Week 43 - 25 March 2016 to 31 March 2016 - Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand
Friday (25 March 2016)
Today, being Good Friday, and a public holiday back in SA, we also decided to take it easy. It must of course be noted that it was not a public holiday in Thailand, just a normal working day, as 93% of Thais are Buddhists with only 1% Christian. I was quite surprised to find quite a number of Christian churches around Bangkok, we walked past one just the other day on our way to Lumphini park.
We have not been to a church for a while and decided today was as good a day as any to do just that, being Good Friday and all. The church down the road, called the Church Of The Most Holy Redeemer, is a Catholic church, so we decided to find a more generic church. We checked maps.me and found the Christ Church of Bangkok, a few kilometres up the road, with the service starting at 19:00.
We lazed about most of the day, as one would on a public holiday and at around 17:30 we started our trek on a southerly and then western path, for about 3km. I was murmuring the words "taxi taxi" but Adri would have none of that, we needed the exercise, and with no yoga in our lives, this was it. It was a long slow walk in that late afternoon heat, at least the edge of it had disappeared with the sun's rays that were now thankfully hiding behind the tall buildings.
We got to church rather early so walked around this new hood that we had not visited before, seemed like quite a pleasant area. Although we missed the higher temperatures of the day it was still in the early to mid 30’s, so a nice cool environment would be good after the sweaty walk. It was 18:45 when we were seated in church, with chairs scattered about, with not too many people attending, probably about 100 at most. The air conditioner in this church was set to cold, probably to freezing, a most efficient system with huge air-con ducts running along the inside on both sides of the church, spewing out ice particles, or so it seemed, it felt like a cold storage facility. Under normal conditions this would have been most welcome, but with Adri and I still not feeling great, it was a bit of a bummer, was hoping that this would not encourage the inflammation in our already inflamed bodies.
The service what pretty good, the message as well, and at 20:00 we were outta there, and now I was feeling even less well. Maybe all in the mind, you might say, but I was really not a well puppy. This time I did not even think of a taxi, I should have, but my mind was numb; I just wanted to get home and sleep it off.
Having been confronted with a barrage of air-con, air pollution, airlines and airports over the last few weeks, I am not sure how one can ever recover from this constant sinusitis/hay ever we were battling with. And here you thought that air was a good thing…
Once we got home we had a bite to eat, I took my ant-histamine tablet and passed out by 22:00.
Saturday (26 March 2016)
I woke up quite groggily this morning but feeling ever so slightly better, Adri as well. The “directions for use” on the anti-histamine box we bought mentioned that one must take one tablet per day, just before going to bed at night. I decided to disobey their instructions and took another tablet later on in the morning when I felt the need. Now just in case you were wondering, yes, I did snooze most of the day after that fatal dose. We decided that, whether needed or not, we will each take one tablet before going to bed every night, whether needed or not, until both of us were 100%.
We had an excursion planned for today. Adri has this thing for tall buildings and thus we just had to go up to the Baiyoke Sky Hotel. This hotel, at 85 stories (304m, with the antenna, 328m) is the tallest building in Bangkok, also the tallest hotel in Southeast Asia and furthermore the seventh tallest hotel structure in the world. There is a public observatory on the 77th floor, a bar called the Roof Top Bar on the 83rd floor and a 360-degree revolving roof deck on the 84th floor.
Apparently we needed the exercise once again and at around 16:00 we trundled along in search of this giant, which we obviously found, there’s no way you can miss it. On the way there though we walked past, and visited, the Erawan Shrine. If that name rings a bell I would not be surprised, it was the scene of a bombing last year on 17 August 2015, killing 20 people and injuring another 125. The place today was packed, we walked around, and around, and then decided not to tempt fate… no not really, we just had an appointment to keep, with that giant.
Reaching the Baiyoke Sky Hotel we paid the requisite baht to go up to the relevant viewing floors, but selected the option that included a buffet, but this was a buffet with a difference, more about that later. We produced our tickets, were shown to the lift and were lifted up and deposited on the 77th floor within a short while. The lift is situated at the side of the building and has panoramic windows to make sure you puke before you get to the 77th floor, if you are scared of heights, that is. As a kid I used to be scared of heights, but I’m alright now. It’s a bit like the schizophrenic that proclaimed “I used to think I’m a parrot, but I’m alright now… I use to think I’m a parrot, but I’m alright now… I use to think I’m a parrot, but I’m alright now…”
We reached the 77th floor, nobody puked. We wandered around this viewing deck taking in the scenes. From up high one really gets a sense of the layout and the enormity of the city that is Bangkok. We were now ready to move up in life and got into another lift that took us to the 83rd floor. From where we took the steps up to the 84th floor where the supposed 360-degree revolving roof deck is. At ground level there was a signboard that warned that the rotating level did not rotate, due to maintenance, but that one could still walk around up there, no problem. We got there and this thing was rotating, ever so slowly, around and around. We stepped onto this platform and enjoyed being slowly taken around that open floor for a ride, the views from up there were simply spectacular.
