'Decked out!!'

So we're coming along with it, albeit it slowly. But hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we'll have it all on and then we can start taking it all off again for staining, PVAing and then varnishing. We've then also got to drill and bolt all fourteen palettes to the frame. That'll be interesting!! But so far I'm well impressed and I'm getting more excited with every pallette that goes on. It's going to look awesome.

We've also come across some really amusing 'zambianisms' over the last few days. The first, didn't really register until about ten minutes after I heard it but as it turns out, still gives me a good laugh now. It was at the pontoon on Monday, awaiting the arrival of 'Super-Changwe' when I was confronted by a local fisherman whose exact words to me were:

'Bwana, I'm very sorry to interupt your thought process, but do you have a vacancy for me? I am a boat driver and very good in fishing competition'.

Hahaha!! Thought process????

The second I've heard before and seems to be a popular pickup line with zambian men. I left Ella reading in the car yesterday while I was busy in a shop. Keith, the dodgy porn DvD hawker, saw this as an ideal opportunity to tell her that he was very much in awe of her and that she was as he put it,

'Mmm, My size!!'

and that he wished to marry her.

If anyone can tell me what on earth 'my size' means when used by a zambian, it would solve a great mystery of the zambian male and his methods of 'proposing love' to a woman....
Meanwhile, in other news, the river is finally clean and although the sun is not really out, I might drop 'Simply Wild' in the water later this afternoon and head down-river in search of a Tigerfish that is 'mmm, my size!!', especially since I have figured out how to turn off the pesky alarm light for the oil tank that I don't even have.

Final thought....always read the documents....The Commodore;))

'Bombasa'!!!

'Super-Changwe' has arrived and spirits are high!! Today we start the decking on the jetty, so all things going to plan, we should finish it and be ready for the big party by the time my first school for the season leaves next friday.
I was a bit concerned yesterday though when the 'kapenta' kept phoning me from Chirundu in a state, telling me he was not happy. What on earth that meant I have no idea? But i think his problem was that the taxi to the pontoon was taking longer to leave than expected and he was terrified that I would get cross with him and just leave him there. You couldn't have seen a bigger grin on a circus clown than the one he was wearing when he arrived and saw me waiting on the boat.

Tuesday!!! And Intrepid Willy WalliT is once again here to brighten our week by regaling us with another magnificent tale of treachery. I thought we’d have this one just as a break from the satanic animals that have appeared previously….
Willy WalliT;)

Witchcraft allegations force two teachers to flee

TWO senior teachers in Mwinilunga in the North Western Province have taken refuge at the district education offices for fear of being lynched by angry villagers surrounding their respective schools for allegedly practicing witchcraft.One of the head teachers of Ikelenge escaped from his school fearing for his life after local people surrounded the school accusing him of allegedly having sex with other peoples’ wives using black magic.This was disclosed by Mwinilunga district administrator John Chidata when he presented a report during the provincial development coordinating committee (PDCC) held over the weekend at Changa Changa Motel in Solwezi.Mr Chidata further said that the local people in chief Ikelenge’s area had vowed to lynch the head teacher if he returned to the school.He said that when the head teacher was within the Ikelenge community local women used to sleep with more than five pieces of underwear including “bombasa” (tight-fitting trunks) to protect themselves from black magic sex by the said head teacher whom it was alleged had no courage to propose love to women.Mr Chidata further disclosed that the head teacher was first chased from a school in senior chief Kanongesha’s area over the same allegations.The PDCC members recommended retirement for the head teachers to save the local people from contracting HIV/AIDS since the Ikelenge head teachers allegedly had sex with other people’s wives without using condoms.

Psychobossie? Not really...

So I can sit back and relax this morning with the satisfaction of having my first Cape Argus Cycle Tour behind me... not to mention the fact that I can sit this morning! All in all I was very pleased with my result, my final time was 4hrs 20'' 20'. According to the website that placed me 16118/28706 overall and 89th out of the 565 cyclists in my group. Not too bad for a first time I think, and about 20 minutes below my expected time.

Everything started rather slowly, with a lot of waiting involved in actually getting to the start - especially as I was in the absolutely last group. I have never seen quite so many bicycles in one place before and could never have imagined that bikes (and cyclists for that matter) came in such a variety of shapes, sizes, colours and forms! The first few kilometers were a bit congested, especially up the hills and there was quite a bit of dodging involved in overtaking - not too mention avoiding some of the other cyclists who didn't always hold their lines quite as well as they should, but things opened up quite well after a while and I got into quite a nice bus of cyclists going down the M3 to Muizenberg, so we really whipped through that section. After Muizenberg things broke up again and it was back to weaving through the traffic.

All the way through the race though there's a really good vibe amongst the cyclists and the spectators, with a healthy dose of good natured heckling, encouragement and 'advice' - like the guys who stole the '100kms to go' marker and then set it up next to their spot at the the bottom of the Smitswinkel climb (which is really about 65kms to go).

So the first half was pretty easy, but what of the infamous Chapman's Peak and Suikerbossie? Well, they actually weren't that daunting, although Chapman's does have an awful lot of false summits and does look a bit scary when you come around the corner after Little Chapmans to see the rest of it soaring above you... there were quite a few walkers by that stage. The 4km of sweeping downhill into Hout Bay does make the big climb worthwhile though.

The exit from Hout Bay did see my first sign of cramp, although fortunately it happened just as I was passing an Arnica massage tent, so all I had to do was pull over and say 'Cramp!' and two lovely yellow clad massage girls immediately set to work with the Arnica oil. What fantastic organisation! So back in action, I hit the dreaded Suikerbossie, which wasn't really all that after which it was all downhill through Camps Bay, and Greenpoint and onto the last flat before the finish. The Arnica treatment wore off about 2kms from the finish, but by that stage I just decided to push on through, and ignore it. And then it was over. Just under 4 1/2 hours on a bike, and actually a really awesome day.

Next year? I'm definitely keen to do it again, and get my time under 4hrs. If I get myself organised, you may see some steamy Wildchaps cycling gear too - that'll get the knees trembling! For the moment though I'm planning on getting back onto the knobblies and off road again for a while though as the next really big events lined up are Karoo to Coast in September (100km offroad from Uniondale to Knysna) the bike section of the Triple Challenge in KZN in November. But I may just take it easy for the next couple of days...