The Family Arrive

Woke up early-ish and sent an SMS off to Carl and Kirsten who should be getting off the plane and dragging their luggage through the subway and trains. Get a call from Kirsten to say that they're downstairs. After a long night without sleep and having dragged some huge suitcases up and down stairs and on and off trains and metro their arms were a bit longer and mood a bit shorter. On top of this Carl's phone decided to go on the blink which was really just the icing on the cake as far as Carl was concerned. While K&C settled in and had a bit of a nap to restore some sanity we went out shopping. Shopping is a big deal in Paris because the homes are so small that you actually can't do 'the months' shopping because there is nowhere to store the stuff. On top of this you have to carry the groceries from the store so you are limited by the strength of the tendons in you fingers.

Hennie and Diedre arrived for a lunch of soup and bread with a spot of cheese before we all ventured forth following our intrepid leaders (Caron and Carl) to see the Arch de Triomphe and the Champs de Elysee. The weather wasn't that great but at least it wasn't pouring with rain.

The view from the top of the Arch de Triomphe looking over towards the eiffel tower. The experience was nice but not great, we also had a look at the eternal flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Did I mention the 284 steps up to the top? Several people were a little out of breath by the time they arrived at the top. Caron decided to stay at the bottom and we tried to see her on the video screen that shows the view but we could only see dark shapes huddled up in their rain coats and big jackets.
From the Arche we strolled down the Champs barging our way through the crowds which are pretty thick and having some roast chestnuts along the way. We stopped at a cafe for some coffee and a rest and when we emerged it was dark. It feels like it goes from day to night to very quickly here. The christmas decorations are very attractive ....

... as was the carousel with the horses to sage who couldn't resist.
After that it was back in the metro, home, supper and bed. Everyone quite tired but looking forward to tomorrow which should include some shopping for new luggage and ski boots!

Paris, mid winter

Had a so, so night. The drugs really help so I at least got some sleep unlike Caron who refuses to take them or Kim who took them but had a wriggly worm next to her called Sage which no amount of drugs can compensate for.

Long queues in the airport but it all moved quite quickly, I have to admit that there is something about France which I like. It's a bit like when you meet someone for the first time and you take an instant liking to him or her. There isn't any reason for it, it's just a gut feeling.


Kim and Sage on the Train into the city. The book didn't help, it's even out of focus!

Took the train and then the metro in to Place de Republique and then walked the rest of the way to the flat which we found quite easily. We arrived at about 09:00 but the flat was only available from 14:00 which meant that we had a lot of time to kill and we still had all our luggage with us. We retired to a bar across the street to kill some time and drank lots of coffee and hot chocolate while the resident dog barked furiously at other dogs passing by. Something one has to be subconsciously aware of in paris is dog poop all over the place because dogs here live in apartments and there is a spectacular lack of green grass for their toilette.

Eventually got hold of the keys person who let us dump our bags at 11:00 but then shoed us out again until 14:00. Can't work out why because there wasn't anyone else in the flat and there also wasn't any sign of cleaners. Caron reckons that it is the french love for bureaucracy which, I'm sure they deny.

With the bags gone we went out for lunch which is expensive but not nearly as expensive as it used to be. Kim and I also went food shopping and according to her, if we had bought the same back at home it would have been pretty much the same price, maybe even more expensive at home. My how things change in just few short years.

I left everyone after lunch to go and find some ski boots while everyone else retired to the now, at last, available flat. I had a great time wandering around paris feeling a little lost but found the store I was looking for. In Johannesburg, it is just plain not possible to purchase ski boots. All the ski shops in Johannesburg combined had only one pair of boots for sale and the sales people had not a clue as to how to fit and size them. The one shop here had probably 50 different brands/models and all the sizes one could think of not to mention the expertise to fit them. It's wonderful! So mission accomplished, I now know where Kirsten who arrives tomorrow and myself are going to go shopping!

Made my way back to the flat where Sage was still going. I really thought she would have crashed by now but that was not to be. She has an unusual amount of stamina for a body that small.

The flat is quite something but, I think, quite typical of Parisian apartments. the floor are uneven and the cupboards are skew and while some parts of it have been renovated nicely, other parts are just terrible. Anyway, it's home for the week whether we like it or not although it would be really nice if we could figure out how to turn the heaters on permanently. In case anyone doesn't know, it's freezing in Paris. Caron and I feel right at home in the flat, there are books everywhere but the topics are mostly philosophy, art and music so whoever owns the flat is really pretty widely read. I recognise most of the names of the philosophers but I have read, oh, maybe one ... book!

The pictures below are of the entrance to the apartment building and the flat itself. Can't imagine have the main entrance to an apartment block going past a pile of rubbish bins back home. It is so very different here.

These are the steps up to the apartment and they are uneven in tread not to mention not being level. My father-in-law would have heart palpitations at the workmanship, at least the lack of it.


Having said all that, the flat is dry and warmer than outside as long as one keeps on turning the heaters on. Made some supper which we enjoyed with some wine and some cheese before retiring. Busy reading my first ebook on the galaxy. eBooks are definitely the way to go.

Gone Skiing

Following numerous complaints from a small minority of the family my blog lives again .... rising like the phoenix from the ashes. Again and again!

This time we're off to france for a spot of sightseeing and some skiing. Uncharacteristically, the day before the flight was not spent rushing around like a madman. We basically did nothing, I even managed to finish reading my christmas present from laurel which was a book about black and white photography. I'm not sure if it going to help but it sure is inspirational. The 'j' on the keyboard is hypersensitive so if there is the occasional 'j' that creeps into a word, it is the keyboard not my spelling.

