End in sight

With my contract coming to an end, I am not sure what the future holds for me but I am holding out for change. I collected more work at AAA and took this photograph of Vincent also in the same boat as I am. My week has started with good news that the snow that blocked Sani Pass on Friday is starting to melt. That means if no more snow falls between now and the the upcoming weekend then we have a go on our Vespa trip. I am so looking forward to making snow angels with Sophia my Vespa. When I get back I will be in the market for a new contract or freelance job.

I am only one

The new morning of breaks into the new week as I head out for work. My thoughts range from there's the beautiful people and then there are the rest of us, the real people. Strange place to be in but here I am as We are the Fallen's song, I am Only One plays on my stereo

Memories fade into the silence,
Haunting me tonight,
With hope's last breath I take this moment in,
It will be the last.
The morning breaks,
and sunlight takes the pain away.

Ever after never came,
And I'm still waiting for a life that never was,
And all the dreams I lay to rest,
The ghost that keeps me, after all that I've become,
I am only one.
I am only one.

I close my eyes and bleed this empty heart
Of all that longs to die,
When faces lie and love will falter,
I'm left with only time,
And time will break
the dreams that take the pain away.

Ever after never came,
And I'm still waiting for a life that never was,
And all the dreams I lay to rest,
The ghost that keeps me, after all that I've become,
I am only one.
I am only one.

I'm on my own here,
and no one's left to be the hero of
this fairy tale gone wrong
as night will fall, my heart will die alone.

Ever after never came,
And I'm still waiting for my heart to beat again,
And all the dreams I've laid to rest,
are ghosts that keep me
after all that I've become,
I am only one.
I am only one.

I am only one.

It is hard being me, the only one, not sure of the future, not sure of the pain as I live day by day not knowing my last. With my past haunting me as the song trickles on, I close my eyes.

Car Wash Louise

Nothing exciting happened today. It is Friday night and I am alone home, what's new. I suppose it is for the best, my health that is. In exactly two weeks time I will be on the road to a great weekend in the mountains on my Vespa so I my lungs better be healed as it is still winter. Talking about winter today was a beautiful 22°C in Johannesburg.

Other than working at home I popped into AAA this morning to drop off and pick up work for the UK market. On the way out Louise was getting ready to wash her car, typical of a hands on plaas meisie (farm girl). It was a perfect winter's day for it and a perfect moment to get a photograph of Louise without her makeup on not that she needs it.

Love From The Office

The stronger medicine I am on seems to be helping as I am feeling much better. Maybe it is because I can work at home and simply pop into the office late in the morning to hand over the previous day's work and collect more. This helps me avoid the cold air in the mornings and evenings and of course it helps to be just 15 minutes drive away especially in light of the fuel crisis in Johannesburg. With no interruptions I can put in longer hours but somehow found that I missed my lunch. So while in the office, the SEO team wished me a healthy recovery and I took this shot of them while there of Louwellen, Vincent and Richard. My computer is still not fixed so working from home has given the support team time to get to the bottom of my computer's issues. Hopefully like me no more pick elephants.

Loop of Death

Ahhhhhhgggg Monday has not been kind to me. As I get to work I found my computer already switched on with the dreaded blue screen. So I calmly do what a normal person would do and that is start a disk scan and fix all the errors, note the critical word calmly. I finally get the foul thing going again. Don't get me wrong, it has not given me too much trouble in the past but today it was awfully terrible. After working for about two hours, a "cannot save" error popped up because it couldn't find the hard drive. Oh oh, looked like either the hard drive is on the way to bit heaven or maybe Windows she's broken. Anyway I rebooted and hoped for the best but it got into an odious loop. As you can clearly see in today's photo, just ignore Thando, no matter what I selected it starts booting up but then quickly ends back at this screen. Time to look for that wench of a Windows recovery disk.

The technical cavalry arrived in the form of Louwellen just before I threw the wretched thing off the balcony. He proceeded with the Windows disk to recover the poor sick puppy. Anyway but by that time my boss was very concerned with my personal state of health that he sent me home and told not to come back unless I am well again.

Yes it has been two weeks and I am still not 100%. I am feeling strong but it is in the mornings and late afternoons that the cold affects my lungs and I start coughing all over again. I am also constantly out of breath. Sigh, so off I went to the doctor and luckily he could see me straight away. He was concerned that I still was not getting better so he prescribed some stronger medicine which he promises will get me right as rain within this week or else I have to go see him again. R1,300 later, I rather get better as this is starting to cost me an arm and a leg not to mention a lung.

La cravate rouge

After only getting to bed in the early hours of this morning, I wanted to call in a Duvet Day, a day when I didn't have to face a full work day. I just wanted to snuggle in the sack under the duvet. Ohhh, under the covers of the duvet was very alluring. So why don't you come up to the lab and see what's on the slab. I see you shiver with antici… pation. Officially you allowed four days a year as duvet days where you can call in without notice and say that you simply staying at home. But I have been off sick too many times these last few weeks that it would not have been appropriate so I crawled to work to do some coding.

Woe to me, my computer crashed not long after lunch, luckily I had been saving often so not much was lost and I soon was back on track. So what do you think of George's red tie? Now why didn't I get the memo that it was Red Tie Day? Not that I have a red tie but it would have given me more reason to call in that duvet day. Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love this medication. Enchanté.

A Good Laugh

When you feeling down and out with bronchitis nothing much can cheer you up, well accept the abandoned laughing of Annalize. Although she tried to keep her laugh in check, it escaped and brought a smile to my face.

