Mthatha Travellling

What a week! I have been really busy this week with trying to get all of the new years purchases "online" as well as tying up the last remainders of the carry overs from last years efforts. I found out on Wednesday that I needed a rush visit to Mthatha (Umtata for the old school) to see a piece of land we may want to purchase. I had everything arranged for me by one of the secretaries in our department and left for the airport at 7am on Thursday morning. Everything was going well (I have a kind of routine when travelling) right up until we were touching down at the airport. The plane was very "twitchy" and the pilot had come into the runway a little high but was still going for the landing. As the right rear touched down, the engines started screaming and the plane accelerated up and off of the runway into the sky again. I wish I had a camera out to catch the looks on the faces around me!

There was a little bit of joking in the cabin when we lined up for the second try and the feeling of tension was palpable. The pilot got us down just fine and some people even clapped (for conservative South Africans this is a big thing). We heard the Hostess announce that there was a big gust of wind which upset things on the first attempt hence the need for a second. I got to the door of the plane to disembark all the while thinking the pilot messed up on the approach. As the gut in front of me stepped through the door and I got into the doorway, I was almost blown over! Walking to the terminal building was not the easiest thing to do so I had to take back all of my thoughts about the pilot and replace them with some admiration. That guy could really fly!

I went right away to collect a rental car for the drive from East London to Mthatha. Let the games begin!
The rental company we usually use is very good and will bend over backwards to help (it does help that I have a preferred customer card through the company...) if at all possible. This is usually not required though because everything is arranged beforehand by the ladies in the office. Thursday though, was the day that I found out these ladies are not infallible. I arrived at the desk of the car rental company and handed over my card as usual only for the guy to get a funny look on his face and spend a while punching keys on his keyboard. He looked up at me after a while and said "We don't have a booking for you." which got me on the phone to the office immediately. While dialing out he told me there was absolutely nothing available for rent for the next three days. The office confirmed that I had no booking and there I was, in East London with no transport from the airport to Mthatha which is a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from where I was. I was supposed to meet the sellers of the property and walk around with them but I was beginning to wonder If I was going to get there.

As I said earlier, I have a kind of routine when I travel but this kind of blew that right out of the water. I had to now think for myself what needed to be done - how terrible! I went to every other car rental counter in the airport looking for a car, any car, but was turned away by everyone. OK, before I was kind of thinking the situation was a little funny but now I am wondering if this trip has just been wasted because no cars are available. I came back to one of the counters I had been to before (they had been busy helping someone else) and was told they had a little car with no air con or power steering available (didn't know manufacturers made cars without power steering nowadays). I took it.

After paying and signing my life away, I went and go into the car and started my trip an hour later than planned. I enjoy driving and usually have a good time on the road but this little car was going wherever the wind told it to go, my input was somewhat of a hindrance as it was trying to drive across lanes every time there was a gust outside. Once out of East London the wind seemed to die down a lot and it was easier to keep the right wheels on my side of the line. As I started thinking I could possibly get to Mthatha on time, I stopped. There are a bunch of "stop and go" areas on the road between Mthatha and East London!

I stopped the car and ended up sitting there for ten minutes or so in the heat, wishing the wind would blow! I never seem to be happy with what I am given lately do I? After we got moving again, we had a couple of slow moving trucks in the queue ahead of us and my little tchorrie was not in a hurry to overtake when the situation presented itself and would only cooperate on downhills or, if I had given it a run up, gradual inclines or again short steep ones. I would get to overtake a truck and end up stopping again at the next stop and go with another truck ahead in the queue. By the time I got to my destination I was wet with perspiration.

