Car repairs

Some of you may recognise the name "Ritchie Ford"! They are the agents for Land Rover, and my Landy needed attention to the exhaust system. It should have taken 3 hours to fix yesterday - 7:30 am till 11, allowing half an hour for cooling time of the exhaust! Anyway, 6 hours later, I enquired what was happening, and the Workshop Receptionist admitted that one of the half trained monkeys had broken a part. It had to be sent to the engineers to be fixed, and at 4:00 it was not yet fixed.




Anyway, I was given this car as a loaner - a Ford Focus auto! Great car but it really is NOT my choice! That is why I drive a Landrover, or if I feel like it, a Porsche 944! On the road, other cars tend to stamp their superior size/driving prowess on the traffic flow. In my Landy, you sit well above the general eyeline of other drivers, and no-one dares to take advantage! If I dont like them, I can slip my Landy into 4 wheel drive - and go over the top of them!

I also love the V8 motor! Plenty of power, to do just about anything - including go over the top (literally) those who are not very road friendly!

Mid term

Christines school has a mid term break this weekend, so she is with me! We are at a Bed and Breakfast in Pinetown, on the edge of Westville. It is a fairly built up area, but the homes are on HUGE plots of land! Everything here is huge.

The bath in the guest suite is easily the size of the average jacuzzi. Even the bathroom is huge!

Christine is in Mixit contact with the one grandson - Lehi (can you guess that this is a Mormon family?" I met him this morning, and the first thing I said to him was "I've got my eyes on you!" Christine was mortified and almost crawled under the table! That is what Dads are here to do! She phoned her Mom who agreed with her, but #3 was heard in the background to agree with me!

I have also been fighting with my GPRS cellphone. It has on occasion yesterday tried to send me down a road that was completely choked with traffic. When I refused to turn into this offramp, it tried to send me back there! If it had fists, I would have a black eye, but it turned out that I was right! Christine still does not believe that guys dont need maps to find out where to go, even though I proved it to her! A GPRS set is only for suggested correct directions, not the Bee all and End all of navcigation! Women dont trust our built in - God Given - GPRS sense of direction. THAT is why guys dont need to ask directions!

One benefit is that if I am enthusiastic on the loud pedal - all to easy when you are sitting above the general traffic eyeline - it does warn you "Observe the speed limit!'

Coming weekend

This coming weekend is the Treverton Schools (there are 2 of them together - a Preparatory School and a Senior School) and I am taking Christine out for the weekend. We have reserved a room at a Bed and Breakfast in Cowies Hill, which is between Durban and Pinetown. It is within spitting distance of the Pinetown Chapel so I shall be there on Sunday, not in Richards Bay.

I have not seen Christine since Easter, which if I remember correctly, was in March! I am still very disappointed that Christine has stayed with her ex step dad twice since I last saw her! I understand that Michele arranged that Christine avoid me whilst she was away, and it distresses me that her recent ex is seen as more worthy of Christines time than me - her biological father - deserves. So much for giving my consent for Christine to go overseas with Michele, when all I get for my trouble is a kick in the teeth - at least that is how I see things!

I have spoken to my headshrink about this, and she agrees that it seems kind of unfair. Still, I am so grateful that I am no longer married to WWoW (Wicked Witch of the West!) I know how I feel, and wonder how #2 feels - not that I actually care! Thank Heavens I was given the scriptural authority to institute divorce! A woman at the Branch is convinced that I am an outright unrepentant sinner, but she is not privy to the reasons for the Divorce - thank heavens!

Something to be grateful for is that the sun still shines! At the moment it is not yet very hot, and is actually somewhat cold at night! I a dead set against the cold, as I tend to suffer a bit from the cold! I believe that it is easier to get cool than it is to get warm. The cold seeps into my core, and once I am cold, I cannot get warm! To cool down in Zululand summer, all you need do is to turn on the aircon - or the fan - and the sea breezes are enough to cool me down. If that fails, there is always the swimming pool. I find that - even in the heat of February - there is a cooling sea breeze that blows into the Park.

I can no longer - since being stung by thousands of bees - able to have things like Coke (not that it was my favourite anyway!) or Ice Cream, by virtue of the fact that I am now diabetic! Since I gave up sugar, I have lost pant sizes from 40 down to 34 - in 4 months! I can still see that I could stand to lose a few more sizes, but I have slowed down tremendously in weight loss!

Surprise surprise

Just as I thought, the family from Vryheid was stranded on their farm again today, by flooded rivers! I know that this is the second weekend in a row!

