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The good news is I finally got off my but and completed my 2nd 10km run for the Month. The bad news is - I still suck and finished in 55 minutes. On the other hand it was nice to see Shane and Tjatji there. I would say that we ran "together" but the truth is, those two took off like rockets at the start of the race, and that was the last I saw of them, until I finished! Anyway, we had a chance to chat afterwards. From there I had to do some shopping. Next race is in a few weeks, so I'd better do some more training!
| Category | Goal / Limits | Current |
| Weight | < 80 kg | 83.8kg |
| BMI | 18.5 - 25 | 25.9 (Arrrgggghhhh) |
| % Body Fat | 14 - 22 | 20.4 |
| Blood Pressure | <> | 112/67 |
| Cholesterol | 4.1 -5.2 | ??? |
| Blood Sugar | 3.5 - 6.0 | ??? |
Not really an event but there are two things I really want to do
1) Get my bicycle fixed and go for a looooooog cycle
2) I haven't been clubbing for - like forever - need to call Justin and ask him if he's still alive ...
5] Recent events
Grahamstown Festival: It was nice all in all. It seemed a bit quieter than last year, I suspect the cold weather and the soccer world cup had an impact. I was disappointed when I found that the restaurant I normally go to didn't sell GLUVINE anymore :(
On the way to Grahamstown I got this cool footage of Declan
==> http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id389954262
Ofcourse when I go camping, I Really rough it. I mean it was so tough out there in the wilderness I even had to run a power cable out to the DB board so that I could plug in my heater, laptop and light, and pump up the inflatable air mattresses.
And ofcourse I had to hold the camera while the woman pitched the tent.... no seriously I did help pitch the tent.
==>http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id389955118
The end result
==>http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id389956219
The Ride Home (Billy Idol and the Bunny Girl)
==>http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id389957987
I was very happy with the air mattresses and I didn't even get cold :)
| Category | Goal / Limits | Current |
| Weight | < 80 kg | 84kg |
| BMI | 18.5 - 25 | 25 |
| % Body Fat | 14 - 22 | 20.7 |
| Blood Pressure | <140/<90 | 96/62 |
| Cholesterol | 4.1 -5.2 | ??? |
| Blood Sugar | 3.5 - 6.0 | ??? |
Extreme traffic, stressing out changing Rands to dollars @ JHB international as the Chinese currency isn't available ... We found a not too glamorous bar call the Shebeen. Xin-Wen is meeting some friends here who owe her some money. I' having a brutal fuit. Alcohol make me sleepy during the day, which is the point.....long flight ahead. Got up @ 04:00 this morning and went for a short run.
Hopefully I'll get a SIM card in Hong Kong that can be used on my Phone. I bumped into Eddie Westraadt in PE, looking rather pleased with himself...he's on his way to the Grand Prix in Malaysia. He was with two other friends one of whom I recognized from a photo he used to have on his office wall.
Our flight leaves at 12:20.
When I phoned Mom, she was at the Casino...squandering my inheritance ... Only jokes... There is *no* inheritance ... He he...why am I laughing...oh yea I'm drinking alcohol ....
I had some trouble opening my car door this morning. It felt a little stiff. The key wouldn't turn. I thought that the saltwater from my other key that's attached to my board was starting to muck up my lock. That was until I put the key into my ignition, would wouldn't turn at all. After 5 minutes of wiggling, jiggling and cursing, the realisation dawned on my that what I was faced with was the remanents of an unsuccesful car robbery. Someone tried to pick the lock and in the process damaged the ingnition. It's fairly common knowledge that Mazda's and Ford Lasers are notoriously easy to steal, and are the "teeth cutting" choice of aspiring car thiefs. Well better luck next time chump!!!
I did manage to get the car started after further jiggling, wiggling. I fetched my boss from the airport, explaining the situation to him, and from there went to the insurance compny and locksmith respectively.
Because the insurance Company is right next door to Kamla's work, I dropped of her mail, which I've been lugging around in my briefcase for the last three days.
The locksmith said it would take about an hour and half to repair, and so I'm blogging and having breakfast. I've lost some time though, there were some things I needed to follow up at work, I have to put the extra time in some time during the week.
Let's see what else the day throws at me !!!
Recent events are setting the stage for 2006,and although it wasn't what I had planned for, I think going with the flow is the way to go.
