A buffet with no eating

This has to be a first for me. I went to the Christmas party at the GP NL office tonight, and did not eat anything from the most amazing buffet.

Shew, the sacrifice! Hermann, the agriculture campaigner in the Dutch office did make a very good point though, that it should be all right - it was all vegetarian. Not eating for a day is one thing, but if we all ate less, and particularly ate less meat, we would be doing something very achievable and very positive for the climate. In the words of Michael Pollan:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Getting over hunger...

I'm going strong (you'll be relieved to hear), just a little light headed.

I've been keeping up with the news rolling in from COP15 and it doesn't sound great - civil society has been kicked out. However there was a voice of reason in amongst all the madness, Bolivian President Evo Morales. Said some good things about mother earth.

I'm going to cycle across A'dam in the snow this evening to attend the GP NL party, bit worried, but shouldn't be too hard.

Obama arrives tomorrow, and hopefully with some good news in tow.

Love and respect.

Climate Justice Fast!

It's been described as a moral response to an immoral situation. Thousands of people (me included) around the world are fasting today to raise awareness of the need for a FAB (Fair, Ambitious and (legally) Binding) Treaty at the COP 15 Climate talks in Copenhagen.

The only reason for me to fast is that I think I have been robbed of my voice in so many ways with regards to what is happening to our earth and landbase. This is an act of desperation. While I had the opportunity to go to Copenhagen and participate in actions of NGOs there, I think my work in Amsterdam is as important, and I am more effective here than I would be there. The pessimist in me says that there is just no way to talk to our leaders (sic) who are all, quite literally, insane.

I still am not sure what impact it will have, I can't see how it will help bring about a FAB deal, but it is what I can do where I am.

My thoughts will be with the activists on the ground in Copenhagen and the delegates in the Bella Centre today.

Love and respect.

Greenpeace UK telling it like it is...

Barefoot running updated

I am now doing a regular 4.5km route at least twice a week. It is mainly on paving/tar, but includes grass and a dirt path. The hardest/best part is running through a shopping area (only about 100m) and the looks and comments I get.

I do worry a bit about running in the cold as my feet can get numb and then I worry that I won't feel any cuts. This in turn makes me a bit paranoid and so anything I feel I stop to check in case I'm bleeding. What this is slowly making me realise is that feet are a lot more robust than I thought.

After the first time I did this route, I got some serious blisters, particularly on the front of my feet and on my second toes. My second toes are quite skew (the result of being crammed into shoes all their life no doubt), and so they hit the ground on the bottom and side. I had hoped the blisters would become harder skin - they have now gone, and my feet seem to be getting tougher, although not noticeably were the blisters where.

So all in all, my feet are slowly taking to the barefoot thing. I could have probably started slower with less discomfort, but I am a little impatient :-)

Yet another great idea...

Introducing the audienceometer.

An essential piece of equipment for the modern person (good for both genders). The audienceometer (AM) behaves very much like the studio audience in a sitcom, except it is tuned in to "real life". The next time you make a stupid mistake like saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, the AM goes ooooooohh, thereby alerting you to your folly and allowing you to immediately correct your blunder or social faux pas.

When you say something really cute and positive to someone, it goes aaaaaahh, allowing you to then immediately correct it (if it was actually your worst enemy), or point two fingers at the person and click as you shoot your "guns" signalling your knowledge of how cool and caring you are.

Particularly helpful is the laughter at times of even mild humour, which boosts your own self confidence and allows you to continue telling stupid jokes long after you should have stopped. By this time people should be laughing at you, further helping you to think that your high school career counsellor was right about Stand-up Comedian.

The AM has the objectivity of an American teenager (additional maturity upgrade sold separately), and it's keen sense of social decorum is only enhanced by the user drinking heavily.

The AM is the size of a jelly bean and fits discreetly into the user's ear. It is only audible to the user to ensure you are unable to hear conflicting signals from potential other user's AMs (these things will soon be EVERYWHERE!)

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Batteries sold separately, no liability is accepted for AMs incorrect judgement. "Helping you be successful with other Emotional Failures" and the AM logo are copyright of the Consumer Crap Corporation.

Barefoot running

So with the failure of all searches for ethical running shoes (and let's not lie, if you're paying money for it, you can guarantee it's got something bad attached to it) I went for my first barefoot run yesterday.

I hope it won't be the last, it went pretty well. Well, until I got back that was. As I was stopping on the wooden walk way to the entrance of my plattenbau, I slipped on the smooth surface and my right foot shot forward and wedged itself in between said walkway and the little ramp up to the door. Ow. So my right toe is now swollen, and I don't think any running will happen for a while! Oh well, once it's healed I'll be back to barefoot.

Interesting fact is that apparently barefoot runners experience less repetitive stress injuries than runners running in shoes. This is evident in the Nike Free running shoes series and the Vibram Five Fingers, both shoes designed to simulate barefoot running (the five fingers is more a rubber foot glove...).