Caron gets very tense when travelling. Kim says that she is so like her father so now I know what she is going to be like when she gets old-er. Instead of doing the time honoured trek out the airport inconveniencing family and friends we picked Kim and Sage up, dropped them at the sandton gautrain, left my car at work and then walked back to the gautrain and then took the train out to the airport.

We weren't sure which platform to use so we asked one of the security guards who said that we were on the right one which was technically correct but he failed to mention the train on the other platform waiting to leave in 10 minutes time. Oh, well! at least we were really early so it didn't really make any difference.

Coming off the gautrain caron was about to go through a turnstile when this kid tried to sneak in. Caron was already in the turnstile so it was more of an arm around her trying to tap the card. She should have let him tap it and then just walked through rather than scolding him. That would have taught him, he, or rather his mother, would have had to pay for two trips instead of one. The mother was indignant, imagine someone scolding *her* child for doing something that was essentially wrong. Okay, caron could have done it in a nicer manner such as a belt alongside the ear, but these moments come and go so quickly.

Made it to the airport where the check-in people strictly enforce the one item of luggage rule on air france unlike with other airlines where, so long as you're underweight and not unreasonable they happily accommodate you. Had to pay R400 for an extra bag. Luckily we could give one bag to kim but when we're coming back it's going to cost an extra R1200.00 for our bags. I'll have to think up a solution to this somehow in the next two weeks. Caron very unimpressed!

The rest of the day as uneventful, I was really looking forward to the flight in the A380 but it was just like being in any other plane although it took longer to take-off and didn't climb so steeply. The tail camera looking forwards over was pretty cool though.

Took my drugs along with supper, either my standards are slipping or airline food is getting better.

Nighty, night!

Sodwana Bay Diving

Ah no, I don't think I can take any more of this. Thank goodness we *have* to go home today.

We did the early dive out to five mile reef and it was only an ok dive; the dives yesterday and the day before have been so outstanding that pretty much anything is going to be a let down.

Here we have a ribbon eel which I have never seen before. although you can only see about 20cm of him, he is about 1m long and the way that they can reverse into these crevices is just amazing. Apparently these are quite rare so it was great to get a nice picture of him.

This is know as a frog fish and this is a particularly large on. Ugly bugger isn't he! These feed by waiting until some unsuspecting fish swims just too close and then the frog fish quickly inhales some water and down the gullet the morsel goes. No effort required, no energetic swimming, no adrenalin pumping while running down the prey. Just a quiet inhale, now you see him, now you don't.

I had to put a clown fish in. They're hard to leave out and they're not afraid to take you one even though we would look like a whale to them.

Low tide in Sodwana Bay. We are happy to report that things have moved on and that the divers are no longer expected to push the boat to the water; the tractor does it now which is quite a welcome change.

I thought I should show what the actual sodwana bay beach actually looks like. In the foreground under the roof is the dive kit area where we wait between boat rides and where we kit up. A little higher in the wooden hut is the beach kitchen. We had slap chips and egg burgers (without the patty) which weren't half decent. Even the filter coffee from the cafe was actually quite good.
Well, that was it! Another very successful diving trip. Just the long trip back to joburg. We decided to let the GPS choose the route home and after several seemingly dodgy decisions it foudn a great route home - right though the middle of a game reserve which I didn't even know was there.

Sodwana Bay Diving

Living in 'sef efrika' it can be quite easy to let the problems that we really do have get the better of one. I know many people that have retreated into the blame game, not that I am averse to putting blame where it is due but there are limits and one really doesn't need to go on ad nauseum. There is a favourite saying when one just doesn't know what to say. By way of example seeing someone putting a sign up next to a pothole to say "watch out for the pothole" instead of just fixing the pothole would result in the refrain "ag, only in africa". Up until today I had only heard it in a negative sense, well that changed today! Today on the boat ride back we were with a group of people who were full of life talking about yesterday having had a fantastic dive in the morning, a wedding at midday and watching a cheetah kill in a game park at sundown while the sipped their drinks; "only in africa" can one do this.

Back to more mundane things like photographs! How is this for cool, the only thing I would change if I could about this photograph would be the name of the photographer who took it!

We found this rather large turtle hiding under a ledge, fortunately he didn't attack like last time.

This is me! Just after I cut my finger open on some coral while turning around in the channel. Blood underwater looks completely black and it sort of oozes out.

If I knew that I just had to cut myself in order to see sharks I would do it more often. Great sightings of white tipped reef sharks. They were really close at times i.e. no more than a couple of metres away checking my bleeding appendage out carefully. Calculating how easily it would come off the rest of my body probably.

Yet another pair of absolutely awesome dives, the reefs here definitely seem to be in much better condition than when I last dived here. More fish, bigger fish and just generally an increase in aquatic life was fantastic to see.

Sodwana Bay Diving

Diving is getting easier and easier, or so it seems and I keep on getting this feeling that I've forgotten something. It would be really awkward to get out to the dive site with no fins!

First dive was awesome and set the tone for the weekend. I couldn't find my camera so I was diving cameraless which I quite enjoyed so all the underwater photo's were taken by barry.

Dropping down to the reef we literally came down on a potato bass which, as you can see is a pretty big fish if you look at the size of the divers. And for those wondering if it is the perspective of the camera lens; no it isn't. These fish really are that big!


Next up, a beautiful honeycomb moray eel. There were actually a whole bunch of great sightings but some I didn't get good photo's of and, in any case, there would be too many photo's and it would end up boring people.