I've been busy with the task of looking for premanent residence, and housing prices being what they are, it's not a pleasant task. Buying a (decent) on a single salary is just not possible these days. The routine involves me grabbing a copy of the property post and marking the possible options. From there it's spending my Sundays riding around and getting my hopes dashed, smashed and trampled on. Well, if I have to have my Sundays ruined, I may as well have a good breakfast. I am a creature of habit you see . I choose the same table, order the same food at the same time, and usually get the same waitress. This comforts me, as the waitress knows what I want and my order goes smoothly.
THis is how I met *her*. A Chinese national with a friendly smile and pleasant demeaner.
(I'm not putting her name here because I haven't asked permission to write it here)
Somewhat taller than I would have expected, for a Chinese person, and dammned if I have to admit, looks a little like Lucy-Lu at certain angles...I think it's the light freckles that create the likness.
In any case, I had the priveledge of her company for supper one afternoon and voraciasously learned as much as I could about her. My instincts told me she was an interesting person and I wasn't dissapointed.
Somedays, when I'm surfing the waves are really awesome, but also a bit scary, but if you stop to think about each wave, you miss most of them. This is kind of how my life's been feeling lately, so when the supper was finished and I had found myself making arrangements to go to China on holiday with my newfound companion, I had to laugh. Life is weird, and at the moment...very exciting. If all goes well, well be making our way to Hong Kong (Xiang Cang) for a few days, from there direct to Shang-Hai, her home-town. Whether she'll decide to stay or come back to S.A. remains to be seen. I think she'll stay in China, and the way things are going I will have to brace myself to come home from China alone and dare I say, broken hearted...but then I've had lot's of practice in that department so let the chips fall where they may, they're going to anyway.
I had an early night on Friday to prep for the Remax 15km Race on Saturday....I still woke up late. The wind was quite strong, so it took some arguing with myself to get myself out of bed.
To make matters worse I could find the venue. I was just about to give up when I saw a chap come past me in his car, with a runners vest on. He had a look of extreme oncentration on his face..as if he was late for something .... ahhh!! So I just followed him and managed to arrive on time.
The wind had died down a bit so it wasn't too bad. I took it easy and I found that I had managed better than I expected. So all is not lost, I can still do a 15km at least LOL! The chap in the picture is someone I've seen around many of the road races. This gentleman is 75 years old, and that deserves some respect...he certainly has mine. :)
This was my Birthday Bash on Friday @ "The-Lennox"
P.S. To the staff @ "The Lennox" thanks for excellent upmarket service.
From Left to Right
Wesley, Me, Kamla, Ravi, Joy My Audio Blog Here
To hear this, you must have the speex codec installed. http://www.speex.org/download.html
(Why speex? - because speex = good sound quality, tinyweenie file size/quick download / Speex = Free / Speex = Windows/Mac/Linux )
(Speex Rulez OK!!!!) I take my compression alogorithms seriously. :)
Kamla, setting up phone to take a video
You can see the video here
It's in RealPlayer format.
The Windows Media format here
i.e.
Despite my intentions to go running, my lazy-ass-ness found an excuse inthe form of lower back pain. (I've got compressed disks).
So I slept late and was doing something Close to nothing.
Yvette & James stopped by, and I took the opportunity to make some video
footage of Declan. Yvette was saying that she didn't have any recent photo's of him, so I though, photos! Video is better. I made a VCD with a sound track etc.
The weather was quite nice, but I held back until about 14:00, when the Sun wouldn't cause any damage. As usual, I went to "Pipe" to surf. As I got there, I saw Angelo, Warren, Ravi and friends on the beach. Anyway, the
wave weren'y really spectacular, so after a frw hours I got out the water
and showered. As Angelo's flat was right the, I stopped off to say Hi. They
were making a braai and were kind enough to offer me a nice meal, even
though I didn't contribute anything. Kamla arrived later, fresh of the cover of a magazine, or where ever it is that comes from looking all radiant, glossed etc.
We were going to play cards like we did the other time (sans sharp objects) but I was feeling a bit tired and my back was starting act up a bit. So I went home for some gentle reading.
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2005-10-21-Friday
Friday was the normal hectic schedule. I had to drop my boss off at the airport earlier than usual (12:00)
On the wayback I took my car in for wheel alignment as the wheel has been shuddering whilst driving. After the balance it was right as rain, which made me feel a lot better, I was wondering if there was axel damage or shot CV joints.
