Fair from Fair

I have known Ken, Val and Cia for well 18 months and in that short time became friends. Now that they are packing up their bags and counting down the days before heading back down to the stormy Cape. I don't know what they see in the Cape? Okay family but the mountain dude will still be there. Well Ken and Val, I am sure going to miss y'all. I have this feeling; call it intuition that I will see the Jacksons again even if I have to ride Sophia down to Cape Town just to see Cia feeding Ken a donut and getting my hug from Val. Now that is an idea, ride Sophia to Cape Town, uhmmm. Anyway I know that a farewell is necessary so that we can meet again be it far or near and to meet again is certain for those who are friends with donuts.

Learning to Fly

Today I had planned to do nothing at all but somehow I ended up at the Forth Open Day of the Jungle Rush FMX at Daytona just down the road for me. It was good to see Lyle the owner of Jungle Rush, Dallan, Michael and Mark again. It has been a very long time since I was last here, way over a year ago I think. At the freestyle park a lot of amateurs and pro riders tried to fly and most of them got real close. To see the rest of the photos go to my Facebook album Jungle Rush.

Ga Rouge

Fifteen people met on a cold winter's night at a country restaurant in the middle of no-where. Ga Rouge was the restaurant and the fifteen where the intrepid riders of Sani Pass. Yes, next week the a few fanatical riders will be attempting Sani Pass on Vespas. Firstly going by the last few days it is going freezing in the mountains and secondly it is going to be freezing. Didn't I just say that? But now we don't care how cold it is going to be as we painted the country restaurant red. I say old chap, here is Thinus, lord of the manor, showing us how to read the menu with a stiff upper lip.

Educating Dr Ted

At first I thought of naming this post Visitor 17 and 18 because Ted aka Dr Ted from his blog Dr Ted's Divorce Adventure and Sandor came visiting this evening thereby becoming my 17th and 18th visitors to my cozy cottage in Treesbank. Ted is in the market for an entry level DSR camera and he is not sure which way to go. So this evening Sandor, who swears by Nikon and me, the Canon man, was giving Ted the opportunity to play with the different cameras. Ted has already done his research on the specs but to have the different cameras in his hand, getting the feel of the two different camera makes was just what the doctor ordered for Dr Ted. Here is to Ted's decision of camera, no matter what it is.

Secret Exhaust of Adrian

There is a distinct chill in Johannesburg's air today after the cold front passed but the chill shouldn't last too long as the winter days in Johannesburg are wonderful. It was a perfect day to stay at home and do work. Other than popping into the office to pick up more work, I got my Samsung Android phone's software upgraded from 1.5 to 2.6. This means I can now have the WhatsApp which I could not before. My old Android phone is like a completely new beast, it will take getting used to.

Later on this evening I went to a strategy meeting at PRO Designs with Adrian, shown above, and some other influential people. The outcome was positive with good future potentials. Disaster struck when we were all leaving, Adrian exhaust broke on his BMW which was a bummer but these things happen when you least expect it. Anyway the only thing that we could do was take the exhaust's tail piece off and limp Adrian's now very noisy car home with the exhaust sticking out the back window.

The Cold Cometh

A large cold front passed over South Africa bringing snow to the Karoo, southern Free State and to the foothills of the Drakensberg. Thankfully the snow just clipped Johannesburg but the temperature is dropping and I am all snug in my tiny cottage. Jade, my youngest Italian Greyhound, doesn't want to move from her cosy bed. In ten days time I will be heading to the mountains on my Vespa and I am sure Sophia and Matthew will enjoy the mountains. Let's hope the pass will be open.

I am only one

The new morning of breaks into the new week as I head out for work. My thoughts range from there's the beautiful people and then there are the rest of us, the real people. Strange place to be in but here I am as We are the Fallen's song, I am Only One plays on my stereo

Memories fade into the silence,
Haunting me tonight,
With hope's last breath I take this moment in,
It will be the last.
The morning breaks,
and sunlight takes the pain away.

