Crocodile

In virtually any stretch of open water in Africa, lies a pair of ladies shoes - with teeth. I felt prompted to come down this road and usually in the water next to this bridge, I see a very young croc - much smaller than this one! This one is still young, and it's parents must live nearby, probably a bit further downstream. The other side of the bridge, is a pool of water on a bend in the lazy river, and usually I get to see Wildebeeste drinking on the right of the bridge (this is taken looking left!)

Also just behind this view were several terrapins, also sunning themselves. I have had Elders say to me that they would really like to go for a swim, but I warn them that in pretty well any stretch of open water in Africa, lives a crocodile - or in this case, probably a family of crocs!

We saw plenty of other animals, but I have a lot of digital snaps that I have taken. Now I tend only to snap shots of unusual animals!

I said to the Elders just before we drove into the Hilltop camp, that I usually see Blue Wildebeeste nearby. As I finished saying this, a HUGE male Wildebeest crossed the road right in front of us! A bit after lunch, we drove up Manganeni Hill, and from a height saw a herd slowly moving towards the tar road between the Memorial Gate and the Hilltop Camp. When we drove down to this road, we had to halt as this herd crossed the road!

Driving up the road (wildly erroded dirt track) I had slipped my Discovery into 4 wheel drive and it made it so much easier to climb than I ever found in my Opel Corsa! I am sold on Off-road vehicles! I kind of have the attitude "I can so I do!" Goes with my other mantra "If not, then why not!"

North Coast - Kwa Zulu Natal

This is THE talest building, on the Zululand coast! Most buildings - especially in Richards Bay are a maximum of 3 floors - probably because the Bay looks to have risen from the sea and the soil is pretty sandy, and is unstable enough to exclude building anything taller than 3 stories.


When I started work (first job ever!) it was with a firm that occupied half of the second floor and the third floor. This side overlooks the busy centre of Empangeni and the far side has views across the Rugby Club, farm fields and towards Richards Bay (known locally as "The Bay!"

I worked for this firm for 10 years - give or take - then qualified as a Chartered Accountant and relocated to Sandton (Johannesburg) to work for 4 months - at ICL Computers - before I was knocked down and then retired on ill health pension. Strange times!

As you face the building from this side, I worked on the second floor (Ground, first then second) - end windows on the right - and the bosses worked on the third floor! From this side you looked over the town, then the cane fields towards Melmoth, and from the other side you overlooked Empangeni Rail, more cane fields then to Richards Bay.

Technology continued - 2

I am the proud possesser of an Intelsat Satellite phone - one that will work virtually anywhere in the world that you can receive a satellite connection. A thought that crossed my mind is that it will no doubt work in the wilds of Africa, but I would have to be careful about using it in New York City, where the buildings are not going to make it easy to get a clear satellite signal.

The instruction manual recommends that standing under a tree is not the best idea, since the branches, leaves and occasional leopard will conspire to block a satellite connection. Luckily there are few places where trees are likely to cause a problem.

I am going to ask when I am next in Durban about a satellite modem, to receive DSTV when I am in the back of beyond! When I go camping now, I do not usually have DSTV connection, but with a cell phone sized satellite modem, maybe I can get DSTV at night when I am sitting around a campfire! I can remember when if you wanted a phone, you HAD to have landline connection, and even then you had to DIAL the number, not press buttons. Most calls I need to make now, I do not need to remember the number - it is stored on the SIM card in the phone! In fact, I find that I seldom need to make voice calls - I use my SMS - or Email - on the phone so if anyone not used to the way I speak is on the other end, they dont have to claim that they cannot understand me and ring off! I often get to think "But lady, you phoned me! Why are you against how I speak - or dont speak!" The ability to speak clearly and to run are the 2 things I miss most about my BC (Before Crash) existance.

I was amazed recently in the LDS Church, when a "new" Missionery Elder stood to give his first greeting to the congregation. No-one could understand his Manchester dialect - just as if he was not speaking English! I laughed inwardly that he was speaking English that has not been corrupted by other dialects. In SA, most English is spoken with a German/Dutch/Afrikaans influence! I laugh when a boer locally (heavily Afrikaans) comments to a born and bred englishman, "Speak English!"