Later that evening I was getting ready for some serious net surfing as I was in my Net-Head mood wanting to fly through cyberspace and meet up with people I haven't "seen" in a while. I ordered some chinese food - Chicken chowmein, (my favorite) with a dash of Chutney. I was just halfway through it when Angelo popped around so I had bath and got ready as he wanted to get some Pizza. We went to St. Elmo's and he ordered pizza, I just had some wine. We spent he time talking about philosphy....or at least some of mine - putting some theories to him. Perhaps he'll see some flaws in mine. That would be a good thing as theories must be able to stand up to challenges, if not then they should adapt, change...a lot like the human immune system. We got back to my place, me still being in a Net-Mood, dragged Angelo along for the ride, he chatted to a few folks, my cousin - Kevin popped on-line, Angelo spoke to him while I was making coffee for us.
At about 01:00 I called it a night as I wanted to run a 10 k race in the morning.
On several occasions on this blog, reference is made to Hakkiesdraad Mampoer, so it deserves an explanation. Note the barbed wire around the
bottle, if this doesn't give some indication as to what the customer is getting himself in for, well then I just don't know. Also, this product is proudly South African, made by a South African, for a South African.
As such the barbed wire makes it difficult for your neibours to steal your drink.
Hakkies Draad is also useful for the following applications:
Geniet hom met oorgawe....as jy dit wag.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Translation for those abroad
This traditional Bushveld Moonshine is carefully distilled in accordance with Uncle Matiens du Plesse's family secret recipy.
It is said that when consumed the effects are:
That being said, I'm going on record saying that this bottle is
officially ornamental - and will NEVER be imbibed (again)!
The characters in this scene.
Yours Truly
*James (a/k/a That-Fn-Brother-in-law-of-mine)
*Yvette (a/k/a
My-Sister-that-married-that-guy-who's-now-my-Fn-Brother-in-law)
*Atilla the Hun, uh, no Sorry, Just Atilla, and he's much nicer than that
Hun chap.
*Roselyn (Spelling?) - Attilla's wife
So we started off the evening at a place called Giovanni's by a complex
called "Dolphins Leap"
Very stylish up-market sort of club with neon lights and (fake) marble
floors, so naturally I didn't fit in :)
No, I actually quite like it.
We ordered some basic drinks and then I saw a waitress walk past with a
hooka pipe, so naturally we had to have one to - mostly for no other reason than the fact that it looked like fun and we wanted to be cool dammit. We ordered a mixed fruit and mint flavour tobacco, but we basically told the waitress she had carte blanche with what ever concoction she wanted to make....as long as it was legal!
Very nice combination...whatever it was
Anyway, where was I (I hope I manage to upload these it the correct sequence or else it's no gonna make much sences when I read in the future)
Ok, so from there we were supposed to go to Barnies, but I got it in my head that we were going to Toby Joes, so I parked my car there. Luckilly James called me when he saw my car pull off into the other road (he was behind me I think) Because Toby Joe's it only about 1 km away from Barnies I said "to hell with it" locked my car and jogged down, knowing full well that we would eventually end up back at Toby Joe's or Tappas.
Tappas is one of those places that you end up going to every single weeked, even when you tell yourself and others "Let's do something different next weekend - I'm sick of going to Tappas"
To which all your friends reply
"Ja, hey, like me too, I'm sick of Tappas, they always play the same music, Ja, we must definitely do something else next weekend, something
cool...."
This is followed by a moment of silence as each person waits for someone to come up with a suggestion of a cool place to go to next weekend.
NoOne says anything, and the topic of discussion drifts off in some other direction.
The next weekend everyone meets up again, go to some place different,
and end up......at Tappas.
Last Sunday I took my Mom her boetie (a/k/a Uncle George) to Gondwana's Cafe.
I've grown quite fond of laid back Jazz and they were advertising a live jazz there.
It was quite warm in there because of the large windows letting in all the Sunlight.
George is off to the Western Cape - so I thought it would be nice to
spend some time with him, before he leaves.
By coincidence, Kamla, Ravi, Angelo, Gareth, Tasné, Joy and some other
people (who I didn't know) were also there.
I bought Mom a cocktail drink,....can't remember what drink it was,
looked a bit like a strawberry daiquiri....how the hell does a person
(who isn't a rich alcoholic) remember how to spell *that* word?!
We left a little after 18H00.
I decided that we should go out more often on a Sunday - take the edge
of the Monday Dread Syndrome.
2005-10-08 Saturday.
