Daniel In The Lions Den

I was going to title this entry Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my, but that would be a lie, there were no tigers or bears. If I'd called it Lions and Cheetahs and Giraffe and Meerkat and Porcupine and Hyena and Zebra oh my that would have been more accurate but a little lengthy.

None the less that pretty much sums up what I did on my first day off in two weeks and it was great fun. We travelled to a small safari park on the outskirts of the city where we were invited to 'Touch-A-Cub' signs everywhere, even encouraging children to do it, it's a bit wrong isn't it! But how cute they are - they were so docile in the midday sun and really weren't bothered by our presence and 'touching' at all. We also got to pet a Giraffe but it's not the same as a lion, I mean it's neck is much longer for a start.

I finally got myself to a match as well, Argentina v Mexico, and it was a goody in the wake of England's dismal performance. What I particularly liked about it was the fans, lively and loud, but openly wanting to enjoy it with their oppositions. Seeing fans from two different teams take pictures together is something I think would never be seen in English football. The seats were excellent, just 10 rows from the pitch right on the central line thingy and it was also great to see footballing legend Maradonna strutting around and flashing a picture of his 1986 squad - much to the joy of onlooking fans!

The workload has finally stepped down from bonkers to manageable and I have to say some of the editors here are producing absolutely sublime stuff, I'm quite envious, but it's good to be in their company and glean a little knowledge from them. A team bonding night out bowling certainly helped ail some of the cabin fever that has been setting in of late and given the poor performance on my first round everyone was quite surprised when I doubled my score to come third in the second.

But this is where I'm at at the moment. Counting down the days!

On Your Bike

Well I decided to head out on a tour of the Soweto township on my morning off, it seems ridiculous to be in a country and be protected from what it might actually be like. Yes, yes, yes, I know it's 'in the interest of our safety' but a little bit of common sense and self-awareness surely (not two words I normally associate with myself).

We're picked up and taken out to backpackers, on the journey one of the party informs us he's not feeling well and could well have Malaria, he's concerned he hasn't taken his tablets for the last few days, he's a little prone to exaggeration so we ignore him.
The township covers an area of around 140km squared and has a population somewhere between 3.5 and 5 million people. It is hidden from view in Jo'burg by a range of massive man-made mountains, they are actually deposits from the gold mines apparently, and allegedly there are plans for them to be removed. FUN FACT: Jo'burg is the only major city in the world not to be on the coast or a river and was established because of the gold.
We choose our bikes and set off, apparently a lot of the money from the tour is fed back into the community, I only hope it is, at £60 for the day it's certainly not cheap and the first part of the community we visit certainly needs it.

There was much discussion as to whether a bunch of white tourists should be paraded through a very poor area of the city where people live in tiny and filthy living conditions - the waste and effluence on the ground was disgusting. I can see the argument but I believe if people don't see this for themselves they remain ignorant to the extremes of society. That said the people are infectiously happy and smiley and they just want to say hello and shake your hand the kids are particularly sweet.
It's a shameful legacy from apartheid that such a large community still live likes this, but we're informed by the tour guide that the rate in which conditions are improving are the greatest they have ever been, things like toilets and clean water supplies - the basic things we take for granted. We are invited to look around one of the homes, it's tiny, about the size of my kitchen and at one time as many as 5 people may have lived there. There's a thick stench of pot in the air so I decide not to stick around.

Later we are offered some local brews to taste - it's a large black bowl containing a local brew, we are informed it is incredibly rude to smell something before you are offered it - I'm handed the bowl and cautiously take a sip, it's much nicer than I expect, a bit like a watered down cider, we're then told it's very weak and that you'd probably have to drink 5 litres of the stuff for it to have any kind of affect. We're then offered some meat that has been prepared for us - I'm told it's 'head of cow, not the brains or eye or anything like that, it is the cheek', I haven't the stomach for this and decline, others are more bold.

