. . . when you sign off your prayers with ‘kind regards- um, Amen. ‘
Note, Mon 04/08/2008 15:32 Text note

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of legally driving myself to work, for only the second time in the month of July. Except that yesterday was 01 August. Ag man, just read on. It was thrilling and riveting, and I even went up to 90 km per hour! Take that, driving Miss Daisy…But seriously it was a relief. Not that I don’t enjoy Grant’s company on the way to work (his rendition of ‘Freefalling’ is particularly good), but it’s nice not to have to rely on him to drive me around - and nice for him not to lose large parts of his day in traffic.

What lead to this was that I ‘joyfully’ got to experience re-taking my driving test to get my New South Wales license. I figured that it would be quicker and cheaper than returning to SA to get my current one renewed, and I think it’s fair to say that I was right. To be honest I find the Aussie requirements a lot less neck-breaking than the much loved SA K53 method. Here the focus lies in a few more of the skilled driver nuances - and the 360 degree blind spot check is reduced to 180 degrees. And of course having your indicator on for 3 days (yes you have to wait that long) before turning, changing lanes, etc. I did have to put up with the snide giggling on my instructor and test officer who fondly remembered ‘robots’ and ‘traffic circles’ from other Saffers they’ve met before; so as not to dissapoint, I continued with that naming standard (I figured if they were trying to hide a giggle, they weren’t concentrating on me!). The testing officer also noted with pleasant surprise that South Africans can stop at stop streets, contrary to his previous education on the norm in SA. Yep it is a sad fact that a lot of Saffers in Oz are.. well lets not go there. I have to say that one of the bonuses of the driving test here is being able to get a full, unrestricted license to drive either manual or automatic, even though my test was in an automatic. Sweeeet. The only problem is now that I have my NSW license, I can’t gest the damn M.I.S.T. mantra out of my head - mirror, indicator, shoulder, turn! mirror, indicator…

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After a week of gadding about the globe, I was very pleased to see this sight. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to spend some time with the family and friends in this corner of the world. . .but now I just want to go home! Many thanks to Shereen and fam, and to Tom, Kobie and the kids for putting me up (and for putting up with me!).
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Now that the weather is good, no great, it is time for Karen and I to do some exploring of our new city, especially as we are getting visitors soon, and need to show them a good time. So we woke up on Saturday went down to the wharf got some coffee and waited for the ferry. We enjoyed a lovely ferry trip to the city and when we departed we made our way to the rocks.
I have to admit that as far as flea markets go the Rocks flea market is pretty dull and could use a good old South African touch. After this we wondered around the base of the harbor bridge (as the walk up the bridge is wayyyyy to expensive).
Now we needed some lunch, we got a sandwich and enjoyed the view of all the people at circular quay, and managed to piss off a few seagulls. After which we made our way to the botanical gardens, after walking around for the entire day so far, we made like municipal workers found some shade and had a snooze.
Now as you remember I mentioned that the weather had just improved, when we woke up in the morning it seemed to be quite a muggy day, so we forgot to put on any sun cream and of course the problem with falling asleep in the shade is the sun moves. So needless to say we made our way home at about 4ish looking like tomatoes.
All in all it was a good time, and recommend it to any visitors to Sydney.
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A little more than a month ago a girl was attacked by a great white shark at Byron Bay, I am not sure what happened to her, but it remind me of the “re-assurance” for surfers and swimmers that more people die of bee stings than shark attacks.
After one of my sleepless nights (which I must have inherited from my dad), I woke Karen up to discuss some of my theories. Now before I share one of these theories with you, I must remind you that I had not been sleeping, and have spent a lot of time fishing… Lying there I thought to myself why do more people die of bee stings than shark attacks? Then it hit, people are allergic to bees, what would happen if people were allergic to sharks, how would that change the stats.
I know that there are more people in direct contact with bees and that is the point of the re-assurance, but how many people would survive a shark attack if they were allergic to sharks. Firstly they are missing a torso, and secondly they would have to worry about the constricting airways, or respiratory paralysis.
If as many people were allergic to sharks as they are to bees, I am sure that the stats would be different.