Next up is an emperor angelfish. I often tell people that diving is like birdwatching but underwater and with much more vivid colours.


It is not everyday that one dives and gets to see manta rays. Bary took a fantastic video of them swimming around us but it is over 50Mb in size so I can't publish it. Watching the way they effortlessly glide through the water makes one feel like a complete klutz underwater.


Last but not least, a paperfish which again, is pretty rare or at least it used to be.


What a fantastic days diving. Warm water, cool weather, almost no current nor surge and great visibility. It couldn't get any better than this.

Getting back to the lodge, we had a bit of a rest before we went down to the bar to have a quiet drink and to fill in the log books. We were just about to sit down when we hear a "Barry!" and then a "Roland!" which is disconcerting so far away from our normal stamping grounds. Turns out some people we work with at one of the banks also dive and just happen to be down as well. So the quiet drink and cigar turned out quite differently in the end.

Sodwana Bay Diving

The weekend didn't start off so auspiciously. I have a great rule of thumb for diving that says that after completing another 25 dives I can buy another piece of dive equipment which has worked out to be a great rule. Having completed 100 dives while in Mauritius, I came back "in the market" for a new regulator, first stage and octo. I found the one I wanted but they didn't have stock but, they said, they'd order it and it would *definitely* be here in time for the weekend. To cut a long story short; it wasn't so I decided to take an alternative but I didn't look too closely at it in the shop. Getting home I found that not only was it not the one I actually wanted but it wasn't even the same make. Quickly phoned them and they agreed that they'd given me the wrong one and that I should bring it back and get the one I actually wanted after the weekend. I have still to do this of course but it is looking hopeful.

The drive down in my fortuner was uneventful if very long. It is only 650km to sodwana give or take a few kilometres depending on ones' route but it took us about 10-11 hours altogether thanks to the roadworks and bad roads. It is great that they are fixing the roads up but I would that it was while I wasn't wanting to use them.

Arrived at Sodwana Bay Lodge and checked in. The rooms now have air conditioning - what luxury! Went down to the restaurant to find that they have exactly one vegetarian dish so gourmet dining isn't on the cards.

Last Day!

Now that it is here, we're quite sad to be leaving. Not so much because we can't tear ourselves away but we're just not that looking forward to picking up the yoke at home. We'd better make the next holiday soon.

I started out the day with my 100th dive which is something of a milestone in diving. What a dive! I wish they were all like this one. Saw about 5 rays on the bottom which we managed to get quite close to before they flew away; rays don't swim, they fly through the water. It's amazing to watch. Also saw a stone fish which is quite poisonous and a whole bunch of nudibranches but mostly I just enjoyed the dive itself, warm water, great visibility, no current or surge to speak of and loads of interesting fish to look at - perfect.

The second dive was also really good, we dived at the same place as a couple of days ago. And swam past the same fish trap that had the big trigger fish but this time the trap was in pieces and a nice big hole in the wire at the top. Talking to the dive master afterwards he said that the trigger fish must have broken the trap, probably by chewing through the wire mesh, which was nice to hear. The trap itself was pretty much unmistakable because it was right at the beginning of the dive and had a long anchor rope unlike any other I've seen. Another great dive, saw octopus and fire coral amongst a host of other fish. The dive master pulled an octopus out of its hole and as I went to touch it, it squirted a cloud of black ink at me. What a great sighting.

At the deco stop, my dive buddies computer put him into deco for 25 minutes so while the rest of us went up after 10 minutes he had to stay down for a further 15 minutes at 5m. Pretty boring but it made me very happy that I had kept with the dive master during the first dive and hadn't dived deep with my partner.

Back on the beach, Caron and I read and drank the day away. I'm now on my 5th book which is something of a record for me although it is tough to concentrate with so many women in bikini's walking past my nose the whole time. Not easy I tell you!

Late afternoon we had a sundowner which was very tasty and I attempted to take a holiday snap which sort of worked.


As the sun set for our last time over the Indian ocean I snapped the following of the resort.





What a tough place to have to stay for a week!

Almost there ...

I'm starting to wake up early without an alarm clock; not a good sign because it means that I have started catching up on sleep and the next phase is about to begin which is melancholic boredom.

We started the day off with a snorkel and swam quite far out towards the reef, far enough that we were swimming in actual waves even though we were still within the reef. As you can see from the picture we were literally within arms length of the reef and sometimes closer. It would not be wise to do this swim at any time other than near high tide because one would definitely impale oneself on a coral.

The coral, by the way, seems to be happily growing although there is some dead coral here and there, from el nino I presume.

Sea urchins, like british women, are not normally things of great beauty but how is this for a sea urchin!

We saw loads of vividly coloured and curious fish and the occasional clam, a few about 250mm across which is quite a large clam. This is besides the coral and the anenomes; it really is a special place to snorkel as long as one doesn't spear oneself on some coral.

I was paddled into by a novice, I give him the benefit of the doubt, paddler but I still can't fathom how incompetent you have to be to do that. No harm done so we carried on, I tried Caron's new snorkel out; what a difference! I am definitely going to buy myself one of those when I get back to Johannesburg.

We spent the rest of the day sitting under our tree, watching the scenery, and reading ... not exactly taxing. I saw several people going bright red today and I just can't understand it. If I go that red, I'm in pain for days; do these people just not feel it or am I just oversensitive?

