No Noise

Wow this is beyond me, here is Ronald McDonald asking us to please consider the neighbours by refraining from making a noise and hooting while he stands next to what is a very a loud generator. 

McDonald's have bought out a McFlurry Apple Pie, and I loved the McDonald's Apple Pie, so after church, we scrapped a few coins together to by each of ourselves some ice cream treat. And while enjoying my apple pie broken in two and stuffed into a paper cup filled with soft serve ice cream, I saw this sign next to a very large generator which is used during the many rolling blackouts that we South Africans have to endure. But somehow ice cream on a Sunday makes it all better.

Regrow

Winter has been quite harsh to our once lush lawn. Our water bill was extremely high so last year we stopped watering the lawn and it took its toll. Arriving home yesterday, Dael was on the patio and we discussed the lawn. He decided that he will try get the grass back to what used to be.

The trees around the lawn needs trimming back, the irrigation system has been damaged by River Song, our over enthusiastic German cross Belgium Shepherd, to add to the list what needs to be done to get our lawn back to what it was like. Dael gave me a shopping list. Arriving back from the shops I found Dael hard at work in the garden.

Goldfish

I have been using these toilets at work for a month now and then BAMM it hits me right between the eyes, the words "Goldfish". Huh what has goldfish have to do with a sign in the toilets.

I had to stop, rewind, backed up to read the sign pasted on the wall of the toilet. Please don't flush the following: paper towels, sanitary napkins, old phone bills, yes now it was getting weird, goldfish, yes goldfish, or your hopes and dreams down the toilet. Thanks. Well there goes my hopes and dreams to be an inspiring muse. Now who keeps goldfish at work?

Tomorrow's Friday

This week has been busy and no rolling blackouts, thank God tomorrow is Friday. Yip as I watch the sun set this evening I look up to the heavens and praise God for all the blessings that He has poured over me. No I am still somewhere in that dark valley but I know that God has got my hand, leading me when I can't even see the hand in front of my face. Just one step in front of the other, not know where I am going or how I am getting out but I am not afraid anymore because I trust that God has me.

Food Blogger

Okay you must have noticed that I aren't a food blogger or though I would loved to be wined and dined at eateries and then write some posts about the experience. Uhmmm my grammar is a bit flawed with way too many ands in that last sentence. Anyways lets get this food post going. Here is my usual start to a working day, a breakfast of All Brain cereal mixed with double cream yogurt.  Yes I don't do low fat foods at all not with my weight.

She's Broken

I had commandeered these earphones from Matthew because he was not using them, and I needed something to keep my mind sane in our small cozy office. Matthew said that the earphones hurt his ears with extended use and the mic was not working. 

Not long after using these earphones, the one ear peace stopped working. It was then that I discovered why the mic and mow the ear piece was not working, she is broken! And yes it is not comfortable with extended use.

Red Start

Ahhh what a way to start the week, with a lovely cup of Red Cappuccino. Now some of my overseas readers won't know what a red cappuccino is, so here goes. A red cappuccino is a drink made from our local South africarooibos tea in a espresso way, rich, creamy, and topped with foam and a touch of cinnamon. Yummy.

Shot Hole Borer in Roodekrans

I did quite a bit of work in the garden this afternoon, pool maintenance, and repairing of the pool cover was top of my list. While out there in the garden I noticed a dead branch where there shouldn't be dead branches. Investigating I noticed that an entire tree hidden among other trees was mostly dead with little life left. It was then that I noticed several holes in the bark. I went into panic mode. Shot Hole Borer had reached Roodekrans.

The Shot Hole Borer or Euwallacea fornicatus is a terrible plague beetle from Southeast Asia that have reached our shores and is devastating the trees in Johannesburg. So far there is no cure to stop these small creatures of Armageddon. This could potentially be one of South Africa's largest ecological tragedies.    

I posted the evidence on a WhatsApp group that has a lot of specialists, and the results came back quickly from Andrew the Chief Horticulturist from the Botanic Gardens just below us, that the culprit was most likely the Xylocopa Carpenter Bees. After further investigations I have to thankfully concur that it is not the Shot Hole Borer but the Carpenter Bees. Yes as far as I can tell the Shot Hole Borer have not reached my garden in Roodekrans, and may it stay that way.

Unfortunately this pest is too small to detect but however you can identify the affected trees. So how do you identify if your tree has the Shot Hole Borer...

• The tree is wilting
• Dead branches
• 1-2mm holes in bark of tree in shotgun like spread
• Sugar like volcanoes at the holes from oozing resin along with wooden powder

Our dead tree had about 5 holes about 8mm in diameter randomly spread in the trunk with no volcano like signs.

Slaan Terug

I don't really want to take this blog down the slippery slope of politics but this Freedom Plus' election poster in our neighbourhood sure gets my back up. "Slaan Terug" or "Hit Back" is not the slogan I want to stand behind. We already have way too much violence in South Africa to perpetuate it with advocating revenge. "Nou of Nooit" or "Now or Never", I would rather never and stand firm by my Christian principles.  

