Did the Earth Move for You Too?
Nest’kennel’
Struggling manfully to cope again with work, it was in the middle of a necessary, but dull, meeting that the shaking began. After the séance-like questions of ‘is that you rocking the table?’, there was a realisation that we were experiencing an earthquake. Whilst thankfully it was relatively minor, (a mere 5.3 on the old Richter thingy), tragically it was still severe enough to result in one death and the trapping of a number of miners underground.
Working in Johannesburg, a city that is built on a myriad network of old mine workings, there is apparently always a degree of apprehension amongst the natives when they get shaken, and the less stoic do an immediate runner to get out of the buildings.
No matter, life continues. Thanks to the relative imbalance in strength between the Rand and the Pound, living here is not expensive by UK terms. Dining out is nearly affordable. If you have never visited South Africa, now is the time to come!
You will see all sorts of sights, like the one I spotted this morning. Above the pavement there was a nest box fixed to a tree. Thoughtful yes? But I dread to think what bird lives there. This box is the size of a dog kennel ! A passing pterodactyl would find it cozy….
Adopting the ‘bachelor’ ex-pat lifestyle is ok during the week, not least because work keeps one busy. But the weekends require some serious anti-inertia effort. Saturdays are for wandering out, Sunday mornings at church, and some studying in the afternoon. But it is the pathetic inertia around sorting out some wheels that is the biggest limitation. For some reason, the cheap offers of last year do not seem to exist this time, and when you can walk to work, you sort of drift.
However, things are about to change!
Freebooter 