2008-07-15 -> 2008-08-11
In the last blog entry, I said I hated Windows….well make that 100-fold. Experience my pain under the heading My Computer.
A substantial number of things have happened since. I will try and remember most of them. They might not be in total sequence…but then with me nothing is ever in sequence 
HOUSE
The house is unfortunately still not sold. The couple who wanted to buy and then subsequently found out they couldn’t because their pension money was tied up in a RA fund and they couldn’t touch it, are still hounding the agent to at least let them rent the house. We not prepared to do that. Although we know they will look after the house, we will have difficulty if all of a sudden 5 months down the line, a buyer expresses interest. Not a risk we are prepared to take. We rather stay in the house and ride the tide. Property market is still rather flat and ofcourse banks have made it more difficult for the buyers to buy, because they are no longer giving out 100% bonds. Buyers now have to lay out 10% as a deposit. Now on a R1m house, who has R100 000 saved? Extremely few people. We do have another interested couple who came from P.E……I mean….what are they thinking???? Coming from a coastal area to JHB. But money talks when you are extremely young. If only they knew that money is not the be all and end all of life, but they will have to learn that the hard way. All I know is that I am getting out of here 
MY COMPUTER – 21 JULY
Before my trip to CT, my pc went into a reboot loop after ZoneAlarm picked up a virus. Disconnected the D drive with the data and switched pc on in Safe Mode. Backed up what I could from the C drive onto our server. Never checked to see if the D drive was ok. I assumed it was.
I tried to use the recovery discs that came with the machine but that failed. I pulled out my D drive and sent my pc to the vendor and told them to sort it out.
I bought a laptop and wanted to pull all the information back onto my new laptop but to no avail. The disc showed windows files and program files, etc, but it wasn’t my C drive as it did not show me as a User and my programs werent there.
I suspect the D drive was already corrupted by the virus before we unplugged it. It was all just so depressing 
I googled to see what virus causes rebooting and it seems to have been one of the Worm ones.
Then a miracle happened…………….
After many unexplained events, all that happened, somehow happened in my favour and my Data drive is 100% intact *massive sigh of relief*
I won’t even start questioning why certain things never happened when it should’ve, or how the unplugged drive ended up being the data drive but in fact it was the C drive and the data drive stayed behind as the C drive…..as I will never find any answers. Yes very confusing, but for once I could’ve kissed Bill Gates for his useless program, IBM for the recovery disks not working and the vendor for not being able to load Windows on my data drive.
Amazing how the mystery of events went horribly wrong and ended up so right.
Cape Town – 27 July to 5th August 2008
I recently went to Cape Town for 9 days. I thoroughly enjoyed it, except the damn awful weather. Granted, it was worse before I arrived, but I don’t care about that I stayed with my friend C.
Purpose of my trip to Cape Town was to attend an AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the complex where I own a duplex unit.
I was fortunate enough to get a good price on a car from Hertz…naturally it had to be a Toyota but this time it wasnt a Corolla as per usual, I went cheap…since I no longer work so I have no income. I have to think of these things now. I was given the Yaris. This was an experience on its own. It was their birthday, so I only paid R90/day which was awesome…(50% of the normal rate). I was smiling.
I arrived on Sunday (27th Jul) afternoon. it seemed like CT had just had one heavy shower and now the sun was in fact shining.
Anyway, I collect this car. Load my luggage after checking the vehicle for scratches, etc. The lady then said to me…..you know about the clutch in the Toyota Yaris….I said…in true me style…..”I drive a RunX, ofcourse I know how a Toyota works”. She developed this slight grin on her face which I never interpreted at the time but I did afterwards.
So I make myself comfy in the car. Stick my cellphone holder on the window so I can use the GPS (without which I am lost), stick my car charger in the lighter hole, make sure everything is in order, and then I turn the ignition……nothing. Whenever I park a car, out of habit, I leave the car in gear and handbrake up. My foot was on the clutch, so I unknowingly pressed it deeper in, turned the ignition and the car started. As I try to pull off, I stall the car. Embarrassing yes I know, but the clutch was different to my car so I had to get used to it still.
I start the car again, no problem and away I go. I arrive at my destination, with lots of hugs and kisses.
Monday, 28th July
The weather was awesome, but I thought, the forecast (I checked before I left JHB) was sun for the whole week, so I have plenty of time to do what I want to do. Because the AGM was to take place this evening, I thought I would just sit at home and chill. C and I went to the shops. When I got in the car, for some unknown reason I had not left the car in gear. I hadn’t even locked the car. I was in CT afterall LOL. I try everything and the car just didn’t want to start. So I phone Hertz and tell them the problem. The lady then says to me…..”Please put your foot on the clutch and press all the way down, then turn the key”. You dont want to know what went through my mind, but nevertheless, I did what she was telling me. BINGO, the car started. Now the grin on the lady at the airport came flooding back to me and I felt horrid LOL and even more embarrassed because I am sure they keep records of all these incidents
In true Cape Town style, hardly anyone arrived for this AGM meeting, so because a quorum is not achieved, this results in a postponement for 7 days later. Again in true Cape Town style, its only the trustees, Chairperson and maybe 4 home owners that are present. But this time, the meeting has to proceed quorum or now quorum. The meeting went ahead without any major issues.
Tuesday, 29th July
It was fine in the morning when I woke up. Within 1 hour, it had clouded over. Just as I entered the car to leave for Kirstenbosch, there was this fine shitty mist spray, but I thought….it came quick, maybe it will go quick. I hit the road anyway.
