Big Fat Geek Wedding

Yes this is how the big fat geeks get married, a beach style wedding with a beach so near that you could smell the ocean. Necia and Craig tied the knot at St Henry’s Marist Brother’ College overlooking the harbour of Durban.

A group of friends and family witnessed Craig and Necia walk down the path and stand before the marriage officer where they said their vows to each other. Craig said an extra vow to Emma, promising to be a good father to her and husband to her mommy, nice touch. Then it was party time with Mr and Mrs Nicholson. The food was good and then it was dance the night away with good friends. Friends like Gary shown below.

And I will end this series of memories with a photo taken by Anika, shown below in the red dress, of me and Lynda well behind my hat.

Craig’s End is Near

One of my good friends, Craig is getting married tomorrow to Necia and quite a lot of us did the track down to Durban for the wedding. We took a few days leave from work to make a bit of a long weekend out of it. So today we did the slow drive down to Durban.

And then there was the stag night that nearly wasn’t.

Exit the Vulcan. News of the passing of Leonard Nimoy spread like wild fire. Live long and Prosper, that you did Mr Spock, that you did. At 83 Mr Spock was beamed up one last time but will forever live long and prosper in our minds.

But that is not the end for our beloved Mr Spock but it is the end for Craig. The end of life as he knows it. Tomorrow he puts a ring on it. Craig’s last night of freedom was set to happen at 7:30 for 8pm in Umhlanga so I arrived early and killed off a few Ingress portals as one does when one arrives at a location filled with green slime.

Craig’s in game Ingress name is CraigN hence the hash tag of his end is #atcraigsend and the name of this post Craig’s End. In keeping with this theme Craig decided to arrive late for his own end. Rather late than never but I mean after 9pm, well that was pushing the norms. Anyway, we started at The George, a busy pub in Umhlanga with not much space which had many patrons spilling over onto the street sidewalk. Nice atmosphere but crowded and as you can see Jonathan had arraigned to the best traditions of a Batchelor’s Party or Stag Night to dress Craig up appropriately.

Later we meandered over to Hooters, now this is the other disappointment of the evening. The first of Leonard Nimoy and the other was well Hooters. I have never been to a Hooters before and when we first read on the itinerary that we were going to end up at Hooters I had to convince Lynda that Hooters was not a den of iniquity as it is portrayed to be. And how close to the truth it turned out to be which was the big let down. Hooters turned out to be just a clean pub, no food as kitchen was closed, and where I pray was all the eye candy of the make believe waitresses in skimpy tops and tight shorts? At least Lynda, Anika, and Necia would be pleased.

Raining Indoors

Help! It is raining indoors. Yes it is starting to drip from the ceiling of Velie’s office from different places including the ceiling spotlights. Yesterday the air-conditioning people replaced the air-conditioner in the New Media office and where working in the ceiling but not over Velile’s office surely not.

Although Velile phoned maintenance to report this new weather phenomenon, he was concerned so to counter the indoor rain he opened up an umbrella while waiting for a maintenance team to source the leak and start the repairs.

While the weather happening in the office next door, on a side note for all those following the mishaps of my Italian Greyhounds, Maxy and Jade, it is not raining everywhere. Today both got their stitches removed and thank goodness all is looking good, much to the relief of my bank manager.

I Love my Dogs

I love my dogs then why do I have a photo of a cat with this blog title? Well this cat is Minky who is a dog trapped inside a cat’s body just like Maxy my Italian Greyhound is a cat inside a dog’s body. When I come home from work my Italian Greyhounds along this Minky become all excited and rush to greet me. She is not like the other lazy excuses for cats who would care less who comes and goes as long as there is food put down regularly. Oh I can’t say lazy excuses, uhmmmm I suppose that is the nature of a cat, in-different.

They say that you own dogs but a cat owns you and Minky has my heart. Here is she is sprawling on my lap as I try to do work on my tablet. All I can say is that Minky loves me and I love my dogs.

Light Reading

Come on Tuesday I feel better.

Somehow I have managed to get my Online Reputation Marketing Strategy completed but now I have to put it into the Reputation Management presentation with all the bells and whistles. Pop goes the weasel.

Now to get some light reading done in between the stories of mascarpone cake, tipping cows, and waking up and smelling the coffee. What to read first, uhmmm HTML 5, CSS3, Analytics, I know already so it’s the Business Model Generation book.

I’ve got Friday on my mind.

Monday Blues

Dear Monday

I want to break up. I am seeing Tuesday and dreaming about Friday.

Sincerely, it’s not me, it’s you.

Don’t get me wrong I like coming to work but something is weighing heavy on my mind and making me feel all blue, just must be the Monday.

Bring on some chocolate and I’ll soon feel right as rain. Tuesday, bring it on.

The Other Camera

An interesting photographic exhibition, The Other Camera, is now on at the Origins Centre at Wits University, a photographic exploration of street photography from the local community. It is a small exhibit tucked away at the museum that we at first couldn’t find it amongst all the palaeoanthropological treasures on display.