I have an aunt who went back to live in Kent, and she has commented "The weather is too cold, and the locals DONT speak an intelligible language, even though they think they speak English! Watching "The Amazing Race" on TV, it stuns me that teams of Americans have so much trouble in foreign countries, and more than once I have heard coments like "Speak English!" when they speak a wierd dialect themselves! What I have found is that as soon as I talk, virtually everyone has a light behind their eyes that says "Shame - cannot speak properly, so MUST be mentally less able!" - and they speak to me as if I am a lesser being! Highly amusing when I consider that my IQ is probably twice theirs, and they treat me as sub intelligent - talk really s-l-o-w-l-y! I feel like punching them and saying "I am disabled, not stupid!"

Climate Change signs

There has just been a program on DSTV where Simon Reeve of the BBC has gone on about "climate change"! He came across a group of people in Egypt who were "forced" to leave their homes by the ongoing drought!

What a shocker - a drought! - in the desert? As far as I am aware, it has not exactly rained much in Egypt since the time of the Pharoes - or in the last 4 millennia! Proof that the climate is changeing? I hardly think so.

Satan is having a field day in promoting hysteria that Man - in his ignorance - is changing the climate in the world? People are making a financial killing out of mass hysteria that there is a "drought" in Sudan and Egypt! What then of the "Global Warming" since the supposed "ice age"!

Am I supposed then to throw a fit that there is "global warming" because of the absolute proof that it does not snow in Zululand - a lot? There are places in Zululand where it actually regularly does snow, but it has not - in living memory - snowed (white snow) in Mtunzini. Sure it has "snowed" with Zululand Snow, the smuts from cane fires that falls from the sky when the surperfulous leaves are burnt off before the cane is harvested!

I am kind of glad that in summer, it gets really warm here, and there is often, no discernable winter! In winter, our minimum temperatures are regularly higher than the maximum teperatures recorded in Johannesburg! Is this evidence of "climate change?" I defy anyone to claim that it is!

Sure the local climate there has been adjusted on the shores of places like Lake Kariba or the Aswan Dam. Is this due to human intervention? Sure it is, but the irrigation and hydro electric power created, is maybe worth a minor - localised - alteration to the local climate! A huge body of water MUST (surely) moderate the climate in that cold is kind of warmed up and the heat of summer is steadied - but this is only evident in a really small environment around the lakes themselves!

Does that mean that I am crazy? I hardly care, since - as they say in the westerns - I am "comfortable in my own skin!" I can observe others (I have the time!) and I can see that they are not comfortable in their skins! I may be crazy, but I am glad that I am not like them!

New stuff

Today I went through to look into an idea that I have had!


I bought a copy of a magazine "SA 4x4 - overland adventure!", mainly so I get the most out of my 2 4x4 Landrovers! I have had comments passed like "Why 2 landrovers?" but driving each of them is a pure delight. One is a 3.9 litre V8 petrol Discovery automatic monster - completely dwarfs anything else on the road - and a 2 litre Turbo Diesel. Both are DIVINE to drive - especially in the Game Reserve. What helps is that both are automatics and my Freelander is a permanent 4 wheel drive, but my Disco has the ability to select either high or low range!

I never thought that you could get Landrovers in Automatic? The only other landrovers I have driven were in the army in Rhodesia, and apart from being driven - HARD - by many different soldiers, they were not new and had not been for at least 3 decades! If cars were animals, military landrovers would have been chained up or they would tear your head at as soon as they smelt you! Nowadays, the original landrover shape is still manufactured (after 60 years, with no visual upgrades) as a Defender. You can get new Discovery landies but these come with Korean motors, not true blue British motors! That is a bit of a misnomer because the initial V8 motor was sold to Rover by Buick and was used in many cars, and landrovers. I dispute that a Landy is a "car" , as it is SO much more than a car!

