Baggage

I went to Jozi this weekend. It was very spur of the moment. One minute I was at home, half an hour later I was on the road. That's the joy of having a car, and even better, one that can sail up to 180km/h (getting you there in well under 4 hours).

When I arrived at Alex's mansion in Houghton, I couldn't believe that I had forgotten my bag (with helmet, cycling clothes, HRM, toothbrush etc). Having gone on a rampage against people making silly mistakes, here I was making a huge GOOF.

So the next day, we went to Suikerbosrand with Crofty and Helmut, and climbed about 1400m over 60km. Did all of it in Alex's gear, including long sleeved gloves, ear warmers, knee warmers etc. Even without a HRM I could feel my heart wasn't just beating out of relative strain, it had some of that windedness you only get from being a bit sick. Today is 2 days later, and now I am feeling behoorlik (thoroughly) sick. Nice fat headache, feeling generally irritible.

Suikerbosrand is awesome. It's a game reserve, roads are smooth and empty, and the scenery stunning. At one point a small herd of springbuck bounded over the road, some of them bokspringing acorss. Lots of climbing, fast descents, great to test skill and strength.

I did take my front Zipp wheel as I'd anticipated being a bit slower, but in the end the risk of a puncture seemed not worth taking. So I fell off some of the time, but since I descend quickly it wasn't a trainsmash.

At one point we saw a huge penguin fella with massive calves, hauling his massive belly over the hills. Bizarre.

We had an enormous brunch, fit for kings, in Rosebank, at a huge house on a large estate. Fruitsala, muffins, bacon and eggs, wors, fresh juice and joghurt. Was interesting to see how the top of the food chain live, on a daily basis. Hemlut and his wife are going to Mauritius this week. Alex is riding in the Tour de France, and Crofty doing the first stage in London. That costs around R25-30K right there.

We had an interesting discussion over Nando's that night about interpretting the Bible. I left Sunday morning after 9, and after taking it easy around all the speedcameras, picked up speed for the last 250km, making it home well before 1pm. Had a nice braai and watched the DVD, the Guardian.

Very very cold, but I am glad I went. After sukkeling for so long to get my mounted pictures and hearing they may not be put against the wall, I wasn't in the best mood to do anything or go anywhere, but glad I did. Think it would otherwise have been a fairly dull weekend. Might go on my own to Clarens next weekend, just to climb.

Work today has been busy and since I'm not feeling completely healthy, more of a drag than usual. Will probably take a out a DVD tonight and just keep warm.

I also noticed Mushy Peas on Vomit was interviewed in the Sunday Times magazine. I think the blogging community in SA is tiny, so when 10 people endorse one blog, it becomes 'celebrity', even if it is crap. The odd thing is that the celebrity then really believes they are celebrity, begin to act and dress like one and start to imagine a 'book deal' and probably even a 'movie deal' are on the cards.
Hollywood though is, by and large, a junk favtory, so making a flick on Vomit might actually prove to be viable (financially). That would still be a bit of a joke though, even if it was. The joke would be on us for consuming such drivel.

Tomorrow is a holiday, but I have plenty of issues to resolve re: the Exhibition. One is: How do you exhibit pictures if you may not attach them to a wall? Should be interesting...