Another entry so soon ?

Well I thought I would try out the “more entries, less content” thing, after the drudgery of the large Christmas catch up. As it turns out, our well planned weekend did not go entirely according to plan.

It started off more or less the way it should’ve. Wayne received an SMS at 6am wishing him happy birthday, sometime after that I managed to pry open my eyelids and slump on his shoulder whilst he opened his prezzies, he got a fair stash this year (some of his gifts are still on their way) :

Wayne’s Bday Stash :
Book : And Another Thing: The World According to Clarkson Volume Two: Vol. two by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : Born to Be Riled by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : Don’t Stop Me Now by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : On the Edge: My Story by Richard Hammond
DVD : Jeremy Clarkson – At Full Throttle
DVD : Mary Poppins (2 Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
DVD : Spaceballs [1987]
DVD Season Box Set : Scrubs : Complete Season 4
Gadget : GPS Map of North America (for the Honeymoon)
Music : Best of Hootie & The Blowfish : 1993 Thru 2003
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish – Scattered, Smothered & Covered
Music : Ministry Of Sound – The Annual 2008 – Various (3 CD Set)
Music : Wow Hits 2008 – Various (Double CD)
Misc : R200.00 Gateway Voucher
Misc : Pen Set
Misc : Top Trumps – Top Gear
Wii Accessories : 6 in 1 Sports Accessory Pack
Wii Game : Carnival
Wii Game : EA Playground
Wii Game : Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Wii Game : Prince Of Persia: Rival Swords
Wii Game : Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis
Wii Game : Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

After opening all his goodies, Wayne got ready and went to work. Unfortunately for me however, somewhere midweek I became aware of a niggly bladder infection, which rather than going away on its own seemed to worsen on Friday evening.

Saturday I headed off to the doctor to get some antibiotics, especially since I was going to be away for the weekend. Being a joint practice where a small number of doctors take turns being in office at different times, it wasn’t all that surprising that my regular doctor, Dr Scott was not in first thing on a Saturday morning. Dr Roberts was on duty and not only wanted the usual urine stick test from me, but insisted that I fill a sample jar for him as well.

This not being the easiest thing to do, firstly since I didn’t really have to go in the first place and secondly, because peeing into a tiny sample jar has to be one of the most unnatural things for any human female to do. Anyway, difficulties aside, somehow I managed to do both a urine stick test and simultaneously succeeded in fulfilling Dr Robert’s request and triumphed over the loathed sample jar.

After finally being called into Dr Robert’s office and no longer having to display my sample for everyone to see, he took one look at the urine stick test and after pointing out which squares meant what, he informed me that I’d need some antibiotics. He glanced at my sample on his desk, which he referred to as “liquid gold”, and then proceeded to chuckle to himself, obviously quite pleased with his apparent wit. Dr Roberts then queried whether or not I would like to have the sample sent off for “Culture Tests” – not only would this prove to be costly and in this case, unnecessary, but the most I would learn from it was exactly what I’m infected with. I declined his offer, at which time he retorted, “ok, well we won’t be needing this then, if you don’t mind…” and promptly tossed the jar into the trash receptacle under his desk. *Visions of Strangulation*

After the usual blood pressure tests and such, I informed him of the antibiotics I was previously on for the identical symptoms and that I had had no side effects with them. However, Dr Roberts had his own plan in mind and supplied me with a light antibiotic which would not make me drowsy, could be taken with or without food at seemingly any time and which was not affected by alcohol, so it was fine if I toasted at the wedding. All this sounded quite delightful, I was advised to take 2 tablets when I got home and another 2 tablets in the evening, it didn’t really matter when as supposedly I couldn’t possibly overdose on these.

So anyway, that ordeal over with, I headed home, packed, Wayne arrived and off we went. Wayne’s GPS has a handy list of hotels in it for tourists, it even had the “Wartburger Hof Hotel” listed, 52 Noodsberg Road. As it turns out, the GPS software is “somewhat” misleading when it comes to the location of the “Wartburger Hof Hotel”, it *thinks* it is taking you there, but really it takes you to Noodsberg Road in Pietermaritzburg, instead of the R614 Noodsberg Road in Wartburg (32KM out of PMB). It was rather odd driving along the road and having the GPS announce “Arriving at Destination on Left” as we tilted our heads and looked over at “Wonder Kids Pre-school” with no sign of a hotel in sight… It was at this point when we phoned Wayne’s sister and got some real directions. Apparently the hotel has had this issue many times before and have tried time and again to inform the GPS software developers of this issue, but to no avail.

We eventually made it to the hotel, put down our bags in our room and got on the road again to locate the chapel. The church was down a dirt road a short way from the hotel itself. The service was done in half English, half German, but was a comfortable length and wasn’t overly drawn out. The big bowl of bran I’d had about 10:00am on Saturday was no longer sustaining me by 15:00, both Wayne and I were pretty hungry by this point. After attempting a group photo with all 210 of us, we milled about waiting for a few people to leave and then headed over to the reception.

By the time we were on our way to the reception, it was 16:40. We arrived at the reception finding outside on the grass, a table of unrecognisable snacks, along with some savoury biscuits and Pringles which I was able to categorize. We were offered a cocktail consisting of Pims and Lemonade, I then picked at a few Pringles and held my hunger at bay with some plain Salti-crax biscuits and 2 thin glasses of orange juice.

Time passed, the sin went behind some clouds, it got cold and the wind picked up. Some time around 19:00 the couple arrived… We had been standing outside in the cold for over 2 hours by then and most of the guests were hovering around by the toilets trying to stay out of the wind. By the time we were seated, I started to feel horribly nauseas and incredibly tired. Then there was a wait while everyone got drinks and the first half of the speeches began. I made my way to the toilet and lost my biscuits at some point during the speeches and returned hoping I would feel better, but I battled to keep my eyes open.

There was then an intermission between the speeches, which was followed by the second half of the speeches. The main course was eventually served just after 21:00… I had a small piece of gammon and went to lie down in the car. I woke up about an hour later and felt quite a bit better after taking a nap and made my way back into the hall. It was almost 23:00 and everyone was just finishing off their desert. Wayne wasn’t in the mood to dance by then, as I’d left him alone for too long and he was depressed that I wasn’t well, his “birthday curse” that something has to go wrong apparently.

It was really a letdown that I wasn’t well though as it is so seldom that you can go out dancing and not come home smelling like a tobacco factory. Some things you just can’t plan for though, I’m hoping to make it up to him when we head to JHB this weekend, I know he is really looking forward to it. Our flight times are as follows, we’re flying with Kulula.com :

MN632 Leave Durban Friday 1st Feb at 15:30
MN632 Arrive JHB Friday 1st Feb at 16:40
MN635 Leave JHB Sunday 3rd Feb at 15:00
MN635 Arrive Durban Sunday 3rd Feb at 16:10

One good thing about the wedding was that fortunately Eskom didn’t decide to do Load Shedding during that time, although there was a generator standing by. This is something we will have to talk to the Collisheen about for our wedding as well. For those of you who are out of the loop with South Africa’s present “Load Shedding” issues, here are some articles to bring you up to speed :

International Article from The Guardian : Load Shedding Overview
Government Apologizes
Load Shedding Traps People in Cable Cars
Eskom Shredded by MNET’s Carte Blanche Show

Load Shedding usually takes place in 2 hourly intervals twice a day, these are scheduled to be 12 hours apart. There are presently two schedules, one for Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and one for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The schedules are not always followed however and it seems at times and Load Shedding begins and ends whenever it likes.

Current Load Shedding Schedules

Fortunately we have not experienced many power outages at home, but at work we have had to invest in an 840KW generator, which can be heard thumping throughout the entire company when it’s running. Also, the power still goes out between switching from mains to the generator and again when it switches back again, this leads to a giant depressive “ahhhhhh” being emitted from multiple departments around the company. For those of us who do save regularly however, this can be someone sadistically amusing. The only unforeseen event was when someone in our department had their PC Motherboard die and this was probably due to a spike when the power came back one.

It is really odd that my dad would go from just meeting someone to having her move in, with her 18 year old daughter, along with their two dogs and Sun Conure to suddenly getting married. I have met Gayle a total of twice, quite briefly on the second count. My dad generally drags relationships out for as long as they will last and has never had anyone move in with him, nor has he ever uttered the word “marriage”, I suppose he always worried about someone taking him for a ride and emptying out his pockets. So what has changed? I can’t help but think that there is more to this whole thing than meets the eye.

Anyways, that’s all there is, there ain’t no more. Possibly I will have something eventful to report after our trip to JHB this weekend and the Miles Per Hour Show. Have a good one!

Also, yes *ahem* as Ewan pointed out, so much for the less content thing. I will try that again next time.

Time End : Tuesday : 13:23

Hi All

Yes, it turns out that I’m a terrible blogging-type person. I spent all my energy migrating all this text and have not even gotten around to sorting out my photo albums or even a recent entry for that matter. You know it is getting bad when people you know start making remarks about your blog being out of date and about you being a lazy $h!t. *g*

Despite intentions to write an entry, this has not happened for various reasons, including at times sheer lack of inspiration. Even more so however was the fact that one fine week in November, my SATA 120GB (still under warranty) SeaGate secondary data only drive came to a grave halt. It was very sudden and to my dismay I realised that I had not done a backup to my 250GB external SATA since… June. I tried a place called Data Detect, they quoted me R4377.60 provided that there was no electomechanical damage to the drive and R5517.60 if there was. On the upside, if they did not recover anything, you did not have to pay. Unfortunately I only needed about 30GB (if that) of data off of the drive and it just wasn’t worth paying into the thousands for some photos, apps, drivers and blog templates… *sigh* To prevent such incidences in the future however, I now have a Mirror Raid running (RAID 1) off an Adaptec RAID Card. It was something I was reluctant to do because of the cost and the “waste” of an identical, large hard drive… However, after two hard drive crashes over the past 3 years and still feeling a deep loss over both of them, I deem this the necessary course of action to take.

Other than the above eventful scenario, things have been busy and boring intermittently on this side of the world. Things at work slowed down for the Festive season and I was able to tie up all the loose ends (obviously a Blog entry was not one of them), I even got a head start on things for 2008.

During Christmas 2007, I went out on a limb and did a good 80% of our Christmas shopping online…
Here are the results of this with regards to Online Retailers…

Kalahari.net
Pricing : Good, Excellent Specials
Range of Items : Good
Delivery Pricing : R29.00 with Free Delivery on Orders Over R350.00
Delivery Time : Slow
Service : Poor, there is Little to No communication on the Current Status of Orders. When viewing the order online, items on order are never changed from “Status : Ordered from Supplier” until they are actually shipped. An email is sent out once your order is shipped.
Quality of Goods : Good, Although one of the orders I made arrived in a severely damaged box.

