Manage your Finances

I went on a course today on how to balance the budget and invest in the future. In times like these I think it is wise to learn how to manage money. It is a pity that no-one taught me when I was young. Here are two youngsters, Andrew and Nick, who are starting out in live and have learnt some priceless information which will stand them in good stead. I better start now than never. Oh by the way Andrew went to the same high school as I did, Port Shepstone High, but was class of '94.

Kazeem

Today I went to Nambiti's year end function which this time is a couple of lambs on a spit braai. As last time it rained, no more like thunder stormed. But we all had a good time. I finally managed to get a photo of Kazeem, Nambiti's finance manager who I threatened to throw into the pool on many occasions.

Smart Sabelo Again

As I was leaving Metrorail, a smart looking Sabelo, left the building. I must I can't remember when I last saw him not dressed for the kill and smiling broadly. In the fifties through to the seventies we had a name for people who dressed so smartly, they were the Ama-Gents. The late Brenda Fassie even had a hit called the Amagents but I can’t seem to find any lyrics.

Crazy World

Things around me are going into a flat spin. Will I have time to pull out before I hit the ground? But if I don’t look at the ground then I don't feel that I am going too fast towards it. It gives me more time in my mind. Sort of slows everything down in slow motion. So back at Metrorail we find Phumzile. I first met Phumzile when she was working on the Soweto Business Express as a hostess. She has worked her way up to a desk job at Metrorail and she seems happy all the time. Tonight I have been given an Android phone to play with and test. One of the first things I would be doing is trying my Google Wave account on it.

The visit

Thoko, shown above, came to visit us at Metrorail this afternoon. She has been busy with an ERP project at PRASA for most of the year now and is due to return to our MIS section sometime next year.

Sabelo

Let me introduce to my world, Sabelo. He is the Safety, Health and Environment officer in the Perway department of Metrorail. I got to know him well on the train to Bloemfontein to watch soccer way back in June.

Surprise visit

Razia surprised us with a visit to BBC. She brought along a friend but I am not sure how to spell his name, sorry Razia but I am sure you will read this and let me know ;-)

Maglies drive

Today we went on a drive into the countryside to the north of us, the Moot in the shadow of the Magaliesburg Mountains. We visited small villages like Hekpoort, Skeerpoort, Hartbeespoort Dam, Schoemansville and finally Geradsville. The bridge in the photo is at 25°46'28.26"S 27°46'12.53"E It looks like it once was part of the main road until the new bridge was built next to it and now it is rusting away.

Thank Goodness, it’s Friday

I had a particular hard week but managed to keep my sanity which matters a lot. Friday means weekend and weekend means that I can just vegetate. It seems that Theo and Ntaoleng at Metrorail have become very good friends as shown in today’s photo.

The Lady Students

Here are some of the students doing there practical at Metrorail. They are Amukelani, Vuyo and Lerato. I do like the hair and shirt colour coordination of Amukelani. I must check if the hair changes colour to match the top.

Pink Shirts Strike Again

This time it is Sibusiso who decided that it is good for a man to wear pink. What next pink drinks? I asked him for his comments from a marketing view point but he said "No Comments".

Dan

I don't have much to say today other than we are floating in the right direction. At Metrorail work keeps coming and keeps me busy. Dan from the finance department down the passage is very friendly. You hear him when he goes to the kitchen past our section as he greets everybody. So today I decided to go to his department and greet him instead.

Jimmy the feather

Jimmy, one of our technicians at Metrorail came into work today with these two colourful feather arrangements. I am not sure what they for but they stayed on his desk for most of the day.

This is for Janis

A little birdie told me that Jan is looking for a newer photo of Angie, Braelyn and Gary. So Jan here it is, enjoy.

Deepavali

Tonight while I cook some chicken Biryani, the people of Indian descent that live around us celebrate Dewali, the festival of light, with fireworks and all. Matthew and Brian who oh course like all boys enjoy the fireworks.

Makatini

What Mac are you then? Here is Makatini, Metrorail's Sports co-ordinator. With 2010 loaming fast, I don’t think that we have much time for sport activities but I suppose he needs to keep the morals up.

Luggage

"The Luggage wasn't really sure where it was going. The Luggage was never really sure where it was going. It just travelled. That was its purpose. Departure points or destinations were irrelevant to it – it was the act of being in transit as a piece of Luggage that gave it its purpose in life and its definition." - Discworld

Seriously, luggage with loads of nasty scuttle legs, is just luggage and here is the luggage at Park Station just waiting to be loaded on a Shoshaloza Meyl train bound somewhere I not really sure.

ZZZZZZZ

Steven must have had a heavy night last night or is having a particular bad day because by mid afternoon he was sawing logs at his desk. The question I am begging to ask is why do people sleep with their mouths open?

Thulaganyo

Thulaganyo (shown above) is a Business Express host and he organises the shuttles that take the business commuters to the various business centres. Thulaganyo and I developed the maps used by the business commuters to indicate the routes of the shuttles.

Summer Rains

Along with summer comes the summer rains. I was just about home on Sophia, my Vespa, when the heavens opened up and I was just a little bit soaked. Luckily I didn't catch the hail part which past just ahead of me. Lately I am so busy at Metrorail now that I don't have much time to take photos so I take a quick snap here and there as Karibo and Khathu found out.

Sasika

It is the 3rd BBC Summer Splash and Matthew really enjoyed slip and sliding on the water slides with his friends. Here is my good friend Saskia reminding me of my first Summer Splash photo with another good friend Angie and an ice-cream. Summer is here. Let's all enjoy.

