what a crappy day!!!!!!!!!!! luckily today will never happen again

i once heard someone say that the lottery is a tax on people bad with maths. i lost a lucky draw this weekend. for some odd reason i was so sure that i would win the 700cc quad bike. although less dissapointed than relieved when they did not read my name. loosing the monopoly game the previous night really got to me though.

had a great day cycling saturday. discovered the most amazing section of land for mountain biking. also brushed up a bit on my orienteering skills while we were at it. i will definitely visit again to explore the terrain further.

had fun the evening at a good friends birthday party. clocked out early though, due to irreversable pain and drowsyness. also causing me to miss most of sunday morning and only getting out of bed at 9:30. built a pond for klip (the tortoise). chucked him into the pond. our trust relationship needs to be rebuilt from scratch now. i have never seen such a look of utter disgust on a reptile (usually incapable of any facial expression) in my life. he also crapped in the garden again, a good sign that hibernation has come to an end, and the summer is back baby!

oh, another thing worth mentioning is that i eventully got a pic of the tuck shop that opened up next to the barber and the shoe shop (Refer to blogs of early august).

time is the only thing that keeps everything from happening at once. sometimes i think it does a too good job. today could be classified as yet another unbloggable day. i hate blogging without having anything to say. makes me feel like going out and making news.

last night the parachute woman was on tv. she fell 3300m and survived, with only her pelvic bone cracked. now she doesn't want to jump anymore. something about her family.

also in the news, the late paul meintjes, whose family was told by a "prophet" that he would rise from the dead, has finally been laid to rest. this was after police took the corpse away from his family on saturday amid concerns that it posed a health hazard. they kept him in the morgue for about 8 weeks, believing that he is going to be raised from the dead, any day now. just shows you what an inbalance of faith does to you.

a britt accidently set fire to a porn magazine under his seat on an aircraft on his way from nowrway. his burning desire gave him something to blog about ;) i think they both felt just like me. due to the fact that i have no news and no worthy photographic material, i have decided to post this pic of the "square wheeled bike" used in the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy.



looked around p-net for open vacancies around town. found a bunch, all recruitment agencies though. i just don't like those people. they are always sooo vague about opportunities. kind of like they are trying to hide something.

finished space quest 1 today. my 16 year quest of having done all the space quets ever to be released has been completed. i now feel so much better.

being the "experience" lover i am, i had the time of my life last night, as i was treated to a true japanese dinner. not the typical tourist kind, thus allowing me to really experience the culture. starting off with sushi and caviar with a soya dip and some green stuff that would burn lucifer out of hell, taken through the whole course including a soup with "curo tao", a good salad, prawns made just like i love it, fillet flame grilled with an excellent japanese sause. ending with deep fried milk. scary at first sight, but every bit as divine as the waitress.



a night very much appreciated, and thanx goes to my pic for the idea. learning ever more of the eastern culture. looking at the lovely waitress explaining the chop stix theory to me again, i can't help to wonder: if they manufacture all these great technological wonders in japan, why did they struggle so much to get a spoon right?

back to south africa, the trap has been set to catch the re-incarnation of silver-back. a rat with great courage. alas, now that the trap has been set, he is nowhere to be seen. guess he learned from living with alex.

btw: the stench of sour milk in my car now turned to that of a portugese brothel ran just above his fruit and veg shop. the pineapple has to go. today.

friday is unbloggable. nothing happened.

saturday proved interesting with a great little adventure race (hence the pictures shown) and lots of gorgeous women. lots. wearing tights. even some pom pom girls. neways... was good to see some of the old quest people again.

put me back in the whole spirit of things. suffering. solitary. lack of temps above 1C. the stuff that makes you feel you are dying. and results in you being glad to get back home. appreciating EXERYTHING in life again. the good the bad and the country. having that great feeling of breathing in and spitting out. something only the city can give you.

sunday was spent dragging myself from bed. consciously trying to just remain unconscious. pulling on every little nerve that keeps you from fully waking up. then that guilt. that utter feeling of disgust waking and watching the sun shining outside. knowing that you have wasted hours of this day. a day unpolluted by work or have-to-do's.

so i got up, showered and went cycling. found a cache.

monday. yes. again, for the 35th time this year, monday happened. what a drag??? i spent lunch visiting FAWK and FASK. missing action with 5 minutes every time. typical.

the one day that i leave the camera at work i get what i regard as the morning with the most dense fog this year. too bad.

