Water on Tap

Minky loves drinking water out of the tap (for some of my readers, we call a faucet a tap here in South Africa). At first it was quite novel but not when everytime you want to brush your teeth, wash your face, or shave, Minky is up on the basin nearly everytime with you trying your best to share the running tap with her.

Now Princess is getting on the act, so much so that a drinking fountain was added to a purchase wish list, that was until today when Lynda decided enough is enough as two cats at the same time on the basin while she was trying to brush her teeth. So she bought a Petsafe 1.5l Drinkwell for the cats. Now since they don’t want to drink like normal cats out of the water bowl, we have to get them to rather drink here in the cat fountain then trying to share the basin with us.

The Ghost

Up wild steps and into the darkened Groot Marico Inligtingsentrum Lynda and I hesitantly entered. “Hallo, hallo”, I called in a high pitch hopefully unthreatening ladies voice into the Information Centre, and for some reason I had to go add, “nommer asseblief”.

Why I had to ask for someone’s number in Afrikaans in the same way telephone exchange operators answered the phone in order to reroute the call in the area, is beyond even me. I don’t know why but no sooner as those words rolled unchecked off my lips came a gruff voice out of the gloomy darkness, “what do you want?” as what seems at first to us the ghost of Oom Schalk Lourens as he shuffled into the dull light coming through from outside.

It didn’t occur to us at the time that the ghost spoke English nor the fact that the ghost was a real live person albeit looking close to death in the low light. Egbert must have seen us jump out of our skins and with Lynda halfway out the door already, his tone changed to a more soft enquiring voice “how can I help you?” And then I had to put my foot once again in my mouth as I sheepishly answered Egbert, “I thought someone had died in here”, well we nearly did.

Well 9:30 in the morning must have being a little early for visitors to the Groot Marico Inligtingsentrum as Egberg shuffled off to put on some lights so that we could browse around. It was not long and Santa (yes that is her name, I presume named after a saint rather than Mrs Claus herself) arrived up the steps carrying a 5l plastic bottle filled with fresh milk which I assumed was still warm from the cow. Moer koffie to wake Egberg up from the dead, tyt vir koffie en beskuit.

After the Information Centre, we explored up and around the Herman Charles Bosman museum on the hill behind the information centre for a few hours and another character out of stories of the Groot Marico stepped out of the pages of history. Ina (above) was busy at the local church when she saw us doing exploring, she quickly strolled across to us still carrying some frozen meat leftover from last week’s church bazaar. Ina, a local boervrou, descendant from the area whose name in Tswana means “Push in Deep” became our local tour guide and history expert of the area.

The Groot Marico steep in thick gooey history but somehow a place left behind from the 50s, crumbling as a place does when forgotten but for a few stories left behind in the memories of the bosveldt that not even the Bekkersdal Marathon could save. As we were leaving we noticed the new stories being made as children huddle not around the campfire but the communal tap, collecting for fresh drinking water.

Groot Marico Bijbel

Searching for the spirit of Oom Schalk Lourens, we decided to tick off my bucket list a visit to the mampoer district of Groot Marico. But sadly we really struggled to find this spice of life and not even the pre Google Index could help us in amongst the withaak boome.

All excited we arrived in the bosveldt only to find that our accommodation at the Botshabelo Guesthouse and Farmyard was not exactly what we expected because on the local tourism website it is stated that Botshabelo is "the ultimate experience in luxury accommodation" and no it did not meet the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa’s 4 stars that had being awarded to this guest house. Overall it seems to be starting to get this run downed feeling about it sort of like the Groot Marico itself. (Sorry I felt too down to take photos of our accommodation.)

Arriving, I had to go searching for the hostess Rosy and found her in her room after a 15min search. Rosey then showed us to our room. We asked her if we could order breakfast tomorrow morning and was told no, they are not catering breakfast for us, that we must go to the local pub Wag ‘n Biekie. Okay maybe we should have pre-ordered yesterday. Anyway after fleshing up we found no courtesy soap in the bathroom so we made a list of things we needed and headed into town only to find ourselves eventually heading to Zeerust to do some shopping.

On the way back, about halfway between Groot Marico and Zeerust we eventually found the spirit of Oom Schalk Lourens that I was longing for, a old school house which was now turned into a hoarders paradise, the Vaalkop Private Museum run by Jan and Elizabeth. Jan was in his element just wanting to show us his huge collection of memorabilia from a time long forgotten. (This is where most of my photos of today were taken.)

I could have stayed here for yonks going through priceless (to some) artefacts but the ancient smells and dust was unsettling for Lynda and we headed back to the Groot Marico for supper, as you guessed it, at the pub Wag ‘n Biekie. Well I must say the food was good and it went down well. Okay we did give the mampoer milkshake a miss.

