Milestones

End of February already, 40 degrees this afternoon and I am sweating profusifely. By the time I have finished this text I expect my sofa to be soaked in sweat. I might lick the seat to salvage some of the salt.
That we reached the end of another month also means I have officially broken a couple of funny records. Amongst them: the longest time I have been away from home and the longest period of uninterrupted sunny days I was able to enjoy. That last one makes most South Africans laugh with disbelief.
But this milestone is not one that just marks good events. I think it also heralds the most difficult period in the living abroad cycle (just to give it a name). That is based on what I have heard of and seen happening to a lot of expats. The first 3-4 months everything is new and exciting. You spend a lot of time finding stuff out, sorting out paperwork and practicalities. And all that takes up a lot of time and effort. Tiring and sometimes frustrating, yes, but it gives you something to do. Now that most of those things are sorted out, you are left with even more time on your hands but still not enough things to do to fill it up naturally. That might sound a bit hard to believe, especially if you are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with good weather and ample outdoor activities to do, but it is true. Because no matter what you do, you end up doing it on your own with a couple of nice strangers for company at best. So once you lose your personal drive to go out and explore, there is a real danger of just sitting on your ass. Next to that there are hardly any social events like birthday parties or family visits to attend, no old friends you can give a call to go and do something. So you end up spending a lot of time on your own. Fortunately I am reasonably good at being on my own, but I like to have a busy agenda and meeting a lot of people too.
I am not announcing my first depression, if that is what you think. I was merely sharing the idea that I think the toughest part is yet to come.

Now to create some more happy vibes, some random positive news: I bought a nice big dining table, I bought a powerful laptop, I am now a PADI certified scuba diver, I do not have HIV, I got a haircut, ... And because I now have a good laptop, I am able to upload some more pictures. It takes ridiculously long though (2h45 min so far for 50 photos), so please please enjoy the pictures a lot !

Yesterday, when I went to bed I was not alone in my room. Much to my surprise a brown African bird awaited me there. Usually I don’t mind a goodlooking bird in my bedroom, but this one actually had wings and a beak. It was a pigeon that flew through the open window and decided to sleep there. As you can see on the picture it must have been there for some time. I caught the creature and then
A) broke its neck for shitting on my shoes and threw it out of the window
B) tied a rope around it’s leg and flew it like a kite
C) clipped its wings and stuffed it’s cloaca so it wouldn’t shit anymore and kept it as a pet
D) all of the above

the answer was C)

African wildlife in my own room, how cool is that?
A thought I ll keep in mind when cleaning up it's ehm legacy.
I uploaded some pictures on the area I live in, and on a wine tasting trip I did. to see the pictures, click on the link (picture) at the bottom of this page.

All the best,
W.

The answers

All right, I think I left two questions outstanding, correct? The first one being, what was I doing in that stadium? The other one Why was I studying and taking an exam? You got to forgive me for keeping (at least some of) you in agony, but I thoroughly enjoy this little bit of power I have over you from 10 000 km distance.

So on with the answers.

To the first one the answer is plain and simple: I attended the opening of the brand new stadium in Green Point, Cape Town. You must have seen pictures of it already for it is the most picturesquely located stadium they build for the coming World Cup. The stadium is a stone throw away from the ocean, it has a view on Table Mountain from within the stadium and there is a golf course lying right next to it.
The observant and loyal readers must have remarked that it is also located in the suburb where I live. Indeed it takes me about 15 minutes on foot from my front door to the entrance of the brand new stadium. And I intend to do that several times as I have tickets to all 7 world cup games which will be held here in Cape Town. Let me emphasize: I will be attending all World Cup games held in the Green Point stadium. That includes one 16^th final, one quarter final and one semi final, and I will only have to walk there 15 minutes. Now throw in the fact that I am not a football fan, and you must have an inkling of how jealous I am making my football loving friends at this moment.

Especially to those readers, I will sing: neh neh neneeh neeh, neh neh neneeh neh.(again, referring to the last sentence of my first paragraph)

So there I was at the opening of the Green Point stadium, attending the first ever football game

held there. You know about the vuvuzelas so I won’t touch upon that again. Now try to imagine what kind of an event it would be if they open a new stadium in your home town. There would be some hustle and bustle, right? I am talking about brass bands, live performances, fire works, movie clips on the construction of the stadium, cheerleaders, sponsors left and right handing out free goodies, maybe even marines descending from the roof or fighter jets flying over in formation? None of that!! There was nothing! Ok, there was a band performing three songs and the dressed up a handful of girls like cheerleaders. And I saw two doll like figures bobbing around at the other side of the pitch, advertising something. But that was basically it. When the game started they counted down from 10 to 0, you know, for the official kick off of the first game ever! When they reached 0 they ball wasn’t even in the middle of the circle because the home team was still passing it around.