Ever after never came,
And I'm still waiting for a life that never was,
And all the dreams I lay to rest,
The ghost that keeps me, after all that I've become,
I am only one.
I am only one.

I close my eyes and bleed this empty heart
Of all that longs to die,
When faces lie and love will falter,
I'm left with only time,
And time will break
the dreams that take the pain away.

Ever after never came,
And I'm still waiting for a life that never was,
And all the dreams I lay to rest,
The ghost that keeps me, after all that I've become,
I am only one.
I am only one.

I'm on my own here,
and no one's left to be the hero of
this fairy tale gone wrong
as night will fall, my heart will die alone.

Ever after never came,
And I'm still waiting for my heart to beat again,
And all the dreams I've laid to rest,
are ghosts that keep me
after all that I've become,
I am only one.
I am only one.

I am only one.

It is hard being me, the only one, not sure of the future, not sure of the pain as I live day by day not knowing my last. With my past haunting me as the song trickles on, I close my eyes.

Come away, O human child!

One of my favourite poems is this one by William Yeats, Stolen Child written in 1886. Today's photo taken from my Android cell phone while walking my dogs at the bottom of my garden just brought back the longing of being a little boy again and running away with a fairy hand in hand to the bottom of my garden.

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed -
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest
For he comes the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
From a world more full of weeping than he can understand

Vespas and Belgium Beers

When Sophia went in for her last service I bought her a second hand windscreen but it was all hazy so my biker chick Magda, said I must come round to her place as she knows just the trick to get the screen looking almost new again. So this afternoon Magda and Martin held a braai at their place and I bought Sophia over and Magda, true to her word brought out the best of Sophia's windscreen. I must say that she knows how to handle that braso and that vibrating polisher. Here is she doting over Sophia as if she belongs to her. I better be careful Magda may want to keep Sophia.

I am posting this now as later this evening I am heading out to join my friends for a Belgium evening of Stoofvlees met frieten en mayonnaise and not to forget the Belgium beers and chocolates. Let's hope it doesn’t have an effect with the antibiotics that I am still taking.

Car Wash Louise

Nothing exciting happened today. It is Friday night and I am alone home, what's new. I suppose it is for the best, my health that is. In exactly two weeks time I will be on the road to a great weekend in the mountains on my Vespa so I my lungs better be healed as it is still winter. Talking about winter today was a beautiful 22°C in Johannesburg.

Other than working at home I popped into AAA this morning to drop off and pick up work for the UK market. On the way out Louise was getting ready to wash her car, typical of a hands on plaas meisie (farm girl). It was a perfect winter's day for it and a perfect moment to get a photograph of Louise without her makeup on not that she needs it.

Chef Paulo

I am well on the road to recovery. It has been a hard long road of coughing but I am sure not for long as this third course of antibiotics is much stronger. This evening I joined Martin, Magda and Paulo for a magnificent home cooked dinner of an excellent Spaghetti Bolognese, thanks Magda, and a wonderful salad, thanks Paulo. I took Paulo's photo while he rolled up his sleeves and started making the wonderful salad; I never thought I would hear myself say a salad was wonderful but there I did. I must be getting old and girls, now you know that Paulo is good in the kitchen.

Dinner was to discuss and plan the upcoming Vespa Ride to Sani. Us four are going ride down to the Southern Freestate on the Friday. On the Saturday we are going to ride through the Golden Gate and around to Underberg via Bergville. At the same time the support vehicles with the other Vespas on trailers will be leaving Pretoria and Johannesburg for Underberg. Sunday Paulo and Martin will head back to Johannesburg while the rest of us will do the odd 10km up Sani Pass on our Vespas. Monday we will be doing the Roof of Africa road but I think it will be in the support vehicles. On Thursday it will be the long slog back to Johannesburg and Pretoria. I am starting to look forward to it as the trip is only 2 weeks away.