So welcome barefoot running, welcome the future. Goodbye toxic chemicals in running shoes, goodbye worrying about running shoe makers working conditions.

I'll let you know how it goes...

Eating Saturday morning

So I woke up at 1... and let myself loose on the streets of Berlin on the way to Oranienburg. I was feeling less than well, after getting back late (6) from a place who's name I don't remember. I walked to UFO and stocked up. I bought a mix im brot (haloumi and falafel in pita - goodness), a coke (big red ambulance, you know), an ayran and a piece of baklava. The baklava and coke I stowed in my pockets, and the ayran I downed, leaving only the mix im brot for the tram ride from Eberswalde to Nordbahnhof. Rode past the wall memorial - Berlin is truly an amazing city. By the time I reached Nbahnhof the mix was finished and getting out of the tram I opened up the coke (glass bottle, very cool) and headed into the underground S-bahn station.

There I sat on a bench on the platform, looking at the station name written in great old German gothic script. I sat with my legs crossed under me, and felt like a rock star (as you do). Having finished the coke I said to myself I could only eat the baklava once I was in the sun again. The s-bahn came, I sat next to a window and waited. Soon we were out of the tunnel and the baklava was the perfect sweet end to a fantastic meal. With my head against the window and the autumnal leaves flashing by I drifted in and out of sleep. Once I got to Orianienburg I walked off the s-bahn tossing the tinfoil from my mix into the air, and was feeling like a million dollars - exactly the feeling you need for baroque theatre in the landesgartenschau (think Chelsea flower show outdoors and in German).

Long time no post

So it's been a while, partly because I've been spending my time setting up ecoamsterdam.blogspot.com (yes, check it out!).

So a little something for now, written on a Saturday afternoon in a beer garden in Berlin:

Almost an afternoon in Prater...

I mean, it's just so unbelievably cool. The sun shining through the trees and clouds, landing golden in my beer. The diving board rusting and used now only as a light post. No swimming pool to dive into, just a concrete play place for children. And play they do, with the stones and anything else to hand. The small brown birds that are infused in Berlin's ground and flower beds gather, steal, depart. The cold of winter and Russian tanks and clinging waiting seems to lurk in the wind, but it is not here yet. The sun shines through the clouds again and friends and more beer arrive. I have picked up summers end and found it has all the flavour of the memories made by millions throughout this city of permanence and transience.

Computer (f).

Computers were clearly a male invention, something there primarily to increase production, and help those (mostly males) at the top destroy the world a lot faster than they were doing before computers arrived.

I've been asking myself (and others) what a computer designed (and invented?) by a woman would look like. Okay more than just look like, how would it function? It amazes how often women struggle with computers when in my experience most men seem to understand them intuitively (or is it just that men never ask for help!).

The answer that I've gotten from a number of people is that a woman would not invent a computer. I think that's it, but I'm still intrigued by my own question (ah thank you) though and would love a really creative answer. For a start, I think it would have more inputs than just a mouse and a keyboard (maybe some frikkin voice recognition :-). Something more intuitive - how do you take the motion of picking cherries and turn it into a computer input device? Okay, hopefully I'll come back to this question...

Mamma always told me...

To learn to touch type.

And being a young male adolescent and the last child (see, I would be touch typing if I had a younger brother.... clearly), I can clearly remember sitting in the dining room at the computer saying, now worries mum, when I grow up keyboards will be a thing of the past. I was firm believer in voice recognition software, and to be fair, we did have a very basic package in the house (yep, even back in the day) and it could capture the gist of what I was saying, but clearly things never progressed much beyond that.

I guess though that a software that is to be sold on the mass market would never be able to adjust or adapt to the millions of different voices in the world, not to mention languages, not to mention accents. And that's the thing about a successful product it can be used by everyone everywhere. So here I sit, not being able to touch type (as well as I'd like) and without any flippin voice recognition.

So now I have installed addictive typing on both my work and home computers and am trying to do at least 10 minutes a day. I'm getting better, but I'm sure as my mother predicted, it is much harder to relearn to type properly than to just do it.

Rest assured that if I ever have children they will be persuaded to learn to type, but I'll at least be giving them a Dvorak keyboard, because this whole qwerty nonsense is way past its sell by date.

Damn it, keep typing those b's with both pointing fingers...

How much is enough?

So starting from the fact that we're all aware their is big trouble on the horizon for the world.

How much of what we do is enough? What do you have to do in order to be satisfied you will be leaving a world set to support your children through their lifetimes? When should you stop working for a better world and relax with the people you love (if your work doesn't include them)?

I don't know, but looking at the way things are going, I would say we could still take it up a notch!

A scary climate vision

I've just finished reading Greenpeace's Climate Vision. It's the organisations vision for stopping anthropocentric climate change.

