:-) Thursday

I feel that I am still losing weight! I am wearing size 34 jeans, and they are kind of loose around my waist! I need to go in and see to buying a pair in Size 34. The good news for Theunis is that I have 2 pairs of longs that may fit him! It is hardly as if they are old, but they are now way too large for me to comfortably wear!

Without a belt, they would grace my ankles. I can still see that I could stand to lose some more of my "love handles" (unused!), but I do feel that my weight loss is slowing down! When I married in 1991, I was wearing size 32 longs, and after my coma, I was wearing size 28. Admittedly then I was doing 5 - 10 kilometers a day roadrunning, but I cannot run as far as the gate any more.

Just as I came out of my coma, my ribs were sticking out! I think that at size 28, I was wearing longs that were the smallest that were long enough in leg length, to fit adults!

I saw the doctor about my general health and he was not overtly concerned, except he said that if I continue to lose weight, he needs to investigate why? I still feel that it is because I have cut sugar out of my diet! Strange then that I live where the BIGGEST economic activity is growing sugarcane You can always tell by air from Johannesburg to Richards Bay when you are flying over Melmoth area, because the forests of gum trees changes to sugar cane!

He mentioned that size 32 was where I needed to start be concerned, but I feel that my weight is settling down at size 34 longs!

:-) Another new day

Is there a limit to being content? I find this is not really an option. I get disgruntled when really strange things happen - like 3 cars go past my gate in a day - and I dont own any of them! What is that about? Are there more than 3 cars that are not owned by me?

At Church, there is one Priesthood holder who is 21, and he really desires to own Blondie! There are 3 problems with this though!

1. He lives on a farm where the roads are not great! Blondie can make it from the tar road into my garage, because the farm type roads in the Park are paved!
2. There is no hope that he can afford to run the car - I bought new tyres for the back, and paid R 3 000 EACH and his Nissan Bakkie, takes tyres that cost around R 400 each! He could retyre his car twice for the cost of ONE of the rear tyrs on my car! I kind of figure that I will not need to replace them more often than once every 2 or 3 DECADES.
3. Since he passed his drivers license 3 years ago. he has rolled 3 different cars. Blondie WILL bite his head off and spit out the chewed up remains! Parked in the bays at Church Blondie looks quite tame and fairly placid, but unless you have tamed her, she WILL bite your head off, without mercy!

By not giving him Blondie, I am being christian, because I am protecting him from 2 things:-
abject poverty AND
a fate worse than divorce! :-( (he will die a horrible death, AND probably even get blood on the upholstery)

The cost of refuelling is not too bad - not considering that my Landy costs R 1 000 to fill up - once a month, but that assumes that you drive it sensibly! Drive it with a heavy foot and you definitely have to spend a fair amount of time at the fuel pumps in the filling stations!

Despite general opinion, I did not buy it as a "chick magnet"! The funniest thing was that one of the senior couple missionary sisters slid easily enough into the passenger seat, but try as she might, she could not climb out easily! I find that the easiest way to get behind the wheel is to slide in and to get out you open the door and roll out onto the sidewalk and use the nearest sign to stand up - not very glamorous, but effective! Sure you dont look cool doing this, but when you first park there, you look so cool that everyone around gets the shivers! I have to laugh out loud at some of the pedestrians whose heads whip round so fast that there eyes dont stop spinning for hours! Strange thing is that Blondie is 26 years old, so should not be that much of an icon to observe!

The merest repairs can be hugely expensive. I replaced the fuel pump and the non genuine part cost R 1 800. but a Porsche part would probably have cost R 8 000 or so! Crazy thing is that the fuel pump was one as supplied to Audi, and because it did not come from the agents in a fancy box with a Porshe logo, it is not sold with a huge price tag! The passenger window winder motor that has ceased to function probably needs new bushes - cost R 150 or so - and I was quoted R 3 000 for a new one by the Porsche agency in Umhlanga Ridge, Durban! I am not going to enter it into Showroom competetions, so it will not matter to me if it is not entirely original!

I love Blondie and I think that my ex would not be at all happy if had I owned a Porsche whilst she was married to me! Already she disliked the car that I owned when we got married, because maybe I (a typical male) loved my first brand new sports car, more than I did her! I admit that, but in my defense, it did not overspend in the shops, or answer me back - that was before I got a GPRS, that tells me when to turn, and gets miffed if I dont listen to it! I have had it tell me "Make a legal U turn!" but on honeymoon, there were times when the passenger seat, emitted an icy silence because I had gone a way that my ex did not feel was correct! She failed to see that real men have a built in GPRS that is kind of infallible!

When (not if!) I remarry, my new wife has to accept that the whole Steve Package comes with a yellow Porsche AND a Land Rover - no negotiations!

Tuesday 28th Sept

At the moment, the weather is kind of cold! It is the end of September, but I kind of think that the rumours of spring are just that - rumours! On Sunday it was full on summer - temperatures in the region of 30 degrees celsius - 85 farenheit - but today is back to the very low 20's celsius - mid 70's Farenheight. To a true Zululander, winter temperatures are anything colder than 18 Celsius. That is just near freezing point for us!

I think in Celsius as when I was around 5, the dreaded 'They' changed from an imperial basis to a decimal basis! Freezing is 0 degrees celsius, and 100 cents = $1. Before that 1 pound was made up of 20 shillings (I think) and 1 shilling was made up of 12 pennies. In Rhodesia, 1d coins had a hole in the middle so that the change could be strong on a thread of string or leather and worn as a necklace! You could wear your wealth! Back then a penny was quite valuable, and 1d was able to buy a fair amount of stuff! Even once we decimilised, 1c would buy a kid some "niggerballs" at the tuckshop. It was only later that these "niggerballs" came to be known as "coloured balls" and went from the basic black to actual colours. It was not long before the mixed race people complained that the name was innappropriate, since they were officially classed as "coloureds" I remember when the first black pupil at my high school, went up to the tuckshop and ordered "niggerballs". The woman serving him collapsed laughing! That was well before racialism even became a word! What black gobstopper sweets were called was in no way racialistic!

Ever since the excess muscle damage (accumulated blood from the bruise on my leg) was drained, I do not get affected so much by the cold except that the scar - that runs from my knee to my bum - is kind of noticeable - uncomfortable, if not sore! So I traded a mass of dried blood and gunk for a scar! At least it is not as painful as the lump used to be! I can still feel that my muscles are not as smoothly operating as they used to be!

I wonder if this is partly the reason that my longs dress size has come down from size 40 to 36. If I had a heart, it would break that my suit longs need replacing now since they are only held up by the belt, and even then, not that comfortably!