Take2.co.za
Pricing : Fair, Good Specials
Range of Items : Excellent, a good range of overseas items.
Delivery Pricing : R29.00
Delivery Time : Good
Service : Excellent. When viewing the order online, items are updated one by one as they arrive. Orders are also easily combined, Good communication. An email is sent out once your order is shipped. I have been endlessly impressed with Take2. Recently I ordered an item and some time later it went on Special, but the item had not been shipped yet. They were kind enough to reimburse me the difference and to give me the item at the current Special price.
Quality of Goods : Good

DigitalPlanet.co.za
Pricing : So-So
Range of Items : Fair
Delivery Pricing : R50.00
Delivery Time : Excellent
Service : An email is sent out once your order is shipped, there is no prior knowledge on the status of your order.
Quality of Goods : Fair, regarding the last item I purchased, the plastic had been opened or come loose and was stapled back onto its cardboard backing.

MediaPlum.com [Gone into Liquidation]
Pricing : Excellent
Range of Items : Fair
Delivery Pricing : R29.00 with Free Delivery on Orders Over R350.00
Delivery Time : Poor
Service : Slow Response and a Delay in Delivery. Items ordered in late November 2007 only arrived on the 8th January 2008!!
Quality of Goods : Excellent. Items arrived in original wrapping and were well protected. Not a single item was dinged or scratched.

Bid or Buy
I purchased from 2 Buyers:

Micro Zone
Pricing : Excellent
Range of Items : Limited Selection of Wii Items
Delivery Pricing : R50.00 (Up To 5 Games)
Delivery Time : Excellent, Quick Delivery
Service : Prompt Response from the Seller. Received the Tracking Number as soon as it was Available
Quality of Goods : Excellent. Product arrived in Perfect Condition, still Cellophane Wrapped.

Hopeanjul
Pricing : Excellent
Range of Items : Wide Selection of Wii Items
Delivery Pricing : R35.00
Delivery Time : A little Slow. Item was Not Posted Right Away on Buyer’s Side due to Rain
Service : Communication was a Little Slow but Tracking Number was Supplied Once Available
Quality of Goods : So-So. Products did not arrive Cellophane Wrapped.
I have ordered from him since, 2 Wii Games, one came perfectly wrapped in its original cellophane, excellent condition. The other game in the same package had had its seal broken with a black ballpoint pen, which had also gone onto the white box itself.

eDreams.co.za
Cancelled my order here as they claimed that they could ship an item in 3 to 4 working days when it turned out that they did not even have it in stock.

GreatDeal.co.za
Pricing : Fair
Range of Items : Fair
This website is presently unmanned, the banking section has been down for some time and there has been no response to email.

Amazon UK
Pricing : Fair
Range of Items : Excellent
Delivery Pricing : *OUCH*
Delivery Time : Slow unless item is already in stock
Service : Good
Quality of Goods : Generally Excellent – The odd dented box here and there.

As for our Christmas stash this year, the big thing which Wayne and I got ourselves a Nintendo Wii Gaming Colsole which was already out of it’s box in October, hehe. Christmas largely involved getting games for it. My DVD collection also grew nicely… *my precious*

From what I can recall, Wayne and I received the following :

Wayne Received :
Book : Clarkson on Cars by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : I Know You Got Soul by Jeremy Clarkson
Book : Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Book : Rich Dad, Poor Dad 2 – Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Book : Top Gear, Motor Mania by Ivan Berg and Nik Berg
DVD : Airplane! [1980]
DVD : Airplane II [1982]
DVD : Richard Hammond’s BBC Top Gear Interactive Challenge [2007]
DVD : Top Gear: The Challenges (BBC)
DVD Season Box Set : Scrubs: Complete Season 3
Food : Ferro Rocher Chocolates
Food : Large Box Smarties
Gadget : Discovery Vitality Pedometer
Gadget : Lite Xpress Flash100 LED Keyring
Gadget : Long Handled Lighter
Gadget : Small Can of Refill Lighter Fluid
Gadget : Radio Controlled Super Micro Mini Indoor Helicopter
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish – Cracked Rear View
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish – Musical Chairs
Music : Hootie & The BlowFish – Fairweather Johnson
Music : U2 – Best of 1990-2000
Tool : Bosch Digital Detector PDO Multi
Tool : Bosch XEO Universal Cutter
Wii Game : The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I Received :
Book : A Crack in Forever by Jeannie Brewer
Book : Expecting Adam by Martha N. Beck
Book : Monster
Clothing : Pyjamas
Clothing : 2 Surf Shirts
Clothing : Vest
DVD : Mrs Doubtfire [1994]
DVD : My Girl [1992]
DVD : Deep Impact – Special Edition [1998]
DVD : Groundhog Day (Collector’s Edition) [1993]
DVD : Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix
DVD : Police Academy 1
DVD : Police Academy 2
DVD : Police Academy 3
DVD : Police Academy 4
DVD : Police Academy 5
DVD : Police Academy 6
DVD : Police Academy : Mission to Moscow
DVD : Shrek the Third (Shrek 3)
DVD : Thirteen Ghosts [2002]
DVD : Turner and Hooch [1990]
DVD Box Set : Look Who’s Talking 1, 2 and 3
DVD Season Set : Dawson’s Creek: Complete Season 1
Food : Pack of Aero Chunky Bars
Food : Lindt Chocolate Santa Claus
Gadget : DVD Writer (my old one refuses to live up to its intended purpose)
Misc : Calendar
Misc : 5x Magic the Gathering Decks
Misc : R300.00 Cash
Misc : Tatty Teddy 2008 Calendar
Music : F & Martinengo Presents the 12 PM Tune Vol. 2
Music : Bump 21
Music : Greatest Hits by Goo Goo Dolls
PC Game : Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PC)
Wii Game : Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

I Spoilt Myself With :
Wii Accessories : 6 in 1 Sports Accessory Pack
Misc : Top Trumps – Simpsons Classic 1
Misc : Top Trumps – Simpsons Volume 2
Misc : Top Trumps – Simpsons Horror
Wii Game : Crash of the Titans
Wii Game : Cranium Kabookii
Wii Game : The Simpsons
Wii Game : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Wayne Spoilt Us With :
Misc : Large Canvas Print for our Lounge Wall consisting of a beautiful beach scene taken by Karl Beath

I Spoilt Us With :
Wii Accessories : Power Station
Wii Accessories : Wii Lan Adapter

We Both Received :
Appliance : Russell Hobbes 4 Slice Glass Sided Toaster
(This was from Wayne’s folks, it really is a beauty, but advises that it should be switched off between uses)
Book : Tourist Guide to Disney Land & Orlando
Food : Assorted Bakers Biscuits
Food : Biltong
Food : Box of Choccies
Food : Cadburys Bar of Plain Milk Chocolate
Food : Large Beacon Bar

Christmas was spent on Wayne’s side of the world this year, it was lovely, there were 24 of us, plus children, all gathered around a large table at his aunt Rona & uncle Derek’s house in Ballito. We played the traditional gift game where everyone takes a number and starting from lowest to highest, each person chooses a gift from a box. They then decide to either keep what they picked or force someone who chose something earlier to swop with them. Obviously the higher your number, the greater your advantage of not getting your booty stolen. I went from having Microwave Popcorn to having an AM/PM pill box (despite being number 22) and Wayne’s Toblerone soon transformed into a shiny pair of… nail clippers. The fastest moving item on the table was a bottle of Jack Daniels which was pillaged a good number of times.

As for New Years, we were going to head to Bronze Beach to watch the fireworks as I’d done once before in the year 2000, however, come 22:00, I had a headache from playing too much “Crash of the Titans” on the Wii and Wayne generally prefers not to go out driving on New Years. So we had a quiet one, Wayne on the couch, me lying across our two beanbags, watching the new year being sung in by none other than Mango Groove… *ahem*

As for New Years Resolutions, I only made one and it was more subconscious than anything else, I have resolved to read more. In fact, right at this very moment, I have moved on from reading “Spud” (which I thoroughly enjoyed) onto the sequel, aptly named “Spud – The Madness Continues”. Spud is a great book, written by John van de Ruit, a guy who actually grew up in Durban and attended Michael House Boarding School, it’s great the way he constantly references places and things I actually know and which are indeed, truly South African. The only obscurity I could find is that South African teens don’t constantly (if ever) use the word “wicked” the way he makes out, that’s truly more of a British thing. The book is an excellent read none the less, really light, easy going, great for before bedtime reading. My sister Julie actually recommended it to me, remarking that it reminded her of “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” and it definitely does.

Although not a resolution, but a lifestyle change, the only other thing I have been up to is attending Gym on a regular basis. We have a personal trainer available at work, his name is Dean, he’s a Championship Body Builder and for R500.00 a month, he takes me on twice a week and puts me through my paces. For R700.00 he would do it three times a week, but I actually need a day just to do Cardio and to recover from the last workout.

As a balance for my gym routine, I still visit Cindy our work massage therapist twice a month, a self gift I thoroughly look forward to, better than any Wimpy meal and minus the fat.

I didn’t take any leave during the festive season as I’m saving it all up for around the wedding period, however, our company does do “Forced Leave” during the annual shutdown period and I did enjoy having a few days off to just do “whatever”. Wayne and I went snorkelling at Veggies Pier, we also had an impromptu braai with Branden, Tirone, Justin, as well as Mitchell and his partner Francois who were visiting from Jo’burg – the weird thing was that the braai couldn’t have gone better even if we planned it. The night was beautiful and we spent it sitting and eating outside under the stars, then our guests got a first hand taste of the Wii. It is definitely a lot more fun in groups.

An interesting character I met this December was Grant, an old school friend of Branden’s who performs the Free Flight Bird Shows at the Umgeni River Bird Park. Grant has just recently started attending our church (Deo Gloria Family Church) with us, he is full of interesting stories and happenings about the show and the birds involved in it. My fascination with parrots finally has its place, hehe. Grant even supplied us with some Aloe to assist with Megs’ plucking issue. Our neighbour Bran has even gotten on the band wagon and has gotten himself a new companion – a cute little Green Cheek Conure, which he has named Misty. Misty is only 2 months old and has just been weaned, always the best age to get a companion fid (feathered kid).

To round up the Christmas banter, Wayne and I have also set each set up a Wishlist, which is great when it comes to Christmas/Birthday or just anytime gifts.

Wayne’s Wish List
My Wish List
Wedding Gift Registry
This website also ties up with our Wedding Website

The best thing about the WishList website is that you can list items as well as a purchase location, it can be an actual store and doesn’t even have to be online. Basically, once someone decides to get something from you, they simply click the BUY button and the amount needed changes from 1 to 0. If another person clicks BUY on the same item later, it also informs them that this item has already been purchased and perhaps they should have a look at something else.