The scariest thing was the figures - emissions need to peak by 2015 and sink to 0 by 2050. 0, that means NO C02 emmissions. This is to stop the worst, not to save everything.

What I appreciated though was their directness in showing on page 16 that we might actually have to change our lifestyle in order to bring about these decreases. It's pretty clear to me, and I think anyone who thinks about it for any serious length of time - we cannot go on living like we are, if we don't change, we will be forced to.

What thoughts?

I wonder what the dreams and thoughts of the person that cleans rental cars is. As they sweep out dirt from all over their home country, do they imagine the stories behind it?

The leaves and pollen and damp from when a careless tourist left the window down during a sudden cloud burst atop an ancient hill,

The small stones from a rough beach which pressed into a couples skin between swims as they drank the setting sun together on a beach talking about mythical beasts and scared tourists,

The mud from a hurried and careless stop for a toilet break in between honey ice-cream and airplane enforced deadlines,

The pet hair from a borrowed cat that belonged to a busy woman and was caught between being loved and wished away by holiday makers caught up in orange juice breakfasts and using-up-the-left-overs dinners,

The soil from mountain trails that led to waterfalls of inspiration and healing and waterfalls of tears over the death of a family member not on this particular holiday,

And maybe though they never noticed it the, tiny bits of animal faeces that worked its way into grooves of shoes that took owners to make all to brief acquaintances with the animals of the cleaners country,

Do they feel their country has been turned to dirt by foreigners too rich to care that this dirt is their landbase, or do they rejoice that this dirt represents new dreams fulfilled and experiences won?

Dreaming of JZ

I put it down to being sick, finishing "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami and running a mild temperature, but I was dreaming about JZ the other day.

He was pretty much the thread running through a very long and lucid dream. For those not in the know, JZ refers to our new president - Jacob Zuma. Judging by the howls of protest I gave rise to a while ago when I intimated that I might not be too worried about him becoming president, I imagine that many of the people who read my online mumblings are not too pleased with South Africa's new president. I know I tread on thin ice when I talk about him.

But back to my dream - the recurring theme in it was me teaching JZ to shake hands like anybody cool and vaguely African does in Cape Town, particularly in the townships. He wasn't too good at this, so I really had to give him some training (you be pleased to know that by the end of the dream he was getting the hang of it). What struck me was the size of his hands - they were really big, something I've always admired (I'm not sure this is the right word, but "been attracted to" also didn't seem right!). In exchange for my spending the time teaching him to shake hands, he was introducing me to a variety of wonderful people.

He was not introducing them to me personally, but rather giving me clues and hints as to where I might find them. I can only remember one group that I met (although I know there were more). They were a family group (but with no father - in fact I only remember the mother and one of the girls) all sleeping in an old hospital which looked like what I imagine one of the original wings of Groote Schuur (a hospital in Cape Town) must have looked like. Although I didn't have any meaningful conversation with them or any of the people I met in the dream through JZ, I received an amazing feeling of warmth from them, and hugging them hello felt like being welcomed back to a warm holiday hut from a cold and rainy night.

I still believe we could have done far worse than Jacob Zuma for president, yes, he has done and said some really crazy and stupid things, but he seems to be interested in the people of South Africa and getting them a better deal. I don't have an interest in defending him, and I'm sure many of his decisions that will be made will need some defending to some extent or another. I do think South Africa will be in a better shape after the next five years than it is now, and that interests me.

I was very privileged to meet Nelson Mandela once, on the Main Road in Rondebosch, late at night, and I remember the formal handshake that I gave (or was offered by) him. It was a lot different to the practising of local handshake used by ordinary everyday South Africans in dusty taxi ranks and fitful dreams.

Stopping traffic...

My second action went swimmingly today. Yesterday I headed through to Gent in Belgium and spent the afternoon training with all sorts of traffic equipment, and getting to know some cool people.

This morning we woke up at 5:30 to an awesome song Alela Diane's "The Pirates Gospel". We then went off to block the Brussels ring road, and put in some environmentally inspired theatre in protest to the plans to add another lane to the road.

It went fantastically, no hiccups and most people hardly noticed we were there - except when they (and particularly the intended audience) saw it later on the news. Greenpeace Belgium captured some of it, check it out on their website in Dutch or in French.

pirates again

I am inexplicably drawn to stories of the Somalian pirates. I think it is because for me this represents the world of global capitalism grinding up against those it has excluded.