i don't know what to do to get myself to work. i feel like i should be mad about something, just not sure what, or who. i feel like i had enough of it, and is sick and tired of struggling getting it the way i want. it might be the ar sprint on saturday.

i feel completely disorieentated today. like my whole world has been shift 2 inches to the left. i don't belong here.

something i would like to chat about, and get some input. this was also taken on saturday. i rememberwhen i was young i had a book about extinct animals. i either don't have it anymore, or just could not find it. as i searched my parents house and my old room yesterday like bruce willis with a search warrant. not turning up anything, even when trying to utilise my special csi skills. interviewing bystanders, like my sister, and mom. to get back to the point, the animal on the pic, according to me has been extinct for quite a few years. and there it is, actually this is only one of two of them.

reached the 1000km mark on my bike yesterday. fun. have cycled much more than that though. bike is going for a service today. the morning started out well, with the "morning radio" guy having hit a cat on his way to work. all "morning radio" people have issues. one can listen to them for hours and really learn nothing. i got to work, planning my escape to take the mountian club forms to lenise. not expecting the fearless leader (aka salary payer, aka boss) to park right next to me.

i checked my watch, i did not wear one. i have not had a watch for the last 12 years. i pause, like my pc usually does when discovering that the cd he is trying to read is actually lying on the table above it. realizing the car comes with it's own watch, i glance at it, glad that it won't be necessary to to try and find sunlight.

i made a successfull return after sneaking out just before 9. this feels weird. one should never leave office before lunch. this causes the feeling and false hope of the halfway mark being reached in the day. the thought gets interupted by that annoying *bleep* only the horn of a mitsubishi colt makes when it wants to announce the arrival of management.

this was taken saturday on the way home. it illustrates the way crime is fought in south africa perfectly. when asked to do something about the terrible killings that happen along rissik street, the goverment decided to put up a sign to warn people. as if we all don't know already? what do they want us to do? not go there anymore? that would be fine, but would it not be better to actually just close the road then. which had me thinking, would it not be better just to actually patrol the area at night. i mean, it is one of the most beautiful drives one can take to view the city lights at night. also the place where most teen pregnancies happen if you ask me. i have stumbled upon many couplys doing the wild mambo, the hanky panky, spanking the monkey, or whatever tickles their fancy, or their...fancy, yes

fitted the breaks yesterday. on opening the packaging i read the notice "TO THE OWNER: Ensure that only a qualified technician install these parts on your vehicle, as it plays a crucial part in the safety of your car. Improper installment could cause severe injury or death." i proceeded and replaced the old pads. everything seems fine.

had a really nice mountain club evening last night, with alard and the guys talking about their patagonian trip, climbing the central tower of paine. also made major progress regarding membership. i decided to get my ass in gear this time round. hope the process wont take as long.

i went to buy milk duringlunch. during the last 6 years that i have bought milk from irene (a little town just outside pretoria that revolves around its golf course and the dairy farm - see picture), i have never had a milk spill. today, arriving after a calm drive from the farm, i noticed the one bucket was open. this is not all, i also deposited at least 500ml of milk into my back seat. other than that the day had little excitement this far. hope to change this after work. it is now 13:23, just got back from lunch. had 5 pancakes. learnt from yesterdays bad experience.

driving back i saw another shop had opened next to the barber, more precisely refered to as the hair cutter. it is a nice 2nd hand shoe shop.
the owner was busy take a leak in the corner of his shop (it was decided to cut him out of the pic), so there weren't any clients. this guy does not only sell second hand shoes, but would also polish and repair, to his standard, and other shoe you bring him, at a nominal fee. what i don't like, is that there aren't any "if you dial now..." specials.

having drank the very last bit of coke i have, i now sit here biting my tongue.

brilliant weekend. really liked it. almost took a bail on my bike. found a cache. had fun. played golf. then monday came...

