2008

This has been a very traumatic year in for our clan. 2008 surpassed 2004, and then some. The second week of April 2008 was particularly bad:
-Carina’s mom passed away after a short intense fight with Cancer
-My sister Lena’s youngest son Barend was killed in a car accident
-A friend Jani was shot and killed in the driveway of their home
-Bruno our lovely Staffie drowned in our pool

Some of the other things to recall and forget:
-Our 15 year marriage nearly crumbled under the stresses of moving
-The financial downturn hit early when I couldn’t get my house or vehicles sold before leaving RSA
-My project was terminated early
-And to top it all off my brother Rassie was brutally murdered in December

These Lows make the highlights seem few:
-We moved to Oz
-Michael is in a good school and is settling in nicely
-We have 2 neighbours that are great
-It is safe enough that I can ride motorbike again
-It is good to feel safe and relaxed

Tonight we are having a BBQ at John and Di across the road. Tomorrow we are going camping with Michael’s friend Jasmin (his girl!). We are really looking forward to it. I just miss my Double Cab Nissan very much as we cannot get much in the little Hyundai Accent. I can’t even use my Engel Fridge as it doesn’t fit and the site doesn’t have electricity.

To all my friend and family out there: Hope that you have a wonderful and blessed 2009. May your dreams come true and you be blessed with good health. We miss you all terribly. Hans, Carina & Michael.

Dec 2008 News

A few new and interesting things to get used to:
Which company would have a name like Booby Trap? (answer at the bottom)
Tea=Dinner
Lolly = Any sweets not just a lollypop
Flat white is a type of coffee like Cuppachino, short and long black
No Fanta grape or Grapetizer but Solo which is Michael’s new favourite
Paper advertising in the mail is over the top, we receive around 2kg per week
Specials are “really specials” and when the time expires, the normal price applies. Sometime over the weekend the meat and perishables are marked down by >50% in some cases when the “sell-by date” is reached.
Petrol fluctuates from day-day but on Tuesdays petrol is cheaper by 10 -20c (>R1) per liter.

We had drinks and snacks (not tea) with the neighbours the other weekend and Erika (Hungarian) made Hanosh which is nothing more than the good old boere vetkoek. You eat this with strong garlic butter and cheese on the top (not inside, just like Cremora). Very rich and nothing gets close to you for days.

We visited a Fresh fruit market on Sunday which is held at a working drive-inn where stuff is nearly ½ price. You actually need some sort of a trolley as you park miles away and tend to buy lots. I was already impressed with the fruit in Oz but this fruit is even better: Ripe, juicy and tasty.

We started our herb garden. We have to plant stuff in loose plastic pots sitting in the flower beds. Check the pictures on Picasa.

Carina got her Oz driver’s license first time: I am so impressed! You write a learner driver test (like anyone else here but they remain learner and provisional for 2 years!), attend a driver’s lesson and then do a drivers test before you can get a license. We had to ask why we from RSA, driving on the same side of the road as Oz, had to do a complete drivers test and the Americans are simply issued with one: Tit-for-Tat was the basic reply: RSA doesn’t honour Oz licenses so why should they! It was like anything else here, quite an expensive exercise (R3300) but Carina’s license expired yesterday so we didn’t have a choice. I don’t have to do it for another 4 years but may do so as this license is a very useful ID document.

Children are very precious in Oz society: Parents with children got a Xmas bonus of $1000 per child (residents only) and you get a $5000 bonus when your child is born. This is from the driver’s handbook: “Children under 16 must be given a seat belt before any other passengers.”

Michael is starting to talk like the Ozzie kids: They don’t pronounce the “t”; what becomes wha, what is the matter becomes wha is the ma-u. I can’t say that I am very impressed with this bu that is the way the kids talk and he (we?) will be talking like them sooner or la-ur.

We had the company Xmas party at the Greenhills Adventure Park, a very impressive venue near Victor Harbour. The weather didn’t play along and it was quite cold and wet at times but we still had to be chased out at closing time. Only kids were on the water slides. There was plenty to eat and drink and the kids all got presents from Santa. (www.greenhills.com.au)

And so the holidays are upon us. We will be staying home and doing stuff in and around the house and Adelaide area:
Building a workbench and 2 tables for computer and sewing
Swimming, Cycling, Lego, Scalectic Cars, Radio controlled cars and boats, fishing,
Computer/PS3 games

Booby Trap is a Company selling bras; brilliant name!