After this the tour takes us into a more middle-class areas of the township, it's almost as if they want to shock us first, we visit Mandela's house, Winnie's (Mandela not Pooh) and finally Desmond TuTu's none of them are in, shame I bought muffins and quite fancied a cuppa. Finally we're taken to a local bar for late lunch, it's the most authentic place I've been since being here, locals are sat around and it's modest and unassuming. I wish we were able to take in more places like this whilst we are here, places that actually feel authentically African.

We return our bikes and sit in the sun listening to a band practicing for a gig while we wait for transport back, we're pretty sure we know the words to the song My Africa after the fourth time they've played it. After which they stop and the lead singer comes over and chats to us, I can barely resist the urge to ask him if he knows 'My Africa'.

Ding Ding

Well it's been a manic first week - hence the lack of posts. Having arrived and launched straight into work on a system that I needed some orientation with was a bit stressful to say the least - then the whole system failing on a grand scale produced a huge back load of work which I didn't deal with that well! But then a conversation with my great mate Bren and I realise it's time for a reality check.

After three days and 36 hours at work I'm grateful to shift onto slightly more sociable hours - late afternoon to midnight which means I have a chance to take the 'social shuttle' in the morning to one of the other districts of Jo'burg. It strikes me as you travel about that in this city you move from compound to compound, every one tells you it's unsafe to simply walk the streets, I can't conceive that people would actually be happy living like this and as if to prove otherwise all the local people we've met have been really friendly and genuinely so.

I started writing this a few days ago and I'm now actually ten days in to the work and am feeling as settled as I think you can in this sort of situation, I've even been amused by a few of the items on the menu at one of the restaurants we went to:
Personally I think I'd go for the man rump!

Also at dinner this evening I ordered a cocktail only to have it delivered in a teapot - novel!
I'm hoping to get out on a bike trip into Soweto in a couple of days time - then I might have some more interesting things to tell you!!

Out In Africa...

Well I’m finally here having endured my worse fear in the air, a plane full of Dutch people – well alright I’m not actually a ‘Dutch-hater’, although they were slightly annoying, what I’m actually referring to is the super-Jumbo A380 I flew out on from Paris – yes Paris not London to Jo’burg.

The accommodation is not exactly three star, well any star really, I climb the fire escape to get to my room – I don’t have to, it’s just quicker and more reliable than the lift, plus it’s only 3 floors up! But from the outside is does bare more than a passing resemblance to some of the prisons I’ve visited on my travels but hey the cells are serviced every morning! I will publish some pictures when I get chance to take some, I am slightly regretting my decision not to bring my SLR.

What I’ve seen of the city so far is interesting. It’s quite a tired looking city with a lot of dilapidated buildings dotted around the place. Although it’s only been a couple of days and what can you actually tell from the window of a bus that ships you along the same route every day?

The uniform is almost identical to previous years issue and not one that I intend keeping! However the work setup is pretty nice – brand spanking new Macs with the latest release of software, and while I certainly need some orientation round the system – I’m quite pleased I got in practice before I left and have an awesome bunch of guys and gals around me providing support.

Took the ‘social shuttle’ out to Sandton for dinner last night as apparently our area is far too dangerous to walk out in even during the day. No one has had a positive word to say about it – even out here, but I can’t help feel that we, at least a little, are victims of scare mongering, even if it’s for our own safety, there’s a certain feeling of box ticking going on.

As for the meal it was phenomenal, it was a restaurant combined with a butchers so you choose your meat and then have it cooked for you! I went for Surf & Turf, just gorgeous! (sorry veggies!!).

Well that’s it for now, I can’t see that this is going to be a daily report of drunken bawdiness simply owing to the circumstances, but watch this space and enjoy the football!!

A Nation Awaits...

...my arrival in South Africa. Ah how quickly life moves on suddenly it's World Cup time again and 4 years have flashed by, what have I got to show for it? Well a few more grey (distinguished I'll say) hairs, a hint more bitterness, alright a lot more bitterness and not much else, but at least I've finally got an excuse to write some nonsense on my blog once more!

I don't know what to expect in the next 5 weeks, some exciting, colourful and passionate football. A lot of hard work and some great banter with some top crew. Will it be like Valencia, Austria or Vietnam, doubt it, but it will be unique! Watch this space.

"Garcon! More free nibbles please"