...waking to the buzz of the phone vibrating on the wooden table next to my bed. as if it was excited about the fact that 6 o clock arrived. we did not feel the same. getting out of bed about 30 minutes later. late. into the shower...still sleepy. trying to catch a nap in the shower lying on the wall with my forehead, closing my eyes. bliss. this does not last long and get interupted by the sudden fear of falling, almost asleep standing.

completing the morning ritual like a buddist monk. same sequence everyday. toothpaste waiting for me after shower. clothes waiting after toothbrush...

there i am. sitting inside the car. garage door closed. the journey begins. it is usually a short 10 - 15 minute drive to work. today takes longer due to my failing brakes. have to over-utilise the clutch, gears and hand break. this is an annoying process. but gets me safely to work.

johan is not here today, visiting parents in cape town. this would make the monday-morning-meeting go much faster. no trying to over analyse everything, or telling us just how "amaaaziiing" last nights sermon was. while, to most other people it was nothing different than most other. and funny, EVERY monday they had an "amaaaziiing" sermon.

the meeting ended..well..early. as was the start of the day. early. due to certain laws of nature and time, everything from then on would happen early. until lunch, which is never earlier than expected or required. as i sit down at my desk, after logging my cache found on the website, i take a look at the paper lying on my table. the printed erd with all the red and black pen markings on it. the paper that has been lying here on my table since last week. the paper that represents work. office duty a.k.a. the punishment of the peasant.

with a sigh i pull it closer, and try to refresh my mind. the worst things about mondays are the stuff that you did not do on friday, cause, it was friday.

speaking of friday, i took this picture while driving home. it represent the local barber. unfortunately this one bloak walked in between me and the young entrepeneur when i took the pic. what it depicts is a guy (wearing that blue and black top with the yellow markings) cutting the guy sitting in front of hims hair. we have not electricity outlets in the street (i doubt if any country has them) so he has a petrol (gas) generator standing next to him that gets fired as soon as the client sits down. he does not offer a lot of styles though, but is by far the cheapest on the block.

this is post number 100. hurray.

yesterday afterwork i went to find another cache. success. hidden in the park accross my primary school. was nice.

this day just can't pass any slower...

as i drive into the parking lot, which is not as much a parking lot as it is a few spaces on the pavement devided by white paint, i see that i am not the first person to arrive today. this does not surprise me, as i left a bit late due to the plantation on my chin that needed annihalation. i opened the door with that weekend is here spirit deep in heart, and a slight smile on face, knowing that from here on, it is downhill baby! i quickly scan through my e-mail completing the startup ritual like every other morning. nothing of interest. anyway, nothing i can remember now.

got up again, to make tea. forgot about the tea and got to it after it dropped below the desired temprature. added hot water, sugar, way too much. this was caused by the friday atmosphere rendering me too lazy to use a spoon. and the humidity in the air. tried adding milk, but it has turned from the good white liquad into a strange plasma state. realising what happened i closed the box in one quick movement, stopping the foul smell that usually accompanies this experience just in time.

did nothing for an hour. continued with it for another two hours. this only stopped when i realised that it is 10:52 and i have done nothing. so... i did somthing for a minute or two. then started blogging.

i raked my zen garden yesterday, as i got tired of the par 3 hole design. this will be a good weekend. will go mtbing on saturday. 2 x 1 again on 4 x 4 track. great stuff. next week, promise, will take bike for service.

driving home yesterday, realizing that a major improvement should be made to the focus of this blog as my life is utterly boring. i got the idea back in my head tomorrow t's blogcam as it will be called now. she gave me the green light.

the decision has been made that everyday there would be at least one new pic posted to diplay something with essence of the everyday life of a south african, battling upstream to get through every day in this poor service, 3rd world country. it is different than what cnn would have you think. yes, crime and violence is part of our tradition, but it is not the end of it. we have loads more to offer.

to start the story off, see me as the middle class worker bee. the guy just below the people that pocket money and work less. and just above the people that really does ALL the work, and earns nothing. the black people you think? well, yes, the black people. cause the white people that sunk into utter poverty usualy does not do shit to get back out of it, except stand on street conrers with an old cardboard sign saying "No money, 32 children, god bless, want money or booze, not food". i am sure you would get plenty of pics regarding these signs.

i do vow to really try hard and show some of the positive (HIV negative) sides of this beatifull country. if i can find it.

it finally happened. after 20+ years they have started to film the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy movie. i have not been so excited about a movie since lord of the rings. destined for release only in june 2005 it will mean that there is still a looong period of torturous anticipation awaiting me.

have been listening to groove coverage since i started work this morning. was on classical techno since i got into my car, and woke up... well... listening to the news. for the first time in year my 3rd sense (hearing) gets exposed to the odd beating of a drum, in a rythmic way, blended in with a short melody being repeated 1200 to 1900 times. the sweet voice of some german lady coats these weird sounds and all together causes me to have pleasant experience, just by sitting here. the wonder of music.

still excited about h2g2.

stuck with all work completed and too afraid to actually go tell the boss that my work here is done i struggle to find something to keep me busy with. i realise that blogging might be a good idea. being busy with it now i am starting to wonder what i would do next. i love this music. will come back to update later, after i had something to eat.