16:00 arrived and out next session at the panel...spa. I asked for the same girl that gave me the massage - silvanah (or selva, we differ on what her name actually was) because she was really good last time. This time I asked here to just go a little harder and it was perfect, probably the best massage I have ever had. I'm not much into curios but if I had to take one from here, I would take her. Of course she might not be so keen. Great massage and then a steam bath followed by two showers to try and get the oil of; I don't know what oil they use but they use plenty of it and it's a devil to get off.

Clean and neat, we went to the bar to get a cocktail to have on the beach while the sun went down but the staff at the bar were so pathetic that the sun had long gone by the time we got down to the beach. I wonder if we can give tips bar the bar.

Yet another good meal and then off to bed. Last day tomorrow.

Aaaah, another day in Paradise.

It's starting to not feel so much like paradise, more like the movie that Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson were in called "The Island" - everything is perfect but you have the feeling that there is something you're missing.


We haven't left the boundaries of the resort which I am sure is what the proprietors want but I just don't have the energy to actually go and do something, all this relaxing is getting to me. I'm starting to feel like I'm Odysseus on the Isle of Lotus-Eaters.

Caron doing her best to smile and still communicate the message "I'll get you later!".

Today was dive day and we (the other divers and myself) had two really nice dives. The first was called "white cliffs" and is practically in the gap in the reef that boats use to come in and go out of. It's a wall dive with the bottom being at about 28m and the top at about 15m so we just gently drifted along the wall at about 18m. Saw lots of nudibranches and a juvenile emperor which has bright blue and white concentric circles on it's body. Very pretty. Loads to see, warm water and great visibility made for a great dive.

The second dive was within the reef so a bit shallower and we saw a cream with brown spots snake which I was told is actually an eel; a first for me. We also saw fishing traps with fish trapped in them. There was a large trigger fish in one of them who was going frantic, swimming hard but ineffectually into the wire mesh wall of the trap. I felt quite sorry for them, by tonight the beautiful trigger is fish is going to be on someone's plate, a barely remembered meal of what was once a thing of grace and beauty. Pretty sad when one thinks of it, it's not that it is wrong; just sad.

When we came up there was a bank of dark cloud on the horizon and as we neared the resort it solidified into driving rain which stung quite a lot. Washed up and then went to find Caron who had retired to the room so we slept and read the afternoon away while it rained intermittently.

As I write this, I am completely in the dark because the resort as a whole is observing earth hour so everything is off including the air-conditioner. Everything else I can cope with but I have grown quite attached to the air-conditioner. I think we are starting to acclimatise because the outside temperature of late 20's or very early 30's is starting to feel normal and the room to feel quite chilly.

To finish the day off I went for a walk between rain showers while Caron continued to snore away. Very beautiful in spite of the overcast weather although I think that as far as actual physical beach goes, South African beaches are much nicer to walk on.

A quiet day.

Since I'm not diving and the snorkel boat was full I had to find alternative entertainment since my normal source of entertainment, that would be Caron, is starting to fight back.

I managed to get one of the two lasers that can only be used at high tide and set off for a bit of a sail. Their description of where I may and may not sail was just a little bit vague and definitely not helped by the language difficulties. I headed out in the direction that they indicated was ok to sail but I think I went out further than they expected and a speedboat soon appeared to inform me that I wasn't allowed there. Sailing is only allowed in the 30 minutes before and after full tide because the lagoon is, in general, too shallow to sail on. Even a full tide, the rocks and coral are disconcertingly close to the bottom of the centreboard.

I have to confess that I did capsize a couple of times and had my hat taken off during a gybe but other than that I managed ok, at least I didn't have to be rescued from the coral reef. My sunburn on my legs from yesterday was quite painful, since I ride quite a lot I tend to think of my legs as sun insensitive but there's this little gap between where cycling shorts come down to and where a swimming costume comes down to. This piece of skin turned out to be very sensitive so I have a very wierd sunburn because halfway down my thigh it just disappears into suntanned skin.

We basically didn't budge for the rest of the day; all we did was laze around and read, drink water and move the deck chair into deeper shade as the sun moved across the sky. Caron went for a wrap and bake at the spa (I am not to call it 'the panelbeaters' anymore) and when she returned we had a plate of chips between us.

I was eating a nectarine while leaning over our balcony either yesterday or the day before and I felt a drop of juice escape and as I followed it's flight path downwards, the girl downstairs stepped out; the juice missed her nose by inches and her cleavage by less. Fortunately she didn't notice the sudden appearance of a dark splodge on the cement to I kept quiet and all ended well.

When the sun had gone down we showered and I shaved, much to caron's delight/relief, and dressed in what passes for formal wear here and went to the bar. It's not a coincidence that I've avoided the bar; R250 for a single J&B whisky and a Bombay Saphire G&T. I'm not sure about other people but this is expensive for me, I briefly thought that maybe we should have taken the 'all inclusive' package but then I noticed that most of the bar menu was excluded which makes me wonder what the 'all inclusive' package actually includes.

Nevertheless we had a very pleasant time sipping our drinks as night fell.

Supper was eastern this evening and, as always, it was delicious. I'm having to try really hard not to make a pig of myself but, thus far, I am managing.

Diving in Mauritius.

Woke up late 07:30 so we had to rush breakfast and get down to the dive shop pronto in time to catch the boat.

There are only 5 divers myself included so it doesn't take long to kit up and carry our dive kit down to the waiting hard chine dive boat. I last dived over 2 years ago so by rights I should have had a pool session but since I have close to 100 dives; they let is slide and it didn't take long for everything to come back. It all feels so natural now, a bit like riding the proverbial bicycle. It will be my first dive with Nitrox instead of air and I should have switched my dive computer to nitrox but I just left it on air which is a more conservative measure mostly because I don't have the manual to switch to nitrox and you have to key in percentages and stuff and I don't want to be down there wondering if I did it right.

