Ah, yes, the storm and subsequent demise of my ADSL modem and laptop. And MPH.

I’ll start with MPH… I’ve never been to a car show before and certainly never anything like MPH, so thank you Rozz, for a very different and entertaining Christmas present.

Didn’t get to see all that much of the car expo itself, but the ‘theatre’ part of the show was brilliantly executed by the hosts and their accompanying stunt drivers. The banter between Hammond and Clarkson was a welcome familiarity for those that have watched any Top Gear at all, and I think poor Sasha Martinengo didn’t stand much of a chance of stealing any limelight from those two.

There were some stunning driving/stunt sequences, some amusement in the form of the soccer match with cars, the hosts driving their own inventions and the half-a-car race, a rather different take on bull fighting with a very flexible female matador and a bakkie as the bull, mixed in with some of the best looking cars available today. A petrolhead’s dream come true, I think.

The whole thing was marred a bit though, by the travesty they called seating. I think no matter what shape or size you are, those seats are just uncomfortable, especially if you’re a little taller than most and your knees end up crushed against the seat in front of you.

Anyway… it was still a good time though. Good times with good company… it’s all that counts really.

We left MPH, only to be greeted by a magnificent storm and downpour.

The next day wasn’t much better. Though for the most part, it wasn’t stormy. Or so I thought.

There I was, happily sitting on my bed, playing World of Warcraft on my laptop, headset on, chatting to friends, when ZAP! … Everything went dark. Ok, not surprising, considering the mains tripped on the distribution board… flicked the switch and we had power again. Except that somethings didn’t come back up. Things like my brand new Netgear ADSL modem and my laptop. And there was the smell of ozone and electrolytes in the air to confirm my suspicions.

Ah well… It’s meant that I caught up on some of my reading this week, though I have ended up working late to get some research, etc done that I normally would have done from home.

In the meantime though, I’ve put my old Telkom ADSL modem back online and built up a small PC from spare parts. Nothing great, but it’s enough to run XP and Office, browse the ‘Net and listen to MP3′s. I got a new Netgear as a replacement but not in a rush to install it just yet as without the laptop, I don’t really need the wireless just yet. And frankly, my housemates can wait a bit before I put them back online again… maybe this will encourage them to pay me for their usage.

Hopefully I get the laptop back this week coming. Apparently they’ve replaced the motherboard, and I’m hoping I didn’t lose any data of the hard drive.

We live, supposedly, in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Yet hidden under all the trappings of a tourist haven, we seem to be trying to hide some very big homeland issues that need urgent attention.

The one on everyone’s minds at the moment, is our dear friend, Eskom.

We are at the mercy of a bunch of bureaucratic jerks who think that by getting snotty with the public about their consumption, it is going to make us understand why we’re stuck in traffic for 2 or more hours everyday, why we come home to a dark house, cannot prepare a warm meal, have a hot bath, etc.

You lot clearly do not understand the mob mentality of people that have reached a critical mass… Sanity flies out the window when you’ve been uncomfortable with something long enough to drive you to express your feelings either vocally or physically. All you need is enough people in the same state of mind and you have a mob. And mobs are never pretty…

And now they want to ration the electricity for home users. Right… So you’re going to make sure that people are not only miserable during work hours, but at home as well? Nice one, boys! I don’t care who you are… You could be black, white, coloured or indian… a lot of people are turning to old racist crutches and blaming the black staff… I’m beyond that! I’ll happily paint everyone with the same tar-brush at this point. You’re all a bunch of idiots! Well paid idiots!

To use a rather apt saying that I grew up with in my family… “Julle dink nie verder as wat julle neus is kort nie!”

This does not even begin to touch on the impact on business!

Oh, sure, some businesses are smiling, right about now… let’s see… companies that deal in gas appliances… diesel… generators… rechargeable lights. And because demand is so high, of course the prices have to follow suit. I hear from some places that generators have a 6-8 week waiting period for stock availability.

For the rest however, we’re stuck with UPS’s and their incessant beeping, diesel generators thrumming away in basements, guzzling thousands of Rands of fuel to keep businesses alive… and those are the lucky ones that planned for this sort of thing; the banks and other big corporates that cannot afford to be out of action because every minute lost means less money for them.

What about the SME’s that may have a few small PC’s (with or without UPS’s)… or corner shops and deli’s… butchers and bakers… what about waste from stock that goes off in fridges? Restaurants that cannot serve customers?