I think my size loss is partly due to this, but mainly due to the trauma that I suffered by so many bees attacking me! The nett effect of this attack is that I dont get to enjoy my garden any more! I had the swarm exterminated and threw away the stand that the bees were in, and protected my property with a prayer, but I know that the bees are buzzing around the flowers in the Avocado tree next door. I know that the other side of my home, the exterminators removed another hive after I was hospitalised, but they missed the one where the bees that attacked me, came from. I could not believe how ANGRY the bees were when they attacked me! being less than able, I was unable to run away, so 'several thousand' bees swarmed and stung me in a suicide mission. I was not allergic before, but now am deathly allergic. If I am stung even once, the anti venoms built up in my blood WILL all kick into gear and it will be as if several thousand more have stung me! It is quite something to realise that effectively, I am allergic to me!

My EQ President was hinting on Sunday that I need to pass my suit longs on to him. Poor guy works hard for not a lot of cash, so he is grateful that I can pass my good longs on to him - the ones that are too big for me now!

He is seriously involved with a girl from Hillcrest, so getting to see her is a mite costly for him! I know that long distant relationships are not easy, but he sees her for a few days a week - either at her folks home or she comes to his home, on the farm - and stays with his parents in their home! When I got engaged, my fiancee (first time round) lived up near Mtubatuba, not that far from the Game Reserve entrance! I was not engaged to her for too long but I was employed as an Audit manager - qualified as a CA, so I had way more cash to my name than a farmer will have - and Mtuba is only an hour from Mtunzini, not the 5 hours it takes Theunis to get to Hillcrest!

With me now, the woman in my crosshairs lives in Empangeni, and that is an easy half an hour away!

I am planning on getting to see Di socially for the day on the 12th. That is 2 weeks away, but I get to see her on Thursday - as my headshrink!

I get the impression that her prior marriages have rather scared her! The first marriage, the creep abandonned her when she was pregnant (dont ask me why, because I dont want to pry) and her second divorce was - I think - because he was unfaithful. I have not met him, but he seems to be of the impression that he is wealthy, so the general rules dont apply to him! I need to convince Di that not all men are going to abandon her, or womanise whilst they are married to her! I need to convince her that I am nothing like her ex's - and dont want to be like that! I think she knows, but I still need to sit her down and point out to her that I am not like her ex's! In fact I am not exactly like most other males!

This weekend

This weekend is General Conference weekend for the LDS Church. The satellite broadcasts are going to be received at the branch. I know that several of them are being shown at delayed times.

I am aware that they are also being shown on the Internet, although I have tried to access this, but not succeeded. I know that the official DVDs of all sessions will be received by month end and we can then view the sessions not seen this weekend! I assume also that these will be available to watch at home!

I and other members who live away from the Church building in Richards Bay, are grateful for this opportunity. I know thst it is possible to get a satellite dish and decoder for the BYU broadcasts, but this is not the same as DSTV. The dishes face different directions!

I know that the Branch President has a dish for this reception, and so too do a few of the other members! My decoder only decodes the signal for DSTV and definitely does not include BYU as a channel.

I am kind of amazed at how fast time is fleeing these days. It seems like yesterday that it was Christmas and already the shops are gearing up for Christmas 2010. When you think of that I feel quite old. Of the members at the branch, there is one who is 70+ and of the rest, I am pretty well the oldest active member! I was stunned to find that the father of the Elders Qorum President is actually 2 years younger than I am! Strange thing is that I dont feel so old! It is kind of as if I hit 21, and stopped ageing then. At least I dont behave (I think) the age that I feel. I know that sme people act 17, when they are 75! Sad really. Still, that is their choice and they have to live with, and answer for it! I dnt understand how they can! You move completely differently! Atv 75, you should display your maturity of long years of experience, but you only look kind of foolish when you behave - and dress - 17!

Modern technology

It never ceases to amaze me where technology is moving! For a really long time I have been trying to persuade a close friend that Email is way more user friendly than is SMS on your cell phone (Mobile to the uninitiated!)She refused for literrally years to listen to me, but her last cell upgrade was to a Blackberry phone. That has a QWERTY keyboard - just like a compuuter keyboard.

The only thing that I cannot see is that she can create colour coded messages! I can on my QWERTY keyboard so it will not be too long before you can do this from a cell phone!

This week I found out something! Her handset was stolen from her - at her gym - and she was forced to go back to her cheapie cell. Her insurance is going to replace her fancy phone, but that will take at least another week! She really misses being able to Email rather than SMS! Makes me think back to the first time I had anything to do with computers. I was in the Pay Corps in the Army, and there was one of (I think) 2 computers in the entire country! It was huge, and occupied 2 floors of the building, 10 stories up (to protect it against dust!) and the building occupied 2 blocks in downtown Salisbury (now Harare!) Even being so huge, it could barely do anything! Now you get computers that fit in your pocket, and call the other side of the world! Not only that, it is a camera (among other things!)

I have a cell that is less fancy, but is a satellite instructed set of maps! It even tells you where you should turn and even warns you if you are travelling too fast! Trouble is that - being of the male persuasion - I can sense where to go and it often moans at me "I told you to turn there!" and I can sense that it throws it's hands in the air when it says "Make a U turn" because I have taken the wrong turning and gotten lost! I often have full on conversations with the GPRS! It tells me "Turn here!" w3hen I know a faster route! Then it says "recalcularing route!" in an exasperated tone - before it screams at me "SLOW down!" Michele found that I am better at maps than she is in the passenger seat! On honeymoon she would often say "I told you to turn here/there!" followed by a stony silence during which I was not lost, and found the destination!) There is a common fallacy that men dont ask directions - why do we need to? We know where we should be going! A GPRS set only confirms what we know - but not all of the time!

I bought myself a colour printer for my laptop. That enables me to print off snapshots from my digital camera! That is if I dont wish to send them on Email or my blog! When I was given my first camera (aged 14 or so) it would only take 24 black and white snapshots before the film had to be sent to be developed - and that took pretty well a month! Now I can store up to 700 colour snapshots on a tiny little memory card - unless I buy one with 2 or 3 times the memory capability! Something so small can hold literally thousands of photos! So different to when I was in the army and the computer filled 2 floors of a building that covered 2 blocks! Sci-fi fantasy of phones that fit in your teeth, or cameras thet fit into pinholes, is not that far fetched!

When I started to blog, I had the option to change the font colours. Then this myseriously vanished from my toolbar! Today, I found out how to do it again, so instead of only blogging in black and white, I can blog in glorious technicolour. I missed that capability! It goes to show that there is ALWAYS something that you can learn - about anything!

CURRENT BELIEFS

I had to laugh out loud at the digital news on the DSTV news items! Turns out that in the early to mid 1970's, global warming was actually an unexplained regression in temperatures - Global Cooling! Scientists are unable to explain why their theory of Global Warming was actually a regression in temperatures! I still believe that Global Warming is only a myth developed to scare us into making really expensive changes to our lifestyles!

If anything, the hot air generated by fears over Global Warming has increased temperatures back to what they should be - as they were before 1970! Who can say what the world temperatures should be, and I dont really believe that we need to concern ourselves about CFC Free refrigerators or aircons!