I miss him so

I must say that working from home and just popping into the office to drop off and collect more work has sped up my recovery. No leaving in the cool hours of Johannesburg's winter mornings or coming home in the chilly evenings. I get a lot done by been un-interrupted although this afternoon Carol and Matthew came round for tea as Carol had some papers for me to sign. It was great to see Matthew; I even had a lovely chocolate iced cupcake waiting for him. I didn't get to spend much time with him as Carol and I had life to talk about. So Matthew got stuck in watching The Big Bang Theory on my computer which he enjoys. I do miss him so much that it hurts but as Matthew told me once; he is sad but not as sad as he thought he would be. I love you my boy.

Love From The Office

The stronger medicine I am on seems to be helping as I am feeling much better. Maybe it is because I can work at home and simply pop into the office late in the morning to hand over the previous day's work and collect more. This helps me avoid the cold air in the mornings and evenings and of course it helps to be just 15 minutes drive away especially in light of the fuel crisis in Johannesburg. With no interruptions I can put in longer hours but somehow found that I missed my lunch. So while in the office, the SEO team wished me a healthy recovery and I took this shot of them while there of Louwellen, Vincent and Richard. My computer is still not fixed so working from home has given the support team time to get to the bottom of my computer's issues. Hopefully like me no more pick elephants.

Loop of Death

Ahhhhhhgggg Monday has not been kind to me. As I get to work I found my computer already switched on with the dreaded blue screen. So I calmly do what a normal person would do and that is start a disk scan and fix all the errors, note the critical word calmly. I finally get the foul thing going again. Don't get me wrong, it has not given me too much trouble in the past but today it was awfully terrible. After working for about two hours, a "cannot save" error popped up because it couldn't find the hard drive. Oh oh, looked like either the hard drive is on the way to bit heaven or maybe Windows she's broken. Anyway I rebooted and hoped for the best but it got into an odious loop. As you can clearly see in today's photo, just ignore Thando, no matter what I selected it starts booting up but then quickly ends back at this screen. Time to look for that wench of a Windows recovery disk.

The technical cavalry arrived in the form of Louwellen just before I threw the wretched thing off the balcony. He proceeded with the Windows disk to recover the poor sick puppy. Anyway but by that time my boss was very concerned with my personal state of health that he sent me home and told not to come back unless I am well again.

Yes it has been two weeks and I am still not 100%. I am feeling strong but it is in the mornings and late afternoons that the cold affects my lungs and I start coughing all over again. I am also constantly out of breath. Sigh, so off I went to the doctor and luckily he could see me straight away. He was concerned that I still was not getting better so he prescribed some stronger medicine which he promises will get me right as rain within this week or else I have to go see him again. R1,300 later, I rather get better as this is starting to cost me an arm and a leg not to mention a lung.

Sharks Fury

Having Matthew for the weekend was great. I sure miss him when he is not around. Although I had him for the weekend he spent the entire Saturday with his best friend Justin which was good for him but today I had Matthew all to myself. After picking him up at Justin's home we went bum boarding at Cedar Square. Good tiring fun. A couple of friends pop over to Cedar Square and joined us for coffee afterwards. Later we went walking the dogs in our back garden down to the dams. It is back to school for Matthew tomorrow and it was sad to drop him off but not for long as three Saturday's time we will be spending good quality time in the mountains of Lesotho.

Canon Roadshow

I got up real early on a Saturday morning all excited about the Canon Roadshow. It is my first and I was not disappointed as I gleamed invaluable tips from the photographers on stage and got a better idea what my next lens will be.

While I was enjoying myself at the Canon Roadshow, some Joburg Photowalkers where walking the dusty streets of Diepsloot. Well it was a toss up and I am sorry I didn't get to Diepsloot but also glad that Canon won. Maybe next time as Diepsloot will still be there.

Because I didn't get much chance to take a good photograph today, I leave you with the deepening burnt orange of this evenings sunset as seen from my patio a few moments ago.

