As I see the clouds of a possible thunderstorm begin to tighten across
the skies outside my window, I am reminded that Spring has begun in
Johannesburg. This means an end to predictably blue skies and cold nights, and
instead sometimes we wear shorts and soak up fabulous sunshine, while at other
times we find ourselves freezing at night, having just packed away all of the
winter blankets when a new cold snap arrives!
With August being an often dry and dusty month of dreariness, the
Olympics seemed like a good excuse to rouse everyone from their winter
hibernation. So, on the Friday night of the opening ceremony Helen and I hosted
a fun-loving group of friends to my flat
- with everyone coming dressed either in the colours of particular
countries or as athletes of some Olympic sport. To liven things up and help
people not to only talk in little groups among themselves, we organised two
teams among all of the party attendees, and had our own mini-olympics
consisting of events to challenge many different skills. For mental athletics
we had a quiz on the history of the Olympics. For cardiovascular stamina we had
a team balloon-blowing contest (each member of the team had to blow up a
balloon in a relay so that when they finished, the next team member started – with
the team with the longest string of balloons at the end winning). And for
balance and agility we had a relay-race of egg-and-spoon around the balcony.
Later in the evening we also had beer-pong for those in need of liquid
refreshment. It was a fabulous event with a great group of people and although
we only got to bed at 2am and I had to be up fairly early the next morning to
referee, I had a super time not only watching the Lord of the Rings and Village
People (er, sorry, I mean the Olympic Opening ceremony) but also sharing many
good laughs and a few beverages with friends.
On Tuesday the following week, we saw snowflakes flurrying down outside
our windows across the city of Johannesburg. It is not a common occurrence
here, and people were running around like Japanese tourists with cameras snapping
at everything. It was actually still above zero degrees, so the snow melted
almost immediately, but considering how almost all houses in South Africa have
no central heating, or even proper insulation, for many it was a bitterly cold
snap of weather. Helen and I were slightly worried, as they closed parts of the
national highway to Durban and we were scheduled to drive down for a long
weekend in Durban only two days later. As it turned out, our drive saw us pass
through at least 100km of terrain in which all of the higher hills, often right
down to the side of the highway, was blanketed in snow. In fact at one point we
had to turn off the highway because a stretch of it was still closed due to
ice. This meant that we got stuck in a tail-back of traffic in which a 3km
drive had taken most of an hour. Thinking we were being smart, we turned right
and went the country-side route, instead of following thousands of others (this
was driving on a Thursday public holiday when a significant number of people
had all decided to take a long weekend holiday) who went left and through a
nearby town called Estcourt. Our increasingly mountainous route over gravel
roads was fine until we got to one high point where the snow seemed to have
melted into the gravel to make the road a mudbath. We passed one small truck
which was parked on the side of the road, apparently abandoned at some point,
but didn’t think too much of it, simply being happy to be on the move again.
Then we got to the muddiest stretch of road in which a large truck was simply
stuck in the middle, having jack-knifed so that the cab and the trailer were
pointing in very different directions. As we surveyed the situation in front of
us, a 4-wheel drive vehicle which had been following us, cautiously drove
through, and despite suffering some wheel-spin, was able to grip enough to wade
through the mud and over the contours of a slight dip in the road, up onto a
dry section of the track. Helen was driving at this point, and as we passed to
the right side of this truck, with a rather steep bank down into the valley on
the other side of our car, I could feel that the wheels were beginning to slip
and slide over the surface of the mud. Helen quite rightly decided that in an
automatic transmission vehicle, she wasn’t comfortable. So before we could get
stuck, we stopped, and swapped seats. I then cautiously got us moving again,
then gunned the engine slightly as we slipped and slid along the curves of the
road, but managed to navigate our way to the firmer parts and up onto the dry
road again. Even as I write this I can recall how drenched in sweat I felt,
with my heart pounding in my ears, by the time we realised we were out of the
worst of it and in the clear. The drivers of the 4x4 in front of us had very
graciously waited to see if we were ok (having followed us for the past 25km of
dirt road probably assuming, as we did, that our satellite navigation gps was
taking us on a good route) before departing. So I think we would have managed
to make a plan even if things had taken a turn for the worse, but I am
incredibly glad that it all turned out ok anyway. Surfing is fun on a board,
not so much in my poor car Porky, who was covered in mud outside and in!
Luckily the rest of our weekend at the coast: first in Shaka’s Rock on
the North Coast, and then in Durban on the beachfront, was relatively
uneventful and enjoyable. We relished the warm tropical weather of Natal, and
enjoyed a good few swims in the sea and the pool, as well as tasty meals and
fun walks and cycling along the Durban beachfront. The only sad part was
visiting the father of a very close friend of Helen’s who succumbed to cancer
earlier this year, leaving Helen and several of her friends bereft of a fun-loving
and lively companion. It seems so unjust that people in their youth should be
taken away from the world and all the marvels it contains. Though a man of few
words, it was apparent that the father was very grateful to us for our visit,
and for me it was simply another testament to how wonderfully supportive of
others Helen was throughout this difficult time.