I recently bought an SA 4x4 magazine that had an interesting advert in it - for a SAT (satellite) phone. I find that cellular coverage is not always available in the outer stretches of the Game Reserve. I am not so disabled that I cannot cope, but I do enjoy my contact on my cell phones if I am out and about! a SAT phone, although more pricey than a cell phone, would allow me phone contact wherever I am.

My neighbor is keen to visit Maputo (Mocambique) sometime and I would like to take a detour off of this road and visit the grave of my cousin who died when the helicopter he was in, was hit by a Surface to Air Missile (SAM) Someone found the grave for the 18 who died! I CAN go there, so feel that I need to pay my respects. Until the grave was found I had believed that he was kind of blown to pieces all over the countryside!

I know that thinking back to my cousin when he was alive is painful for some, but I genuinely believed that he died at his happiest! He was kind of born to be a soldier, and I feel that being a soldier filled his emotions!

There is a recently published book on "The Search for Puma 164", the helicopter downed in Mapai, Mocambique. I understand that the site the helicopter was discovered, is easily accessible off the road from Nelspruit to Maputo. I intend to go into a booksellers in Durban and get a copy of the book for myself. I understand that the daughter of the author of the book has driven to the site, and if she can do it with a road car, I can easily do it in either of my Landrovers!

Extortion

I heard about a potential lifesaver for me!

Since I was so heavily stung (thousands of bee stings) I am now highly allergic. When I was stung, my body converted the bee venom into anti venom. If I get stung by even one bee now, these anti venoms will swing into action (or is that Anti action?) and it will be just as if I were stung by another swarm.

Is kind of crazy that I am now really allergic to myself!

I was told about something called "Epipen" which I understand is one ampoules worth of pure adrenelin! Cost - R 800 plus.

I was given (note GIVEN) 2 ampoules of adrenelin, and a syringe and needles. All I need to do is to break the ampoules and to get the adrenelin into the syringe and just stab it into my arm - no searching for a vein! Apparently an Epipen is only a fancy way to inject one ampoules adrenelin into yourself!

Sure Adrenelin only lasts a year before it reaches its expiry date, but a saving of R 1 600 is worth the effort involved in breaking an ampoule! I need to ensure that I replace the ampoules every 10 months or so - no problem at the doctors. Epipen also only lasts a year, but costs at least 200 times as much!

Something else I have discovered, is that since I became so allergic to bee venom, I have been diagnosed as diabetic. Giving up processed sugar was not that difficult and I have lost huge amounts of weight - at least 8 longs sizes. Apparently I am still noticeably losing weight. At Church there is one member (no names, no packdrill) who commented to me "You are getting fat!" In whose world does losing kilos of weight and inches off of your waist line anywhere near equal to "getting fat!" Her (yes, it is a "her"!) ex husband said to me "Why dont you marry her?" but I think that I would far rather be stung by another swarm of bees! To those who know the LDS Branch that I belong to, will no doubt know who I am talking about! Maybe I AM getting anti fat! I am wearing longs that I "grew out of" at least 1 and 1/2 decades ago, if not more!

Something that bugs me is that my arm - ever since I was stung - feels tender, if not sore! I think (dangerous concept that!) that the bee venom was converted into anti venom - in HUGE quantities - and my muscles are kind of still complaining about this state of affairs.

Does not really help that "comfort food" is generally quite high in processed sugar. I found the last time I had my blood sugar checked, I had eaten an innocent bran muffin before, and the reading was higher than normal. Now I eat fruit and wonder if the natural sugars are in any way elevating my blood sugar levels! I feel (important that!) that I need a certain amount of sugar - even if it comes in tiny quantities in "comfort food"

I am still kind of terrified that I will be stung whilst on Speaking assignment at one of the units in the District but practically, I should not fear too much! In 50 years, I have been stung on 2 occasions - first time a year ago, by one bee (no problem) and then by thousands of really angry bees who swarmed all over me! (HUGE problem, one that kept me in Intensive Care for 4 days!)

I kind of figure that if I was meant to be dead, I would have died:-

When a speeding delivery truck slammed into my car - which slammed me into a coma

When I was beaten unconscious with a hammer, then stabbed 8 times

When I was stung nearly to death by a swarm of really angry bees!