La cravate rouge

After only getting to bed in the early hours of this morning, I wanted to call in a Duvet Day, a day when I didn't have to face a full work day. I just wanted to snuggle in the sack under the duvet. Ohhh, under the covers of the duvet was very alluring. So why don't you come up to the lab and see what's on the slab. I see you shiver with antici… pation. Officially you allowed four days a year as duvet days where you can call in without notice and say that you simply staying at home. But I have been off sick too many times these last few weeks that it would not have been appropriate so I crawled to work to do some coding.

Woe to me, my computer crashed not long after lunch, luckily I had been saving often so not much was lost and I soon was back on track. So what do you think of George's red tie? Now why didn't I get the memo that it was Red Tie Day? Not that I have a red tie but it would have given me more reason to call in that duvet day. Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love this medication. Enchanté.

Bang Bang Club

This morning I took Sophia in for a major service in preparation for our Sani Pass adventure in three weeks time. While I was at the Vespa workshop I notice this Vespa above. It is been built for a chap that is wheelchair bound. He can easily wheel his wheels onto the ramp, hop over onto the Vespa and scoot away. Very impressed I was.

Later in the evening, I went with a group of friends to the South African premiere of the Bang Bang Club. It was a great evening spent with friends watching a movie that just portrayed the times so vividly. So far it is the closest of any movie that I've seen that just tells what happened as I remembered. The movie is based on the lives of four South African photographers, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva during the apartheid years just after the release of Nelson Mandela.

As I remember there was a lot of violence and instability in the townships and in the cities during this time as different groups were jockeying for power. It was a sad and uncertain time for many of us South Africans. Whites were fleeing the country or were thinking of it.In the townships violence was everywhere. I can even remember were I was as I watched the News video showing Ken getting killed by the Peace Keepers.

Only two members of the Bang Bang Club survive today, Greg and João. Last year João lost both his legs in an landmine explosion while on patrol with US soldiers in Afghanistan. While watching the movie this evening, I was thinking about João and this Vespa with the wheelchair sidecar. If you haven't seen the movie and are not squeamish, then this is the movie you need to watch to understand what a miracle the 1994 elections were and what could have been.

A Good Laugh

When you feeling down and out with bronchitis nothing much can cheer you up, well accept the abandoned laughing of Annalize. Although she tried to keep her laugh in check, it escaped and brought a smile to my face.

Chekhov

Anton Chekhov once wrote "We are accustomed to live in hopes of good weather, a good harvest, a nice love-affair, hopes of becoming rich or getting the office of chief of police, but I've never noticed anyone hoping to get wiser. We say to ourselves: it'll be better under a new tsar, and in two hundred years it'll still be better, and nobody tries to make this good time come tomorrow. On the whole, life gets more and more complex every day and moves on its own sweet will, and people get more and more stupid, and get isolated from life in ever-increasing numbers." Does this still ring true some 150 years later? Uhmmmm.

Today has been a normal coding day with me all dressed warm battling to recover from my bout of cute Bronchitis and code being rendered to take a user on a path of my choosing. Chekhov also penned "Any idiot can face a crisis; it's this day to day living that wears you out." Yes so true, so here I am, thinking of Chekhov instead of taking my medicine and getting into bed, I must going crazy. Anyway before I head for my warm bed, here is a portrait shot of Thando who sits opposite me at the office.

'Les yeux sont le miroir de l'dme

James Dean, well not quite a rebel without a cause, but Louwellen made a good portrait on this cold winters morning that I am sure a rebel with a cause instead of without would be a good name he would actually like. Marcus Cicero, a Roman philosopher quilled these words "Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi" or in the Queen's English "the face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter". In other words as the French say the eyes are the mirror of the soul.

She's Real

Yes I even touched her, well just to make sure she wasn't a cardboard cutout. Martijn, a good friend's younger brother, for a long time had a girlfriend that no-one ever met. All we got to see was a few grainy images of her on his phone and we used to rag him that we hope her name didn't end in .jpeg. Friends can be cruel.

