Stormy End to 2014

The Year 2014 started on an extreme low for me but gradually climbed out of the mud and into a better space. For a review of my year read my post I wrote on Last Sunday. And now as I look at this stormy late afternoon of the end of 2014 with the crepuscular shards of light breaking the darkness, I just had to stop and marvel on how good my God has been with the light bringing joy to my soul.

So as we end the Year 2014 on a stormy note, I will set forth into the New Year, 2015, with the words of Pope Francis "Today too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others. To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope! For believers, for us Christians, like Abraham, like Saint Joseph, the hope that we bring is set against the horizon of God, which has opened up before us in Christ. It is a hope built on the rock which is God."

The Privy is supposed to be Private

"Well excuse me, little scrap", snarled Tiger, "the privy, as the name suggests, is supposed to be a private affair. This is certainly not a sandbox for you to play in, it is a litter box for us cats to do our do do in. Now stop playing in it this instant!"

As you can see litter box training has become a game to tiny Princess who still has to learn that it is a private affair and not something to do together with the bigger cats.

Вы говорите по-русски?

"Вы говорите по-русски?" queried Saratov the Russkaya Psovaya Borzaya or as we call his breed Borzoi or Russian wolfhound. Maxi’s puzzled look said it all as he met his larger Russian cousin Saratov for the first time. No Maxi can’t speak Russian, only Dog and English. Once Maxi managed to understand the thick Russian and Saratov the silky Italian accent play was on.

Last Sunday

So this is it, the last Sunday of the year 2014 and as I head of to church to give thanks to God for His Grace I reflect back on this year.

This year has been a good year in terms of work, although it was sad leaving National Positions, I was blessed to land up at Bosasa early on in the year. But let me run through the highlights and lowlights. By low I mean very low, rock bottom. The year started off very bad for me with the lost of my beautiful whippet Skye which started me on this journey of recovery. O Siyeza Skye! Soon after this cut like a knife loss, Lynda broke her collar bone and got a metal plate inserted just to mess with the store security at all the clothing stores.

With our hectic schedules, Lynda and I decided to explore the meaning of life by joining an Alpha Course, my 3rd one but for Lynda her first. I am not sure if we managed to get to the bottom of the true meaning of life is all about but we did make awesome new friends such as Bob, Elaine, Eric, Francis, and not to miss Gwen. Then swish, life drifts on and Lynda got herself a new car. No more wet rides on the back of a Vespa for her. And next I knew Matthew was jetting to Thailand.

April was the start of a new chapter in my life, making new friends at Bosasa. After the bumpy start of the year, I was now standing back on my feet but the year was still flying. After pampering Lynda at a spa for her birthday, to meeting my cousin Kristine between her jet set life style. Custom Couches started taking off too while I got the rocket scarlet Vespa followed shortly by a Nespresso Inissia.

Midyear and Bosasa held its Imbizo, Matthew got a new bed, and we got new vinyl designs on our cupboards at work to help bring out our creativity and not get lost in the 1000 bike show with one bright red Vespa, Lynda and I hob knob’d with the posh and culturally astute by going to a concert recital by Zandile Mazazi. Then Merville died!

Merville just had to bring me back down to earth. No I haven’t got an email from Merville from heaven yet but I expect one long one soon as Merville mattered. Winter was a cold one but no snow as summer was soon here.

Matthew did a small internship programme at Bosasa which he loved and BBC started the new construction to expand the church while I spent 67 minutes in juvenile detention while planes started falling out of the skies and the zebras started a killing spree and before we knew it our roof above our heads was stolen.

Matthew’s schooling had a rocky start too but he ended up as one of the leading supporting roles in his school’s drama competition which they won. This I hope was the turnaround for him and I continue to pray for his future. I got new glasses which mean the future is much clearer now. We repainted our offices to bright new colours. Watched Nataniël blow us away and got a whole lot of new staff. We were moving forward while I was moving out. Well out of home that is as the Stoned Cottage was becoming hell because the landlord wanted to make our lives a misery.