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a good, loooong weekend behind me, and still this morning i woke up and desired just one more public holiday.

have to ask tania again if i could borrow her lil cam for a while, so many things that i want to record for blog purposes... like yesterday when my bike fell with me. leg still slightly hurt, but was great fun.

headache showed up, as usual, unwanted, uninvited and still unwelcome. a mild visit, but still that fear and imagination of it getting worse and worse already dampens my positiveness towards the small and sometimes unfound joys of life.

the large rooftile truck that parked outside about tow hours ago still has about 13% of it's load. two men started unloading roof tiles one by one (??), they are still at it. i am more surprised that they have moved so fast, than what i was to see no crane or quick way of doing it.

not having much to do today, i am bored out of my mind. the only reason i know it is still there is the headache that looms at the top. making every sudden movement painfull. as if my brain is standing still, and the tendons keeping it tight inside my head, stretches every time i move my head to quickly.

lost interest for some reason in reading alana's journal. maybe sometime later the week i would be in the mood again. i was so excited to see two new journal entries. but stopped before halfway through the first one.

feeling slightly ill everytime after i did some good excersizing. exorcizing. ahh....which reminds me, i have to phone the guys that promised to fix my garden.

as previously proven, friday's arrive weekly, just like mondays, although it seems that monday's have a slight speed advantage. today is one of those fri days. and more than that, it is the start of a longer than usual weekend. also, the day will be cut short by a (miracle) golf game.

up to last night i was not as excited about walking miles on end searching for a specific white ball, wackinging it away as soon as i find it. but since i woke up this morning it felt like casual day at school. those days where the headmaster would allow us to leave our schol uniforms at home. the whole day would have a holiday atmosphere, and you won't seem to do anything work wise. the same can be said about this office situation.

i need a chain cleaner. i need money to buy a chain cleaner. i need to change the topic if i want to remain in happy land.

phoned grant about my bikes service, seems it won't be one of those while you wait services, so i decided to only take the bike on monday, as this weekend would obviously include some cycling.

have to switch back to work mode, as boss would arrive soon, and then he would want to see value for his money. in other words, progress from my side

had the most incredibly revealing dream last night. i really can't remember when the last time was that i woke up so happy. i now know what it is that i am missing in my life, what the last piece of this puzzle is. the boogie pimps where more spot on than i thought. will be discussing the dream in more detail later. i am still working through the whole 'is it really worth it' part. the dream itself was not that great, but the feeling it brought was tremendous.

few things i am happy about daily...

(5 hours later...)

being able to drive to work without passing any builtup areas
not living in a small town
watching the sunrise
watching mist cover that sunrise
passing an airfield on my way to work

my dream last night involved an unkown girl. but she was perfect for me, cept that she was a bit young. but we clicked just like that. spent the perfect day. i was so in love with mystery woman. held hands, stared into each others eyes for hours. never even thought about screwing, as if we had forever. then morning came.

i have to find her

slayed a medium size dragon this morning with a small dagger. small enough to be concealed, but quite deadly. the last of the big dragons (or at least, the last of the big dragons that intel has reported) on the scubascene case. putting the battle off for more than just a few weeks, i finally got a brand new battle plan, a flawless one, taking little to no effort. and it was a success. in just one line of code i fixed the whole issue.

had a meeting scheduled for 8:00am, with the boss role. i was here, the other not so needed members attended, on time. he was nowhere to be seen. this however is not a problem, as it allows me to fix other minor problems, slay some small dragons for easy money. easy satisfaction. getting some of that happi-coder juice into me. not lasting very long, i resorted to blogging.

interupted by the pleasant sound of jako's suitcase opening and the words: "i visited my mother yesterday". out comes the crumpets, on its way to the microwave, almost loosing my balance as my nose follows the great smell moving past me. people may say a lot about me, but my nose is that size for a reason, no one gets past me with crumpets or pancakes. suddenly woken from the trans by the *ping* sound from the microwave alerting development that it's job is done, and we can move in for the kill. this all happened right after a nice cup of tea was placed on the mission aviation coaster, lying like a helipad on my desk, waiting...

