Pool Buoys

A few weeks back, the hailstorm damaged our pool solar heaters on the roof and they started leaking. All this time we could not use our poor pump as the shut-off valve was not working as it should. Finally after all these weeks, our house insurance sent in the Pool Buoys to replace the damaged panels.

The installers, Boy and Mpho from the Pool Buoys arrived this morning with the new panels. The new panels are different than the old damaged ones as I was told by the assessor they don’t have that system in the country anymore and would have to order in. When the new panels were off-loaded and the old ones removed it was obvious that the new panels are bigger than the older ones, by a metre so they had to re-arrange the layout. Yay soon I will get my sparkling clean swimming pool back just in time for summer.

Mpho contemplating Life

It is Friday and the end of a long and rocky week. The weather is changing as a cold front is heading for us and me well, when deadlines are set to make us fail, well Jerome is not a happy chappy.

Anyway it is Friday and my weekend is looking as bleak as the weather because of those impossible deadlines that somehow still have to be met. Mpho, shown above, ties out the bubble chair, contemplating life in the warm office why the air gets colder outside. What will our future hold?

Mpho about to Pop

Yip just a few more days now and Khumo will be born. The family at eKayaMedia held a surprise baby shower for Mpho with cake, cooldrinks, and best of all presents. And she was surprised as the ladies just over a week ago held a party for her but this time it was our turn, the eKayaMedia family.

Mom to be!

Ahhh it is time to celebrate with the pregnant fairy Mpho, and wish her all the best for the upcoming birth of her son. Oh you don’t know how many times I tried to twist her arm and name the baby Jérôme, the bestest of names in all the universe. Okay I know that bestest is not a word until you make it one and that is what is great about the English language, you can make up words and if more than one person accepts it than it has a chance of being included into the Oxford Dictionary and become a new bestest word.

So Jérôme, Jerome, Jeronim, Jerko, Jeroen, Jerry, Jerónimo, Jerônimo , Geronimo, Gerolamo, Girolamo, Gerónimo, Hieronymus, Ieronimus, and Roni, means holy man or sacred name and is derived from the ancient Greek word Hieronymos. Aren’t that a good name for a boy child, mom to be?

It is so Huge!

With the year about to run out of days, eKayaMedia decided to have their year-end function at the Berlin Pub and Restaurant in Ruimsig. Now this establishment specialises in German cuisine and is renowned as the best eisbeins in Johannesburg.

The day was sweltering but that did not stop us from ordering eisbeins and I can now vouch that the eisbein is one of the best I have ever had. The top photo is of Johan and the bottom one is of Denise, both are about to tuck into their huge eisbein. The rest of the photos can be found in my Facebook album Wow it is so HUGE!

3000th Post

Here are my team mates at eKayaMedia gathered together to wish me all the best on my 3000th post. In the front row, left to right is myself Jerome, Kabelo, Noma, Paballo, Sandra, Calvin, Des, and Ernest. At back is Johan, Ilana, Mpho, Ella, Xolani, Mkuseli, Philip, Bridget, Lawrence, Wayne, Viandre, and Jacques. Below are the three special children Rob, Velile, and Gillis, who couldn't make the group photo. Thank you everyone who participated in this 3000th blog post.

Wow to reach 3000 posts on this blog has been something of a ride. What do you expect with all ups and downs of over eight years of a blog post per day till now? It’s nostalgic looking back through all my posts. Some bring a smile to my face, and some make my eyes all teary, but such are these 2999 memories woven into the fabric of what I call a sorry excuse of my life. And now I have one more which takes it up to 3000.

Every one of these 3000 moments are precious to me even the broken pieces when my days were dark as the light, the joy of life just overwhelms everything else. Someone once said that a photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.

Please feel free to browse through all my life posts, right back to the start in January 2007. Yes one day I’ll look back on all this and smile because it was life and I decided to live it.

The Sunflower Fund

As we approach the second Christmas that God has granted Nika since she was first diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, I sat and folded the Sunfower Fund’s bandanna for tomorrow’s Giving Thanks Day at Bosasa. My thoughts were on Nika who this Christmas is doing exceptionally well compared to last year February when she was diagnosed with this life threating blood disorder.

Nika’s options to live were very slim in South Africa, thankfully her parents managed to get her booked into the Toronto Children’s Hospital and she was flown over as soon as she was stable. The Northern American Bone Marrow Register is so much larger than the South African one which increased her chance of finding a bone marrow match.

Last year for Nika had been an up and down in the hands of God and the talented staff of the Toronto Children’s Hospital type of year. This year she slowly improved and now Nika is nearly normal little girl who has been though a lot.

So now we get to Nika’s blessed second Christmas since her journey with Aplastic Anemia started, I plead you to help get our South African Bone Marrow Registry bigger. Many South African children need you to register so there might be a slim chance that they would have many more Christmases too. If you are committed to helping; are between the ages of 18 and 45; in general good health; over 50kg with a Body Mass Index higher than 35; and prepared to remain on the register until you are 60 years of age then please why are you waiting?

