Glooomp, kasssshhhh...

Couple of points:

Spent a weekend in Hamburg this last, had to retrieve the old sleeping bag for the trip - hadn't used it in ages.  In fact, hadn't used it since the Great Bed Bug debacle of 2009... which was a little worrying.  Crippled by paranoia, I decided not to use it after I spotted about 3 small, spec-sized creatures manouvering across the not-cotton.  Fortunately we were within reach of the sea and so pajamas could carry the load.

Going away with a group you only sort of know is pretty sweet too.  United by Ultimate.

Points left to ponder include: Does the presence of an internet connection corrupt the spirit of scrabble?  Which of the 9 intelligences do you have? and is the ability to differentiate between an udder and a reproductive organ a sign of Naturalist Intelligence? Does your name share its phonetic spelling with a contraceptive device?

Roll on

People write songs when they're in tough times - I've tried. Unfortunately, my real musical talent lies in reminding people that we're supposed to make a joyful noise.

Tough times are relative; I'm not having as much fun as I suspect I could be enjoying - which is tough.  I have been enjoying adrenalin rush, after rush, after sore ankle, after replacement rear-view mirror.  Riding a bike is not as simple as it looks - its probably not as complicated as Ive made it either, but its significant.

Salvation lies in knowing that millions of Asians rolls on two wheels everyday.  At very least, I am able to keep an eye out for all of the corners littered with Vuka fairings and rear-view mirrors to identify the accident hot spots - and avoid them.

Hide

When things come to a climax, you can so easily end up in the dirt.  This played out richly in my life this week.

Ive been searching for a bike for months now, keeping it on the down-low, but scouring gumtree, bikefind.co.za and autotrader for months.  Finally I found my deal; right bike, right price, attainable location.

We headed for PE on saturday, met the guy, really kief guy, bike was pristine, loaded it, did the deal and headed back to slummies.  One fine later and we were home, and I had a bike in the garage.  Cloud 9.

For the record, our kindly traffic cop clearly didn't get his oats that morning because once he had done his jack-in-the-box arm waving he took for-eeeeeeee-ver to walk up to our window. He was loving it.

Monday was the first ride, just messing around in the garage and after about 2 minutes I was lying under the bike, in the dirt - cost.  I now have a cracked mirror, and bruised ankle.  Its been pouring with rain and I can't get a helmet - failed by salesmen everywhere.

Last night, lying on bed waiting for kettle to boil I realised that ultimately I would learn to ride, and be better off for all this frustration.

Festivities

Its that time of the year again; Queues, heat, time spent with the family, and above all... poor driving.  Maybe its a bit negative to say above all, but its up there.  My bum is sore from sitting on the wooden bench outside, but socialising comes at a price.

On a positive note, people are generally pretty joyful, which makes up for any discomfort in the car, or around the pool.

Happiness however does nothing for the stench on Nahoon beach.  If I wanted a foecal accompaniment to my beach walk, I would have brought the dogs... instead, we strolled in the presence of a wicked bats cave hangover.

I hope everyone is in a home, near family, or family to be :)  Love you guys, and encourage you to look past the rough exterior of life - an ongoing battle - and wait on a new year; new challenges, opportunities and other good stuff. God has a purpose and plan for you life, live in it! Blessings.

Country Roads

I was driving to work this morning; irritated by the latest batch of community road works.  Failed by local government the community has taken it upon themselves to repair the 2km of tarmac from the edge of suburbia  into the valley.  The lack of residing civil engineers evident in their choice of material.  While broken glass has a good rock/sand heritage, and a natural abundance in the valley... was it the best choice for filling potholes?

In order to get through the sea I floored it and almost meleed 6 chickens that were crossing the road.

Two nights ago I almost hit a cat.  Turns out the cat had wings.  A flying cat is a terrifying thing and I breathed deeply when I realised it was an owl.  Turns out owls haven't adapted to 'living with cars and roads'.  Then I almost blind sided the owl.

I got into my car on Wednesday morning, reversed down the drive then discoverd a passenger.  It looked like an Oreo biscuit with 6 legs, wings, horns, a bullet proof vest and a loud hailer.

Sick Day

Ironically today, the subject of my post, was probably the most boring day Ive had in the last 5 or 6... infact, until lunch time the only item of interest was a bowl of muesli.  Beware muesli.

Another irony is that its 6pm, and Im still at work...

And its at this point that I have the niggling sense that someone, somewhere... is having more fun than me.  And now that someone, somewhere is going to experience an unplanned bowel movement if they're also tucking into a bowl of tropical crunch.

Eye Test

Today's lunch was spent in queues.  Turns out 8-5 is your most productive time during the day, and when you have a job, you have to compress everything you used to do in those 9hrs into lunch.

The longest queue was getting out of the car park at the bank.  Parking-spot-choice fail.  The ATM was mild, although there was someone standing awkwardly close behind me.  Second last stop was an eye test at the traffic dept.  Good times.

So the eye test involved staring into their machine at some squares, each time one had a different pattern. I was pleased to see something other than those coster numbers.  I got to block 7 and went all teary eyed.  I got it wrong.  I always get the last one wrong... which got me thinking.  At what point do you fail an eye test?  Is it an in-joke amongst traffic department eye testers that they push you until you break.

"Yes sir, in the car park across the road is a white car... on the car is a leaf... on the leaf is a wasp... how many rings does it have on its belly, and what colour are they?"

"Red?  Aah, OK, uuhhhhhhh... out the window you'll see a plane taking off, theres a woman sitting in the third row..."

Either way, the smallest things you have to watch out for on the road are dogs... and if its so far away that you have to squint - you're not in danger of hitting it.  Unless its very small... in which case its probably Ryan's rat.  Ryan needs a rat sitter for the vac, call him.