Speaking of Wishlists, tomorrow is Wayne’s birthday! However, we are actually attending Wayne’s cousin Anthony’s Wedding tomorrow in WartBurg and will be spending the night there at the Wartburger Hof Country Hotel. So any birthday dinner celebrations are actually scheduled for tonight. Other celebrations have been delayed until next weekend when we will be taking a trip up to Jo’Burg to share in dinner and dancing with our Wedding MC Paul Dahl and his wife Bianca. Coincidentally, since Paul is exhibiting at the Miles Per Hour Show, we were able to get free tickets. That is one birthday present Wayne is sure to enjoy, he’s one of the biggest Clarkson fans I know.

In other news, my sister Julie and her husband Tom “recently” visited and I got to meet my little nephew Jonathan. They will be coming back out in April to attend our wedding. Since they were here, little John underwent surgery for his cleft lip, all went well though, for updates and general nephew news, see my sister Julie’s Blog. The little tyke is even going to baby swimming lessons now, hehe.

As for the wedding plans, I know you are all anxious to know how everything is going, I say this based on the statistics of how often I get asked, hehe. Wayne and I are presently in the process of putting together the wedding invites, we have the sized paper, the photo for the front and the ribbon. We have printed the map on the main card and printed the inners. The only thing that the invite does not contain is the web addy of our Gift Registry, although we figured we would give it out to people when they RSVP. For those of you who visit our Wedding Site, you will find it there, as well as here. Wayne’s work associate Kwon Jon will assist us in the folding of the invites once they are assembled, since he and his wife Natasha are the creators of the Nanunja Albums, he will have the necessary equipment to assist us with this.

We are meeting with Shalain from the Collisheen on the 19th February to finalise things with the venue and to give her a fabric sample for the table overlays. I also have a list of about 50 other things which we need to do before the big day. *cough*

While still on the Wedding Topic, Wayne and I have booked our HoneyMoon! We will be heading out to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I have applied for leave at work from the 21st April (to give me time to prepare) until the 21st May 2008. I may apply for leave on the 21st of May closer to the time, as I’m worried I will still be a bit out of it, considering we will only have one day to unpack. We fly out the day after the wedding (27th April 2008) and return on the evening of 19th May. Presently, our flight details are as follows (We’re flying Delta Airlines this time round) :

SA 562 Leave Durban, South Africa on 27th April at 14:40
SA 562 Arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa on 27th April at 15:50
DL 035 Leave Johannesburg, South Africa on 27th April at 18:40
DL 035 Arrive in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on 28th April at 08:00
DL 948 Leave Atlanta, Georgia, USA on 28th April at 11:30
DL 948 Arrive in Orlando, Florida, USA on 28th April at 13:00

DL 028 Leave Orlando, Florida, USA on 18th May at 12:00
DL 028 Arrive in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on 18th May at 13:26
DL 034 Leave Atlanta, Georgia, USA on 18th May at 15:45
DL 034 Arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa on 19th May at 16:35
SA 579 Leave Johannesburg, South Africa on 19th May at 19:00
SA 579 Arrive in Durban, South Africa on 19th May at 20:10

We will be staying at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Seaworld International Center in Orlando. Wayne’s folks allowed us to use their RCI timeshare for this purpose which was a major saving on accommodation!

Anyway that’s it for me, I hope you have had your fill and that it is enough to keep you going in this dry desert of bloglessness.

Time End : 17:56

This is my first official entry in my new WordPress blog and yes, it does appear that I’m way behind. I can’t believe just how quickly time does run away with us.

I created the top “Coffee’s Corner” image myself, with the aid of Photoshop of course. I even used a photo of one of our mugs together with a Woolworth’s cookie, taken at one of our board games evenings. The rest of it is made up of randomly manipulated internet pics, unfortunately I can’t do much about the stripe down the middle of the image, it is part of this template… which I could edit myself for $4.00… But CSS and I aren’t really the best of friends anyway – hence why I ended up here instead of at Blogger.

My main focus presently, regarding my personal time, has been the migration of my blog to this spot. I still have to move the rest of my images, but have started using FaceBook as my central photo location, just makes things easier. Although FaceBook is still Websensed at the office, except between the hour of 12 noon to 13:00. Speaking of FaceBook, my sister Julie has finally succumbed to peer pressure and has joined the masses on FaceBook.

With ADSL becoming cheaper, my folks are now considering it, won’t be long before I get them onto FaceBook too. *g*

I’m enjoying WordPress though, I have much more freedom, to insert photos where I like, to update incorrect timestamps – this was particularly useful regarding our trip to the USA and also a much wider template choice. The entire look is much cleaner, the management tools are super and overall, two thumbs up!!

Looking back, I can’t believe that I first started blogging on the 26^th August 2005, also, come the 1^st November, I will have been working at Derivco for 2 years! If fact, I attended my first interview the other day, as an interviewer instead of the interviewee. I think I was more nervous than the guy we were interviewing, hehe, interesting to see things from the other side of the fishbowl though.

I was recently sent on a 2 day Communications & Assertiveness course at Deloitte’s; about 5 people went from our company, it was quite interesting. We practised listening skills, as well as recognising and utilising empathy. For example, empathy is easy to recognise as it always contains a feeling and a fact, i.e. You must be upset that the assignment did not go well.
Feeling : Upset
Fact : The Assignment.
Empathy can be positive or negative.

Another point of interest, which was mentioned and has stuck with me, is that the most important gift that you could give to someone is your attention. Also that we must learn to listen with the intention to understand, not with the intention to reply; this is aided by imagining a white board filling up with the words being spoken to you. This aids both your focus as well as your listening skills.

Assertion can be defined as standing up for my rights whilst considering the rights of others.
The R.O.A.D. to Assertiveness:
R – Respectful
O – Open
A – Appropriate and
D – Direct Ways

It was enlightening and we all arrived back at work, refreshed and with some new insight on communication. Communication issues which I would have liked covered are as follows:

Communication Challenges :
* How to Complain and Stand Up for Oneself (especially when returning store goods)
* Being too Direct
* Impulsive Replies
* Being too Honest
* How to ”sugar coat”
* To handle criticism constructively
* Defensiveness
* Tone of Voice
* Listening
* To Compliment More
* Interrupting
* Patience

I’m not sure if we covered all of this, but definitely learning how to listen with understanding will assist with me being too impulsive and harsh when it comes to replying. Thinking before acting and all that.

It was quite amusing however; one of the girls in our group wanted to be more assertive as she felt that no one listened to her. In fact, sometimes she would just stop talking mid sentence and no one would even notice. We all assured her that this was indeed not the case and that it was purely in her head. However, there was also a guy in our group who had an issue with always interrupting people. When a question was posed to the class, this same girl attempted three times to answer. Two attempts being thwarted by sudden, additional information being provided by the course leader and the third time being interrupted by the guy at our table who always interrupts people. Fortunately, she also has a good sense of humour and we all enjoyed a good laugh as she proved her point. Very much a situation joke, but it was terribly amusing.

Whilst speaking of work, my regular lift, Paul emigrated to the UK this month; his girlfriend Lydia achieved a scholarship from a well known education facility in London. I have found an alternate method of transport however, Toine, who despite arriving at work around 8:30am, only leaves at about 18:30. This suits me in some ways however, as since I have started doing gym at work on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I can now actually take a lunch break on these days and not have to worry about not meeting my 8 hour work day quota.

We are still looking into the purchasing of a second car, but I still need some extra driving practice, fortunately, our concierge service at work was able to collect my driver’s license for me, so I didn’t have to take another trip over to Marian Hill. I think it is something we will only get around to after our wedding.

Whilst still on the topic of work however; Melissa finally gave me her CV. Which, after a wait and a battle between our manager and HR, eventually made it to the top of the pile for a position in our department. When Melissa was contacted to come in for an assessment however, she turned them down. Her present company had offered her a raise of sorts, also she was concerned regarding travel costs between Umhlanga and Toti, as well as how it would interfere with her church activities. All valid concerns, but I must be honest, I was disappointed, I only wish she would have at least given the assessment a try and seen how it went. Overall though, considering the bigger picture, the important thing is that she prays about it and that she remains in God’s Will, anything else, will take care of itself.

Normally it would be pretty close to bedtime, being a Sunday night and all, however, tomorrow, the 24^th September is Heritage Day and a public holiday here in South Africa. It is now known as National Braai Day, although I think we have covered our braai quota for the month and will be skipping tomorrow. Spring started here on the 1^st September and we are looking forward to the long, Summer month’s ahead.

Wayne got into contact with an old friend of his, Paul Dahl on FaceBook, he has not seen the guy in 9 years and found out that he is now married and living in Jo’Burg. Whilst I attended the “Ministry of the Believer” conference, Wayne attended a Haemophilia conference in JHB and visited Paul whilst he was there. Since then, Paul came down to Durbs and visited us, in honour of his visit, Wayne figured it was about time that we had a braai. At the time we did not own a braai, hence the “at the time”, Wayne remedied this however by a prompt visit to Makro. After gazing at the various models, Wayne arrived home with a Gourmet Braai Deluxe Charcoal Trolley Grill. Needless to say, we will definitely be braaiing a whole lot more in the future!

The boys painstakingly assembled the braai, only to find that the handle of the thing was snapped in half in the box. The Makro return counter was not incredibly helpful, they did not argue, but sent us back to the braai area where we were expected to wait for “someone” to assist us. We explained that we did not want to swap out the entire braai as it was already assembled; however, we wanted to exchange the broken handle with the one on the Demo Model on the floor. We were sent over to the security counter where our broken handle was tagged with a piece of blue tape by the security guard and we then made our way to the braai area.

Naturally… No one came to assist us. After standing about for a while, Paul went off to the hardware section and located a screw driver, Wayne and Paul then proceeded to swap out the handle themselves. They did a pretty good job of it too, considering that some lady came about shortly after, lifted the lid up and down via the handle and uttered a pleasurable sound. We left the store no questions asked, we also purchased a set of braai tongs and a braai fork whilst there.

We had a great weekend with Paul, Wayne had just put together a new PC for him which he had ordered. Thus, the weekend was spent test driving it and introducing Paul to the much loved game, Unreal Tournament. Wayne also enjoyed the opportunity to drive Paul’s metallic blue Audi RS4, which even sitting in the back seat of a car that costs that much, makes you hold your breath a little… More so even, when your fiancé is driving it, lol.