I asked the Branch President if it would be OK if they were stuck again, if they (4 persons for now, but probably 5 in the near future) have their own Sacrament meeting. He said that this was OK as long as he knows when this is to happen! I have a question if the decision is solely his, or if his counsellor (the most senior member on the farm) can authorise this? I know that if they need to hold sacrament on the farm, it will increase our branch attendance by at least 4 members! That must help in times when our attendance is fairly low!

Cold wet weekends

It looks set to be another cold wet weekend. Last weekend it was so wet that a family who farm up near Vryheid, could not get off the farm. They are diligent members - a member of the Branch Presidency, his wife the Relief Society President, his son the Elders Quorum President and his other son, the Sunday School President! If they are not able to get through the mud, there are 2 consequences:-

The Auxilliaries are kind of operating at a stretch!
The general attendance is down by 4 at least!

The EQ President is young - 24 - and is currently seriously dating a girl (woman?) from Hillcrest. He gives every impression that sooner rather than later, he will get married! I know that he, his father and brother actively farm, so their attendance is pretty well dependant on the weather! When his family cannot make it off the farm to get to Church, it seems that no-one is at Church. When Theunis gets married, that will mean that 5 people are stuck on the farm. I know that Kosi Bay twig was started with 3 members, and they are almost ready to be an independant branch! Looks kind of like there will be a need to have a twig/branch up near Vryheid! Then if it rains, they will not be stuck on the farm with no way to get to Church!

I did assure him that his sweetheart is safe from me! I am looking to marry a much older woman than that! I feel that Michele was from a different generation to me and as such her mindset was not my mindset! To go for a woman several generations younger would be suicide! Di and I have the same birth year, and she was born in the maternity home where both of my brothers were born. How is that for a great sign that we are from the same generation? I was born further north, in a town (Dorpie - smaller than a dorp, Afrikaans for town) between Salisbury (now Harare) and Kariba Dam. Sinoia (now Chinoiye) has 2 claims to fame - the limestone caves there, and ME! The last time I was in Sinoia (that is what it was called when we left Zimbabwe) it was a tiny settlement - a few houses, a shop and a hairdressers. When my Mom married, she was a hairdresser in Sinoia. My grandfather was a mechanic at Heinrichs Transport, a major industry in the north of Rhodesia, and their headquarters was in Sinoia. My Dad used to farm up closer to Kariba, and I was born in Sinoia. Then my Dad joined the army and was stationed mainly in Salisbury! Before I did my National Service, he was Paymaster at the RLI Barracks, opposite the High School that I attended. When I served my NS callup, it was at the RLI and I volunteered to join the pay office. The day I went there was he day Mugabe was elected and the bush war ended. I actually saw more action than the guys who went into the Commandoes - and I had fun!

It was great that I served at the barracks, but could live at home - literally 5 minutes from the back gate - IF you walked! The food in the troopies canteen was dreadful - at it's best - but fortunately it was not long before I was promoted from Trooper (Troopie) to Lance Corporal, That entitled me to eat at the Corporals Club. I am convinced that armies are run by the Corporals, so we were looked after. Then we were promoted to Full Corporals!

That is when a troopie who laughed at me for joining the Pay Office, was shaken to his roots. He came to the Pay Office, leaned against the door post and said to me "Catch me a casual!" (troopiespeak for "Give me a casual advance on my pay"). I freaked at his casual attitude and without thinking I said in a bone chilling voice "I am a Corporal and you will treat me as such!" The office - including the Paymaster (a Captain) was deathly quiet and the poor troopie sprang to attention, threw me a salute and begged my apology.

He was scared that I would put him on a charge for insolence, but his reactions were enough! In the army you only ever saluted a commissioned officer and I was only(?) an NCO (Non Commissioned Officer). They had to brace up if they spoke to us, but saluting was reserved for Lieutenants and senior! We even had Captains who treated us as almost godlike (we DID handle the most important thing to them - their pay!) and if you were on charge, you invariably had to spend time locked up, and then faced a fine for your misdemeanour.

The paymaster was impressed as I had stood up to my rank, and that was the reason we were given rank by him!

Technology continued

I have tried to input a map co-ordinate into the GPRS that I have been given. I am mystified.
Thank heavens I also have an address! However, if I input the street adress, it works - or at least shows me the way to go. I could not find out how to input the co-ordinates that I was given, and I did find after I entered the address, that my set does not give exactly the same co-ordinates!

I have found that my GPRS has not steered me wrong before, so I hope that the difference is only measured in meters, not blocks away. I understand that the point that I am headed for is around 7 minutes from the Pinetown chapel - which I was married at! I know where that is! It is not very far from the Pavillion shopping mall. I dont go there, too often as Di and I like to go to the Cinema Nuveau in the nearby Gateway Centre!

