THINGS ARE LOOKING UP IN SOUTH AFRICA

last weekend was our weekend in durban. on our way to the food faire, joelene remarks, "i wonder what everyone is looking at" i hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary but when we drove by a second time (we were lost) it was clear that a large group of people was craning their collective necks.

"i wonder what everyone is looking at" i remarked.

we pulled over. about a dozen or so floors up an old apartment building that had some time ago caught blaze, there was a man, in essence, standing on the ledge. to be exact there was no ledge. he was supporting himself like koozko and whatsisname in the emperor's new groove.

i took a few pictures and wrote some koombi names down that i'd seen in the area. one was "dogg poundz: known by many, loved by few, feared by all". the crowd grew and shortly after joelene and i wondered aloud if it was wrong for us to be parked and staring, apparently waiting for the next step (pun intended), we heard someone shout "jump!". it kind of answered the question but definitely made us feel better. i noticed that the car dealership next door was pumping billy joel's "i guess that's why they call it the blues" beautifully understated.

too bad they weren't playing
bette midler's "wind beneath my wings"
kriss kross' "jump"
house of pain "jump around"
sugar ray "i just wanna fly"
natalie imbruglia(?)'s "i'm like a bird"
van halen's "jump"
diana ross' "jump for my love"

we were on a good roll. we also took the time to ask directions to the food fair. there we drank wine by the glass, somehow paying less than it would cost from a bottle store. durban's sister cities had a booth where they were giving out samples of food from their home town's. seafood gumbo from new orleans and fried rice from... somewhere in china.

somewhere during the evening i asked joelene a question i ask her quite frequently. "what's wrong with that guy?" i don't have to point because it's usually pretty clear who i'm asking about. "advanced stages of leprosy" she answered immediately.

"seeing leprosy makes my skin crawl."
"that makes two of you."

it was the second case of it i'd seen since arriving. the first case i didn't know what i was looking at but i did notice the gentleman was missing his left arm.

one more rarity that day was that we saw two mixed race couples and only one albino.

on to business.

the following monday it was announced at tea that bcp had accepted an offer from a large international (ssi/dhv) company to merge / be absorbed. so we're going from being one of the larger civil engineering firms in kwazulu natal province to one of the larger civil engineering firms in south africa and hence southern africa. apparently they also have international offices in europe. holland if i heard correctly. maybe i'll design a windmill before i die.

so that's the big buzz. joining forces opens bcp engineers up to working on projects that we simply weren't considered able to bid on in the past. one huge project we tried valliantly for but came third on was won by ssi. they have single projects larger than what we worked on in an entire year. but they want to be bigger and bcp has a great reputation and lots of contacts so it should be mutually beneficial. especially for the younger engineers such as grant, andrew and myself. especially for the less encumbered younger engineers such as just me. so i'm 'holding thumbs' as the candy bars here exclaim.

in summary: ten years ago i was hired by a company with three employees. 12 months ago it had grown 66% to five employess. it then lost 20% of it's staff when i left to join bcp, a company with about 90 employees. six months later it is now being incorporated into another south african firm with several hundred employees. it's exponential growth. at this rate by the time i retire, my company will employ 60% of all living organisms on earth.

here is a list of the koombi names i saw around durban last weekend:

just cruising
motivation
snow lady
menace 2 society
q.t. pi
kaycee
dogg pound
players (sexy)
smooth
metro vibe
theater of dreams
united passion
london boyz
d.p.g. style - big hound in the pound
slo-jam
just another cute and sexy plaything

and my two favorites:

pimp aftermath
&
wicked arab

OVERWHELMING, IS IT NOT?

it's thursday now. after yizkor i broke the fast with the lipschitz family. they were beyond nice and i stuffed myself with every manner of fish. gefilte, lox, and mackerel i think. i stayed late watching the semis of the t20 cricket world cup (taking place a few kilometers away) between champions australia and india. i drove back to pmb, got my running stuff together, drove to joelene's and set my alarm for 03:20. you have four hours, my phone told me, until your alarm time.

moments later it was 3:20. half an hour later, joelene and i were out of bed and hitting the road for durban again. knowing that i probably couldn't keep it, i promised that if joelene drove there, i would drive back. my nerves were acting up. my 1/5 odds of finishing this race were feeling very optimistic. i felt maybe 1/1,000,000 now.
when we arrived at kings park i looked around and felt out of place. i'd bought a water belt and a bunch of gu. nobody i saw around had one. i left it all in the car. i did decide to take the cellphone with douglas adams and i made my way to the start line.
not taking any gu with me turned out to be a MAJOR mistake. every 5km or so there were stations but all they had was water and... COKE. before i knew i'd made a mistake i'd realized that a group of ten runners, one with a flag strapped to his head, were passing me and getting passed every several minutes. eventually they explained they were running at the exact pace to qualify for comrades and i should join them. eventually i fell in, weary that if i should have to take a break, i would fall behind the pace. i wanted to stay a little ahead.
didn't matter. at kilometer 18 or so, my calves started tightening up and by 26 i said farewell to the two remaining runners in the group and walked... nay hobbled back to the car. if i'd signed up for the half marathon instead of the full, i'd have earned a medal too. c'est la vie.