Belgium Campus

Matthew has his heart set on going to the Belgium Campus ITVersity in Pretoria. He has applied and has being accepted from his Grade 11 marks but has to be ratified with his final exam marks which he has to write soon.

It was one of their Open Days and Lynda and I trekked up to Pretoria to visit this IT research focused university or ITVersity as they like to call it. The Belgium Campus is something like MIT or Caltech but on a much smaller scale.

On the way across the boerewors curtain we had to go through this tunnel and I just had to shake my head. What is with this you have to hoot or roll down the windows and howl? Ah hooooooooooooo!!!! Is it like some type of primeval instinct similar to the gathering around a fire pit. To me I think it must be a hankering memory of the birthing experience that the caveman and cavewomen still clutch onto. A save place in the womb and then this must be the light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s hope that the light is not a train, Wooooot Hoot!

Purple Scar of the Rietvlei

The Rietvlei Dam outside Pretoria was build during the Great Depression by manual labour eager to earn a few coins to survive. The people were suffering greatly. Towards the end of the Second Boer War, women and children died like flies in the British concentration camps, then came the Great War where the surviving men march off to fight a war that wasn’t theirs to fight. Closely on its heals came the Great Flu Pandemic followed by the Great Depression. Then just when you managed to get your head above the water, wham world war all over again.

The bible reading people must have thought the Angels of the Apocalypse had ridden through and they were stuck in the Tribulation. After the Second World War, South African dipped even deeper into darkness as General Smuts lowered his head in shame while Apartheid started to raised its ugly head.

All this is now water under the bridge, and a new South Africa rose out of the ashes, but somehow it was still wearing the chains of its past. Looking around me at my fellow South Africans, the words of Nietzsche haunt me, “Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.”, “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” We have become the monsters that we have fought so hard against. While our politicians are lining their own pockets, our country sinks into a new darkness as our government’s electrical parastatal, Eskom switches off the lights. Our people cry out in the dark, “is this the freedom that our forefathers died for?”

And now as I stand looking towards the Rietvlei Dam built with the hands our forefathers, I can’t help but notice the purple scar in the setting sun. The purple scar is actually the Pompom weed that is colonising our veld and wetlands. The Campuloclinium macrocephalum somehow managed to jump the pond from South America and is now chocking off all our natural flora and fauna of the veld. With the Chinese colonising to the north of us, the invaders from the west is taking over and killing our natural resources; we have stared into the abyss too long.

And so the sun sets, darkness comes!

Tshwane

I found out this morning that my step dad was back in hospital after phoning my mom for Mother's Day. So now I had to make a second trip this weekend up to Pretoria but I wasn't planning to make the trip unproductive, Along the route I identified all the unclaimed and weak Ingress portals and so I set out for Montana Hospital. My first stop was Freedom Park overlooking Pretoria. After capturing all the portals there I ventured into the CBD where I took this photograph of the City Hall with the statue of Chief Tshwane. Eventually I got out to the other side of the mountain and did my official duties of hospital visiting.

Italian Greyhounds

I have been stopped many times and been asked are my dogs Whippets. No they are not Whippets nor are they miniature Greyhounds or even rescue township dogs and defiantly not a buck; seriously I was asked once if Maxy was a baby buck. I should put little horns on Maxy and confuse everyone. Italian Greyhounds have been around a very long time, and perhaps they could be one of the first domesticated dogs, not for working but as pets.

Yes you read correctly in ancient times dogs were domesticated as working dogs, for hunting, retrieving, guarding and even war but Italian Greyhounds were the first pets in a sense. The history is a bit obscure but they have been found in the Egyptian pyramids, in hieroglyphs and even in Pompeii. It is believed that the Egyptians took the smaller working hounds into the palaces and temples as pets. Anubis also known as Lenpw, the Egyptian god, gatekeeper of the underworld looks similar to Italian Greyhounds. Even when they lie down you can see the shape of the Sphinx. But that is where the Egyptian connection ends.

The Romans are thought to have found the small canines in Egypt and the aristocrats took them all over the Roman Empire as pets. And in the remains of Pompeii you can find mosaics of the Italian Greyhounds and signs that were inscribed in Latin "Cave Canem" which means "Beware of the Dog". Well not because they were vicious but beware that you don't trample them underfoot.