I understand that to produce "environmentally friendly" cars (Toyota Prius) is far more damageing to the environment than running an ordinary car over say 20 years would be - then you have the problem of disposing of the batteries when the car is finally dead! How "environmentally friendly" friendly is that? The recent warming is probably only the world rectifying itself! If it happened - unexplained, in the mid 1970's - then why would it not happen again? I think it is only panic created that Man has become so superior in intelligence and power as to influence nature - without knowing that he is doing so! Does that sound reasonable? Are we so powerful that we can dictate to our creator that climate be influenced by our intelligence, or on the reverse of the same coin, claim that we are dumb enough as to ruin our world? Are we dumb - or of superior intelligence? We have to be either/or - surely not both!

A new(?) idea!

As a member of the branch Elders Quorum Presidency, I have the shared responsibility for the Hometeaching efforts of the local branch! I have had inspiration(?) as to what to do to improve the results achieved.

What worries me is that the Elders in the Quorum are behaving typically of the entire church - they either do 100% consistently, or they do their expected 0%! On average, half of the members who should be seen are not seen!

I have had the idea that if we - as the EQ Presidency - change the deadline date from the 4th week in the month, reported in the first week of the new month, to the 2nd week of the month. For those who do their hometeaching it means that it will frantically be done in week 2 instead of week 4. Then as a Presidency have week 3 to interview them and encourage the slackers to go out in week 4. If we have a week 5 in the month, maybe we can use it to get ahead!

Sure month 1 will be a strain, but it really does not make a difference if Hometeaching is frantically done in week 2 or week 4! Then we have a chance to interview in week 3 and have week 4 before month end to sort out the stragglers/slackers! It will only be a strain in that we have a 2 week month, but then we will be back to a 4 week month, cycle! That way, maybe we can encourage better hometeaching. I still think that we will not achieve 100%, but we can probably change the current 50% into a 75% Anyway, I think that it is worth a try. We can only succeed if we try it out! It will probably take a few months to pull the branch straight, but after that we should have no additional trouble in maintaining - and improving - it!

I was out with my single returned missionery elder Hometeaching Companion doing Hometeaching, last night. He is searching for a girlfriend and was stunned to find out that I am a divorcee. He introduced the EQ President to his current target (love sick is not really a pretty sight on a farmer!) and I think he was worried that he had found a potential rival for affections - with a huge benefit to me of a paid for Porsche AND a V8 Land Rover - but we are definitely searching for different generations! Michele was too young for me, and she was only 6 years younger than me! The standard of lady they are looking for is some 20 - 30 years my junior, and that is WAY too young for me!

I believe that the Branch President resents me - to this day - for marrying the only unmarried female member of Richards Bay - whilst he was on mission. He wanted to come off mission and get engaged to Michele, but I "snapped" her up before he came off mission. I am still convinced thar he kind of resents me for this! He should actually be grateful, as she has divorced from me, divorced my replacement and married for the third time! I know that Michele would never have married the BP, and actually saved him from a fate worse than death - Divorce! I have realised that my disastrous marriage was NOT a mistake! If I had never married Michele, Christine would not exist!

Still, he found a way more suitable member to marry - AND she will not divorce him at the drop of a hat! I am kind of concerned for the current husband for Michele. She has not taken his name (not a sign of committment) and he is 2 things that I know she wanted divorce from me for:-
he is not slim (by a L-O-N-G way) AND
he is currently without a job! No money in means that she cannot spend money out! How he will cope with that is anyones guess, as she will start to complain?

Education

I think that my education is of a different class to Micheles education, and is definitely not what they are taught in schools now! The emphasis now seems to be politically motivated. I have long known that to choose to be a teacher was to choose so, because you would never be rich. However, now they strike if the salary increase offered is 7.5% and not the demanded 8%. What they seem to ignore is the "No work, no pay" rule! If you are on strike for 4 weeks, you dont get paid for those weeks! Eventually they cave in and give you the 8% but by you striking, they have saved this half percent increase - for the next 200 months! Try to tell the disadvantaged strikers that though, and they will not believe you, even when they lose their homes and cars because they cannot afford the repayments.

For a huge number though, the next 200 months is not a problem as given 2 years (24 of those 200 months) and they will have died of AIDS.

There is nothing in SA like Strike Pay, paid by the Unions! And the Union Bosses are heroes because they have forced an extra .5% increase - that goes plus more - in increased union fees, taxes, medical aid and food prices! Whilst the "wekkas " (workers) are on strike - and not being paid anything - the Union bosses get their full pay - plus bonuses - because they are doing what Union bosses should!(???)- even though it is not in the interests of the workers at the coalface!

Mugabe is a hero - he made the Zim $ so worthless that even the poorest was a multi millionaire. Sad thing is that bread was selling for billions of dollars a loaf, and literally, doubling every day! I saw photographs where trash bins were lined with $ million notes because they were not big enough to buy loaves of bread! When I was at school, half cents were treasured as you could buy "Nigger Balls" (that is what they were called - by the manufacturers) at 2 for a cent! There was nothing racialistic about this name, it is just what they were called!

Christine is having difficulty in passing tests on biology! She however truly believes that she will be able to do a Doctors degree - Degree, Honours then a Doctorate - and to qualify as a Heart Surgeon. When I was at school, you needed distinctions (over 75%) to even think of medecine, and to be a heart surgeon, took school marks of over 95% - consistently - in everything! I think that the Black Economic Empowerment initiative where if you are "previously disadvantaged" you get into University! Literacy is a benefit but not essential! If you are "previously disadvantaged" you pass even if you cannot read or write! How fair is that? They leave school after 5 years of striking and not learning - even being literate - and get a certificate they cannot read, then cannot get jobs - not in SA or especially if they go overseas!

Christine is at a private school, where they actually teach something, but some of what she learns is that you get what you want irrespective! Her Mom married a Chartered Accountant, and then when I would not buy her a house that I could not afford, she moved on to bigger fish and when he was not good enough, she divorced him and "upgraded"! Seems to work for some, but not for everyone!

I dont want to come across as bitter, but that is how I see things! It scares me that money means so much to some people that everything else (including your Eternities)goes by the wayside!

Some people?

I am kind of mystified why some people at Church attend to 100% of their hometeaching requirement, but a huge majority do absolutely nothing!

Conducting Personal Priesthood Interviews (PPI) today on behalf of the Elders Quorum President, I was horrified that around 25% of the Elders in the branch, do 100% of their hometeaching! These include the very busy members, or those with far to travel to get to church. It kind of means that a huge number of the members dont actually do ANYTHING. As a rule, 50% of hometeaching is a worldwice achieved result. Turns out that this is achieved by 25% of the members who do 100% of their hometeaching, and 75% do diddly squat! Pity that violence is not generally an option, because I felt like knocking some enthusiasm into them! If they dont do what they should, it nreflects badly on the EQ Presidency - and that is partly me!

I have mentioned an idea to the EQ President:-

At present, the emphasis is on doing your hometeaching each month - normal thing! The average month is 4 weeks long, give or take! What if we try to promote the idea that Hometeaching is done by week 2 of each month! After month 1, "week 2" comes around every - 4 weeks, just like "week 4" does now! Then we PPI in week 3 and have week 4 left to get committment to 100% hometeaching! At the moment we do PPIs in week 1 or 2 after the fact, and there is no way that we can encourage (force?) that the "slackers" do their hometeaching!

