Sunday, December 11, 2011

Belly dancing lessons

No I haven't taken leave of my senses (well, not altogether)

My almost-daughter (the doctor) is getting married next Saturday. It was her kitchen tea yesterday, held at the soon-to-be in-laws' brand new restaurant. One of her friends bought belly dancing lessons for the guests, I can barely move today.

Here the belly dancer demonstrates how to give yourself an appendectomy.


I retired, injured, after about 45 minutes.

Scientist no 1 with the bride to be. BFFs for 18 years.


They went on to movies and then the bachelorette party. I have no idea how they kept going from 11am yesterday until 2.30am this morning.


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Meet The Glumms



Edna and Harold Thick-knee. For new parents they look remarkably unimpressed. I'm guessing it's the lack of sleep.


The chick is so well-camouflaged I thought the ginger cat from up the road may have eaten it. It's quite nerve-wracking for me, I'm sure they are exhausted from chasing neighbourhood cats and assorted predators..

Yesterday morning I sent Walter racing down the road at 4am after the ginger cat, dressing gown flapping behind him; hopefully everyone else was still fast asleep.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Happy birthday Scientist No 1

It was Scientist no 1's birthday yesterday. She is now "25 with 1 year's experience"

In Knysna, 1987


Just like that she's 25 with 1 year's experience. High 5 for handing in her Master's thesis.

Quite appropriate that one of the Thick-knee eggs hatched then, on her birthday.
Mama bird, looking fierce

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Cycle challenge 2011

Scientist no 1 has crossed to the dark side. Given how I feel about the wretched cycle challenge (which effectively places the neighbourhood under collective house arrest on an annual basis) you would think she would steer clear of it.
But no. 

Saturday, November 19, 2011

They're back....

We have a pair of Spotted Dikkops (now referred to as Spotted Thick-Knees for some obscure reason) who have nested in our street for as long as we have lived here.

Their return to the street in late spring is confirmation, for me, that summer is not far behind.

Egg-sitting


I keel you...


Sometimes one will stand in the middle of the road when I'm coming home from the gym early in the morning, almost daring me to come closer. I have to sit and wait for it to calm down before slowly driving on. They are, apparently, monogamous birds so I'd hate to harm one accidentally.

And we can sit in the boma of an evening, watching the bats catching their dinner and listening to the Dikkops calling.




Saturday, November 12, 2011

I quite forgot about the Cape Town trip...

The Angola Airlines 747 was still, as of 8th October 2011,  waiting for someone to claim it / give back its engines.

Of the 9 million pictures I took over the Karoo (my seat-neighbour was not altogether sure what I was doing pointing the iPad out of the window and if that required reporting me to the crew for being a potential threat) only 1 was worth keeping.



Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11

Ten years ago today I flew home from Grahamstown where I had been at Rhodes University for Highway Africa with a few colleagues including one from our New York office.

TV screens were set up throughout the media centre and as we left the lecture hall where he had given his presentation we saw the first images. Small groups of people gathered around the screens watching the now-familiar plume of smoke coming from the first tower. PLANE FLIES INTO TWIN TOWERS was scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

We assumed it was a small plane; a tragic accident, but surely not enough to justify all the news channels broadcasting the same footage? What could cause so much smoke? A little later a jet came into view in a steep turn and disappeared behind one of the towers. The initial speculation was stilled, quickly followed by hands clapped over mouths and wide eyes. People were quite literally struck dumb as it slammed into the second tower. Disbelief and silence in the middle of a media conference.

We drove back to our small B&B without saying a word, my colleague desperately trying to call his New York-based family but unable to get a connection. Our hostess, an absent-minded gentle soul, was watering her flowers and called us over, proudly pointing out the new blooms on some rare bush she was nurturing. We told her what had happened, tried to explain, but how do you tell someone that the very axis of the world has shifted and nothing will ever be the same again? She smiled brightly "I'm sure it was an accident dear, not to worry. Can I pack you some sandwiches for the trip?" and wandered off to switch off taps and re-pot petunias.