As we were watching the north of Bangkok rotating, by the earth came to a complete standstill. With relief streaming through me I realised that it was merely the platform that came to a halt. We were just getting ourselves ready to walk the rest of the way around when the caretaker came out with a pole, inserting it into the side of the wall and somehow heaving that platform past that critical point of inertia, and with that the world was well again. Please check out the picture. I got a huge smile from the caretaker when I called him “magic man”. It was now getting dusky but we decided to take another round on this carousel, this was magic. And would you believe, on the second round the exact same thing happened, we got stuck, at exactly the same spot as previously. I promise, it was not me. Again, out came magic man, waved his wand, and we were set in motion once again.
We went down to the 83rd floor to the Roof Top Bar for a beer. Adri had by now developed a thirst and a taste for beer and refused a shandy, she wanted exactly what I was having. With that in mind and not wanting to do myself in, I ordered a one liter pitcher of Chang draft, guaranteed to be icy cold. We sat there, drinking in that view and that beer until it was pitch dark, and that pitcher was showing sure signs of emptiness.
We boarded the lift and went down to the correct level for our buffet, the buffet with a difference… a fruit buffet. Now that was truly a first for me and I assume it will be a first for many. In hindsight, this was probably just what the doctor ordered for our collective ailing bodies. Man, you should have been there. There were dragon fruit, pineapple, fruit kebabs, watermelon, melon, yellow watermelon, apples, green grapes, purple grapes, there was sorbet, six different flavours, there was homemade ice cream with flavours such as mango, strawberry, sesame seeds and tea (yes tea). There were dried fruits of pineapple, mango, banana, berries, there were steamed banana and sweet potato, there were four flavours of fruit juices, four different veggie juices and… and… There was even a chocolate fountain for the kids and Adri. Man, this was way past great, this I could have again, regularly.
On the way home, fruity as can be, I noticed a number of t-shirts that in some form or another made an impression on me. Maybe it was just the fruitiness in me. The one girl’s that I found particularly appealing, the t-shirt, not the girl though, read “Normal people scare me”, and I knew exactly what she meant. Another guy’s t-shirt further up the road said tongue in cheek, or maybe not, “I love you just the way I am”.
Sunday (27 March 2016)
You know how you wake up in the morning and there is a song in your head that you just can’t shake? Well so it was that I woke up this morning, but not so much with a song, but a lullaby, and no, I cannot believe it either, once again it must be the fruitiness of last night. Anyway, it was an Afrikaans lullaby, much like the English Rock-a-bye Baby, but different, dare I say, a bit more sinister maybe? I thought of the words and decided that I must have them wrong, but no, after a Google search it was confirmed as follows:
Siembamba, mamma se kindjie
Siembamba, mamma se kindjie
Draai sy nek om gooi hom in die sloot
Trap op sy kop dan is hy dood
A direct translation to English would go something like this:
Siembamba, mommy’s baby
Siembamba, mommy’s baby
Twist his neck and dump him in a ditch
Step on his head and he’ll be dead
Wow, if the latter part does not refer to the monster that is invading mommy’s baby’s dreams and turning them into nightmares, then this lullaby is really sick. I choose to believe it is the non-sick version that is referred to here. But what about Rock-a-bye Baby, I don’t think there is any way one can misinterpret those words.
Keeping in the spirit of the Easter weekend we today decided to go back to the same church we went to on Friday. The church’s web site did warn that this particular service, which starts at 10:00, fills up very quickly and that people needed to be seated early to avoid disappointment, and also avoid being seated in the overflow area and thus in the church hall. And so it was that the alarm spewed forth its gongs at 08:00. After coffee in bed and a shower it was way past the time we had intended leaving, it was now 09:15.
As we briskly walked out the condo building we were met by a taxi who offered to take us for a ride, at a flat rate of 100 baht. “Meter” I said. “No” came the reply. The audacity still manages to amaze me. We declined, walked up the road, hailed a passing metered taxi and 51 baht later he delivered us right in front of the church.
