Caitlin and Dael

Saturday has somehow arrived while I was helping Robynne and Marco's Drive Me at a function at Moyo. I only arrived back home at 2 this Saturday morning. After a late start I had to crawl out of bed to take Matthew's computer in for repairs, paying bills and some weekly shopping.

In the afternoon, Bradley, Dael and his girlfriend, Caitlin came round for a braai. The weather held for the braai but the early morning bed was starting to take its toll and I was in need of an afternoon nap. Caitlin and Dael are shown above relaxing after the braai.

Bun Less

According to my Lifestyle Diet that I am on, grain products have to be reduced to, well nearly nothing. This has led to some innovative and wonderful dinners. Tonight it is burger night and we had to try a bun less burger. The result was this awesome burger shown above, Yummy.

Hanging On

The mother of all storms hit Gauteng in the west and slowly moved east. Reports and photographs started coming in of hailstones the size baseballs and it was heading my way. I left work in the pouring rain hoping that the storm would all be hailed out. The radio didn't paint a pretty picture with reports of smashed windscreens everywhere, an insurance nightmare.

By time I neared home, the skies where clearing but another storm was bearing down on us. It was in this eye of the storm where I saw his pickup with this chap hanging on. Very dangerous but as usual where are the police when you need them.

Seeing Eye to Eye

It is the Battle of the Wills as Matthew goes eye to eye with Father Christmas over the Naughty List. So who do you think will blink first? Matthew does seem very determined as he wants his name off the list. I must say that hairy man dressed in red was rather short which should help ease the reindeers with their overloading problem.

Steven and Lebogang

Tonight, our Home Cell held their year end Christmas Party and we had a record turn out. Wow time has sure flown this year. Over a year ago I posted on Mildred and her daughter Lebogang, so now it is the father's turn which will make it my second father and daughter photograph this month. I better be careful not to start a trend here on this blog. Here is Steven, proudly holding his daughter Lebo. Wow, hasn't Lebo grown in the last 2 years.

Monday Matthew

With exams over, Matthew is over at my place for a week of relaxing. It is only 4 weeks left until I am on leave relaxing too but in the meanwhile it is back to work on this Monday.

Denise and Trevor

Sunday, means BBC, so off we went to the late morning services at Bryanston Bible Church. There are many interesting changes afoot with all the new extensions to upgrade BBC. I am looking forward to 2014 at BBC. A surprise visit to BBC is Trevor and his lovely wife Denise. Well not quite, Trevor has been very busy with his ministry Wellspring and I haven't seen him for quite a while.

Bringing Home the Lobola

Mooooo, bringing home the bacon is what I supposed to do, not the cattle, well unless I need to pay some Lobola. Now Lobola is a marriage tribute or bride price still practiced in traditional South Africa. Lobola payment in cattle is still practiced in the old country so hello good looking, what beautiful lass can I buy with my fat 30 cows?

Father and Daughter

This morning, Richard's daughter Isabella arrived and I couldn't resist a Father Daughter photograph so now on this Friday I give you Isabella and Richard. Okay it is Friday, and inspiration is push aside as weekend takes over.

Over for Dinner

"Come over to my parlour" said the spider to the fly. No not quite the right way to start this blog post. Lynda's daughter Robynne and her fiancé Marco had their house cleaned out by burglars on Tuesday, so now they came over for dinner. Well I shouldn't say cleaned out as they tossed all the contents from every part of the house onto the floor in search of valuables to steal.

Marco and Robynne are all right as it happened while they were at work only to come home and find all their electronic goods gone and all that remained was the mess.

Keeping Fit

I am on this new healthy lifestyle eating plan based Tim Noakes' Paleo Diet. So far it has only being a week into this regime change and I am feeling much better although physically I am still in shape as round is a shape.

Part of this new healthy lifestyle eating plan is exercise which I have to somehow fit into my busy life. On the way to work, I past the Mushroom Farm in Sandton and there I saw a maid busy exercising before work on the outside exercise apparatus. She is sure putting me to shame not finding the time.

Crystal Clear

Last night, our home group celebrated Thanksgiving a week early. Who cares if it was a little early, we have lots to be thankful for. Take me for example, my health. At the end of last year I had a double health scare, first with my prostate and second was kidney stones. Matthew, my son, started High School this year which was followed hotly on its heels by stress related problems for him. Thankfully it is all behind us and now we can move on.

I am still here, so my promise of a future is still before me, while the brokenness of my past behind.

