Gold Le Clos

Well done Chad, just like two days ago we were glued to our TVs and shouting as if our Olympic swimmers could hear us all the way from South Africa. A few moments ago while sitting with my home group, we watched Chad Le Clos from the edges of our seats as he narrowly beat his hero Phelps by 0.05 seconds in the 200m butterfly. Our neighbours must have thought someone was being murdered but they too must have been screaming just as loud. Making South Africa proud.

Little Stormtrooper

Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper. I got this little Imperial Stormtrooper on Saturday at the Lego Shop in Fourways while I was trying to drag Matthew away from all the Star Wars' Lego models. Coming home today after another Monday, I flopped down on my couch and saw this little stormtrooper looking back at me. Heck Monday, serious? It was Friday only yesterday.

Three Brothers

Yes, three brothers got together somewhere in Pretoria for a braai or as my northern readers call it, a barbeque. It was a beautiful winters day in Pretoria with a slight nip in the air but bright and sunny, perfect for a super villain, like me to have a braai with his two brothers.

I suppose with most families, there has been a lot of water under the bridge, but who cares as blood is always thicker than water. It was good to spend time with George as I haven't in the past as he was always gallivanting to Ireland, then to Botswana and now finally he is back from Iraq. As for Anthony, well when he is not in Pretoria, he is also on the road often although in an 18 wheeler or has the South African super rigs many more wheels. I kind of think so. Anyway the best in the photo above is the super villain, himself, moi.

GI Jade

Yesterday my tiniest Italian Greyhound, Jade was spayed along with my Whippet, Skye who had a castration. So last night I had two dogs who were still recovering. Although still very drowsy Skye was handling his operation well but Jade was in a lot of discomfort. With doth in my bed, Skye slept soundly whereas Jade was whimpering ever so softly all night even after giving her half 25mg of Rimadyl with her supper. I didn't get much sleep at all but by morning Jade was all cried out and had this far away look in her eyes. The look made me so sad and I wondered if I did the right thing. Throughout the day Jade stayed close to me and only left my lap when Matthew enticed her with yummy treats.

Cosmopolitan

Men don't do pink drinks. That is what my mamma taught me so how did I end up with a pink drink in my hand and Noma having this look of horror.

My Friday started with me taking Skye and Jade to my local vet to have the big snip. I was very concerned about Jade as she is a very small Italian Greyhound. So throughout the day my thoughts were on Jade. Late in the afternoon, we had a work function at Moyo, an African Restaurant and not wanting to drink anything, I decided I would have a non alcoholic cocktail, so I ordered a strawberry daiquiri without the liquor but it is sad to say that Moyo could not make it, so Richard ordered a Cosmopolitan for me. There you see, I didn't order the pink drink although I did man up and drunk the cosmopolitan.

I didn't stay long and soon found myself in the rush hour traffic heading to the vet to pick up my dogs. I am happy to report that Skye and Jade are recovering nicely.

Met ys ja

Eish met ys ja, met ys! Never mind the Olympic Games, the countdown to Friday is just about done and here I am discussing our futures with a friend who has reached a fork in the road. After a few years pondering if he should go left or right, he is about to set forth on one of those paths into an unknown future. But he is headstrong and determined to make the best of what life has set out before him. Met ys ja, met ys.

Now where the heck is that Sommelier? Oh wait he does wine, oh dear pour me some more. With ice yes.

Ciao, sono Jerome

So far this week has been treating me okay with no out of the ordinary surprises or unwanted stresses. This week has been good and what has sustained me is my mantra for the week. Never regret. If it is good, it is wonderful. If it is bad, it is experience. For the time being, I am here.

Project Resurrection

I can't say much at this point in time but the wheels of Project Resurrection have started gaining momentum with phone calls back and forth between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Lobola has exchanged hands for a broken Anna, soon she will join Sophia then the project can start flying. Lobola is an African tradition, when a man's family negotiates on behalf of a man a price to pay for the right to marry a woman from the respective family. I find the word lobola very interesting as it is close to an Italian word for bubble, la bolla. Here is photo of Anna's dial showing only 2,487km on her odometer. I can feel the air thicken with anticipation.

Ray the Man

Monday started like any other, which is with a large mug of coffee. Ahhh coffee on a Monday morning just sets the tone of things to come. I may have a glimmer of good news which I can't yet share until all negotiations are successful but I promise that I will if Anastasiya finds herself on my slab. Welcome to my lab.