Another idea that I had is to start a market garden in the Church grounds. This can be used by the BP as a worthwhile project for those on Church Welfare - grow things for others who need welfare - and as "punishment" for those who do not do their hometeaching - kind of get your act in gear or get cultivating - teach or work, your option! I know that there are grassed areas round behind the chapel where we could just as easily grow veggies - tomatoes, carrots, potatoes etc. Then the Branch Presidency can distribute produce to those in need, or the excess can be turned into canned goods or things like veggie stews, to be used for needy families! If the Branch President decides, then the canned or frozen goods can be sold and the cash go into Fast Offerings in the Branch budget, and we can then buy what is needed - things like clothes and blankets!

Big problem that I have found is that these slackers are the very first in line with cupped hands, for Church Welfare. Why should the Church help them, if they refuse to help the Church? I know it does not work like that, but surely they should expect to get out based on their input - no effort in means nothing out!That is how the world works!

If we emphasize week 2 as the deadline, there is still weeks 3 and 4 to pull yourself right! Just because Churchwide the average for Hometeaching is 50% there is no reason that this has to be our guideline! Ideally, you should aim for 100% - nothing less! Anyway, that is what I have counselled. We have to wait to see if it works! The way I see it is, week 2 is practically the same as week 4. If you are struggling to do your teaching now in week 4, what is the difference to week 2 - and even then, we can PPI in week 3 and correct things in week 4. Where there are 5 weeks in a month, that is a bonus! Just goes to prove the adage "If you want something done, give it to a busy person" - those who do 100% of their hometeaching are those who either live far from Church or have a lot to do! 75% of members do nothing, and that is a painful reality!

At the moment it is too late after month end to freak out and get a result, but if we have a set deadline of week 2, we can freak out for 2 weeks before it is too late! Sad thing is for the delinquants to reassure you that it "will not happen again!" and you want to respond with "And you kiss your wife with those lips?"
I suppose that this is why I am on the Quorum Presidency? Talking to my brother it seems that this is not just a Mormon thing!

Dread

I am only half looking forward to today! Sure my aunt is coming up for the day, but she is being brought up by my cousin - who kind of dominates the conversation.

What worries me is that she is emigratting soon. They live at present in Pinetown, but apparently all she can talk about at the moment is how great Britain is! All she can see is - like Michele - you can get almost anything in the shops like Harrods and cheap Rolls Royce cars, but watching Top Gear - filmed just outside of London - I know that you CAN buy a Rolls Royce for 12 000 pounds, but that is not the answer Have it serviced - twice a year - and the bill is regularly 2 000 pounds. Dont forget that one pound costs you R 12, and that makes these prices HUGE. Sure a new Vauxhall costs 35 000 pounds, but multiply that by 12 and it is not that much less than in SA!

Sure you can get seats at Wimbledon or on the West End, but you cannot easily buy a home! The faxt that you can buy 12 types of fresh bread in the shops, and get Bovril when you want to, I question if you can liver with only seeing these things!

A friend of mine works in London, and he bought a studio apartment in London, and it is TINY, and cost him 120 000 pounds! Even the bed folds up into the wardrobe to create space. So different to here where you can take a break in the Game Resrve and enjoy the space of Africa. I can just imagine that give her 2 months and she will be yearning to come back to SA! Sure you can drive from London to Paris, but who really does that regularly? I think she is kind of starstruck, and I will be hard pressed tot to immediately tell her that I for one am happy to live in SA - where th sun shines - and sumer lasts longer than 3 days! You cannot live on the fascxt that the West End is close by, if one ticket costs the equivalent of R 700 - each! Here top shows cost R 150 - 200 a ticket - AND you can park your car nearby when you arrive! You can get Caviar at Harrods in London, but you cannot get there easily because you cannot find parking - let alone pay for it! Secret is that you can get pretty well everything you could want here - Caviar or Bovril - but how is that better than being able to afford Biltong or Dry Wors!Here these are cheap, but in London, you can get it, but the price is prohibitive!

Secret is to be happy where you are, and she is just not a ray of sunshine - just like my ex - and the grass is always greener on the other side - not that in London you get grass on the 30th floor of Council Flats! Even if there is grass, you can only see it green for at most 6 months of the year! The rest of the year it is
C-O-L-D and wet, and there is no such thing as sunshine! I was there for the WHOLE of summer 1998 when thesun shone for a weekend. I arrived Friday morning, and by Saturday morning the neighbours were moaning about the heat wave and the drought! It last rained on Thursday! Here a drought is when it does not rain for literally years! Here in Africa, if it does not rain for a week, no problem, but in Britain it rains pretty well daily! I find rain can be kind of depressing!If Africa is so bad, why did the early pioneers stay when they crossed the world?

When I was in the UK it looked great, but that was a visit and I was happy to fly back to the spaces of Africa! When the African Bug bites, you get Africa in your blood and you cannot turn your back on it! She is happy now to go, but give her 3 months - in the cold in Britain - and she will be climbing the wall wanting to come back to Africa!

Friday

Today I was with my headshrink! She was saying that she is sceptical about existance outside of mere mortality! I think she needs to think about existance being more than starting at conception and ending at death!

I can sense that there is more to our existance than just the here and now! I think that she has not had life easy - twice divorced - and she has had no reason to believe that there is more to us than just being alive!

Still, this is going to be my mission in life - at least for now! I truly believe that she is a good person, but i need to convince her that there IS a reason for existing more than just taking up space on this planet!

I kind of think that some people are oxygen thieves! That does not mean that I believe that these people are not to be allowed to live! That is far from my call - thank heavens!

I managed to take a photo of her at work, but she was not happy with me! She wants to pose and have time to collect her thoughts. I love the fact that she is a mite scatter brained, and have said to her that I truly believe that she is scatter-brained about minor things - like cell phones (Mobile phones). These are kind of tiny and do not hold a huge interest for her. Hence she is always losing them! It is strange that she loses expensive cell phones with gay abandon, and when I gave her a real cheapie set, it lasted her a good 15 months! Maybe because it was such a cheapie set, no-one bothered to steal it, and in fact she had it returned to her! Once it was stolen from her, but the thief was seen, tackled and forced to give it back! She now has a fancy one with a QWERTY keyboard - one where to print a letter of the alphabet, you select the key - the same vas a computer keyboard! My cell phones use the numeric keys to convert to alpha keys! You select the mode, then hit a 1 key to select am A, a B or a C - or a 1. Kind of cofusing when the cell phone selects whether it wants the key to be an A, a B or a C - and changes as you hit other keys (Predictive text!) Frightening when your hand held cell phone is brighter than you are!