This Void

There is a song that cuts deep with these words "But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works, it's not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I receive with the restart." Yes to get up and restart this life's journey as I have paused to smell the flowers. And here I am, wondering where this road might be leading and the number of my days. Maybe I am dwelling too long in that place between the promise of my future and the brokenness of my past. I think I must hold my head up high and take the first step on restarting this long journey home.

Vespas and Landrovers

We arrived at the Piston Ring monthly car enthusiast meet up at Modderfontein on what turned out to be a beautiful day. This may be the last one this year, until 2014, so I had to start looking for Christmas ideas. Among the thirsty American V8s, frugal Continentals and stiff upper lip British vehicles, we found these metal toys especially this Vespa P200E and yellow Landrover Series 1.

Caught in the Headlights

To celebrate Ingress’ first birthday, the Resistance in Gauteng organised a Kansas City Shuffle by staging two operations, the first, Irresistible started on Friday. The Irresistible was aimed at helping the lower level Resistance players level up but had a hidden agenda of getting the operation leaked to the Enlightened so that they could be distracted in the Kansas City Shuffle and hopefully use up all their resources. For those who don't know what a Kansas City Shuffle is, it is when everyone else moves right, you move left.

The Enlightened in Gauteng who had found out about first operation fell for the Kansas City Shuffle, and built up mega fields from Livingstone in Zambia to Saldanha Bay, to Port Elizabeth to Durban to Maputo. All to stop the Resistance levelling up. Impressive but what the Enlightened didn't know was the second operation which was the Kansas City Shuffle. Of course before the second operation started, the Enlightened mega fields were swiftly taken down.

Unight8 involved 58 countries around the world with lots of teams of Level 8 players starting at midnight to make as many L8 portals before the Enlightened woke up and smelt the coffee. I left home last night at 11pm and joined 9 other Level 8 players in the Johannesburg West Rand and at midnight kicked off our part of the Unight8 operation. This early morning photograph shows part of the Unight8 JHB West team. By 4am we had 67 Level 8 portals in West.

From what Krow reported in total the 3 teams in Gauteng created 192 Level 8 portals which meant that the Kansas City Shuffle was a tremendous success. The cherry on top is that the Resistance deployed layered mega fields of their own this afternoon. I can see that the Force is strong in the Resistance Gauteng. Reports coming in worldwide is that more than 30,000 Level 8 portals were created leaving the Enlightened still napping.

How to Eat a Gourmet Burger?

How do you eat a Gourmet Burger? Some might say with a knife and fork, or some will say you're your hands. Well the answer is with difficulty.

Lunch at Dukes Burgers in Greenside was chosen for our National Positions' team building. Dukes looked small from the front, inside you start getting disorientated with all the nooks and crannies but once you get your bearings of all the alcoves, you quickly settle down to Duke’s quirkiness.

The beef, lamb and ostrich burgers on the menu all looked great along with their quirky names to match the décor and I wasn't quite sure which one to choose. In the end I chose a Wagyu Burger made from the famous Wagyu beef from the Kobe region of Japan and I wasn't disappointed. Although the burger on the whole was a little dry but the 200g patty was very tasty, uhmm.

Back to the question of how do you eat a gourmet burger. Well it is all preference as I used my knife and fork but Bakang, shown above, showed us how to get down and messy with a gourmet burger.

Mal Jan

You won't believe who I bumped into at Montecasino tonight. For those who don't listen to Jacaranda Radio Station, I like to give you Mal Jan or loosely translated as Mad Jan. Johan van der Merwe is Jacaranda’s mad stuntman who is often dressed up and sent on quests. Like the one time they dressed him up as an ignorant farmer from Bethlehem and sent him to SEXPO. Another time they put him into the ring with a cage fighter. This evening Mal Jan was dressed up as Thor with his big hammer, no tummy.

What Do We Have Here?

When Noma walked in this morning all glowing, it was because her boyfriend, Richard, liked it and put a ring on it. Now put your hands up if you happy for Noma Jean. Richard liked it and put a ring on it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Guitar Man

Who draws the crowd and plays so loud, baby it's the guitar man.

Never mind the busker playing the blues; I want you to note the blue sky in this photo taken at about 1 pm in the afternoon near my work in Houghton. In less than 3 hours it wasn't blue any more. A most ferocious summer storm broke over Johannesburg. But I on my Vespa somehow managed to outride the large rain drops as lightning threatened around me.

