Coming soon!

Hmmmm....

FIRE UP!!!

Seriously people, i've been comatose for a week and even I have taken the time to post something.

What? Whats that? You're WORKING? Thats not my problem china, dont make your problems my problems. We schweet? Cool.

Witness the height of douche-dom below, from (as always) Lords of Apathy:



Gotta love Americans!

Whats hot, and whats not.

What follows, are some of my thoughts on what rocks about being unemployed in Cape Town : (these should be bullet points, but my little bullet point button has disappeared)

Cheap food - seriously, its not as cheap, or as spicy as Thailand, but good food is remarkably cheap here. God bless the Spur for setting a precedent for cheap meat.

Ice skating - I went with Kerry and my not-so-little brother the other day, and there wasn't a mugger or skollie in sight. I didn't need my dad standing at the side to make sure someone didn't beat me up for the 5 ront in my pocket. It was most civilised.

The Jam/Mercury Live - Its not the best venue in the world, and the acoustics kind of suck, but the crowd is EXACTLY the same as it was four years ago, and that kind of consistency is commendable.

Other unemployed friends - being in the company of others who are unemployed, and who appreciate it as much as i do (I see you Kerry, HOLLAH!) makes one appreciate it so much more.

The couch - While two naps a day may seem like overkill, i need the rest, and Movie Magic is not so bad these days.

OK, this post was kind of lame (and had no pictures, which is super-lame), but I'm just regaining consciousness after a long hibernation, so expect more regular, and hopefully, better written posts over the next few days. Anyone else who would like to join in and post something humorous, go ahead. I am thinking of instituting a Survivor-like voting system so that we can get rid of some of the dead weight on this blog (just kidding! kind of...)

Baai,

Greg

If that doesn't work, maybe this will...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0u3eVSkEGw

Photos

Ladies and gents,

Please find some photos from my trip to Asia below. the cross processed ones did not turn out great. I blame the overcast weather and low ISO (slide film is of any kind is difficult to come by in Thailand, and refrigerated slide film within its sell by date, was even more elusive) but then that is just an excuse really. I have a whole load of digitals from Alex that i will upload shortly as well...

SEAsia regular

SEAsia cross-processed

Unfortunately, i have not taken the time to comment on each photo, in some cases because i don't know where the damn things were taken. You'll just have to guess...

Hope everyone is well,

Greg

try again..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

this is a must see... brilliant

Back to Reality... Oh, there goes gravity

Hey! Got back to Cape Town on Friday night from two amazing weeks of road tripping. Honestly feel like I could have just kept going for a good while longer but life gets in the way it seems. Kind of hard to do a too detailed blog post so here are some random bits n pieces with the pictures (consider yourselves warned, there may be an overdose of sunset and driving pictures :D)

So after a very brief day's prep Gary, Kyle and I packed trusty Dusty and headed off towards... well anywhere in the direction of the Drakensberg really (the plan was to get to the Drakensberg for a wedding Gary had to be at). So after a few detours and side tracks (most noteably a very random dust road that took us past nothing for ages and then suddenly a barn all lit up with about 7 people doing Karaoke in front of a giant projection screen, bizarre I tell you) we spent our first couple of nights in Oudshoorn. After a day's rock climbing, a night of rain, breakfast in the ablution blocks while we tried to dry everything out we decided to head to Nieu Bethesda as neither Gary or I have seen the Owl House. We spoiled ourselves as it was freezing and we stayed in a converted Water Tower at the back packers. It was very cool and pretty. The Owl House was mind blowing and the fossil tour "included in your Owl House Ticket price" was actually fascinating even for the non rock mad of our little trio (i.e. me).

Still unsure whether we wanted to go round the West or East border of Lesotho we chose to go to Lady Grey next to avoid making the decision for at least a day longer. In Lady Grey we met John who had opened the Backpackers on a whim having never set foot in a backpackers before. John liked to chat and talk, and converse and communicate, and talk and chat. About anything but his favourite topics were property prices and the rather interesting situation in the shower that required you to first have the basin tap on "full throttle" and once that was hot you could try the shower taps, leaving the basin tap on and only "throttling back" once preferred shower temperature had been achieved. You had to be there to get the explanation, had us in giggles for days.

