Last Tuesday saw my overstayed trip to Cape Town ending on the heels of a rising chronic asthma attack that would probably have seen me in the hospital at some point if I had stayed in Cape Town. One thing can be said for Joburg, it certainly is easier to breath the dirtier (is it really?) air than the porridge that is Cape Town air if you’re asthmatic. I still ended up going to the doctor this week coming away with a measly R700 worth of asthma meds. This stuff has certainly worked, my asthma has had a remarkable improvement. However, what worries me is that when I stop using the medication I’m currently on is that my asthma is going to kick it up a notch and return in full force. Which means that spending that amount of money on medication is going to become a regular thing.

My original stay in Cape Town was going to be till 24 March; I chopped the original 15 days down to 5 as I rebooked my ticket to 13 March and then again proceeded to extend it again to 18 March. A pointless and costly affair; I’ll avoid repeating my mistakes now. On returning to Joburg, I was looking forward to firing up my Xbox and playing some of the new games I acquired while away. So much for that idea, as 1 minute into my game my console froze and then I was presented with a most delightful sight… 3 red lights. Yep, red ring of death as so many 360 owners affectionately call it. So my 360 lasted a year and 4 months; not too bad a lifespan all things considered.

So now I wait for my replacement; been waiting a week so far. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish my games before the replacement fails too.

I started my new job at the beginning of February and so far I’m quite enjoying it. It’s a refreshing change from where I was previously. No longer having people breathing down my neck to sort out customer’s problems and fix the same things that break on a daily basis; for the moment. So the change is definitely a welcome one though it’s not indefinite, I’m still in the process of acquiring the skills necessary to do my job, which is a rather arduous task.

However, as much as I like my job and enjoy where I am I’m already having doubts. Life somehow managed to throw the proverbial spanner in the works this time. The latest increase in petrol price has really started to make me worry, and by the sounds of things the situation is only going to get worse next month. Considering my training regime, I eat a lot of food, so whenever petrol goes up I feel the pinch particularly in that department. Unfortunately this time I appear to have been bitten and not stopped bleeding, only made worse by the recent haemorrhaging of funds due to my car and my ill-conceived trip to Cape Town.

Alas, such are the decisions life presents. Do I start looking for a new job now? Or do I try angle for a raise at my current company. Obviously I would prefer the latter, but then of course things don’t look too rosy as I’ve already been told I have to wait till the financial year end… July.

Last week I managed to slice open the sidewall of one of my tyres. Never a good idea, an even worse idea when your tyres cost almost R1400 each. Yep, that’s right, I have a scarily rare and expensive tyre it seems, which is still cheaper than buy 2 of the more common ones. The supplier only had one left which probably contributed to the insane price for a silly piece of rubber — much to my chagrin that is.

So off I went to have the thing replaced and after bleeding through every orifice I got my credit card back and drove off with a shiny new tyre. So now I have 2 tyres that are 35k km old, 1 that is 15k km old and the one I just replaced which doesn’t even have 50km on it yet. So there I am measuring my tread depth with my key (always an accurate way to do it) to determine how best to match them. Obviously the 2 old ones should be paired, I just had to check which ones they were. So soon I’ll be going off to get everything aligned and have them rotate the wheels at the same time… and while I’m at it I get to cough up another R150. Is there anything that’s a bigger waste of money than a vehicle?

In other news the water pump on my car failed. It’s a warranty part, which I thought was great! I’d only have to pay for the antifreeze and get the rest for free. No such luck unfortunately, it appears that the dealer I bought the car missed the service interval and voided the warranty on my behalf. Never mind that when they sold me the car they assured me that it was all good and even signed over the (nonexistent) warranty into my possession. Now they tell me “sorry, can’t help”, well that’s terrific. So I phoned ford, and now I’m waiting for a response, which I doubt I’ll get.

Ford quoted me ~R2800 to change the part and have the car back to me. I phoned them a few days later, spoke to their workshop, and the guy quoted me ~R800 for the part. R2000 for labour and fluids? That boggles the mind considering they told me it was a 2 and a half hour job. Since it looks like Ford are unwilling to honour the warranty I guess I’ll be doing it myself.