November08 News

The roses in Adelaide are in full bloom at the moment and I have to admit that I haven’t seen roses like this ever. They are bright, colourful and plenty flowers per bush. The Jacaranda trees are also in bloom now and make me think of Pretoria.

Fruit also have mysteriously acquired the taste that I remembered them having as a kid but which has disappeared from the RSA fruit. I actually stopped eating fruit because they tasted so bland in Cape Town. I miss the grapes from the Cape street vendors though; the ones here are from USA!

And so summer arrived with a vengeance. This week the temperatures are over 30 for a few days! I rode to work on the motorbike this morning with shorts and a golf shirt! It doesn’t cool down much during the evening when the breeze comes over this vast desert north of Adelaide. Fortunately we have an evaporative cooler.

To Michael’s delight the neighbour has one of these small blow-up pools that she got going the other day. I suppose he’s going to make a pest of himself there. He also managed to work himself into joining them on their farm for the weekend! He thoroughly enjoyed it; he caught some fish but the Quad bike was broken.

Michael’s girlfriend, her mom and “irritating” little sister visited the other day. When I asked why she is irritating: she apparently organises posses of her friends to chase him around at school! They stay close to us so I expect we will visit more often.

We got so tired of the terribly bland pizzas that we attempted our own this weekend. Not as easy as it looks and sounds. The dough was not right as became crumbly and the girls (Carina and Marelene) piled too much stuff on. Tasted OK after a few beers! Tried again a week later with different dough and less toppings and it was really good.

We also decided to treat ourselves with a Breville coffee machine. This is the type that forces the water through the coffee grind. We are experimenting with making “flat whites” and cuppachinos at the moment. All very scientific you know: You have to grind your own beans and only extract 60ml of coffee and then add water and/or heated or frothed milk. The finer you grind the coffee the better the extraction but the coffee grind has to be compacted and twisted to exact maximum flavour! This does make even Mug&Bean’s coffe taste like brown water in comparison. Next step will be to start removing the sugar and milk and one day I can be a purist.

And so it happened that in the early hours (00h45) of Thursday 20 Nov 2008 that I was pulled over to blow in the little pipe for the first time in my life. I was out with colleagues for dinner but fortunately I was a good boy and stayed within the limits! I even declined the “loopdop”! Raar maar waar: as they say in the movies!

Our Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/strumfie

October News

Carina got her first speed fine: $207 (R1800) for doing 68 in a 60 zone! It was delivered within 3 days of the offence! If you pay late it is an additional $100 (R800). Now she is not allowed to go and drink coffee in the shops till the end of the year! This is not because I’m cruel, coffee just cost so much also. Our coffee cost more than petrol per month!

Something I noticed the other day is the lack of stop streets and signs! I have also figured out why everyone with V8’s are forever spinning their wheels to the point of melting the tar: they are frustrated by having to travel 60 with all that potential power! I felt it yesterday on the bike!

We entertained the first Ozzies at our house and we should be seeing more of them as Carina and SAM get along well and Jim and I are both bikers and love to help the kids with playing some of the car games on PC and PS3! Carina is also making friends with 2 of the neighbours. Carina and Di are walking every morning. Erica threatened to join but hasn’t managed to get up yet.

We moved Michael to a new Karate club where he got credit for the training he has done to date, unlike the club at his school. He was also awarded the Orange belt. Last week he demonstrated how to do the splits! As you can see his Sense is very proud of him, but not nearly as much as his mom and dad.

Michael’s Karate club: http://www.karateclub.synthasite.com/
Our Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/strumfie

Mid October 2008 News

Carina and Michael visited her niece Sussa in Melbourne and had a really great time there. They took the train there and flew back after 10 days. The Aquarium and Botanical gardens were highlights of the visit. Carina learnt how to make some of the really nice Coffee we got accustomed to here. I always thought Mugg&Bean had good coffee till I got here! We will be purchasing a proper grinder and machine as soon as the finances allow. I have on cup every morning but it is actually very expensive and works out more than the petrol we spend per month!

I started cycling to work and it is very nice as I found a cycle path through some green belts which is about 40% of the route. 80% of the route back from work is however uphill. Hopefully the fitness will build quickly. Going to work is nice though as it mostly downhill and I don’t sweat too much when I get there. Still only leave home at 08h00 and is back at 18h00. When I take the car or Motorbike I leave home at 08h45 and am back at 17h15. In Cape Town I left work at 06h00 and arrived back at 18h15 or later.