Our transport arrived to take us back to Port Elizabeth airport, two hours away by road. The driver got out to help us with our bags, and introduced himself "I'm Rashid, let me help you with that, ma'am" A colleague called me aside "Tell Dan not to speak, the driver must not know he's American" I ignored this and calmly introduced myself. We gave Dan the whole back seat of the combi to himself, he kept trying his wife and teenage sons. The rest of us sat silently, staring out of windows while Rashid fiddled with the radio until he found a station.
I wondered, a few years later, if he knew all along, and had just pretended not to know to try and keep the mood light.
When he dropped us at the airport he turned around and spoke directly to Dan "I do not understand. I pray your family is safe"

At PE airport I searched out the station manager (yes, it's an airport, but they refer to station managers nonetheless) and explained the particular situation we were facing. Our colleague would need a private room, with a working telephone and email facilities. He leapt into action, clearing his own office and laying on a supply of food, tea and coffee. I remain touched by this response; we were not dignitaries or VIPs; but he understood how important this small act of kindness was and how terrified my colleague was for his family - out of touch and so very far away in a home turned frighteningly hostile.

More reports came in; other flights had been hi-jacked, apparently America was under attack. Both towers were burning furiously now, why couldn't they stop the blaze?

There was talk of all flights being grounded, even flights from PE. We were searched and finally boarded our flight home in silence. Dan had managed to change his flight home, bringing it forward by a week and routing via Europe but could not get a connection to the US. He would spend many days in London, waiting for US airspace to re-open and finally making it home via Canada and a hired car. Fortunately his family was safe, but I can't help thinking how terrifying it must have been not to know for so long, watching your city burn from another continent.

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Bath day

The Burmese are not amused, I bathed them yesterday.

Poor things won't even look at me. It went quite well though, don't think I need more than six stitches, max.

The Siamese made a dash for freedom when she heard the bath water running, only reappeared late last night.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Smog

The apparent clarity of the air above Johannesburg while you're sitting safely on the ground waiting to take off



is quite shockingly shown to be a lie when you climb to around 5,000 feet



There's around 1000 feet of sludge sitting over Johannesburg. No wonder everyone has been so sick this winter.



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Location:25,000 feet

Another trip

Happy spring day!

Off to Durban for the day, it's a beautiful day in Johannesburg.



B737-300. Yay!


The Air Angola 747 is still here...

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Location:York St,Kempton Park,South Africa

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The thing about flying...

at the pointy bit of the aircraft is that you have to have good balance. Who knew?
No, I'm not singing Karaoke, I'm talking to the tower (the boss of the sky)
I always thought it would be my bank balance or eyesight that would stop me from flying. Once I figured out the 'one hour at a time' approach to the cost and had the radial keratotomy I was all set. MyFriendPeter found me an instructor at Lanseria Flying School and I was finally on my way.
Checking the tanks for water or sediment. The engines don't like either.
I even managed the physics part (trust me, 13 different schools is not the way to go if you want your children to understand maths or science)

Messing about on planes. Sigh.
The first sign of trouble was the problem with spins and stalls but I somehow managed to put that out of my head and had, in fact, forgotten all about it by the time I went solo.
Aside: Going solo ranks right up there as the single best feeling in the world. Until you figure out you're ALONE. Landing safely all by yourself is second.
So there I was, in the left hand seat, clearing for another solo flight in the circuit at Lanseria, when the tower told me to "expedite". There was a B737 commercial flight inbound from Cape Town and our paths would cross (in a bad way) unless I hurried up. My instructor advised a steep turn (we were flying an extended downwind leg).
For some reason the powers-that-be decided steep turns should come after going solo. I had not yet been shown how to do steep turns, but how hard could it be, right?
This is what I remember: In the steep part of the turn I felt the aircraft was going into a spin. This ends badly close to the ground; you need altitude to recover. Fortunately I didn't try to correct - I let go of all the controls and told Oscar "Take her" (which he did, straight away) and we landed safely.
When I explained what had happened he told me I couldn't fly until I had been checked out by an aviation doctor. It sounded like an inner-ear problem and hopefully was temporary.
Months of investigation followed. I went from one specialist to the next until I managed to get an appointment with an airforce ENT specialist. The tests lasted hours; but finally he had a diagnosis for me. I have a proprioceptive problem; a chronic form of bilateral vestibular dysfunction most likely caused by otosclerosis. This also explains why I stand in the middle of the escalator - it feels like I will fall over the edge.
From a flying perspective there is little to be done. It 'might' be possible to re-train my brain through G-force training (that machine that spins you progressively faster until you throw up or pass out). Or (if I had a million to spare) I could carry on flying with my instructor and take another 10 years to get my licence (the same theory, train my brain) "I wouldn't recommend either" he said "most pilots with this problem end up breaking planes. Crash and burn"
And so I stopped.
From time to time, when I'm in a plane (passenger only these days) and it makes a steep turn I have to close my eyes and tell myself we're not going into a spin, it's the faulty equipment in my head.






.