Pretty Lady

I went and saw Frank today about fixing my Vespa, Sophia. Afterwards we popped into the Vespa showroom at Fourways where Frank test drove a GTS 250, GTS 300 and a Gilera Fuoco 500. Frank was very impressed with all of them. Here he is with his son Joshua on the beautiful GTS 300.

The Service Desk

At IT especially on Friday afternoons we are start getting into the weekend spirit. Here is Steven on a service call and you can see by his posture that he is easing into the weekend.

Connecting the Dots

Our work load at Metrorail is increasing with numerous managers from both PRASA and Metrorail, trying to look good as the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup preparations become a frantic scramble. Don't get me wrong, we will be ready; it is just too few resources for amount of things that need to be in place. Here is the Gautrain's Braamfontein Terminus which I believe won't be ready when the World Cup kicks off unless someone knows more than I do, and then I stand corrected. I think that all the public transport needs to be connected. Park Station and the Gautrain will be connected but I don't see any BRT stations nearby. Metrobus should even have a major stop close by. This would give travellers who step off the Gautrain at Braamfontein a wide range of transport options to anywhere in Johannesburg. Makes sense to me.

Bree Street Fire

A fire broke at a building on Bree Street, between Rissik and Joubert Streets in downtown Johannesburg. Sadly the two women who lost their lives in this incident are believed to be students who were writing their Matric Exams.

Mrs Midas by Carol Ann Duffy

It was late September. I'd just poured a glass of wine, begun

to unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchen

filled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breath

gently blanching the windows. So I opened one,

then with my fingers wiped the other's glass like a brow.

He was standing under the pear tree snapping a twig.

Now the garden was long and the visibility poor, the way

the dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky,

but that twig in his hand was gold. And then he plucked

a pear from a branch - we grew Fondante d'Automne -

and it sat in his palm like a light bulb. On.

I thought to myself, Is he putting fairy lights in the tree?

He came into the house. The doorknobs gleamed.

He drew the blinds. You know the mind; I thought of

the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready.

He sat in that chair like a king on a burnished throne.

The look on his face was strange, wild, vain. I said,

What in the name of God is going on? He started to laugh.

I served up the meal. For starters, corn on the cob.

Within seconds he was spitting out the teeth of the rich.

He toyed with his spoon, then mine, then with the knives, the forks.

He asked where was the wine. I poured with shaking hand,

a fragrent, bone-dry white from Italy, then watched

as he picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank.

It was then that I started to scream. He sank to his knees.

After we had both calmed down, I finished the wine

on my own, hearing him out. I made him sit

on the other side of the room and keep his hands to himself.

I locked the cat in the cellar. I moved the phone.

The toilet I didn't mind. I couldn't believe my ears:

how he'd had a wish. Look, we all have wishes; granted.

But who has wishes granted? Him. Do you know about gold?

It feeds no one; aurum, soft, untarnishable; slakes

no thirst. He tried to light a cigarette; I gazed, entranced,

as the blue flame played on its luteous stem. At least,

I said, you'll be able to give up smoking for good.

Seperate beds. In fact, I put a chair against my door,

near petrified. He was below, turning the spare room

into the tomb of Tutankhamun. You see, we were passionate then,

in those halcyon days; unwrapping each other, rapidly,

like presents, fast food. But now I feared his honeyed embrace,

the kiss that would turn my lips to a work of art.

And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live

with a heart of gold? That night, I dreamt I bore

his child, its perfect ore limbs, its little tongue

like a precious latch, its amber eyes

holding their pupils like flies. My dream-milk

burned in my breasts. I woke to the streaming sun.

So he had to move out. We'd a caravan

in the wilds, in a glade of its own. I drove him up

under cover of dark. He sat in the back.

And then I came home, the women who married the fool

who wished for gold. At first I visited, odd times,

parking the car a good way off, then walking.

You knew you were getting close. Golden trout

on the grass. One day, a hare hung from a larch,

a beautiful lemon mistake. And then his footprints,

glistening next to the river's path. He was thin,

delirious; hearing, he said, the music of Pan

from the woods. Listen. That was the last straw.

What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed

but lack of thought for me. Pure selfishness. I sold

the contents of the house and came down here.

I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon,

and once a bowl of apples stopped me dead. I miss most,

even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch.

When do you want it by?

This question, when do you want it by, is often said by me at Metrorail with a look of unbelief on my face. Our MIS team is busy with a major project but work comes in daily and they want it like yesterday. We are struggling just to keep our project on track and don't need people to give us extra expecting to have something to show in four hours time. To help me Marketing and Commutations has employed another contractor to replace Mpho. Let's welcome the Ntaoleng, the sixth person in this post since I've been here and believe me it is not me that chases them away. Some of them even read this blog and four of them are friends in facebook.

Sürpriz

What a Turkish Surprise. Mark, my friend who is now living in Turkey, popped up at BBC this morning. He, his lovely wife Jedidjah and their 3 daughters, Lisa, Kirsty and Rachel, have a blog called The Wandering Rotters, which I visit every now and again to see what the Rotter family are up too. It was just great to see Mark again.

Rage 2009

Matthew and I spent the afternoon at this year’s Rage Expo. Matthew got stuck at the Xbox 360's GI-Joe game for the next 5 hours. He was on the final level when we had to leave. Oh well that is how the cookie crumbles.

Real men don’t wear pink

Well José has joined the metro-sexual trend and started wearing pink. Oh José, look what you have gone and done, you've started to express your femininity.

Pain, Glorious Pain

My ankle is very swollen and I can hardly walk. A large bruise has formed on the inside of my shin. That's what you get for having a bike accident. I suppose now I know how Carol feels with the pain from her leg. I don't have much motivation to take photos so I quickly snapped one during lunch. It is the only photo I took today. This set looked freshly painted with no graffiti anywhere.