Stats

I was looking at the statistics of my blog. It amazed me that there were so many page views from Russia!

I watched the series "Long Way Round" as well as "Trabant Trek", and I am kind of deflated that a visit to Russia appears to be somewhat of an impossibility. Often also the USA series of "The Amazing Race" shows like the other 2 travel shows that it gets really cold for much of the year in Russia.

2 things have made me and cold incompatible:-

      1. Where I was damaged in my fight with an out of control articulated truck, my joints are affected
      2. Where my heel was recently operated on, gets extremely sore in temperatures of less than 18
          degrees celsius

For some reason, where the bones were broken or cut, the reasulting injury never seems to heal completely, especially where the muscle mass has been disturbed.

That being said, Russia appears to be attractively wild! I rather enjoy the wilds although my experience first hand is limited.

I love the wilds of Africa - since that is where I have always lived.
I experienced the wilds in America - around Los Angeles and Salt Lake City
I saw the rather tame wilds in England when I was driven between London, Manchester and Blackpool.

That also is a concern in that I realise that having been stung by thousands of bees, I am deathly allergic to bee stings. I was informed that my blood has converted the venom into anti venom. 1 sting and all of these will swing into action to counteract the venom of 1 sting and since there are so many that will not be used, it will be just as if another few thousand have stung me! The effect will be the same, in that the anti venoms will act just like venoms - and without urgent attention, mybody will shut down. Fancy being deathly allergic to yourself?

I do carry emergency vials of adrenelin and a syringe. I understand that this postpones the effects of a bee sting for around an hour, but then I urgently need medical assistance!

One thing that I am sure of, is that this allergy is not hereditary. My nephew in LA was stung by a bee and like his Dad - my younger brother - his face swelled alarmingly. My allergy is from MASSIVE amounts of venom, and that only comes from being stung so much!

Stragest thing is that I turned 51 before I became allergic. My brother was stung once when he was maybe 10, and he reacted badly, although it was not so serious that he needed to see the doctor! I was in the ICU unit of the nearest hospital for 4 days.

Travel

Recently I had to drive up to Parktown in Johannesburg. It was a long way and I managed it with no problem. I drove up on the Friday (everywhere from the coast, is up!) stayed overnight with friends - did what I had to on Saturday morning and drove back on Saturday afternoon.

It was a long way and made me realise how fortunate we are in coastal KZN, to recently have had a Temple announced for Durban. I can hardly wait until a Temple is an hour south instead of a further 6 hours (and huge toll fees) inland!

I had not realised that Parktown is 690 kilometers away - 120 to Durban, then the rest up the N3 to Johannesburg. I was blessed to have the use of my GPRS. Going up the N3, you are blessed to skirt past tiny little towns. Once you leave Durban, the first town/city you actually com across is Johannesburg. Then all you need to do is skirt past the high building of the Carlton Tower (highest building in Africa) and follow the offramps to the Temple.

My GPS directed us up the N3, M2 and the M1, taking an offramp to the Temple. On the way home however, it directed us through Hillbrow to the N3 and then home via Heidelberg and Standerton.

I was amazed at how run down Hillbrow appears. It has always been seedy, but age has not been kind to it!

The Durban Temple has been announced, but that will take a few years to be finished. The construction of a Temple is special, so care is taken in building it! They truly are magnificent buildings.

I have been to temples in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and been through the grounds of several others. It is not so very long ago that if members of the LDS Church wanted to visit a Temple from Africa, that they had to either go to London or to Salt Lake City. Now there are 5 in Africa - either opened or announced to be constructed. This is a really recent thing - when I joined the Mormon Church, there was only 1 Temple in Africa. Soon enough there will be 5 - with others to be announced soon!

Always things to learn

I am still learning things!

The chapel at Port Durnford has electricity connected and to save Eskom the hassle of reading meters, calculating costs, printing bills, running debtor’s ledgers and monitoring debts, the current “thing” is prepaid electricity.

It is brilliant – because there are none of the costs above, the power is slightly cheaper than if it is on tap all the time. Downside is that if the prepaid electricity runs out, there is NO power until you recharge!

You are never in debt to Eskom. Now if you are not in credit – NO POWER!

In Mtunzini – on the other bank of the Umlalazi River, we don’t have prepaid electricity! The new installation at the Chapel, is an education.

Last weekend we screened (computer displaying through a projector) one of the recent General Conference sessions. When the cable was extended to the building and connected up, it came with 2 units of power, which the outside lights used up 1 unit of! We were not sure how long this 1 unit would last! Turned out we used half a unit, so there was some power left over.

I took the card through to Eskom in Empangeni to get it enabled, to buy more power. I used the pole number of the pole just outside of the chapel, and they managed to link up the card. Hopefully tomorrow, I can use the card to purchase more power tomorrow, ready for this weekend.

Something that really amazed me was that when at Eskom, most of the staff are indigenous and the PRO person I dealt with is a minority white woman. She was really pleasant and helpful. I had to wait for her to deal with a regular customer and he was giving her grief, and I got the impression that he was not the first trouble inducing customer of the day!

I spoke to her and found out that further contact face to face was unnecessary. I had to supply the account number and the card number by Email and she could link up the card. Now I can get prepaid electricity at a store like the Spar in Empangeni or even Pickand Pay.

It is sure true what “they” say – “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!” – In other words, be pleasant ALL THE TIME! It takes less effort to smile and be pleasant than to be grumpy, and you sure get more response from a smile than from a frown. Even if you don’t get the response you want to, a smile helps you to feel better about yourself. I have the impression that modern city lifestyles are such that people are too busy to take the time to be pleasant. It is always more relaxing to greet people in store in small villages. I get the impression in cities – Durban, Johannesburg and even Richards Bay – it is a crime to smile, and if you do smile, they will call the cops and have you locked up, for insanity!