In the meanwhile, this evening was our cell's turn to help out at Under the Bridge Project where BBC feeds the hungry every Monday. So I rushed from work as early as I could break away and arrived at BBC just in time to start preparing the food parcels. Raymond, shown above, leads the BBC Missions committee and can always be found in the thick of things. Preparing food or even dancing to the beat of the African drums. And under a Bryanston night sky, people from numerous African tribes gave thanks. Asante dankie ee-may-nah eh-sheh-wuh eio inkomu kea leboga enkosi merci murakoze naa goodee ndatenda ndo livhuwa ngiyabonga ngiyathokoza n'itumezi obrigado okuhepa siyabonga tangi zikomo.

Sasha and Enzo

This afternoon, my family had some visitors; Veressa came round with her two Italian Greyhounds and two Dashshunds for a walk to the bottom of my garden. It was a lovely walk with eight dogs, that is two Dashshunds, five Italian Greyhounds and one Whippet puppy. The dogs were all having so much fun while Veressa and I caught up on all the happenings in our life. My dogs where so happy that they could share our garden with the new dogs while I enjoyed watching them explore this new wide open space that seemed to go on forever especially seeing Enzo run, and play hide and seek with Maxy, priceless. Well it is priceless to see Enzo run like the wind as he is a miracle iggy and we nearly lost him last year from a bone eating bacteria that he caught in a surgery while been treated for a broken leg.

Once we arrived back at the cottage we had a little picnic downstairs in my garden and the Italian Greyhounds did not stop bouncing once. They were full of beans and I can imagine when Veressa takes her pack home they will pass out in the back of the car. Here is a photo of Sasha and Enzo taken after our picnic. Sasha looks like a whiter version of Jade and Enzo a chocolate version of Maxy.

Jade's Photobomb

The weather this weekend in Johannesburg so far has been wonderful. Nippy at night but warm during the day, this is what Johannesburg winter is all about. As usual weekends for me, means that taking the dogs for long walks at one of the many dog parks around us is a must. Just to start off we have the bottom of my garden, Delta Park, Emmerentia Dam, Golden Harvest, Kingfisher Park, Sandton Field and Study, and Walkhaven to choose from.

Last week we were at Emmerentia so it was Kingfisher for today's walk. It was so nice just getting out walking with the dogs in the winter sun. Here I was trying to photograph Skye, my Whippet puppy when Jade, my youngest Italian Greyhound, wanted all my attention for herself so she photobombed by popping up in front of the camera. Don't look so innocent Jade.

Simone’s Twins

A few weeks ago Simone gave birth to twin daughters, Paige and Kaitlyn. Picking up Matthew at Kenneth and Simone's home in Midrand, I had the opportunity to see to beautiful bundles of joy. Here is Simone holding Kaitlyn with the cat Tazz keeping a close eye on proceedings.

Today was faux pas day for me as it was my turn to put the wrong foot forward at work. First thing this morning after arriving at work, I went to make myself a cup of coffee. To boil the water I took the kettle and started filling it with boiling from the urn. It was only when Norma asked what was I doing did I realize that I didn't need to boil already boiled water. Uhmm it is Friday, what more can I say. Faux pas or not, it get out there and enjoy the weekend.

Sunset Blind

The week is nearly over, by Thursday, I have gotten over the worst the week can throw at me. And to celebrate the coming Friday, the African sky blessed us with another clear sunset. The setting sun made these awesome colours through the office blinds of the end of the day that I had to photograph it. The darkness of the week is just about over and the colour of the weekend is upon us.

Jelly Belly

Deila arrived back from lunch with a packet of the original gourmet jelly beans, Jelly Belly. Uhmm, what beanstalk has Delia planted in our office. Soon the natural flavours of Buttered Popcorn, Sizzling Cinnamon, Tangerine, Green Apple, Juicy Pear, Liquorice, Very Cherry, Lemon, Pineapple and Strawberry went click in our mouths. Well like the song Qongqothwane, the dung beetle became the doctor of the road, the jelly beans became the king of candy sweets. Oh talking about that Xhosa click song today was Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday. Happy birthday Tata!