Saturday, August 13, 2011

There's a lion in the garden

No really - this chap currently lives next door to friends of mine in Chartwell
Taken on my iPhone, then I used instagram to add the effect. Please note, there is no zoom on the iPhone

His name is Monty and I understand the crime rate has dropped to zero since he moved in.

In the paddock next door is Emma, the star of Racing Stripes  


It's this kind of thing that makes people from overseas think elephants walk the streets of Johannesburg.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Another business trip...

Dear Air Angola
Please come and fetch this poor B747 before any more parts are scavenged. You can just see it's tail in this shot, complete with Sable Antelope emblem.




And my colleague kindly took this early morning taxiing Airbus shot for me since I forgot the mik en druk.




We flew on a Dash-8 to Bloemfontein, where we touched down way past the threshold and consequently missed the exit. First time I've experienced a u-turn on the runway.

Didn't spot the Meerkat sentry from last time...

It was 1degC - there really should be a place to buy sweaters at every airport.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Look what I found!

I was looking for something in the TV room the other day and came across my flying bag. Of course it's exactly where I left it when I was grounded, but apparently that part of my hard drive was subsequently overwritten with more important information.

MyFriendMargie had my name embossed on the front when we started flying lessons together. It's so expensive we could only afford an hour every other week (instead of eating, you understand) and we shared an instructor.


Actually, I think it's the best way to learn how to fly. We met at the flying school early on a Sunday morning, sat through the theory together, and then had breakfast at the airport restaurant after our practicals, comparing notes. 

July 11 was my last flight, it's when I realised it wasn't my imagination. There was a real problem.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Ah, Cape Town

I've always been slightly wary of Cape Town. Growing up in Zambia I'd already been to Europe before I ventured that far south, and there is that "thing" to consider (No, not the freezing Atlantic ocean; Johannesburg people always run it down, then they 'semigrate' there as soon as they get a chance. Then they carry on complaining)
Anyhow.
The weather was perfect when I landed on Monday evening and even the TomTom behaved, taking me (almost) straight to the hotel (I alternate. But the other hotel doesn't have free wireless so they're off the list for now). I even managed to find the entrance to the hotel's garage first time around (heeding the car rental's "Don't hand over your keys to ANYONE to park your car" advice)
And I stepped onto my balcony to see this

And met up for pink drinks with my friend Sets the next evening here
although perhaps boots weren't the most appropriate choice of footwear for this outing...

So I fully understand the appeal of the mother city.

The only altercation I had with the TomTom was trying to get back to the airport, when I switched it on it gave me 0m as the distance to my destination. While I was in the city (Jo'burg people tell me it was "obviously in Cape Town mode")

A cold front was moving in and I snapped this with the mik en druk on take-off

And nearly froze when we landed in Johannesburg.

Yes, the Air Angola B747 is still there...

Cr*p! The engines are gone!

Flew to Cape Town on Monday, thought I'd just check in on my pet project, the deserted Air Angola B747. I check on it every time I'm at OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg, it's been there all of this year. Maybe longer, since it appears I'm the only person who's noticed it until now.

SOMEONE STOLE THE ENGINES!

Finally bought a mik en druk

Having gone on and on about buying a mik en druk (point and shoot) camera for so long I finally bought one at the airport.
Yes, I know it's probably not the best price and I also know I should have bought it before the Mozambique trip but at least I have it.
I texted Walter "Bought a camera" he texted back "bought a blood pressure monitor" (he did, really, and there was I thinking it was a comment on my spending patterns)

Problem no 1 - they aren't pre-charged. So I couldn't use it immediately ("You'll need to charge it for at least 8 hours" said the clerk when she'd finished ringing it up) She also pointed out that I'd need a storage card - the camera itself only stores around 4 pictures (could be 40 for all I know, she obviously saw me coming) but I drew the line at adding a pouch to carry it around in.
So I was patient. I waited until I got to the hotel in PE (I had a minor disagreement with the TomTom on the way - Beach Rd is not the same as Marine Drive, what's with the guessing?) and left it to charge overnight.
While I was waiting I thought I'd read the instructions - which only came in Italian, Dutch and French. No English.
Sigh
With the help of some of my Twitter friends I managed to get it right, so I got a sunrise picture in Port Elizabeth
And then also one of the view from the restaurant where I went for a late lunch after dropping my colleague off at the airport

It's a Canon PowerShot A2200. Oh, and I bought a very pretty pouch over the weekend

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Snow!