It seems to me that the pirates are far from criminals. To call them evil would be plain wrong, and terrorists? Not unless anybody who works to earn a better wage or improve their stock in life is a terrorist. In my opinion these are men who have found a way of earning money for themselves (and probably many people dependent on them). Is there any harm done to anyone through this form of piracy? Well, I can't see any - the money they get in ransoms comes from big multinational corporations, or people who have so much that they can afford an ocean going yacht, and who, I would presume have insurance. Speaking of insurance, I am not speaking from any authority here, but I would imagine commercial ships and most private ships would have some sort of insurance against piracy. So what does this have to do with anything? Well, this means that any money that is paid to pirates comes from insurance firms who basically gamble with their shareholders money (they use algorithms which basically say how much they need to charge people as a premium vs. how much they will need to pay out (the actual risk) and then whack a hefty profit on top). If the shareholders are losing out, helaas pindakaas ("too bad so sad" in dutch), these are people who have enough money to take a risk with some by putting it in the stock market - you have good days, you have bad. So insurance firms aren't losing out (just adjusting their premiums), and people who are putting money into stocks (probably owners of insurance firms) are maybe having one more bad day, which they probably won't even notice given the current state of stock markets!

So nobody goes home hungry because of pirates, but what about the people on the boats? When they get hijacked, that must be pretty scary. Sure, not having control over your situation is scary, but I would imagine seafarers would be used to this in some sense or another. Apart from the odd beating, I understand that the pirates treat their hostages very well, handing around cooked goat meat (seriously, did they bring the goat with them and cook it there?!) and letting them phone home to calm anxious relatives. I would imagine the weather also isn't as bad off the coast of Somalia either - in any case, the pirates stopped pirating in bad weather. Yes, everybody thought it was due to the increased naval presence - turns out it was just a little nippy out.

Granted I probably skimmed way too lightly over a lot of very intricate issues in the second paragraph, and was a bit too blasé about the experience of being held hostage in the last, but there is a bigger issue at work here for me. The fact that as soon as multinationals start losing money, the governments of the world jump, and not only do they jump, but while saying "how high" they raise the ante for the pirates. In order to get one American captain back, they kill 3 pirates. Up until now, as I have mentioned, the pirates have been very hospitable and not done any hostages harm. I would not be surprised if this lenient piracy comes to an abrupt end.

Working for an organisations that runs 3 ocean going ships, I have a rough idea of how much it costs to get a ship around the world. The money being spent patrolling the waters off Somalia are being paid for by taxpayers in the countries that are sending warships. Would a fairer solution not be to let the companies pay for security on their ships, or just for the ransoms, and the government can go on taking care of their citizens more equitably?

This story of pirates highlights the fact that the current global economy is desperately skewed in the favour of a rich minority, through not taking into account externalities. Whether these externalities be environmental, or piratical.

As long as they stay peaceful, I'm on the side of the pirates.

Thailand

After the train journey from Brussels and the flight from Amsterdam, I landed in Bangkok and met up with Jan and his son Finn. We caught a taxi and rode through to our Hotel, Sena Place. As he drives, the driver of the taxi asks you if you would like to take the highway, which means paying extra at toll booths, but quite literally is an elevated road. I headed out onto the street, and bought an ice cold coconut (with plastic straw to drink from – they seem to give you a straw with anything that isn’t beer). I wandered down the street taking in the new and pungent smells from a myrid of street stalls cooking all sorts of things.

The next morning I left for the meeting venue. We arrived and after a quick swim had a couple of hours pre-meeting. I then took the couple of free hours I had for a Thai massage which was fabulous! The next three days were consumed by meetings, with me pulling off some less than good facilitation. On the Tuesday we escaped the good food of the venue and took a short boat trip across the river to a restaurant on stilts. The food there as with everywhere else in Thailand was fantastic, subtle flavours and hot spices - nice!

After the meeting I headed back to Bangkok and spent the rest of Thursday afternoon in the Bangkok office. We went out for supper at Sam Sen train station with Ply, and ate more good food served by good looking waitresses. The Friday and Saturday were set aside for sight seeing and we took advantage of them! On Friday Wen Jing and I traveled up to Ayuttaha and took a boat ride around the island. We stopped at three Wat's (Temples) and stayed only long enough to get super heated and dive back into the boat which was a lot cooler.

Afterwards we went for lunch at a lonely planet recommended restaurant which wasn't very good. It did have a tamarind tree (which Wen Jing pointed out to me and Gopi told me what it was in English) growing near by and this led us to search for more Tamarind trees amongst the ruins of Ayuttaha (the old Siamese capital). We found one that was loaded with Tamarind fruit and I was determined to bring one back, so after throwing a stick up after them, I tried to throw my water bottle up, but as I did my shoe came off and I landed with my right foot hard on a sharp piece of concrete. Wen Jing shepherded me off to hospital (in another tuk tuk) and I got a crash course in the excellent Thai health care system. Once I was stitched up we took another tuk tuk to the bus station and caught the bus back home. We met Gopi and Rajesh for supper and ate loads (again!).

On Saturday Natwipha met the four of us at the Charuchak market in Bangkok (15 000 stalls!)and we shopped until we dropped, including a nice lunch where the chef's sang and danced in between cooking up some pretty amazing dishes.

Later Wen Jing and I road the Skytrain to the river and sat and people watched and she helped to augment my grossly lacking knowledge of China! We road the train back to the hotel and I said good bye to my Thailand travelling friends and headed for the airport.