In other news, the international EMI (Encounter Missions International) ACTS Institute (Apostolic Center for Training & Sending) is now doing courses online. Since our church already took pat in the “Ministry of the Believer” course in person, we have now been invited to guinea pig it for free on the ACTS website. Although it is self study, we are still required to have completed certain aspects of the course within a specific timeframe.

Our church, Deo Gloria, is now officially associated with ACTS and our pastor, Deborah, as well as her partner, Marietjie will soon be taking part in leading some of the courses. Another area of growth for us when it comes to the internet is that Sermon Podcasts are now available on our church website.

As for the family side of things, all the tots are getting pretty big. Tommy and Sam’s little one, Damian, has recently had his 1^st Birthday, as for Julie & Tom’s little one, Jonathan is now a proud 12 weeks old! Karen & Justin’s daughters, Kimberly (born shortly after Damian) and Rebekah are also getting big, as is Clinton and Sarah’s daughter Pamela. Definitely got quire the baby crowd going on, looks like Wayne and I are the last ones.

Speaking of Jonathan, Julie and Tom are due to bring him out for his first visit here this October. In fact, they are due to arrive on the 1^st October, once again, time passes quicker than you think! It already seems like an age since Wayne and I were sitting in their lounge playing Killer Bunnies and trekking about to Tesco’s.

As Julie arrives, so does our new tenant. Branden is taking leave on Friday 28^th September and will be starting to move across his first few items. The bulk of his stuff will be coming along on the 29^th September with the movers. We look forward to having him!

Aside from concerning ourselves with tenants, the wedding, which up until now has taken a back seat, is coming to the fore front again. I recently updated our wedding website with everything which has been done and a fair few things which still need to be seen to and decided upon.

We went to visit Jacqui Rey yesterday at Food Matters in Ballito. Wayne and I each sampled a piece of the delicious chocolate mousse cake we are due to have on our wedding day. When we got home, I did drop Jacqui an email explaining that although the mousse was delicious, is it at all possible to have it lighter still. Whilst a darker mousse is complimented by red wine or has its bitterness hidden when served with ice cream, we would like for it to taste just as lovely and creamy, even if it is served plain.

Presently it has a mild bitterness as an aftertaste, but it otherwise perfect. We also arranged for the two Gare Ceramic Bears which I’m painting for the top of the cake, to sit upon rose petals, so that they don’t get all covered in mousse. We also need to supply Jacqui with 25 roses for the decoration of the cake,

Tomorrow we are going fudge tasting at the American Fudge Factory at the SunCoast Casino, we are wanting to have fudge as our table gifts for guests. Branden is going to come along for the ride as well, will be good to have an extra opinion. Hopefully all goes well.

One spot of bad news regarding the wedding is regarding Vaughn’s (Wayne’s best man) girlfriend Bronwyn. Wayne and I have both been friends with Vaughn and Bronwyn as a couple, Wayne has known Vaughn since high school and I met them as a couple when Wayne and I first started dating in 2001. However, Bronwyn was saying that since she missed weddings of some of her other friends, she does not think it would be right to attend our wedding, since she did not attend theirs. Personally I feel somewhat hurt by that and think it is a bit swak, I mean really, at this rate, she’ll never attend another wedding for as long as she lives. Perhaps that being her master plan.

Anyways, from sadness onto gladness… On the 28^th September 2007, Wayne and I will be celebrating having shared 6 wonderful years together. Since Soul Survivor is taking place on Friday the 28^th September (DHS @ 19:00), we’re going to attend that and head out for dinner at Joop’s Place on Saturday 29^th September. In many ways, it seems quite symbolic that we will be getting married during our 7^th year together. Love u babes.

Oh well, public holiday tomorrow or not, it is definitely time for bed. Also, I got fudge tasting to look forward to. *g*

Time End : 00:48

I added my blog to the South African blog collective, Amatomu today.

This blog has been officially migrated from MSN Spaces, I just need to get my photo albums up to date and yes, I know that I am long overdue for a recent entry. On the plus side however, I have also created a “Guestbook” page where you can leave your mark.

Let me know what you think of the new digs.

Btw, my old blog won’t be deleted, but it won’t have any new photos or entries added onto it.

Well, I suppose it often happens in life that things do not turn out the way that you planned. Take my blog for example, after having a look at other blog options, I took my sister Julie’s advice and began the move over to WordPress.com. It has taken a considerably long time however, just to line up the images attached to each of my blog entries thus far. I have created some Albums in FaceBook and have actually linked from my blog to the images there, thus saving on having to have photos set up in more than one place.

We recently had another church conference; Pastor Sandra Turnbull came over from the USA again, as did the “Baltimore Ladies” as they are called, Linda and Caroline, they are, as you might have guessed, from Baltimore in the states. Wayne was unable to attend the conference as he was attending a Hemophilia conference in Johannesburg. It was a lovely conference though, it consisted of 5 sessions, a lunch meal of lasagna and plenty snacks, I especially enjoyed the chocolate brownies supplied by Tirone’s mom, Beaulah. About 16 of us attended the conference; we undertook an international EMI (Encounter Missions International) ACTS Institute (Apostolic Center for Training & Sending) course entitled “Ministry of the Believer”. It covered everything from Generational Curses to the Deliverance Ministry, along with an interesting segment regarding how you can speak in tongues whilst doing everyday tasks and your spirit will be in tune with God, even if your mind is elsewhere.

In other news, my sister Julie, her hubby Tom and little Jonathan are doing just dandy. They discovered that he does in fact have what is classed as severe hearing loss in his right ear, no worse than his dad however. He is getting along well and will have an operation performed on his cleft lip once they have returned from their trip to South Africa in October. For more news on baby Jono and the Brazier family, visit Julie’s Boggle. Also, surprisingly, even Julie has conceded and has finally joined the realm of FaceBook, hehe.

Speaking of relatives overseas, my step brother Clinton, his wife Sarah and their daughter Pamela recently came by to visit. They lived out their stay at my folks place and we all partook in a lovely family braai together. In other family news, my step sister Karen and her family are due to move up to Jo’Burg shortly, her hubby Justin was recently transferred up there.

Wayne recently located a long lost friend of his, Paul on where else, but FaceBook. Wayne visited Paul when he attended the Hemophilia conference in JHB and Paul is do to come down to Durbs and visit us in early September. With Wayne being preoccupied with Paul and myself trying to squeeze every spare moment in getting the mighty Blog migration underway, our wedding planning seems to have come to a standstill, or well, the invite making at least.

To help keep track of things however, I set up a nifty Wedding website at MyWedding.com.

Time Start : 13:02
21 August 2007

As for the Weigh-less thing, well that didn’t pan out so well. It has turned into more of a charity for fat people which I donate toward every month. Things are getting better however, I’m trying my best to stay away from the office chocolates and am starting a regular gym routine.

In other news, I submitted Melissa’s CV on the 30^th July and our manager gave it a bit of a shove through on the 17^th August, so we will wait and see what develops.

I have been doing a Photoshop course on Monday’s at TrainingMAX, it is the first one that they have run and will be doing another in October. It has been interesting and I learned a few more handy tips and tricks. Looks like Wayne is going to have his hands full for a while however.

Last, but not least, our dear tenant Mike, who moved in on the 30^th June announced top us on the 15^th August that he wishes to return home again. Yes, he is going to move back in with his parents, apparently he left them on bad circumstances and moved in with a friend. From there, he moved into the flat and since then, sadly, his gran died and now his parents want him back home, apparently, they didn’t like the way he was living either… probably surviving on 2 minute noodles or something. He also seemed to misinterpret the concept of a “3 month probation period”, which was for us to ask him to leave if he didn’t turn out to be a decent tenant, however he seemed to understand this as, if he wanted to pack up and go right away, he could do so in the first three months… riiight…

On the bright side however, God never closes a door without opening a window and this situation is no different. All this happened around the right time when our friend Branded was beginning to look for a bigger place to live. So yes, the wheels are turning and we are well underway to having Branden as our new neighbour, as of the 30th September 2007. Praise God!

Anyway, I suppose that is it for now, perhaps the next time you hear from me, I will have my blog all moved in to its new WordPress home.

NOTE ADDED : 16th September 2007
I am pleased to announce that the main migration of this blog was completed today. The rest of the photo albums will be coming along shortly.

Time End : 13:27

It has been so long since I last blogged, I have forgotten much of what has happened over the past few weeks!

The majority of my spare time has been spent on FaceBook, uploading photos and such. Once I’m finished, I’m considering moving this blog over to BlogSpot. There seems to be a lot more creative freedom permitted there. Also, for whatever reason, people seem to be having difficulty accessing MSN Live Spaces.

I have however been incredibly blessed lately. My birthday has passed some time ago now, on the 12th May, I got some lekker spoilings…

- R150.00 Pavilion Voucher from work
- Seasons 8, 9 and 10 of F.R.I.E.N.D.S (completing my collection)
- Nice new surf T-Shirt
- Wayne ordered me an MviX MX-760HD, which came along some time later, but was well worth the wait!
- Wayne’s folks donated the 400GB hard drive for inside our happy media player
- Wayne also got me a nice new metal and wood DVD rack
- J got me the “42 Year Old Virgin” on DVD
- Tirone and Justin bought me the “Sword in the Stone” DVD, which being a duplicate, I swapped out for the movie “Big”
- Melissa gave me a lovely dolphin candle which resides happily on our dining room table.

On my 25th birthday, Lauren (who is also my bridesmaid) went out wedding dress shopping with me. I really expected it to take forever and figured it would take visits to loads of shops before finding the right one.

With no real expectations at all, Lauren and I headed over to the Musgrave road Fabric World & Bridal Centre. As we walked in and started looking about, I saw a pretty, blonde girl trying on the most gorgeous dress, exactly what I was looking for. When we enquired about others like it, we were informed that it was a designer dress and one of a kind. Rather disappointed, we continued looking about, although the majority of their selection was in ivory, not white. I made sure that we hung around to see if I would get a chance to try on the dress that other girl was trying on when we arrived.

To our surprise, she had happened across another dress, a rather frilly affair and was now humming and Haa’ing between the two. Surrounded by her mother and a flock of bridesmaids, they were all chattering amongst themselves about which was the better dress. After some nail-biting moments for Lauren and I; she ended up going for the “frilly affair” and I rushed off to try on the other one. It was indeed, absolutely perfect and exactly what I was looking for, right down to the nice fabric twist over the mid-section. It did not even need any adjusting, it was just perfect. Also, considering that most dresses are R2000.00 just to rent, this dress definitely came at a blessing of R2750.00 !!

I was about to rush off and pay when Lauren, being the good bridesmaid that she is, reminded me of my responsibilities. I immediately phoned my mom; Lauren and I went to grab a bite to eat whilst my mom was on her way.