How about this as an alternative? You know those lovely big signboards we see all over the place? The neon signage on company buildings? The corporate towers that stay lit up like Christmas trees all night long?

How about asking them to switch off their lights after hours… you know, the last person out the door turn off the lights for their floor, etc? Turn off signboards after, say, 8- or 9pm. The same goes for corporate signage. And those pretty lamps and floodlights that you see in some company ‘gardens’ that light up the empty parking lots and sides of buildings.

I’ve spent the last month working in the Johannesburg CBD and thanks to Rozz’s late hours (definite busy bee award nominee!) and the fact that she’s been kind enough to cart me back and forth the last while, I’ve seen first hand the sheer amount of electricity wasted after ‘normal’ working hours. In fact, I remember seeing the same thing from my own time, working late in the Cape Town CBD (I was in the ABSA building there, sitting 23 floors up, you tend to have a pretty good view of the city).

And everyday, we hear new excuses… rain to affect power. This to affect power. That to affect power. And behind that, the smug voice of Eskom, not apologising, not discussing alternatives, not telling us that they’re looking for solutions… No, it’s “We are going to ration you and you will have to pay fines like a bad person for using more than your ration!”

Then we have our roads… which seem to becoming more and more like dirt roads lately.

Potholes, potholes everywhere and Oh my God, my car is going to sink!

Drive around and count the number of potholes you have to dodge between home and work, or your next stop in journey. Stop for a week. Then do it again. Hmmm, not only have they increased in number and in size, but nothing has been done to the existing ones, except maybe having some sand thrown into it to fill it temporarily, which the rain then promptly turns to mud and spreads out across the roads.

And my all time favourite pet hate, Telkom… where else can you sit on the phone, on hold for 45 minutes or more, listening to the worst hold music ever and not speak to a living person… and now they have a new option!

“Please, if you cannot wait to report your fault over the phone, feel free to report it online at our website…”

Gee, that’s nice, but maybe the reason I’m calling you is because my ADSL is not working and I can’t get online?!?

The more I see and hear these things, the more you hear in the news and in discussions between peers and colleagues, the more I wonder about the viability of staying here. I think, now, that my time left here in South Africa is limited. Time to begin working towards finding alternatives. Before it’s too late.

I’ve been stationed at ABSA for the last few days, standing in for one of my colleagues while he is off on paternity (and annual) leave. I’ve also flown down briefly to Cape Town to attend and photograph Sheelagh and Andrew’s wedding.

Flying to Cape Town was a bit weird for me. For the last 9 or so years, I’d been used to travelling up from Cape Town to Johannesburg or Durban on vacation or to visit friends and family or for work. Now, I’ve reversed the destinations… and I must admit, Cape Town no longer feels like home to me. I felt very much like a tourist in a place I used to call home… me, the person who swore he’d never live anywhere but at the coast.

I landed Friday morning, was picked up by Louise who took me to go get my supplies I needed for the wedding (18 rolls of 36 exposure 35mm film and spare batteries for my Canon EOS 500n), then spent some time with her and her family until meeting up with Rob for lunch after which I spent the rest of the afternoon with him and some of our mutual friends, Andrew and Mervin, that work with him at Tellumat. That evening, after picking up Lou again, we met up with some guild mates from Awakened Guardians at Century City for some drinks, etc and finally wandered over to Cattle Baron to meet up with some of Lou’s friends.

Saturday morning, bright and early, I was in Cavendish Square, photographing Sheelagh and her Mum- and Sister-in-Law-to-be during the various stages of their hair-styling. Then we bundled into Lisa’s (Sheelagh’s best friend) car, went to go fetch dresses and bags and headed off to Monkey Valley in Noordhoek to get  started with their makeup. After a while I decided it was prudent to make myself scarce so the girls could change and get dressed and went to go check my surroundings for the shoot, judging light levels and backdrop inclusion from various angles.

The ceremony was very nice, the bride looked stunning, the groom looked nervous (though that may also have been due to some stiff breezes swaying his kilt) and everyone was very happy for the newly-wed couple. We took some group photos on the lawn and then the bride, groom, best man and bridesmaids wandered down to the beach with me for some shots their.

In retrospect, the path we took was not the best one (coming down was ok, climbing back up was not as easy) as the loose beach sand made climbing some of those dunes rather… well… interesting at times.

We finished up at 11pm that night after the traditional cake-cutting and first-dance photos and I left for home, wishing the newly-weds all the best, promising to visit in Australia sometime in the future.