Thanks to Nat for helping me out with all the logistics for the meeting, being the best travel guide and never even looking remotely concerned that I was asking her for yet another hotel booking change even after a whole day of meetings. Thanks to all the people I travelled some of Thailand with, Jan and Finn (auch fuer der Lonely Planet!), Maciej, Rajesh (great barganing!), Gopi (it was a VERY dangerous looking baby tiger!) and Wen Jing (for taking care of me and traveling at a great pace around Ayuttaha and Bangkok).

Back in the 'dam and back to work tomorrow!

Dandala vs. JZ

Classic (and possibly a little unfair) comment from the M&G:

"Where Jacob Zuma is essentially an autodidact, Dr Dandala (COPE presidential candidate) has degrees from Cambridge University, as well as honorary degrees from The University of Transkei and from the Cameroons.

Whereas Zuma has several wives, Dandala has but one. Dandala publicly took an HIV/Aids test. Zuma famously took a shower."

ps: an autodidact is a self taught person (I had to look it up...)

Where boys fear to tread...

For those who don't know, the title of my blog is also the title of a Smashing Pumpkins song, as is the title of this post, but I digress before I've started...

Okay, so I'm definitely not the most experienced to speak about menstruation, but I have heard a bit about menstrual cups. They sound as if they are comfortable and environmentally, I reckon they are the business.

Check out a pretty glowing review from my South African paper of choice.

Now to tackle the resource intensiveness of toilet paper.

e-readers

Whether to buy an e-reader or not... It's been a question that I've been thinking about for quite a while.

I first heard about e-readers and e-ink when my dad suggested I worked for them (e-ink) when I was thinking about what to do with my life, and was considering various environmental jobs. The concept is simple, e-ink allows easy to read text on a small screen. It is supposed to look like paper, and can be read in bright sunlight. The devices are highly portable, about as thin as a box of matches and weigh less than a paper back. It is normally bigger than your average book. The battery typically lasts for roughly 7000 page turns (when the text is being displayed it hardly uses any power), which is enough for at least a weeks serious reading.

The reason for me to buy one would be mostly environmental, however the speed at which you are able to download and start reading a new book is definitely a plus.

Environmentally I'm not totally convinced, but let's look at the pros and cons. In the e-readers favour is the fact that every book is displayed on the same device - this means no printing and transporting the books around (I normally order books online), however the life cycle of the e-reader has to be taken into account. The manufacture includes all nasties of all our electronic gadgets - mining, plastics, chemicals - they'll all be there. Of course there is also the disposal - I haven't yet found a disposable e-reader!Greenpeace has done a great job highlighting the problem. So what have I found?

There seem to be 4 big names of purpose built e-reader. They are (with links to their websites:

Bebook
Iliad
Sony eBook
Kindle

All four are roughly similar, except that the Sony and Kindle only let you use formats that they specify - the Kindle particularly as it only lets you buy books from Amazon.com (who sell it), and you actually have to pay to read .pdfs on it (which immediately ruled it out for me). The other two run on linux based systems and allow you to read a number of formats on them.

The problem with all of them however, and my reason for not buying one at all, is simply the selection of books currently available as e-books. There just aren't enough (and particularly not of the ones I want to read). Having an e-reader and still having to buy the odd real book just seems silly - more just e-showing off, geek factor.

So lessons I've learnt through all this - I still need to join the library, I need to get my book club swapping the books we have rather than all reading the same book at the same time, and lastly, that I won't be buying an e-reader for a long time.

Shame though, could've impressed my mom.

My first action

Last Wednesday I met up with some other people to protest against Junichi and Toro being tried by the Japanese system for their part in uncovering a whaling scandal. You can read all about the Tokyo Two and the part they are playing to end whaling on the Greenpeace Website. Part of the reason for this blog is to try and answer all the questions my family have asked me about the protest.

We met at the Japanese Embassy in the Hague, one of us dressed as Lady Justice and with a big blow up whale, that was my job - plugging it in and taking care of it. Not lurking as my father was kind enough to point out - that's my concerned face (okay, I'm the once right at the back with the fashionable beanie).

We were there to hand protest the trial of the Tokyo Two and hand a letter over to the Ambassador asking the Japanese to put whaling on trial instead. There were lots of other protests all over the world - watch the slideshow halfway down this page. All went well, but the people exposing corruption are still in court.

You can help, click the link on the banner on the right of the screen and let the Japanese police know if exposing the corruption in whaling as a crime is an offence, they can arrest you too!

And thanks mum, I took care and was fine ;-)

Hiking the point (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt6)

So despite the fact that this is now about a month late, here is the final installment of my SA holiday.

Having arrived back in CT with my dad on the train, Em, Al and I gathered some things for our hike the next day and then got an early night. The next morning we got up, packed our things and headed off in Als car to pick dad up, and then travel on to the Cape Point nature reserve, with a mandatory stop at Olympia for baked goods.

