Arriving into the city centre this morning I found a low cloud rolling in. The mist steadily got thicker and thicker as it pushed towards mid-day. At some point mid morning I could not even see the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus construction yet alone Park Station. The sun got the better of it during the afternoon and it started to clear-up.
Monday Blues. Everywhere around, round me is blue. The clouds are blue. The moon is blue. Blue is the window by which I stand. My heart is blue, so are my thoughts.
Today we held our Italian Greyhound Year End party at the Golden Harvest Park in Randburg. There were 18 IGs, 1 whippet and a number of other dogs at the braai. One dog, Frodo, stood out for me although he wasn't a IG it was because he had the colourings of Nguni cattle and different colour eyes. Nguni cattle are Zulu royal cattle and their markings beautiful.
Joburg Photowalkers did a photowalk into Yeoville. The suburb has changed so much and a new group of people have moved in. The Nigerians, Congolians, Zimbabweans plus many more have taken over. I felt a spirit of heaviness over Yeoville and I did not feel comfortable. It is a complete opposite to the people of Soweto, they were open, friendly and inviting whereas in Yeoville it was closed with suspicion loaming everywhere. But don’t get me wrong there were glimpses of light shining out of this dark place.
I'm trying to keep it all together but things are falling apart quickly on the home front. While back at work things are steadily coming together in regards to the new train driver simulator in Braamfontein. Here is the first part of the simulator which will be ready for use mid December.
With time running out until Christmas, I realized so was my contract. This along with my other home issues put a damper on my mood. Although many promises were made by various decision makers, pen still has to be put to paper. Talking about putting to paper, after my conversation with Magda, I thought that it might be a good idea to write a book about my life to date. Not an autobiography but maybe a frictional book based on my life or part thereof. Not that my life was more interesting than others but someone out there might like reading it. While the dark clouds hang over my head, it is always good to see Sibongile smile even under stress.
It is only 4 weeks to go until Christmas. I am sure I am not the only person who has asked this but where has this year gone to. Next week I have 2 more year end functions then it is verby, klaar gelag.
After yesterday nothing the rest of the week throws at me will matter. Even meetings after meetings on the PRASA ICT merging. Information section met at PRASA CRES today to get a better understanding. Here is Collen and Nkgadi at the said meeting. I must let you know that Nkgadi is buying herself a Honda CBR650. A super chick on a super bike. She is diffidently trying to get there fast where as I on Sophia it is all about the journey.
What a lovely day today turned out to be. Never in my life expected Mondays to be quite so delicious. At about nine this morning Maritha phoned me informing that they had a cancellation of a small Tweatup lunch hosted by Radission Blu and would I be interested to fill the spot at short noticed. No need to ask twice. So there I found myself with my good friend Maritha at the new Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel in Sandton having lunch with the General Manager Jesper Henriksen, a Gautrain Engineer, Thomas, Jackie and the Sandton Babe. Food was spectacular and so was the company. In the photo is the Vegetable Mille-Feuille ordered by the Sandton Babe and believe me she said it tasted way better than it looked and it looked good. Afterwards Jesper took us to the roof where the trendiest bar in Sandton is situated, the ZAR. This is where that rich dude some weeks ago had sushi served on naked babes. Well it was splashed all over the tabloids and it may have been semi-naked anyway. The bar looked trendy alright but no naked sushi ladies were found although I did find an empty bird cage minus a bird. From there it was coffee at Starbucks, then to the oDD Café and later we ended up at the Bite.
On seeing the number of moustaches sprouting at BBC, I thought I better get mine in order. Movember is a moustache growing charity event which started about seven years ago in Australia and is held each year in November to raise awareness for men's health issues. See Movember website.
Someone once said "At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities". I had lost my enjoyment in life and after visiting with my good friend Zoë, it sort of sneaked up at me. I had set the camera on timer which had a ten next to the clock symbol. Thinking it was for 10 seconds we could not hold it in when the camera started taking 10 shots instead. A good, real, unrestrained, hearty laugh is a sort of glorified internal massage. See my Facebook album 10 second Laughter Therapy for the all the 10 photos in sequence.
It is still raining and I feeling very depressed due to what happened last night. I am coming across as the big bad wolf, enough said about. Tintswalo who always cheers me up came down from Pretoria and surprised me with urgent work
Rain seems to have set in now with no break visible. So far this has been a very wet summer although the rains were long in coming. This has made Uncle Norman edgy and here he can be seen on one of his food raids.
Here is Sophia and Ma Chere meeting at oDD just across the road from Cafe Sofia. Not sure a coincidence.
It has been a busy day with Intersite personnel photos.Touching up, cropping excreta excreta excreta. Pop in to see Robbie in the late afternoon. Here he is in his attempt to grow a mustache for Movember.
Monday and I am back at work in a sore body but not in spirit. I want to be back on Sophia flying on the windy roads around Sabie with my friends. My body is sitting in a meeting all afternoon at PRASA discussing the ICT Integration with the other business units next to Etienne from Autopax (shown above) while in my heart, Sophia is parked next to Ma Chere and we are talking late into the night.
After breakfast we started our long way back up to Johannesburg. At long Tom Pass we hit thick mist all the way to Belfast with a small break at Lydenburg. At Middleburg a major rain storm broke and it was slow going. Once passed Witbank the weather cleared up considerably and it was a simple cruise back home. Because of the weather I didn't take many photos but you can view what I did take at Mille Day Four on Facebook.
