From High Level Road to the Digital Highway

This post comes to you from the soft and comfortable sofa in my very own lounge. Yes, a big milestone has been passed, I am surfing the web on my own laptop in my own flat. And it is wireless so I can sit, stand, lay wherever I want - laptop allowing of course. So who knows the next mail you get from me was sent out of my hot bath, or from a bench in a park, or from a sleazy public toilet. The options are limitless!! The speed of the connection isn't however. I am keeping a close eye on the stats as we speak (resp. write, read) and I am cruising at a mere 20 KB/s on average. But this connection can go all the way up to 7 MB/s, so boy oh boy if I find the right spot (if there is any) I'll surf at the speed

of light. (please don't conclude that the speed of light is 7 MB/s, that wouldn't be very accurate).

If I told you this is the only thing I realized in the past two weeks you would scold at me, right? Well you should because that would be a shame! So I am happy to tell you I did more than just this. One example would be hiking. I went hiking for a day, on my own. Grabbed a backpack and off I went. I had bought a map earlier and discovered there's actually a pathway that leads up to Signal Hill and the Lion's H

ead right around the corner. It's a bewildering feeling to be able to leave the city and be out in the nature so easily. I walked along Signal Hill, crossed it, went along the foot of Table Mountain, rounded the bend around Devil's Peak, descended at Newlands, disturbed a marriage, climbed up to Rhodes' memorial and went back home through the CBD. There, now you can use Google Earth to try to make sense of the previous description.

It was amazing to see how much wildlife I saw, considering you are right next to a city. I saw a mongoose, guinea fowl, a snake, a hawk eating a snake and a bug that killed a spider with a body the size of half my thumb. Granted, I don't have a big thumb but I was still awed by the bug that killed a spider that big.

A part of the road I walked along was closed for traffic. Landslides, falling rocks and the overall poor condition of the road didn't allow cars. Strictly speaking it was closed for hikers as well, but I ignored it. This boyish rebellion paid off because it was great fun to walk along that deserted road. I felt a bit like an Indiana Jones of some sort, not being scared of the snakes that slid away in front of my feet, looking at the mountain slope to assess which rock would fall down next. Staring hard at the rocks (camera in close up now), with eyes like slits, as if I could keep them at bay with my heroic stare. Completely in line with my character I took my shirt off. The sun was burning but that wouldn't stop me. You never see the movie heroes wielding a bottle of factor 20 sunscreen, but I did. As far as my arms would stretch I rubbed the protective cream on my skin. And I was ready to take on the rest of the road. Merrily I walked those miles, hoping I would get a nice tan in the process. I did, in a way. But the sun burns so hard here the factor 20 was hardly enough. A colleague chuckled and told me they invented factor 50 for the piercing rays of sunshine in South Africa. I failed to see the humor of it at

that point and thought of emptying a bucket of factor 50 in his nose. No, that was exaggerated, I wasn't in that much pain thanks to the lotion I did use. None the less my back and my legs look like regular kebaps. I can just peel off the skin and shove it in a roll with some veggies for an alternative meal (would that be cannibalism?).

I am looking for things to do, ways to make me leave my flat and at best meet other people. Ideally it should be something fun too, right? So one of the thing I started was taking up guitar lessons. The first real guitar lessons since I started playing. My teacher is a South African girl who goes to the university in Stellenbosch if I'm not mistaken. Haven't had enough lessons to say I made real progress but she is definitely helping me.

At work there were two events worth mentioning, I guess. An idea I put forward about having a visual management system for our team was approved. I suggested a layout and what the content should be and that got approved as well, without too many changes. I had a white board installed of 1m50 by 1m20 and now I can start implementing my ideas. It's a good feeling I can tell you.

Next to that I was also assigned my very first solo project. There will be contract negotiations in Maputo (Capital of Mozambique) early February. Cool stuff, I want to do a good job. But most I did so far was wait for data input... a whole week I had to wait for input, send reminders, find a way to reach the persons involved... very frustrating! I will have to find a way to make it happen faster next time.

