Reflections

It has been quite chilly of late, especially early in the morning, which is to be expected in May in South Africa, since the Sun is already 6 weeks into the Northern hemisphere. Today is quite unusual - 87°F (that's 30°C) here in Martindale. The farm is looking good after the 2 inches of rain we had during a thunderstorm about a week ago. The lawn is green but has just about gotten into its winter hibernation program. This is the time of year when molehills start appearing, but so far there are just scattered examples - warnings of things to come. 

The farm is still for sale (and will remain so until sold). One prospect who looked over the place 3 weeks ago took 2 weeks to let me know it was too far from Grahamstown and lacking in security. How little they know, this must be one of the most secure farms in the area - not one incursion in the six years we've been here, other than the locals collecting firewood, which I have no objection to. I have enough wood here to build a couple of houses and to keep the stove hot for several years. A German couple turned up with Philip, an old friend, on Saturday to look over the place. They are interested but have to sell their property in Deutschland. They did enjoy the Guavas though, and carried of a few handfuls. I'm glad someone likes them - I personally cant stand them, and I have 14 guava trees (4 pink and 10 white) on the property, as well as nartjes. A local farmer phoned a few minutes ago and has taken the details of the farm. He seems fairly interested so will join the list of hopefuls.

 Headman, who is the local preacher and "odd job man" had his last remaining teeth removed yesterday - presumably at the government hospital in Grahamstown. He was told, and I find this odd, to expect his false teeth to be ready for a fitting in December - 7 months? I guess that's yet another sign of the way things are going in this country. I think everyone (except for HRH Robert Mugabe) knows how Zimbabwe became a god forsaken country. It seems as if South Africa is going the same way - a little more slowly perhaps, but the signs are all there. Even today there was an extensive item on CNN investigating the gradual failure of democracy in the country.

 Liz  has now been back in the US of A for 2 weeks - how time flies, and yet the days are very long when she's not here. We chat either on the phone (MagicJack) or Skype every afternoon or evening for a good 30 minutes or so. She looks very happy, and clearly enjoys being with Dena and the kids. Come on someone - buy this little corner of Paradise so that I can fly myself and Katie across the Pond to be with her. What I need is some keen philanthropist who wants to set up a small home industry school, or some other project, for the local Martindale community. At present they just exist, and there will be few opportunities for the 14 kids who attend the farm school in the future, unless someone steps in. This place would make an ideal base for such a project. Indeed, one of my prospective purchasers (who was turned down by the banks) had such a project in mind, had the sale gone through.

Late Posting

For some obscure reason this post was never published, so here it is a little late!

Faster than the blink of an eye, 2011 has come and gone – well, almost. In a little over 12 hours (at the time of writing) we will be in a whole new year. It is unfortunate that Time has the habit of running out on us – sometimes quicker than we would like it to. Indeed, always quicker than we would like it to. Time is something that each of us is given at birth. It is a commodity that, if wisely used can appear to stretch out. Time appears to pass more slowly the younger we are. When we are in the autumn of our years it passes all too quickly. I recall reading somewhere, sometime, that some part of the brain compares the passage of Time with the total length of Time we have experienced since birth. I guess that makes sense. I am now at the age where I have stopped counting my birthdays – I merely try to guess how many I have remaining. I recall that in my youth I often wondered whether I would be alive to experience life in the 21st century – well, I have now lived through eleven years of it.

2011 has seen time run out for a number of individuals whom I personally considered evil – Osama bin Laden, Gaddafi, Kim Jong-Il are the three that come to mind. There are plenty more evil leaders still hanging on to Time – Mugabe immediately comes to mind - he can’t have much Time remaining in his coffers. And there’s that chap in Syria, what’s his name? It would be nice to be a god and to be able to pick out Earth’s most evil characters and just snuff out their candle. It doesn’t work that way though, does it?

What about the celebrities who passed to the other side during the passage of 2011? There were actresses Elizabeth Taylor, Dana Wynter and Jane Russell, Apple founder Steve Jobs, actors Peter Falk and Pete Postlethwaite, boxer Joe Frazier, IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and Betty Ford, widow of former president Gerald Ford. The list goes on of course, and I have named only a fraction of many celebrities who are no longer with us.