As feeble as the festivities were, so bad was the game. It was a premier league game, mind you.But the first real attempt came in the 88^th minute when a header accidentally ended up somewhere near the goal posts. The rest of the game was just an eyesore. Shame.

But I don’t wish to say negative things only. It is just easy to comment on what is bad, or what is lacking. I have to say the stadium itself is really beautiful to see. It is a very light structure and it allows you to reach the stands really easily. No crawling through dark catacombs, once you are in you walk right up to where you have to be. And there are plenty of stores to buy food or a beer.Very nice indeed.

Now on to the second question. What did I study, and what the flip was that exam about? I don’t think any one has guessed it. Although I must say that from the guesses you ventured, I got the impression I need to work on my image. No one said “lion tamer” or “snake expert” or any other cool and macho thing. One very good guess was “world cup host”. I might still want to try that.Escorting people to all 7 games in Cape Town, since I am attending them already. I told you that right? And about the finals?

I was studying and taking and exam to get my scuba diving certificate. That’s right. I am close to attaining my certificate for open water dives down to 18 metres. You have to take that stuff serious because if you mess up badly, you might end up killed. Yes sir, you can drown in 10cm of water. So if you go down to 18 metres you risk your life like 1800 cm/ 10cm = 180 times. And since I only have 1 life, that is quite significant I’d say. So that is why they make you take an exam. You have to study a book of roughly 540 pages. So with every 3 pages you learn, you eliminate 1 time you risk your life (on average).

On a serious note, the theory was quite extensive for a leisure activity, but it wasn’t that bad of course. I’m still proud to say I scored 49,5 / 50 #big smile.

(and now all you evil people are wondering what that one question was I got wrong).

I had the first dives as well. In a pool. To get to know how everything works, how to breathe, how to take off your goggles and put them back on, how to take off your tanks at put them

back on again, all that sort of stuff. Really cool, but not as cool as the first ocean dive I did.

We went down to 6 metres to a little ship wreck lying there. Nothing too dramatic but I loved it! The plants, the fish, the starfish, the little octopus we saw. I thought it was incredible. It was also a lot more difficult then I thought. I was so tired after those two hours of diving, I had to take a nap before I could go and watch the 6 nations games (rugby).

I am certain I will do this a couple of times more often. I am already dreaming of diving to real ship wrecks. There are plenty of those along the coast and they organize dives to them.

Watch this space!

Hell's horns

I know I am not in the forest, and yet… there it is again. That distinct mating call. Like an moose on heat. Or a camel, but then without the bubbling sound to it. A sound that rasps your ear drum and penetrates your brain with the sole aim to annoy you into oblivion. But I am in a stadium, so it can’t really come from an animal, can it? Close, it comes from football supporters blowing on their vuvuzelas.

Before I tell you in which stadium I was and what I did there, allow me to elaborate on the nuisance called a vuvuzela.

A vuvuzela is a simplistic derivative of the well known horn. Other than it’s brother the horn, who is an established member of the classical instruments, a vuvuzela is not capable of producing any musical sound. If there had ever been attempts of including a vuvuzela in a philharmonic – or any other type of- orchestra, I am sure the player of that “instrument” got immediately banned out of the music loving society on the ground of being downright too annoying and unfit to produce a single correct note. But somehow this outcast of the world of real music instruments managed to survive. It aptly found its target audience in dumb witted football supporters and children who just love to make irritating noise on the account of being children and not knowing any better.

For sure you have at least once in your life picked up a traffic cone, put the tip to your mouth and then tried to make a trumpet (like) sound. Imagine the cone being much thinner and around a meter long with the tip nice and round, welcoming your wet lips to simply touch that cheap plastic. That would be your vuvuzela right there. Not less, and definitely not more.

Unfortunately this thing is considered harmless and is thus not prohibited in the stadiums. It is not welcomed either, by me in any case, but it is allowed in. And hundreds of people drag one along.

The vuvuzela and all its shortcomings is one thing. The use of it is an other issue worth spending a couple of words on.