Wassie Ankers

We decided to go camping last weekend, I am sorry it took me so long to blog about it, but it took me this long to recover.

I think I had a wonderful time, I can’t honestly tell you because that would have been too much effort, just like I decided not to have fun, because that too would have been too much effort.

We arrived on Saturday morning, and for about half an hour looked for a suitable place to pitch our tent. Now the last time I went camping was a very long time ago, so when it comes to decisions like this I have no clue. But we eventually got a place pitched the tent and set up all of our gear. I at this stage have to mention that Karen and I did all of this while still managing to keep our marriage in tact (I think that is amazing). After waiting for our camping buddies to join us Karen and I went to the local Boat shed so I could get a new fishing license as my old one resembled a clay shark I once made in primary school, which resembles a turd according to some people… When we asked for a license the locals jumped into gear to try and search for the license book, I honestly think that, that was the most excitement the have seen for many years, it was fascinating to see them rapidly look around for this book, well at least they must have thought it was rapid. At one stage even the manager came out to help look. They probably needed a sleep after that…

That set the mood of the entire weekend for me, and that is the last I have to report, because quite frankly I did not register anything else from the trip cause that would have been too much effort.

It was an amazing trip and I am looking forward to taking our guests camping as soon as they get here…
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On Friday last we hopped in the car after work and took a leisurely drive to the Hunter Valley, just a couple of hours away. We arrived in time for dinner, joining 9 others, and then thoroughly prepared ourselves for the wine tasting weekend. In fact, we probably over-prepared slightly – but hey if you’re going to do something, it’s worth doing well! Fortunately our cabin was a fair distance from that of our neighbours, so the disturbance was limited to what we could remember the next day.

Saturday welcomed us with greasy bacon rolls, and the arrival of our tour bus, which took us round to 5 different wine farms, our lunch venue and a chocolatier. The Hunter Valley has more of a commercial feel than Stellenbosch, with wine farms generally well sign posted and within fairly close proximity to each other. Grant reckons that he prefers it to the Cape wine farms for all those reasons. The region specialises in Semillon and Shiraz, with a variety of other wines and ports available too. You have to see it for yourselves.

Following another long night on Saturday, Sunday was just as productive; but the wine tour bus was now swapped for a team of designated drivers, as we persevered with our sampling of the regions offerings. We also included a cheese tasting and pub lunch, just to balance out the wine and comfort the battered digestive systems. All in all the weekend was a productive one, as we managed to fuel inject the initiation of our new wine collection with a tally of 18 bottles of various wines; we also procured garlic flavoured olive oil and caramelised balsamic (both produced in the Hunter) and a regional recipe/guide book.

Visitors prepare yourselves – a visit to the Hunter Valley will be compulsory during your stay!

Anyone who has ever seen me play sports or dance or walk in a straight line for that matter knows that I have the rhythm and co-ord of a hand full of wet saw dust. This is no secret and I have never admitted to being able to do any of the before mentioned activities. Why then did I think I would be able to snow board?

We went skiing for a weekend in the mountains. Being the first time I have ever seen snow (real snow); you can imagine me being like a kid shaking and squealing out of excitement. It was awesome. Once I had gotten hold of myself, I went alone to the first timers’ class; here they would teach me the fundamentals so I would not kill myself and others on the slopes. The lessons went really well and I considered myself pretty dam good. So I left the lesson early and thought I was the man.

The weather on that day was really krappy, it was raining and cold and the snow was hard. So Karen and I went home. The next day we woke up way too early, me with my head pounding with a virus contracted from a bottle of Jägermeister. We then proceeded to the slopes were the weather was absolutely perfect for skiing (I was told). I got onto my board and went flying around the corner. Wait there are people in front of me, slow down Grant you are going to kill someone, ok no worries. At this stage I realized that I left the lessons early and I never found out how to slow down or stop. So I stop the only way I can think of. I fall, I fall hard.

As I was flying through the air I thought to myself that I must look like superman flying through the air. Obviously the similarities stop with the flying thing.

This was how my day proceeded; I would board about 15 meters and then fall over. At least I figured out how to fall without hurting myself too much.

It was a wonderful weekend and would definitely do it again.
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