Matthew and Justin are not just best friends but brothers as they proudly confess. They have been friends since pre-school and it was good for them to get together again for a sleep over. Cold as it might be nothing beats dad's hot chocolate.
Bonny and Clyde, well not quite but one out of two aren't bad. I sound like a old song by Meatloaf. Anyway these two, Bonny and John, are friends of mine who are engaged to be married next year. After picking up Matthew we all met at Cresta Shopping Mall to book for the Barnyard and afterwards went for drinks and naturally supper.
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.
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. :-(
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.
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.
Down the rabbit's hole I followed the white rabbit, not knowing that I would end up at Jumper's Lair with paintballs whizzing past me. Jumper's Lair in Edenvale is owned by Maddog aka Darren. They had teams as far as Potchefstroom at a paintball PBC 5 man tournament which Sandor and I tried our hand at war games photography. The team Strike Force won the tournament with Hell Jumpers coming second and Roughnecks third. Being a photographer in the middle of war games can be quite daunting sometimes. A number of times I found a contestant lying in cover just in front of me, knowing that fire will be aimed in his direction soon and you behind him. I don't think this comes close to real war photographers but I got a sense of the adrenaline rush they must get when rounds whizz past you while you dive for cover with your camera in hand.
This morning at our walk at Emmarentia, Maxy met Hector. Now Hector is all fighting machine with no brain while Maxy, a Italian Greyhound, is the stringy athlete in the dog world. Normally Maxy would be food for Hector if he could catch the IG but he is just a placid dog. Maxy with all his warnings snaps tried kept his distance but Hector had no brains and kept pestering Maxy to play, this continued the whole walk and afterwards Maxy was glad to be back in the car on the way home.
After work a group of friends met up at Rumours Lounge to start the weekend. I think it is in Weltevreeden Park but not sure as it was dark when I finally found the place. It was good just to relax and wind down after a stressful week. Here is Yvonne and Cindy showing how it's done. Later on the place got thicker and thicker with cigarette smoke that I struggled to breathe and had to get outside just to catch my breath. Now that I am finally home in my big empty house, I can officially start the weekend.
Coding can be quite boring at times. It is just lines upon lines of letters and numbers that tends to get to you after a while. That is why developers need to take humour breaks just to keep our wits about us. Yesterday I swopped the a couple of letters around on Ockert's keyboard. This morning he started typing unconsciously so he didn't notice at first. After an hour or two of using the keyboard it started dawning on Ockert that something was wrong. We offered some help to a confused Ockert by stating it was a virus but it didn't take long for him to figure it out. I better look under my desk tomorrow morning.
They say that if you laugh a lot, when you get older your wrinkles will be in the right places. Some time ago I mentioned that I have lost my laugh somewhere along the way. I still haven't quite found my true joy again with all the troubles that keep piling up. But I am starting to feel different now. I starting to know, no, more like a feeling deep down inside me that every little thing is gonna be all right. I worry a little about Matthew but I just need to assure him that he must not worry. He must leave the worrying to me.
How do I feel, well if I had to be truthful, not good. Although yesterday was a good day, ABSA just had to go spoil it. With that I found out today that it doesn't help being truthful and honest with insurance companies because then you not wanted. Towards the end of January this year Carol had a car accident, R60k damage. Then the day after she got the car back from the panel-beaters, a taxi side swiped her, R15k damage. Two weeks ago she went over a brick and damaged the cars suspension, R30k damage. That is three accidents, one after the other now ABSA doesn't want to carry on insuring us. Way to go ABSA, you are sure not going get my business in a hurry again. So I start phoning around for other insurance and it seems that the only way I can only get insurance now is if I lie. This is not good and I don't know what to do. This is why the mixed feelings. Yes I am angry but it won't help.
It was great spending the weekend with Matthew doing men's stuff. You know men's stuff. Friday night was eating as much sushi you can eat with friends. Saturday was shopping for clothes, oops did I say that? Well it was a quick in and out of the mall within a hour or two and we both had all the clothes we wanted to buy plus more. Later in the afternoon we headed down town to Chinatown. Sunday was the air show. So after the busy weekend it was back to work. The average calls received from the plumber and electrician websites in Johannesburg were sitting at 4 per day when I started the project a little over a month ago. Last week, the sites were averaging 10.75 calls per day with the maximum reaching 16 on two days. Today 24 calls had came in when I left in the afternoon. No wonder Louwellen looks happy.