As was promised, the church was absolutely jam-packed. When we entered the church just past 09:30 it was starting to fill up nicely but by 09:50 the church was full and it was announcement that people should start filling up the church hall next door which will receive the sermon via the installed speaker system there. The service was enjoyable and soon enough it was time for communion, where the church assistants directs people row by row to the front of the church to receive the sacraments. Adri mentioned under her breath that she will be leaving her bag under her chair, it would feel a bit awkward walking down the aisle with handbag in hand. Strangely, to a man, so to speak, each handbag in that church was accompanied by a woman to the front of the church. With a smile on my face all I could think was “Oh ye of little faith”. Needless to say, after this display, the handbag next to me was accompanied by Adri to the front of the church.
After church everyone were invited to the church hall for tea and coffee and something to eat. After a gentleman accidentally bumped into me, spilling some of my coffee onto my freshly washed and ironed shorts, I went to the gents to do some damage control. While trying to rid my shorts of sure stains if not treated, I was approached by a lanky 16 something year old teenager who asked for my help. Him and his family are refugees from Pakistan and were asking for assistance in obtaining refugee status in Thailand. I advised that I was only a visitor to the country and not an embassy official, which he obviously thought I was, and that I unfortunately could not help. I noticed later on that he was talking to an embassy official looking guy, so hopefully he got some assistance there
Back in the hall Adri had arranged the “something to eat” part of the invitation. It consisted of freshly prepared ham and cheese sandwiches and a piece of homemade pizza with all sorts of goodies on there. The sandwich was absolutely delicious, proper bread, not the standard issue airy kind generally found in the supermarkets, thick slices of pure tasty smoked ham on there with thick slices of Edam cheese, fresh tomato and lettuce et al. Now you may think I am joking or being facetious, but honestly, that homemade pizza was the best I have had since being in Thailand. That puppy was loaded with the finest and tastiest ingredient imaginable, I kid you not.
After having had our fill we walked back home, through Lumphini Park and, somehow along that way, we lost ours, we must have exited at the wrong gate and walked in the complete opposite direction to home… Grr… I mumbled to no one in particular, but mostly to me. I was still not feeling “hundreds”, to steal a phrase from Kessie, so wanted to get home as soon as possible. We got home with two minutes to spare before it started raining, softly, soothing. I slid onto that bed like a snake and snoozed all afternoon until I was all snoozed out.
The rest of the day was spent, well, resting. We had leftovers from the previous night’s supper, watched a bit of telly, read a bit more and fell into a deep sleep before we knew we could.
Monday (28 March 2016)
I woke up to the following news this morning, reported on CNN:
A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Easter Sunday, saying it intentionally targeted Christians. The suicide blast in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore killed at least 67 people, a local government spokesman told CNN. More than 300 others were injured, police official Haider Ashraf said.”
Wow, what is wrong with these people. All day I was reminded of my chance encounter with the Pakistani youngster yesterday seeking refugee assistance from me at church, I really do hope he found some help from the undeniably hordes of embassy officials that were present at church. My heart truly went out to him and his family.
And then, in a different way but probably as sinister as the above, I found the following report also on CNN:
“PEZ Candy abruptly canceled its third annual Easter egg hunt Saturday after parents stormed the field in Connecticut, according to a company news release. Children as young as 4 were pushed aside by parents eager to grab as many of the 9,000 eggs hidden in three fields.”
Wow, what is wrong with these people.
Adri has been keen to bake a cake since we got to Thailand but the one time she had access to an oven, she forgot. Our current condo has this portable convection type oven and she was not going to let this chance slip through her fingers. That triple fudge chocolate cake mix we bought at the Tops Supermarket yesterday was going to be put to good use today. There was no baking pan available in the condo so we improvised and bought a pack of small tin foil bread type pans, about eight of them. While I was working Adri was busying herself with the baking and would you believe, that cake, or cakes, turned out just perfectly, even more than that, it was amazing. We now had in stock eight small bread-shaped triple fudge chocolate cakes which I was sure would be a hit on the street should we open one of those food stalls. After testing a second one, just to make sure they were all in the same state of deliciousness, it was time to take a snooze.
