Thursday, March 28, 2013

President Zuma's take on democracy

The best thing to do here to show president Zuma's point of view on democracy is just to directly quote him in his latest gaffe:

"You have more rights because you're a majority; you have less rights because you're a minority. That's how democracy works"

 ...... Seriously?!?!?!?

Here is an article to put it into context, but I promise you context in this case does not really help.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

This year's Easter eggs

I think I am making progress. Last year's eggs were all greenish blue and blueish black.
They still have to be painted, this will happen Friday morning, but so far so good.

Here is this years batch, pre-painting:

You cannot get white eggs in South Africa so you have to start with fairly dark brown eggs. So some of them in fact barely looked dyed at all even though I put more dye, more vinegar (that seemed to really make a difference) and let them boil a lot longer than ordered by instructions on the package.
I am half thinking of getting back to the shop getting more dyes and more eggs and starting over, trying for darker, brighter colours.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

P. Rich's recommendation for India

P. is just back from India and came back absolutely thrilled and enthusiastic about Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He says that it is the best place in the world. P. travels a lot and is a very knowledgeable person so I am taking his recommendation very seriously.
He also strongly recommends the Kutch District (or Kachchh)north west of Ahmedabad, a desert area.
And in a totally different area he recommends Kochin (or Cochin) an old Dutch area of India.

This post is obviously just so I remember since I am about to leave South Africa and be a nomad for a while, though the original plan is to be a nomad within North America (from Alaska, Canadian Arctic to Texas, California and Newfoundland). Though I may not be able to afford life in North America in which case Asia is the next possible destination.

amazing curly hair

My hair is now curly. I can't say that I like it but I have no choice. It used to be straight as spaghetti. I am trying to get used to it.



I am just back from two weeks at Nature's Valley (near Knyasna in South Africa) where I had a wonderful holiday. Unfortunately once I had taken a few pictures on the drive down I found out that my camera's battery was flat and I didn't have the cable to recharge it. Just the same here is a photo of the candelabra flowers we saw by the side of the road on our way to the seaside.

Those grow up to 40cm in diametres.

Johannesburg sunset

I love Johannesburg for many reasons. One of them is that just about every single morning the weather is so beautiful that as I drink my coffee outside I wonder if the day is the most beautiful day ever. Another thing about Johannesburg is that we get wonderful sunsets .... not every night but quite regularly. Here is one of those.