Out of these rarely seen photographers work, two stood out way above the rest for us, and they are Lindeka Qampi and the late Ronald Ngilima. Lynda can be seen enjoying what real street photography is all about as she admires Lindeka Qampi’s work.

Year of the Horned Creature in Detention

With the Chinese horse finally bolted out of the stable, in prances this horned creature or animal. Is it a goat? Is it a sheep? Is it a Ram? Or is it just maybe Pan? Could this be an entire year lost in translation?

Mystified I joined friends in the Old China Town cloaked in the shadow of the notorious John Vorster Square and the dreaded Security Branch of the Apartheid Government’s Police Force, but today we joined in mass to celebrate the coming in of the new Chinese year, the Year of the Horned Creature aka Goat, Sheep, or Ram, with loud bangs and lots of fireworks.

So as the echoes from Chris van Wyk’s poem "In Detention" ran through my mind as blasts of crackers blew up near me under the skies which sparkled against the chocking smoke as the tears of the rain began to fall.

He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself while washing
He slipped from the ninth floor
He hung from the ninth floor
He slipped on the ninth floor while washing
He fell from a piece of soap while slipping
He hung from the ninth floor
He washed from the ninth floor while slipping
He hung from a piece of soap while washing.

All this while ominously looming over China Town. Bang! Bang! Wohoooosh!

Back to the New Year. The Mandarin Chinese character羊 denoting this new year means a horned animal of sorts which covers quite a lot of animals. Sheep are cute but not known to be leaders, more follow the pack. Goats tend to be more on the evil side but very tasty according to traditional culture. Rams on the other hand are more manly, aggressive and sadly alone. Then we have Pan. A wild mischievous mythical creature/god that was half goat half human, ahhh Puck of my Shakespearian youth.

So if you do follow the Chinese calendar, pray tell what year are we entering into? Is it the Year of the tasty Goat? Or are you going to be aggressive and say it is the Year of the Ram? Or are you going to follow the pack and say it is the Year of the Sheep? Or is it the Year of the Pan, full of wild mischievous abandonment?

His Master’s Salon

Never again, never again. Velile and I have this cultural exchange program going on and today Velile announced that we are going to Master’s Salon for a “Cheesekop” and shave. So off we went, two brave little souls to Kagiso for a cultural haircut and shave.

I went first for my “Cheesekop” haircut or as it was advertised on a board behind me as “Chiscop” for R10 and a shave for R5. I was seated by the barber’s apprentice as Master himself was busy with a lady client. Wow wrong move as the apprentice took to my head with the clippers as one would take a steel brush and started scrubbing my scalp over and over again.

I was just praying that when he finished a sensitive area that he wouldn’t go back, but my prayers weren’t answered. At times I was nearly in tears as the apprentice went over and over a now very raw scalp but being a big boy I wasn’t going to give Velile that satisfaction.

One part I remember Velile telling Master that this apprentice is a little heavy handed which the Master then chastised the young man who must then renewed his scrubbing with vigour. Afterwards the apprenticed sprayed spirits onto my now raw scalp and started polishing, eina. That was me over, forget the shave as if it is the same as my poor head then no ways.

So now it was Velile’s turn and I was sure that I would rather enjoy watching Velile’s torture than what I just endured it but sadly I didn’t get to see Velile suffer as he must be so used to this kind scalp torment by now that even even started falling asleep.

So now as my scalp is still on fire and am thinking where can I find a Mediterranean barber close by to show Velile how a shave is supposed to be done, with a cutthroat.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful head of mine will again experience the clippers of the Master's apprentice.

Lammermoor Vets

Once again I found myself at the Lammermoor Veterinary Clinic but this time it was for a good reason. Jade’s bandages were coming off although she was glad the cumbersome bandages where to be removed, this didn’t stop Jade running even after strict instructions by the vet, no jumping, no running. Ooooh noooo do you think Jade listens with those small ears of hers?

Jade like all Italian Greyhounds doesn’t know what slow is, she lives with only two speeds, flat out running and flat out asleep in her bed. You won’t say that she had broken her leg cleanly just over a week ago. Thanks to the expert hands of the vets at Lammermoor Veterinary Clinic, a special thanks to Alex who drove to Brits and did the operation to put the plate in, and not to forget the other vets Gareth, Pam, and Clare who also did their part.

I have been at the clinic so many times in the past weeks with both Jade and Maxy that hopefully the next time I am there is only to get their stitches removed.

When is this going to end?

When is this going to end? February from this day forth is to be known as the Month of the Vet Bills as once again, upon coming home from work, I find one of my dogs has been in the wars. I have exhausted my savings, flattened my Dish Washer Fund, and raided my holiday stash with this insurmountable vet costs.

With vet costs now in their double digits for the last few weeks alone, I didn’t need to find Maxy, my Italian Greyhound with a huge nasty gash on his chest. I had no choice but to rush to the vet. Don’t get me wrong the vets at Lammermoor Veterinary Clinic have been going out of their way to keep my costs down but my dogs have not been playing their part. Once again I am in the dark as to what happened to Maxy but I am starting to suspect the pack of nasty Jack Russel dogs from next door. How on earth am I going to keep my battled wary dogs in one piece and the battle costs down?