On my other cell, I have GPRS maps, and I use this with voice commands, so that I dont need to look at the screen! I am highly amused when it says to me (Recalculating route!) which is when you have made anm incorrect turn! If you have messed up completely - as I have sometimes - it says "Make a legal U turn at the next possible opportunity" - that means that I have messed up completely! I have also had it bleat at me "Watch your speed" - and I thought there was no-one watching me! The days of "Big Brother is watching you!" (George Orwells Animal Farm) is here!

Rest days

Today is kind of a rest day for me! Tomorrow - Thursday - there is a District Council meeting, so that is something that is not the same this week, and Friday I get to see my Angel again! When I was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, I was assured of the "Ministering of Angels" and Di ministers to my mental health. She is therefore an Angel to me! I truly believe that the promise to me of "ministering of Angels" why should I believe that this is not going to be a physical thing? I was promised it, so why should it not hold true?

I know that ther Branch Presidents wife is of the opinion that this "ministering" is only an ethereal thing. I believe that it is far more real! That way I HAVE seen an Angel!

That brings me to the thought that Michele was not an Angel for me for too long! Sure she ministered to me when I truly needed it, but maybe she became a fallen angel?

On DSTV, there are often programs on religion. Because they are often "intillectual" views of the Bible, they are often than not, either inaccurate or downright false! I had the TV on in the background waiting for a program to begin, and they were talking of "lost gospels" that contained ideas voiced in the Book of Mormon. This is a testament to me that the BoM is true!

It still amazes me that some people say "I think" and it is taken as Gospel truth! What of the concept of theories? Darwin gave his "theory" of Evolution, and it is seen as undeniable fact! If Man were supposed to have evolved, why has he not changed in the last few millenia@ It would be incredibly opinionated to think that Man is now as perfect as he can be after evolving from swamp slime! The program was only on waiting for the new program, so I am not trying to refine my views of creation! I was not watching it especially out of an intellectual concern. Di tends to be evolutionist in thinking, only because that is what she was taught at school and university! Sure I have a University Honours degree, but I can (and do) think differently to what the scholars think!

This day in history

I wonder if in future, anyone will remember if I ever lived! I really dont care too much as I am happy to live as I do! I gave the final talk at Sacrament on Sunday, that I was complimented on! I just wonder how many people even remembered some of what I said, past supper?

When I got back to the branch, I was supposed to hometeach a family, but my companion was away at a Young Single Adults convention, searching for a wife! He had been informed that we were teaching after the meetings, so he SHOULD have been there! Still I am happy that he was searching for a suitable spouse in Durban. As I blogged before, there are a number of the Elders Quorum who are also looking! I am not exactly in the same category as most(?) of them, in that I feel that I do not need to search for a Temple Recommend holding member to marry!

This is not really a concern, since I have already been sealed, although there is no way that I will have to live with my ex for an eternity! 5 years before divorce already seemed like an eternity although I have faith that Eternity lasts longer than 5 years! I have reservations that I will be remembered largely for the wrong reasons!

I really want to make my mark NOW. I can see ways where this is possible, even if not entirely practical. Like anything, if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well!
I kind of feel though that my ex (Wicked Witch of the West) is intent on me not being a father to Christine, and that I am barely surviving as Christines father! Bugs me that I gave up seeing Christine last holidays, so that she could go with Michele to Canada, and I will not see Christine until December. It appears that my 25 weeks allowed by the Divorce courts are severaly shortened to 2 - 3 days this year! I think that Michele gives off the impression that she knows better than anyone and deserves ALL of Christines holidays!

I think that the Wailing and Gnashing of teeth on Judgment will come from my ex, who will realise with huge shock what she did by throwing my affections away! Who will she spend eternity with? - assuming that she has the choice - me (not likely, after how she treated me in mortality), the toyboy, or the Fat Leprachaun (not my name given to him)? True, I am technically sealed to her, but she chose another, divorced him and chose another. Tragic thing is she is not going to be sealed to the latest - or at least he has told her that he will never join the Mormon Church!

Yesterday, I was sorting through my Temple Garments and noted that some were marked by strange stains - including dried blood! Where that came from is a complete mystery! I dont remember bleeding recently - or for a long time - but I tend to forget unimportant things! I have found that after massive injection of bee venom, my skin in places appears to be so very thin that the smallest scrape induces an area covered in blood! This is NOT a sign of senior years, as at New Year (just the other day) I was not so suceptible to bleeding!

Still, anything is possible, especially since I learned that I am basically allergic to myself! The bee venom was changed into anti-venoms in my blood! Crazy thing now is that if I get stung again by even one bee, these alti venoms will react in such away that it will be as if several thousand more bees have stung me! I am therefore allergic to my own anti venoms! How is that for a kicker? Still the chances of that happening are kind of remote! I was stung by one bee a number of months back - no effects - then stng by a whole swarm of bees - BIG problem! I could not stand or even focus my eyes and worse still the venom was shutting down my diaphram also, so i could not breathe properly. It was only the timeous arrival of the doctor with his divine bag of drugs that my life was saved! I know that LDS should avoid unnecessary taking of drugs, but I was literally dying - my body was shutting down - fast! As a result I spent 4 days in the ICU unit at the local hospital, since they were really worried about my breathing! I could not make them see that I was brain damaged in 1992, and a residual effect is that I have a spastic diaphram - the muscle that controls breathing! There is NOTHING that anyone can do to reconnect the broken connections - at least no mortal person!

I was watching a history program on DSTV. They are cutting down pine trees that are being killed in their thousands by some bug! Is that natural or what? I can see that by cutting down these infected trees, they are contributing to the myth of Global Warming! Less trees = less CO2 being converted! More CO2 means more heat - or so they say! I have also heard that the "experts" say that 190 million years ago, the CO2 level was 6 times higher than it is now! Why then be concerned about CO2 production now, and what happened to 5/6 of the atmosphere? Maybe - and this is only science according to Steve - the carbon was accumulated and turned into diamonds? How is that for a New Age theory? No-one does not buy diamonds because they could be the result of serious global warming?

It never ceases to amaze and humour me! Today is warm - but not humid - but everyone is moaning about the heat! Literally 3 days ago, the same people were complaining "Its too cold!" Goes to emphasize that you can satisfy some of the people some of the time, but there are always those who are NEVER happy! Either that or they just love the sound of their own voices! Personally, I freely admit that I love the heat, as in the heat my accident damaged muscles dont complain. I noticed on Saturday (the last cold day we had here - for the moment!) where I was sliced last time I had surgery, was not exactly sore, but I could feel that it was not right! I hate the cold and my ex has bloged where she is in Canada at present, and the temperature ranges between -17 and 0 - I kind of assume that this is Celsius, as Farenheight is a mite cooler. 0 degrees celsius is freezing point! I dont really enjoy defrosting the freezer as that is way too cold for me! Maybe I am strange (funny - unusual - not funny - ha ha!) but then I freely admit to seeing a headshrink every week. A woman at church commented that this headshrink is very attractive, so maybe this is why I see her so often! I would like eventually to see her every morning as I awake, not just 2 - 3 times a month - or every week!