Kind of makes me feel invincible, although I realise that I have some serious problems! I just wonder what Customs will say when I arrive bearing heaps of (legal) drugs? I often feel that I am kind of a drug addict - I cannot survive easily without some of these drugs!

Another cold day in Paradise

I am not the happiest person in Zululand! The sun is shining in a clear blue sky, but it is still cold out there! The sun does not have the power - yet - to get really warm like it does in Februay! I have an opinion on wht that is! Since Zululand is well south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the days in summer are long - the sun gets up at around 4am in the morning - and only sets well into the evening! It shines for a really long time, and because we are not that far from it's southern arc in summer, it gets warm here. The temperatures further inland (Johannesburg for example) are the same - around 33 degrees celsius - but at the coast the onshore winds - that bring loads of water - also make it really humid here. High temperatures - plus - high humidity, equals Zululand!

In mid winter (about a month off!) the sun is overhead the Tropic of Cancer, so the sunlight hours are shorter and no where near as intense!

Anyway, that is my THEORY and I am sticking to it! If Global Warming is a fact (that I do not hold with) then why is it so cold outside?

I am stunned that Man can think he is so powerful (even in his ignorance) as to destroy Heavenly Fathers creation, that is stunningly beautiful. It was not just created for those alive now, but it is supremely arrogant to think that we have the power to destroy the planet! Sure we need to be more caring about our environment, but that is for our benefit! Why else do parents constantly harp at teenagers to "clean up their bedrooms!" - for the benefit of the teens, or for the benefit of the adults?

I cannot believe what a difference charging a really small amount for plastic bags at the grocery stores has cleaned up our environment in SA! It used to be a case of plastic bags being the national flower of the country, but since a small charge was levied, these "flowers" have vanished.

Seeing programs on the slums of India or even South America, I am amazed at how dirty the countryside looks with plastic bags everywhere. Often walking on the beach I saw debris washed up where sailors on ships between Richards Bay and probably Durban, used to throw their rubbish overboard. It must be years since I saw plastic bags washed up on the shore, even though I can see the boats waiting to enter the harbour at Richards Bay! I do not believe that this is because of the Theory of Global Warming (just that - theory, NOT fact). If we were globally warming, explain the lack of heating to the destitute living on the streets of Johannesburg.

How can the politicians scream "Global Warming" from the rooftops, then every year, cry for donations of blankets. When I buy a blanket, it lasts me at least 2 decades, but the downtrodden require new blankets EVERY YEAR! What do they do with them? They dont have closits to lose them in - or they would not be on the streets! Somewhere in the world, there must be mountains of unwanted blankets. Maybe that is the answer to "Global Warming" - we are drowning in discarded blankets!

My parets have blankets that my Dad was issued when he signed up in the army - in around 1961. If a blanket can last him 50 years, why do the needy, need new blankets every year! What disgusts me most is that if you try to pass down your old blankets, they kind of look down on them. Why accept a second hand blanket if you can cry on TV and get a new one? Maybe blankets from when I was born were well made and modern stuff wears out in one winter! The government should be more concerned about the deteriorating manufacturing standards than in a myth of global warming!

I understand that the "experts" have predicted that this will be a long cold winter in Zululand! How can they live with the fact that they are hippocrites - crying "Global Warming" in one breath, then saying we are in for our coldest winter for a long time! The 2 concepts simply do not gel together! It is either cold or it is hot, not the 2 at the same time - make up your minds!

Maybe someone can explain why Electricity is seen to be a "green" energy! Have you seen the areas around power stations! The vegeation is destroyed. No wonder the power stations are well outside of city limits! Sure using electricity is cleaner than using petrol in cars, but producing it is so damageing - talk of Carbon Footprints - more like Carbon slums! Look even at how building hydro electric dams damages the environments! Sure there is no carbon footprint created when the power is used, but the dams are hugely changeing to the local environment! When the authorities have to open up the flood sluices, the populations downstream are literally washed away! If you are up to your ears in flood water, you dont care that it came from a Green Energy Source!