My bother Anthony got married, while I had to slow down as thought I was having cardio issues turned out to be my spine so we took some small breaks to Nelspruit and Durban. Our new home is a much quieter place away from the noise and bustle of city life and before we knew it here we are at the end of the year, well just about...

Socks and Princess

"Mee-ow, are you my Mommy?" meow’ed tiny Princess to all that moved. Growl, snarl, and hiss came the answers. Oh no, what was the tiny scrap to do? She was saved from going to the rescue pound but was still way too small to be on her own.

Mommy Socks to the rescue, tadaaaa! Yip, I had to go next door from where the kittens where rescued to fetch mommy, and for now tiny Princess is so deliriously happy to be re-united with her mommy.

Day of Goodwill

After a sweltering Christmas Day which left us praying for some cooling rain, our prayers were answered in the early hours of this morning with a raging thunderstorm that had me nearly declare abandoned ship and take to the life boats. We were hit twice by lightning as it crackled around our home and tripping the mains but we were safe inside our Faraday Cage.

Sometime during this frightful storm I must have fellen asleep only to wake to the sun trying to break into the stormy action of Lá an Dreoilín, so let the hunt of the wren begin. Boxing Day, St Stephen’s Day, Wren’s Day, Day of Goodwill, or whatever you may call today has started with this awesome sunrise under the storm clouds. So whatever you do on this second day of Christmas, crack open the traditional brandy, give the poor their Christmas boxes, put the cricket on the telly, do some discounted shopping, and please rather hunt some wrenboys than foxes on this Day of Goodwill.

Yes goodwill is for foxes too. So for foxes' sake, no more bloody Boxing Days!

Family Hospitality Community

It is Christmas Day, and like I mentioned yesterday Christmas for us is not about a fat man dressed in red and presents for all. No it is all about God becoming man, and we celebrate this day with family, hospitality, and community. It is sad how the world is trying to distort the fact by bringing in myths and untruths about what really happened.

Who cares if the 25 December is not the actual day that Yeshu’a ben Yosef the Messiah or as he is well known today as Jesus Christ, was born. It is significant that he was born and was killed some 30 years later by being nailed to a wooden cross. Although everyone was born and later to die, it is very important to us that Yeshu’a walked out of the tomb alive 3 days later. God with us, the greatest gift of all time.

So in remembrance to our King being born, we dedicate this day to Him by being with family and friends and together remembering God, friends and family who have gone from this world, and just enjoy being in the company of loved ones.

Today all my friends and family were far away, but that didn’t stop Matthew and I to hold our own remembrance. Thankfully Anthony and his wife Hellene, plans changed so they too managed to join us for the day. As you can see above, Anthony is checking on the braai while we relax on the veranda.

So we wish you a God and family filled Christmas Day.

Soweto Gospel Choir

Twas the night before Christmas, over 2000 years ago the Messiah, saviour of the world, was born unto a virgin. Although we don’t know the exact day when this life changing event happened, tomorrow is the day we give thanks to God for sending us his Son, Jesus. So today along with the Soweto Gospel Choir we celebrated and give God all the glory, Gloria in excelsis Deo, Glory to God in the highest.

So over 2000 years ago, a carpenter called Yosef, realising that his fiancée Miryam or as we know them nowadays as Joseph and Mary, was in serious trouble so he took her with him to Bethlehem as he was required to be there for the Roman Census. Yes she was heavily pregnant yet they were not married yet which means the looks and gossip amongst the neighbours must have cut to the bone. Yosef was not required to take Miryam with him to be counted in the census but to protect the love of his life, he took Miryam with him out of their village until the baby could be born and emotions simmer down.

They arrived at Yosef’s home town Bethlehem and went to the home of relatives as it was his home town where most of Yosef’s family stayed. But because of the census, a lot of the family had arrived so sleeping space was minimal. So they chose a place down stairs where the animals were kept safely and warm. Here Miryam and the wise women folk of Yosef’s family prepared for the birth of the new addition to their family in private out of the way of the men who were catching up on news as one does when there is no internet and you haven’t seen each other in months if not years.