The first dive wasn't so fantastic, not too much to see but the water is nice and warm. We did see a small moray and a stinging nettle which was mid water and looked like fishing line just floating along with small poison capsules spread along it's length which was about a metre. I only wore a 1mm wetsuit top and I was plenty warm enough and 4kg of lead had me sinking like a stone. The second dive was much better, 2kg of lead; more than enough. We saw a nudibranch, a leaf fish (it looks just like seaweed) and several octopi. The octopi were very shy and refused to come out of their holes so we could only peer in at them. The diving rules here are more relaxed so they allow you to gently touch some of the things like the anenome that nemo usualy hangs around. Quite interesting, the 'tentacles' for want of a better word attach themselves to your finger quite quickly and you have to give a bit of gentle tug to get your hand away. One of the girls accidentally had them latch onto her forearm and she had a nasty case of mosquito bites where they touched her skin. Much more successful second dive and it was nice to get back to the boat with more than 70 still on the gauge, it really is like riding a bicycle.

Back on land and after a shower I found Caron on a beach recliner in deep shade which is unusual for her but ideal for me. We spent the afternoon reading, no silicone on display today, until the sun lost it's heat when we went for a walk along the beach past I don't know how many beachside holiday resorts. The beach is a bit eina to walk on because it isn't really sand but a mixture of coral and sand and sometimes the coral isn't as broken up as it should be.

I've seen a number of local fishermen on their boats during the day but we got to see some locals fishing with a net from the shore. They were catching small sardine like fish - they didn't look very appetising to me but they seemed pretty happy with them.

Back at the shack, another splendid meal and then before we knew it, it was sleepies time. Enjoyed watching a small child throw all the the decorative rocks around the edge of the pool into the pool! Ah, the joys of parenting!

First day in the sun!

First things up - Activities, diving for me; spa for Caron, I just get to tag along. Turns out that we can only dive tomorrow because todays boat has already left but we can at least get into the panelbeaters, I mean spa. Ouch!

We spent the morning snorkeling just off the beach which has quite a vicious side current, so much so that swimming at full tilt simply means that one stays still. I took my camera swimming, the advertising says that it is waterproof to 3m so there is only one way to find out if it is true. It is, check these out ...

and here we have sun baby absorbing some UV on the platform anchored about 75m offshore.


Once we had finished snorkeling we commandeered some beach recliners in a shady spot just next to a 50+ year old tanning topless; there weren't any other recliners so we didn't have a choice. Topless sunbathing is verboten but doesn't seem to stop the french, at least I think they're french. Not that I'm complaining mind you but it did have Caron chortling under her breath at me trying to act as if this is a completely normal situation for me; which it isn't.


We spent the majority of the afternoon just chilling out on the beach reading and at 17:00 we went to the spa where we were panelbeaten, I mean massaged, but it was quite unlike the Sani2C pain festival. This was really pleasant, I think that I am going to have to do it again. After the massage which went so quickly that I suspect that they have faster than normal clocks, it couldn't possibly have been a whole hour; I went for a steam sauna and then a cold (cool, nothing here is actually cold) shower. I had another shower back at the room because the oil they use for massage just won't wash off.

It was only at this point that Caron pointed out that the back of my legs were quite sunburnt from the snorkeling. A great supper, we have fallen into the 3 course habit. First up is a plate of salads/starters and then the main course which is chased down the hatch with some cheese on rolls. I am trying my best to restrain myself so I don't roll out of here like the other tubs of lard that are all around me. They make me feel quite lean and I should not be feeling that way.

So, all in all day 1 - Sunburn, great food and silicone boobs.

Mauritius, here we come!

Not much to report, the trip to Mauritius takes far longer than the 4 hours flying time that one expects.

We woke up late i.e. after 06:00 and had a relaxed breakfast and left for the airport at 09:30. For some reason they want people at the airport 3 hours before flights. I can understand an hour or two but 3 hours is getting a little bit ridiculous. It did however give me tons on time to break some plastic in the 'duty free' which is supposed to actually be cheaper than buying the same goods on the landside. Not so much. All that happens is that the retailers pocket the duty they would have had to pay to customs. You do get a slight discount because you don't have to pay VAT but other than that, it's just more profit for the retailers. I think they should change the name because 'Duty Free' it isn't. Nevertheless, I now have a new phone and a new pair of sunglasses to replace the stolen ones. It only took close to 4 months to get the payout from the insurance company. They were pretty good about it, i.e. they didn't squabble about valuations but it did take a long time.

Seeing as we are flying against the rotation of the earth, we landed in darkness and by the time we made it to the hotel is was 21:00 Mauritian time. By the time we finally made it to bed it was 01:30 Mauritian time by which time we, read I, was starting to get a bit ratty. If they could just have delivered our bags to our room without having to encourage them to do so, three times.

The hotel looks beautiful, this is the view as you walk into the front entrance:

and another view, the night was warm at 30 deg C but not that stifling heat of Dubai, probably thanks to a bit of a breeze.


I always judge rooms by whether they are more or less comfortable than home and I have to say that for the first time that I can remember this room cuts the cake. No hotel room that I have stayed at in europe comes close and neither does any of the south african hotels I have stayed in. Hope Caron doesn't take to this too much because we would have to knock half our house down to create something similar.


While we were waiting for the bags we went and had some supper on the terrace which is just visually superb and is complimented by the cuisine. I'm not much of a gastronaut (gastronome) but I am definitely going to enjoy the fine dining to be had here.