Better Traffic

Ahhh, now this is what morning traffic to work should be like everyday. With yesterday's public holiday and the school holidays on the go, the traffic this morning was a pleasure. Like Wednesday, half of today had to written off due to the rolling blackouts. For us workers, it was a lovely start to the weekend.

Holiday Bake Off

When stuck with baby sitting on a public holiday there is nothing better than to bake chocolate orange muffins. Yummy, here is Rebekah and granddad baking away. 

Tiger Wiger

This afternoon was a write-off with rolling blackouts scheduled from 12pm to 4:30pm. Thank goodness tomorrow is a public holiday, Human Rights Day to be exact. So here I sit at home, feet up with Tiger Wiger up close wanting his human contact while nothing gets done at work due to the loadshedding.

I kind of going to enjoy this mid week break.

Cabbage Tree Flowers

After feeding the dogs this morning before heading out to work, I noticed this strange growth out from the cabbage tree. On closer inspection I saw that it must be the flowers of the cabbage tree. Never noticed them before, interesting.

Rolling Blackouts

We recently moved to new offices in Sandton, only to find out that they have no backup generators in case of rolling blackouts or as we politically call them loadshedding as to excuse the pun, my light of how serious it actually is.

South Africa needs about 46GW of power but are only producing about 28GW. With the recent cyclone hitting Mozambique last week, the powerlines carrying 700MW to South Africa were taken down by the storm. This 0.7GW does not count for our base power but needed now when we are at an all time low.

So here I sit, the battery of my laptop is finished and all I can do is put my head on my desk and start wondering how Eskom got us into. Here is another conspiracy theory for my readers to consider. What about the Russians? Yip you read that correctly. We are coming up to our elections and the Russians have been known to meddle in the digital space leading up to elections such as the USA elections a few years back that helped Trump get into power. And then there is money. Zuma signed a deal between Russia and South Africa to build nuclear power stations, but that was put on hold due to Zuma being kicked out. But a deal was a deal and surely the Russians won't give up without a fight.

And now the rolling blackouts, uhmmm makes you think.

Desk for Matthew

Towards the end of last year we were thinking about getting a desk for Matthew's room but as things go, our priorities changed. Last week a friend Taryn, posted on our Connect Group's WhatApp that she has a desk that she wants to give away. 

On the photo, that she posted, the size of the desk looked like it would be small enough to fit in Matthew's room. So after church, I went round to collect the desk from Shaun and Taryn which has been in their family for 3 generations. It was a perfect fit.

One Child Too Many

Today is a year since the 3 year old boy Liyaqat went missing,friends and family held a vigil this evening. Kaylah, Liyaqat's mother, is still hopeful that the boy is still alive. Although no body has been found, the Police have charged the mother's boyfriend with murder and is still in custody awaiting trial. 

Getting Better

Every cloud has a sliver lining, and today is an awesome day. Not only is it a Friday, I started today with a breakfast picnic with Lynda and Rebekah as it was Grandparent's Day at Rebekah's school. Afterwards it was off to work but by midday, loadshedding had merged its ugly head. 

Not to get me down, I collected my Vespa from the bike mechanic, although half the money paid out went to pay for those ripoff prices Vespa charges for parts. Unbelievable but nothing was going to get me down, the Baroness was home.  

Mood isn't Improving

My mood isn't improving. My bike is still at the shop which means I still sit in the traffic to work and back while my money runs low due to the unbudgeted fuel costs. The bike service man can not find alternative back brake pads and now I am forced to by from Vespa at their RIPOFF prices. Oh I forgot, they are made in Asia somewhere, shipped to Italy with a markup, before shipping to South Africa and another markup. What should cost only about R100 and not at Vespa's R500 for rear brake pads, really.

On the Edge

The strongest tropical storm this year so far, Cyclone Idai, has hit the Mozambique coast about 900km away and on the edge, moisture is pushed south towards us. A lot of rain is falling in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. We can just stand and watch the threatening storm from the edge.

Metrobus 239

I believe in the Broken Window Policy introduced by Rudy Giuliani, a past mayor of New York City. The policy is to replace broken windows of abandoned buildings thereby uplifting the area and the reward was that crime dropped in those areas where the Broken Window Policy was introduced. 

And now I see this, a Joburg Metrobus carrying passengers during this morning rush hour. Oh my word doesn't Metrobus have any pride in what they do. Metrobus 239 should never have left the depot. Shame on you.

Sunworx's Bosasa Link

So while sitting in traffic as one does in rush hour, I noticed that the vehicle in front of me belonged to Sun Worx Holdings aka Sunworx Solar. This was strange because I was under the impression that they were a subsidiary of Bosasa. From all the press lately we know that Bosasa is under liquidation yet here was one of their vehicles, now I am unsure.

The reason for my thinking that Sunworx was a subsidiary of Bosasa was that the director of Sunworx Solar is Roth Watson, the son of Gavin Watson who is the CEO of African Global Operations previously known as Bosasa. And plus the fact that Papa Leshabane, Thandi Makoko, and Jackie Leyds who are all directors at Bosasa were also Sunworx's advisory board members, according to archive web records.  I remember earlier in the year that I was retrenched from Bosasa, I was tasked with cleaning up all the references of Bosasa and Sondolo IT off the Sunworx Solar website. Sondolo who was also a Bosasa subsidiary, helped Sunworx with the labour on all their big installations such on the top of the roof of Standard Bank CVOP and at PRASA's train workshop in Braamfontein.