Finally we left the east/west decision to the magic 8 ball and headed off up the Malouti Route west to Rustlers Valley. Now much to everyone's surprise I have never heard of Rustlers or the crazy festivals and parties for which it owes its reputation. We arrived on the Sunday of the long weekend and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. They had had mini festival on saturday night. The Real Estate agents among others had provided the sound track to which all the JHB creative elite could celebrate their freedom to take too many drugs under the guise of a Hippy Commune type ethos. I don't know... the place sells itself as a retreat, a commune and a place in tune with the earth and its mysteries but it is far from convincing in its belief or understanding thereof. Not sure I buy the concept. And the comedown was scary and weird. But the place is spectacularly beautiful and we outstayed most of the revellers so pretty much had it to ourselves. Free camping in a valley that is bordered by a truly impressive rock range called the Dragon's Back is more than alright by me. Had a potentially problematic moment where I got a little cocky and stopped paying attention while hiking across a tricky section of the Back. Slipped down the shelf in impressive style. Bleeding and feeling a little more than stupid I learnt the, oh so important, hold-on-tight-lesson. Think Gary and Kyle got more of a fright than I did however. But we all got over it quickly and discovered amazing rock arches and river beds filled with crystals that even the harshest hippy critic could get very excited about.

God this is going on for far too long, I am sure I have lost most of you but for those intrepid readers who are still with me I will try keep the rest brief. From Rustlers it was on to Golden Gate for more amazing caves, views, wild life and hilarity in the campsite's laundry room. Then we spent two nights in a converted Barn in a tiny place called Swinburn near Harrismith. The second night was the interesting one... Picture the three of us schramonks sleeping in the barn with 30 Jehovahs Witnesses!!! It was hysterical. For a start they drank more and told more dirty jokes than we did - must be the modern faith? And then when all three of us snuggled down to sleep I got the "So are they your brothers?" heeheehee
Then it was on to the Berg and time for Kyle and I to kind of gate crash a wedding! (Well we got invites at the last minute so it wasn't proper gate crashing) But Gary had discovered 20mins out of Cape Town that he had forgotten his Wedding Attire so his old school mate from Pretoria saved the day and brought some grandad trousers and a tie for him. Kyle was a little less easy to dress having only his jeans with rips and holes. Never fear - fashion crisis solved with Kerry's jeans and a floral shirt that he had hidden in his bag. And so off we went feeling very sheepish. - Nothing a good few bottles of bubbles, wine and whiskey couldn't fix though. Crazy night. Couldn't have thrown our names away too badly however as we were invited to dinner the next night with the family etc and on the big wedding hike up the Tugela Gorge to the base of the Amphitheatre. Yeah, us Kaapies think we know how to do mountains but we have no idea ;)

Then it was time to start the trek home... Via the family tours. Howick for tea with Kyle's grandparents. Underberg for braai and giggles with his rather crazy, death-defying kayaking brother,Ross. Then the great Tsitsa Falls search that had us taking trusty Dusty down a donga-ed river bed nearly on his side. We ventually found them and have let Ross know that his 11km estimate is way out. The crazy kid abseils down those falls with his kayak attached to his harness and then paddles down the gorge... Like I said - crazy. Then Grahamstown for dinner Kyle's parents, PE for tea for Gary's Aunt and cousin and then the last stretch to Sedgefield. In Sedge we stayed with Meridian and Zanele, both studying to be Sangomas while being involved in a number of community projects that are fascinating and exciting. It was a pretty random evening with Gary and Kyle constantly having to suppress their giggles at me trying my best to blend in with the "amazing vibe" and blessed universe :)

So yes... Now its back to reality and unemployment. Have taken this week properly off to get all my admin out of the way but next week I need to start looking for a few days work at least before I head to the UK on the 16th June for some fun in the mud with the London posse - Glastonbury! So excited. OK, I have bored you all sufficiently and taken up enough space. Lots of love! -kx

Road Trip May 07

and i got my pics back today....happiness

Sukothai Bike Hoons

Shalom and sawat dee everybody, and i hope you all have a wonderful Shabbos!


