Brainstorming

Having a dog in its first season is quite challenging but not as much as brainstorming for a new website. Most of the day was spent trying to come up with a new strategy for the client. I am now brain tired, uhmm.

The Big Five

Wow Ramaine Lloyd can perform Tina Turner so well. I really enjoyed her performance. Well done. James Dobson as Elton John deserves my second mention as well as Tiaan Rautenbach as Rod Stewart.

Paint with Light

This evening the Joburg Photowalkers held a Paint with Light Photowalk under the bridge at Newtown. It was an interesting learning curve for me.

Fender Bender

On the way to school this morning, Carol and Matthew had a little confrontation with a Mercedes C200 and this is the result.

Tumi

Let me introduce Tumi, a snow white cat that belongs to Rayne. She is very friendly and I don’t think she was named after sacrificial ceremonial knife but the Zulu name for courage and happiness. You decide.

Satori

This evening the Joburg Photowalkers held their first slide show evening at Morning Star in Linden. It was a great turn out and the few die hards ended up at Satori afterwards. Here are four of them sitting down for dinner - Craig with the iPad with wings, Robyn looking on in envy, Desiree and Mark with both heads in menu.

Exit Medical

Train, Yacht, Soldiers, Dog, Toy Horse, Stork, Swallow, Cat, Duck, Dog, Elephant, Rooster. I had to do my Exit Medical Exam today. My health is hundreds except for my left hearing. A, O, E, H, L, A, N, T, C, O, H, L, A, O, T, N, T, O, L, A, E, L, N, C, E, T, H, O, A, O, T, L, H, E, N, A, C, L, H, T, O, C, N, E, A.

First Day at PRO

Not to have anytime slacking, I jumped start into work at PRO Designs. I am still hoping PRASA comes to the party. Today's photo is one of the pets at PRO Designs.

Fairly odd friends

Because of the situation I find myself in, I have been surrounding myself with circle of friends. One circle are my odd friends associated with the Odd Café.

Irene

Seventeen Vespas left Wynburg this morning for a breakfast run to the Irene Estate Dairy Farm in Irene which is nestled itself between the Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Last Day

After a lot of political wrangling, today has become my last day at Metrorail. My future is very uncertain but it is time for chocolate.

Sophia springs a leak

Yes, you heard correctly, when I stopped at the shops this evening, I smelt petrol. Upon checking I found fuel leaking from a pipe connecting the pump to the carburetor. Sophia and I limped to Desiree’s house and thank goodness she is mechanically minded. Here we discovered that the fuel pipe was badly perished and could not be repaired so Desiree patched up Sophia temporary until I could get a new fuel pipe tomorrow.

Treat your eyes

Not much to say about today but depression is setting in. My friends are trying to keep my spirits up. Magda pointed out these two Vespa's who are painted to treat your eyes.

Year Start Dinner

To start off the year my cell combined a dinner with a surprise baby shower for one of our members. It was a wonderful evening with friends that care. Mike, Denise, Karin and Rob are shown here all enjoying pre-dinner drinks.

A little Stressed

With two weeks left until my contract runs out and no paper on the table is starting to get me a little worried. Collen here seems also a little stressed but I am sure not for the same reasons.

Walking in the rain

With over 90 people listed to come to today's Graffiti Photowalk Part 2, only about 50 turned up due to the threat of rain and early morning. Well if you call 7:30 early. Anyways soon after we finished under the bridge the rain started drizzling as we headed for Troyville. And this is where I found these kids sheltering from the rain at some park filled with graffiti.

The Bioscope

I went to see Jennifer Ferguson last night at The Bioscope. It was a very interesting evening taking me back to my arty days of my youth in Durban. In a world of black and white, things come at you in blue.

One circle

In times like these I have surrounded myself with circles of friends. This is one of them, Yvonne, Dennis, John, Bonny, Jacqueline, Morne and Debbie. My work contract is uncertain and I'm moving into the cottage.

1st Departmental Meeting

This morning was our first departmental meeting of the year and it went on and on, then Toys was confused and on it went.At least we got to see the other ICT members based at other business units. Here is Nkgadi from PRASA Cres.

Uncertainty

I am sure very uncertain about my position here at PRASA. I still haven’t seen any paperwork as many are still on leave. So I slog on without knowing that I would be paid as Leon next to me shows how it is done. Crossing my mind is the UK or even NZ.

Mfene

The ICT Integration's change management is represented by Mfene from PRASA. Basically we have been hoping that it would all be over by now but it seems that it still has a long way to go.

Tre bellissimi cani

Week two has just commenced for 2011 and as I was leaving for work on my Vespa, my three beautiful Italian Greyhounds where waiting to say goodbye from top of the dog box. I couldn't resist but take a photo of Patch, Jade and Maxy.

Dirk and Maxine

Johannesburg seems to becoming the new rain forest with all the on and off rain we've been having all summer. Today is Dirk's birthday so I set off to his digs in Linden for a braai with friends. Well if they weren't friends before they friends now.

The hand that rocked

Well not quite rocked the cradle but the hand of my friend and client, Rayne. This afternoon we had to go through her client's website that I worked on to finalize and put the finishing touches on.

Bonita and Lydia

After a tiring first week of 2011, we all glad that it is weekend even though it too will be busy. This evening I made too new friends Bonita or as she is affectionately known to her friends Bonny and Lydia.

What in the world?

What in the world am I doing? I was here for a meeting about Safety Posters when Sibongile wanted to look at my camera. Trust her to get an interesting pose out of me.

Gautrain One

I thought I better start posting my monthly update photo of the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus progress. So here is my first Gautrain related photo of 2011. As you can see not much has changed since the 30 November other than the cloud has lifted slightly. The builders holiday plus rainy weather has also slowed the progress down.

Drop the Pilot

Drop the pilot
Try my balloon
Drop the monkey
Smell my perfume
Drop the mahout
I'm the easy rider
Don't use your army
To fight a losing battle

Back at Work Day 1

Work Day One Twenty Eleven has commenced. My contract has been extended for three months while the powers that be sort out my employment status, uhmmm! Anyway Refiloe, shown above, was in and out this morning completing her move to the regional help desk housed at head office.

Squint

I want to wish a big double happy birthday to the twins Saskia and Pauline. I made it my mission to take a photograph of the twins today but Pauline ducked early so Jessica had to fill in for her, well forget the age difference, Jessica also has red hair like Pauline and that would do for me.

Day One Down 364 to Go

As my annus horribilis + 1 came to an end last night, my only hope is that my annus mirabilis is still coming. With not much else to do today than catch up some sleep, we had lunch at an old road house that doesn't seem to die, the Doll House on Louis Botha. After my 2009 annus horribilis, 2010 was a time of making sense of it all. 2011 L'imprevu est toujours possible!