The Beast and 35 Sucks

The Beast Team: Ledise, Wian, Lené Anthony, Henk, and Hanro (Not sure where Belinda was)

Hanging on with Belinda and Anthony

It is our first weekend in our new home. We still have boxes everywhere and we don’t know when we are going to see the end of the move but today we conquer the Beast and later a 35th birthday braai together with a Daknatmaak.

We can do this: Henk and Anthony

Up and over: Anthony, Wian, Henk, and Lené

Bringing back memories: Anthony and Hanro

So first the Beast, They said it is fun for the whole family, a workout with a difference, but I just shook my head, haven’t I already do 2 years of army why must I pay to challenge myself basic army training style. The Beast is more than just an obstacle race. It’s about getting out, being active and making memories. Get dirty, have fun and have some great stories to tell. Well after this we did, so I will just let the images do the talking.

Mud, Glorious Mud: Anthony and Henk

Yeah a little mud won't stop Belinda and Anthony

Ledise, Henk, Wian, Anthony, Lené, Anthony, and Belinda all tangled up

Still not convinced that the Beast is only for adventure junkies and mad men, well at least my brother Anthony and his wife’s family did it not for the competition but for fun, to conquer the Beast.

Nearly over Anthony

After that the rest was all tame. It was time for the 35 Sucks birthday party, okay not sucks but a Gert’s 35th birthday braai and Daknatmaak or in English a Roof Wetting Party.

Lynda, Storm, Lisel, Buffie, Jan, Lizette, Gert where the first wave at the party, the others came later.

Persepolis Celebration

After a successful Persepolis action by the Resistance in Gauteng last Saturday, those involved decided to celebrate at Piza e Vino in Rosebank. A lot of people were crucial to our victory but below is our story, a small but critical element to the Resistance winning. Please note some ingress terms are used and may require some knowledge of Ingress. Photos are from today’s celebrations and sorry if I missed anyone.

The Persepolis XM Anomaly started with lots of intelligence work on the ground with sleeper cells reporting info which went into the planning. Friday night started with a pre-emptive strike of blockers going up joining secure locations. From the feedback we heard from the sleeper cells that this action had them, the Enlightened, on the hop and they finally dropped the blockers in the early hours of the morning.

For us that was our job done and dusted but two Resistance members, Paul and Wesley who had been assigned to protect Soweto, a huge potential MU area, asked if Lynda and I could join them on Saturday afternoon. Not sure what the plan was but we met up in Krugersdorp and saw green fields up everywhere. After a brief strategy meeting at the side of the road we decided to start at one anchor which was not far and disrupt as we go.

Arriving at the first anchor portal we found a car load of bored tadpoles protecting the portal which was armed to the teeth with AXA shields. Poor toadies, they seemed so eager for a battle when we pulled up only to see shock on their faces when we ADA’d the portal and drove off. By the time they had reverted the portal we had blocker links up from Kagiso. Speaking only about our action on the West Rand and towards the south, we later learnt that they had about 6 teams of over 20 frogs all camped at strategic portals against only 4 of us. Wow, this day turned out to be a David against Goliath sort of day.

The blocking portal from Kagiso didn’t last too long as expected but we were already on the move to put up blockers further south west into Soweto. Nothing could be done as the fields went back up other than stay on our course of action. We later found out that our next group of blockers put a real spanner into the works of the Enlightened’s overall plan to win this Persepolis war that they had to specially send out a team to kill them. As soon as they were down a large green field went up which we knew it would from the intelligence that we received.

By that time our small team of 4 commandos were already on the move to our next target of the southern anchors of the layered fields over Soweto. Now that the large field was up no one could make any more fields so by taking down the small layered fields was a good move. A Toad team based at a main anchor was sent up to recapture them while we sneaked down to kill the main anchor. Knowing that this was a strategic anchor we decided to camp there, knowing that when the big green field came down, that this portal would need to stay blue.

And battle for this portal became known as the Battle of Soweto as a fierce battle then ensued at the Grasmere portal. The attacks kept coming and coming and we defended like heroes. Somewhere in the heat of the battle I kept hearing our intel telling us to keep going, you nearly there. It felt like Darsana all over but somehow in the fog of war we won.

Afterwards I heard that every Resistance member played their part well, from those that went out to kill the long links, to the Defence of Tembisa in the north to the Battle for Thokoza in the south, not forgetting those at home running our intel, and of course the 4 Resistance members who stood tall in the Battle of Soweto.

So hence the celebration at Piza e Vino. Well done everyone to a job well done.

Beware of Smurfs

Dear Enlightened aka Frogs,

Please be aware of trying to capture a Resistance member to indoctrinate them to your foul ways. Yes although smurfs as they are more commonly called, are normally cute and cuddly, they are known to retaliate if they feel threatened.

So if during the game of Ingress you come across a smurf in the wild, don’t try to surprise him or her, don’t even try to corner the poor smurf rather slowly let the smurf know that you there in his space and with open hands introduce yourself when asked what type of Enlightened are you. Please don’t forget this small piece of enlightened information which one day might save your life.

So beware of smurfs as here be smurfs, yes I came across this group of smurfs, meeting at the sacred grounds of the Irene Concentration Camp Cemetery and Garden of Remembrance for a Sunday afternoon hack and braai. As you can see from the following photos compared to the first two, that smurfs if met in a non-threatening way can be quite docile and of course cute and cuddly as their name suggests.

De Brandaris

Sunday, we went to De Brandaris or in English The Lighthouse in Rotterdam. It is the church that Jan den Ouden attends. Jan works for Operation Mobilisation and travels a lot to exotic places, like South Africa. We joined Jan and his wife, Martha for lunch in their garden, later we all took a walk in the local park just around the corner from them. There are many parks and walks along the waterways in Netherlands. When the weather is beautiful, like today many Dutch come out and soak up the sun wherever they can.