After Martijn's brother Nic and his family emigrated to that other American state north of the border Martijn and I also became good friends and as time goes on its busy path we saw less of each other, other than an occasional passing in the social media passageways. So today surprise of all surprises Martijn and Melissa walked into our last day of our photographic exhibition at the arts hotel in downtown Johannesburg.

Yes when I saw them holding hands briefly, I had to stop and ask them to do it again just to make sure that I saw right. From the brief time spent with them this afternoon I must say she is a nice lady. Nic my friend, you will approve and of course her name doesn’t end in .jpeg.

Doorways

William Blake once wrote "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." I see doorways merely as a beginning or an end. There is something behind the green door and all it takes is for me to step through. But do I have the courage to step beyond the green door. Do I ...

Pill Popper

I am getting much better but still short breath and have this bad cough. I still have two days to go on my antibiotics course then I should be officially cured from this not so cute bronchitis. Went to work today as sitting at home waiting to get better can get quite boring but I am not sure if it was a good idea as it turned out to be a horrid day. I couldn't wait to get home to my handful of pills and rest. Remember it was once said that you’re never too old, never too late and never too sick to start from scratch once again.

Did someone say wabbit?

Winters in Johannesburg are beautiful with clear blue skies and just a nip in the air. The African sun warms up the Johannesburg day to a tolerable temperature but when the sun goes to sleep the temperatures plummet very fast even to way below freezing because there is no cloud cover to trap the heat in. And you must have heard by now that the houses in Africa are not built for the cold. No cavity walls no double or what is becoming standard in Europe triple glazing windows. All we have is air-conditioning or portable heaters. My cottage is thatched which traps the heat quite nicely and my bedroom is in the loft which is the warmest place to be at night.

But last night my gas for my newly fixed gas heater ran out. Who would have thought that three panels would use up the gas so quickly although in the instruction booklet it did warn that 265 grams of gas per hour will be consumed if I use all three panels. Without the heater, the best place for me was in bed under my goose down duvet. A few times I woke up in the early hours of the morning and saw what I thought were strands of spider cobwebs above my head. I could not understand why after waving the strands aside I did not feel the usual stickiness of the spider fibers. Later on I awoke again this time I saw smoke above me, fearing fire I jump out of bed and rushed to check if everything was okay. No smoke, no gas and no fire, breathe, cough and cough some more. I thought that I was either going crazy, overdosed on my medicine or must have been dreaming until it dawned on me that it was the condensation from my breathing that was making fog above my bed. Silly me, I was nice and snug in a warm bed while the air around was getting colder. I better get the gas bottles refilled pronto.

While I was up in the early hours, I saw a rather large rabbit or hare in the back garden. Now getting back to sleep is a problem as I am starting to wonder if it is someone's pet, when will that large Spotted Eagle-Owl that lives in my garden catch it or when is wabbit hunting season as I am hoping for friends to visit soon? I could do with some lovely warm wabbit stew.

With my appetite coming back, my health I am sure is improving, thanks to my long sleeps as I believe good old fashioned rest is the best cure for a body, along with honey and lemon. My only problems now are that I have to breathe in deep just so I can cough and I'm constantly out of breath. Anyway today was a good sleep in until very late morning after my traumatic early morning with spider webs, smoke and wabbits, and then slipped out to buy more gas for the heater. In the afternoon I worked at home on some work related jobs then I put a mattress outside on the patio in the sun and slept some more in the glorious winter sun. Here next to me in the sun are two of my Italian Greyhounds Maxy and Jade who as you can see also enjoys sunning themselves.

My Garden

With my lungs just about coughed out, my boss sent me home as I was really not fit for work and I nearly didn't make it home, stopping a couple of times to catch my breath after another fit of coughing which wasn't fun. After some rest and overdosing on medicine I hobbled down to the bottom of my garden for some good country fresh air.

