Maxy, the Brave Italian Greyhound

At the end of a long stressful day, Lynda and I sat in the garden enjoying the last rays of the winter sun while Maxy, one of my Italian Greyhounds kept a lookout for any of Africa's widest beasts. We live very close to the Lion Park and frequently the primal roars of the lions shatters the still air.

I often wonder what goes through Maxy's mind when he hears the Lions but he is a brave little soul and would not hesitate to keep his pack safe.

The Scarlet Vespa

In the last two months Anastasiya, previously known as Sophia, has being performing a sterling job carrying to work and back from the Lion Park to Krugersdorp up that rather steep hill from Silverstar to Paardekraal. Although she wasn't struggling up the steep mountain cutting she would hold her speed at 60km/h and could do with more power, hence Scarlet.

I heard via the grapevine that Karen, a friend, was looking to sell her red Vespa 300ie GTS Super called Scarlet. Now I always wanted a Vespa 300 so I approached the bank and today Scarlet moved in next to Anastasiya as her stable mate.

I did a test to see how Scarlet would perform up that steep hill. From a standing start at Silverstar, Scarlet took off like a bat out of hell and within 50 metres uphill she had reached 80km/h. From here she slowly increased her speed to 100km/h by the time we reached the top. I must say not too shabby compared to the 60km/h of Anastasiya.

Majestic Swans

At first light this morning, I walked around Mogale Business Park on an assignment to take photographs of the wide range of wildlife here. Sitting down next to one of the ponds, a pair of majestic swans swam over to investigate, I suppose hoping for some food.

It is tranquil just sitting here with the only people about are the grounds men preparing the estate before the office workers arrive. While enjoying my lush surroundings I dared to think of all those poor people sitting in the traffic on their way to work. Thankfully it was only a fleeting thought, as I realised that I am in my office.

Gillis Hannibal

I am not quite done photographing everyone in the eKayaMedia office, as there are still a handful in the Signage Department that I haven't got to. Now Gillis heads up the A Team or that is what the Signage call themselves. Shall we call Gillis, Hannibal the leader of the motley crew of the A Team. Well it better not be the cannibal Hannibal.

For the A Team there is no Plan B, and they love it when a plan comes together. Every time I see them, they are scurrying around like busy bees making things just happen and Gillis makes it all fall into place. Crazy fool don't let Gillis' smile mislead you, when you want an unpleasant job to be done, the A Team is just the team for you. No questions asked. Now I am starting to wonder who BA Baracus, Face, or even crazy Murdock is in the team.

Holding Up the Sun

Continuing with the theme of photographing the awesome team here at eKayaMedia, the Brand and Marketing arm of Bosasa Operations, I present to you the Brand Coordinator, Johan, who works with the other Brand Coordinator Geoffrey.

Johan’s office is on the northern side of the building which gets all the winter sun. This morning the temperature started at 0°C and but this afternoon when I took this photograph it was 22°C. It is a lovely winter’s day here in Johannesburg and Johan can try with all his might to keep the sun out of his face when I am trying to take a photo of him.

Tortoise Wars

I am starting to enjoy Mondays, maybe because my job doesn't suck. Gone are my dreaded slow Mondays.

Talking about slow Mondays, I came across this old fella in the lovely gardens at my office. I am not sure what type of tortoise s/he is but the poor thing looks like it has been through the wars.

Russians Dogs and Coke

I was told all about this President Hyper in Krugersdorp now that I am working this side of town. We decided to test all what we have been hearing about this supermarket in the west.

So arriving at noon, we found the place busy but not over crowded. One of the first things that caught my eye was this pre-packed meal of two Russian dogs and Coke. Not my cup of tea but a sure sign that we were way out of our depth culture wise. Welcome to the West Rand.

Another interesting find was that we saw this long queue at the delicatessen. After investigating we found that the servers was dishing up Sunday lunch of three vegetables, two meats and a salad of the customer’s choice. The unbelievable part was that the food was dished up onto ceramic plates, and then wrapped in glad-wrap all at a good price. I was wondering where did they sit and eat the Sunday lunch but this was for taking home. Well when in Rome, do what the Romans do, so we bought two plates for our lunch. Way too much food but good old fashioned Sunday roast which we enjoyed later at home.

We went in for a few items but came out with a trolley load. Over all the experience was a bit daunting as we were not used to the product placement and layout of the store but the aisles were wide, the prices very affordable, the selections wide, the service helpful, and we enjoyed ourselves well except for the fact that we couldn't use the Pick n Pay Shopper and the Vitality loyalty cards.

