On the Couch (LITERALLY)

Here are a few updates from the City of the Brave* - so-called because those who don't live here believe you have a death wish coming here.

Interestingly, the highway that I have to cross to get to work every day is also the road I take to go visit family in Bloemfontein. But here's the rub: whether you turn left and head toward Pretoria, or right and head south, in both cases you're heading towards Bloemfontein (it's a sort've circular highway). This means that from a certain point of view, despite coming to the City of the Brave, all roads lead to Bloemfontein.

Okay now I am LITERALLY sleeping on the couch since my bed has been designed to keep me awake. It's a futon I inherited from the previous owner, and so far, when I wake up - which is something like Frodo falling through a series of sleepy spider webs - I feel more tired than before I went to bed!

Believe it or not, the coach really works. It's comfy, it's soft, it's cozy and the first thing I see when I wake up is my bicycle. So I've also been cycling a bit. Today I did my first race is a LONG time, th3 77km Race For Victory. Highlights included seeing Andrew MacLean blasting the field on the road. Lowlights was seeing Hannes Weakass (AKA Man Without Shame). But good to be getting stronger on the bike again.

On Friday I interviewed David Bullard (with Razia Pillay's assistance). I'll be publishing about 5 episodes of that 90 minute interview over the next few weeks. david Bullard is one of South Africa's most famous columnists (he writes Out to Lunch for the Sunday Times, and hosts Car Torque, a motoring show on TV. For David's latest column, click here.

One of the things that came across strongly during the chat with Bullard was also the sense that South Africans (and many other countries too) are obsessed with their cars. There is a tight emotional and ego attachment to these big flashy machines. This addiction will be broken in our lifetimes, and there will be much grinding of teeth. That's the bad news. The good news is, for all the nice stuff about cars, riding a bicycle is actually a WONDERFUl alternative. It's clean, it's friendly, it's healthy. As I say, I've been cycling more and more lately.

I also recently travelled to the Eastern Cape, stayed in Knysna and at a place close to George. To read about it, click here.

And I'm paying more attention to this site. Right now this blog is ranked 8th in the News&Politics section of the South African blogosphere, and overall 61st (3 weeks ago it was trawling around 120-something). I can't wait to overtake Mushy Peas on Toast. Hopefully that will happen this week.

Any suggestions, or interesting stories you can across, please email them to me, or provide links in the 'comment' section.

For the future, I plan to mkae a trip to Cape Town and up the level of stories I submit to newspapers and magazines. Yeah, sorry, that means after submitting over 500 stories to citizen sites like Reporter and Ohmynews, I'm hanging up my hat on those sites. Got a few other irons in the fire, in terms of sport, love life, and other plans, but to see what they are you're going to have to watch this space.

*Jozi