At the bottom of my garden are three small earth dams teeming with life, tall long Highveld grass, swampy streams giving life to the dams and a small bubbling brook below the lowest one which feeds into the Jukskei River. With the dogs sniffing around, I put a blanket down next to the water's edge of the lowest dam and lay in the sun. Sheltered from the wind by the earth wall I closed my eyes and listened to the ducks scatter as the dogs flushed them out of the tall grass back onto the water. Just what my soul needed, fresh God given beauty and not a soul in site.

I didn't have my Canon with me, so the next best thing I had was my Android to share with you my garden. So what is at the bottom of your garden, my friend?

What to do when you’re sick?

Yes being sick in bed can have benefits but all alone is not good. I slept a lot and slept some more. In between coughing fits, taking medicine and sleeping some more I swopped my gas heater for a new one; supervised the DSTV installers that I arranged to come today rather than Saturday to install a new dish and I uploaded Saturday's photowalk images from my bed. But hello hello, mama me did I get lonely for company even the heavens softly cried as slept some more.

Two Doctors

On Saturday my Canon 550D had a nasty accident and the glass protecting the LCD was smashed. This morning I dropped it off at the camera doctor, CameraTek under direction of Roger from Canon South Africa and then took myself off to the human doctor as my condition has been deteriorating since Thursday. I have been diagnosed with acute bronchitis boarding on pneumonia. Three hours later, I had my camera back, fixed under warranty. Thank you so much Canon South Africa and CameraTek in Randburg. I am sorry to say that it will take much longer to get me right as rain.

Visitors 3 to 15

This morning 12 visitors arrived at my doorstep with about 30 dogs of various sizes for our planned dog walk in the veld below me. Matthew and four girls from next door decided to tag along. It was a lovely walk in the morning sunshine along the bridal trails. The dams and veld were teaming with birds and the dogs really enjoyed flushing them out. Over two hours later walkers and their dogs were all finished. Here is Kaylene who spend a large amount of her time on the walk carrying. If it wasn't on smallest neighbour's kid then it was her Scottish Terrier who was not happy with the briers in her coat.

Walk like a Zombie

Well not quite Halloween yet but the Joburg Photowalkers visited the old Johannesburg General Hospital in Hillbrow near Constitution Hill. Parts of this historic hospital date back to 1889 and it is in desperate need of restoration. It was great doing a photowalk through this abandoned hospital and seeing the sterling efforts made by a few to try restore the grand buildings back to its original state. Some buildings are already been hijacked by squatters.

The Nuns of Bordeaux even had a chapel built on the grounds, although I could not see a date, I am sure it dates to 1886 when the parts of Catholic Natal diocese moved up to Johannesburg with the gold rush. From what I can find on the internet, it seems that the nuns also served as the nurses of the hospital. "The Sisters of Hope, the nursing branch of the Holy Family of Sisters of Bordeaux, took charge of the Johannesburg Hospital; the Marist Brothers opened a school for boys; the Holy Family Sisters established a convent school in End Street. The Sisters of Hope remained in Johannesburg thoughout the Anglo-Boer War, looking after wounded soldiers from both armies." We managed to get into the small plain chapel only to find dusty rows of pews and a small wooden altar with no crucifix.

The once beautiful superintendent's home is now a derelict double story house that is just about to fall apart. The rest of the buildings just need money to restore them. Sorry to say no zombies found at the morgue although I must have been walking like one all medicated up, so much so that I even damaged my camera on one of the scaffoldings.

Royal Thai

I am feeling a bit stronger all doped up with medicine, strong enough to join some friends at the Royal Thai restaurant in Fourways. This group of friends is the core that will be travelling across the Roof of Africa with me next month. We had a wonderful evening of chatting and just spending quality time over dinner. It was a pity that I wasn't feeling 100%. Here is Charlie tucking into some good Singha, Thai larger. I wish I could join her but alcohol and medicine are not good companions.