Yes this story is most likely not quite like you thought it would be. No Father Christmas, no Christmas trees and egg nog, no presents, and certainly what mother would allow cows to lick a new born baby. The culture in the time of Yeshu'a ben Yosef was all about family, hospitality, and community because things were tough under the Roman iron shod feet but God was good and is the same today. So the King of the world was born into the hands of a skilled midwife into a home filled with laughter and community which makes it the more authentic. God with us, the greatest gift of all time.

And as the Soweto Gospel Choir leads us, glory to God in the Highest, gloria in excelsis Deo.

Three Little Kittens

Three little kittens, they are lost without a home and they began to cry mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow. Oh, dear, a home was found for Kitty, and Princess is going to make our 11 a 12 while their sister Shadow now has to go to a rescue. Here is Noma holding Kitty and Shadow while tiny Princess holds onto her shoulder all tight hoping to be taken to a forever home.

One little kitten, lost without a home and she begin to cry mee-ow.

Please Note: These kittens are not ours, they are rescues and although we can’t keep them, we did managed to keep the smallest one, Princess. Although they still very small we managed to find a home for Kitty while I sadly took Shadow to Friends of Rescued Animals aka FORA. They are very full and also don't have room for another cat but they are a safe haven for dogs and cats and would never turn Shadow away.

FORA's mission is to shelter unwanted, abandoned and ill treated dogs and cats, emphasising on a quality pain free life. The animals are temporarily housed at FORA in Krugersdorp, North West of Johannesburg while the good people there endeavour to find them a new permanent home.

While there at FORA, I sadly notice many greyhounds. These greyhounds were rescued out of a life of hunting and been chained up in shanty towns when not hunting.

Goosey Ganders

I arrived at work this morning just before eight to find all our offices still locked up only to find out that the caretaker Andrew who usually opens up our offices before six in the morning is on summer leave. So I spent about an hour sitting on a stone bench next to one of the duck ponds in the beautiful gardens surrounding our offices. That was until the sprinklers was turned on and I ambled back to my office to find Richard, a stand in caretaker opening up.

While sitting in the tranquil gardens, the normally aggressive Hawaiian Geese couple decided to investigate to see if I had any food for them followed closely by the Bar-headed Geese couple while the beautiful coloured ducks kept their distance.

Goosey goosey ganders swam over only to find the food was none and all the little ducks went quack, quack, quack.

Catching the Sun

When the first rays of sun peep over the horizon, our Italian Greyhounds love to soak up all the warmth they can get. The night is like Kryptonite to them and the sun recharges all their super powers. Here is our two naughty children Maxy and Minky recharging themselves by catching the first rays of the sun from the veranda.

Tyre Replacement

Before going on any long trip with your vehicle, you would need to do a thorough safety check. Frome Brakes to windscreen wipers all need to be checked. Here is Lynda’s car spending the morning at Tiger Wheel and Tyre, getting a new set of front tyres on and wheel alignment adjusted.

Distinguished Gentleman

With all the mad rush of Christmas shopping, something caught my eye. It was a panama hat which I had to try on, just had to. Lynda was amazed how it changed my look and she promptly bought it for me for Christmas. The best part is that I get to wear it now. Interesting how just a small accessory can change a look entirely. Now excuse me as I try on my panama and change into a distinguished gentleman or is that a serious look?

Hunger Buster

Ella and I took a drive down to President Hyper in Krugersdorp because our canteen is closed for the holidays and we were hunger. Well not this hungry as I discovered the Hunger Buster selling for R49.99. There is no ways I can finish this that is if I would be crazy enough to buy one. This begs the question, would anyone buy this cold meat roll called a Hunger Buster?

Ruffling some Feathers

Do you remember those baby peafowl that I posted on Monday, well today this Crowned Crane had them cornered. He had intimidated the mother peahen and was busy trying to eat the baby chicks but they had scattered into the undergrowth. We heard the commotion of the mother peahen crying in desperation as the bigger and much stronger crane tried to flush out one of the baby chicks. That was when we stepped in and herded the crane away but he was determined to make a meal out of one of the babies. So while Matthew and I ran interference, Rob managed to herd the defenceless mother and her chicks to safety.