i love that guy's mom

the rest of today looks promising and i have been assured that after today, the week would be over halfway completed, and on the downhill path to friday. ain't that great? missing nadine. missing penny. alas! another motivating thought brought to my attention this morning was that monday is supposedly a public holiday. pleasantly surprised, although i knew about this, but all good things was over shadowed by the doom that covered the past few weeks, i now face the weekend with renewed excitement.

alrighty, lets try and channel these positive squirts of .... no need, caught a glance at my bank account...all positive things quickly flushed down the dark pit of agony. pain and resentment fills my mind, my chest clogging as if i swallowed something exceeding the diameter of whatever food passes through on it's way to your stomach.

unhappy

the warm feeling of the crumpets still there, seeming that it is overpowering the bad jargon just written, i back it up in full force. making myself believe that there is absolutely NO WAY i can do anything about my debt, and realising that it is not worth sulking around my desk like a hungery hyeena trying to ground a plane. utterly pointless. but possible.

entering utopia again, i decide to put my efforts towards something worth while, and learn more about rave reports

unsatisfied with my current situation i weekly end up debating with myself on what it is that really makes me tick. what is it that really excites me in my current line of work, if there is anything like that anymore. scanning through an old vhs last night i stumbled upon recordings made by me the odd 5 - 7 years ago. one of the shows on the tape was computer chronicles. i suddenly remembered a time in my life where i would actually put in the effort to watch these shows. a time when i actually enjoyed fooling around with the pc. now, it seems like memories from a bygone era. lik browsing through old books with pictures of new steam locomotives.

i kinda miss it though. i miss being so motivated and ecxited about what i do. why this changed i am not sure.

had an excellent drive to work today. mist was lying in the valleys, the sun started to light my surroundings. perfect photo oppertunity, no camera. as always. getting to work, i entered the building and fooled the alarm for a record time, getting further than ever before, before hearing the screeching *beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep* from it's keypad. dropped everything with a sigh, went back to the keypad and deactivated it with a slight feeling of failure. next time.

today i will steer clear of nando's and their "hot chicks". getting that warm sensation just thinking about peri-peri chicken. would rather attempt an icy coke with some fries

decided to update my cv again. when the time comes i don't want to be caught with a lamp and no oil. as if the time would ever come. no rather, as if i would ever recognize the time comming. filling in the criteria for my job search, i saw new york under location...

...this got me thinking...

my top choice of companies to live in currently includes, new york, sacremento, seattle, vancouver, and i dunno, even london.

so yesterday headache sneaks out rom behind the bush, and ambushthe unexpected me, just doing my thing in and around the house. it has been so long since i had a worthwhile headache that i kind of missed this unwelcomed guest. we spent quality time together till i fell asleep last night. he was, like a young soldier visiting a club, nowhere to be seen the next morning. which was pretty pleasant, seeing that after the one day stand we had yesterday, i pretty much got reminded why i did not miss having headaches when they suddenly and for no aparent reason stopped. i felt it building up slowly again just now, but using thought control, and trying to picture sheep grazing on great plains i got it to pass without really noticing me.

the weekend was one of complete unproductiveness, and i do feel that it was probably wasted away to doing nothing. as opposed to weekdays that just drag by with so many things that i wan to do, but leave for weekends. now this. a weekend where all my plans were changed due to the weather, which, on it's own can't be blamed for the complete failure of weekend enjoyment. as my decisionlessness (should there be such a word, or illness) played a major role. i did however spent money that i did not intend to, and bought stuff that i intedend to, but found utterly and completely useless.

lunch has come up....

..lunch has gone and the burning sensation of nando's peri-peri still gleams in the chasms of the scorched wasteland that was once my mouth. the same tissue that once provided so much pleasure giving / receiving the first french kiss - if that is what they still call it these days. it seems so long ago now. am i that old? midlife crises would not hit me AGAIN on 24!!

needing to get out of the office for a while now. and stay out for a while. i have learned that the human nature, with emphasize to the 'man' part of human, causes an urge to adrenalin like it is some kind of drug. some kind of taboe. time and time again i feel myself getting agitated. my legs would start aching first, from my feet up. then suddenly my shoes would start irritating me. constricting me (not in a kinky way)....

...speaking of kinky... could that not be the same shot of adrenalin we need that causes us to come up with such hideous ideas. the same desire for adventure that cause me to attempt a 200km fun run. how much fun it turns out to be can only be appreciated once it is over and done with. having lost my trail of though with an incomming mail, this paragraph would be abruptly ended.

and, seeing that there is not much of the day left, so will this entry