Jamaal

With Custom Couches working flat out to get 30 custom made tub chairs finished for a restaurant in Kenya, the Custom Couches Team worked flat out for the last five days and they managed to produce an exceptional product on time.

Here is a relieved Jamaal finishing off the final chair and now his weekend can begin and if he has time he'll get some sleep.

Imbizo

This evening was the second all night prayer evening held at Mogale Business Park since I arrived at Bosasa. After the first one I battled to recover the next day so the plan for tonight’s one is to leave just as my carriage turned into a pumpkin.

I must say for the record that I really enjoyed it this time round. Maybe it was because of the plan not to stay till 5 the next morning, maybe it was the different music, maybe...

Jerome with Mohammed

It has been a long time since I saw Jim and Estelle from DDS, and Mohammed who is better known simply as Mo. This afternoon I was invited by DDS to the launch of the new CorelDraw X7 product and Mo was one of the guest speakers. I first met Jim and his then partner Ivan during the Macromedia days of user groups. Mo who used to be with Adobe back in the days also frequented the Macromedia User group as a guest speaker.

After a great lunch and catching up with Jim and Estelle at The Forum, we proceeded to watch the launch presentation of CorelDraw with a laryngitis sounding Mo giving the dive into all the new features.

Maybe I should where a hat with all that spotlight glare off my dome.

Feeling Groovy Kabelo

It is a bummer Kabelo can't wear all his psychedelic clothing to go with his Apple work station. Here is cool daddy Kabelo, the assistant to Des in the upstairs studio loft. Yes as you can see he is one gnarly dude!

Zebras in Pyjamas

Somehow I feel that it is becoming a zoo where I am working as now I am starting to see zebras. I have only seen 2 so far, so I will name them Jim and Jam for the alternative word for pyjamas, jimjams or jammies.

A few months back with all the rain, I would have been very concerned with the sudden appearance of two zebras outside my office. I would have looked around for some crazy old man building a rather large boat.

Now this reminds me of the story about a zebra who had lived her entire life in a zoo and was getting on a bit so the zoo keeper decided as a treat that she could spend her final years in bliss on a farm.

Arriving at the farm, the excited zebra got out of the horse trailer to see this huge space with a green grass hill in the background, trees and all these strange animals. She saw a big fat weird looking brown thingy and ran up to it all excited, "Hi! I'm a zebra, what are you?" "I'm a cow" said the cow. "Righty then and what do you do?" asked the zebra. "I make milk for the farmer" said the cow. "Cool beans." The zebra then saw this funny looking little white thingy and ran over to it. "Hi, I'm a zebra, what are you?" "I'm a chicken," replied the chicken. "Oh, right, what do you do?" asked the zebra. "I make eggs for the farmer." replied the chicken. "Righty, great, see y’all round." Then the zebra saw this very tall handsome beast that looked almost exactly like her without the stripes. She trotted over to it and said, "Hi, I'm a zebra, what are you?" "I am a Stallion," puffed the stallion. "Wow," said the zebra. "What do you do?" "Take off your pyjamas darling, and I'll show you."

Wardrobe Malfunction

I am starting to wonder if there really is a colour blocking style or just another word for, uhmmm, how do I put it gently, a wardrobe malfunction. Here is colour blocking Bongani doing what he does best, a Monday colour meltdown. I raise you Bongani.

Elaine at BBC

Wow, what happen to this weekend? Soon I have to take Matthew back east, soon I have to find that missing cat, Bibi. But for now time to reflect on God. Oh hello, Elaine, we made quite a few new friends at Alpha and being an usher at BBC I bet to see most of them regularly.

Heavenly Squishy Face

No it is no duck face but Matthew’s interpretation of a squishy face. It is good to have Matthew again after three weeks, yip three weeks too long.

And we had a busy day. First it was off Ingressing on our way to Northgate to get Matthew’s Discovery Vitality card so that he can see free movies at Ster-Kinekor up to the age of 18. But Ster-Kinekor’s system was off line so he had to go to the mall in Fourways. Afterwards we played some more on Ingess.

In the evening, we went and saw the movie Heaven is for Real. I wasn’t sure what to expect for this movie but I was looking forward to it. I must say that they tried to please everyone and I would have like to have seen God’s message of Grace and Redemption shining through but sadly it didn't. Well, I suppose that if it did the disciples of Richard Dawkins would be their usual militant selves.