We arrived back at the darkened Botshabelo Guesthouse and Farmyard under an awesome canopy of stars. Luckily we found our room through the dark garden from the parking lot to the guest house. Settling down, I decided to see what was happening in the rest of the country by putting on the TV but it did not work and no instructions on how to get it to work nor information on who to call to help, so I felt my way across the dark garden to the hostess’ room but she was not home or maybe fast asleep. So no TV and all we could do was to settle down for the night on a rather uncomfortable creaky bed. Soon after 10 pm the power of the whole place was cut and we were left in pitch black.

Although I am not a grading inspector on mampoer, using the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa own grading criteria and minimum requirements for a guest house, I could not rate Botshabelo Guesthouse and Farmyard, a 4 star establishment, I even tried to give them a 3 star but sadly only a 2 star in my opinion.

Cat got your Tongue?

Cat got your tongue? Princess, our youngest rescue who is about 16 months old, can be seen sitting on the stoep staring at something. She was fixated on something in the tree for nearly half an hour, well maybe longer because I lasted only half an hour watching her watching something. Sjoe I am getting tired.

Freaky Storm

The storm came out of nowhere; I had to run for the washing drying in the sun only moments before. Make sure all the animals where in and safe from this freaky storm.

Soon the power had tripped from the lightning ground strikes. The rain gusted nearly horizontal at times with nothingness interspersed between the squalls.

All I could do was stand in the darkness and look out into the whitewash of downpour and small hail stones, into the weird and kind of freaky storm.

Jealously caught the Cat

I'm working now Minks! This is why working at home is just about impossible with a cat like Minky around. I mean she sits and thinks, well the thinking part is okay but not the sits part as she sits on everything, the keyboard when you are typing, in front of the screen when you trying to what you doing, and Minks even tries to sit in your arms as if she is jealous of the attention that I’m giving the computer.

Boum Boum Boum

Driving north slowly and just seeing where the road takes us ended somewhere where the French toast and the sun slowly set, we ended somewhere in Paris alongside the Harties.

Boum Boum Boum

Le monde ne tournait plus

Le jour ou tu m’a prise

avec toi

oui toi

Le vent s’arrête la glace fond

La lumière elle est plus forte

avec toi

oui toi

Cela ne rime a rien

Mais je me sens si bien

car l’amour m’a fait une grande surprise

Cela ne rime a rien

Je le découvre bien

quand on est deux tout commence alors

mon cœur fait...

Boum boum boum...

Avec toi

Oui il fait,

Boum...

Tusais, c’est vrai

Dis-moi mon petit chéri

Ton cœur fait-il aussi boum boum boum comme le mion?

Dis-moi mon petit chéri,

Si tu es tout près de moi

Ton cœur fait-il boum boum boum...?

Cela ne rime a rien

Mais je me sens si bien

Boom Boom Boom

The day the earth stood stood still

Is when I found the drug of love

with you

Yes you

Frozen water melt to spring

And summer curled up in between

this love

with you

You know the silly thing

thought I knew everything

about it when two people

fall in love

But there's this silly thing

I'm now discovering

when I'm with you it all

begins to start

My heart goes boom boom boom...

When I'm with you

Yes it goes boom boom boom boom...

You know it's true

Tell me angel all the time

Does your heart go

Boom boom boom

Downtown Rebel

To get my leave officially on the go, the weekend needs to start with a celebration, and what better way that to celebrate Dael birthday. Okay it was yesterday, but with all of us at work, it ends up as party time on the weekend. And here is Dael with his Downtown Rebels’ vest on checking out what is on the menu at this dive we ended up at. Well it was a good way to start my leave, lets hope the food was kosher.

Prescribed Weekend

It is a misty start to my Friday, the last day of the week before the weekend kicks in followed by some well deserved leave. It was a tough few weeks but here I am at the start of some R&R and I wake up with the mist right up to my porch.

By the time I got onto the highway to work, the sun was piercing through the mist, making it glow orange me squint my eyes just to get going. Oh and note to self, time for some prescription sunglasses.

The Painters

It is not much to write home about as the painters arrived to apply the third coat of paint on my office wall. Being a cold wet day, I braved the elements keeping my windows open to extract as much as the fumes as possible.

By mid-afternoon, I was past the splitting headache part and into a dozy sleepy stage. I battled to stay awake and by the time I got home, I overdosed on headache pills, put my head on my pillow and was out for the count.

Sometime in the evening I was woken up with a lovely supper, prepared by Lynda. Thank goodness this week is about over.

I Fought the Law

The Clash song "I fought the law and the law won" came thumping through my head as the fumes wafted off the freshly painted walls of my office. I was sure during my punk haze I saw the law came banging at my door.