I took Michael for bicycle ride to a park where we could do some mountain bike trails. It was 4km uphill just getting there and we had to turn around at that point as he was completely finished. Kids these days are so weak from sitting in front of computers and TVs. I remember cycling alone from Manana to Whites Township at his age; this was about a 10km flat ride.

We experienced another first this month: Daylight Saving of 1 hour! It was quite a mission working out which way the clocks must move. Eventually I verified it on TV. Doug then gave quite a good way to remember which way to turn the time: you usually Spring forwards and Fall backwards.

Michael went to a birthday party at a Scalectric Shop near our house. This place has several 4/6 lane tracks which they use for championship races twice a week. They have a special birthday room with its own track and cars and medals get awarded for the racing during the party. Michael is now “hooked” and I can see us spending a few hours per month there. It is actually one of the cheapest entertainments I have found here. You can use the track for 3 hours for $7 if you have your own cars or if you need a car it is $11. A 5 minute ride at a theme parks cost that much.

We visited the shop when they got back from Melbourne and bought 2 cars that were on special. I haven’t had such fun “since I was a children”, as the last time I really raced slot cars was when I was a child. I bought a FLY car (the fastest out the box car) around 10 years ago but never got to racing it in Cape Town. Tried it the first time on Saturday and was very disappointed as it just didn’t go anywhere: the tyres had gone hard so had to have a tyre change but the newer “budget” cars are still much faster than those of 10 years ago!

We visited the Biannual Model Railway show and we were simply blown away by the detail in some of the scenery. I will put some pics on Picasa so check them out! We will be starting our own set-up shortly; just need to purchase some wood and get someone with a UTE (bakkie/van) or trailer to cart it home for me.

Carina and Michael visited Mawson Lakes late one day during school holidays, so I joined them after work and Michael attempted some fishing and we raced our Radio Control Boats. Carina brought a picnic along which we had beside the lake. This was such a nice experience; one of those “WOW” moments that made moving here worthwhile.

Make no mistake though, certain things are very different and I had the first moment of missing something from RSA very much! The culinary experience here is not very positive, apart from the Coffee. The Pizza we had on Friday evening really made me miss the tastes and foods of RSA. The cheese here is yellow, bland and dry. The chicken meat is spongy, tasteless and “slimy” due to too fast growth. Peppermint crisp is a blue in colour instead of green. No Tennis biscuits to make Peppermint Crisp Tart! Carina tried a local biscuit but it didn’t soak up the cream and stayed hard. You also can’t find decent spices, specifically for Braai (obviously non-existent) but even the BBQ spices are bland. The BBQ brickets for Weber is rubbish as getting it going takes a block of RedHeads (equivalent to Blitz) and they die as soon as the Weber is closed. OK enough bitching already. At least they have Hungry Jacks’ Woppa Cheese Burgers to make up for all this. Must find out where they get their cheese as it looks and tastes like proper cheddar!

Chris has collected 3 Webers from the side of the road and he was kind enough to donate one to me. When people want to get rid of stuff, they simply leave it on the side of the road. If you want, you take; otherwise the garbage guys take it. He has also collected good quality cupboards, dining and outside tables and camping chairs, a leather lounge suite and about 6 bicycles, even a mountain bike with Shimano group-set and dual shocks!

Although the weather is generally very nice and I certainly don’t miss the Cape South Easter, it varies a lot from day-to-day: Sunday was bone dry, very windy and 33oC while today is cloudy and only 17oC.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/strumfie

September 2008 News

And so our furniture finally arrived and we only had one picture glass broken and one shelf of the Hi-Fi cabinet broken quite badly but I managed to repair it. Carina is feverishly unpacking the boxes and trying to find a place to pack it all or searching boxes for something specific. It feels a bit more like home and it is also getting nice and warm here in Adelaide. Hope I don’t regret this statement in December.

One of my wishes came true when Michael started cycling to school all by himself! It is something that I did as a boy and so wished that he could experience it but it was slipping into oblivion in RSA.

We also attended the Royal Adelaide Show. Those of you that grew up in the countryside in the 60’s and 70’s would have enjoyed this. It was the proper old agricultural show where normal people showed and won prizes for their veggies, animals, artworks, cakes and stuff. There is a huge entertainment park where the rides are long and good and even though the price is quite steep, you don’t feel ripped off. We also used the bus for the first time and were quite glad we did when the “chauffeur” dropped us off right in front of the entrance and we saw people walking for miles that used their cars to get there.

