There are so many incidents which I come across that I have to smile at:
1. At Nylsvley, I had gone into their small shop to get a sandwich for lunchtime. Coming out, a car stopped in front of me and a man and woman, probably in their late 70’s got out. Without any kind of a greeting the lady said to me “Who are you? What are you doing here? Where do you come from?” LOL!! I was quite disconcerted at the approach or should I say attack? She continued: “Come and have coffee, I want to know all about you.” I turned down the invitation but started chatting to here. What a lovely couple they are and invited me to visit them in Pretoria when I am there again. I did have to wonder about their holiday though ...... they had left a place where they just sat around all day, hired a chalet in Nylsvley and were doing the same thing besides maybe once a day riding down to the birdhide which had no birds as there has not been enough rain to fill the pan. Is it worth going somewhere on “vacation” when you sit and do the same things as at home????
2. I met a young man you was doing a three year course in Lodge Management. These courses are very basic. He told me that when he finishes next year he wants to go and work at the Ritz in London. I wonder if he knows that you need YEARS or experience and be among the top ranking people in the world to get into a place like that. I admire his far reaching dreams though but think he needs to come back down to reality. The irony of it all is that he does not speak a word of English!!
3. While sitting in my car waiting for something, I was approached by a very old black man. He asked me if I had something to light his cigarette and told me he could not ask any of the black people around there as “Black people are full of sh*t!” I had to smile at that one.LOL!!
I was very lucky to be invited to stay at a place on a river bank not too far out of Pretoria. This lady and her husband run two places and said there is no one at the second during the week so could go out there. It has water and bathrooms but no electricity and I can tell you, in this extreme heat, a cold shower is just the thing so I have at least two per day!!
20th November 2012
I have found some lovely and interesting bugs again but I decided I wanted to put my light out at night to see what came to it. There was not much of interest except a small spider but while sitting there, a snake crawled out of the bush about 5 yards/meters away and came to lay on the road. Oh boy!! Nice kind of surprise hey? I am surprised that he did not move off as I was walking around my light but he seemed quite willing to share the space with me. It was too dark to see what kind it was and did not want to move closer so I took a shot with my flash but it did not come out clearly so I still do not know what it was.