The next day, aside from sore muscles, I spent relaxing, chatting to Rob, listening to music (I introduced Rob to the group ‘E Nomine’) and catching up a little, talking about his planned move to Australia to be nearer to his daughter, my goddaughter, Timeah.

Before long, though, it was time to pack up and head to the airport. We stopped briefly along the way to get something to eat and unfortunately, cut it a little too fine as with some unaccounted for traffic, I ended up getting to the check-in counter 2 minutes too late to check in… I begged, pleaded… everything short of threatening, but they were stubborn and would not let me check-in.

So I got put on standby for the morning flight. Fortunately Rob had not yet driven too far so he was able to pick me up again and I spent the night there.

I called several people to tell them what had happened, including Matt, my technical manager, as I was supposed to be back at ABSA in the morning.

Bright and early, I was back at the airport and then my ordeal really began. For unbeknownst to me, all the Johannesburg and Pretoria people that had been on vacation were there trying to get back home as well… Suffice to say, I did not get onto the 6:30am flight. Or the 9:15 one. Or 10:20 one. Matt arranged for Reshan, one of my other colleagues, to stand-in for me at ABSA, so at least that was taken care of.

Eventually, they squeezed me onto the 1:00pm flight and I arrived home, very agitated, annoyed and heartily sick of airports just before 3pm. Matt, was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at home where I promptly collapsed and swore not to get onto a plane for another few months, at the very least.

Yesterday was back to ABSA… back to a semblance of normality. Here until the 18th, after which it’s back to the office and my new favourite pastime… log analysis.

The show wasn’t bad, but I must admit, if not for the company, I probably would not have stayed there long. Seeing as I’m not a wine drinker (it has a nasty habit of leaving me curled up in a ball of pain after even one glass) the only other item was interest was the food, which, sadly there was not much of.

I did manage to find some decent chili relish and some jalapeño cream cheese though. So not all was lost. Had some semi-decent sushi, some dry wors, plenty of samples of pesto and relish, some gluten-free breads and chocolates, brandy berries, cheeses, etc, etc…

Other than that… it was crowded. Noisy. Hot.

It was a far more pleasant afternoon, having a simple braai with Gary and Kati, talking about graphics, games (they are two World of Warcraft addicts), networking, horses, photography… And to end it all off, a perfect Johannesburg storm to add some pyrotechnics. What more can a person ask for?

Anyway, back to work tomorrow… these weekends are too damn short.

Love me, leave me
Devour me, deceive me
Is that the way that this is going to be
Between you and me? You say you want me, I’m sure that’s true
But how long will it be until you’re through?
There’s something I don’t trust in your eyes
You speak to me with sugar coated lies…

- Love me, leave me – Bitstream Dream with Anji Bee

Amazing how some lyrics just seem to tell the story of your life.

Listening to this song… I can’t help but look back over the last few years at some of the words that have been spoken to me by people I cared for. And how empty those same words appear now from those who supposedly returned those feelings…

I’ve never had much success, romantically. But I’ve always been honest, if not bluntly so, with the people I care for. Sometimes wish they would offer me that same courtesy instead of sugar-coating empty words of deceit in what I am later told was said or done in order to not hurt my feelings.

I’ve often said to people, I do not like the games we play with eachother in modern society. I’m not willing to subject myself to them. And if that means I exclude myself from society in general because of that, so be it. Rather a free-thinking outsider, than a pawn in someone else’s game.

I take things as they come now. And I’ll give 100% and more to the person that accepts me for who I am, and not for what I have, what I can offer, what I do or who I know.

And I should really change the music I listen to…

I’d hoped to sit and catch up on some movies and do some research today, but oh well… Guess it’ll have to wait until later tonight.

Looks like I’ll have to find a new place to stay soon. And fight with Telkom and all the rest of it. Hopefully this time I won’t be stuck with some dodgy housemates and their habits. My biggest complaint here is the fact that I am somewhat of a recluse and my fellow housemates are loud, messy and rather invasive. Also, I cannot abide their use of drugs, even if it is “only” marijuana. Their drinking habits are not much better.

Other than that, I suppose it’s been a good weekend. I relaxed, slept a lot, avoided the rugby (yes, I’m one of those traitorous unpatriotic bastards that cannot abide the hype around sports events in this country), and watched some DVD’s and TV series.

It was good to relax again. Work… has been a little hectic lately. Feeling a little brain-tired. Hours are a little longer, but I don’t mind that. Concentration is the key thing. Looking at a problem from various angles. Getting different opinions. Wears you out after a while.