It was dark when Adri announced that she was hungry and not likely to cook. We took a walk up the road and down Sukhumvit Road, apparently the longest road in Thailand, but I had no intention to prove, or disprove that. Feeling a bit better now than earlier in the day, we ambled along and stumbled upon, you have to believe me, we really did just stumble upon, the infamous Nana Plaza… no really. Now if you do not know what Nana Plaza is all about, herewith a short description from Wiki:
“Nana Plaza is a three storey red-light district in Bangkok, which is rumoured to be the largest sex complex in the world… Several short-time hotels operate on the middle and top floors. Short-time hotels rent out rooms by the hour or more to the Nana Plaza patrons to take a bargirl (or kathoey) for sex. Most bar girls working at bars in Nana Plaza are willing to leave with customers upon payment of a bar fine.”
We walked around at ground level doing one full circle and were out of there before the kathoeys could make any advances. We did no dare go up any of those levels, people were staring, you know.
We walked further down Sukhumvit Road and then up the other side, taking in little side streets in the opposite direction of Nana Plaza. This is where we found a Chicken Doner Kebab which was simply delicious so I had a return later for a beef one. In-between the two kebabs we had a very civilised beer at the Gulliver’s pub, but Adri had not yet found what she was looking for, a papaya salad. On the way home we stopped off at a little night market where she found her papaya salad, I was assured that it was one of the best ones she has had. And of course there was another big Chang on order for me.
We got home and we started watching another series called The Blacklist which features James Spader who acted in one of my all-time favourite series, Boston Legal. We watched the first two episodes and must admit to having enjoyed it thus far, pretty good stuff.
Tuesday (29 March 2016)
This morning I read an article which referred to a recently deceased, dearly departed person as “The late Mr. so and so…”. Now I know this is an accepted term to use in such unfortunate circumstances, but for heaven’s sake, did they really expect the guy to have been on time, of course he was going to be late.
My blogging has been taking a backseat since we left Thailand for our jaunt through Indonesia, so today my aim was to publish Week 41 which would leave me still nearly two weeks behind. Ouch. I did however play some catch-up and at 15:15 published the week in question. The plan initially was to take a walk into town to a specific specialist shopping centre but that would have to wait until tomorrow. There were more pressing issues to address.
We were booked into our current condo until Monday as we were planning on moving on to Hua Hin which lies about 200 kilometres south-west from Bangkok, along the coast of the peninsula. Now normally when we are looking for a longer term condo rental we would employ the services of Airbnb but Adri also searched at booking.com which has served us well over the last month or so.
One of the places on Airbnb though stood out from the rest so I made contact with the owner. It was probably an hour later that she came back and advised that there was a tentative booking for the period in question and that she had just now received the firm booking, snatched from our grasp at the last minute. Anyway, there were many fish in the sea, and many condos by the sea, so we continued looking at alternatives. I sent out a few more requests and waited for those to be responded to. If the landlord is responsive one would normally receive a response within an hour or so, other times it could be a day or two, so we’ll see.
I also enquired about motorbike rental in Hua Hin and it seemed like prices were similar to those on Samui, so we would probably book one it advance at one of the companies I approached today.
It was just getting dark when Adri suggested that we go to the Tops Supermarket, we needed some ingredients for our Penang curry tonight, mineral water, as well as a few others odds and ends. Whenever we pay at the checkout counter at Tops we are invariably asked for our Tops loyalty card and the checkout lady always seems genuinely disappointed when we decline. We subsequently were given a form which Adri faithfully completed, handed it in today and we received our card there and then. When we got to the pay point we duly handed that card over and would you believe, we received roughly 10% discount. Over and above that, there are always special deals on some products, or “buy one get one free” deals for card holders, so we’ll be looking out for those in the future.
After supper we settled down for another few episodes of The Blacklist. Although this is becoming pretty predictable it is still good clean action, and fun to watch, a bit of mindless fun, which is a good thing now and then, right?
Wednesday (30 March 2016)
Having gotten to bed at around midnight I put in a good eight hours of solid sleep and it felt like it when I first lifted my head just after 08:00. I felt even better at 08:30 when I had my first strong brew in hand, watching the world go by through the news items I was devouring.
When I received by second strong brew life was getting even better and I decided to put that newfound energy to good use behind the laptop, blogging. And that’s where things started to go downhill… fast, you know… Opening up my draft blog document something strange was staring back at me, a date so old that I could hardly remember living it, something like Tuesday 8 March 2016. My worst fears had been realised, I seemed to somehow have lost all my recent blog notes, ouch, big ouch. I started searching, and checking and re-checking and restarting and recovering… but to no avail. Lennard tried to assist via email but also to no avail. Thanks Len for your effort. But where did it go wrong? When I published Week 41 yesterday it was all there, never touched the laptop after that.