Incoming Attack

The swan couple at work laid seven eggs but only five hatched. And out of the five hatchlings these swan parents have only two cygnets. I am not sure what happened to the other three cygnets but you can understand why I am now under attack, I got too close. You can just see the two cygnets behind mommy swan as the daddy swan is incoming while I bravely hold my ground.

Pea Chicks

Well keeping on the topic of babies everywhere, one of the peahen’s eggs hatched on Friday. So this morning mother peahen paraded her five small chicks passed my office window. Now I remembering the awful noise the peacocks made wooing the peahens, am very worried as all I can think of is how much more noise there will be come this mating season. But then all the ladies still in the office went ahhhhhh cute, as one does when seeing babies. Sigh!

Four Ducklings

We are into the beginning of summer and babies are popping up everywhere. From the cats bringing in baby chicks from their raids to these four little ducklings feeding in the stream. They are quite well camouflaged amongst the small rocks, one is at the bottom middle while the other three are at the top middle busy bobbing for food. After the hype and busyness of Ingress yesterday, we weren’t sure of what to do. Well Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest né. With thoughts of babies everywhere how can anyone rest? Even yesterday there was quite a few prams at the Darsana XM Anomaly. It must have been a busy productive spring.

Darsana Pretoria

Last night it was like quiet before the storm, I mean I quietly prepared all our equipment, checked, and then double checked our stock levels. We were ready!

Pretoria was selected as a satellite site for Darsana XM Anomaly in support of the primary site at Barcelona Spain. I can’t speak for the Enlightened but the Resistance has been eagerly preparing for weeks now. Getting stock levels up, training in teams, and putting out disinformation to try getting the Enlightened off balance and not focused. And it seemed to work.

The Enlightened only managed to field 56 what could now be called brave little green frogs against the Resistance who said enough is enough as 106 highly trained blue Smurfs stood up. As I can only speak for our team Northern Ninjas, along with all the other Resistance teams we simply stopped the frogs mid hop.

For Cluster 1, Dispatch sent our team with about 3 others down to the two sub-clusters far from the main sub-clusters where we found only 1 frog team in place. A huge green field appeared covering the entire area with anchors 1000s of km away, too far send anyone to take out. But this just made us more determined as now we could not let a single portal fall. Two volatile portals appeared in the two sub-clusters we were at and the frogs simply found them out smarted, out played, and out matched.

Next it was off to Cluster 2 were our team got to our sub-cluster early. Soon afterwards 2 frogs appeared followed by the rest of our teams to the remaining sub-clusters. The volatile portal appeared in the sub-cluster right next to ours. It looked like the Enlightened’s game plan changed as suddenly re-enforcements arrived at the volatile in mass. So 2 of our team stayed at our allocated portals while the rest shifted slightly over to protect the volatile. Evenly matched over this disputed portal we out played the frogs once again with strategy.

I wasn’t sure that the Enlightened would take any of these defeats lying down as the Northern Ninjas arrived to look after a single portal tucked out the way in Cluster 3. Once again we found the volatile located in our section. This time we were outnumbered by 1 frog, and these weren’t any tadpoles, these were the heavy hitters. It was a hard battle but the tide turned suddenly when 2 frogs decided they had enough and left. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen as we are going to be barbequing some frog’s legs tonight.

After that tough win we headed for Cluster 4 which we knew it would be difficult as most of the portals were close to each other. As before the volatile appeared in our sub-cluster but under another Resistance teams area but because the portals were so close we couldn’t help but put our weight into the volatile denying the frogs anything.

In the end we just did not give the Enlightened any space to breathe. Final score for Darsana Pretoria is Resistance 212 and Enlightened 12.6 Whitewash, no sorry bluewash. We left all these green frogs blue with envy.