The sellers couldn't make it to the property to show me around so I went in and did a recce alone. The place had been vandalised really badly and was totally overgrown with weeds and grass as tall as me. My timing was not very good either as a lot of people were now knocking off of work and walking through the area. I get to spend some time in the townships around the country with my job and have never felt threatened at all. Thursday was the first time I had ever felt a little uncomfortable. I needed to measure the property so I walked around the borders and marked everything on the GPS.The grass was longer than I am tall and really thick so fighting my way through it was not really fun (never mind not knowing what is one meter in front of you). I made it through the grass around the border of the property and went to have a look in side only to find someone sitting there just in front of me holding a metal rod in his hands. Being Mr cool, I just greeted him and continued doing my thing while he grabbed his goods and left. My heart nearly stopped! There were a couple of guys who walked past while I was doing my measuring and photographing who looked like tsotsi types but the worst I had was a couple of speculative looks.

I drove home once done and thank goodness the road closures had been removed so I got back to East London without too much hassle and got to see a pretty good sunset while driving. The photos never do justice to the real thing but here is one anyway (taken through the window while driving).

The colours were amazing!

What a beautiful world we live in.

Hugo jnr jnr garden cleanout

Sunday morning, wondering about getting dressed and spending the day sitting in meetings at church...

Yesterday we (the WHOLE family) went to Chace and Ruby-Lynne to help them out with their overgrown garden. They were both in the 'states for a month over the middle of our summer and everything had grown wild! We got there and looked at everything that needed to be done - all I can say is I wish we had taken some before and after pictures. We got rid of a couple of trailer loads of plants which had been cut back and down and it seemed that every one of the plants we needed to remove was full of poison carrying barbs waiting to hook into you and rake their claws across your flesh. (It does sound a little melodramatic but if you were there you would understand, all we heard the whole day was "ouch", "eina", "stop, stop, stop, stop!" - it would have been funny if it wasn't so sore!)
By the time we were done (Ruby and myself) and were ready to go, my comment was that it looked as though I had been attacked by a herd of kittens. We didn't even stay to the end because Ruby had to adjust a couple of pairs of pants for one of the sisters from church and wanted to get home before dark so she could still see the black thread on the black of the pants (our lighting in the room Ruby is using for sewing is not so good). We left at three thirty but then had a huge bank of dark clouds roll over and the rain then started. Poor Ruby was so stressed out about getting the pants ready before this sister left on her holiday and now she had no natural light to work in. But, Ruby being Ruby, the job was completed on time and done well.

While Ruby was sewing and after that preparing supper, I was trying to fix a tyre on her car which keeps going flat. I have spent a LOT of time in the last month or so trying to fix this thing but the tyre still goes flat every day or two. I was out there for ages. The process consists of pumping the tyre (going to the local garage to do so), jacking the car up, loosening the tyre studs / bolts, taking the tyre off, going to the hose and wetting the tyre down slowly and thoroughly while searching for bubbles escaping. Once this is done, I have to mark the location, get to the repair kit, push a "spike" with serrated shaft into the tyre to prepare it for the plug, prepare the plug for insertion and try get it in before the air all gets out of the tyre which will necessitate another trip to the garage for a refill. so to start this all off, I pumped the tyre at the garage and went home to fix the leak. After locating a leak, I proceeded to punch a hole with the repair tool and put a plug into it. Job done!

Or so I thought. I had started putting the tyre back onto the car and heard the tell tale sound of air bubbling through the layer of water on the tyre. I took the tyre off and started the search again, located the leak (another one), and proceeded to repair. Aidan had now come out and wanted to help me. I started the putting on of the tyre and heard.... you guessed it! Another leak was heard hissing away. Off with the wheel and start the whole thing again. My hand is shaking while trying to force a spike into the steel belt and Aidan asks "why is your hand shaking daddy?"
"Because daddy is tired and this is very hard to do my boy."
Aidan wanted to now stick the spike into the tyre (I am not sure having him watch me sticking things into the tyre of my wife's car is such a good thing, you would understand if you knew Aidan) but was dissuaded when I pulled it out and the rushing of escaping air scared him enough that he ran away. I know I shouldn't, but I do enjoy little moments like that. Does that make me a bad daddy?