Bags finally arrived so after a shower in the 'wet room' we were off to bed. Did I mention that the room as a study attached? How convenient. The hotel does not have wireless internet access which, in my book, is a particularly black mark.

Follow your heart ...

There is another sense in which the heart sometimes should be led, not followed. When motivation is lacking, it is often inadvisable to just wait until you feel like getting on with whatever it is you want or think you should be doing. Making a reluctant start is often the best way of creating more motivation to carry on."

Julian Baggini - "Should you judge this book by its cover"

The white aphids of africa

While I'm on the topic of insects I'm definitely starting to feel a bit like how an aphid must feel.

Sunday afternoon I was doing some handyman chores at the sisters-in-law and walked outside to leave only to find ... nothing! My brand new Fortuner, she was gone! Eish! Go back inside and have another drink. Walk back outside ... still gone. Sh!t.

Phone the Tracker people, report the incident to the police, start gathering all the boxes and invoices of what was stolen - we're getting quite efficient at this now having done it so many times. I know I should be more upset than I actually am but really, what does getting upset achieve other than a raised blood pressure. I have low blood pressure so maybe I should be more upset, even if only to raise the pressure a bit.

Coming back to the aphids, and I really hope I aren't maligning the incorrect insect here, but they are husbanded by ants and milked for food. That is pretty much how I feel at the moment, all I seem to do is to work hard to earn so that someone else can enjoy the fruits of my labour. It's not quite like I don't enjoy the fruits since I simply get the toys back from insurance so I'm not really losing out, other than for the inconvenience and, of course, I have to pay for the insurance and a little bit of danger.

It's a little bit of zero sum game really. Salaries in Johannesburg are a bit higher than elsewhere in South Africa and, I'm sure, partly as a result of crime. So here we sit, earning a little better, so we can afford nice toys so that other people that don't earn or work hard can also enjoy nice toys. The government one would think would be intensely interested in protecting it's citizens because after all, that is where the pot of gold that they enjoy spending so much comes from. It certainly doesn't come from tax on criminals! So while one would think they should be interested in protecting it's citizens, all of them, they clearly aren't interested; maybe they're too busy spending the pot of gold. Of course it may not be that they're uninterested, they may just be hopelessly incompetent but either way the net effect is the same.

So, what to do. Of course if one earned less, one couldn't afford the toys so people without toys wouldn't be able to take them. Then the government also wouldn't earn so much so they wouldn't have to make a pretense of being actually interested in their citizens which would solve that little conundrum. So the answer to crime is ... become a pauper which holds about as much attraction for me as I'm sure it does for you, the reader, i.e. absolutely no attraction whatsoever. Damn!

The real question, of course, is not about having a few things stolen but what the risks are that one may not survive to enjoy anything thereafter at all! This, unfortunately, isn't such a low probability here that it doesn't warrant a bit of thought. Essentially, one takes a risk staying in S.A and the reward is a slightly higher salary (or lower expenses) than elsewhere, earning the slightly higher salary and spending it attracts the less savoury members of the population which makes it riskier which makes the salaries higher ... Phrasing the question the other way around, would one be happy with the lower salary as found elsewhere with the attendant lower levels of crime?

It's all in the net income ration vs the risk and this varies from location to location not to mention from individual to individual both in terms in income potential and risk aversion.

Quite a conundrum. I haven't solved it but writing about it somehow makes things slightly less murky.

The outdoors invade ...

I'm not sure about other people but I quite like plants and insects and, preferably, animals to be on the outside of the house and not inside the house.

I was walking through the lounge after a hard hours training and having finished the morning coffee in the glorious morning sunshine when something caught my eye that just didn't look right. Sure enough, we're being invaded by insects; in this case ants and they're using my lounge as a vegetable patch. Little squatters! This is what the vegetable patch looks like, you can see the skirting boards in the background.

I have a horrible feeling that the stuff the mushrooms are growing in is reprocessed skirting board which means that I will have to replace these at some stage.

I am already replacing the skirtings in the passage because they are completely eaten away but one would never know. Somehow they manage to leave a 'skin' of about 1/2 a mm of wood so it all looks fine until one day someone bumps the skirting at which point all is revealed!

Sani2C here we come ...

Finally! I have managed to wangle an entry into the Sani2C which is about 4 times oversubscribed or at least if feels like that and, in addition, those that did it last year have preference. I had actually given up on getting in when a friend of a friend of a friend twice removed decided that he had had enough and was happy to give his entry to me. All I had to do was do a substitution and pay vast amounts of cash (R7k). Yes, that is right over seven thousand rand to go live in primitive conditions and punish myself to the point of exhaustion for 3 days in the foothills of Kwa-Zulu Natal!

Having finally obtained an entry Carl decided to join me after having talked to other people about the Sani2C and been told by all and sundry what a great race it is. I think the Sani2C is a bit like children; everyone tells you how wonderful they are to have so the gullible go ahead and have them ... only to find out that it's damn hard work and they don't go back in where they came from! Now that they have both misery and children it is their duty, having been duped themselves, to perpetuate the myth so that, in time, they too can come to enjoy others' misery!

So first up Carl had to get a new mountain bike which he bought brand spanking new; what a wonderful feeling, I imagine, to ride a new bike as shown below.

... and the same bike, now two hours older and not so new anymore!

So that was it, first mud, first inelegant dismount which I missed seeing unfortunately.

I'm actually feeling a little bit apprehensive about the sheer volume of riding that I am going to need to do in order to have an even vaguely comfortable Sani2C. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained!