My mom was also very impressed with the dress and we bought it right then and there on my 25th birthday. The first dress that caught my eye and the first and only dress I tried on was the one I purchased and it is indeed a blessing from God. God knows me through and through, including how much I hate clothes shopping, hehe.

I mean have you ever heard of someone going shopping for a wedding dress, seeing the perfect one within the first 5 minutes in the first store they went to, also, that dress just happened to already be on someone else… But then having that someone else choose another dress by such a narrow margin and thus having the opportunity to try it on and having it ft perfectly, no adjustments necessary… The first and only dress that was tried on ?!? A definite wow! Finding a wedding dress in less than an hour and a half – we even got free parking, now that was a real treat! God’s really blessed me !!

Conveniently, the shop holds onto the dress for you until you are ready to pick it up, 2 weeks before the wedding, which is just super. They also clean it and fasten a button on the back for easy attachment of the trail when you are on the dance floor.

We still need to purchase a veil and a tiara, but I know that will come all in good time.

After having a wonderful time finding a dress, Lauren and I went to the Pavilion where, as a birthday gift, Lauren treated me to a trial make-up session at MAC. Unfortunately, I came away most unimpressed when the vast amount of eye liner and eye shadow made me look like I had not slept in 3 weeks. I can get that look myself you know.

I will try out some other make-up artists for a more natural look. I’m thinking of trying out Denise who does make-up at the “Head First” salon where I get my hair cut and also, Tracy, someone I attended school with who has since become a make-up artist. I have not even decided what to do with my hair on the day; I also have to go for a trial for that.

On the bright side, Wayne and I have picked a colour theme; we went with champaign, the light gold version. We also picked up a lovely fabric sample to give to Lauren for her to have her bridesmaid dress made out of.

Wayne and I also stopped by his family jeweler in Glenwood, David Bachelor. He sized us, and guided us in our choice. I am not a fan of yellow gold, preferring white gold myself, but Wayne is the complete opposite. Therefore it was decided that my ring would be mainly white gold with a thin line of yellow gold and Wayne’s ring would be the opposite – yellow gold with a thin line of white gold. Although we originally wanted a nice twist in it, the jeweler advised us otherwise and we trusted him to do what is right for us. David also cleaned my engagement ring free of charge; it was a most unexpected, but wonderful surprise.

The invites are also coming together, we decided to make our own ones and thus far, have been playing with paper samples. I think we are going to go for an A6 size, but so far we have made an A5 size, just as a mock.

We visited with Wayne’s cousin Janine and Wayne’s aunt Rhona. They were both endlessly helpful with all sorts of things. Rhona also offered to help organise our flowers for us, which is just super! Janine suggested all sorts of things to remember regarding stuff about the Collisheen and gave us the number of “Jackie Rey” who did the lovely chocolate mousse cake at her wedding.

We finalised things with our photographer, David Weeks and have well, sort of booked the DJ, Jason Lawrie who it turns out, is part of “Silverback Productions“. He is R420.00 an hour, but said that he only actually meets with us around 3 weeks before the wedding… Riiight. I’m sure we will be able to arrange something a little sooner, which just seems to be cutting it rather close. We are still unsure at this point whether or not to have a videographer.

To top it all off, Wayne and I finally organised a meeting with the wedding co-ordinator at the Collisheen, Sharlain. Due to us beginning the booking of the venue in July 2006, she gave us a R5.00 discount per head. Not much, but we are glad it is something. Prices have gone up quite a bit, even since the 2007 price list, even when it came to the drapery. Fairy lights are now extra and no longer included in the package; also the menu has been changed. Sharlain said she could try and organise for some of the old menu items to be made available. Still, I found I came away with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. I just expected her to be more “wedding-y”, more bubbly and excited. I mean, I know that she must have done this over 100 times, but it is still a first time for us.

We would also like like to go with the Fudge Factory when it comes to table gifts and give each person a little box containing a delectable square of Granny’s Real Butter Fudge… *drool*

Hmm, speaking of all things delicious and sweet… In reflection of having bought a wedding dress, which did grip a little snugly around the rib cage, I decided to join Weigh-less. Clair has had some amazing results with it and I was sure I could be persistent enough to succeed in it. This was however not the case, I have been doing weigh-less for a month now and I think I actually gained a kg, lol. This whole measuring food thing and never being able to have pies, it is just too much for me. Also, making it through 2 litres of water a day is a challenge which is more than I can bear. I will simply have to go back to exercising soon, and a new, bigger gym is opening up at work in a month. So hoping to give that one a go! Damn my low will power… must resist fattening fooood.

Back in the real world, Wayne took me to renew my driver’s license at Marian Hill. Fortunately, I had organised my optometrist certificate beforehand and I had my 2 black and white ID photos ready. So it was pretty much in and out. Kind of depressing to already be renewing my driver’s license when I’ve barely even driven. We decided to focus on the wedding first before adding any additional cars to our lot.

Otherwise, there have been some changes regarding tenants at our maisonette. Peter brought it to my attention that he will be moving in with Kirsten at her dad’s place. His lease only expires end of October however, so he is obligated to stick around unless we find the right replacement.

I placed an advert on the intranet at work and informed the people at church that we were looking and from there came a few “referees”. The advert specifically stated that it was a bachelor flat and also, since Wayne and I lived next door, that we were *not* obligated to take tenants on a first come, first served basis.

The first person I heard from seemed to be a really decent young, white guy who told me he was looking for a place for his mom, let’s call him “BillyBob”. Well, BillyBob arrived with his girlfriend, his mom and his sister to view the flat. They had a good look about the place and were very interested, BillyBob enquired with me about pets, as the advert had stated that “small inside critters were allowed, but no cats or dogs”. I confirmed what the advert said, at which time his sister (who I think is a tad not all there) blurted out that she had a budgie and is it ok if she brings her budgie?!? I assured her that it would be fine as I have parrots next door too; as we were about to change topic, she blurted out again about her small budgie and would it be ok to bring it… Hmm… Oookkk… I did think for a moment, why would the sister be asking about her budgie when this is the mother’s place, but I thought hey, maybe she wants to bring it by when she visits her mom or something, I just won’t ask.

Well, we finished the tour and we were all standing about in the kitchen. It was at this point when they expressed again that they are very interested, and BillyBob then told me how it was very odd, but his mom actually had a place lined up that she was going to move into the week before, however, when it came to signing the agreement, they were turned away because it was a bachelor flat and they couldn’t have both his mom and his sister staying there in the same room… *ahem*

I’m sure that my jaw dropped some at this point, I immediately retorted that this too is a bachelor flat, as stated in the advert they had seen. The same lease rules applied, the flat was either to be taken by a single person, or an intimate couple, but not by relatives, it was after all a 1 bedroom, bachelor flat… So, aside from my creepy visions of BillyBob’s mother falling down the stairs, this was definitely not the place for them.

Ball 1…

Our second interest was a young black lady who wanted to come to a viewing, but after driving by the place, figured it was not for her and said she would not be attending the viewing… ok…

Ball 2…

Our third “possible” was a young black girl, who prior to coming to see the place and informed me twice that she could not afford more than R1,600.00 a month and also snuck in a question about whether the price was negotiable. Although, after seeing the place, she was suddenly able to swing the asking price. Seriously feeling that she was living beyond her means and not wanting to have a tenant who paid the rent on and off, the place was not for her.

Ball 3…

A young black couple same to see the place and were very interested. The guy, let’s call him “Slick” was convinced that we would choose him. They also started asking about renovations and Slick’s girlfriend began waving her hands about at the walls. Slick also insisted that because he works night shift, he must have peace and quiet during the day. Can’t see much of that happening, considering there are three little tykes downstairs. So although they definitely seemed to have enough of a budget, or for all we knew, pretended to at any rate, the place was not for them.

Ball 4…

Fortunately, this was a very short walk. Wayne and I had been praying about the matter and had asked people at church to pray about the matter. We had specifically prayed that when the right person came along, that we would just know that they were “the one”, without any doubt. Indeed it was so…

Note that this short walk also excluded two young black ladies who, separately, wanted to see the flat, but neither of them pitched up for the viewing. Along with one very eager colored chap from Pietermaritzburg who after seeing the photos, wanted a phone interview, followed by simply moving in… again – riiight.

However, from the moment Mike phoned me, I was immediately filled with this feeling that this was the one. I confirmed that the place was indeed just for him and that he did not have any pets, he seemed easy going enough and was happy to come for a viewing. He was referred to us by someone I work with who had seen the advert on our intranet classifieds.

Mike came by to see the place after Slick and I just knew that yes, he was the right person for the flat. We immediately began organizing for him to move in; he underwent a full background check, signed the lease this week and will be moving in on Saturday 30^th June. We are incredibly grateful to our good lord for making it just that easy and Peter is grateful to not be paying rent for somewhere he no longer lives.

Glory to God !!

In other news, our department team building has come and gone. On the 22nd June 2007, 17 of us headed up in a train of cars to Karkloof Canopy Tours. Our manager Mike, and co-workers Tarenn, Poovendren, Latasha and myself were in the lead vehicle. We arrived without a problem, although a couple of cars seemed to have dropped off along the way.

One of the guys got out from the second car, directly behind us and informed us that the guy in the last car, driving by himself seemed to have had an issue of some sort and had pulled over, but not to worry, the car in front of him had got back to check on him and help out if needed.

What came out of the whole thing was a rather humorous story at this guy’s expense, where apparently someone had forgotten to make a pit stop before leaving and was thereby forced to stop en-route. The car in front of him had then done an almighty U-Turn, worrying that something was wrong when they saw him pulling over on the side of the road; alas however, they pulled up behind him only to see the poor fellow answering the call of nature. We all had a good laugh though, hehe. A good lesson to remember, always hit the commode *before* taking a long road trip.

Karkloof is past Pietermatizburg, just through Howick. We all arrived and were briefed by a gentleman named Africa, who informed us how to brake using the welding-type gloves being supplied to us. We were then split into groups and signed a “Yes of course, You’re not responsible if I die” indemnity form; after which, we were all kitted up by the guides.

Now I’m pretty afraid of heights, when I was 8, I could not even make it over the ladder jungle gym, I did not climb trees and when forced to do abseiling down a 16m cliff-face when I was 12 at Fernwood Adventure Centre, I was quite traumatized. After turning rather white and frantically grabbing onto some shrubbery, which promptly parted with the cliff face, I found my face meeting with the sandy wall in a rather uncomfortable sort of way. I would never do abseiling again, but here at Karkloof I found myself about to come face to face with my fear of heights.