Chekhov

Anton Chekhov once wrote "We are accustomed to live in hopes of good weather, a good harvest, a nice love-affair, hopes of becoming rich or getting the office of chief of police, but I've never noticed anyone hoping to get wiser. We say to ourselves: it'll be better under a new tsar, and in two hundred years it'll still be better, and nobody tries to make this good time come tomorrow. On the whole, life gets more and more complex every day and moves on its own sweet will, and people get more and more stupid, and get isolated from life in ever-increasing numbers." Does this still ring true some 150 years later? Uhmmmm.

Today has been a normal coding day with me all dressed warm battling to recover from my bout of cute Bronchitis and code being rendered to take a user on a path of my choosing. Chekhov also penned "Any idiot can face a crisis; it's this day to day living that wears you out." Yes so true, so here I am, thinking of Chekhov instead of taking my medicine and getting into bed, I must going crazy. Anyway before I head for my warm bed, here is a portrait shot of Thando who sits opposite me at the office.

'Les yeux sont le miroir de l'dme

James Dean, well not quite a rebel without a cause, but Louwellen made a good portrait on this cold winters morning that I am sure a rebel with a cause instead of without would be a good name he would actually like. Marcus Cicero, a Roman philosopher quilled these words "Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi" or in the Queen's English "the face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter". In other words as the French say the eyes are the mirror of the soul.

Oogle

Yes this is the SEO team that I have been working with the last couple of months.From left to right is Richard, Ockert, Vincent, George, Louwellen and me at the back. This is the team that is bringing home the bacon for George's plumbing and electrical companies. There is talk of a SEO company but is this the birth of Oogle?

Maseka

I am not too sure how long this contract will last but there are signs that it will end soon. I better keep my eyes wide open for other opportunities. The goals I have set for this SEO have been met and exceeded thrice over. In the meanwhile here is Maseka, one of the drivers here. He came round from the Bramely office to pick up Louwellen.

Annalize making friends

It has been a busy day trying to put enough work behind me because tomorrow I've taken off for the move to my new home for a short while. I never even had time for my daily photos but took a quick snap when Annalize and Keisha arrive together this morning. Well here is to new beginnings.

Annalize

Oh my word, I have been too busy on my own mission that I forgot to mention that a new lady started at AAA on Monday. Well before I go any further, here is Annalize. So far I can tell is that she is helping Keisha. Back to me, last night was the longest night of the year and I spent most of it all snug as a bug in my warm bed. Well it doesn't seem to be getting warmer but everyday now is one day closer to summer.

Chommies

Like peas and carrots, Keisha and Thando are chommies, South African slang for friends. Thando is about to go back to Zambia on leave while the rest of us are stuck here in cold Johannesburg. This evening is a lunar eclipse and while Matthew, myself and two chommies had supper we watched the moon get eaten away by the earth's shadow and finally turn to a brownish red moon, only to be reversed later.

Brrrr

The climate in Johannesburg has gone all wonky. About 3 in the morning a storm hit Blairgowrie, where I live, with such force that up-rooted trees and toppled walls. The electricity mains even tripped and I assume from the static electricity surge of the lightning. There was a gap in the weather between 6 and 7 in the morning which allowed me to get to work un-hindered but it was the calm before the storm. Heavy rain continued out of character throughout the morning which caused havoc in the rush hour traffic. Reports came in that it is snowing in Namibia, snowing in one of the driest regions of Southern Africa. What is next? In today's photo is of Richard arriving to work all protected from the cold. Brrrr, time to move to warmer shores.

Patience

All we need is a little patience sang Axl Rose in one of his songs, so I introduce Patience to you. We have at AAA, Patience who is doing a splendid job keeping the office of six men spic and clean.

Why didn't I notice that?

The week is coming to an end and it has been a busy one. The SEO project for a plumbing and electrical company that I have been working on has been very successful. They measure the success of their internet exposure not by the amount of impressions but by the calls that they get from their websites. Before Vincent (shown above) and I started on the project they were averaging about 4 calls a day from their websites. Last month we got them to average on 12 calls per day with a peak at 24 on one day. Our goal was 10 calls per day. In the last week we have moved the project into phase two which has a goal of averaging 20 calls per day and by what I have seen this week we should reach it. Not bad for a plumbing and electrical company. What do you say to that Vincent? Oh and before I forget, I did noticed during the busy week that Vincent is trying to cultivate a moustache.

The Replacement

Keisha has been sent to AAA as the replacement for Fiona whose last day was yesterday. So let’s give a warm welcome to my favourite month, June, and to the lady in pink, Keisha. Why is the internet so slow tonight. :-(

Hit and Run

As I am writing this blog post, adrenaline is still coursing through my veins. On the way home from home cell this evening along Main Road, Randburg, just before the old Nestle building, a metallic green Daewoo Matiz or the later version the Chevrolet Spark tried to squeeze between me and another car. My pick-up was hit and I had to swerve to avoid further damage. The green car did not stop. I tried to follow but the green car was swerving erratically narrowly missing pedestrians and other cars. Yes I should have got his registration plate but I didn't. For my safety I went straight to the police station to report the hit and run. Upon closer inspection at the police station, it looks like there is not much damage to my car other than a scratched bumper but I will give it a proper going over in the daylight tomorrow.

Okay now that is off my chest, today was Fiona's last day at AAA hence her photo was my choice of the day.

Thando

Monday has heralded the week in full force with the new month of June about to start. Would you believe it the year is nearly half way gone. Here is Thando from the office also wondering what has happened to the year. With my future uncertain but full of hope, I will leave you with a Poem of Questions...

How strong is the beauty that calls to you?
Does anybody hold it always as a guide–or
is it the search that is required of us? Is there

rest in beauty? Or does the best of what we may
know require battering waves? Times we have loved
brought to ruin, and new times asking: How will I

rise to take my punishment, so that love
will again name itself the only path?
We turn to the dark for an end;

we walk out of it by knowing we have loved.