After leaving the islands in the south of Thailand, we headed up north to Bangkok which was a really painful 18+ hour trip including 3 separate buses (one which broke down, another with an exploded toilet or rotting rat in the air conditioner, couldn't tell which) and 2 minibuses, and i had my first "I want to punch you in the face you rotten fucking tout, but i'm in another country and maybe i should calm down" moment, which was quite unpleasant for all involved. We spent a few days in BKK checking out the city (deep inner city, not rubbish farang land near the khao san road, which sucks) and found some ripper food (if you are ever in BKK, you really should eat at Hemlock, just leave some TP in the freezer before you go!). We also went to see Jim Thomsons house, which was excellent. Alex's mom said we should eat there, but we couldn't even afford a drink, let alone a papaya salad.

We then headed to Kanchanaburi, which, besides having a name that rolls deliciously off the tongue, is where the "Bridge over the river Kwai" was built by POW's and some slave labour during the second world war. Bridge was a bit lame, but the bus journey was fun, and the museums were excellent (if a little slanted toward the 10 000 allied POW's that died, as opposed to the 90 000 Burmese and Malay imported labourers who also died). We also had an outstanding meal at a guest house there (which also has a cooking school attached) after which we rolled back to our bungalow (on the rover Kwai - on stilts nogal!).

After Kanchanaburi (and the monkey show, pictures below) we went to Ayuthaya, which was once the capital of Siam. This place really needs pictures to be appreciated, so you'll all have to wait 'til i get back to see them, but we hired bikes and rode around the town to all the different old ruins.


Witness Miss Fraser above on her turn of the century (the last century, that is) bicycle. Dont be fooled by the smile, SHE'S CRAZY! Alex weaves in and out of traffic like a taxi-driver with a death wish, which is fine if you are thai and know what you are doing, or, for instance, look over your shoulder every now and then, but Alex does not. She takes the "when in Rome' philosophy a little too far, and so we came to an agreement that i would ride in front (where i didnt have to watch her be almost knocked over every five minutes) or she would carry her medical insurance card in her top pocket. Anyway, Ayuthaya was pretty cool, but then we moved on, to...

Sukothai! Sukothai was excellent. Really sweet little town, excellent guest house, friendly people. It appealed to the package tourist in me because all the ruins were neatly located in a park (with no traffic to bother Alex, THANK GOD!) and was all quite atmospheric. Oh ja, and cheap, that appeals to the Jewish package tourist in me. The bikes here were possibly crapper than Ayuthaya, but mine had a bell.

So now we are in Chiang Mai, which seems like a really cool place (kind of like the Melbourne of Thailand - Tals). For starters the food so far has been outstanding (always a good sign), and the place seems really chilled and less about tourists and scheisters than BKK, which is a step in the right direction. Today has been proclaimed a rest day, because we were both totally whacked when we got up this morning. The weather turned a bit crappy so we went for a massage to pep ourselves up, but things didn't quite go as planned. There was not a 'happy ending' to my massage, just a lot of squealing from me and some laughing from the masseurs at the temple. The woman told Alex "you are very good" when she was finished, but she just smirked at me. I wanted to know if she would still be smirking if i balanced all my weight onto my elbow and jabbed it into her back, but i didn't ask. Tomorrow we are off to a cooking course on an organic farm, and a muay thai fight in the evening, which i am looking forward to. Oh, and eating, of course...

Hope you guys are all well...

so yesterday i put in seven films for processing...

THE GLOOOORY

GO YOU REDS! ANOTHER CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL FOR THE BEST CLUB IN THE WOOOOOORLD. That Thai door maker guy was on the money...

Pure gold

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