Recently, I’ve only really been blogging when the mood strikes. That, it seems doesn’t happen too often, which is probably a good thing considering the wellspring of vitriol I seem to have of late. But then there’s today.

I’m currently sitting in my old home, at my old desk with my work laptop writing this post, meanwhile cursing MTN through my teeth (however much good that will do…) as I attempt to connect to the internet for the umpteenth time without success; or rather, some very marginal success if you can call connecting for a grand total of 10 seconds each time success.

I took some leave, booked flights and came to Cape Town on a holiday — pseudo holiday — with plans on how to spend the time. One failed opportunity later and I find my plans crashing down around me as the fulcrum on which they rested vanished. Thus I arrive at this point: boredom and so I blog… :)

Yesterday afternoon saw me taking my bike out for a ride on our wonderful roads. It seems I’m going to have to fork out for some braided hoses as the stopping power of my front brake leaves a bit to be desired. In fast straight stops I tend to augment it with my rear brake. Generally a bad idea, but especially bad on my current bike.

It seems my back brake has a tendency to bite, and with the tiniest amount of pressure it brakes with full force, thus locking it. Braking dynamics on a bike make the rear brake almost useless, which is why it only has a tiny little disc compared to the massive dual discs usually on the front. So this would mark the second time I’ve managed to lock the rear wheel. The first time, I left a nice black line on the tar and essentially ruined my tyre. I had to change the tyre anyways, this just moved the plan forward by a week or two. Yesterday’s little incident left my tyre completely unscathed. The first thing I did when I got home yesterday was to lift the bike onto its paddock stand and check. Not a single scrape or flatspot in the tyre, even though I went fishtailing for a good 30-40m. Guess I’ll be budgeting for those braided hoses sooner than I expected.

Otherwise, I still maintain there are no corners in Joburg. I can see why JHB riders are notorious for high speeds. The few corners I’ve seen on my breakfast runs are just glorified straights evidenced by the fact that you can easily do 200kph+ with minimal lean through these so-called corners.

Unless I’ve completely misread the situation, it seems I have a new job. I posted a few weeks back that I applied for an internal position at the place I work. It seems it’s now up to my old and new bosses to have a chat and decide when exactly I move over. So, many interesting times ahead and a serious amount to learn… actually it’s a really daunting amount of stuff to learn to move fully into the role of an apps engineer. I’m not really sure where to start; I’ve got a whole bunch of really thick manuals I have to wade through somehow, sometime. An interesting challenge it shall be; and it should develop my skillset quite nicely for the future.

Otherwise I had to go through a psychometric evaluation in the process of applying since I managed to skip all the paperwork and stuff when I originally got the job I’m currently in. The results were rather interesting in how accurate they are, at least how I perceive myself. Nothing really came as a surprise, though it has given me a fair amount to think on. Overall it looks like I have a pretty broken personality/eq. This is probably where everyone is nodding and going “mmm, yes we know”.

Now I’m going to go play in the traffic.

Next time you’re in a meeting just give a thought for those table snacks that are often present. I’ve observed that a lot of people don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet; and you just shook their hands. Door handles make me think these thoughts.

Maybe I have OCD traits? Hmmm…

Since living on my own my progress at training has really been startling to me. Maybe this is the typical “newbie” gains I’m going through, but I’m not so sure since I’ve been training for over 2 years now — though I did take a 3 month hiatus earlier this year while moving and settling my life in JHB.

For the first time in my life I can actually track what I eat and do it properly, not having to work to the timetables of others. This has had quite an effect and the progress I’ve made in the last 4 months far outstrips anything that I managed in the past. Ironically I train less than I used to; I now do a 3-day full body routine as opposed to the 5-day split routine I used to.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything; more due to laziness than anything else. On the otherhand I’ve got a whole bunch of posts that will never see the light of day now since I never completed them and have no intention of doing so.

As most know, I’m currently employed as a network and systems engineer doing exactly what the title sounds like. That is, I manage and maintain the network infrastructure and the services that run on the network for the group as a whole. We’re a shared services IT department so we essentially support all the subsidiary companies located throughout the country. Given the current stranglehold Telkom has on bandwidth, this can make our lives rather difficult at times.