Registered Blog Followers

I am - as they say west of here - stoked! The registered folowers of my blog has hit a dizzying 4! I have had comments from some followers, that it is fun to keep abreast of the things that amuze me! As they say, tiny things amuze tiny minds1

I am more snap happy with my digital camera than I was before! I love the fact that I can snap away at anything, and then decide which photos to save and in fact, which to include on my blog!

I blog about whatever takes my fancy - as they say, tiny things amuse tiny minds!

I always have my digital camera on me, so I can take snapshots of things that amuse me! I see it that if it amuses me, maybe it will amuse someone else! If not, they are free to read it or not read it! If I dont put it down in print, then it cannot be read - or ignored! I want to go down to Durban in the next few weeks, but I am sure that Di will be restricted as to when she goes down! She is on her way back from an emergency visit to Johannesburg, and I am sure that this will have depleted her megre financial reserves! I would have taken her up to Johannesburg, but only found out she was going, after she had left! I could have chased her and probably caught her en route, but I have no idea how fast she would have been driving! How far would I have gotten without Milo?

Before I joined the Church, I used to have 2 cups of tea before I even opened my eyes! Then when I joined the LDS Church, I gave up tea - as they say, cold turkey! I was never a big coffee drinker. I now drink Milo (a delicious substitute) or if Milo is not available, hot chocolate! Still 2 - 3 mugs a week is hardly excessive, and I dont even like it to be that hot!

I understand that Rooibos Tea (a herbal tea) is permitted by the Church, but it is my opinion that it is still TEA and by drinking it, it is almost as if you are trying to bend the Church rules to suit yourself! Besides, I dont like the taste! When I have to order some, I usually have it black, but even then the taste is not my taste!

I dont feel that 2 cups a week is enough to make me fat! in fact, I am currently losing weight! I have given away my size 40 jeans and fit intio my decade old Size 36 jeans! In fact, if I dont wear a belt, even these are too loose on me! It wont be too long and I will be vack in my size 34's and that kind of upsets me! I rearranged my wardrobe a few years ago, and gave away some R 1 000 worth of Size 34 longs because I could not see that I would ever fit into them again!

Esikhawini

Today I was speaking out at Esikhawini. They were apologetic that the attendance was down as some members had returned to school this week. They usually only attend during holidays, but with the recent teachers strike, they were sent home by their boarding schools!




This is a view of the chapel. As far as I know, the chapel for Port Durnford is the same design.



At Esikhawini there is a baptismal font (above)

Usually at Richards Bay the attendance at Sacrament meeting is around 40 or so, but when I was at Port Durnford, the count was 55 persons. At Esikhawini the count today was 85. When I last spoke at Nseleni the count was 45 heads. The huge problem at the ex twigs is that at least 50% of those attending are aged under 12! There are very few active Priesthood holders from whom future leaders can be chosen.

Currently the Richards Bay branch has a few members looking for spouses:-

Me - on the EQ and District Presidency. I feel that I have found a suitable spouse, but I need to convince her that I am nothing like her ex husbands!
The EQ President - seriously dating a member from Kloof! I have assured him that he is safe from me poaching his lady friends. Turns out that I am only just older than his Dad - and that is saying something! Rob - the branch president feels that I stole his intended whilst he was on mission, but I'd cross my heart - if I had one - that this was definitely not the case!
Thw Second Counsellor on the branch presidency - although he too is looking at a different quality of woman.
The Young mens President - although he too is looking in a generation too young for my tastes!
The Sunday School President - 21 - although he is not seriously searching, since he has his application papers in for consideration.

There is a new member of the District Council, who too is unmarried, but he is seriously dating - may even be engaged - to the Branch Choirister! She is maybe the right age for me - a divorcee also - but I know that she is completely the wrong character for me! Before Divorce, I know that Michele was anxious for me to get involved with Breeze! I dont know, but I like to choose my friends, not have an ex wife choose them for me! She is now twice divorced, and I am not sure that her choices are suitable for me - in fact I dont trust her choices further than I could throw her, and that would not be easy, literally singlehandedly!

CRAZY DAYS

Today I am going to draft my sacrament talk for tomorrow. I am speaking at Sacrament at Esikhawini.

I am kind of looking forward to this since I still feel kind of close to the members there! It is not so very long ago that I was Presiding Elder out at "E".

I intend to take photographs and then to go through to Richards Bay, so that I can attend to my calling as Counsellor on the EQ Presidency! I just hope the EQ President can be there. Poor guy is smitten by the love bug, heavily! His Mom even says that he smiles in his sleep!

It would be strange if both active members of the EQ Presidency are engaged to be married! I feel that for the EQ President, this is not too far off, and feel that Satan can see that for me, this is not too far off! Hence his objection to me dining with the lady in my cross hairs! However I KNOW what I have been told - in the Temple - and am confident that Satan will not have his way!

I had to cancel - for the third time - my date with my headshrink. She had to rush up to Johannesburg to attend to her mother! I would have gone with her, but I need to be here on Sunday! If I have to, then I will fly up to Johannesburg on Monday and drive back with her on Tuesday!

When I was at the restaurant, they laughed at me but have said that when I can, I must just arrive with her! Such is life in a small village! That is why life here is a little crazy!

The end of another perfect week?

As the week draws to a close, I am loking forward to some interesting days!

Friday - I get to see my headshrink - as a headshrink! AND
Saturday - I get to go shopping in Durban - with a clean slate on my credit card! I need 2 things ("need" is such a relative word!) - some spare Porsche brake light bulbs and a portable DVD player for my bedroom. I can burn my own DVDs on my DVD Recorder, but they will not play on my computer in my bedroom - I suspect because the DVD Recorder does not record in a suitable Windows format! I need to upgrade my Widows version. Besides if I have a portable DVD player that runs off batteries, then passengers in my Landy can be spoilt with DVD entertainment on the move! Maybe then, I can shoot DVD movies on my DVD Camcorder and watch the result on screen, before I start releasing my own feature films! I LOVE technology! I used to have a cassette camcorder, but donated it to charity when a client needed it, more than I needed it!

That killed 2 birds with one stone:-
I found a worthy home for something that I was not using (tapes are so cumbersome to handle!) AND
It was being put to excellent use, by a needy charity!

It was so big and cumbersome! My new DVD camcorder is a small thing!

On Saturday I and Di are going to Durban, and when we get back, are going to Zanj for supper - finally! I have eaten there and the food is as if it has been prepared by a 5 star restaurant! The only other time I have had a meal so memorable is when Michele and I went out to supper at the Royal Hotel, then to a show at the Natal Playhouse! If I remember correctly, it was Andrew Lloyd Webers "Evita" - within easy walking distance of the Royal Hotel.

The way I see it is, Di will love to eat out at Zanj - she enjoys Mugg and Bean where the service is more of a fast food style! Zanj is a quality restaurant, that is definitely not a fast food joint! The name is Arabic for "East Coast"!