Interesting that now all references to any links between Sunworx and Bosasa are gone from the interwebs, well not all. I found references on a site called Exon Consulting which is in itself strange and also on Sunworx's own website in archives. 

Chocolate Milkshake

After church this morning, Lynda and I treated Robynne, Rebekah, and Dakotah to milkshakes at State 5 in Fourways. As you can see chocolate milkshake is Rebekah's favourite. 

30 Years Difference

I had two birthday celebrations to go to, one in Pretoria and the other in Westonarea. Now my situation has not improved and I was hoping just to lay low and hopefully no one would miss me. The Pretoria one said that they would miss me when I gave my excuse. Now the Westonarea one, well did not take my excuses, so after putting the pool cover back on, I jumped into the shower, and grabbed a bottle of wine and headed for Westonarea.

Oh how we age? It is Velile's birthday, I won't give away his age other than that he is slightly older than me, indoda engcolile endala. Oh my isiZulu is not that good but I know I can't say that, I better leave out the engcolile part. Anyways here is Velile with a photo of himself 30 years ago. Can you see a difference other than much more wrinkles. 

Nearly Rained Out

This afternoon we had a power failure at work, as usual something to do with Eskom, what could be one of the most useless parastatals in South Africa, but it does help to complain. Still with no power, I left work just after 3pm, and to add to my woes it started hailing, luckily not large ones. Nothing was going to get me down today as this evening I was going to have coffee with Jon.

Halfway home the heavens opened up, not cats and dogs but it seemed like I would need to start building an ark if I was to get to that coffee with my bro. After an hour of torrential downpour, God must have shown some favour as it stopped. Yay I was soon on my way for coffee with Jon which turned out to be dinner.

It was good to break bread with Jon. As a child of God we can't walk this road alone, as I have been trying to do because my problems are huge, yet here I was.

Sad Kitty Cat

"What's going through that mind of yours, Princess?" I hope she is not reflecting off me, sad kitty cat.It hasn't been smooth sailing for me with the waves threatening to flood the small boat I'm in. Having faith in God, makes me sleep at night, but it has not been easy. 

Sad Bear

What a day. Driving to work once again so early leaving home before the sunrise was putting a damper on my moral then came a phone call from a family member asking about money which I still owe him. I know it has been a tough time, with my Vespa in the workshop and finances rather tight, all I needed was this. He ended the call with, oh well I better cancel the car wash. Oh my word, here I was edging ever so close to crossing the line of no return, and the straw that breaks the camel's back is a car wash. 

While still sitting in the traffic, I thought about that if one does crossover, the ones left behind normally are left in shock as they never knew how close that person was to the line. Who would one talk to? For the sake of a car wash, I was broken. And with tears in my eyes, I wrote an email, just to talk to someone. Is there anybody out there?

This evening, this sad papa bear was feeling a little better.

Sunrise Jam

This can't go on like this, I am going crack anytime soon. These early morning sitting in rush hour traffic jam is no joke. Breathe in. Breathe out. There you go, enjoy the sunrise without the smell of surf. If only I was sitting on a tropical beach this very minute watch the sun peer over the horizon, if only.

Early Morning Goose

This is for the birds, a Monday early morning start sees only me and an Egyptian goose at work this early. I miss my Vespa, which is in the workshop for service and repairs. This is going to be a long week.

A Haircut is Needed

Matthew came over to visit this weekend and I was hardly home due to me trying to burn the candle at both ends. Oh well here we are sitting opposite of each other and just connecting in the last few hours before I leave him at his Aunt and Uncle in Pretoria. And I had to say once again that Matthew needs a haircut. It is a parent thing to say, well that is what I think as I ask him about long hair and job interviews in the same sentence. And he answers exactly the same, "I will tire it up in a ponytail", as my eyes go wide with the thought of a man-bun Matthew. Oh well no matter how he wears his hair, baldy old me will still love him to bits.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Ahhhh the Mad Hatter, sorry Granny and Rebekah's Tea Party has begun, without Granddad. Oh no I'm late for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye. I'm late, I'm Late, I AM LATE!

BMW Miracle

My f*k, Marelize, a BMW miracle rose from the dead in front of me. While driving to work a BMW actually used it's indicators and changed lanes. Wow, even though the morning skies looked blue, surely today it is going to snow. 

This week South Africa has been awash with the raising of the dead to poor Marelize riding her bicycle into the only rugby pole on the field. The zombie apocalypse has turned into a South African challenge with some strange videos  now popping up everywhere. And now we have a zombie like Marelize who, well keeps falling down or as the viral video shows riding into things that are well easy to miss. At least it takes away from the seriousness of reality as the Bosasa saga fades a bit. 

Thank goodness for these Friday miracles, as we can now start the weekend on a positive note. Just think a BMW does have indicators.