Day Two of our road trip saw us leaving early for Hazyview in the mist as we had to be at the Skyway Trails by 8am. BUT Bumblebee could not go any farther and threw the towel in few kilometers outside Sabie. It looked like a circuit board that regulates the fuel injection was fried. Vespa South Africa who supposed to go with us as the organizers and marketers of the Mille pulled out in the last weeks leading up to the event stating too few numbers to justify them sending a service van and a mechanic along. They went on to say that if we did have a problem they would send the service van out. But Vespa South Africa went back on their word and would not sent a mechanic out to help us. Luckily Stafford had AA and they put him up in an lodge back at Sabie and sent out their breakdown van the next day. The vibe against Vespa South Africa wasn't pleasant after that incident. Anyway we headed to Hazyview a bit later without Stafford to do the Skywail Trail and book into Gecko Lodge. We had a wonderful time swinging from tree to tree with Nozipho and Richard as our guides. In the canopies it was hot and humid but it didn't phase us as we were enjoying ourselves. Afterwards the depleted team visited Pilgrims Rest while I headed for Hendriksdal to visit my folks. For more Photos see Mille Day Three on Facebook.
After breakfast we headed out to the Amarula Factory outside Phalaborwa and enjoyed ourselves to lots of Amarula. "Now now Magda, we know you like Amarula but we have a long way still to go." Afterwards we headed for Hoedspruit and the Endangered Animal Rehabilitation Center. It was great to see the cheetahs up close. It turned out to be a very very hot day and only cooled off once we got into the mountains. Stopping only at the Brurkes Luck Potholes we made for Sabie getting there just before dark. Sophia enjoyed herself along the windy mountain roads stretching her legs and showing a clean pair of heals to the bigger Vespas. For more photos see Mille Day Two on Facebook.
Six Vespas with their riders myself, Francois, Andrew, Magda, Romi and Staford left Johannesburg at 5am this morning and headed to Phalaborwa. Ten hours later we arrived, bums sore but all in one piece. After booking into luxury tented lodges with air conditioning we went on a 3 hour evening game drive. Moment of the Day: Our game ranger while waching 3 young hyenas said there is the mother calling her young while it turned out to be Romi snoring away. For more photos see Mille Day One on Facebook
The road trip is upon us. Having informed work that I am away for a couple of days they still waited until the last minute to give me work. This stressed me out to no end. I had no time today to think of what photo to take so I took of whoever was in the office at the time. The unlucky person was Motloli, head down working the keyboard as usual. Please excuse the next few days until Monday as I won't be able to post regularly as I am on a road trip. I am leaving Johannesburg at about 5am tomorrow and head to Phalaborwa passing Pretoria, Warmbaths, Pietersburg and Tzaneen. On Friday I'm heading down to Sabie via Hoedspruit. Saturday will be a short hop to Hazyview and Sunday the long trek back. All this on a ET4 Vespa.
Wow, it has been a downpour this morning in Jozi. Even the highways were flooded. I was safely tucked away at Intersite's head office taking photo's of all the staff new InterSpace application. Refiwe, from Intersite Marketing Department, was a lovely host and even took me out for lunch.
Monday Office news. Metrorail's ICT staff are starting to get moved around, Refiloe along with Help Desk are now situated at PRASA Head Office which means the office is much quieter. Uncle Norman has cross the invisible line by soaking my chair with water on Friday so today I started plotting revenge. I'm ninja, he won't know when I will strike which means he better sleep with one eye open. Leon's daughter has given birth this to a baby girl. Congratulations grandpa Leon. And finally here is Sello, not sure about him but he seems to be relaxing. Maybe it is lunch time. Well thats all folks, till next time. Good night.
Today was a wind down day for me. Just relax and don’t do much other than load the dishwasher and turn it on. So I leave you with Saskia and Grant. Goodnight.
What supposed to be a quiet weekend turned out to be very busy. Up early to take the dogs for a walk in the park then off to buy some clothes for me because I need to and I never do. In the evening I was in Benoni for the launch of Spessit, my friend David's new start-up with tons of potential. On top of that it was good to see old friends Andy and Julie at the launch. Andy has just retired but I am sure that won't be the last we hear from him.
Soon after I arrived home, a thunderous storm broke out with this tree getting struck about 100m up the road from our home. The storm didn't last long, that goodness. Later one in the evening it wasn't thunder that was making all the bangs but the fireworks and crackers going off as people celebrated Diwali. On checking, our dogs seem very relaxed with the noise and are half asleep. One of the neighbours is shouting across the fence to another neighbour to stop the with the fire crackers as their dogs are terrified. Poor things. I feel these things should not be done in residential areas but pre-designated areas.
What an interesting day. The West Rand Emergency Services with conjunction with Metrorail did an exercise to test the handling and response of all parties to a train derailment with a high number of casualties. It was the first time all the different parties involved worked together. It was a great success not because it went smoothly because it didn't but because all the problems were identified which a great place is to start with improving.
It was a busy day of knuckling down and doing some work for a change as tomorrow I will be out of the office all day on a shoot. Subject Top Secret only only for those in the know. You know what I mean. And I am in the know because they want photos of the event. I will leave you with my monthly photo of the progress of the Gautrain Braamfontein terminus.
It is that time of year again. Our home cell celebrated their annual Christmas dinner with the usual style. A perfect time to practice my evening photography. I am going to post all the images on my Facebook album but in the meanwhile here is a lovely photo of Carol.
With only ten days to go, Sophia went in for a full service in preparation. We are now ready.