Matthew and I hit the Rand Air Show nice and early, set up our camping chairs then proceeded to find some breakfast. It was a lovely day in the sun with Matthew reading his book The Wee Free Men and I my book Paper Sons and Daughters while the different planes and helicopters whizzed around, twirling in the air and strutting their stuff to the ever growing crowds. We took breaks every now and then to buy some more drinks but I guess we slowed the mustang down.
This afternoon after taking the dogs to the park and shopping for winter clothes for Matthew, we went on a photowalk to the old Chinatown. Ufrieda, an award winning journalist, lead us on the walk into her world. She explained to us that this was the first Chinatown under the shadow of the notorious John Vorster Square. Another one sprung up in Cyrildene with a later wave of Chinese immigrants in the 90s. It seems the dragons have left this declining Chinatown and moved east.
We had a many course meal in the basement of the Swallows Inn, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in the the City of Gold. The menu consisted of vegetarian spring-rolls, crispy sesame beef, monk-style beancurd and vegetables, egg fried rice, dry style vegetarian chow mein, crispy chicken, Chinese tea and bowties. We were all full afterwards. We even tried our hand at making origami cranes.
As I mentioned earlier there is not much left in this Chinatown but it was nice going back to the roots of my friend Chiu Saan, younger sister of Chiu Ngaan (Ufrieda).
After a long day at work, it was good relaxing with friends before a busy weekend ahead. A group of us ended up at Yamada Sushi in Rivonia. It was just a chilled atmosphere and I am sorry that I left my camera at home so I had to rely on my cellphone camera which is not really that good but has some great affects. So here is a sepia toned photograph of Ann towards the end of the evening.
Looking for the right car for my budget took a long time. I wanted something that would be able to carry Sophia, my Vespa. Eventually I had three vehicles lined up for test driving last Saturday. Two 2003 Opel Corsa Utilities and one 1995 Land Rover Discovery. Sadly all simply just fell through and on Sunday evening I despondently opened up an online website and a neat looking blue pickup had just been added eight minutes earlier. Happy with what I saw I phoned and arranged a test drive Monday morning. That very night I bought the 2001 Ford Bantam 160i Leisure and named her Sassette. She arrived yesterday and first thing we did was taking my dogs for their first ride in Sassette. Why Sassette you may ask. Well you may not know this but there are two female smurfs, Smurfette and Sassette. Sassette is the sassy, tomboy smurf who likes getting dirty, a perfect name for the small blue pickup. I am sure Sophia and Sassette will get on well.
I got up early this morning while the lazy old man peered over the horizon to light up the day. The reason was to place my mark in the local municipal elections. With all the mismanagement on the local level I know that if I don’t have my say it will continue unabated. And I wasn't the only one who thought an early start would lessen the queues. At least I met some interesting people. Later in the morning I went to Pretoria to pick up Sassette, my new second hand Ford Bantam pickup. I will explain soon why I decided on Sassette as the name for the Sophia carrier.
As per yesterday's post I want to try bring some more fun into my photographs of work colleagues. Not an easy task when there is so few of them to start with. Anyway here is Ockert sinking his teeth into his work, well pointing out which canines he will be using. It is mid week and those of you are tired of getting all those DA's SMS, spare a thought for those getting the ANC's "Please Call Me". Enjoy tomorrow and remember if you don't vote then you have no right to complain over bad service delivery.
Well the title of this blog may be a little deceiving as it not about Vincent the Second but about being the second photograph of Vincent. The office here in Kyalami is rather small with only four to six colleagues at any one time so I will need to start finding more interesting shots. Out of the box angles are not going to be easy. Vincent, shown above, knows all too well how cramped it can get especially if I have a camera nearby.
Sunday morning was a choice between Trash the dress photoshoot and BBC. I needed to refuel my soul so BBC easily won out. I am glad I went else I would have missed Ken's kongue in a tnot slip. It certainly brought a smile to my face. Later in the afternoon I took the dogs for a very long walk along the Little Jukskei River. By long I mean a one and a half hour walk up the river, then across into Parkview and back again. Our feet are sore, the dogs are fast asleep and I have my feet up.
Spending time with two of my loves in my life, Matthew and Sophia was a blessing today. We went out to test drive three vehicles today but sadly the testing didn't happen. The good thing was that all three of us got out on the open road. The one Ute was loaned to a dealer's friend and not back for me to road test even though I arranged to test it today, the other Ute was sold and the Discovery is not back from service. I have to make a decision soon. Unless something else comes up it looks like the Discovery is in the lead. In the meanwhile Matthew's feet now can reach the ground so now the teaching begins for him to ride Sophia by himself.