OK, let me see if I can remember these events accurately and clearly. The characters in this story are (in no particular order, except that the most good looking guy is mentioned here first!)
Your's Truly ;)
Kamla
Warren
Angelo
Ravi
Wesley.
We met and Angelo's place. I nice beachfront flat which he shares with his room mate, Gareth. We met there at about 18:00.... I think (Kamla correct me if I'm wrong...just click on the comments field below this...). We started out playing a strange version of Poker, although we did use real money, it was only because we didn't have any tokens. We used pennies as substitute ... No serious gambling. I'm ashamed to admit that I brought the "Hakkies Draad Mampoer" with - and with each shot the more difficult it became to concentrate on a game that I DIDN'T FULLY UNDERSTAND IN THE FIRST PLACE! Wesley also developed a case of long fingers, sneakily grabbing the other players pennies when they weren't looking. And then using those same pennies to win against the other players. Warren, despite his charming and passive demeanour is (as we've discovered of late) of a ruthless and competitive nature...he just hides it very well...took great offence at Wesley's "moral transgressions". Warren chose to demonstrate his dissatisfaction by pricking Wesleys hand (in the act) , with the tip of my pocket knife One plaster's later the game continued - .... I think Angelo ended up the eventual winner, much to Kamla's dismay, the reigning queen of cards.
From there we went on to play 30 seconds - a game requiring
Good General Knowledge (I'm so-so)
Ability to describe well (I kick ass here)
Fast thinking (Uhhhh Duuuuhh Ummmmm)
After several slices of Pizza, well..neither teams did very well.
I discovered Garet h's CD collection and ripped a copy of the Depache Mode CD's, some good stuff there!!! Thanks Gareth ;)
Thanks to Angelo, for being the host.
Geesh. What a day. I think my brain has crashed. I just couldn't think straight at work today. Lotta things I gotta sort out, mostly paper work...I've got to develop an efficient system... I'm waiting for Kamla to finish so we can meet Moosa & Tasniem at Zorbas...we're late as usual...I ordered the lamb shank which has pumpkin and greens. Very Nice. I got full quickly so I put the rest in a take away bag. From there we went to the Boardwalk - it was a bit chilly but Moosa's sugar rush had kicked in and he was uncharacteristically upbeat. I ordered a Mint Mocha - and some pancakes - there's my diet shot to hell right there. Topic of discussion was mainly around Kamla's school years (final year in Highschool).
Sometime in the morning I got an SMS from Justin saying I should come around for Drinks. So I phone him up to check the details, it turns out it's his Birthday. Poor bastard.
So I did the dishes, hung up some washing and then went to go do some groceries...thinking I'll get something for the guy there.
Greenacres was packed. So anyway I make my way though the whole tedious affair - and the last item I remember is soap. The isles are too crowded so I figure ... I'll just leave the trolley to one side and then fetch the soap. Ofcourse when I get back - no trolley. Some idiot probably took the wrong trolley. After searching with trepidation for my trolley and casting accusative glances at other people's trolleys, I finally can to the sad a bitter conclusions that this day I would be doing groceries -TWICE.
That sordid affair behind me I resolved to look for a pair of comfortable shoes as I've become partial to wearing tracksuits for some reason...my energy levels already depleted - the view of the long queues frightened me - I was starting to get hungry and my will power (being what it is) would soon see me stuffing my face with something from the Mugg & Bean..so I did what any man would do...I ran away.
I got home and relaxed a bit. Angelo stopped by and chatted and ofcourse as it has become tradition between us- make inflammatory remarks about racial issues in an attempt to ruffle the other's feathers. It's like those people who meet every now and then to play a game of chess. He'll maneuver a pawn (Affirmative action) deftly followed with a Bishop (White Colonialism) - I’ll counter with something along the lines of how he owes his existences to white collonliasm given the fact of his mixed heritage. This is what mighty racial intolerance has been reduced to...chats around cups of coffee. (Thank goodness...we've come a long way baby...)
Later that evening there was a power failure - so I had bath by candle light...The lights came on again 30 minutes later. Kamla and I went to see Justin. I had bought him a bottle of Johnny Walker - I thought that way he would remember me everytime he had a drink!
Kamla and I played a game of pool. Kamla's a slightly better pool player than me, but that's not saying much.
Simon, Jaws, Kiwi,Ettiene, the whole crowed was there. It was not too bad all in all. By midnight the Red Bull I drank was wearing off so we made our way home along with everyone else.
