg)
From Stonehenge where evidence is sparse and speculation fun we went into the centre of Salisbury (previously known as "Harare") to have a look at Salisbury Cathedral. Not really my "cup of tea" as they say here but Caron and Julie are history buffs so John and I were dragged along. It is nothing if not an impressive and imposing edifice and there happened to be an orchestra and a choir practising for the evening's concert to add to the ethereal atmosphere as we sauntered around to the strains of Elgar whoever he was. I presume he's dead, shuffled his mortal coif so as to say.
.jpg)
Purely by chance we strayed into an enclave and saw an "original copy" of the magna-carta. I, of course, challenged the guide as to how it could possibly be an "original copy" since this seems to be an oxymoron to me. The guide was however correct since there were many copies all made at the same time and no original. The copies were made and sent to the town and cathedrals where they were read to the population. I must say that I did find this very interesting and even purchased an English translation of the magna-carta which I enjoyed reading since it is always referred to in the development of common and constitutional law.
John and Julie, friends of Carons, picked us up at 08:30 for the two hour drive down to Salisbury and Stonehenge. I must say that I did enjoy seeing Stonehenge even though it could be adequately described as "just a pile of stones in a ring" and nobody actually knows why or how it was built although I have a theory (as in "just a theory" aka a hypothesis) of my very own to throw into the ring.
.jpg)
If you look carefully on the bottom left you can get a sense of the size of the stones but don't be fooled - the people in the photograph really were a group of midgets. :-)
My theory on the purpose of Stonehenge is supported by the following photograph of the supposed "heel stone":
I don't think that, from this evidence, that there can be any doubt that the ancient Britons were worshipping those denizens of the sea - the moray eels. One could also speculate that since creatures of the sea are also held sacred by pirates who worship the FSM that Stonehenge is actually an ancient temple to the FSM. Tenuous but possible I say!
.jpg)
From Stonehenge where evidence is sparse and speculation fun we went into the centre of Salisbury (previously known as "Harare") to have a look at Salisbury Cathedral. Not really my "cup of tea" as they say here but Caron and Julie are history buffs so John and I were dragged along. It is nothing if not an impressive and imposing edifice and there happened to be an orchestra and a choir practising for the evening's concert to add to the ethereal atmosphere as we sauntered around to the strains of Elgar whoever he was. I presume he's dead, shuffled his mortal coif so as to say.
.jpg)
Purely by chance we strayed into an enclave and saw an "original copy" of the magna-carta. I, of course, challenged the guide as to how it could possibly be an "original copy" since this seems to be an oxymoron to me. The guide was however correct since there were many copies all made at the same time and no original. The copies were made and sent to the town and cathedrals where they were read to the population. I must say that I did find this very interesting and even purchased an English translation of the magna-carta which I enjoyed reading since it is always referred to in the development of common and constitutional law.
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