Final score:
Barcelona Resistance 910 Enlightened 786
Stuttgart Resistance 457 Enlightened 293
Pretoria Resistance 212 Enlightened 12.6 (Note the frogs only got 12)
Toulouse Resistance 142 Enlightened 145

Cookies Rush

Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies. Yip Friday and for many at work, this is their last day before they on summer leave. Myself well I am trying to save leave for the Easter holidays where I would like to take a lovely ling break. Being the last day for many means last minute rush that needs completion, a VIP visit, and a Giving Thanks service all crammed into a few short hours. Thankfully Ilana brought some cookies in, which somehow filled the spot when there was no time for lunch.

The Sunflower Fund

As we approach the second Christmas that God has granted Nika since she was first diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, I sat and folded the Sunfower Fund’s bandanna for tomorrow’s Giving Thanks Day at Bosasa. My thoughts were on Nika who this Christmas is doing exceptionally well compared to last year February when she was diagnosed with this life threating blood disorder.

Nika’s options to live were very slim in South Africa, thankfully her parents managed to get her booked into the Toronto Children’s Hospital and she was flown over as soon as she was stable. The Northern American Bone Marrow Register is so much larger than the South African one which increased her chance of finding a bone marrow match.

Last year for Nika had been an up and down in the hands of God and the talented staff of the Toronto Children’s Hospital type of year. This year she slowly improved and now Nika is nearly normal little girl who has been though a lot.

So now we get to Nika’s blessed second Christmas since her journey with Aplastic Anemia started, I plead you to help get our South African Bone Marrow Registry bigger. Many South African children need you to register so there might be a slim chance that they would have many more Christmases too. If you are committed to helping; are between the ages of 18 and 45; in general good health; over 50kg with a Body Mass Index higher than 35; and prepared to remain on the register until you are 60 years of age then please why are you waiting?

1. Call 0800 12 10 82 or 0210661
2. Answer medical questions and if you are eligible then
3. You will be directed to your nearest recruitment clinic
4. Two vials of blood will be drawn
5. Blood would be tested and results put on the register
6. The South African Bone Marrow Registry will post you your card in 6-8 weeks

That simple. Oops I forgot that the Postal Services are still on strike. Oh well don’t let that stop you.

Please note, small print time, to narrow any complications with the bone marrow the South African Bone Marrow Registry asks that if you not register if you think need an HIV test; have been exposed to hepatitis or HIV by contact with family or work; have injected yourself even once with illegal or non-prescription drugs; lead an unsafe sexual lifestyle; get regular tattoos or piercings; are pregnant or have had a baby in the last year; have had cancer; and have a phobia for needles.

They say finding a match is 1:100,000 in South Africa so please pick up the phone 0800 12 10 82.

At first I thought that if they find me as a match to someone I would have to go through operations but the Sunflower Fund has told me that it is a process of 4 to 6 hours which they draw blood from your arm into a cell separator machine which extracts your bone marrow from your blood and returned back into you. Plus it is at no charge to you as all costs are picked up through donations. So no skin off your nose. Get registered and help save a life!

That is all I have to say other than to continue folding hundreds of the Sunflower Fund’s bandanna with Mkuseli, Ilana, Mpho, and Noma.

LSD I Must Be Tripping

This evening, Lynda and I had a meeting with our Ingress team, the Northern Ninjas at LSD Information Technology’s offices. As LSD’s slogan is Open Your World, walking into these top Linux developers’ play area opened my eyes or else I was tripping on something. I mean what is this blow up doll dressed up as some Christmas Grinch sitting in the walkway to the boardroom? It was enough to scare the Enlightened out of me, if I swung that way but we all were proudly Resistance geeks. It looks like the penguins from LSD have on display as a trophy, one of the enlightened grinches who didn’t try to turn it off and on again before calling IT Support.

Feathers Flock Together

I have a pheasant and a guineafowl feather that have been sitting on my desk for some time know. It is meant for my collection of feathers at home but somehow these two just don’t make it. So today as a reminder to take them home they became the featured blog photograph. Although worlds apart, one from south-east Asia and the other sub-saharan Africa, to me they sort of blend in and meant to be together. One feather in the cap, and one feather to tickle.