Now I am not totally doff (an Afrikaans word meaning literally "blunt" but used as slang for "dim" or "stupid") so after having to to this process three times I figure I am going to locate the new leak, fix it and go back to look for another leak because I now know it is going to jump out to surprise me the moment I start putting the tyre back on Ruby's car. So I again locate a leak and run through the whole process of repairing it and repeat.  Getting a little "tyred" of this process.... I find another leak, repeat previous process, I find another leak, repair and put the tyre back onto the car. Ignoring as only a real man can, (just ask Ruby, she will confirm my deafness on occasion - children needing help in the bathroom being a good example) the hissing of air slowly escaping from the tyre. This is the first time I have ever seen this! Literally the whole outside edge of the tyre has holes in it. I have had enough for the day!

We will be getting some new tyres this week....

Valentines Day?

Just a couple of minutes to go before work officially starts, gives me a chance to "pen a few words".
I have been wondering about my blogging and how it shows who I am / what I am thinking and boy am I surprised at what I see. I feel like I am really negative with a lot of things (reading past posts) and that needs to change, I mean I don't feel negative at all, in fact I think I am pretty positive but when I get down to writing here I seem to put down negative comments...

Valentines day has just passed and Ruby & I did nothing. Well we decided that we would go out for dinner and a movie on the 15th instead of the 14th so we could dodge the crowds and all of the valentines brouhaha. I did "surprise" Ruby with a chocolate on the 14th and a little note (I leave for work while everyone is still in bed) because it was after all valentines day but nothing more than that on the day. On the 15th I left another two chocolates for Ruby and she sent me a shout out from the mountain tops:


Isn't that really cool?

The original can be seen on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us0wXiBKyzY


Ditto to you Ruby!!!!

Well work starts now (or should be starting) so I will log off and get busy earning my keep.

Time flies when you are having fun

Well plenty has been happening in the last month to keep me and the family busy (apparently too busy to get to the computer...)

On the first of Jan we celebrate Aidan's Birthday, he got a desktop computer from his big brother and parents (Kyles old PC we resurrected) which he was really excited about. We also went to have a meal at the local Spur restaurant where he qualified for a free birthday meal. He was given the option of having a party with his cousins or going to Spur - he chose the playground at Spur!

Seems like he made the correct decision because we ended up having everyone come over anyway so he got both wishes in the end. We put the birthday candles into the watermelon we were going to eat and had him blow them out as if it was his cake, he really enjoyed that! (So did everyone else)

On the 3rd of Jan Chace and Ruby (his Ruby not mine) got back from the US so the family all got together to celebrate the return - they were gone for a month. we all had dinner together and sat looking at their photos. Poor Ruby was passing out there in the lounge and was not really "with it", she really looked tired! Chace brought me a pair of Nikes from the States so I donated the old pair I had to Kyle because he has had some real rubbish in the way of footwear over the last while. After a couple of days use of my new shoes though, the sole has started peeling off... Do you think it is too late to repossess the old ones?

Kyle also got the chance to go fishing in January - he was very proud of catching two fish and we were regaled with the story many times (both he and Kenroy retold the story a couple of times) and invited to go fishing next time. I really do not enjoy the fishing thing, just sitting there waiting and hoping for something to happen.

As far as work is concerned, I have had a busy January with training etc all taking up time. I travelled to Botswana to look at some land in Molepolole and returned the same day. It was good to get home after being in the car for so long. There has been a lot change happening in the office and staff have been "reassigned" as well as new staff being hired. One of those new employees is my Bishop so we now work in the same department which is nice.

Something else new is our acquisition of the Wii Just Dance game. There has been a lot of time taken up standing in front of the tv screen making silly movements....

We invited Devra and Jethro over to supper and had all of the Children babysat at Candice's place. We played until way too late and had to apologise to Candice for leaving her with the children for so long!

We also had the Chippings arrive from the 'States and have been able to spend some time with them over the last few days. They are really nice people and speaking with them gets me thinking of the whole staying here vs. leaving to go to the 'States thing again. I suppose I should just buckle down and get things here moving properly so I don't have to worry about things there, though sometimes I just wish.....