Fortunately, the Karkloof Canopy Tours was *a lot* more enjoyable than abseiling. Once you are on those foefi slides, they simply take you, there is not much you can do, except apply the brakes. I took a couple videos with my camera, which unfortunately, insisted on saving the things in landscape format. When I tried rotating the video on Virtual Dub and resaving, the files went from a size of around 6mb, to 74mb… So I have not quite gotten there as yet.

The self-braking was not as bad as originally thought and I didn’t even have to go tandem with a guide. To brake, you simply pull down on the cable with your stronger hand, as far back behind you as possible – this prevents spinning. If however, you brake too hard and stop too soon before the platform, you then have to turn around and hand over hand, pull yourself towards the platform. That is where things can get scary, dangling there and looking down would probably have spooked me some, fortunately, the only time I did brake too soon, I was only a couple of feet away from the platform.

We started our tour at 11:00am and were already back, having lunch by 13:30. So much for our 3 hour tour… also, as described on the website, there was no way that we were able to spend time relaxing on the platforms while the guides enthusiastically explained the ecology of the forest – pointing out different trees and the magnificent giant ferns way below. Ya right. It was very much, go, go, go, and when you are sliding down, you are far too focused on the other side and when exactly you will have to begin braking (precisely 5 meters before) to be ogling about at the scenery.

Also, the guides tended to get most annoyed if you got stuck and would mutter amongst each other in Zulu. There was one slide in particular, where the guide at the top told us explicitly *not* to brake – there were one or two slides where you would not have made it to the other side if you did. However, I had a nasty surprise at the other side, going at quite a speed, the guy at the other side began beckoning me to “come”, then he started waving his hand about in some odd motion, but not once did he put it up flat palmed to indicate “stop”.

It was at this point when I made my acquaintance with the manual braking system. Should you neglect to brake yourself, they push out the manual braking system, which takes you from whatever speed you were doing to a complete, dead, jerky stop… Talk about needing shocks. My poor lungs… Being female however, I was spared much of the agony which would have been caused if I was of the opposite gender, by the harness gripping my groin in a sharp sudden, manner. It would not surprise me if some of the guy’s who this did happen to, do not end up bearing offspring… Trust me, you do not want to run into the manual brake, lol.

When I finally got off, dazed and confused, and muttered that the guide at the top told me not to brake, the guide at the other side said to me, “Noooo, you must breeeaak…” *sigh* The only other casualty was poor Lastasha, who after using the slowing “hand back and front” technique, made the perfect jump off the side of a tree, suddenly gained more momentum than she was ready for. She was not able to move her hand from in front of the pulley back to its correct position in time and got her glove… and in the process, her right thumb caught in the pulley. The guide, extremely annoyed at this stage, went down to free her. Sadly, her adventure of getting injured was not over just yet, as the cables somehow twisted and she ended up with cable burns on her left arm. She survived like a real trooper and went down the last two slides with a guide. To her dismay I, very coincidentally, video taped her getting stuck; but as our only casualty, she humoured it well and commented that at least she had provided us with some good entertainment, hehe.

On the way back, we ended up in a massive traffic jam, a traffic jam in which we were closely followed by a bright pink, septic tank truck… *oh goody* Also, Poovendren, who fell asleep and began snoring next to Lastasha and I in the back seat was not very impressed when he later found out I had snapped some footage of him dozing, hehe.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I am glad I finally faced my fears, even if it was only to a mild extent. There is just no ways I would ever attempt abseiling again, or go anywhere near sky diving! I would however, definitely do the Karkloof Canopy Tours again, it is definitely an experience and I would recommend it to anyone!

I will put up some pics of the Karkloof Canopy Tours, although at the moment, everything seems to be ending up on FaceBook. I’ve already put a video up there too. Speaking of FaceBook, it was on the news the other night that many companies are having to block FaceBook due to a serious drop in employee productivity. How’s that one, lol. Even News24 has been reporting on FaceBook.

Last, but definitely not least, today, the 25th June 2007, is the day my sister is set to be induced to bring her tot into the world. They are thinking about naming him Jonathan – a far cry better than Henry, hehe. She had to be induced at 37 weeks due to a mild case of Obstetric Colestasis which was deemed as a risk for the baby. Praying that all goes well, keep an eye on Julie’s blog for updates.

Anyways that’s all for now, time to go and rustle up some grub! Writing in this blog is like dieting, it just never really seems to happen, well not on time anyway.

Laters Alligators!

Time End : 21:27 Monday 25th June 2007

Wow, that only took me about a month to actually blog! It was my first overseas trip however, and in years to come, at least I will always have my blog to help me remember it.

Aside from arriving back to a storm battered Durban, things have otherwise been good. Life at work has been moving along too, our department has been renamed from the Product Department to the Build & Configuration Department, the B&C team for short… Kinda reminds me of Bacon & Cheese, lol.

Speaking of teams, our department has organised a Team Building outing to do the Kark Kloof Canopy Tour, I’m more than just a little apprehensive as heights really aren’t my thing… *sigh* But I’m sure to get dragged along anyway, (since it is bring done during working hours on a Friday sometime soon) I guess I will just have to grit my teeth and get through it, hopefully in one piece, lol.

Something super however is the new masseuse, Cindy who started at our offices on the 2nd May. She runs her own company called Beauty@Worx, but is new to Durban and is still finding her feet. In order to grow her client base, she has started off with some specials until the 16th May, R60.00 for either a 30 minute back massage, reflexology or head massage. I tried out a 40 minute back massage followed by a 20 minute foot massage… I have never had a professional massage before and therefore have nothing to compare it to, but it was definitely different, but worth giving up my lunch break for, hehe. She did warn me that I would get a bit achy later on, which began in the afternoon and carried on into the next day. However, I’m sure that the more you have your knots and muscles worked, the more used to it they become. In fact, I have booked another session for tomorrow, so will see how that one goes.

Other than that, there have definitely been some developments in recent weeks; for starters, my friend Philip Berry got engaged over the Easter Weekend, on Good Friday to be exact. I have not met his fiancé as yet, but apparently she is a South African Body Building Champion. If I recall correctly, I think her name is Loretta.

Wayne and I did manage to catch up with Philip however, we all attended the Roger Goode Saturday Surgery session when it was held at GateWay on 21st April. It was a 330 event and although it started off slow, but it started early too at 16:00, but things only really picked up around 22:00. It was held at the WaveHouse in GateWay, which was quite neat because there were people surfing alongside the dancefloor.

Things have not been all sunshine and happiness however, on the night of the 16th April, one of the houses across the way experienced an attempted robbery at about 4:00am. The dogs in the neighbourhood began barking however and then the owner triggered the alarm. The robbers scrambled across the road and over our gate, in fact, there was a foot print on our postbox, which is about chest height… So they were literally “flying”. They then went over into Seeff’s yard and set off their perimeter alarm. The next morning Chubb was still hanging about and one of them came to check out our yard encase one of the robbers was still hiding there. It seemed that they had evaded getting caught completely.

I have been having some fun though, I purchased my second monitor, yet another sleek, black LG Flatron 19″ 2ms delay L1960TR model LCD, and also finally found the Marvin figurine I had been looking for on a local website called FigureFanatix. We did a bulk order at work and because our order came too over R1000.00, we got free shipping! Encase you don’t know, Marvin is the manic depressive robot from the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” movie; the figurine also has light up eyes. The only thing that could have made him better is if they had built in some Marvin phrases, hehe.

My shopping spree would have ended there, except that Musica was having a R50.00 DVD sale. I have added the following DVDs to our DVD Collection:
- Along Came Polly
- Bruce Almighty
- E.T.
- Eragon (this was a new release – R150.00)
- Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
- Hostel
- Ring, The
- Ring II, The
- Saw
- Saw II
- Terminator 3
- Truman Show, The
- Wallace and Gromit : Curse of the Were Rabbit
- War of the Worlds (was an ok movie, just had a bad ending)

Whilst there I purchased a greatest hits CD of Collective Soul
Collective Soul – 7 Year Itch

Wayne has also been wanting to get into U2, so I picked up a copy of one of their CDs for him.
U2 – Joshua Tree
I can’t believe how expensive some of their CDs are, it’s a little insane.

It was a once off sale however and it is really difficult to get decent DVDs at that price around here. Some new releases retail for around R230.00 each! The only other series I may add in to our collection is the MacGyver series, our mate J managed to get hold of all 20 seasons for around R1,200.00 – not bad. I really liked MacGyver when I was younger, I’m just concerned it may not be all I remember, so I may just borrow some of J’s to start off with.

The most recent luxury Wayne and I each purchased was an original copy of the new Command & Conquer 3. Despite our ambition however, we just haven’t had the time to try it out yet. *sigh* Maybe if we stopped sleeping altogether, lol.

On the net side of things, as you know I have set up 2 Flickr albums, one for Las Vegas and one for London. Guest accounts only allow you to upload 200 photos, which is why I had to set up two separate accounts.

I have also discovered YouTube – this is a great, free, video website where anyone can upload videos of any sort, it is streaming however, so videos cannot be downloaded to your hard drive, but this also protects copyright.

I have been watching a few episodes of an old series I enjoyed called, “God, the devil and Bob“. I also found that old animated snowman short film, which I used to adore when I was a kid, Ramond Briggs’ The Snowman, it has that well known song “Walking in the Air”. You can also find the video there for Soul Action Durban 2009. Even Zach Braff has made a YouTube video, a blog post actually, he seems very down to Earth. I even enjoyed skimming through some of his blog – ZachBraff.com.

Branden knew it wouldn’t be long before I could resist, lol, but I put up a video of our flat “before” we moved in during 2005 and a new “after” we moved in video from 2007. Watch This Space for any further developments.

I also recently started using Gmail and have set up an account for this blog – coffeemongerblog at gmail.com, for those of you who have been wanting to drop me a line.

Something else which has captured the attention of people world wide is FaceBook. A website which networks friends and their photos, people in photos can be “tagged” or labelled by their friends too, which then becomes linked to their profile. I have a bunch of photos which appear in my profile in which I was tagged by other people. Quite neat! The most amazing thing is the people you find on there! I found my childhood friend, Jordan Semple, who I have not seen in well over a decade. An old school friend, Prerna found me, and I was even able to add Mike Pilavachi, Gareth Cliff and even Zach Braff to my friends on FaceBook. You can’t just add people without them authorizing you however.

In other news, my birthday is coming up soon, this Saturday, the 12th May to be exact and my friend Lauren has plans to take me out, slap makeup on me and try on wedding dresses. Yes.. It shall be fun, just oodles.