The year has not passed without its disappointments of course, the greatest of them being that of failing to find a new owner for the farm. We thought we’d sold it just a few weeks ago (see “Sold the farm – whoopeeeee!” blog) and at a good price – even shook hands, but then their bank refused or at any rate failed to come up with the money. We had hoped to have been celebrating tomorrow in North Carolina but – well, it just wasn’t our Time. So what now? First and foremost I want to get Liz to Louisiana to her daughter’s. I may have to beg, borrow or steal the money for her ticket (any takers?). She actually has a job offer in NC right now, but will have to turn it down. Meanwhile I am building up a valuable potential client base on the East Coast. Liz will be able to spend the time, until my eventual arrival, changing her name and applying for a spousal visa for myself. And me? Well I’ll let you know tomorrow – if I have the Time.

My Bonnie lies over the Ocean

Well, it finally happened. One more step in the Grand Plan of the Universe fell into place. My beloved Liz has arrived safely in America, and judging from a conversation I had with Dena, her daughter, yesterday afternoon, none too soon. But that’s another story, and one to be told by another writer.

I drove Liz to the Airport on Tuesday afternoon. We had just topped up with fuel in Colchester when her phone rang. It was British Airways asking whether she could make the check in by 2.30 p.m. rather than 5.00 p.m. as her flight had been delayed and there was no guarantee of her making her connection with Quatar Airways to Doha. Fortunately we had decided to leave Martindale early (at noon) so we were able to make it. She was fined R3,000 for overstaying the last date of her visa – if she doesn’t pay it while in the States she will not be allowed back into the country – what a difficult decision to make!

So, now I am alone for a while – hopefully not too long. It’s now all down to selling the farm, and I’m hoping that the people who came to view on 19^th will come through. Technically I’m not completely alone. I have Katie our White Shepherd, (you may remember her dad passed over in late January) and Bob and Jack, the two cats, to keep me company. We have someone who has offered to take the cats, and indeed Katie, but it is still our intention to send her over to the States just as soon as the farm is sold.

I keep on finding little notes hidden away throughout the house. Just little things like “I love you” and “I miss your touch” and, this is the one I like, “I love you more today than yesterday. I will love you even more tomorrow”. So far I’ve come across six of them. Thank you Liz, and I love you and miss you and can’t wait to talk to you on Magic Jack in a couple of hours’ time.

I received an sms from Michael jnr earlier today. He was coming to collect his Toyota Land Cruiser on Friday. He is still coming, but will probably arrive late Saturday evening with Andrew, one of his climbing friends. I’ll prepare his favourite dish, parsley chicken, anyway. That can always be heated up if they’re very late.

Love you Princess 

South Africa - don't get ripped off!

Way back in November of 2011 I published a blog post entitiled "The two G’s – Gullible and Greedy", and a couple of days ago I had to do some research that backs up just how greedy many South Africans are. I still have an old cell phone - a Nokia 6020 - which has served me well over the years. I'll wait until I get to the States before upgrading, for reasons that will become obvious by the end of this post.  About a week ago I noticed that I was having to charge the battery on my phone every day. Obviously, I thought, the battery was packing up and I would need to replace it. So I started doing some research and discovered the same battery priced at £3-68 in the UK - that's about R46 at today's exchange rate.

I started looking for the same battery here in South Africa - the first website I went to ( pricecheck.co.za ) listed the battery at R421 - wow that's a 900% increase. Two other websites I checked were R262 ( bluestream.co.za ) and R283 (phoneextreme.co.za ) only 570% increase on the UK price. Now when you consider that all of the batteries, whether here or in the UK, are manufactured in China, how on Earth can those SA prices be warranted? There should be government legislation preventing such blatant profiteering.

As it happened I didn't need to purchase a replacement battery. Liz suggested switching off the phone and removing the battery, which I did. I placed it back in the phone and recharged it. Guess what! The phone has remained fully charged for 4 days, and shows none of those original symptoms. Thanks Liz - gonna miss you after Tuesday.

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