I hope that I am not suddenly being directed to the wrong address! I have compared the co-ordinates that I was given, to the ones that my GPRS gives, and the difference is only in the seconds! How far that is, can only be meters!

I did find, just after I had first started using the set, that one night I was trying to get to an address in Johannesburg. Anyway, in my ignorance(?) I selected the wrong address, and the set was directing me to my home. It was dark (that is what happens at night- even if Africa - and it was a new area, so it was not immediately that I realised I was going the wrong way! It was only when familiar sights hove into view, that I realised I was going the wrong way!

I have found that when I input other addresses, that the set directed me to the correct spot!

I have found that if I am exceeding the speed limit, that it warns me! There is an option where I can get it to direct me around traffic problems, but I can cope without that! Where I live, 2 cars a day pass my home, and amazingly enough, both of these live in my garage!

It does warn me "Turn left here" and generally this is OK, although I have found that on occasion, I know better which way to go! It is hilarious when my GPRS has a thrombosis because I am not willing to "Turn here!" and it says - in a huff - "Recalculating route" and it really threw its toys out of the cot when I did not take the suggested route back to where it wanted me to go! I was certain that there was a better way, and I (being male!) was right!

Some women still believe that man does not know instinctively where to go! I am convinced that man has a built in GPRS, and that is why man NEVER needs to do something like ask for directions! I think that behind a steering wheel, possible sources of direction info, vanish - not that a man ever needs to ask anyone for directions! That must have been the first arguement that I had with Michele after we married! She was in the passenger seat with maps in her lap, telling me "Turn left here!" when I knew of a better route - even though I had never been there before!

Amazing thing was that, no matter where we went - ignoring the squalking from the passenger seat - we were NOT lost - EVER! We had been married for hours, and it was already apparent that my built in GPRS was working overtime!

If man does not have built in GPRS, how did Columbus find the USA, or the early explorers (Stanley, Livingstone etc) ever find their way in uncharted Darkest Africa? Stands to reason that something must be guiding males other than pretty pictures on a piece of paper!

GPRS is a great invention! It gives man reason to confirm that the way he is going, IS going to turn out the right way! Is this because Man holds the power of God? Women get to hold the maps. Gives them something to do whilst the men are earnestly engaged with driving the car! Is that why real men dont ask for directions? They really dont need to - ever! :-)

Eshowe

I am kind of ashamed to admit that - 3 weeks before my 50th birthday - I shop at a local supermarket chain - as an official pensioner! When I was at school, I never considered that I would ever "retire"! When I first started work, I took out an insurance policy that I never thought that I would see mature, but it has matured!

Anyway, I shop in Eshowe - sometimes! On the way there and back, you pass through the Eshowe Pass, and I am convinced that you get better sea views from the Pass, than you get in most of Richards Bay - although your car rusts less in Eshowe than in the Bay.

I have found that I can use my digital camera from the driving seat - although I am not sure of the legality of this action! - and I can snap shots of interesting (to me at least) and amazing sights! I have taken to driving around with my camera in the centre console! I still have to get used to the idea that I can snap away at anything and can upload (fancy word that for publish!) my photos! It does not even cost me any extra, except that I spend time waffling away on my own website! I dont even need to keep - or publish - all of the shots that I take! I often see something on the road - strange roadsigns etc - and wish that I had a camera to preserve it for posterity!

I still smile at the sign that I saw between Vryheid and Newcastle! That warned "No road markings" which was not terribly amazing since the road surface had been graded up! No wonder there were no road markings - there was no road surface!

I am trying to improve the Home Teaching stats for R/Bay. I would like to see that everyone does their Hometeaching by the third saturday of the month, so that the Hometeaching can be reported by the third Sunday. Then we have a chance to chase up those who "forget" and the results must improve! I want to emphasize this, but am facing a massive mountain - are we ready to change our deadline for Hometeaching from 30/31 to 14/15th of a month? Surely if we chase up those who traditionally leave their HT to the last minute and find their families are out - doing their Hometeaching - we must surely see an eventual improvement! Surely if yopu traditionally go out on 30/31sr, it should take only a small change to your mindset to go out by 15th!

The secret to this is that I need to lead by example! Then I need to emphasise it in the Priesthood session on a Sunday! I was always amazed at how - everywhere in the world - the Elders Quorum Presidency goes on and on about Hometeaching. I thought it was a traditional Richards Bay problem, until I was in a Priesthood lesson in Costa Mesa! They were the same, and they could not even blame it on Zululand Fever - or the time delay - or anything!

That goes to show what not having to attend work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, can do for you! You see things in a whole new light!