October 12, 1998

A weekend in Cape Town

Folks,

I have a minor role in the upcoming Milnerton Players production Key for Two, where I play a drunken Australian vet. It opens the first week of December.

I went to a Rave club in Cape Town on Saturday, with a couple of friends from work. We queued for about an hour, and eventually got in at 12:15AM. The place was packed, with a live DJ and warehouse size and feel. A huge dancefloor, loud music. Though it was good, it was not as good as the rave music I heard at Rustlers Valley in 1997, which also had the advantage of a large bonfire.

September 28, 1998

Cape Town, Theatre

Folks,

I joined a theatre group, the Milnerton Players, a few weeks ago. Before I even met the group I was signed up to do sound for their upcoming production, “Enter a Free Man”, by Tom Stoppard.

Nothing particularly difficult, but I can recommend their technique, which is to lay out the cues and burn them as tracks on a CD. End all sound cues with 15 seconds of silence, and running sound becomes a matter of pressing the track selector and pause button.

September 7, 1998

Castro

Folks,

A feature of Cape Town life is the “noon gun”. On Signal Hill, a conspicuous hill this side of Table Mountain, there is a tradition that goes back to the early days of this re-victualling stop for the Dutch East India Company.

The Cape was colonised primarily to provide fresh vegetables for ships on their way to India. When one of these ships was sighted, the defensive gun was fired as a signal for the inhabitants.

September 2, 1998

Spring in Africa

Folks,

Last weekend I took my bike a few hours north, to the area known as Namaqualand. It is not the desert that Namibia is, but it is dry.

There is a cold current that runs up the west coast, that precipitates any rain coming in from the west before it hits the land.

On this sandy soil a fragile ecosystem has developed - because it is really only sand underneath. However, in the spring (as it now is) this variety of plants explodes as a carpet of flowers. It seems extraordinary that they should devote so much energy to producing these quite large flowers.

August 22, 1998

South Africa - immigration

Folks,

This week was immigration week ..

I got a workseekers permit for South Africa before coming here, which was good for three months, during which I have to get a work permit.

Well, it turns out that I needed to get one before starting work ..

The “Home Affairs Department” is a bleak place - the cattle stomping in lines 2 hours long, and the frustration inevitably spilling over the counter to the people the other side.

August 14, 1998

Technology in Africa

Folks,

Another busy couple of weeks at work ..

I had the opportunity to visit Vodacom’s machine room here in Cape Town.

This is a large airconditioned room the size of a football field, with row upon row of DEC 8400s - maybe 40 or more. These are big computers. They have several fast CPUs, a few Gig of RAM apiece, and hot-swap RAID disks.

What do they do ?

Billing. You could argue that they are what make Vodacom all their money - since they enable them to send bills.

July 22, 1998

Birthdays and other days

Folks,

This weekend was Madiba’s birthday - Nelson Mandela was 80 years old. Much was made about it, and Madiba, who has a good sense of humor, also chose the time to marry Graca Michel, his third wife and long-time companion since her husband, the president of Mozambique, died in a plane crash.

It was also the 100th anniversary of Kruger national park - a fine institution that owes its existence to the scourge of the Tsetse fly at the end of last century.

July 13, 1998

Politics

Folks,

According to Andy’s rule, democracies take three elections for all the participants - Government, politicians, electorate - to understand their responsibilities.

The first time, the electorate doesn’t believe it will work. The parties promise too much, and the politicians do not believe they can stay in, and make the most of their position (read - corruption)

The second time, the electorate is mad at the government, and votes the other folks in. It takes the third time for the electorate to understand their responsibility to read manifestoes and vote accordingly, and selfishly.

July 3, 1998

naked white toes

Folks,

I now have an apartment - in the posh area of Devils Peak, just below a hill of the same name. I share with a white lady who works for a WWW publishing company.

It is a fairly small apartment, with stunning views of Cape Town, and somewhat primitive plumbing. It is half an hours walk from town, handy, as I have yet to buy a vehicle.

You may have notice the Rand plunge nearly 10% in value in the last week - currency speculators who think the Rand will devalue like the Eastern economies. It appears to be holding at that level though.

June 27, 1998

Cape Town

Folks,

Locked in the depths of winter now - this means that you might need a sweater outside. It does not prevent locals from complaining about the cold, though. After all, few houses have much provision for heating at all - so they have to wear a sweater indoors too.

I now have a cellphone number.

Being in the business, I brought my own with me - a GSM phone from the USA. However, in the USA my network used 1.8 Ghz as a frequency - they use 900Mhz here - so much for the touted compatibility..