We got there, parked the car, donned our packs and set off. We walked along the East coast of the point with amazing views of the sheer drop to the rocks and breakers below, and the rest of the peninsula. We passed the old cannon and dropped down to the sea, and walked past all the Sunday picnikers and braaiers. We joined them for lunch though, after a swim in the refreshing water. Once we had lunched on cheese rolls and mussel oil we searched for the small traffic circle, and once we found it began the climb to the overnight huts. Towards the top of the hill we saw a pair of ostrich with a whole bunch of baby ostriches running around. We carried on to the hut where we relaxed and had sundowners while counting windsurfers and kite surfers (which became the entertainment of the evening). We had braai for supper and a couple of beers, and made up fantastic stories about windsurfers not making it out of the park before the gate was shut.

The next morning we had hot water (mmmh) and muesli before setting off with considerably lighter packs. The walk started off along the beach which involved some sand, but mainly rocks. We were treated to a Bles(bonte?)bok peering at us through the mist. As we carried on we saw other wildlife (a very small tortoise included). We had lunch next to a very black lagoon and were visited by a large group of Baboons. After lunch we headed off with some of the party taking the short way round, and some finishing off the final hill for all.

The rest of my time in Cape Town was filled with friends, braais at Oudekraal, amazing productions of the Tempest, fantastic days in Napier with mum, swimming in rock pools and spending time with my sisters.

I'm now very much back in Amsterdam (it really is very cold), and working away again. It was an amazing 6 weeks and I can't wait to get back there soonest!

Thanks to everybody who made it such a good time!

GSK starts to break the mould

Drug companies have been taking a lot of slack because of their protecting of patents that deny poor people access to medicine.

GSK have come out against this with a brave new stance by their CEO, promising to slash prices in poor countries and pool patents for other scientists to work on.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/bqbrxy

I wonder if this will lead to a different type of medical safari, and whether it will prompt others to do the same!

Twittering

I'm twittering.

Unfortunately, because my cell phones a bit old and I'm on pre-paid (laugh all you want james) I can't update it from my phone yet, but watch this space.

In the meantime I'll update it every now and again. You can check out my entries here (on the right of this page, scroll down a bit, below my links, above my followers).

Wiki!

for those who might not know what twitter is (no names mentioned):

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

The best way to travel (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt5)

I flew into joburg and quickly got a taxi into Melville, and to the Greenpeace office. I walked in and said hello to the people who were working. Some of the people I would have liked to have spoken to were not there, but I got introduced to the people working there and saw their premises, a really nice house that has been converted into an office.

After that I walked down to a local Mugg and Bean and had a cup of tea while I waited for Phil to finish work. Once he had he picked me up we headed to the Jolly roger for half a pizza and a couple of beers. Chris and Ciska picked me up there and we got some excellent thai food, and headed back to their (lovely) new house and Larry the beaglador. After some great chatting and a bit of hooka piping we went to bed, and in the morning Chris dropped me off at the Joburg station, where I bought a newspaper and met Dad for the train ride to Cape Town.

The Shosholoza Meyl was advertised as a pleasant experience, which I think rather under sells the train trip (aah, they've hit on my underpromise and overdeliver mantra, which some day I'll actually adhere to!). The only thing that wasn't good about the trip was booking the tickets. They have no way to book without actually going to the station (although my sister swears she booked by paying money into their bank account and then picking the tickets up from the station). You can book tickets before hand, however once you've reserved, the reservation is only valid for two days where after you need to have bought your tickets at the station. It should be easy enough to set up an e-ticketing system where you can print your tickets at home, or at least to hook up with a service like Computicket, like Intercape buses do.

Well, as I said the only bad thing was the booking. We got on at joburg and left only about 15 minutes late (was it dad? - he has the time to the minute that we arrived at and left every station, I think he was still keeping tabs in his sleep ;-). As we pulled out of johannesburg we settled into our 2 person coupé, distributed the newspapers and had a bit of a read as the highveld slipped by. We ordered our bedding (for R40) and then went off for a little something to eat (after some literally ice cold beers). Cards were the order of the afternoon and as a thunder and lightning storm stormed off in the distance we played a refined game of German whist. Supper was macaroni cheese for me and a steak for dad, accompanied by a fine bottle of red (okay, it was Chateu Libertas...). After that it was a few more hands and then bed.

The night went well, despite the rain continueing, and when we went to bed Dad thought we would be in a lot later than the anticipated 12:10 (I however had a well placed hope in the men and women at SARS and Shosholoza Meyl). Sleeping on the train wasn't the deepest sleep which was perhaps that the bunks were a bit small, but after a relatively good sleep I woke up and read for a bit (unfortunatly on the top bunk so I couldn't see the scenery go by). Once dad was up we had a fry up breakfast, and went back to our cabin for a few games of battleships (all won by Dad!) and to watch the last of the Klein Karoo and the Hex River valley slide by. There were also some very long tunnels which neither of us had expected. Sooner than expected we were pulling into Cape Town with the mountain ahead and Ratanga Junction off to our right. We got into the station early, and got onto a Metro train to take me to Mowbray, and Dad to False Bay.

