A month or 2 ago, Sanjay and I decided to buy some bicycles. It was my idea – I decided that my exercise is going nowhere, as I am just not that motivated. So, the idea is, I can cycle to work, which (a) has a purpose (b) makes me do the exercise, as I HAVE to get to work and (c) saves money on petrol/bus trips.

I opted for a comfort bike, rather than a road bike. That means that it is a hybrid, sort of the build of a mountain bike, but road-bike like tyres. And a comfy seat. It’s a bit heavier than a road bike, but lighter than a mountain bike. This is mine:

Rheanna's Apollo Altura bicycle

Now, I’m not crazy, I have small plans. Cycle to work one day, back the next. Once a week, then build up to 2 and maybe 3 times a week. Easy.

First of all, what I did not realise, was that I live 13.6km from work, and also there are many ups and downs along the way (more ups I’m sure).

Well, I’ve done this 5 times now, cycling to work. Once a week, as planned, cycle to work one day, back the next (or the next). Today, for the first time, I cycled TO and FROM work in ONE day. Ok, ok, I know it’s not THAT big a deal, but you just don’t understand how much of a cyclist I am NOT! Me and cycling, we’re not friends. I’ve cycled very little in my life, I’m not very confident on the bike, and those damn hills kill me! I think my ‘comfort’ bike might not be that great for those hills either, I probably work harder than most to get up the hills.

But, I’m proud of me today. 27km in one day. I’m happy.

Now, we just have to convince Sanjay to get out there and cycle to work too!

Just how resilient is technology these days?

I take my USB drive, with essential data and files (such as my Whackhead Simpson collection to keep me amused!) to work and home everyday.

On Friday I somehow forgot to take my USB drive out of my pants, and on Saturday I was looking for my drive.

Having exhausted all possibilites, I figured maybe it was in pants? They had been washed and were currently in the dryer. Surely not…

Alas, I found my USB in my pants pocket, tumbling round in the dryer. Having neared the end of it’s cycle it was at least dry.

Having figured I’d have lost all my data and need to buy a new drive, I reluctantly inserted it into our computer!

I can’t believe it still worked! Given how fragile items are today…I was certainly surprised. Maybe it just needed a decent clean!

USB Drive

The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria.

The monument highlights the struggle of the Afrikaners as they trekked from the coast to the interior of South Africa and up to the Transvaal.

It shows the history of a difficult period for all in South Africa, and the diversity of the cultures in our Rainbow Nation.

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The Lion Park, near Fourways in Johannesburg.

There area range of animals such as Bok, Zebra, Ostrich, Giraffe, Hyena and Cheetahs.

However the star attractions are the Lion prides, and the ability to touch and play with the cubs!

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Abseiling and White Water Rafting on the Krokodil River with the team at Outside Edge and Pelinduna in Broederstroom.

The abseil was a 25m effort, whilst the white water rafting was a grade 1-2 rapid. Fairly easy but a great experience for novies like us!

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Recently  we were out shopping and Rheanna asked me, “where are all the plastic supermarket trollies these days?”

I replied that I don’t think they have ever had them in this part of the world, it’s always been the wire ones.

I think it’s a strangely South African thing. You’d think they’d be more popular as they must be easier and cheaper to make.

CUSTOMER LOYALTY?

Another question we’ve been asking each other these days? Is there no such thing as customer loyalty anymore?

Recently we had to renew our car insurance and looked around for a better deal as it was due to increase fairly substantially (having had no claims I might add).

I rang the insurance company (one of the biggest providers in Australia) and told them I had gotten a quote off their website which was cheaper than my renewal fee. After asking them what to do, they advised me to wait for my policy to expire and take out a new policy.

It was cheaper to get a new policy (even though it was exactly the same cover!) rather than give me a discount as a loyal customer (with other policies with them I might add!). Doesn’t make any sense to me!

And don’t even get me started on internet providers!

It seems everyone is out to make a quick buck these days, without remembering who their loyal customers are. I’ve always been taught in marketing that it’s a lot easier to market/sell to an existing customer than a new one. Clearly most of the companies in Australia don’t subscribe to the same theory.

How does anyone else find it these days?

Even though the World Cup has come and gone, the spirit of Ubuntu remains.

South Africa during the FIFA World Cup 2010 was an awesome and inspiring place to be, but it doesn’t have to end there.

This video and organisation epitomises what we need to strive for, to ensure we make the new South Africa the country we all desire.

We’ve selected some of our favourite photo’s from our trip (really hard to cut down 9000 photo’s to 140!).
You can view the photo’s at:

 http://www.sanjaydeva.com/diary/south-africa-2010-pictures

or, you can view the photo’s as a slide show at: 

http://www.sanjaydeva.com/diary/south-africa-2010-slide-show

We hope you enjoy them. Feel free to comment, and feel free to ask to see more photo’s, or hear more stories – we love sharing

When we got to the airport, we had 3 hours to check in and go to all the shops. Over the last few years OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg had really been upgraded, and their are plenty of shops before going into the departure area, including plenty of restaurants.

Coming to check in we were told we had 47kg, and were 1kg overweight. However the nice young lady (sorry we forgot her unpronounceable name!) told us we weren’t going to be charged as we couldn’t afford it, and our money would be better spent buying gifts for us or our children. Who were we to argue with that!

Our hand luggage was also overweight by almost 2kg, but they let us off for that too. Couple with the fact you don’t have to fill in those annoying departure or arrival cards, travelling to and from South Africa is great! (Hint hint to other airports!)

Once we had quickly looked at the shops on the outside of the departure areas, we went through customs and had about 90 minutes. We decided to quickly get something to eat. All the major restuarants were outside so we settled on the Ekaya foodcourt which prepares meals and looks very flash.

We had to wait as they made Rheanna a chicken burger, while I had a beef potjie. We got our drinks which was a major balancing act, and as Rheanna couldn’t hold them, she put them on my tray, which had a large plate of food. Now Rheanna had gone to sit down with her food, and I had my suitcase trolley, a laptop bag and a tray of food with a can of grapetiser and a large glass of coke (in a large fancy glass) which was quite heavy. I didn’t think I could carry this safely, but put the laptop bag on the suitcase, and thought I could make the 10m to the table Rheanna had.

The laptop bag started to shift however and as it moved, my natural reaction was to try save it, meanwhile the tray with the coke goes flying! I had manged to save the glass and the food from spilling, but still stood there drenched in coke, with coke all over the floor, and plenty of sniggers and comments of “what an idiot!” It was very embarrassing!
There was coke all over my clothes, the suitcase and latop bag. Not the best thing when you still have 20 odd hours to travel for. We quickly scoffed our food, and it was not the planned shopping experience we had hoped for!

Our last days in South Africa saw us travel back to Jozi, spend time with family and do too way too much shopping!

This was interspersed with 2 trips to Loftus, one for the Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Friday night, before a visit with the Loftus store! That hurt the credit card!

In the weekend we had 2 Potjies as cousin Morne and Colin came around. The Soccer World Cup final on Sunday was actually fairly uneventful for us!

On Monday we sent a parcel weighing 22kg, believing that would be sufficient to allow us under the luggage limit. On Tuesday we had 2 great meals. Firstly we went to Menlyn Park and had lunch at Ocean Basket,  which does the best seafood. The meal was just perfect, with brilliant service. Then in the evening we went to celebrate Rheanna’s dad’s birthday and had dinner at Spur.

When we came to pack on Wednesday, we discovered we’d need to send another box as we had just been to Chamdor which is a fabric and material warehouse, and obviously we bought too much.

So we ended up sending another 17kg! Surely we’d be fine now…