Only a few results are out from Zimbabwe but the non-official news is that Morgan Tsvangirai has won 60% of the presidential votes so far. There is a lot of speculation about why it is taking so long to release the results. Anyway back at Metrorail, Darleen proudly shows José and Leon her new pick-up that she purchased. It is a long wheel based double cab Gonow pickup. I have never heard of a Gonow until today. It looks just like the GWM which is a old style Isuzu with a Toyota motor.
Lawrence came round to do some work but his home country, Zimbabwe, was foremost on his mind. The election results will be out tomorrow but in Lawrence’s heart he knows that Uncle Bob has cheated once again. I said cheer up and have another beer; we will go dancing in the streets when that Uncle Bob and his cronies have been ousted.
Today is a running nose and feeling miserable day. No work was done but sleep, a bit of Tiberium Wars, a bit of TV and more sleep. Here is Matthew showing how it is done. José, Lawrence and Anthony was supposed to come round today but were no shows. Must have heard about my condition.
This morning I felt much better but by the afternoon, I was feeling rotten. Well I made it through the day at Metromail and I am just about to crash in bed. In a few hours Zimbabwe goes to the polls and I pray that there is no violence.
I must be coming down with something as I am not feeling well. But that didn’t stop the folks at Metrorail because today was their payday. Here is José at the ATM at the Park Station.
I am feeling more alive than yesterday which means more productivity but as you can see does not mean a longer post. Today’s photo is of my Metrorail’s colleagues Willie, José and Darleen.
Back to Metrorail with head down and peddling hard. I still have not fully recovered from the long weekend but maybe I need another holiday. Tonight I joined Petra (shown), Sandy (shown), Andy, Rob, Denise and Mike for dinner at Mimmos in Douglasdale.
The trip home was long and tedious. We left at 11am and only arrived back home at 7pm. The road works at Belfast at caused a very long backup that we did a u-turn and went back to Machadodorp and went via Carolina. We stopped in Middleburg to visit old friends of ours Jess and Charlene, but Jess had gone to take someone to Johannesburg International. So all you get today is a photo of Charlene. After the visit we picked up Lindiwe and headed for home.
After church Hans prepared a exquisite potjie of lamb and afterwards we watched Louie Giglio’s “How great is our god” DVD. Danielle, Matthew and Jaen-Jurie just had fun. They had not seen each other since July 2006.
At Nelspruit Theresa and Hans’ dogs were happy to see Maxy, this was their first Italian Greyhound they ever saw. And likewise Jaen-Jurie and Danielle were happy to see Matthew. And they all played happy ever after. We took the kids to see a movie in the afternoon and a disastrous dinner afterwards. In the photo is Maxy and Charlie investigating something in the grass.
The Easter weekend is here. After packing, we left to pick up Emmelinah’s sister Lindiwe to drop her off at Emmelinah’s house in Mhluzi, Middleburg on our way to Nelspruit. Theresa, my sister who lives in Nelspruit, had just completed a course in Krugersdorp and drove with us in convoy. We arrived at 2 hours later in Middleburg to find Emmelinah holding her granddaughter Nondunisa and standing next to her mother Johanna waiting for us. Emmelinah was so happy to see us. We left soon afterwards for Nelspruit and took another 3 hours to reach our destination. The second half should have taken only 2 hours but because of a roadblock and lots of road works near Belfast the trip took an extra hour.
The weekend rush has begun early this morning. With queues at train station as well as the bus and taxi ranks. Traffic was hectic around central Johannesburg as commuters streamed towards the long distance staging areas. Most Africans where either heading home or to Moriah, the centre of the Zionist church for the Easter weekend. While the whites in there cars head for the beaches along the coastal areas. I had to zoom in to get one of the long queues at a taxi rank which had buses picking up passengers.
I was very exhausted this morning as I only got to bed at 12:45am and was up at 5am to go to work at Metrorail. If I could have slept I would have done so but I managed to crawl through the day without any injuries.
The paving that we ordered on Saturday arrived. Now we have to prepare the side but this has to wait as there is a long weekend coming up. This evening we celebrated the first dinner of the Passover where the Haggadah is performed. The Haggadah is Hebrew for the telling. We did a Christian form of the Haggadah in preparations for this weekend’s celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In the photo are Jane, Zahava and Natalie preparing the table for the Haggadah.
For more information about this evening read my post on This is the BBC.
Pouring rain today did not stop anyone going to church this morning. It was supposed to be a braai and car-wash day today but God did the washing of cars today while the wors was a little slow coming off the grill. Saskia was there with her new camera that she bought with her birthday money.