I walked back to Em and Al's house where I was to spend only a night before starting a two day trail with Em, Plus, Al and Dad.

Shosholoza Meyl was fantastic, and I would highly recommend a trip on the train to anybody with enough time to take a slow trip.

Zuma for prez?

Well, okay, bring it on!

Having just read Jeremy Gordin's biography, I'm feeling much better about JZ taking over the presidency of my country. I also hope he brings about some economic sense to a developing country (read: not bow to the false god of FDI).

If the ANC is going to focus on the rural areas more in 2009, I think there are worse people and parties for the top job.

Sabi Sands (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt4)

After the morning after fry up at one of the trout dams I said goodbye to the rhodes mates and set off towards Nelspruit with Gene's parents. I got to Nelspruit without trouble, and some interesting conversation about forestry with John, Gene's dad.

Once there though I started feeling a bit off colour. I met up with the guy who was going to give me and 4 brits a lift through to Kirkman's Camp, in the Sabi Sands. Kirkmans is a private game reserve in one of the richest game areas of the Kruger Park, the Sabi Sands. Murray, a friend of mine from school days is the head game ranger at Kirkman's, and it was because of him that I had the opportunity of a life time to experience a luxury game reserve.

I was staying in Murray's staff lodging (he quickly whipped up a bed for me to sleep off the rest of my hangover - very understanding). It was simple, but right in the middle of the bush which made it luxurious beyond measure - were else do you get to see hyenas running past about 10 metres away while you're having a braai, and have to make sure your shoes are inside at night to avoid them walking off. During the days I slept and read, only to be disturbed by the odd meal and game drive.

The game drives were awesome, off road driving like I've never experienced. And of course the animals. The rangers found them all and extremely close up, I could've touched most of them. We almost ran over the pack of wild dogs we found on my first full day. I saw Rhino, Baboons, Giraffe, Impala, Leopards, Wild dogs, Hyena, Elephant, Owls, Amarula treas, Russet Willows, Sausage trees, Chameleons, Lions, Buffalo, Smaller antelops, Bats, Moths, Monkeys and if I sit long enough I think I'll remember a million more! I was also treated to a bush breakfast (all laid out in the middle of the bush, with cooked breakfast and croissants), and on the evening game drives we stopped for sundowners with biltong, nuts, dried mango and our choice of ice cold drinks - there is really nothing like a ice cold beer as the sun goes down over the bush!

At night we'd braai or just have some beers and talk. It was really magical. After 4 days it was time to move on again though, and Murray again came through, organising me a flight to Joburg from only 15 minutes down the dirt road.

Once back in the big city, I was amazed at how we have managed to confine nature to these small spaces between civilisation, but as soon as we reach the pinical of civilisation, we take the opportunity to rush back to the wild (admitedly, this time in a 4x4).

In Joburg I went to visit Greenpeace SA and managed to squeeze in a beer (or 3) and pizza with Phil at Jolly Rogers before I was picked up by Chris and Ciska for some great thai food and a comfy bed in there new house, gaurded ably by Larry the Beaglador.

(sorry, photos just wouldn't do it justice - and besides, I didn't take a camera!)

Fishy weddings (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt3)

So after Napier, Mum dropped me off at the airport and I met Thandi who was on the same flight up to Jozi for New Years and weddings. After a long shuttle ride from the Joburg airport to Lydenburg we were met there by Bruce and Charne in the bakkies to go back to the farm. We stayed the first couple of nights on a friends farm with no electricity and an argar to heat the water - good times!

The first night we had a fantastic new years party 60's style (which looked more like it was just fancy dress) when you put that many rhodents together you're sure of a good party, and a party it was! See edited pictures for evidence.

The next day I put a hole in Killas tyre on an ill-fated and never completed town trip. And then spent the most of the day reading and swimming, while others slaved away over at the wedding venue. That night we got our last minute instructions from the bride and groom over a great meal of pasta made by Peta.

The day before the wedding (2/1) everybody was running around helping with a million things and moving us into our fantastic lodges on Bruce's parents trout farm. The venue was looking awesome with the the chapel constructed from scratch for the event. Finishing touches were being put on the orders of service, the golf course and the dancefloor. We had snacks and drinks at the girls lodge before going back to the boys lodge for a couple of sneaky beers, some didgeridoo playing and talk of wynd's (a passage of sorts).