Converting from Password Depot to KeePassX

Bear with me for a moment all you non-technical people but I need to show that while I haven't been blogging I haven't been a complete slug and I have actually been doing something.

"Password Depot" is a very good password management program and since I deal with hundreds of the blighters it is an application that I absolutely have to have. Unfortunately it doesn't run on linux and it is getting a bit tiresome to load up a windows VM for no reason other than to get hold of a password so I looked around for a nice multi-platform password manager and KeePassX fits the bill. The only problem is that the export from Password Depot can't be imported into KeePassX so I had to do it the ugly way and write an xslt that converts from Password Depot export format to KeePassX import format. Someone else is bound to have this issue so here it is for anyone else that needs it.

Note that this comes with no guarantees from me and especially since the data elements in the Password Depot format do not map 1 to 1 with those in the KeePassX format so I made a few assumptions which I have been happy to accept but which others might not.

You can get the code for the xslt here

I am going to writing an application which takes the export from the Password Depot, the xslt above and returns the converted format for importing into KeePassX but I haven't got around to it so in the meantime, if you have access to XMLSpy that would work fine for applying the xslt.

Note to anyone from Password Depot that might read this, the DTD that is exported doesn't match the XML that follows. I found the following issues that should be corrected when you haven't got anything else to do. It doesn't affect the export, conversion and import but it would be nice if the DTD matched the actual XML exported.


The DTD listed at the top of the XML export of the contents of a PasswordDepot database
will cause any XSLT attempting to use the exported XML file to fail. In order to correct
the DTD the following alterations to the exported XML file must be done.

Original File has the following line:
<!ELEMENT GROUP (GROUP*,ITEM ) >
but the line should read like this:
<!ELEMENT GROUP (GROUP*,ITEM* ) >
Note the additional '*' after ITEM

Original File has the following line:
<!ELEMENT ITEM (DESCRIPTION ,PASSWORD ,USERNAME ,URL ,LASTMODIFIED ,EXPIRYDATE ,IMPORTANCE ,COMMENT ,TEMPLATE ,CUSTOMFIELDS ) >
but the line should read like this:
<!ELEMENT ITEM (DESCRIPTION ,PASSWORD ,USERNAME ,URL ,LASTMODIFIED ,EXPIRYDATE ,IMPORTANCE ,COMMENT ,TEMPLATE ,CUSTOMFIELDS* ) >
Note the additional '*' after CUSTOMFIELDS

Original File has the following line:
<!ELEMENT CUSTOMFIELDS (FIELD ) >
but the line should read like this:
<!ELEMENT CUSTOMFIELDS (FIELD* ) >
Note the additional '*' after FIELD

Original File has the following line:
<!ELEMENT FIELD (NAME ,VALUE ) >

<!ELEMENT VALUE (#PCDATA) >
but the line should read like this:
<!ELEMENT FIELD (NAME ,VALUE ) >

<!ELEMENT NAME (#PCDATA) >

<!ELEMENT VALUE (#PCDATA) >
Note the addition of the definition of the NAME element


... a Whole month ...

Phew, a whole month has flown by without a post. No wonder I am starting to get snide remarks about my lack of writing but, to be honest, I think readers were a little spoilt while we were overseas.

Besides, life is a little boring at the moment. Haven't been overseas, fallen off my bike or been hijacked recently and let's face it, safety isn't the most exciting thing to write about.

Here in S.A there is a local comedian (Darren Simpson), at least he likes to think that he is a comedian, that does the most outrageous things sometimes. A couple of months ago during the Caster Semenya gender testing debacle and the tri-nations rugby competition he phoned up the Australian Rugby Board and tried to get them to agree to gender testing of the Australian rugby team because, as he put it, "they're playing like a bunch of girls". It was hilariously funny at the time but I was watching Australia play Ireland last weekend and the whole Australian team seem to be trying to grow mustaches; they all have this wispy bum fluff on their top lips and I just have to conclude that he touched a nerve and they're trying to show that they really are men!

Lying Eyes

Sometimes, very occasionally, something comes along which is just so amazing. I was sent this by a friend who picked it up from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091004.html and I have copied the picture below. Can you believe that squares A and B are actually the same shade and colour as each other. I didn't until I actually opened it in GIMP and used the colour picker to confirm that they are indeed the same colour.

Out and about in Mpumalanga

A most disappointing day! We were to start in Graskop but, again, the mist was too thick so we drive through to Sabie where it was marginally better. We holed up in a restaurant while we waited for the mist to lift and the rain to stop but eventually I just thought, "Oh what the hell" lets just do it.

The reality of "Long Tom's Pass" is that it is friggin steep for a very long period of time and this was starting from half way up; thank goodness we didn't start from Hazyview. I think that that would have just a bit much. As it was we only did about 7km before "she who must be obeyed" said that enough is enough and that it was far too dangerous. The photo below was taken when I was only about 20m away from the camera so the cars that were doing 60km/hr would only see us at the very last second.

And that, was pretty much the weekend. We spent some time having a really good lunch at Dullstroom but other than that it was a pretty uneventful drive home.

Notwithstanding today I think that we got some really good training in an I have a suspicion that Carl, in particular, is going to be quite enamoured with long distance riding.

Out and about in Mpumalanga

The next morning we were up bright and early for the "easy" day starting in Graskop and heading north to Bourkes Luck potholes and back; a relatively civilised 70km of medium grade riding.

