Weekend Away

Taking a weekend off to spend time with your mates, resetting your spiritual path and tuning into God's heart makes for a good few days.  Sleeping in a trailer, living out of your boot and eating out of a 9 year old girls cutlery set... well...
Seriously though, note disclaimer, life with God's perspective is liberating, if not daunting, but I just get the sense its all worth it, and will continue to be so  indefinitely :)

With a bike, comes a helmet.  With a helmet comes a need for CPEA (close proximity environmental awareness).  Your head is twice the size it usually is, and you're more inclined to headbutt stuff.  Yesterday the petrol attendant took one for the team.  I apologized profusely.  He seemed ok about the whole thing.

Spur

My childhood owes a fair amount to Spur.  Without it, I would have had to purchase pencil bags, rulers and miscellaneous stationery items, none of them official Secret Tribe spec.  I would also have had a skewed and unrealistic understanding of native Americans - unaware that there are still tribes of feather wearing, wooden canoe paddling, waterfall-rope-swinging people out there.

That said, all this magnificent 'added value' has done nothing for my appreciation of the place.  I hate the Spur.  I know hate is a strong word... but I hate the Spur. Going there for supper is essentially a combo pack of all the worst parts of being a middle aged parent - topped of by paying an unrealistically high amount for your meal.

The only reason... the only draw card... is the Monday burger special. Two full meals, for the price of one.  Two people, two drinks and burgers and a coffee and a bill of R88.  Even I must concede it was worth it.

Recluse

It seems the human condition dictates that we all get sick every now and then... I had my turn this weekend. Before the ladies reading this think 'Aaah hell, another dude whining about being sick...' - I challenge you to write something vaguely interesting twice a week without scraping the barrel.

Saturday I woke up, feeling like I'd been on a merri-go-round for 8 hours, the dustbin was overflowing - with fruit flies, sink was full of washing, and flat needed a sweep pretty urgently... and it occurred to me that life had pulled a 24 hour lead on me.  i went back to bed.

Unique point - a lot of people assumed I had wiped out on my bike when I didn't arrive at work yesterday.

I am however healthy once again.

Culture

Runners rarely greet cyclists when they're burning up the tarmac, but will happily exchange with other runners.  Similarly, bikers generally treat drivers with contempt - and fair enough - when did you hear about two motorcycles colliding when one of them u-turned in devereaux ave... it just doesn't happen.

Ive been pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of other bikers since I joined their team.  Of course, theres a lot of ego in it too - bigger is better... which didnt help when I stalled infront of Mr Delivery last night.  Im also becoming less and less a fan of teenage girls on scooters who persist in over taking me.

This morning I snuck down a long line of backed up traffic, only to be stopped by an akwardly parked car... fortunately, I was now alongside a guy with a bike on the back of his bakkie... so there wasn't a problem.

Queue

Two years in and I still haven't come to peace on this issue of 'stay at the office for the most productive time of your day'.  There is sooo much stuff to get done; standing in a queue to license my car,standing in a queue to license my bike, standing in a queue to buy pvc piping, standing in a queue to toast my sandwich at lunch.  Don't get me started on queues.

In anti-climactic news, someone drove into me on my bike... i was on the bike when they drove into me.  Im still at a loss for how incompetent the driver was - essentially he nudged me - i think he was roll starting his car, i don't know. Anyway, Ive realised on the bike you have to just deal with it.  Ive also been flipped off for hooting at someone.  Great first month.

Ive invested in my own frisbee, no trademarks infringements there, this one is UPA spec.  Ive also invested in a wrenched ankle, UPA spec too.

Which district

 assumed the leadership role in the build up to this weekends wild saturday night.  At the best of times, picking a dvd is a taxing affair - taking into account your own preferences and those of your friends pretty much zeros your options.  However, peer-preference taken into account, it was either District 9 or something with that dude from The Fast and the Furious in it, Paul Walker, so District 9 it was.  Sidebar: don't expect to find much at the video store at 19:20.

I was blown away by the movie - even though I felt a little violated... not sure what that was about.  The movie was epic - best South African film Ive seen, Tsotsi included.  Big up to Peter Blomkamp.  People wouldn't hate on trekkies if sci-fi was always this good.

I told someone I had watched District 9 on the weekend, and enjoyed it even though its pretty brutal.  They replied "Ja, ja... with the kids growing up in Cape Town... Ive seen that one, it was great". "No, that was District 6...".  Which is uncanny - considering those are two of the internationally best known South African productions (says me).

Car Wash

My car is filthy - since we lost our Friday car wash at work its gotten a lot harder to organise a vehicle-hygiene session.  That said, Ive been trying to work out where Im getting the mud splashes behind my wheel arches, because even though I live in the valley, its tar all the way home.

Then it hit me... as I hit it, as it were.  I ramped over a squishy cow pat yesterday, heard it squelch under the tire, and the penny dropped.

Great progress on the bike - I made the most of quiet Sunday afternoon traffic and crossed into the neighbouring city of Beacon Bay.  Owing to the epic 30km/l fuel efficiency I can now afford to visit on that side of the river.