13.9. 2021 Lockdown level 2 - New Infections yesterday 3961 - Incidence 63.7
So i am still deliberating if i can tell this horror story here on my website or if this outrageous event should rather be left out of a diving blog…
In the meantime our president had a family meeting yesterday. Family meeting means, the president talks to the nation. Sweet !!!
He reckons, they are vaccinating about one million people a week now. Things are moving forward. So this would theoretically mean that we still need a full year to get everybody vaccinated. The problem is that theories don’t work when there are so many idiots in the world…
Spike told me today that he is going on Wednesday. i did not even nag him. So happy that he does this on his own. after all, he paid already the ultimate price of this goddamn corona.
Little Renier (our appy ) needs and gets a kick in the butt if he doesn’t get it done. He was already in the queue twice. The first time there were too many people and the second time he apparently shat himself. Well, guess what, buddy.
I am going overseas for 4 weeks and when i come back he will be vaccinated !!! No more playing games.
Oh yeah, level 2 now. Doesn’t;t mean much of a change. Only the bottle stores are open on Fridays as well and the curfew is one hour less, from 23h00 to 4h00. So the pubs and restaurants can stay open til 22h00.
No big deal but the right direction…
We dived again yesterday after quite some time. Hoo, we get lazy quickly especially when it is cold and windy in South Africa during this time of the year.
So we had a couple of divers from JoBurg for the weekend . Saturday we all met at the base in Shelly Beach and stared at the wild ocean. We all decided to rather go back home and have a hearty breakfast .
Sunday the wind was gone and the sea definitely more user friendly.
But the water was pretty cold. As soon as i hit the water on the backward roll this icy stuff ran into my wetsuit and took my breath away. It was 20˚C but it felt terrible. Of course we are spoilt here.
By main problem is that my suit is no longer working. I have already bought a new semi dry from Waterproof. It is waiting for me in Germany and i cannot wait to try it out when i am back from our trip. Saturday we take off…
Oh yes, the dive : Watertemp 20˚
Vis 15m
Current slack N – S
Shark Sightings : 7 Raggies, 2 Zams and 3 Black Tips
9.9. 2021 Lockdown level 3 - New Infections Yesterday 6939 - Incidence 82.6
Jou, we are officially over the third wave, but the fourth is surely on its way…
There are quite a few well known people who lost their lives in this Pandemic and lots of people lost their minds.
Yesterday i heard a story of people we knew very well which blew my mind.
Really this story is so hectic that i am not sure if i can tell it here. Jeesz, it is terrible… People are screwed up properly.
But a better story is my last trip to the post office. Hell man, i don’t go there often. Mainly when our friend Kaddi tells me that there is another parcel of used clothes for the poor. She is sending us regular parcels with stuff we hand out to really poor people.
Otherwise i hate my post box which contains only window letters and bloody threats from the revenue service…
So the Margate post office is in the main road and borders down to the beach road. Due to this proximity to the sea, everything rusts.
And so does a metal post box which is only opened 5 times a year. Oh dear.
My key wouldn’t turn and i had to ring the bell next to the window. A friendly lady checked my box and said it was not locked from the inside. So she gave me a can of penetrating oil.
I want to my box and gave it half the can’s contents. At the same time the girl must have bone to the backside of the boxes to watch if i manage to free it. As i spray a full load through the keyhole she must have been right in the hot spot.
At this stage i did not know it yet but when i gave her the oil can back she was dripping with oil….oh dear.
As black people have the most amazing sense of humour she laughed, i laughed and she said, she will not rust in the next couple of days no matter how boring her job is !!!
Happy days. Laying in bed with the dogs drinking coffee and watching the ships go by
1.9. 2021 Lockdown Level 3 - New Infections Yesterday 7084 - Incidence 114.4
Slowly, slowly we seem to get over the curve. By rights, we should have been finished with the third wave some time ago but it is lingering around like bad money.
Here in SA we have now only 10% of the people fully vaccinated. Dranging on slowly. People are full of conspiracy . So irritating while the virus is happily infecting those who don’t believe in vaccination. Can’t say they don’t deserve it…
There isn’t a day when we don’t get entangled in discussions about vaccinating. It all depends on the company a person keeps. Thise who are surrounded by pro vaccinators and doing it, those who are in company of anti vacs find a million outraging reasons why they don’t do it. Some truly believe that God will protect them…eish…
Spike and i were in Coffee Bay last week. We spent 2 nights at the lovely Ocean View Hotel . Our proper transport company came to pick up the broken tractor and the last boat we left down there.
Spike had to change the wheel bearings on the boat trailer while i welded the jockey wheel.
I specially bought a welding machine and all the accessories for welding to do this job. I wanted to see if i could do this myself with zero experience. After all i watched my mate Melville over the years and don’t think this is exactly rocket science….
So i started by grinding all the surfaces smooth and clean then i wanted to attach the bracket to the trailer. Oh dear, what a mission. This damn thing did not want to stick.
If i say, the power tripped 30 times, i don’t exaggerate. But i carried on.
After some time, Spike gave me a hand and at least managed to attach the bracket so that i can weld if tight.
Stupid welding rods kept getting stuck on the metal. And i welded and welded. Rod after rod and after two hours and ten minutes it was done.
Towards the end i figured out that the rod must not touch the metal but just glide over it in 2mm distance. After this , things went a lot better.
It looked more like an art work than a good weld but it seemed to hold properly.
Ou man, i was so proud of myself. Really felt good.
When we picked up the boat the next day it went ‘clonck’ and my jockey wheel broke clean off just by looking at it….Jou.
Seriously, i was destroyed.
The transport came early, the driver said, they will weld it for us at their workshop and off went our equipment.
Spike and i went back to breakfast and decided to stay the day.
I played with the drone and in the afternoon we went for a drive to the Hole in the Wall and White Clay. Had a couple of beers and enjoyed the beauty of this place.
Friday we drove back just ahead of a mean cold front which kept us sitting right next to our open fire place all weekend.
It was snowing on Table Mountain, in Durban, Drakensberg anyway; rain and miserably cold.
But that makes the perfect scene for a lazy weekend with movies, snacks and hot drinks.
Now it is better again. Today 27˚C !!!
Meantime Beulah and i are making preparations for our trip to Germany. Bookings are all done. We leave here on 18.9. and will be back on 15.10.
We will visit the InterDive Show in Friedrichshafen, spend a lot of time with mother and hopefully take her to Austria for a couple of days.
During our time with mother we are merely hired hands. It looks like all mother worries about is to get as much work done as possible. No mention of Love and all…..
On our way back we will stop over in Dubai for 3 nights and visit the Dubai 2020 Expo.
I think this could be interesting.
I found some cool drone pictures of Shelly Beach :