It was somewhere during my search and assessment phase that I realised that my “ and @ keys were swapped around again, a sure sign that there was a Windows 10 automatic update last night. Could this be the reason? I rebooted and also checked the list of the latest Windows 10 updates and would you believe, the last update noted was on the 25th, not last night. Hmm… now that seems pretty fishy, the only way those keys ever get reversed is during a software update, so methinks Microsoft has something to explain here. Either way I had to make peace with this issue, so I did, accepted it and restarted, consolidating all the notes that I had from my Ipad and Iphone, which probably accounted for about 30% of the lost data, but it was a start at least.
That dark cloud hovered above my head as I took the laptop and myself to the pool deck on the eighth floor to continue working on my lost work. That dark cloud quickly dissipated once I was settled in next to the pool overlooking some of the skyscrapers Bangkok has on offer. Life was once again good… would have been better with more data though.
This morning after reviewing all the responses received back from our potential landlords, there was not one option that fitted our needs exactly in Hua Hin, so we opted for another choice, an apartment that we had our eye on but which was only available for two weeks. We booked that without any issues via Airbnb and decided that, once settled there, we would look around for another place for the remainder of our stay there.
As you may recall, a few months ago I dropped my hard disk that contains all my movies et al and needless to say, subsequent to that falling out we had it did not respond to my approaches any longer. I was hoping that I could get somebody in Bangkok to have a look at it for me, the reason I was heading to the Pantip Plaza, claiming to be the biggest IT related mall in the world. Adri was heading in the same direction but to the Central World mall, apparently the sixth biggest in the world.
Arriving at Pantip Plaza I was underwhelmed by the look off the place. It had a derelict deserted sort of feel to it with quite a bit of renovations going on in parts. But make no mistake, if you cannot find it here you probably won’t find it anywhere, there are rows and rows and levels upon levels of mostly small shops selling anything IT and camera related. I found the Western Digital Service Centre who confirmed that my WD hard disk was confined to the scrap yard, or should be. They also confirmed that it had been out of warranty since January 2015, and if it had not been, they could have provided me with a replacement. Double bummer.
I then rambled and rumbled on past all the little shops and found an information desk. They confirmed that the one guy I had heard about that does data recovery in the plaza had moved somewhere else a year ago. They pointed to a little shop just behind from where I was standing, no more than 10sqm in size, who may be able to assist. This guy took the hard drive, plugged it in, unplugged it, plugged it in again, restarted his system and after 10 minutes sadly confirmed that the drive was definitely a goner. He gave me a leaflet of a company that will be able to assist though, and he proudly pointed out to where it said “lost your data, don’t panic, we can help”. I obtained a second leaflet from another shop of a company that may be able to recover the data, which I will contact in the morning.
It was dark when I left to meet Adri at the Central World mall where I left her to her own devices two hours earlier. Thea had suggested that while we were in Bangkok, and at Central World mall, we just had to have supper at the Sizzler’s Steak House… good food, good salad bar… we were sold. By the time I got back to Adri it was time for that supper so we moseyed on to Sizzler’s. We waited in a queue for probably 30 minutes or so, not something I would normally do, but if it is a recommendation from Thea, you ignore it at your own peril. When one orders a main course you can help yourself to that wonderful salad bar. You may of course opt to go just for the salad bar but then you pay separately for that. Adri decided to take the latter option which also comes with a delightful piece of toast with parmesan cheese liberally drizzled upon its chassis. I went for their cheese and bacon burger and man, this was great, a pure ground Aussie beef patty with all the trimmings that delighted the taste buds. And of course I helped myself to that salad bar as well. I cannot even begin to describe what that bar all contained, but think of any salad… and it was there, wonderful stuff.
So, the lady came to take our order. There were plenty of international wines on that menu but only one beer mentioned, Heineken. Now I have never had an argument with a Heineken, so problem ever, whatsoever, but tonight would be the first. When I ordered one I was told that they don’t serve beer. I pointed to the menu, there was even a Heineken logo on there, but she was adamant, apparently they stopped selling beer some time ago, not sure why because it is definitely not an alcohol free establishment. Anyway, having been forced to lose my lust for beer, I changed my order to coincide with Adri’s, a soda water please. Once I took a few swigs from that glass it was promptly refilled. Turns out the soda water was a “drink till you drown” deal, and I was thirsty after my panting… or Pantip trip.