The day arrived with much hecticness of sticking names onto seating plans made out of rock, cleaning of dance floors and trying to disguise portaloos (and rus and killa still trying to finish off the video booth). It soon all collapsed into an amazing wedding in the most awesome venue. Everyone looked great, the speeches were good, the mcing brilliant (if I do say so myself :-) and the entertainment legendary, even with a not very well stocked bar. The best thing was the reuniting of people - with all the group there it was like one of the best night at Rhodes, with all the dance moves being thrown around, the silliness, the bad photos.

Congratulations to Bruce and Charne on getting married, and putting a huge amount of effort into an amazing wedding.

Pick it up! or...

When I see rubbish lying on the beach, I'm in two minds whether to pick it up or not. Strange, being an "environmentally minded" person, but I guess the question is, where does the rubbish go once you do pick it up? Where is away?

When someone picks up rubbish from a beach or nature reserve they usually put it in the nearest bin. I doubt it is recycled from there, it is probably taken to landfill. Landfill is just another person/creature/insect's home.

For me the answer to plastic bottles lying on the beach surely doesn't lie with how we dispose or recycle the bottles, but rather with not using plastic bottles (and all the other -mainly plastic- junk that litters or environment) .

Buy one water bottle that is made from another material, or buy one that will last at least 10 years. Refuse to buy things in packaging the manufacturer will not take back, and where possible bring your own packaging. These are steps that are easy to take and will have the biggest influence.

As for the litter - leave it lying there as a reminder to others that there is no such place as "away", and precycling, not recycling is the only answer.

Christmas at Mariley (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt2)

Christmas with the family was good, despite being tense at times. Full was definitely the word to describe it best with it passing in a blur of breakfasts, teas, lunches, dinners, chocolates and biscuits. Mum as always pulled out all the stops with loads of fresh veggies from the garden and a superb nut roast for me, as well as a cassata I was entirely ready to lie cheat and steal for. Dads Christmas pud also went down well I had a second helping, whether I managed it is another story. I also managed to sort out my stuff (with Mark's help) and give some to charity and condense the rest. Once everyone else had left it was me, mum and al and em. We spent an afternoon wlaking around de Mond, took the dogs for a walk and had an amazing supper at Juliens in Bredasdorp with great wine (Soetvlei Shiraz?).

Road trippin' (SA Dec/Jan 09 pt1)

After a week of admin in Cape Town, Saturday morning came round. After visiting the Hiscocks and Tylers, I went shopping at KC for the essentials (and the biggest watermelon I could find, which, lets face it, is an essential) while Ruth sorted Kit(t?) with some last minute wheel alignment. We managed to get on the road only and hour later than our absolute deadling and headed of for "die Hel".

By the time we reached Beaufort West (I think) we (read "I") were getting a little worried about the light, given that those who had been there before all suggested a 4x4. Ruth decided to push on despite me trying to sound as anti driving into the mountains, yet uncritical of Kit as possible. We filled up at the last petrol station and ventured off, driving into an amazing mountain pass with fantastic views, very badly captured on camera.

The sun had pretty much set by the time we passed the "2 and a half hours to die Hel" sign, but unbowed we carried on. With only a few scrapes to Kit and some white knuckles, we got to the campsite and managed to chose the best spot, even in the dark. The next morning we woke up and made the biggest fruit salad ever (in the watermelon) and also, inadvertently, Wyclef the watermelon.

As it was frikkin boiling we went in search of the pool and cold beers, with a packed lunch. We wallowed in the pool and chatted to the friendly Joburgers and Germans. Supper was braaied veggie sausages, beers and chocolate (a little runny from the day in the car). We also fitted in some frisbee throwing as well.

The next day we joined the ever coming and going procession of 4x4s out of die Hel, with me guiding Ruth and Kit over the the dry river beds (note white knuckles).

The journey out was even more beautiful than the drive in. Once we were out of the pass we hit Oudtshoorn for a quick drink, sunglasses and some aubergines. Then it was on to Route 62, past Ronnies Sex Shop and to lunch and foosball just outside Ladysmith. Through another pass, and we arrived at Napier, and quickly headed to Sun Touched for a cold one, which was followed by half a movie and bed.

The next day Paul arrived and we went off in search of candles and lunch, to eat at de Mond. Unfortunately no one wanted to brave the wind as much as I did (it was admittedly blowing quite a gale) so we returned to Mariley for lunch. Once mum had gone to bed, the three of us stayed up late into the night talking and drinking tassies, obies and klippies and coke (Ruth and I had luckily escaped the curse of klippies and coke despite our stop in Oudtshoorn.)

The next day Paul and Ruth left for their respective families for Christmas.

Thanks to Kit for getting us there and back again in absolute style. Thanks to Paul fr coming out ad spending time in Napier (and being official photographer for a while). Biggest thanks to Ruth, who didn't get scared off by my powerpoint. One of the best road trip partners ever, who drove the dodgiest road without losing her sense of humour once. You rock! Looking forward to Road Trip II - The return of the killer sporf...