For the past weekends I have been contemplating going surfing. It is absolutely something I would like to try although I have no aptitude for these things.

Any type of board that slides or has wheels gets the better of me. But the times was about to go out and try it the weather was bad or something else kept me from going. That "something else" included the newsflash you can read at the right hand side. I know this news traveled around the world because it is so spectacular.

You know, I bet dozens of people die every day from swallowing something weird (pebbles, an eraser, gummy bears, a pencil,...) but one guy dies of a shark attach and it's front page news. One could be more amazed by those items that got swallowed. (How did he swallow a whole pencil? which gummy bear did it? What brand of eraser was it?) Mainly because the shark did not do anything out of the ordinary. Unlike the pencil in the throat of a guy, the shark did what it is meant to do: swim, hunt, bite. Pencils are not designed to enter an esophagus, so you could say it is a lot more peculiar and worth more investigation. But then again, the pencil doesn't grow up to 7 meters big and it doesn't have three rows of razor sharp teeth. And when you see a pencil you don't start humming "tuuu du ---- tuuu du --- tu du tu du tu du etc..." do you?

But I'm getting side tracked here. My point is that a poor chap ended as shark chow in the bay where I wanted to learn to surf. It is very uncommon thing to happen, but kept me away for now regardless.

I'll end this post by saying that I am currently studying for something. It involves a book, a teacher and other teaching tools. I even have an exam soon... but for/of what?

I will tell you, later.

From the comfy three seater in my flat, via the digital highway to you behind your screen,

yours truly,

W.

Capetonian ways

Time to tuck away the Christmas decorations. They felt out of place either way. I didn’t get the point of putting up decorated trees and lighting window sills when we had the longest day in the South African summer. That shows how much is geared at the northern hemisphere still. But these happy habits die hard, don’t they? If it were up to certain political parties, they would have scrapped Christmas as a national holiday, because it is mainly a white man’s holiday. But too many people oppose that.

Latest developments included me getting a nice laundry machine, a power blender and a whole set of sofas. Yes, yes, I am steadily gathering all the household stuff I need. Every item adding a bit of luxury or independence. Which is good and necessary because I was getting accustomed to camping out in my own apartment, and that’s not really good is it?
Now as the saying goes, when you’re in Rome, do as the Romans do. Replace Rome with Cape Town etc… and that would mean I try to do what people do here, and in the way they do it.

One of such attempts included standing in a long traffic jam along the coastline to find a place at the beach on the 1st of January. It is something all Capetonians do. From townships and inland cities, people make their way to all the different beaches along the coast. And for the first time I felt the demographic numbers were represented correctly: I was the only white dude around. Whites are the minority in SA, with only 10% of the population. But where I have been so far, whites are by far the majority so it was nice to see it turned around for once.

Second attempt was a visit to the festival called “Tweede Nuwejaar” (second New Year). It was not very spectacular, but a good deal of fun. Seeing all the people dressed up in colorful clothes and playing catchy rhythms under the scorching sun was quite entertaining for a while.

A third step in the process of acting like the Capetonians was getting a house maid. Most people have a maid coming once or twice per week, and she does all kinds of chores. At first I didn’t want to do that. But the idea grew on me, and I’d be employing someone, right? I’d enjoy it and the lady would be helped as well. In a country with 48% unemployment and no welfare system I think that is a valid argument. Plus it sounds quite posh and it would be very comfortable, wouldn’t it? Ironing done, kitchen cleaned, that kind of stuff. So she came for the first time this week. And to prove that it is an interesting exercise in integration (as well as luxury won’t deny that) is that I’ve found out that you have to provide a meal for everyone you employ for an entire day. So next to the wage I pay I have to make sure there are sandwiches for the lady. I’ve heard South Africans telling stories about how their maid raided the fridge at every chance the got. From now on, if that occurs, I can put on a serious face and engage in the conversation with stories about "my maid" :-)

2010 came !!

Happy new year !!!!