Arriving in Graskop it was covered in heavy mist and Harries Pancakes kindly let us in to have a cup of coffee even though they weren't actually open which was greatly appreciated. It was clearly(?) not going to be a good day to ride from Graskop but luckily for us the proprietor(ess!) happened to ride and recommended a "very" nice ride which has a profile as below!

She was correct about one thing; the ride out was awesome. It was just the return trip which was a bit of a bugger. Carl and Jason forged on ahead while Hennie and I consoled each other at the back. It's a fantastic ride in between the pine trees with the occasional views through the mist and the rain. Really nice to ride on a really good road with wide verges; just made for riding on.

This was on the way back, we had to make it look like we were in less pain that we actually were!

Back at the silk farm we relaxed for the afternoon before a really nice braai for supper. As the token vegetarian it always amazes me that I seem to end up doing the meat incinerating thingy; I mean it is not like I actually have any real interest in whether or not I incinerate the dead cow!

The kids had such a ball in the jacuzzi even though it wasn't heated that they all looked quite prune by the time they got out.

After supper we had long "solve the problems of the world" conversations before people slowly started dropping out as their eyelids got too heavy. Eventually it was just Jason, myself and Dierdre left until 11:30 when I called it a night. Jason finally succumbed at 12:30 and I am really happy that the "R" word only really turned up after I had departed for bed.

Out and about in Mpumalanga

I have been alternately looking forward to and dreading this weekend. Looking forward to it because I think it will be a great weekend but very worried about how my knee which has been misbehaving quite a bit lately will stand up to the multi-day abuse.

Thursday rushed by as it always does when one has far too much to do and way too little time to do it in but I finally managed to get around to buying a bike rack which can tilt which means that I will be able to open the back door of the fortuner without taking the bikes off - a major plus! I don't know what I was thinking but for some reason I thought that it would be assembled so it was a bit of surprise when the first thing that fell out of the box was the instructions on how to put it together sooooo ... we were a bit late to pick Carl up and very late to pick Jason up.

As it turned out it didn't really matter and we have a very smooth and uneventfule drive out to Mashishing which, for all you old south africans, is Lydenburg although it was promptly renamed by Hennie to "ama fishing" in honour of the traditional sport practiced in these parts.

We stayed at Malapo Country Lodge which purports to be a 4 star lodge and while it was very nice and comfortable and I really have no complaints at all; 4 stars seems an awful lot for what is essentially self-catering accommodation.

The next morning we were up bright and early to tackle the route shown below; note the altitude climbs and you're just going to have to believe me on this, they're tougher than the graph looks!


Of course we had to have the obligatory group photo while we all looked fresh and cheerful.


It wasn't long before we had our first "incident" of the weekend, the road directly outside of Mashishing isn't great and some moron in an oncoming two ton truck decided to overtake and gave us the choice of becoming roadkill or coward. Jason hung onto the last two inches of tarmac but myself, carl and, I think, hennie took the coward option and bailed off the road and onto the dirt shoulder. Road bikes don't work so well offroad it turns out! Caron, who was following us in the fortuner, was half on and half off the road and although the truck missed her altogether, it was close enough to smash the right hand mirror just from the wind as it went past. I have never seen this before in my life!

We carried on, my knee aching quite a bit, and I kept on aiming for the next 10km to re-assess whether to carry on but it was never quite sore enough to actually give up. Possibly due to the schedule 3 anti-inflamatories that I managed to get hold of. Robbers pass was great but we soon split into two groups, the eager beavers up front (Jason and Carl) and the "I will survive" group of Hennie and myself at the back; far away at the back.

The four of us back together with the pass way down in the distance. The photo lies, it is far down!


Over the top of Robbers pass we went and then we had the exhilarating (73km/hr top speed) downhill all the way into Pilgrims Rest which has so far escaped the fetish for renaming places. We had a brief break at a "creperie" in pilgrims with Carl looking particularly grim although one wouldn't have thought so from his performance on the next hill which was the one out of pilgrims. The start of the hill is really, really steep, so steep that it is difficult to keep the pedals turning even when standing and all I had to say was "only another 10km's of this" to elicit groans of resignation from the congregation. Although the climb out of Pilgrims is steeper it is, mercifully, much shorter and was over quite quickly and then all we had was another great downhill all the way, pretty much, into Graskop where we stopped for the day.

Kirsten was driving out from Johannesburg on her own and only arrived in Graskop after dark so Carl and I went to fetch her from there because finding the silk farm at night wasn't such an easy task. We had supper and retired quite early pretty knackered from the day.

I am surrounded by heathens!

First I receive several less than complimentary comments on my last blog while I was taking a break after 3 months of solid daily blogging ... then my neighbour opens fire on us!

On would think that living in S.A. one would be rather immune to being shot at but this is not the case!

Caron and I were sitting peacefully on our newly completed and painted patio when we heard a loud crack from somewhere nearby and it took us a while to figure out what it actually was. It was only after about the 10th shot and having pellets rattling around the patio that we finally figured out that it was our neighbour playing around with his bb air rifle. What a moron not to mention a truly lousy shot!

We thought it was children which had been left alone so I drove around to the house and rang the door bell several times but they weren't coming out. Arriving back home he was still at it so I climbed up into the corner where I could see and it wasn't a comfortable feeling looking over the target to where our, very drunk, neighbour was sitting on his patio drinking and taking shots. One feels like one has a big bulls-eye between the eyes.

I shouted at him that the next shot would have the cops coming over and that started the altercation which eventually he conceded that maybe, just maybe, he shouldn't be using his rifle and definitely not when he was drunk.

What we have to put up with.