Lots of [private] pics from the trips at my Facebook
Thursday 30 December 2010
Warm Days of 'Winter'
Just gorgeous days here in Western Cape.
Yesterday's high and low for Franschhoek: 87 at around 3PM, 64 at breakfast time on the terrace... Afternoon trip down to the shore near Kleinmond (Clarence Drive) where we stayed overnight. Shortly we'll take the 40-mile scenic route to the Theewaterskloofdam, just 10 miles from our Franschhoek homestead. Tomorrow, New Year's Eve, we'll be back home for some proper celebrations. Hottentots among Huguenots... lol
Lots of [private] pics from the trips at my Facebook
Lots of [private] pics from the trips at my Facebook
Tuesday 28 December 2010
Elton Meltdown
Beyond the good time we are having here in Franschhoek, I feel the need to comment on Elton John's weird offspring:
"Elton [what a name that is!], you will be 80 years old when your 'son' will turn 17. Congratulations to you, you selfish bastard; and pity for the newly-born."
"Elton [what a name that is!], you will be 80 years old when your 'son' will turn 17. Congratulations to you, you selfish bastard; and pity for the newly-born."
Friday 24 December 2010
Happy Happy Joy Joy, in South Africa
Let's not reminisce over the travel woes getting here from London and Paris; rather let's enjoy what we have here: a refreshing chill of 60F at night, and balmy 82F during the day. I'm in paradise...
Friday 17 December 2010
Vac Time
Leaving for St Pancras first, then Gare du Nord; a bit crazy, but hey! I do it because I can. E-1 will depart for SA on Sunday, while I return to London that evening; only to leave for CT myself on the next day.
The temp's make SA the right place to be: sunny and 78 in Stellenbosch vs cloudy and 29 in London today.
Back on the 4th, unless one of my stunts goes wrong... lol
Posted via BlackBerry
The temp's make SA the right place to be: sunny and 78 in Stellenbosch vs cloudy and 29 in London today.
Back on the 4th, unless one of my stunts goes wrong... lol
Posted via BlackBerry
Saturday 11 December 2010
Snow in Paris
Snow in Paris means? To stay put in London and do the Christmas shopping at England's best mall. Hopping on the Eurostar yesterday on a moment's notice was Her right idea.
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Where were you, when...
... John Lennon died?
I lived in San Francisco at the time, and was in bed when the TV interrupted its programme with the breaking news. And I muttered, "only in America."
I lived in San Francisco at the time, and was in bed when the TV interrupted its programme with the breaking news. And I muttered, "only in America."
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Fresh off the ticker...
- Noble boycott: At least the communists in China have the decency not to soil the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony with the presence of any of its miserable representatives. It would have been a travesty if some of the regime's underlings attended a ceremony to honour the country's most eminent critic.
- I knew it all along as soon as the story broke last month: the husband concocted the infamous plan to have his newly-wed wife Anni Delawi shot execution-style in a Western Cape township near Cape Town. I hope he will be thrown into the Indian Ocean and be eaten by sharks.
- I applaud the arrest of WikiLeaks' Assange today; next stops should be a Swedish court room, prison and finally extradition to the US. Once there he should simply disappear at a place in the sun: Guantanamo.
Monday 6 December 2010
London Weekend, Guernsey Revelations
After Eurostar, like most of the mass transport of England last week, stopped their often unreliable service in the wake of 1.3 inches of snow and temperatures near the freezing point - quelle surprise in December! - I found myself stuck in London. As a result I raked up a handsome phone bill over the weekend. But, this being London, I found enough activities to beat any emerging boredom right in its tracks.
Talking of tracks: while the ones leading to Paris defied me this time, I carved my own into the ice rink at Somerset House, twice. Together with three reg's, we enjoyed the musical and architectural beauty of the setting at the palace, did our 1-hour routines on Saturday and Sunday, enjoyed the mulled wine and the occasional fall onto the ice (especially when I tried to let Emily listen to my skates carving into the ice up close, bending over and holding the phone close to the skates).