Ja nee! My life is good here and I have nothing to complain about really. I have a wonderful family and home as well as a job at a good place of employment and a good community that we live in. I just realised that I am starting to get a bit silly here again (seem to do this quite regularly on this blog) so I am going to sign off.

(maybe, just maybe, I will post something again before a month passes but no promises)

The prodigal son returns

I thought I was away for a while - I didn't realise it was so long! Wow, where do I
begin? I have finished all of my Unisa papers and have got to redo the
accounting one (which is no big surprise to me). The others are all ok but due
to my travelling over the time one of my exams was to be written, I am writing
it with the next semester's papers.

Christmas has come and gone and a new year is already waiting in the wings - I really do
not remember time ever having passed by this fast ever before. Maybe the
earthquakes etc over the last while really have sped up the days....

Well it is the 29th of December 2010 and I am sitting in the office at work busy
updating my blog as well as listening to the radio commentary of the cricket
match between South Africa and India in Durban. As I type these words, Jacques
Kallis has just gone out and S.A. are seemingly in trouble, needing
another 170 odd runs to beat India which at this stage is looking like an
uphill task.

Christmas this year was a very "quiet" time and the gifts were all (mostly)
smaller and or homemade. Ruby made the children some really cool gifts and so
we got to spend some (limited) funds on the stockings etc. once we had a look
at all of the gifts, we realised that the children were not getting a bad
Christmas at all which was our fear this year. The worst off among our children
were the little ones (who don't really notice being "short changed" -
as long as they get something they are only too happy. Christmas eve was a
nice, quiet evening together at the Stolp's house. The pool was around 30
degrees Celsius and was perfect for an extended swim. I spent a while in the
pool with the boys and we had a lot of fun.

Just before dinner was going to be eaten, I left to buy some more goodies for Ruby's
stocking and by the time I arrived back everyone was eating and Ruby
had dished up for me. This turned out being perfect as I didn't over eat and
actually enjoyed myself the rest of the evening. After our meal, Wayne Doller
did a reading and we sang some carols while trying to keep the children under
control. After the carol singing was done we had pudding which was homemade ice
cream and meringues.

When we got home the children all went to sleep quickly (except for Kyle) and we were
able to get to sleep at a better hour than usual for a Christmas
eve. Around 2:30 in the morning I heard some movement in the lounge and
some talking among the boys and was thinking they were checking out their
stocking goodies. Ruby eventually got up to check on them and discovered that
Kyle had instigated the opening of the "real" gifts under the tree.

This is DEFINITELY not allowed in our house as the children have to wait until the
whole family is together before we open gifts. This is the reason we have the
stockings for them and they get to open those while waiting until everyone
is up. Needless to say we were not very impressed with our boys but then, what
can you do? Ruby and myself got out of bed at 6am and went into the lounge with
the boys so they could (continue to) open the gifts under the tree).

At 8am we packed and went to the senior Hugo's where all of the cousins get together and
open gifts from each other and the adults get to open our gifts to each other
also. We had a budget of R50.00 to work within this year and we had to do
something homemade which was extremely difficult to do. After the distribution
of gifts everyone started going off to visit family etc for the day and we
ended up going home for a while where the boys played with their gifts and we
passed time to around 1:30 when we packed and headed back to the Stolps for a swim.
We ended up being there for the rest of the day and had a borewors braai and
salad for supper. The temperature of the water on Christmas day was 32 degrees
Celsius - the boys didn't want to get out at all!

Monday we went to the Dickeys and spent the day next to the pool chatting while the
children swam and ran around. The only negative was trying to keep an eye on
Jesse because he has decided that he likes the pool and just runs right up
to it then steps into it. I felt concerned about that as well as the one dog
who for some reason did not like Jesse and would growl and look aggressive if
he cornered it anywhere. All in all we have had a very quiet Christmas and it
has been quite rest full for me (maybe not Ruby).

