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.

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.

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.

Malaysia - part 3 - some random animals of Tioman Island

This is not meant to be a fair survey. Those are just random shots of animals I saw.

 These big monitor lizards were amazingly common.

Fish in the clear water

 Just off the side of a small boat: clear blue water and colourful fish

Also flying foxes

 This one saw me take its picture

 ..and walking across the island (you saw in the previous post how mountainous it is) I always saw those giant black squirrels which are meant to be very rare. Just from their behaviour you could tell that they were not monkeys though in all other respect from far they appeared to be monkeys. They were large enough to be monkeys for sure. Wikipedia says that "Head and body length varies from 35 to 58 centimetres (14 to 23 in) in length, and the tail is up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long, with an overall length of up to 118 centimetres (46 in)."

Malaysia - part 2 - Tioman Island

I spent a bit of time (2 weeks more or less) on Tioman Island. I originally went there for no other reason that they are on the East side of the Malaysian Peninsula which was supposed to be monsoonal. Since it was the school holidays the West coast, not monsoonal, was very busy. But once I got there I somehow never left until it was nearly time to leave Malaysia. I had a great quiet time there. I ate great food. I hiked across the island which is an amazing hike. I snorkeled, swam and generally enjoy a lovely quiet time. Here are some photos...and trust me I have quite a few photos of sunsets, tropical island etc but I'll keep it to a minimum.

Flying into Tioman the water was so clear (the monsoon had not started) that you could see the reefs from the plane.

 The first place I stayed at was SO reasonably priced. In fact it was closed. But I called them from the airport when I landed and when I told them that i was there they just said "if you are here already then just come over".

We all know I love trees.

...did I mention it was a tropical island...

A blue fern. This is not Photoshopped or anything. This fern was indeed blue.

Durian fruit: the king of fruits....and not as bad as it reputation leads one to beleive.

The movie 1958 "South Pacific" was film on Tioman

 The mangostene: queen of fruits. Something I had never had eaten before. But I made up for it. I absolutely loved them and ate a lot of them.

 Not a sunset (though pretty close) but I did say I was going to spare you.

Malaysia - part 1

For some reason ... mostly difficult internet access... I never posted any pictures of Malaysia. I took amazingly few pictures of Kuala Lampur though I really enjoyed the city. I was visiting my friends, niece and nephew so of course it always makes a city quite enjoyable but truly KL is an easy city and quite nice.

Here are some random photos which truly do not represent KL well at all.

A woman which I thought looked particularly beautiful

And three photos of the site at Batu Caves

Sorry.... that's all!

Snowy Landscape

I am leaving for South Africa in a few days so I quickly decided to do a last small road trip.
This is where I am:

The black spot at the top of the tree is a bald eagle. In crunchy snow it is impossible to approach creatures quietly, so closer photos are impossible.

And on completely different subject: tomorrow is the first day when banks in Canada will not hand out any pennies anymore. They will take them, but not hand any out anymore, they are taken off the market.
They are still legal tender so you can still use them at the store but what ever goes to the banks will not go back into circulation.