What I did like was that real feelings of the pastor Todd, yes I do know what it is like to get angry at God. True human emotions came through with Heaven is for Real. How would I have felt if it was my son that visited Heaven? Would I believe him? Would you?

Go watch the movie and make your own mind up if he went to Heaven

Friday Ducks

Friday is for the ducks. I have so much work but the week now seems so short. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the weekend breaks but on this Friday l have to go home sort out the Bosch repair man, then travel 2 hours in rush hour traffic to the east rand then another 2 hours back in the dark. All to be repeated on Sunday, that is the 4 hours on the road.

Anyway, I am not sure what ducks these are on a pond in our office park but they sure look tasty.

Tigress Mpho

Wow, but these descriptive names for my colleagues are coming in thick and furious. We have Gustav, Gigolo, Smiles, and now Tigress for Mpho. A graphic designer, Mpho is based in the Design Team, which is in the other wing of our offices here in Bosasa.
Here is Mpho, displaying her talons for the surprised appearance of my camera. I kind of like these candid shots, more character.

Joyful Nombeko

After a while, when working in the same place, you run out of subjects to photograph. Take for example my previous job at National Positions after a month you have photographed everyone at the office and have nothing new to photograph. It comes time of thinking out of the box of creative ways to re photograph your work colleagues.

Here at Bosasa, I haven't even scratched the surface of all the wonderful subjects. Take Nombeko here, who works at Bosasa IFM in the Procurement Department, her joyful face is seen often here in our offices as her BFF or bestie is Paballo who works in New Media.

Smiles are always welcome here in our offices, always.

Gigolo Xolani

Xolani, the signage assistant from our Signage section of eKayaMedia, Bosasa’s Design House. The reason I call him gigolo is that he is nearly always over on our side of the office, chatting up the ladies like there is no tomorrow. Eish, I must have caught Gigolo Xolani with his thinking hat on.

Now all the single ladies put your hands on up. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Geoffrey

Readers, I give you Geoffrey, our Brand Coordinator, aka Geoff or as his son Alex who loves him very "mush" calls him, the Best Dad ever!

Geoff's office is on the other wing of eKayaMedia or the Design House of Bosasa. Where I am looking after the digital, Geoff looks after all things print. Two sides of the same coin.

Lynda's Day

Mother's Day is a day set aside to celebrate mothers all over the world. After phoning my mommy, Lynda and I met her children for breakfast at Picolinos in Fourways.

Lynda really enjoyed spending time with Robynne, Dael, and Bradley as it is becoming increasing difficult to get them all together in one place for a meal.

Mothers are like buttons. They hold everything together. Happy Mother's Day

Kings Hire Fail

Well today was supposed to be an enjoyable day at the annual airshow held at the Swartkops SAAF Museum but the SAAF and Kings Hire sure let them down.

The weather turned out perfect but the usual lack of government budget, only a single Saab Gripen and the Silver Falcons from the South African Airforce flew. The rest of the flying displays was from the historic museum aircraft and the ones in private hands.

Shown above is an Aerostar Yak 52 and an Antonov An-2 sitting on the tarmac. Now I enjoyed going to airshows but this one didn't move me at all. Yes it was good to see all the old flying machines but so sad that our proud airforce hasn't got the money to fly any more. I remember from a few years back that this was an airshow worth coming to and of course all the money went to supporting the museum.

And the cherry on top of it all so to speak was that of Kings Hire, which supplied all the toilet facilities but neglected to supply running water to allow users to be able to wash their hands. Disgusting and put me totally off. Big fail.

So in the air enthusiast circles, there is talk that the world’s second oldest airforce is now just an expensive limousine service for the elite ruling party cronies and can no more serve the beloved country. Well I still have hope but not much from what I experienced today. All we can do is to wait and see if the big airshow in September will be an improvement. Don't hold your breath.

Jane without her Tarzans

Woza Friday, Woza Weekend, is all I can say about today. Yes it is Friday once again and here is Jane cleaning our offices at Bosasa. You know what is like for there to be only to be Tarzans in the office because all the ladies have taken leave. Well Jane is making sure that it remains clean and that we behave.

Back to PRASA

Going back to Metrorail, Park Station, and PRASA was like going down memory lane. I had arranged a meeting with Leon, my old team-mate from MIS, and also to make contact with N from PRASA Cres who along with me are the only two people who know the location of the secret passage joining the Blue Room and the platforms of Park Station.

This passage was sealed up in the late 1950s and remained a time vault since then. I last took a small group of the Joburg Photowalkers down there in 2010 and now another small group of the Photowalkers wants to go down, hence my visit back to PRASA.