We went to Alberton in the rain this morning to buy paving for the side of the house. On the way back we stop at the Johannesburg School for the Blind, Low Vision & Multiple Disability Children for a chocolate fest. Luscious chocolates everywhere I turned. But the day was soon to crash. It happened when we returned home. Walking in, we found that Maxy had ripped open our Wetherlys couch. Carol just flipped, it was either dog goes or she does. She then she went to buy a new Coricraft coach. It arrives in 8 weeks time. Before she came back I rushed off to buy an all weather dog box as a compromise. It was stuffed with warm blankets for Maxy to stay outside. But the next problem cropped up this evening. Matthew was very upset and wanted to take Maxy’s banishment. Matthew would sleep outside in place of Maxy and Maxy could then sleep inside. What could I do? I tested how far Matthew would take his loyalty to his best friend. Matthew unquestioningly climbed into the dog box and sent Maxy to go inside. That is as far as I could go and both Matthew and Maxy are inside again. I still need to work on Carol.
A miserable day of no sun and rain in patches. What stood out for me as I looked out of Metrorail today was a building, just an ordinary red brick building. Not very tall but it stood out against the rest. It is in exact centre of this photograph for you to look at. What made my day is not very clear but you can just make it out. On top of this building is a cross. While I looked at it this morning, a thought crossed my mind that all living there are protected by the cross. So in the gloom of the day all I needed was to look out of the window towards the cross and my spirit lifted.
Pastor Robbie came to see me today at Metrorail. He was doing his pastoral duties and checking up on his flock. Jose graced us with his presence after spending the week in Pretoria trying to sort out the mess of Tshwane Metro’s LAN. The ICT department is always helping to fix the problems of others. For example here is Leon getting all animated telling someone the solution or is it showing.
At Metrorail from 6am today. The project plan has been sorted for their updated intranet. Now for the hard work. In the photo is Paul, the acting CEO for Wits Metrorail looking all casual.
I spent the morning doing Sun International work at Aqua. It was tedious name changing of images. I was invited to the Corel Draw X4 launch at The Forum on the DiData Campus. The photo is of the butterflies above the lifts at the entrance to The Forum. Toyota Lexus also demanded my attention by day end.
Back to a manic Monday with Metrorail, International Property Solutions, Sun International and Toyota Lexus all covered. I took a photo looking west from the Wits Metrorail. See if you can find all the interesting things in the photo. For example the broken down bus, kindergarten, rolling stock, Nelson Mandela Bridge and the mine dumps.
Sunday is church and mom spending the day with us. Mom is more talkative today and even cooked up a batch of custard and bananas all by her self. In the afternoon I just worked on Sun International and by evening I posted on “This is the BBC” blog.
Telkom came today and did a thorough check and found that where the cables joined the main line they where black from lighting strike and rusted in places. After repairing them, the telephone is back up with no crackling noises. We went to Mina Moto and had a lot sushi for lunch which I also enjoy. The photo for today was taken this morning of Matt and his Italian Greyhound, Maxy, watching TV.
Taking a walk into Park Station during lunch time from Metrorail is always interesting. Although it is a busy travel fare and I am one of a handful of whites at the station, I felt safe. What helps is that there is always a visible police presence and people are just going about there own business. There is always interesting things to see here and I came across this “No dangerous weapons allowed” sign just outside the turnstiles. It shows a picture of an AK47, axe, panga and knobkerrie with an assegai. Safe am I now?
Today was the MTN pitch for our zero27 product. I am feeling 50:50 over the outcome. No worries, as it is a good product and if MTN don’t buy in then others will. The pitch started late which pushed the rest of my day up. Toyota Lexus was sandwiched in-between MTN and Metrorail. Since last night we have had no phone lines again. Maybe it was that storm last night? I was relying on the 3G connection to bail me out but even that played up tonight. MTN this time reports that all its data connections were down, only came back up at 9pm but by that time my toys where everywhere except my cot. In the photo is Willie on his desk at Metrorail.
After only going to bed at 2 o’ clock I struggled to get up and make it to African Defence Systems by 8 o’ clock. Today was handover at ADS. Driaan is concerned that the intranet and QMS system have been dumped on him to look after. He is partially concerned that the new internet will be going live on his watch and I will be back at Metrorail.
Toyota Lexus, Dave Baker then zero27 took most of my day and when I arrived home International Property Solutions and more zero27 was waiting. This is going to be an all night affair. The office in the photo belongs to Dave.
I accidentally deleted today’s photo. It was of Ken and Simone. I was going to draw an arrow pointing to Simone’s tummy and say “Watch This Space” but thought better. I am going to a grand daddy again, this time it’s Ken and Simone. She is a few weeks pregnant and Carol is joyful because she knows that they have been trying for some time to have a child. We had the children over for a braai today and that when they announced it. This will be our third grandchild after Conner and Amy. Later on in the afternoon, I had to go see a client and on my way a DC-4 flew over and just managed to take a picture before it disappeared. Although not great, it was the only surviving photo I had.
It was month end shopping for me but before I got to the shops, mom’s sisters came round for tea (Elaine and Winnie excluded). Mom enjoyed her sisters reminiscing in the past. A few interesting stories came up but I am sure there are lots more about the Mey girls that will stay in the past. Sitting down with Mom (Daphne) is Rene and behind her are Enid and Muriel.