I commend my GPS. It gets me to my destination everytime On the way there, it started raining a bit heavier. I still thought the rain would subside by the time I get there. I get to the parking lot, park the car and decide to stay in the car until such time as the rain subsides. I wasn’t prepared to use my camera in the rain. So I make myself comfy in the car, listen to KFM, play on my cellphone and every now and again check out the window to see what the clouds are doing. About 1h30m later, I see the power light on my phone go off. The radio was still playing, but the lights that were on the dash had also by now gone off. I found this strange. I try to start the car……nothing. I turn the ignition off totally and remove the key…..nothing….not a peep. Now I was worried. Then I thought….wait a minute….the clutch!!! So I just about stick my foot through the floor board to make sure the clutch was in……nothing. I left it for a while…like 30m, tried to start the car and all I got was a grrrrrrr…..tried again…..grrrrr and I recognised that sound so well because my RunX did that to me recently so I recognised the symptoms. The cars battery was flat. Again, I had to phone Hertz. I told the lady my car didnt want to start. She started telling me the process for the clutch. I stopped her in her tracks and said…Lady, I know its not the clutch, its the battery and proceeded to tell her what happened. She told me to wait and she would arrange for someone to come out and help me jumpstart the car. Quite a while later, they arrived in the pouring rain and I sat comfy in the car and just turned the ignition after he connected the jumper cables. I was back in business. I apologised profusely. I then decided that it was almost like 15h00 and I had accomplished nothing except a flat car battery. It was time to head home.
On the way home, for some unknown reason the GPS lady and the movement of the car on the map, is slower than it should be and ofcourse with CT’s highways, you could be heading South the one second and without realising it, you could be heading North. They have weird highway systems there. Its the only country that I know where the offramp is on the inside of the highway and not the outside. I also cannot judge 300m or 500m or even 100m.
So when the lady says, “take the offramp in 500m”, I look at the map, and it shows there are 2 offramps close to each other, and in true ME style, I kept on taking the wrong one. Fortunately, the software recalculates the route and takes me in a different direction. Thank you Handimap
Wednesday, 30th July
Started the day off slowly as it was C’s birthday and I told her I will treat her for lunch. We went to Ocean Basket in Bloubergstrand. We ate like pigs…..ok she did….all of 36 prawns…..LOL. She’ll kill me when she reads this …. see if I care…:-)
Thursday, 31st July
I chilled because the weather was crappy …. AGAIN
Friday, 1st August
When I got up in the morning, C said to me that 2 trawlers had ran aground in Melkbosstrand. As it was nearby, (within a distance of approx. 5km), I decided to go and take pics if they would let me.
It was a really sad sight. See my pics below.
Saturday, 2nd August
The weather was awesome when I woke up so I decided to go to Kirstenbosch again. I woke up at 8, got ready and was about to leave at 09h30. I looked outside and couldn’t believe it. It had partially clouded over. But I never gave up. I had to try….AGAIN! I drove through. As I parked the car, the sun was gone and the fine misty spray started. I decided to bear it out. I went and paid for the ticket and went in. Unfortunately not much was in bloom, but its definitely a place I want to go and visit…..but I want to take my time next time. This time I rushed because of the unpredictability of the weather. I also realised how unfit I was…which is no surprise, but it was a wake up call for me. All that uphill left me breathless beyond belief. But I wasn’t going to give up. I’m glad I persevered. Every now and again, I would see a golfcart drive past and I was tempted to stop one of them and ask them for a lift….but no way…I was far too proud for that And I am glad I didn’t.
Once I was done (ofcourse I only got to see about 30%) of the garden as their map had me totally confused and I was scared I would get lost. Maybe I should’ve used my GPS….LOL.
I then left or home and again, went in circles, in and out of highways until I eventually arrived home.
Sunday, 3rd August
When I opened my eyes, all I saw was clear blue sky…what a feeling…finally a decent day. By the time I was ready to leave, there was the odd cloud, but nothing to scare me.
Today I was going to Franschhoek. It was a beautiful day and I took awesome photos. I still need to post them in Flickr, but keep your eye on my Flickr account as I only post like one photo a day.
Monday, 4th August
Today, I decided to visit my family member as this was my last day. I was leaving tomorrow. I spent some quality time catching up and then he had to leave. I then went to Company Gardens where the House of Parliament is situated. There is only one thing that constantly draws me there……my friends…..the squirrels I love squirrels and ofcourse those are so tame. The last few times I had been there, I hadn’t seen one and it used to leave me extremely heartsore. I wasnt going to stop there, but seeing as that is where my GPS took me on my way to Table Mountain, I decided to stop. I am so glad I did!!! I saw quite a few. What was disappointing for me was the amount of hobos and bergies and drunkards loitering the place. What a shame!!
From there, I went up to the foot of Table Mountain. Oh my word….what an experience!!!
The meeting took place that evening and besides a few important issues being discussed, there were no major issues to contend with.
Tuesday, 5th August
I made my way back to JHB.
Since my arrival, I have tried to get back into some routine…..not easy I might add.
Monday, 11th August
A very special day for me since it is my birthday. N gave me an awesome gift, a flash for my camera. Need a degree to know how it works.
Received plenty calls, emails, sms’s from my family and special friends. I felt honoured to have such wonderful family and friends. Thank you!!
I have decided that I will be attending a photography course over a period of 6 weeks. I have also decided that I will be going to Virgin Active and get a personal trainer to get me into shape over a 2month period.
Keep you posted on these developments.