I have recorded a film that is excellent - "I dream of Africa" that is a true life story of a woman who immigrates from Italy to Kenya! It kind of hearkens back to the typical idea that Americans have of Africa - lions off of the verandah and elephants in the veggie patch! I have seen elephant around 2 kilometers away from my home - up the hill, but these were tame elephants from the circus!

I find it hard to come to terms with someone constantly apologising! It is strange to me that someone who is otherwise completely in control of their lives, constantly has to apologise - Sorry for.... before anything else is said! Sure we live in a time of Instant messages, but how instant should the response be? I believe that otherwise confident people are suffering hangovers from previous marriages! How can anyone demand instant responses? Surely NO-ONE is THAT important! I know of people who think they are, but the more important they think they are, the smaller cogs they actually are in the larger scheme of things! I am speaking here of Di - who is otherwise very confident! She may take 2 days to Email - because she is busy! Big Whoop! I know that not everyone has all day to Email. In fact I send the occasional Email to my ex, and days or weeks go by without response! No skin off of my nose! I am retired, so can stand to wait a day or two for a response - especially if the other party is busy!

In fact the fastest way to send a message used to be a telex message, but they have not been used for decades - at least since faxes became commonplace and even then, a fax could get lost or mislaid! SMS is fast - but even then, can take up to 12 hours to deliver! Email is fast, but I wonder what is next on the list of inventions! I can Email across the globe literally, and can get an instant response - depending on the time zones! Who says that Email is the answer to messageing? They used to think that faxes were fast, and now they are more or less snail mail! It used to be that the fastest way of delivering messages was by hand, by flying across the globe! When I flew to LA it took 25 hours flight time. I think that if you had said in 1980 that satellites would exist - and in fact would be a household standard - you would have been locked up and they would have thrown away the key! Now if you cannot Email at least, they tend to look at you sideways!

I learned how to blog, but even this must surely, be old hat to some! When I was at school - not that long ago - if you wanted to communicate, you actually put pen to paper! I even remember using pens with actual nibs, and that was before they used ballpoint pens as standard. When I was at school, you could get inkwells for the holes in your desk! The use of quill pens was kind of in the past, but I remember having to refill my pen with ink into the cartridge! I even remember that I had a fountain pen with a gold plated nib! I also remember bored kids throwing ink soaked blotting paper missiles! Were those really the "Good old Days"?

Fears of Man

Watching BBC Knowlege on my DSTV Satellite, I am HUGELY amused. On one hand there is huge fear that the world is warming up - Global Warming. On the other hand, the scientists who monitor volcanic erruptions are scared witless that a super-volcano is overdue to errupt, sending ash into the air, The fear is that we will be subject to Global Cooling! Sounds like you should panic if we are getting warmer and panic if we are getting cooler! Next step is just to panic because there is no change in weather patterns! What next? This hardly sounds like the influeces of our Creator! All that is being created is mass hysteria that we are getting too warm, headed for a mini ice age, or something! "If you dont panic, what is wrong with you?" I think that some force wants us to live in a state of panic, as if our creator has gone mad and is out of control! To me, this sounds like Satan keeping us involved in panic rather than communicating with our creator!

One thing that I am very happy about is that they are going to broadcast on one of the channels, the recordings of the trip made by Ewan Mcgregor from London, by motor bike from London to New York - East - the Long Way Round! I am very interested, since then I wil be able to see how they crossed from Russia to Canada. If they managed on motorcycles, surely it was possible to walk from America to Africa when the tribes of the earth were dispursed after the Tower of Babel!

It is hilarious to hear the theory that the Garden of Eden was in Africa, and man started out in Africa and migrated to the rest of the world! I think that it is 'politically correct" to believe that man descended from Africa! Strange then that when white hunters arrived in Africa, the most advanced discoveries were grass huts, not your average brick built splendour - with accessories like running water and housing for garages!

Something that I think that I learned in Chemistry at school, was that Carbon Monoxide is an unstable gas, and pretty soon combines with other oxygen to form Carbon Dioxide - which is plant food! That is what plants do! They absorb Carbon Dioxide and give off Oxygen! How scary is that???? Next thing will be a theory that man needs carbon to reproduce (we are carbon based life forms) so panic, the plants are eating our food! Just another reason to wake up in a cold sweat that man will die as a species!(???!!!)

As far as I can remember is one of the main products from combustion engines, is Carbon Monoxide - which soon enough convered into carbon dioxide that is plant food. Man eats what? Plants!!! Sounds like Circle of Life stuff to me!

In Zululand again, today is C-O-L-D. Should we worry that someone more important than Man has gone insane? I really refuse to believe that! It is cold because it is cold, no reason to panic! If we panic, we forget to think of our Creator who by the way, outdid himself creating such wonders as the Game Reserves of Africa. I refuse to believe that man evolved from Africa, and somehow the gene for a black skin was not at all dominant! Strange then that Coloureds (Like President Obama) exist, and they produce children who are definitely not white! Some natives look heavily suntanned but some from further up Africa look almost purple! This is an observation, not a racially motivated comment!

Secret (I think) is to hold onto Heavenly Fathers mission plan, and to have joy - not fear! It is a well known fact that it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown! A thought - is smiling then a Green Activity? - less muscles used, means less heat and by the way, less energy and less CO2 - therefore is it ecologically and environmentally more friendly to smile than it is to frown? Just a thought! Maybe by worrying about global warming, we are contributing to Global Warming? Take the advice of a song - "Dont worry - be happy!"

FAITH

My faith(?) in humans - particularly the members of the Branch - was restored today! I attended a branch Council meeting and was horrified when a member of the Branch Presidency raised the question of the less affluent members who claim that transport to Church is too expensive, and what could the branch do about paying for them to be transported to and from Church, even though they live fairly close to the chapel. It amazes me that my EQ President and his family drive 3 hours just to get TO church. Other members drive 100 kilometers to get to church, and I drive a short 55 kilometers to get to Church. It is very few weeks - if any - when one of us is not there! Then there are members who cannot manage to get 5 kilometers to church! I question, where is their comittment? Also try to mention 2 other points to them and you only get blank looks!

1. A Prophet of the lord stated that he promised that the way to walk out of poverty was to pay your tithing! Amazes me that the poor members who dont come to church for reasons of poverty, are the first to complain that 10% tithing is too much to pay and their budgets dont allow them to pay tithing!

2. Something that I have seen time and time again is the equation - no input = nothing out! 10%, 100% or 1000% of nothing is still - youve guessed it - NOTHING! Amazingly the most affluent members of the Church were the ones who paid their tithing! Is this coincidence? I personally dont think so!

What also never fails to amaze me is that no matter how far over backwards you bend, these members are never satisfied! Trouble sometimes is the further you bend over backwards for them, the bigger target you present to receive a kick in the face!

Still that is the natural human response! "You are wealthy - where is my cut?"
Then they look at you sideways when you dont give them anything! I have had times where I have taken members to the Temple - at my cost - and they have not even offered to buy me lunch - or a cooldrink - let alone contribute to fuel! I never complained, but I bet they wondered why I stopped driving across town to collect them for Church! As I said, my faith in human response was restored! Those who refuse to pay tithing, were the first who expected a return from membership.