Since this thing is used by football supporters and children, you can expect there isn’t really a vuvuzela etiquette. No unwritten rules govern the use of it, like you would have for breaking wind or belching. Try to grasp the far reaching consequences. You can walk around, chatting a bit, minding your own business, being harmless, while some vile passer by aims a vuvuzela straight at you and blows it out of all his might. You’ll scare the heck out of yourself.
Or you are standing in line for a nice cold beer, surrounded by vuvuzelas and their owners. The thought of them being able to blow their horns at any moment will take away your craving for a nice glass of cold, gold coloured tasty fluid. Cursed be them who take away beer cravings !

At very, very rare occasions, the vuvuzela handlers blow their horns at the same time. It is more a coincidence than a preconceived plan. But when it happens, it sounds almost nice. There is a hint of a feeling of togetherness in it. And it shows that a bunch of those things together might actually sound nice. Much to my regret, this potential remains untapped. There are no songs, no rhythms, no hymns, no nothing that those vuvuzela people do together. They just randomly make the irritating noise. It is not linked to what is going on on the pitch, it is not aimed at each other and it is certainly not to entertain the surrounding people. So why do they use it? Your guess is probably better than mine. I have no flipping idea.

Some argue it is folklore and that you should respect it for that reason. I think that holds no water. There are herdsmen in the mountains of Iceland who castrate their sheep by biting off their balls with their teeth (not the sheep’s teeth, fool. And no, they don’t castrate sheep by biting off their own balls, they bite off the ram’s balls, capice?). I am sure that is folklore too, but regretfully I don’t really feel much respect for them. You have knives to do what they do, or even forks if need be, just like you have proper instruments to make sounds that represent the beauty, power and skill of the team you support. Cheering on your team with a vuvuzela seems like wishing them the worst leg cramps imaginable. Hardly the desired effect I’d say.

What should have been an introduction to a very juicy story became a lengthy bit of ventilating frustrations. And now I have to go to sleep because it is getting late. And I didn’t get a chance to tell what I was doing in that stadium! Do you think it has something to do with the lessons and the exam I mentioned last time?

I will let you know in due time.

Night night.

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.

moving to High Level

oki my peeps,

a long awaited update, I assume...
I left you, wondering if I would have the keys in time and if the moving company would come. Well, they did. Everything went according to plan, in spite of it being plan B obviously.

After a couple of calls and a fair amount of driving around in taxis, I held the keys to the flat in my hand at exactly 9h23. At 10h the movers would be there. That's about as close as it can get, isn't it? But it's the end result that counts, so I headed to my flat with a big smile on my face. The guys from the moving company were in time, which only made me feel more elated. So I joined the guys, basking in the sun, waiting for the truck to arrive with my stuff. After a while, still no container, the leader off the pack received a call. He broke lose of the pack, headed my way, holding out a phone. Was he holding is head down? The leader of the pack, showing signs of defeat? The voice on the line confirmed my feelings, something was wrong. They forgot to pick up the container.
One doesn't need to know much about container shipping to understand that having the actual container in the place it needs to be (preferably on time) is the essence of the whole thing.

I left the guys waiting for the container whilst the moving company (not Maersk you cheeky reader) rectified their mistake to pick up my things at the apartment I was happily abandoning. I even squeezed in a nap I think. And then, surely enough, the container arrived at 13h00 sharp and the movers could start working their magic. Well, "magic" is a massive overstatement because it was a simple matter of dragging heavy boxes up 3 flights of stairs. But I was the elated one, remember, and I saw all these things coming out of the cartons just the way they were stuffed in there, in Mechelen, thousands of miles up north and several weeks ago. So it was magical to me.
You have to take the part "just the way they were stuffed in there" very litterally. These mover guys in Mechelen did not ask a lot of questions, they just executed. So if I said "everything on this shelf", everything on the shelf
was put in a box and shipped. That includes a bowl of half eaten hazel nuts, a cup with -now moulded- tea, receipts from supermarkets, an envelop with 100 EUR worth of meal vouchers (maaltijdcheques),...

So now I am a resident of the Mazoli building, on 129 High Level Road, appartment 15 in 8005 Green Point (virtually the same as Sea Point actually).
Although the movers unpacked a lot of things for me (including the ridiculous number of glasses I had with me), still not everything is unpacked. Mainly because I took an unfurnished apartment and need to buy a nice cupboard still. And a table and chairs, couches and maybe something else... good thing it's the shopping period.

Now the next big thing to get in place, and actually the crux of any type of free/social life, is a car! It looks like I will have one next week. And I will tell you much more about it then. And I will also tell you about how I claimed the title of Nonkel Wouter because a little baby girl was born this week.

Please check out the pictures I uploaded on the move here