We literally stumbled home after that amazing supper, thanks Thea. Got home and we still had the energy for an episode of The Blacklist after which we read until past midnight. And just before I turned in I thought how great it felt to feel go great. I suddenly realised for the first time in a week or two that the sinusitis/hay fever had now finally left my body in peace, Adri felt the same, so all was good.
Thursday (31 March 2016)
We got to bed after midnight and woke up just before 10:00 with the people in the unit above us moving furniture. It was only when they dropped that big couch that I realized it was thunder, with a lovely refreshing rain pattering down. How peaceful. Adri opened the window to let some freshly polluted air into the condo. It was fresher than normal though.
We have not used any public transport since arriving in Bangkok as everything that we have wanted to see was within walking distances or a short taxi ride away. However, we did want to venture further afield this weekend so we started reading up on the public transport services which are, in
two words, pretty confusing. We found out that the BTS is the Skytrain, which have only two lines, intersecting at only one station. The MRT is the Metropolitan Rapid Transit, or their version of the underground, which currently have only one line operational and does not intersect at many points with the BTS. Then there is an Elevated Airport Rail Link which may or may not be part of the BTS, who knows, I don’t. Then there is the SRT, the State Railway of Thailand which one has to take note of. There is also the BRT, the Bus Rapid Transit system which runs one line and intersects I think only at one point with the MRT. And then there is a rather large public bus network that only a local can decipher. There seemingly is no map of this facility readily available with the different colour busses with the same number running different routes, and sometimes not. In Didier’s words “It is a mess”.
We had run out of eggs so took a stroll down to the local 7/11, and while we were heading in the general direction of the BTS we decided to pay Ploen Chit station a visit to get some clarity on issues we did not understand. Yes, there was a one day unlimited pass, no, there was no more a three day unlimited pass, no, the same pass cannot be used on the MRT, no, the lady does not know whether there is a similar pass on the MRT, no, the lady also did not know the cost of those tickets. Grr…
Adri and I split ways, she just had to go back to the Central World mall for a few things. I continued looking for a data recovery guy. I contacted the number on the leaflet I received yesterday and was transferred from someone who could barely speak English, to someone who spoke less English, but was probably a bit more bold. Long story short, I never received the location map they were going to send me, probably got lost in translation, so I phoned again. In a very slow and measured tone I again asked for the address. Eventually I could understand that they were situated in the Piya Building, but I needed the address. He said “six six four”, I repeated it and he said “no, six four”, I repeated it and he said “no, six six floor”, I repeated it and he said “no, 6th floor”. You get the picture of how difficult this “conversation” went. Bangkok is huge with seemingly millions of buildings, but while this “conversation” was in progress I searched maps.me for the Piya Building… and found it, a mere 850 metres from where we lived.
Half an hour later I was sitting with my data recovery guy discussing the ills of my hard disk. He would not commit to timings and cost but pushing him to at least give me an indication, he relented and said two weeks to receive a quote which is free, no obligation, and then probably three weeks to perform the data recovery. The cost would be in the region of 15 000 baht. At least I now had something to work on but I do not know if die kool die sous werd is nie “if the cabbage is worth the sauce”. There are movies and music on there that Lood has a backup of, there are some video footage of when we went sailing, our trip to Italy, Greece and Turkey as well as another trip to Greece and Albania. Oh, and also the one of the Christmas office trip we did to Soweto, and… I do believe that I may have some backups of those on another disk in SA though. So, for the time being I decided to do without the recovery process.
It was around 18:00 when Adri and I met up again back at the condo. Reading the news today I found the following article displayed prominently on the CCN home page:
“President Jacob Zuma defied the constitution when he used $15 million in state funds to upgrade his private home, South Africa's top court ruled Thursday. He must repay money spent on renovations unrelated to security, the Constitutional Court said. The National Treasury will determine the amount he must repay.”
And I thought, “Here’s your chance Pravin, make it count…” My further thoughts turned to the Guptas with a mental message to “start making out that cheque”.
Much goodwill will come from this, notably the rand had already strengthened from above 15 to below 15 to the dollar. The above article went on to quote the court:
“The constitution, rule of law and accountability is the sharp and mighty sword ready to chop off the ugly head of impunity.”
I say well done to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for standing up for the people of South Africa. Taking into consideration Zuma’s history of absolute vindictiveness, I fear that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng will not be called Chief Justice for much longer, but I sure do hope that I am wrong.