Monkey's Happy Place

It has been getting rather busy at work with the end of the year approaching fast. Nando Möller arrived at work with some of his paintings. He mostly paints in black and white with hints of colour. This one caught my eye, Nando called it his Happy Place, interesting. Now let me think, in a black and white world, music is colour to my ears.

The Silver Birch Restaurant

I say Continental, you say Conintenental!

With all the load shedding of electricity what can you do? Stay at home, go out, but don’t try travel in traffic as all the light are out. I mean literary Eskom has let us down once again, they have dropped the ball. I mean what did South Africa use before candles? Electricity.

So we went out and found a spot that was between load shedding. Oh we can’t give Eskom credit for load shedding as it is just bad planning and management on their part, period. So we had a late Sunday lunch at The Silver Birch Restaurant inside Life Style Garden Centre. We ordered something light as one does when not knowing when Eskom would be ugly and turn off the lights. What caught our attention on their newly made menus was the spelling mistakes. Oh my word didn’t anyone spell check?

Ingress First Saturday

Well today is the first Ingress "First Saturday" event to be held in Gauteng. 48 cities were chosen worldwide and luckily Johannesburg was selected as one of them. It was a good turn out but sadly it was 31 Enlightened against 26 Resistance. We, the Resistance, put up a gallant fight until the so called enlightened Nick threw a green slime field over the entire playing field. Oh well we nearly won overall but won the coveted floating trophy. Well done to Nam3berry, you have done the Resistance proud.

Is this what we can expect from Darsana next Saturday?

Tiger in the Bathroom

Well our cat population decreased by one soon after we moved here and today we added another kitty to the total. Tiger shown above was rescued after it was involved on the losing end when a families dogs set upon him twice in two months. The first time he was hospitalised and this time enough was enough and we rescued him from the traumatic home situation he was in.

So here is Tiger hiding in our bathroom. He has been a single cat in a family with young children and dogs. He is very friendly to us humans but doesn’t know what to make of our other cats. Oh well time will heal him of his scars and soon, hopefully soon he will be playing with the others.

Bug Screen Splat

After work last night, I had to do the 2 hour ride across Gauteng from Krugersdorp to Benoni. The weather was good so my first choice was my Vespa GTS300ie. The ride was great but then the return trip late in the evening was another issue altogether.

All I can say is thank goodness for the Vespa’s large bug screen. Along the country roads the lights from the vehicles attracted all sorts of flying insects and when I came cruising along all I could hear was the splatting of insects like rain hitting my bug screen. Now for the clean-up. If I remember correctly, I once heard about somebody who studies windscreens splatter and can identify what type of insects by the splat remains.

Sunrise Cat

Just like our Italian Greyhounds, Minky our cat loves to soak up the early rays of the sun, drawing strength after a long dark night.

Waking up this morning to the curtains being thrown open and the first rays of the sun peeping over the horizon, Minky was there to wish me a good morning. The best part was the cup of coffee next to my bed as I sipped with eyes glued shut with sleep dust and a purring putty tat grooming me awake.

All I can say, today is going to be a long day.

Secret Sandra

Oh trying to keep a secret are we Sandra? We all know it is your birthday and what a surprise you got when the entire office got to know about it and walked up to your desk singing Happy Birthday. Now the whole wide world is going to know that today is your secret 31st birthday. Now I am starting to wonder what other secrets you are hiding.

Princess of Sheba

Walking through the gardens of Mogale Business Park during lunch time, keeping well clear of the swan pair and their cygnets, I was surprised to stumble upon the three female Nyala. The Nyala weren’t the surprise but the fawn that was with them. I wonder how I missed this little one before.

Oh yes, now I remember, as in the wild Nyala are bashful creatures and these kept to themselves hidden in the vegetation. Sorry but this is the best I could get of the Princess of Sheba with my point and shoot camera which is at most times carried with me where ever I go. You can see the three concerned mommies in the shadow behind baby.

Princess Sheba as I am now calling her is beautiful was inquisitive, and seemed torn between following the three females into the undergrowth and this animal called a human. I wish I could have stayed longer with them but I didn’t want to spook them any further.