For amateur players, the rugby season is now nearing a close, with only
a few weeks left. Luckily, my knee injury seems to be past me and I have once
again been enjoying Saturdays out running around. A few weeks ago, in one of my
first games back after my lengthy invalidity, I was sent to referee an Under 21
age group match between two fairly large Afrikaans rugby clubs: Alberton and
Brakpan. For those of you as unfamiliar with Johannesburg as I was until very
recently, neither of these areas on the Eastern side of Johannesburg are
celebrated as renown cultural or philosophical centres, but rather for their
somewhat industrial aspect and the earthy character of their predominantly
Afrikaans-speaking inhabitants. Perhaps I should have been less surprised then
when it turned out that qualifications as a boxing referee would have been more
appropriate for this match. And after a series of incidents, culminating in a
scuffle in which the one team’s coach charged onto the field and jumped on top
of his own player to stop him throwing punches at members of the opposition, I
was rather disappointed to have to call the game off in the interests of player
safety. Fortunately, such incidents are rare, and for the most part it has been
a good season with enjoyable games of varying quality being played in many
different parts of Johannesburg which I am now able to pinpoint almost solely
by the locations of their rugby stadiums (don’t ask me anything else about a
lot of those areas though!)
Being the trouble-maker that I am, my membership of the provincial
rugby referees society has not come without its difficulties. Not least when I
foolishly wrote an open email asking whether it would be a good idea for the
society to show more transparency in the way that referees are selected for
games and which games are refereed by whom. That was a week of e-mails and back
and forth recriminations with various elected and unelected committee officials
that I really didn’t need to have added to my plate. In the end, the query
seems to have been fairly amicably swept aside, for now at least, in the name
of practicality. More recently, the committee of the union seemed to be highly
concerned that referees are choosing to leave our province and instead to
officiate games in neighbouring provinces. I seem not to have learned my lesson
however, as in response to this I have offered my services to the committee to
put together an anonymous online survey to the referees society members, to
explore what is happening among members and where we as a society can improve –
thus far my suggestion seems to have fallen on deaf ears!
Life has otherwise been a delightfully humdrum sort of domesticated existence.
Helen and I try to go to the gym a couple of times per week, often doing
circuits one day, resistance exercises and free weights another, and sometimes
swimming, as well as fitting in a jog around the neighbourhood from time to
time. We have also been taking the odd urban hike: nosing around houses and
properties in different neighbourhoods as Helen wears in her new boots in
anticipation of our walking safari holiday with my parents and brother in
October. Although Helen has been working very hard, and I have been doing a
fair bit of research into ideas for more entrepreneurial ventures in the
future, we have often still found time to watch an episode here and there of a
Scandinavian thriller (‘The Killing’) given to me by my folks for Christmas, and
also to watch an occasional movie on our lazy Sunday afternoons on the couch.
As the weather improves (though not this afternoon) we are of course
finding ourselves invited out to more social events again, and have enjoyed
catching up with friends and meeting new people as well as trying new
locations. We recently even enjoyed dinner out a local Nigerian restaurant for
which I had bought a meal voucher. The food was quite tasty, although not
outstanding, and it was somewhat amusing to discover that the menu was in fact
a fiction, as there were only two principal main courses on offer on that night
(and no starters, and no dessert). Nevertheless, with a spirit of adventure,
we’ve kept trying new things – including drinks on the verandah of a very posh
hotel, and even having a test drive of a car we both like the look and feel of
(the Nissan Quashqai) despite neither of us necessarily being in a position to
actually buy a new car at the moment!
Professionally this has not been a year of particularly significant
challenge or growth for me, but my job pays decently, and has allowed me time
to explore options and possibilities for the future. Not something I take for
granted at a time when the global economy continues to be a source of general
gloom. With South Africa’s political landscape having particular effects on how
large corporations are run, combined with my own tendency to want to do things
my way (I fear I hear a few sniggers out there at this admission), I am
increasingly looking at more entrepreneurial ideas – with a feeling that this
is a good time in my life to take a few more risks and try to make something
happen for myself. As always, Helen has been incredibly supportive, and I
consider myself very fortunate indeed to have her in my life.
With Winter tending to lean towards more indoor entertainment, we have
also been to see several entertaining events – including a one-man comedy show
called ‘Defending the Caveman’, which gave some incredibly broad brush strokes
to the many differences between men and women, and the effects these
differences have on how we interact, but did so in a way that was humorous and
often insightful. I unashamedly laughed like a Hyena with a breathing problem
the first time I saw it. We also saw another local comedy act which I didn’t
enjoy as much perhaps because I was tired. Unintended comedy value has also
been afforded by the recent bumbling performances of the Springboks for whom a
new coach seems to have heralded the dawn of a past era of rugby tactics. I do
not much look forward to tomorrow’s game against the New Zealand All Blacks in
the land of the long white cloud. It is a sorry state of affairs indeed that I
find myself feeling much more cheered by my recollection of a movie called
‘Searching for Sugarman’ which Helen and I both thoroughly enjoyed, despite my
having no knowledge of any of his music before seeing the movie. I highly
recommend the film to any of you who have not seen it. We also recently enjoyed
a few hours of warm sunshine and a picnic at the Walter Sisulu botanical
gardens on the west side of Johannesburg, listening to an up-and-coming
Afrikaans rock band called ‘Die Heuwels Fantasties’ (The Fantastic Hills).
Johannesburg continues to be a city full of hidden wonders and a constant
stream of events which will no doubt give us many more opportunities to enjoy
spending time with friends and family as Summer nears.
For those of you who have not already seen, there is pictorial evidence
of many of these events on facebook – here:
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