At the end of November I would have been with the company for 6 months, essentially closing my retaining contract, which leaves me free to move where I will. Recently, I applied for a job. It’s an internal position which makes the contract a moot point anyways. The net result of my actions appears to have created some friction myself and my current boss (at least from my perspective), which is making my life somewhat awkward at the moment. The job I applied for is applications engineer for those interested; it’s a little closer to where I used to be, though far enough away to not make me want to swallow razorblades every morning.

In other news, I just got myself a shiny new bike. It’s a ‘99 Suzuki GSXR750 SRAD.

I had no real intention of getting a new bike, but for the price it was going for I couldn’t pass it up. Overall I was really happy with my VFR, but for riding it was just too uncomfortable for me. Add my height to the raised billetted footpegs and all you get is a very uncomfortable ride. My knee would start cramping on longer rides and it just wasn’t fun. I bought a bike to ride and enjoy, not to ride in pain. For my new bike I don’t have any such problems and riding it is an absolute dream, and being a 750 it’s definitely no slouch.

For me, everything is slowly lining up. I moved into my own place at the beginning of August, I finally got back on my bicycle and also back in the gym, and most important of all I’m finally settling into the new job.

My first few months left me feeling somewhat useless and overwhelmed as I had to play a major catch-up game both in learning the company, their ways, their goals, and the actual position itself. Moving into a completely different job — one that is essentially a mid-level skilled position — with absolutely no experience and having to meet the expectations thrust upon me was quite a daunting task. Fortunately my coworkers have been great and in general very helpful and understanding with my lack of expertise. Though there’s quite a few things I’ve noticed while working in the corporate machine; this will of course be the basis of my next entry.

Moving into my new place presented me with quite a few problems. Time, money and space. Together they really did give me a lot of headaches, somehow though I managed. With the amount of work I was doing, finding the time to move my stuff as well as buy furniture and appliances, unpack and organise everything, and do everything else life demanded of me. I managed somehow, working through the night on occassion just to get everything sorted. For the first week I barely had a thing to eat seeing as my fridge was still in its box and I had no place to put it while I was still unpacking.

This of course brings me to money. After I’d blown what little savings I had on the move to JHB, buying large appliances (and everything else) required some funding… so I took out another loan. How I love debt. It’s just one of those things; buying a bed, fridge, washing machine and microwave in one shot leaves one feeling rather bleak, especially when you get the bank statement at the end of the month. Hopefully I won’t have to do that again any time soon.

Lastly, space. I’ve managed to unpack and pack away about 90% of my stuff by now, but the place is still a bit of a mess, and I haven’t got around to cleaning it completely. I did buy a vacuum today, so I guess I had better do something about it.

Along with the move come the new roads and new areas to learn. My new trip to work is around 9km, but still takes me 20 minutes or so at the time I leave (06h40). Incidentally there are 22 robots on my way to the office. They’re mostly green since I’m travelling along the main road for 90% of my route, however there’s this one damn robot that is blinking red more often than not.

Brightwater Commons is my closest “shopping centre” being around 2km away and very easy to get to. That place is more like a playground that a real mall, which makes things rather annoying since now I have to go elsewhere to do my shopping, and there’s nothing that close by. There is however one nice thing about BWC. It has a skatepark, now I don’t skate myself, but at least I get to watch kids getting very closely acquianted with concrete pavements.

Cycling is really great. I live halfway down a valley (and for those of you who don’t know JHB, this place has some really mean hills) so this affords me the opportunity to do some serious hill training whichever direction I head. The first 2 days back on the bicycle were absolute torture as I struggled my way up those hills. What surprised me though is that I managed to obtain my previous level of cardio fitness within a week of getting back on after what was almost a 4 month hiatus. Gym however is slightly more difficult, I lost a fair amount of weight and muscle in the journey to get my life organised into some semblance of routine that allowed me to eat properly. Even so, gym will mostly get neglected for now as I do cycle training since I want to enter the 94.7 which is only 3 months away. I usually do 20-25km per run, so working my way up to 100km is going to be tough in the short time I’ve given myself.

Don’t suppose anyone has a workshop that I can borrow for a day?

Editing sponsored by Kenny.