Mocambique

Last year, I was stunned to find out 2 things:-

It was 30 years since my cousin was killed on a cross border raid into Mocambique, fighting against ZANLA terrorists who were attacking the country then known as Rhodesia. I had always understood that the Puma helicopter he was in, exploded when it was hit by a Sam 7 Anti aircraft missile! I always believed that either his body was destroyed by fire either when the heavily armed helicopter exploded or when the wreckage hit the ground

It turns out that the bodies of the 17 killed in this tragedy were buried by the locals, and that the gravesite is reasonably well maintained, again by the locals!
At the time of the incident, the RLI did not try to recover the bodies as the area was obviously teeming with the enemy! Since I was in the Pat Corps, our office was ordered to take money down to near the Moz border and to pay the "returning heroes" I think it was just Mugabe trying to get on the good side of criminals! I am convinced that the gang of "heroes" who shot down my cousin, were there! - Heroes my foot!

Trips into Mocambique are occasionally conducted by the people who found the grave - as well as some of the wreckage of the helicopter, and this is a reason that I was keen to buy a V8 4x4 Landrover. Amazingly fortunate - for me - that it is Automatic!

Always when I get advised by the people who found the grave, a poem is quoted

“They shall not grow old
As we who are left, grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

If my (greying) memory serves me, this is from a poem by Robert Browning. It is however 35 - 40 years since I was seated in an English poetry class!

These people put me in touch with a group who are involved in an RLI Regimental association, which keeps all advised of current happenings! I hear more about my old regiment than I hear of my old high school. The ex RLI are currently active in places as diverse as Botswana, Australia and New Zealand.

This always gets me in the strings of my heart. This poem was used at my primary school and then at my senior school as a standard quote at any memorial day. My primary school was named after a WW2 Ace, John Nettleton - a Spitfire pilot - who was awarded the Victoria Cross, and was in a sports house also named after another WW2 Ace. When I went to High School, the houses were also named after WW2 aces, who were awarded the VC decoration. Then when I was in my years national service, the unit that I served in, also used this poem as a kind of anthem! When I served my national service, it was in Base Group in the barracks, since I was in the Pay Office. My cousin had served in 1 Commando, and practically the barracks he lived in was right next to the Base Group barracks. Every day, we had to march across what was called "Holy Ground" and salute the "Troopie Statue" next to the chapel, and was a memorial to those who had died serving their country!

Whilst I was in the Pay Office, this statue was airlifted out of the barracks and brought down to SA - the military museum near the Zoo in Johannesburg. I went there to see the statue, but they would not admit to the fact that it had been taken to Hatfield House just outside of London. It is erected overlooking a river there! Next time I am in the UK, I intend to go there and pay tribute to the statue! When I was in the army, it was the only link that I knew of to my cousin! I do not feel that this is in any way a version of Idol Worship - at least no more than visiting a gravesite.

Since I found out that my cousin was buried and his grave has been located, I have bought myself a 4x4 Land Rover Discovery - V8 automatic - that I want to use to drive in to Mocambique!

For 30 years, I truly believed that the explosion had completely destroyed the bodies, but found out that there exists a mass grave, that is accessible by road, in an ordinary car, although the last time I was in Mocambique, the roads were not very good, and in their 35 - 40 years of independance, the Moz government has done nothing to maintain the roads. Even the bullet marks in the walls from the fighting when there were cross border raids in 1980, have not been plastered over or repainted, 31 years later! If they have not repaired or even repainted buildings, there is absolutely no chance that roads have been maintained. The roads into Mapai are still dirt roads!

I have a friend who was involved in a project to tar the roads off of the main SA to Maputo road, but they soon stopped, as the graders were exploding buried landmines!

When we used to visit Beira (nearest sea to Salisbury where we lived) the roads there were in terrible condition. We had huge fun the one time watching a worker repairing potholes in the tar road on a one way bridge over a river. The traffic was held up when the lights changed on the one end, and the worker would run into the road with a bucket of stone/bitumen that he flung into the hole and patted it briefly with a spade, before he had to flee from the oncoming traffic! Then he had to wait for another change of the robots, to attempt the same suicide mission!

Those were the days when I and my brothers were bitten by a real live African Lion! Ruff was maybe 4 weeks old and played endlessly. In playing, it bit although the teeth left no bite marks. What amazed us was the size of Ruffs paws! They were HUGE! So it is honest to God truth when I say that I have been bitten by a lion - admittedly it was playing, not vicious - but it was a lion!

I remember that this was one of our holidays where we were away at the sea at the same time as my cousins. I even remember that the one evening, we went out to a restaurant - "The Oceana" - on the seaside near the docks. That is one time where we were graced with a sight of an Ocean Liner leaving port in the evening!

I even recall the Christmas decorations on display - plastic soup plates glued together!

I remember Jeremy fishing off of the pier with his father. Terry was moaning that Jeremy was not casting far enough out to sea to catch fish. Jeremy would cast, be shouted at, reel in, take a fish off the hook, rebait then recast! Terry moaned at his son, but in all the time we were there the only fish caught were by Jeremy!

That was before Moz Independance, and even then there was an air of decay about EVERYTHING. That must be 35 or even 40 years ago, and I am not sure that they have bothered to maintain anything since then! The only capital development is that since we last went there, the Zambesi has been dammed with the Cahorra Bassa Dam. I know that many people in Eshowe own property in Mocambique.

ZULULAND TRUE STORIES

Yesterday, I was hanging around Empangeni waiting until I was due to take a fellow Council member out to his first District Council meeting at the Chapel in Richards Bay. I bought a really fascinating book on the history of Zululand, from 1780 to 1978.

The Zulu people basically becane a united people under King Shaka in the 1760 region of time!

What is kind of shocking is that he had no children. That is not to say he did not get women pregnant, but he was fanatical about killing the foetus before it was born!
That is why his direct line stops with him, and the current royal household, is descended from his brother. The current king (Ling Goodwill Zweletini) lives in a palace up at Nongoma. I know that this must be a really incredible building. I have not seen it, but when a client that I was dealing with at the time was drawing the plans for my house, he was putting the finishing touches to the plans for the new Royal Residence. To this day the house that was designed for me is lived in by my parents, and is a brilliant building! I can imagine that a Royal Palace would have been built with more attention to detail!

Esikhawini developed as a housing estate for the workers at Alusaf! Strange that they import everything to Richards Bay (the electricity, the raw materials and the labour) process it locally, then export the metal ingots, then re-import aluminium sheets to manufacture things like Coke cans etcetera! What a waste of time and effort! Something else that stuns me is that they chip up the logs grown locally, export the chips to be glued together into pressboard, then re-import the pressboard to make things with! How can anything be cheap here?

Richards Bay started off as a fishing resort. The natural harbour was developed and now Richards Bay is a booming industrial town