Snow on the mountains of the Eastern Cape, quite dramatic


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Location:34,000 feet, B737-400

It's still there, poor baby

The Air Angola 747 is STILL waiting to be taken home...(riiiight at the back)



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Location:OR Tambo International Airport

Sunday, July 24, 2011

High finance - don't pay with dollars older than 2009

When Walter went to settle the bill for our last 3 days' accommodation, bar and restaurant (we had pre-paid the first 3 nights, thinking we may travel further afield after that) we discovered that they don't accept dollars printed before 2009. This was high finance for me, requiring multiple exchange rates (from metacais into dollars at 26:1) and then some negotiation, on Walter's part for them to take the 2 notes printed in 2006. Walter is an extraordinary negotiator, though, exhibiting no impatience and slowly wearing down his opponent with logic and reasonable argument.
Not my dollars, unfortunately, image courtesy of Google images. You have to search for the year of printing, and the manager told us the owner would subtract the amount from his salary should he accept the 2001 bill.
They were firm on the note from 2001, however, which saw us scratching through wallets for rands to pay the outstanding amount (and more high finance exchanging dollars into rands). No, they don't take credit cards (that was on the website, why not the dollars?)
Apparently this is quite common in Africa, although it was news to me. Now you know too.

Of course this meant we didn't have enough cash to buy petrol in Xai-Xai and would have to draw money, which we did. Also important - the banks in Xai-Xai don't have Maestro ATMs so you can't draw from your debit card. The Xai-Xai FNB did take my VISA card, however, so we could draw enough for petrol, snacks and the toll fees. 

That would have been fine and dandy, apart from the traffic fine.

Day 6...

Our last day – tomorrow we are off home; we are hoping to do the journey in one day.

A suitably lazy day then, spent reading and eating (what else?) with a final trip to the beach

'bye beach

The pool at the resort, for those who aren't too fond of beach sand

The restaurant verandah. Stick to the chips.

Could there be a better spot for your late afternoon glass of wine?

Day 5...

Another perfect day in Africa



How is it already day 5 when it feels like we’ve just arrived? There are more guests, and last night I heard a rather loud cat advertising its stud services outside our casita. The power went off (it does, from time to time) but I could still read on the iPhone and Walter has the headlamp, so it made little difference to us. It’s back again this morning, so we are charging phones (reading and camera device rather than an actual phone, since there’s no service here for me) and the weather is once again beautiful.
Fortunately the ear-ache has gone, the broad spectrum antibiotics are still in the first-aid box should I need them, but in the absence of any fever or other symptoms I don’t think they are necessary. Walter asks me which year of medical school taught me that little piece of insight; he worries too much and spoiled me with lamb chops, ribs, beautiful roast potatoes and avo. He should give Gilda lessons, having mastered the gas oven so quickly. 

The geckos

The geckos at the casita kept us entertained; allowing me to take close-up pictures with the iPhone by standing on the table and leaning in quite close.
Quite a feat for someone with balance issues....

I think this is a common house gecko (according to Bradt’s guide) probably around 10cm

I named this one Gordon Gecko (because he was greedy, rushing around dispatching ants just as ruthlessly as his namesake took care of his financial rivals) and he was only around 5cm long. The iPhone was very close to him, I kept thinking he would make a dash for it to escape, but he was quite patient. 
There were 4 of these little chaps having a turf war I imagine; waving their tails over their heads pretending to be scorpions and then rushing away, bobbing their heads. I could have happily watched them hunting down ants for a few hours.

Whales!

Happy birthday to me



Day 4
A perfect day. The weather has cleared 

WHALES! Walter shouts from the verandah, he has the binoculars glued to his eyes. Whales for my birthday! I am in awe of Walter’s talents, from knowing which tyre pressure to use to arranging for a whole pod of whales to visit on the morning of my birthday. And the children phoned to sing happy birthday and let us know they had managed to buy gas. Scientist no 1 was immediately in questioning mode “What colour are they? Do they have large dorsal fins? Are they spy-hopping? Is there tail-slapping? Is there a white spot behind the fin?” I promised to check with the binoculars.

I wish I could claim this as my own, alas they were too far away for the iPhone's capabilities. Picture courtesy of St Lucia They were indeed Humpback whales and quite common for this time of year, apparently.

Aside: Internetlessness
The lack of access is both a blessing and a curse. A simple question like “do cashews grow on trees?” is unanswerable. Without “the Google” and not speaking either Portuguese or Shangaan we are unable to access answers. It’s deeply frustrating when you’re used to simply typing a question into your cell phone and then deciding how much information you want in response. On the other hand we are not slaves to the cellphone / email monster, allowing us to relax fully. Our biggest problem (will the beer be cold?) is easily answered (yes, the refrigerator works) and we spend hours reading or napping. We haven’t suffered from our lack of news (apart from Walter still not knowing who won the Open) 

Day 3...