2010 has finally arrived, a magic number most South Africans have been waiting for because it will be the year of the world cup and record breaking cash flows into the country... they hope.

Has it really been 20 days since I last posted something on here? My word, I reckon some of you were wondering what was going on. Especially since I left you with such big news pending last time. Well let's see how I can sum up the past weeks.

First of all, on the job it has been quite busy. We had very intense negotiations with our previous project. Well, they seemed intense to me because it was my first time sitting in on such a high level meeting. It looked like the boss of my manager thought differently (although he woke up at 3 am that day and was in the office around 4 am which is early even to his standards because he usually starts work at 5h30). But the negotiations went well and we were complimented on the preparation we made. Actually you could say we blew the other guys out of the water with our facts. Had it not been a sellers market, we would have gotten even more I think... but I don't want to talk too much about work. Let's just say my days are quite full and I enjoy the work I'm doing.

Other big news: my friend and colleague Florens became a proud father! He is a trainee from the Netherlands who came here just like I did, as a mise grad expat. He and his lovely wife Claudia were already several months pregnant (well she technically more than him) when they arrived here. Baby Charlotte came a bit early and was accordingly small 1800 grams and 43 cm. But other than that very healthy and growing steadily. They were very pleased with the hospital which they thought was a lot better than the one in Rotterdam. If you're thinking now: really? South Africa, a developing country, good hospitals? Then I can assure you they have top class facilities here, bearing in mind the difference between private and public hospitals. Actually, a hospital in Cape Town called "de groote schuur" did the first successful heart transplant in the world. So that can be an indication. Next to that, the Netherlands have the highest baby mortality in Europe, and Rotterdam the higest in Netherland... So Claudia and Florens weren't worried to come here in that respect. Check out the pictures below, see how proud they are (yet to come if I don't forget the damn USB-stick)!!

Other big announcement to make: I have my car! Just like I predicted, I received the car shortly after my last post. It's a VW chico 1.3 liter. Not a massive machine, but very convenient and termendously popular in South Africa, especially amongst students. You see these chico golfs everywhere you go. That is a good thing because then I am quite sure I can sell it easily before I leave, and all the other benefits of garages knowing this model well, having spare parts etc... On the flipside of that, it is one of the cars that is stolen the most. Because it is well known and not very complicated in its construction, thieves know how to crack these babies easily. That is why Shafeeka (I baptised her such) has an alarm, and I'm getting a tracking device and maybe even a gear lock to keep her safely at my side, or under my bum to be more precise. She has a cd player which I thought was a must, and I'm quite sure I'll install some more powerful speakers because I need my music when road tripping !

Road tripping is what I did from the moment I had her. I added 2000 kms on the clock in under two weeks :-) I'll let the pictures of the road trips speak for themselves...

A bit more on Shafeeka. She had only 57 000 kms when I bought her, she was born in 2001 and was carefully looked after. She needs a bit of a drink to start running (i.e. sometimes I need a choke to rev her up a bit). We have not really agreed on when and how much she needs an extra drink to start running. I gave her a bit too much in the beginning, resulting in her not wantin to start anymore because she passed out drunk. But we'll sort it out.
She was the result of weeks of car hunting, weighing out upsides to downsides and fitting the tight (?) budget I imposed on myself. She lives up to all requirements and I know we will be very happy in the coming months.

An other reason for me not posting anything in the past weeks is that I had my first visitors over. Well, they didn't stay at my place, but Kimsi and Abby (two colleagues from Antwerp) came here with a couple of other friends to explore Cape Town and surroundings. So I tried to hang out with them whenever possible, which meant going to Hout Bay often (40 min drive along a ridiculously beautiful beach road, with seals on rocks in the water, beaches etc...).
I spent a couple of nice days with Abby going out to Cape Point, a game drive, Paarl, and other touristic stuff. Great fun! Miss Abby is a very good car DJ and airco handler ;-)! The conclusion of the gang was: two weeks were not enough! So bear that in mind when you come here.

That's it for now. Keep safe, enjoy the festive season, don't put on too much weight.