1. Call 0800 12 10 82 or 0210661
2. Answer medical questions and if you are eligible then
3. You will be directed to your nearest recruitment clinic
4. Two vials of blood will be drawn
5. Blood would be tested and results put on the register
6. The South African Bone Marrow Registry will post you your card in 6-8 weeks

That simple. Oops I forgot that the Postal Services are still on strike. Oh well don’t let that stop you.

Please note, small print time, to narrow any complications with the bone marrow the South African Bone Marrow Registry asks that if you not register if you think need an HIV test; have been exposed to hepatitis or HIV by contact with family or work; have injected yourself even once with illegal or non-prescription drugs; lead an unsafe sexual lifestyle; get regular tattoos or piercings; are pregnant or have had a baby in the last year; have had cancer; and have a phobia for needles.

They say finding a match is 1:100,000 in South Africa so please pick up the phone 0800 12 10 82.

At first I thought that if they find me as a match to someone I would have to go through operations but the Sunflower Fund has told me that it is a process of 4 to 6 hours which they draw blood from your arm into a cell separator machine which extracts your bone marrow from your blood and returned back into you. Plus it is at no charge to you as all costs are picked up through donations. So no skin off your nose. Get registered and help save a life!

That is all I have to say other than to continue folding hundreds of the Sunflower Fund’s bandanna with Mkuseli, Ilana, Mpho, and Noma.

It's Party Time

 

It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to. Yes it is time for the second Christmas party of the year to begin and I can let my hair down. Well, okay forget the hair part as I cry.

My work colleagues met at the Barnyard for an afternoon of good times and celebration at the end of a good year. You can see in the above photograph Mr Grumpy is enjoying the company of Noma and Mpho. Christmas parties, end year office revelry, bah humbug!

Ikhwezi Primary

The print side of eKayaMedia was busy with a deadline that require hands to help Ikhwezi Primary School, one of our Corporate Social Investment programs. As they say more hands make light work, and with the digital team getting stuck in, soon we had the deadline licked. Here you can see Sandra, Wayne, Mpho, Pabi, Noma, myself, and Ilana striving for excellence.
Even though we managed to complete the CSI project in record time, Eskom's bad planning caught us out with electricity load shedding, go figure.

Bosasa Hlangana

Our Mpho aka Oompa Loompa, designed this hat for the Bosasa Hlangana which was held last Friday. Bosasa is the name of our company and also the Northern Sotho word for the future or tomorrow and Hlangana is the isiZulu word for togetherness. The Bosasa Hlangana day is celebrated to bring the family of the Future Together and celebrate the spring. A competition was held for the best hat made from recycled materials and this was Oompa Loomps’s entry, very bright with vibrant colours just like our future.

Fare Thee Well Geoffrey

It is good that today is Friday with the weekend ahead but the cherry on top of the cake is that we got to throw a surprise party for Geoffrey albeit a Farewell Surprise Party at that.

Geoff, I have only known you for a short time and I am sure that I can call you a friend so I leave you with this blessing as you go on to greener pastures.

May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Fare thee well Geoff, do good work, and keep in touch.

Tigress Mpho

Wow, but these descriptive names for my colleagues are coming in thick and furious. We have Gustav, Gigolo, Smiles, and now Tigress for Mpho. A graphic designer, Mpho is based in the Design Team, which is in the other wing of our offices here in Bosasa.
Here is Mpho, displaying her talons for the surprised appearance of my camera. I kind of like these candid shots, more character.

Marketing al weer

Well I suppose you wondering why I am also busy with the ladies from Marketing and Communications. It is just that they give me so much work and keep me busy, which is a good thing. Today at about 8:30 I got a request from them for 3 designs for the Doornfontein launch by 11am thank you very much. Designs don’t just come out of thin air. It takes time to get the creative juices flowing. I need inspiration. Well I got one out which blew them away. Let’s hope head office approves. Today’s photo is of Gloria and Mpho working on a design that I did for the schedules of the special trains for this Saturday’s soccer game between South Africa and Poland.

Relax

Mpho seems to settling down nicely in Marketing and Communications Department. At least she’s lasted longer than the last person. Here she is updating the news section of the intranet. I in the meantime had to start working on a new product launch presentation for Kimberly-Clark.

uSello Mpandlane!

Ohh I gotta touch that! Okay at least I am not the only shinny dome in ICT as Mpho points out. At least we don’t waste our brains trying to grow hair. Sello doesn’t consider himself bald, he is just taller than his hair.

Take Five

Mpho showed above started with us yesterday replacing Lesego who replaced Keba who replaced Petunia who replaced Tshilidzi. Oh dear Marketing and Communication what is happening in your hallowed corridors.

Pick myself Up

I did not sleep or eat at all yesterday and last night. Stress is a killer. Today was dedicated to saving everything around me and I want to thank God for the true friends that he has placed around me. This reminds me of the film "The Ultimate Gift" and the gift of friends. God is awesome. I did manage to clock some hours at Metrorail in the afternoon but was still picking up the pieces. Sorry but I was not in the mood yesturday and this morning to take photos during the crisis but here is Ellen sporting her new hair style, Mpho and Karabo at Wits Metropark.