But the guitar man never seems to notice. He's just got to find another place to play.

Green Red Black

After taking over 2500 photos for a post a day since 1 Jan 2007, it is getting harder to find things fresh to photograph but I will keep trying. Today arriving home with no photograph, I saw this stack of pipes waiting to be placed in the trench coming down from the construction up the road. I wonder what the strange green, red and black markings on the pipes are.

Besame, Besame Mucho

On a hot clear morning, we arrive at The Argentinean, a bakery that could be found in Buenos Aires and is found in Linden. I have heard plenty about the Argentinean's awesome bakery but we arrived for breakfast before an outride on the Vespa. The décor seemed dated with paintings of the Tango and faded photographs. Above the counter is written these words, Besame, besame mucho, como si fuera esta noche la ultima vez. Kiss me; kiss me a lot, as if tonight were the last time, uhmm. The food prices looked reasonable but the amounts served sparse. The only redeeming part of the breakfast was that the croissants light and fresh. Downside of the morning, paying R2 for butter was a little out of place. Maybe they better kiss me goodbye then.

Hanging with Mr Cooper

Arriving home after checking our voting registration details for next year's voting, we were welcomed by Mr Cooper. Now Cooper is the local Boerbul dog on the property. Cooper always welcomes us when we come and go much to the chagrin of my Alfa male Maxy.

Elusive Mozambican Vespa

My friend, Paulo, is searching up and down Mozambique for that elusive Vespa and although he hasn't found one yet, I stumbled upon one in Fourways.

During the week my headlight on my Vespa, Anastatia, stopped working so this morning I took her into Scoots to get the globe replaced. And while the mechanic, George, worked on Anastaia, I noticed this wooden carving in the window of Scoots. Is it the mysterious Mozambican Vespa that Paulo is trying to bring to light?

Jacaranda Avenue

The Jacaranda trees in Johannesburg and Pretoria are in full bloom giving the suburbs a blush purple swathe. Here is a photograph of one of the avenues in Houghton where I work. With the summer afternoon thunderstorms, the purple flowers are knocked to the ground layering the ground like snow, purple snow. Pleasing to the eye.

SD Card

I took some photos this morning and later had to take more photos of one of my bosses' car. I then I go and leave my SD card in my work computer. Go figure stress maybe of the afternoon training. Anyway I arrived home with my camera minus the card. So I had to use my cellphone camera on ... uhmmm ... on of the cats. Here is Lovely taking umbrage to the flash waking her up.

Singed Monkey

A few days ago we had a major thunderstorm which knocked out the power for a few hours. Monkey our youngest cat was as usual so inquisitive with the lanterns that she got a little too close. As you can see in my portrait of Monkey, the whiskers above her left eyebrow are all singed.

Sweatmeats

Diwali started on Sunday, and as usual along with this five day festival of lights is the fireworks. Yes fireworks are a bane of all pet owners. Now I don't have any problem with the Hindu faith and their festivals, and the local law does allow fireworks on religious holidays like Diwali. But please be responsible with these fireworks. Just keep them far away from animals and residential areas.

My pets were locked up safe and secure for the next few days while I enjoy some Diwali sweatmeats brought to work by our bookkeeper, Rajesh. I wish all my Hindu friends a happy Diwali and a prosperous new year.

As for my blog, this is my 2,500 post. May the next 2,500 be even better.

Minecraft

It is Matthew's last day with me and it is his birthday tomorrow. Oh well I had to make the most of today. The day started with BBC and here is Matthew with BBC's Youth Pastor, Chris, playing Minecraft while Matthew was waiting for me to finish my duties. Afterwards Matthew and I headed for Cresta to buy his birthday presents of computer games and the card game Incan Gold, and have a light lunch before heading back home.

Acrobranch

This year for Matthew's birthday party, Matthew decided to have zip lines, tarzan swings and rope bridges as part of his fifteenth birthday celebrations. Here at the Melrose Acrobranch 5 friends got together for some adventure in the trees, from left to right is Ricardo, Brandon, Rudolf, Justin and Matthew pausing for a photo opportunity on a rope bridge before swinging to the next tree.

Jozi Sunset

Sunsets on the Highveld have always been a highlight for me as each one offers a different facet of Jozi. Summer sunsets have always been my favourite as the afternoon thunderstorms have this way of playing with the light.

Driving back from the East Rand towards home, the sun presented another awesome sunset over the Johannesburg skyline, this time without a cloud in sight.