The Italian Greyhounds should most likely be called Latin Greyhounds but they came so popular in Renaissance Italy that their name stuck. Only the royalty could afford animals that did not help support the household. Queen Victoria had Italian Greyhounds and there was not a Welsh Corgi in sight. Even the Russian Empress Catherine the Great had the beautiful Italian dogs.

Okay history lesson over. So how did I get onto this topic, well since I only got my Vespa back yesterday after been out of commission for two whole weeks, I was desperate to take Sophia, the name of my belle Vespa, on a long run and I needed to see a previous client at the Old Nederlandsche Bank en Crediet Vereeniging voor Zuid Afrika building in Pretoria Church Square. After getting there a little early I took a walk around Church Square admiring the old buildings and statues. The square is dominated in the centre by a large statue of President Paul Kruger guarded by statues of Boer commandos. The magnificent artwork was made by sculptor Anton van Wouw in the late 1890s and paid for by Sammy Marks. But what caught my eye was astounding. In a plaque showing the swearing in of President Paul Kruger May 1883 there is an Italian Greyhound. No lies, I even zoomed into the photograph to show you. It looks like my dog Patch, well I never knew he was a Time Travelling Dog. Now I am wondering who did the dog actually belong to, Paul Kruger or the person that is battling to hear? Who is that hard to hear person? He obviously owns the Italian dog and is facing away from the swearing in of President Paul Kruger. Was he Sammy Marks? More research is needed.

Stadstappers

The Pretoria Stadstapper Fotoklap held their forth session at the Hotel 224 and Union Buildings. A few Joburg Photowalkers joined them and wow what a awesome afternoon in Pretoria it was.

Oh course I had to get my visa stamped but it was worth it with all that Afrikaans spoken and meeting so many new photographic people. I was surprised to find more foreigners than South Africans at the Union Buildings grounds. I think we will be joining the Pretoria Stadstapper Fotoklap more often in the future.

Italia

What a game. Matthew and I have just returned from watching Italy beat the USA 3-1 in the FIFA Confederations Cup match held in Pretoria. It started off slowly with USA leading at half-time after a penalty kick after Altidore took a dive in the box. I must say he makes diving look graceful. Eventually one of the USA players got a red card and was sent off. Anyway the second half changed quickly after a barrage of goals made it 3-1. Well it is good to be home, slightly deaf from all those vuvuzelas and horst but good to be home.

Where’s my coffee?

Wow, what a early start. I had to be at the Pretoria Station at 5am for the introduction of the Gauteng Express. That meant that I had to leave home at 4 just to get there on time. Well I made it and all I wanted once arrived was a cup of coffee. Today’s photo is the TBE1 on the left and the new Gauteng ExpressTBE2 on the right. We were slightly delayed because of the Minister of Transport arriving late but we made up the time an arrived on schedule for the launch. It is exciting times with everything coming to head as we approach the start of the Confederation Cup soccer kick-off in just under two weeks.

Hellcom

I spent most of my day at College Campus Pretoria lecturing graphic students. They are a great bunch of students. While Carol spent most of her day sorting out Telkom or should I say Hellcom. Anyway she was successful and we have our DSL back up and running but the question on everyone's lips is "For how long?"

Transvaal Museum

I had to do a mock lecture in front of the Vice Principal, Head of Human Resources and the Head of IT as part of a valuation for a college. I chose web image formats as my topic. The feed back was very positive. The lecture happened in Pretoria and afterwards Matthew and I went to the Transvaal Museum. Only the mineral and bird sections were very good. The other sections were suffering from lack of funding. We left there with very sore feet.

Marching to Pretoria

I ended up in Pretoria this morning to see a client and afterwards at African Defence Systems. I got a bit waylaid in Pretoria due to the Gautrain road works. And while driving around I saw names of areas which brought my thoughts back to the book I am reading “Memoirs of the Boer War” by Jan Smuts. It was very hot today and the car’s air-conditioner helped a lot. It is weekend and I am looking forward to tomorrow evening because we are going to Saskia’s Cat in a Hat party. This cat got a hat. A light on the end he put. A bright spark he thought, alas load shedding makes a dull cat he.