If you were in Johannesburg today, you probably received a mail containing something along the lines of this:

“Netcare has issued a warning in respect of a storm that will hit the Gauteng region this afternoon at about 5 o clock.

Don’t underestimate the strength of the wind on the road and avoid low water bridges when driving. We were also warned to stay indoors and to take all loose lying objects inside. Tie down anything that might be damaged by severe winds.”

Or even this:

“Hi All,

In the interest of your Health and Safety and that of your loved ones, please be aware that the South African Weather Services has issued a high importance Warning to Gauteng regarding serious storms TODAY, 08 October 2007. They have advised that motorists avoid travelling between 18:00 and 20:00 today. Please try to get home safely BEFORE the storms begin.

National Warning – Issued on Monday, 8 October 2007 at 06.00

Very cold conditions are expected to persist over the highground areas of Western and Northern Cape, as well as over the northern mountains of Eastern Cape and south-western and western interior of KwaZulu-Natal.

Heavy falls of rain are expected over northern KwaZulu-Natal, north-eastern Free State as well as the eastern highveld of Mpumalanga and Gauteng. Severe thunderstorms, associated with strong, damaging surface winds are expected in late afternoon and evening over the eastern highveld, Gauteng, the southern highveld of Mpumalanga and extreme northern Free State.”

It even had us, at work, going at one stage, as City Power decided to add insult to injury by dropping our power, after we’ve been without water for more than a week.

The clouds built up and rumbled. It began looking rather ominous. And then… simply dissipated, leaving us with a clear sky and sunshine.

To the authors of those e-mails… a word of caution drawn from fable…

Don’t cry wolf… One day, when we really need to heed a warning, the ‘helpful’ mails being sent by those concerned for our well-being will be ignored.

All you did, today, was create a very effective denial of service attack on just about every website that offered some sort of weather forecast and cause many traffic jams as the more trusting folks tried to get home as quickly as possible to heed your faux warning.

Besides… do you really think that storm warnings would be broadcast via e-mail? A medium that not everyone has access to, let alone the fact that it is not a guaranteed delivery.

Surely this would be better broadcast via radio, television or better yet, SMS, something most South African’s have access to, as a majority of the population, even amongst those we may consider previously disadvantaged, seem to have a cellphone, these days.

The storm that broke was not meteorological in nature. It was a tide of anxious, frightened and later very frustrated and angry people who ended up stuck in traffic because someone thought it was a good idea to fuel the fires of people’s fears in light of very real tragedies that have happened to other people in more remote parts of our land, as recently as this last weekend.

Think before you click “Send”, next time.

Related links:

• The Citizen

• IOL

Well, work has been, well, interesting at times. The joys of corporates : politics, backstabbing, favouritism, brain-trusts, ducking and diving…

I’ve met an old IRC acquaintance at work though, so all is not lost. Makes things a bit easier when you have someone to chat to during the day.

Other than that, life at the Big Brother house, as we’ve come to call our little commune, has hopefully settled down finally. We’ve had an interesting past few weeks, having to ask one of the girls to leave due to her abusive nature towards the other housemates, her alcohol problem and her cat. On top of that, one of the other girls’ ex-boyfriends has made an appearance and threatened us all with violence, phoning us on the house phone, stalking her, forcing his way onto the property, etc.

Let’s see, what else. Ah, yes, I’m back online playing World of Warcraft, now in The Burning Crusade, with my little slicer and dicer rogue. Been listening to a lot of game related podcasts from the folks over at WC Radio. Ah yes, that was other thing. The iPod. I love my little iPod. It’s my precious!

Hmm. Ok. Think that’s about it. Ah yes…

It’s Easter Weekend this weekend so hooray for public holidays and long weekends. Time to relax, play some games with friends, watch a movie (I think 300 is on the menu), drink some Amaretto, lime and lemonade, turn up the volume and unwind.

Catch you on the flip side!

Other than work, which has been at once challenging and interesting, I’ve finally settled into my little hole in the wall in a commune, set up my PC and hi-fi and unpacked my books.

I’ve had a braai / WoW:TCG evening with my Warcraft Guild. Met some old friends and made some new ones.

I’ve met my new housemates, Jason, Kerry and Lindsay.

I’ve also been robbed… I fell for the old ATM scam and had my bank account cleaned out.

Right now, work is keeping me occupied most of the time. Will update more later.