Dwayne (I kid you not), the son of the owner, told us when we checked in, that he’d been living here for 5 years and had NEVER seen weather like this in July. 3 straight weeks of rain did not bode well. But it was set to start clearing from the south on Monday, and when we woke it looked promising.
Indian ocean sunrise

Day 2...

Our plan was to get to the Lebombo border post at 6am so that we had plenty of time to navigate the border and find our way to Xai-Xai. We arrived just after 7 (naturally), got into the queue and ate our packed breakfasts from the B&B. In theory it’s quite simple; the big trucks keep to the left hand lane and the passenger cars to the right. This does not allow, however, for the taxis – which drive in the oncoming lane and push in at the front, causing me to use some choice language and fantasise about mounting a missile system on the Jimny. Walter fended off the entrepreneurial street vendors, trying to sell us yellow jackets (required) warning triangles (required) Vodacom SIM cards “that work in Mozambique” and a whole assortment of goodies from their shopping trolleys which they wheel from car to car, doing a thriving business from what I could see. The B&B owners had told us of 18-hour queues over Easter and Christmas, so I was pleased we were going outside the holiday period. Tip: Apparently the Swaziland crossing into Mozambique is a better option during holidays.
Lebombo border. Don't take pictures.


 Just outside the fence is a whole community catering to the needs of travellers, with plastic-covered “stores” fronted by 40 gallon half drums filled with coals. It is here the travellers can buy tea and food, although I certainly didn’t stop to look (taxis would have pushed in, for sure) A few scrawny chickens peck through the litter and the area would only be improved by the addition of some large refuse bins. As it is the rubbish is merely thrown into a small gulley at the end.

Day 1...

There is very little of interest between Johannesburg and Waterval Boven in the middle of winter. Aside from the change in landscape at the N1/N4 interchange after Pretoria, the dry brown scrubby highveld is broken only by the smoking towers of power stations and the angular electricity pylons marching away importantly to the cities west of them.
We took the N14 past Pretoria to the N4, where signs pointing to eMalahleni temporarily confused us. Unfortunately Witbank’s more exotic modern name has done nothing to improve this hard little coal-mining town where we were confronted by large signs on the outskirts warning us not to stop. Hi-jack hotspot! High crime area! Complete with a 10-foot wall down the center of the highway (apparently an attempt to stop pedestians crossing and lower the fatal accident rate).
But at Waterval-Boven the road drops into the lowveld and the air is warmer. The trees are taller, flat-topped acacias and lime-green fever trees start to appear. Further east, past the flamboyants and bright purple bouganvillas of Nelspruit (where we stopped to buy groceries and had very good sushi in a local Super Spar) the inselbergs I associate more with Zimbabwe than South Africa dot the landscape. It is only the lack of baobabs that reminds me I am south of the Tropic of Capricorn.
Inselberg ahead. 
Throughout southern Africa these are referred to as koppies. The best examples I’ve seen are in Zimbabwe, with Matopos, outside Bulawayo, providing us with hours of fun as children, where we ran shrieking from the blue-headed agamas (or blouskops as we called them) sunning themselves on the rocks.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Have you ever?

Outside Komatipoort, day one of the roadtrip


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Location:Komatiepoort,South Africa

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Top 10 myths about introverts

A young friend of mine on Twitter posted a link to a blog this morning, it gave me one of those light bulb moments.

So it turns out I'm not mad/sad/sulking/rude after all. Thank you Jerry

Here's the original post, with a link to his site:


TOP TEN MYTHS ABOUT INTROVERTS

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.
Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.
Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

That's clearly NOT a runway

In the pre-jurassic, just before I went to work for Pterodactyl Airways as a cabin attendant, I unexpectedly found myself temporarily unemployed. My sister had a pilot friend who had been planning a trip to the Okavango swamps. Given the free time I had they very kindly invited me to join them. The pilot, Mike, also had a boat he kept at Delta camp. We would fly in, taking Mike's Beechcraft Baron ZS-DVN, and then take the boat up river, stopping whenever we felt like it.
Picture from Wikipedia. This is not ZS-DVN, but you can see the sleek lines. You know, just by looking at her that she's fast and elegant, it was love at first sight. My sister has a picture of me hugging her.