I fought the law and the law won, yes I have proof that it wasn't my imagination, Terrence put on the Boshielo costume and came through to my office. Goes to show no one is above the law. "I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire six shots or only five'? Well to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But being that this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?"

Two coats of paint down, thank goodness, tomorrow's the final coat. Go ahead. Make my day.

Then I got High

As you should know by now, that is if you follow my blogs, the Digital section of eKayaMedia has moved into the building next door and we are slowly making our work space more wow and then I got high.

Yip the painters are in, after rhinoliting the walls with gypsum plaster, today they started with the first coat of three paint layers which hopefully will be followed on Friday with the vinyl wrap. So while the paint fumes keep me astro-travelling, watch this space for my new look office, coming as soon as I find why my desk is spinning.

I was going to say something intelligent here but that was before I got high, before I got high. Eish these paint fumes is not good for me. Headache alert!

Road Works and Accidents

Rush hour has been not too shabby for me as I am traveling against the flow of the rat race traffic but add some road works, a sprinkling of rain with a dash mad hatter taxi drivers who don’t care for the lives of their paying customers nor for the lives of other road users, and you have stand still traffic.

Informal taxis are synonymous with traffic accidents, and this evening on the way home which normally is a half hour affair, turn out to be nearly an hour and a half which as you can imagine would stress anyone out. Okay, okay there are some of my readers who sit in rush hour traffic for over two hours one way daily. Now that would not keep me sane.

Alinaife

"Ohhh so that is Uncle Jerome", coos Alinaife or Ali for short, as mommy Mildred and daddy Steven introduce Ali their youngest daughter to me.

Sweet Sixteen

Sweet sixteen, no not Matthew holding my very old identity document, but the black and white photo of me in the ID Book. Although Matthew is seventeen he could pass as me at the same age if you compare him to the photo of me at 16 years old. I was a tall skinny boy back then with a mop of hair much like Matthew is today.

Wow, time has flown; I still have memories of me getting my photograph taken for this ID Book when we lived in Scottburgh; and that navy blue polar necked Celtic knot jersey that my mom knitted for me. I remember that I had that jersey for quite a long time.

Sweet sixteen I aren’t anymore with a lot of water under the bridge but surely I am still good looking?

Jeanine

Forget about winter for now, the weekend is here, and it has been a hard week for me after the previous weekend from hell and then this Friday was a bit rough but I am through it, a tad bruised but hopefully after a spot of dusting off I should be better for it. They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Anyway, with a growth of eKayaMedia, comes many more birthdays, thank goodness we have Bridget to help us remember. Anyways it is Jeanine's birthday today. Isn't it great to have a birthday on a Friday? First of all it is a Friday, then you get all your work colleagues wishing you the best, and then it is their singing, which speak for myself leaves a lot to be desired, plus you have the weekend to celebrate with your family and friends. Now you can understand the big smile on Jeanine's dial and did I mention that today is Friday?

Winter is Coming

For sure, the mornings are getting nipper and the mist in the valley is creeping ever closer. It is only days away till I wake up and the mist is at my door.

The new season of Game of Thrones is starting in just over a week’s time. Winter is Coming!

African Autumn

Autumn of Fall as my American readers call it, is not as spectacular as in the Northern Hemisphere where the colours all change from green to golden brown. The African bush still stays brown and khaki with the little greens changing to brown as the nights get longer and colder.

Most times before you know it, it is winter with the days being beautifully warm but the nights freezing.

Whatcha Doin

"Whatcha doin", cries Johnny. Now I am not sure if I should continue calling our Crowned Crane, Johnny, anymore as he might be a she. Maybe I should call her Isabella after Phineas’ sister who keeps asking Phineas and Ferb "whatcha doin".

Isabella/Johnny gets so excited when s/he sees me especially when I sit outside during lunch time as s/he gets very inquisitive and inspects everything that I do. Nothing gets past her scrutiny.

"Whatcha doin? What is that me you taking a selfie of?"

Megan Adam Kay

Oh what a day.

Firstly my Monday started off wobbly from a weekend from hell but somehow I think it turned out okay because by the time I am writing this post late in the evening, I am back home with my pickup all sorted although it has taken a huge whack out of my budget.

Okay back to my day, our eKayaMedia family is continuing to grow with our latest addition of Megan to our Brand Managers side of things. Welcome Megan.

Next on the agenda are the two birthdays of some of the new family members, Kay and Adam. And they thought that they could sneak it past us without us noticing, uhmmm. Happy birthday Kay and Adam. Now how much is it going to cost you for not putting your photo on my blog, let me see... well chocolate may work.