Saturday night we spent at the usual hang-out, Trader Vic's at the Hilton. Great food, good music and fantastic drinks. By 2:30 in the morning we had split as I had to take up my position as weekend psychiatrist of AOL's Anglochat room - a free service of the NHS. It's my way of being Christmassy and compassionate according to the spirit of the season. I extended treatment to such reg's as the schizo-paranoid AOL members coma284, brandi620, Lameducks, Sugapiehineypunch, AlteredStates (a pun of mental debilities), and the crystal meth victims Carrcrater, vickylake, crampierat and doveinamist. The sessions went by uneventful, no further actions like forced injections or straight jackets were needed this time.
I also am in the midst of reading two books; one is Paul Erdman's "Crash of '79", the other a historical account of Guernsey, a renegade island off the coast of France that was deeply embroiled with the Nazi henchmen in the 1940s. Turns out that the people of Guernsey not only fraternised intimately with the nazis, even to the point that inhabitants of neighbouring Jersey were appalled, but they also made sure that all of the island's Jews were murdered. Two concentration camps on the islets around Guernsey were sustained by the crucial help of Guernsey folks. Their attempts to white-wash their past sins for more than 5 decades have been completely thrashed by the book. Two schools on the island have been provided by the islanders to the nazis as interrogation centres, from which suspects regularily have emerged dead. Later, after the war atrocities were stopped by British invasion forces, Guernsey has used the institutions to incarcerate, torture and sexually abuse children methodically until as recently as 1997.
On a lighter note: I accumulated 18 hours of OT last week, which I will utilise this week to have Monday-Wednesday as half-days. Afternoons will be spent shopping and visits at the (Germanic) Christmas market on South Bank, with original kraut goodies like mulled tea, bratwursts, potato dishes and gingerbread from Nuremberg. My eyes will be sparkling from the glare of Christmas tinsel and lights, and my hands will embrace the hot cups in nippy temp's. Undoubtedly I shall OD on roasted chestnuts.
You may hate me now... LOL
Current Music: GEOFFREY ORYEMA - Ye, Ye, Ye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0u5yYEEluA
Talking of tracks: while the ones leading to Paris defied me this time, I carved my own into the ice rink at Somerset House, twice. Together with three reg's, we enjoyed the musical and architectural beauty of the setting at the palace, did our 1-hour routines on Saturday and Sunday, enjoyed the mulled wine and the occasional fall onto the ice (especially when I tried to let Emily listen to my skates carving into the ice up close, bending over and holding the phone close to the skates).
Saturday night we spent at the usual hang-out, Trader Vic's at the Hilton. Great food, good music and fantastic drinks. By 2:30 in the morning we had split as I had to take up my position as weekend psychiatrist of AOL's Anglochat room - a free service of the NHS. It's my way of being Christmassy and compassionate according to the spirit of the season. I extended treatment to such reg's as the schizo-paranoid AOL members coma284, brandi620, Lameducks, Sugapiehineypunch, AlteredStates (a pun of mental debilities), and the crystal meth victims Carrcrater, vickylake, crampierat and doveinamist. The sessions went by uneventful, no further actions like forced injections or straight jackets were needed this time.
I also am in the midst of reading two books; one is Paul Erdman's "Crash of '79", the other a historical account of Guernsey, a renegade island off the coast of France that was deeply embroiled with the Nazi henchmen in the 1940s. Turns out that the people of Guernsey not only fraternised intimately with the nazis, even to the point that inhabitants of neighbouring Jersey were appalled, but they also made sure that all of the island's Jews were murdered. Two concentration camps on the islets around Guernsey were sustained by the crucial help of Guernsey folks. Their attempts to white-wash their past sins for more than 5 decades have been completely thrashed by the book. Two schools on the island have been provided by the islanders to the nazis as interrogation centres, from which suspects regularily have emerged dead. Later, after the war atrocities were stopped by British invasion forces, Guernsey has used the institutions to incarcerate, torture and sexually abuse children methodically until as recently as 1997.
On a lighter note: I accumulated 18 hours of OT last week, which I will utilise this week to have Monday-Wednesday as half-days. Afternoons will be spent shopping and visits at the (Germanic) Christmas market on South Bank, with original kraut goodies like mulled tea, bratwursts, potato dishes and gingerbread from Nuremberg. My eyes will be sparkling from the glare of Christmas tinsel and lights, and my hands will embrace the hot cups in nippy temp's. Undoubtedly I shall OD on roasted chestnuts.
You may hate me now... LOL
Current Music: GEOFFREY ORYEMA - Ye, Ye, Ye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0u5yYEEluA
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