Yesterday (28th December) I got to go to the temple and stood in for Willem and Martie
Jacobs' son at their sealing. This was a really nice experience and it was also
nice to be able to sit in the sealing room alone while waiting for everyone.
There really is no place as peaceful as sitting alone in the temple...

A nice
finish to the year and I am waiting to see what will be happening in the new
year.

One down, two to go

I have completed the accountancy exam today - the first of four subjects registered for this semester. It is a relief to eventually have this exam done but I feel like it was a total flop! Right now I feel fine about the others but his one was always going to give me a hard time.

It just does not make any sense, the whole accounting thing. Everything is backwards! Anyway, it is now over (for a couple of months...) and hopefully I have scraped enough to get by when the year mark is included. I threw enough of the figurative poop at the wall and hopefully some of it will stick, enough at least to allow a pass...

I have written a letter to the powers that be asking for a deferment on the one exam I am due to write as I will be travelling over that day and will be unable to participate. Hopefully I will hear from them soon so I can concentrate my efforts on the remaining two subjects and ensure I get some decent results.

We are going to splurge this evening and get pizza for supper and have a Family Home Evening with meringues and yoghurt for pudding (Ruby spent some time this evening making the meringues which always go down well in this home) to keep the boys happy. Speaking of the boys, Orin went in for a speech assessment this week and the result is that he has to go in again to have some things checked with his hearing at the audiologist as this may have been having an impact on his speech. He could have some reoccurring middle ear infections which affect his hearing and thus his speech. It was interesting to note that the therapist commented that he is a very smart little guy and has a large vocabulary and it seems that he made it through some test which not many children she has through her doors actually do. Go my Boy!

What can I say - my boys are just the best...

Battle of the bands

Friday evening we had a youth activity at the Bishops house. A braai was going in the back and the PS2 "world tour" was going on in the lounge, they all had fun. Some of the young women got the make up out and "decorated" the young men (rocker style eye makeup and hairdos) so everyone could look official.
By 11pm I was home, having had enough for one night but they carried on until 2am Saturday morning - Makes me feel old all over again.

This weekend was also time for us to have the Zafira repaired (eventually) and get rid of the oil leak. The poor car was literally spraying the oil out and would leave a trail in every driveway we entered, terminating in a big pool where we stopped. It got to where my poor wife was scared to visit anyone because she would make a mess in their yard / driveway and get embarrassed. My parents particularly intimidate her and we have seen sand poured on the oil spill in their driveway which really kills Ruby anytime we stop there. Anyway, we got the offending leak plugged on Saturday and after all of the stress of thinking what it would cost, only set us back R200. A huge thanks to Thinus from Nigel Delta who does all of our repairs and servicing! When I had a look (I am the first to admit my motor mac skills are lacking) I couldn't tell where the leak was coming from (a quick excuse here - the whole bottom part of the engine was covered in oil and nothing was really visible...) but it seemed that it may be the sump gasket. I was thinking of the expense involved in removing the sump and protector plate etc but was happily proved wrong when Thinus lifted the car and got in underneath it to check on things.
It turns out that the oil pressure sensor was at fault and the oil was literally spraying out(see, my description before was accurate) through this sensor. It was kind of like a big water pistol but was spraying oil instead of water....

So I got to study the whole day Saturday (doing accounting exam soon and do not have a clue) and only got home at around four thirty in the afternoon. We all went to the Stolps afterwards for a swim and ended up staying for a braai which was very nice. The evening was perfect - warm with a slight breeze and some rumbling of thunder in the distance. It was nice to sit and chat with no rushing from one thing to the next. As we were leaving, Lara was saying we do not visit often enough. My reply was that the reason was we are not the kind to invite ourselves and are usually very happy just pend time at home. Something we can change I suppose...

Off we go to visit my parents (in an oil squirt free car) and drop off Aidan's cousin Ashley who came to our place for lunch today.