Speaking of wedding dresses, Wayne finally revealed to Vaughn that he is in fact the best man at our wedding, hehe. We finalised our photographer, David Weeks and took the necessary steps to organise our DJ. I was still undecided between our two DJs, either Jason who did my NGHS school Matric Dance in 1999 or a guy named Gary who used to DJ for Joe Kools, now renamed to Joe Cools *bleh*. I sms’ed both DJs, but only received a response back from Jason who said he would email me details, but that he is presently in the United Stated at the moment. Either way, aside from being my original first choice, I think the process of elimination may come into effect here. On an entirely different note, something which has really had people’s blood boiling lately is the local government’s decision to change the street names of our city Durban. The following names have already been changed without so much as an ounce of consent from any of the people who actually live here:

Now there s a list of 181 street names which are to be changed, to which the city manager, Mike Sutcliffe says will happen whether we like it or not. Some of the major objections are the following well known roads; this list excludes most of the roads in the CBD, such as Smith Street, West Sreet, Soldiers Way and Commercial Road which are also being renamed:

I live in Essenwood Road, my dad lives in Currie Road and my folks live in Windermere Road… Needless to say, I don’t want to live in Stephen Dlamini Road… This whole thing really makes my blood boil.

The city was given 21 days to object, we have until the 11th May to voice our opinions, comments and objections. Following are links to an Objection Petition, as well as a local radio, East Coast Radio which is giving the public the opportunity to air their views.

Objection Petition to the Change of Durban Street Names
East Coast Radio – Have your say about the Street Renaming
Comments, criticism or suggestions can be sent directly to:
corporategis@durban.gov.za or by post to:

Municial manager
41 Margaret Mncadi Avenue
Durban
4001

The Democratic Alliance (opposing political party) did have an objection form on their website, but the form only accommodated one road per form, i.e. I object to … being renamed to …

I have now taken part in two East Coast Radio polls about this issue, commented on it in their forum, taken part in the above objection petition, and topped it all off with an email where I politely informed the powers that be that they are all ID10Ts. I really can’t believe this, I thought it was a joke at first, since it originally bubbled to the surface around April Fools Day. First the Durban Municipality became the eThekwini Municipality overnight, then they go ahead and change about 20 street names without consulting anyone who actually resides in this country as an everyday citizen… Great example of democracy. After everything that has happened, this whole objection thing appears as if it is just for show, I really do wish it would make a difference however.

People like me will be inconvenienced because we will have to have our postal addresses changed, everything from electric bills to tax returns will have to be updated. We will have to inform everyone we know of our new address, despite the fact that we have not actually moved anywhere! Businesses will experience delays in important deliveries and will have to spend a lot of money changing letterheads, business cards, etc. GPS devices will become outdated and will all have to have software upgrades, Map companies will suffer a serious hit as any companies that hold stock of Durban maps will now find that they are absolutely worthless. Tourists won’t know where on earth they are going and none of the people who actually live here will be able to help them either. Some of the road names I can’t even pronounce.

Basically, this entire thing is just a massive waste of money. The government should be focusing on feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, stopping crime in its tracks, hiring more police men and women with better wages, funding cancer and aids societies, promoting tourism, creating jobs… humans aside, even donating funds to the SPCA would be a far more worthy cause than being on this one way mission to eliminate the “white” colonial history from Durban’s streets. Changing road names will not build a nation and at this point, it is just creating animosity toward the government, whilst I used to be fairly indifferent toward the ANC, this entire thing is really making me grind my teeth. Anyway, I just can’t talk about this anymore, I’ll begin foaming at the mouth or something…

Whilst I’m at it though, something else we have not been having much luck with is services for Wayne’s 1999 1.6 Polo Playa. After having Weiss Motors do such a poor job for the last few services, Wayne decided to give Alpine Motors a try again. They found a lot wrong with the car, including the fact that the front break pads which Weiss had supposedly replaced last time, and charged for, were worn down to 5%… It seems that Weiss were paid for parts and work which they did not even do.

The list from Alpine spanned over two A4 pages, in some cases, the labour was more expensive than the part being replaced, one labour amount even equalled around R2000.00! The total of parts which needed replacing and attending to equalled to a whopping R30,000… After some humming and haa’ing, Wayne decided to get all the quirks seen to. Needless to say, once the car arrived back, one would expect it to be in pristine condition.

However, this was sadly not the case. Whilst the clutch had greatly improved and was lovely and smooth, the car air conditioner still does not work at all, the exhaust still rattles and the gears are now incredibly stiff. Wayne’s gear lock has lost it’s spring-release since it went in and there is now a strange rattle coming from behind the engine on the passenger side… Needless to say, it is going back in to Alpine again, the earliest that they could manage is the 21st May. *sigh*

Wayne is determined that leaving Alpine in the first place was the cause of all these issues, but there was not really anywhere else to go that was decent. Kings Park VW merged with Weiss and the majority of people I know wouldn’t touch Hoopers with a barge pole. The only place we haven’t tried out yet is the VW Umhlanga branch. A co-worker of mine, Brett is due to try them out, so will see what he makes of them. If I get the chance I will publish the quote of things which got fixed on Wayne’s car, it was quite phenomenal !

In brighter news, I finally got around to a long overdue spring cleaning, yes it took up most of what would have otherwise been a very treasured long weekend, but there is nothing like clean surfaces and a clutter free, dust free dwelling area. Yes, apart from being a sentimental fool, deep inside I’m also an obsessive compulsive neat freak, lol.

This passing Sunday, the 5th May, Wayne and I hosted our Church Leadership course for the first time. It was quite an event and I think we somewhat overestimated the amount that the 12 of us would actually eat.

Our Breakfast Menu consisted of:
1.5 litre Liqui Fruit Juices (4 Cartons)
Scrambled Eggs (made from 24 eggs)
Bacon (3 Packs)
French Toast (16 Slices – used 12 eggs)
Fried Banana (9 Bananas)
Fried Viennas (pack of 12)
Fried Tomatoes
McCains Oven Chips (a Tray full)
Baked Beans (2 Tins)
We decided not to serve a “Variety of Cereals”
Tea / Rooibos & Coffee

Tea Break Menu
Tea & Coffee
Yoghurts (12 small tubs)
Woolworth’s Choc Chip Cookies (2 pkts)
Nutti crust Biscuits
Choco kits Biscuits (brought by Brigitte)

Needless to say, by the end of it, I was most grateful to Theresa who handled the banana and viennas, Brigitte who handled the fried tomatoes and Wayne who was the operational manager of everything else. I arranged the bacon on the oven tray for cooking, cooked the French toast and laid the table in the lounge.

We all feasted, made a mess, had a wonderful leadership session and partook in a light tea. Leftovers consisted of about 9 yoghurt tubs, 1 carton of liqui fruit, an awful lot of fried banana, a fair amount of scrambled eggs, 5 rashers of bacon, 2 slices of tomato, 1 vienna, a handful of chips, a half filled bowl of baked beans and about 6 slices of French toast.

Oh well, there is a first time for everything, Wayne and I enjoyed some lovely toasted breakfast salmies, it was worth the effort and the cleanup, even if it was just for those delicious sandwiches, hehe. It seems that the fried viennas and tomatoes were the greatest hit, worth noting.

By the way, for those of you who don’t know, it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday along with my step dad, Dave’s birthday. A handy gift for dads, which I got for both of mine, is a novelty tennis racket, styled Bug Zapper.

Aside from saving up money for a second car, Wayne and I still have a list of things “To Do” around the flat, along with a list of want to buys:
- New Hard Drives for our Server under the Stairs, Harred
- Oak Games Cabinet
- Second Fridge
- MVIX Player (available from Digital Planet – I do prefer the look of the MV-5000U although it doesn’t make room for the future of Wireless LAN capabilities which we may soon consider.)

Time End: 21:03

Breakfast onboard was again a nauseating experience, I had the passion (but mainly banana tasting) fruit juice & that was it.

I arrived in JHB, quite sick… Again. We queued to book in and after a time, all those taking our Durban flight were called over to one of the check in points on the side. Once a large enough gaggle of us had gathered, the guy doing the checking in at that point then informed us that he was now only doing East London and gruffly asked who told us to queue there. *argh* Welcome back to Africa! There was so much confusion going on, it was almost unbearable. We finally got our bags checked in and no one said anything about us being overweight, I think the weight restrictions there matched those of London. *hmph*

After a bit of a run, we just managed to make our connecting flight to Durban. Wayne and I were not sitting together on this one, probably because of how late we had booked in. We had been given one seat in the middle of the plane and one seat just behind the door in business class. I started off at the seat in the middle, but since I wasn’t feeling well, Wayne escorted me to the front, near the toilet. There were other business class seats across the way which remained empty for the remainder of the flight; a complete waste really.

Our breathless rush to board our flight was followed by a 35 minute wait once we’d boarded, whilst awaiting 7 elusive bags which had not yet arrived on the plane. The posh looking woman across the way from me was quite indignant at being inconvenienced about waiting for the missing bags. She felt quite strongly that the bag owners should disembark and catch the next flight, hehe.

I have never flown business class before, the leg room was nice at the front and the experience of being offered a hot towel was a little different. I managed to sleep through almost the entire flight, as did the guy next to me. I was most grateful for this, as there was no food involved.

Once in Durban, still quite nauseas, Wayne’s folks picked us up from the airport & dropped us off at home. I arrived & promptly fell into bed; it was around 11:00am when I began to doze off.

It was great that Wayne’s folks came and picked us up. We had left them with a set of house keys to get cut for themselves, unfortunately, the keys I had left in their care had been horribly mistreated. Whilst the keys themselves were ok, the rings had been completely bent & buckled… To top it off, my metallic Garfield key ring was no where to be seen, except for the small ring from which it was once attached… Really odd. I wondered if the key maker could have done that when he made a spare set for them – they looked as if they had been driven over.

I was more upset about my missing metallic Garfield key ring than anything else, those sort of things are notoriously hard to find here. When I brought this to Wayne’s attention, he was quite indignant about the whole thing, that I should attack his parents like that. Well fact is, we were not gone all that long, I was actually going to take the keys with me and at the last minute gave them to Wayne’s mom when Wayne suggested they get keys cut. They weren’t even supposed to use them…

It turned out, that indeed my keys had been driven over, apparently Wayne’s mom had accidentally dropped them at La Lucia mall. When she arrived home and couldn’t find them, in a panic she drove back to have a look, thankfully found them, and thought they were ok, and never mentioned the incident to anyone. She felt bad enough about the whole thing, but I’m one of those people who gets funny when I lend something to someone and they damage it, it makes me very mistrusting of people… I get “funny” when people damage my personal stuff.

Speaking of personal stuff, something which wasn’t ours, but definitely added to the little beauty our garden has, is the avocado tree next door, where Seeff has just moved into. It has stood there for as long as I can remember, sadly, as we entered the back yard, we were greeted by a rather sad looking, rather butchered and bare, avo tree.