Bryanston Bible Church

Today as a church, Bryanston Bible Church did a fast as we waited upon the Lord, expectant. Yes this is a new season that BBC is about to go into as we extend from two to three Sunday services. The growth of BBC has been blessed and we wait as a family for God to take us into a new place. As a unified church we ended the fast with a family supper at BBC then we went into a time of worship and prayer. No matter how we look at it, it is all about Jesus and the work that He finished on the cross.

Sandton View

This morning Louise asked me to go with her to see a client. What should have taken 20mins took us over an hour trying to get to the client. Firstly the traffic on the highway was slow due to an earlier accident then it was the GPS. Surely a GPS would at least give us the right address as one of the choices but no we had to take a tour of the northern suburbs until we could find the Sandton View.

The client had these picturesque views of the financial capital of Africa, Sandton. It was kind of nice to take in the view on a beautiful winter's day. I love Joburg.

Bontle Hope

Beautiful Hope, that is what we all need in times when we deep in the dark valley. Today the start of the new week is extremely cold with snow falls closing the road between Johannesburg and Cape Town. But there is always hope in the future and here is my friend Emmelinah's granddaughter Hope, well to be exact Bontle Hope. Her first name is Bontle, a Setswana word for Beautiful and how beautiful is Hope. When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

Tsamaya sentle, go well.

Dark Side

Welcome to the Dark Side, we have cookies. On a chilly Saturday morning Matthew and I hit Fourways Mall. First I had to get some more bandwidth while I left Matthew at the Lego Shop. Then I bought some books before I fetched Matthew at the Star Wars section of the Lego Shop. Wow some of those models are expensive but I am still very dark with envy. Isn't envy one of the seven deadly sins? Uhmm welcome to the Dark Side. At least I can say in front of the Darth Vader, Matthew, I am your father.

Military Veterans

Friday the 13 started with my laptop broken. I was not sure if it was a virus, an OS update gone wrong or a hardware problem as it was booting up but it gave a loud peeping sound then shut down. With a sad face I handed my laptop to Louise first thing this morning to see if she could find what the problem was.

While Louise was doing what she was good at, I went to register as a military veteran as today is the cut off for the second phase of creating a military register of all the surviving combatants of the South African War. Oh yes there may be pension also involved. Anyway it was a nice way to spend a Friday morning chatting to other people who were in the same boat as you. By the time I arrived back at the office Louise and Logan had identified the problem as a memory card had come loose and had it fixed in no time.

Now all I need now is to be surprised with army call up papers arriving in the post.

Chester

When things go wrong, they go wrong in a big way. Well all day today I was looking forward to having dinner with Rob and Petra. It was just the thing I needed to get my mind off all my recent mishaps. Anyway I had a wonderful meal with my friends and ended the dinner with some lovely Apfel Kuchen. Chester, their very large Staffordshire Bull Terrier or Staffy, just had a lot of love. Well not everyone was happy I was there as their French Poodle took exception that I took his owners attention away. Anyway Chester liked me and he almost weighs as much as me with a head circumference larger than my waist plus he has a big heart.

I arrived home late and when I tried to write this blog post my laptop started peeping quite loudly and shut down. Umpf what else can go wrong? Fetch Chester, fetch.

Black Tipped Roses

Yesterday Sean bought all the ladies red roses and today sitting opposite Noma and her roses on her desk sure put strain as Sophia was on top of my mind all day. I am still working through all my options on the way forward. As Queen once sang, is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide. No escape from reality. That is how I feel. Everything seems to snowballing. Maxy's tangle with barbed wire, my computer motherboard blown and now Sophia's kaput.

Blacked tipped roses for Sophia, she would have liked that, roses that are past their prime. If I am not back again this time tomorrow. Carry on... carry on because nothing left matters.

Goodbye Sophia

News came in today, that Sophia had died. First it was a phone call from Bruce breaking the sad news then later a full debriefing from Andrew at Vespa South Africa. It seems that while riding Sophia home a few weeks ago, a value broke and fell into the piston which in turn damaged the inside of Sophia’s motor. Although I don't have the quote to get Sophia back up and running, the estimate repair cost is getting close to replacement costs.

In this time of mourning I have to think about different options going forward but now all I have is Sophia on my mind and all the adventures we shared. Sophia will be hard to replace as she was a legend with trips around South Africa that would deter even seasoned bikers. Her crowning achievement was to be part of a group of Vespas that summited the Sani Pass in the middle of winter and then to race across the Roof of Africa. This Vespa had wings. May she continue chasing butterflies on that rolling road in the clouds.