Arriving at Umjantsi House, I bumped into more old colleagues from my PRASA ICT days, here is Helen and Thoko.

Zam-Buk, Winter is Coming

I know today is South Africa’s 5th National Elections and we are voting for change from the corruption but deep down in our hearts we know, that no matter how we vote, corruption will always win the day. Cynical? Maybe but the signs are here that winter is coming.

Our best bet to keep the winter out is Zam-Buk and signs are abound that winter is coming with warmer clothing in the stores to this bowl of 7 gram tins of Zam-buk from the cherry flavour to the real makoya.

Velile and the Beloved Country

In the office next to mine sits my work colleague, Velile, who is the Senor National Content Coordinator here at the Bosasa group of companies. Velile is slightly older than me, by slightly I mean only a few months, but we lived worlds apart as he grew up on the other side of the Apartheid railroad, so to speak.

Sitting down and getting to know him, we could have been friends in a life time before, as both our hearts ache for the plight of people, if it wasn't for the fact that he grew up in Soweto during the Troubles whereas I grew up protected from all what was happening while our country burned. In our late teens, I was sent to the Army to protect the people from the Rooi Gevaar, or the Communist Threat, were I eventually ended up on the border. All the while majority of the people including Velile struggled against the police and Army in the township.

After twenty years of democracy, we are both going to vote tomorrow in the 5th General Elections, most likely differently, nonetheless we will still be friends. So whatever your colours are, blue, red, yellow, or even green, Velile and I, both pray for a safe, peaceful, and corruption free day tomorrow.

South Africa, the Beloved Country.

Cygnes dans l'amour

On Friday it was the peafowls, Monday it is the swans turn, I mean you could swear it was Spring with all the amour going on around me. Cygnes dans l'amour.

This is the last of the short weeks for a while now, so I better make most of it.

Far West Rand Resistance

Lynda and I headed for Randfontein, to do some Ingress farming as there are some nice level 7 portals there which needed my level 8 resonators. Before I continue Ingress is a game I play which is in between geo-caching and capture the flag.

We stopped for lunch at Uncle Harry's Roadhouse as they do a reasonable priced Sunday roast with vegetables. It was only later did we find out that the local Resistance in the area were also having lunch there and it turned out to be a lovely meetup. From left to right is Storm, Ona, Errol, Clarisa, and Gert. I hope that I got it all correct.

Kristine - Fire on Water

What do I mean with my heading Kristine – Fire on Water? Take a look at the tongues of flames in the glass of water that Kristine is holding. Interesting and at the same time curious to find out what was in that water.

I haven't seen Kristine, my cousin, for many years, it could be over a decade and a half, wow. I was all excited to hear that Kristine had a stopover in Johannesburg before flying out again so we arranged to meet up for dinner at Tashas since she was staying over at the Fire & Ice Hotel in Melrose Arch.

It was an awesome evening of catch up over dinner, maybe we should get the other cousins involved. Just for the record, it was only after I took the photograph did I see the Fire inside the glass of water, it must be a kind of magic.Or maybe that is the candle on the table.

Peacock without a Mate

Now there are plenty of exotic birds at Mogale Business Park, where my offices are situated, the exotic feathered kind of birds. At first I thought that this peacock was displaying all his feathers at his reflection on the tinted sliding doors which I was standing behind. It was only later that I spotted the grey dull but all business looking peahen.

Wow, what a guy has to do to impress the girls. But then again, who cares other than it is Friday so soon.

The Stormtrooper and his Ride

It is Workers Day and my fellow photowalker, Mark's birthday so mark decided to have a Toy Photowalk to Santarama Miniland in the south of Joburg. Now from my fond childhood memories of the Miniland in Durban, I was looking forward to this photowalk.

Maybe I was expecting too much, maybe I have become too complacent with the New South Africa that I felt a great disturbance in the Force when I walked into Santarama Miniland. My fellow photowalker Gail, said that a few years back it was much worse than today that she only managed to stay for 15 minutes. If this is an improvement then I don’t know what to say. This is just too much for me to bear.

Speechless, I am!

Back to the Toy Photowalk, I brought along my Lego Stormtrooper along with his trusty ride, a red Vespa P200E. At least he enjoyed riding through the ruins of the buildings of the Santarama Miniland. It brought back memories of his battles in some far away city on some far away planet as a million ghosts suddenly cried out in terror in this mini town as the Stormtooper step off his Vespa.

I fear something terrible has happened to Santarama Minitown.