My BIG 50th birthday was quite a disappointing experience. I woke after a dream of camping with all the friends from RSA so I had the blues when I woke up. I really missed them on this occasion. Carina joined me for breakfast at the local café and the Brekkie Sandwich that I have been eyeing for weeks turned out to be rather dry and bland. We had a company briefing in the afternoon with snacks and drinks afterwards so we didn’t go anywhere the evening. The BBQ that I got for my birthday (my own choice) is quite disappointing. Wynand and Marelene came round for a drink and that was the 50th! We had some people over on Saturday to celebrate Wynand and my birthdays and it was a bit livelier.

Because I was so disappointed in my birthday present (the gas BBQ), which I incidentally picked myself, I had to give myself a good boost so I succumbed to the desire to purchase a motorbike. I found a good buy in Strathalbyn, which is about 65km into the countryside. I got the Hyosung 650 Comet (V-Twin) at around $2000 cheaper than any on offer here in the city. It was quite a nice drive and what a lovely little place it turned out to be. Visit our Picasa site for some pics from there.

Michael hit a few low points this month when he got into some serous trouble at school in two successive days and then hit a lady with his bike when coming home from school a day later. He was not allowed to go on the play grounds and had to have supervised playtime with the teacher and if something else happens he will have to see a psychiatrist. Pretty drastic for the offences: The first offence was to not agree with the class captain and when he tried to pull (rip) the instructions from his hands to read for himself, the paper tore. The second offence was to lock all the toilet doors and then climb over the wall. He didn’t damage anything but they complained that stuff gets damaged (probably when some grown-up climbs over to unlock them or break down the door, I would just send him back to unlock them!) and that it was considered a pretty serious offence!

The school holidays approached and Carina decided to visit her cousin in Melbourne. They eventually took the train which is a day trip there and will fly back on the 4th October. Will report on this in next month’s blog and update some pictures as well.

While they were away I plucked the courage together and started riding my bicycle to work. It is about half hours ride there and an hour’s ride back and this is not just because I am tired of working hard all day, the trip back is up a serious hill for >50% of the trip!

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/strumfie

August 2008 News

It is still very cold and wet and August 2008 is the wettest and coldest in >35years! Just our luck to time it like this. We are still reeling from the shock of the first gas and electricity bill after running the gas heaters all day and the electric blankets all night! We still haven’t received our furniture and I have just been informed that the driver who was supposed to deliver it tomorrow phoned in sick for today and tomorrow! I offered to push the truck to my house but Peter didn’t even see the funny side of that!

Chris van Rooyen, another boertjie who studied with me at Stellenbosh and worked with me in RSA, stays next to the Old Collegians Rugby (Union) Club and we have now watched two games there and then baaaarbied at his place afterwards. It really brings back good memories of watching netball and rugby at the Burgersdorp and Lichtenburg fields on a Saturday afternoon. It is the same spirit and very amateur orientated as Rugby Union isn’t very big in Adelaide. It is a bit like watching schools or college rugby in RSA.

I did the really stupid thing of purchasing something without seeing it: where else but eBay! It finally arrived and the paper with the assembly instructions was thicker than the metal it was manufactured from! Yes, I bought a gas BBQ. We are not allowed to make fires in summer so I decided to get to grips with this gas braaing idea. It is actually pretty (r@ppy as there is no fire smell or taste in the food and you can wait till you want to eat, flash it up and 20 minutes later the food is cooked, but I wont call it braaied.

I decided that getting along with just 1 car is difficult but that license fees and costs are so high that I will rather get a scooter or small bike to ride to work and back. I got very excited for a few days while shopping and testing motorbikes only to come to the devastating realisation that we can get along with just the car because “Carina is willing” to walk 2km to the shops! It started with a Honda 125CBR: what a stunning looking bike and it was considered as the speed limit which is enforced and obeyed here is 110km/h on the open roads but only 80km/h is a few sections that I frequent but mostly 60km/h. I then tested the 125 but realised that it will be too small. Especially after riding a 650 again after 7 years, the decision was made that I will not be satisfied with a small bike, having tasted the power and acceleration of a bigger bike again. The cars in RSA is still not sold so it will be a bit reckless to not leave money in the bank for emergencies and in the end, sanity unfortunately prevailed and the bike has been put on ice for now.

I have been “promoted” to Project Manager for the Hardware Development, this position comes with a lot more responsibility and exposure to the clients and big boys at the parent company but unfortunately no salary benefits.

The big 50 is here and we have scraped together a few South Africans and neighbours to share the big occasion with me. Check on Picasa for the pictures. Struggled to limit the numbers to 50 in RSA and just managed to pass the 5 couples mark in Oz!

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/strumfie