It is like there is a hole in my heart.

Nespresso Time Again

Having good coffee at work is essential especially on Mondays so much so that I don't think I can make it through a Monday without Nespresso. Four more days to go till the weekend, sigh. More coffee? Yes please.

Jacqueline and Sihle

This afternoon my dogs and I took a walk down to the bottom of the garden to see the recent damage done by the latest veld fires of last week. Here in the burnt wasteland I met my neighbours Jacqueline and Sihle also walking their dogs. The landscape around us looked black and blue, dead to the world. But in Africa veld fires are needed for rejuvenation and walking along the scorched grass I saw signs of green peeping out of the black. Life will be back. I promise.

Jamie's New Look

Ah what can I say about Jamie other than he had a rough Friday night but knowing him he didn't. So I present to Jamie's new rough look, Tadaaa! So how did I get to see Jamie's new look, well it started when Luciano, Matthew's friend phoned to let me know that Matthew had left his cell phone at his place so I went to pick it up. On the way home I decided to check in at Scoots to find out what was happening to Sophia, my Vespa, and this is how I found Jamie with his new look.

The latest news I have on Sophia is that it is the colonoid which is jammed shut and that it has been taken to Vespa to be repaired. Two weeks and still no Sophia, sigh!

Friday Trio

It is not only I that is looking forward to the weekend but my dogs too, as they have a weekend of walks ahead. Arriving home for the first time this week while it was still daylight was an early pleasure of what the weekend has in store for us. Here are my three boys waiting for me to greet them and to see if I have any treats in my pockets. Maxy as you can see is sporting his racy red dog top as prescribed by Rose from the vets. Let the weekend begin. Enjoy everyone.

Crowthorne Veterinary Clinic

Maxy sustained a tear on his back over the weekend most probably from some bard wire in the veld. He kept picking at his tear so much that tear was becoming an open wound. This morning I took him to see Rose at the Crowthorne Veterinary Clinic and today's photograph is of Maxy anxiously waiting for Rose to come in with a big needle. But Rose had no needle, only some medicine wrapped in some yummy treat. She diagnosed that his wound had a high bacterial count so she prescribed some antibiotics and gave me an idea how to stop Maxy and my other dogs from getting at the wound.

A dog shirt, now why didn't I think of that? It was not easy finding a thin dog top in the middle of winter but after digging in the back of a local pet shop, I found a racing red top with a greyhound on a shield and the words "The Runners". Perfect.

Little Red Riding Hood

Owoooooooo! Oh dear, what is this red fetish this past week. Who's that I see walkin' in these woods? Hey there Little Red Riding Noma, You sure wearing a red frock. Everything just short of a cape. You sure are looking good.

I'm gonna keep my sheep suit on. Owoooooooo! I mean baaaaaa! Baaa!

Sandy

Monday has come and gone. Tuesday, what can I say about today? Nothing much can be said about today. Sophia my Vespa is still not talking to me, no not that. Ah yes, the one good thing about a Tuesday other than it is not a Monday, is that Home Circle is held on a Tuesday evening. Our small group regularly meet at the home of Andy and Sandy. Here is Sandy with her pink top, a perfect model to show Gary what my small new Canon can do in low light.

Nespresso

Ahhh Monday morning is best started with a wonderful cup of coffee. To be exact a Vivalto Lungo which is a blend of Brazilian and Ethiopian Arabicas. This Nespresso stretched espresso may the only thing that gets me through a Monday. Let the week begin.

Nagmalwyn

Matthew had so much fun with my new Canon PowerShot S100 camera this weekend that I had to pry it out of his fingers when I dropped him off. Going through all his photographs this evening, it was this one which jumped out at me and reminded me of a church service that will never be forgotten in Bekkersdal up there in the Groot Marico District. It was the Sunday when Reverent Welthagen announced that we will now sing Psalm 119. Now everyone knows the Psalm given out has 176 verses and without indicating which verses to be sung the Reverent Welthagen took a firm grip on the pulpit and allowed his head to sink forward onto his chest. It was the Nagnalwyn (Communion wine) which came to the rescue of the poor organist and later a few of the elders at what is now known as the Bekkersdal Marathon. Amen.