The long weekend is finally over and I get to see Matthew, if only for one night and part of a day. First thing I did was buy sushi for supper as it is one of his favourite meals. Can't stay long writing this. Must go. Goodnight and have an awesome weekend.
The long week is downhill from here. It has been one tough week on a personal side of things so how about a bit of humour to lighten up my spirit.
A businessman who need millions of rands to clinch an important deal went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for only R100 so he could buy his family something to eat. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed R100 into the other man's hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and left the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed, "And now, Lord, that I have your undivided attention..."
Yes so now I have your undivided attention, keep me in your prayers as I try to stand back up on my own two feet again. Oh and if you wondering what today's photo is about, well I want to keep my job if that is okay with you.
It is midweek and I so far I think I am coping okay. I am keeping busy at work which keeps my mind off things but there is still so much to do. Renew the Vespa licence, renew my passport, buy a vehicle, buy a new winter gloves and suit for the Sani trip, buy a new rear tyre for the Vespa, service Vespa and find a new home for myself. Tall order but will be done. I do believe I'm feelin' stronger every day.
This week the days are starting to get longer and longer. Not sure if it is just me feeling tired all the time or if it is really getting longer. Dion popped into AAA. I am not quite sure what he does for George. Dion gave me an distraction for a short while which helped make the day go quicker. When I finally got home all I wanted to do was shower and jump into bed. I'll trying to stay awake as long as I can but I'm not doing a good job of it so good night.
I am not coping too well sitting in Matthew's empty room. It seems the only way I can cope is to keep myself busy. The past weekend was great as my friends kept me constantly on the go with hikes, getting lost and playing Citadels. Now the long week has started and friends have gone so colleagues at work just have to do. Here is Thando giving me the hairy eyeball well his version of one.
Geoffrey, Craig and I went off on an early start to feed the lions this morning, well we wanted to feed Richard to the lions but they won't let us, pity. After all the fun yesterday we finally did what we came for, and that was feet up and relax.
Before I continue, I must say this, last night while trying to find Ingwe in the dark we found ourselves on a very straight tar road which at the time reminded us of an airstrip. The next morning we found out that it was. Great start to our weekend.
After Geoffrey joined us this morning from Johannesburg, we decided to explore Mabalingwe. We started with a hike and later a drive to find the Kalahari Oasis. Now Craig's car is an older Audi A1 which he states is not Quattro but the rest of us all thought it was. Now with four good looking, big strapping young men all piled in, we went off road. Let me state that yes we did get lost a number of times. There was no one to ask directions and the map we had was very wrong or maybe it was our map reading skills. At least we kept the GPS on to help us find our way out. But anyway we finally found the Kalahari Oasis and the best pomp in town. Well we could not stay long as we did not have much light left and Laura was expected soon at our chalet. Well you didn't expect four guys to be able to look after themselves do you?
But getting back to our chalet turned out just as difficult as getting to the Kalahari Oasis. Someone turned the GPS off which recorded our route like bread crumbs. The photo above shows Craig at a telephone booth trying to get directions back. After a few wrong turns, well many wrong turns the rain started bucketing down and it got dark quickly as it tends to do in Africa. Well we inched our way back to camp laughing so much (well everyone except Craig as he was very stressed) and getting quite wet in the process. Then it was time to get the log fire roaring, the braai on the go and couple of games of Citadels to finish the evening off.
Craig a good friend of mine arranged a weekend away at Mabalingwe Game Reserve, which is the other side of Bela bela on the edge of the Waterberg. So casting all to the warm bushveld wind I decided to be spontaneous once again, something I haven’t done for nearly 15 years. So after work, Richard, Craig and I headed north for our bushveld getaway. We arrived at the Ingwe Lodges at Mabalingwe after 10pm under a universe of stars. Wow to see the teeming Milky Way with the Southern Cross lost among the countless stars was a beautiful sight we don’t get in Joburg with its light pollution.
Finally a photograph of George but you can imagine my surprise when he walked into the office dressed like a mafia don. Curious as I was, trying to imagine the why but it is not my place to wonder but to continue with George's websites. This week is nearly over but my problems are still looming large but you know what they say about how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
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