Moving on; overall, it was quite a journey! Seeing the sights I did was truly amazing, but the plane trip almost killed me! I guess that, in the end, there is no place like home… *purr*

The long haul flights we took were not altogether terrible. There are one or two things that remain in my mind, which I do recall and cherish as part of this wonderful experience. One being the vivid red rock as we crossed over Vegas on our way to London… And another, the mottled bed of clouds we climbed above when we left London. The way the Sun was setting behind it like a sea of cotton balls. This sort of scene definitely requires some Counting Crows ambience.

We came home however to discover that Durban had been ravaged by a terrible storm on the night of the 15^th March – apparently it was caused by the alignment of the Earth, Moon & Sun. Our poor maid’s home had been destroyed by it & terrible images of what the Durban Beach Front now looks like were flying back & forth on the web. Shame, apparently no one even saw it coming, what started off as a perfectly clear night ended up as some sort of nightmare, especially for those near the beachfront. As soon as I get a chance, I will include some of the pics going back and forth on the net with this entry.

In closing, I’m glad to report that despite the large quantities of junk food we ate, we did enough walking to counteract it. I came back weighing pretty much the same as when I left, I have developed a bit more leg muscle since however.

I have set up two Flickr albums with photos from our journey, I still need to finish dating and organizing some of them, but that will be completed within the next week or so:

Wow, our last day in London and we actually managed to get a lot in! Tom had an Alpha Course day away, so we bid him farewell in the morning.

We got going pretty early. Since Julie was not accompanying us this time, she aided our travels by giving us a London “A to Z” Map Book, some station names, a couple road names & off we went.

Our schedule consisted of making our first stop at Oxford Circus station where we would visit Hamleys, the store itself is on the left side of Reagent street as you come out of the station – they have an Apple Store there too.

Our second stop was the Holborn tube station, where the next road to our right was Great Russell street, it was on that corner where we were supposed to find an American Express to exchange some travellers cheques.

Our third and final stop was the “Playin’ Games” store, it was in Museum road which intersected Great Russell street. We were then to travel back to Shepherd’s Bush station – I must say, it was quite convenient that everything was located on the Central Tube Line.

During our journey, we topped up our Oyster Travel Cards with another £5.00 each.

We arrived at Hamleys at 8:40am & had to wander about the block for 20 minutes whilst waiting for them to open. Once they did, I finally purchased myself a Simpsons Uno Deluxe game for £9.99 as well as a Homer Talking Magic 8 Ball for £12.99. Total £22.98.

At Russell street, we battled to find that elusive American Express – seems that their website is badly out of date. We visited a Thomas Cook’s on that corner instead, they take £2.00 commission for every £100.00 American Express travellers cheque that was cashed.

We then visited the “Playin’ Games” store. According to our till slip, we purchased the following…

PLAYIN’ GAMES
1x Trivia Tin £ 11.99
1x Nano Fictionary Card Game £ 14.99
1x Playing Cards £ 4.99
1x Treasures & Traps Card Game £ 12.99
1x Eco Fluxx Card Deck £ 8.99
1x Frank Bresee’s Card Games Mix £ 4.99
(actually a tongue twister card game called “Pass Out – The Pocket Version“)
VAT £ 8.77
Total £ 58.94

Most of the neat games we bought were for my games collection & the “Eco Fluxx” was for Brandon. I definitely think that Melissa will have to help me pull together an embroidered SuperMan cap for him.

The tongue twister pocket version of the “Pass Out” card game was for Wayne’s mate, Pom.

After all this, we were still back at Julie & Tom’s by 11:15am, not too shabby, hey Nige! Well, we showered, ate some brekkie & packed. Julie organised a taxi to pick us up at 14:00 and take us to the airport; our flight out was at 17:55.

As for all the stuff we got for Vaughan & Bronwyn, we left it all, along with £10.00 for Julie to post it for us. It’s all just waiting for one of them to give Julie their actual postal address.

The taxi arrived on time, unfortunately however, it smelt quite terribly of smoke, but we were grateful not to have to take the tube to the airport. During our earlier outing we had heard that due to some issue or other, there were no trains going to the airport for a certain period of time… I mean, can you imagine!

Our cab trip was a silent one, unlike our previous UK transfer trip, our current driver was not much of a talker. We arrived at the airport, paid our smoky taxi driver £19.00 for the trip & then proceeded to wait for over an hour to check in. Once again, we got slammed for airport tax and once again, due to our previous visit to the airport, where “Paid” had been written on my ticket, we once again only had to pay £20.00 for one of us. At least it covered our cab fare.

Then we visited the Duty Free store where we purchased “some” choccies.

DUTY FREE
3 for 2 Toblerone 400g £ 8.00
2x Gold Lindt Hazelnut £ 8.30
Total £ 16.30

There was a pound/rand exchange rate on a monitor next to the checkout till; it is now R15.65 to £1.00!! With any luck, that was the sell price.

Whilst waiting in the airport, we ended up spending around £5.00 on a tube of original Pringles & 2 Coca Cola buddy bottles… That’s enough to make you bleed a little. *gasp*

My last UK purchase was at the tax free Hamleys, I purchased 2 “Hurtle Turtle” Splashy Dashers to add to my bath toy collection, total £10.20.

What was annoying was how when we left Las Vegas, we had to pay $35.00 for being overweight. I was 28KGs & Wayne was 27KGs. But leaving London, we were allowed 32KGs. *grumble*

Anyway, the flight back from London was ok to start off with; I relaxed and watched a little in-flight entertainment:
- an episode of Spongebob Squarepants
- The Devil Wears Prada
- How to Eat Fried Worms
A movie based on a book I read many, many moons ago.

Unfortunately, the smell of the airline food soon made me feel really nauseas. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t. The minutes seemed to drag on for what seemed like forever in the early hours of the morning… Knowing that we were due to land at 7:00am South African time & that it was only about 2:00am! At least my watch was correct for this journey.

Not everything went as planned today; Vaughan & Bronwyn were unable to make it. Bronwyn had a massage scheduled & Vaughan had to cash a cheque of some sort. So they weren’t able to travel over to London to see us. L

Grant also SMSed and said that he thought he was going to be able to make it over to visit, but that sadly, he wasn’t able to. Bummer. *sigh*

On the bright side, Julie treated Wayne & I to the “Deep Sea 3D” show at I-Max, it would have been £7.50 each, so we were really thankful that Julie sponsored us. It really good though & it was the first time that we have seen one. Julie took a shot of Wayne and I wearing our really huge 3D glasses, hehe.

Afterwards we strode about the Science Museum & stopped off at the Science Museum Store. They had a neat egg timer which cooks alongside the eggs in the pot & lets you know whether your eggs are soft, medium or well done. Seeing as it was such a handy gadget, we bought two at £4.99 each.

We then took a trip over to Harrods & looked about. They have a large HMV store there now, but at £50.00 for a series of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, we didn’t make any purchases.

The place reminded me of the Pavilion shopping centre back home, it has floor after floor after floor of pure shopping; most of it pure luxury. Their meat market even had quail… how um… quaint. There was a chocolate bar there too with giant vats of mixing, liquid chocolate. *yum*

There was also a pet shop there which had 4 Egyptian Mau kittens, selling for a cool £900.00 each!! Wikipedia has also done an extensive write up on them.

We also found out that the Toy Kingdom at Harrods was almost as large as Hamleys, but no version of Simpsons Uno Deluxe was to be found, a Top Trumps Simpsons Classic Collection did catch my eye though, but we made no purchases. It was a pity they did not have what I was looking for, since we did not get a chance to visit Hamleys… Nor for that matter did we get to visit Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

At the end of the day, Wayne still needed to cash some American Express traveller’s cheques. Lloyd’s was already closing & the Post Office takes a commission on American Express… It seems there is only one American Express place somewhere on the west side of London, the only other one is at the airport, where we decided to cash them tomorrow. Trust me, never take American Express traveller’s cheques to London, rather take Thomas Cook traveller’s cheques, they are everywhere, like rabbits.

We went past a Clinton Cards store as well, the primary stockist of Tatty Teddy. I did think we were just going to look… Wayne seemed a little disappointed that I didn’t make a purchase… But multiplying everything there by 15 to get back to Rands is just far too much for me. *gulp* Whilst I was browsing around, I saw some really neat iPod skins called iJackets.

On our way “home”, Wayne & I topped up our Oyster Cards with another £10.00 each, they are good for travel on both buses and the tube. We also stopped by Tesco’s on the way back to pick up some juice & milk… Still no Vanilla Custard Doughnuts for Wayne though; he has been raving about those things for years & I have not even so much as seen one!

To my pleasant surprise, London has most of the basic necessities a South African like me would ever need, from the fact that they now have Appletiser *yay* right down to the delicious Cadbury chocolate that we are all used to back home. I even saw a Nando’s restaurant today and have heard rumours that there are Wimpy restaurants here too… I haven’t come across the infamous and somewhat elusive, yet infamous, UK South African Shop as yet however.

We have had good weather too, mostly sunshine, in fact, we have had good weather from the moment we arrived in the UK! Temperatures are said to start dropping from this Sunday & they are expecting snow next week! Wow, we are only just going to miss that cold fest!

Interesting titbit, is that here in the UK, is that they don’t charge you VAT on cold foods. In the USA, tax is 7%, whilst in the UK it is a whopping 17% !!

For dinner, Julie & Tom took us to their neighbourhood pizza place – Pizza Express. I had a delicious glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, along with a Regina pizza. Dessert consisted of a lovely Binoffy pie which Julie & I shared. It is a lovely restaurant, very family orientated; children who go there get to make their own pizzas almost from scratch. I caught a glimpse of quite a few smiley children kneading dough as only children could, with whacks and prods, as well as flinging on various toppings that were made available to them.

Hopefully we will have the time to visit Hamleys tomorrow. One of the things I was hoping to see whilst here in the UK was Mike Pilavachi’s church in Watford which is held in a warehouse, aptly named Soul Survivor, Watford. He is the co-founder and leader of Soul Survivor, a wonderful Christian event, which began as summer festivals and now only exists in South Africa as one night events. Unfortunately, apart from the fact that we were not in the UK over a Sunday, Mike and his team had in fact gone to Durban, South Africa for a Soul Survivor evening on the 16^th March. How’s that one!

Speaking of Soul Survivor being in Durban, South Africa, they are currently prepping for Soul in the City Durban in 2009. There is a great video about it on YouTube.

Despite missing out on seeing the Soul Survivor Watford Watford church, Julie did point out to me the church were the Alpha Course was started.