Update on our lives

It appears that some people may not know the entirely current status of our lives, so here's a brief update to get people "up to some level of speed" with the (new) Johnstons:

• We own a flat (well, we own about 25% of it, and ABSA the other 75%)* in Westville
• I am presently the re-elected chairman of the trustees for this mixed commercial / residential complex
• Some guy from Israel and a few other wallies have made life in the complex a veritable hell for the other (and only honest) owners
• Amongst other things, property has essentially been taken and sold without our permission, rules have been broken (not minor things either, but rather serious things that are causing the residential units to lose real estate value or any potential rental income they may derive because no-one wants to live in the flats any more thanks to the unhappy climate and conditions), electricity has been illegally tapped off for the Thai restaurant (I better not mention the name... what's the capital of Thailand and what do you thwow at a wabbit?), our communal water supply is being used to drive the commercial ventures (and laundromats and restaurants use a lot of water, let's be honest), people ram gates when they refuse to sign for a remote control, and I've been threatened several times and assaulted because I am the chairman representing the Body Corporate in a High Court battle against the transgressors. 
• * The Thai restaurant and the Israeli oke own a portion now too, since they took some of it :-/

The High Court case is dragging on, is getting expensive (hundreds of thousands), and people are invading our private blogspace in order to get at us, so it's not pretty. Kat and I have decided to sell our flat (based on some divine guidance and also an understanding that we only have 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week and 365.25 days in a year and around 50 years left on this earth, so we realise that every minute counts, and it's not worth spending our skills, gifts, and energy on a cause that is so futile and insignificant in the grander scheme of things). We aren't running away from the problem, because the wheels of justice will still roll without me at the helm, but there's a process under foot to ensure legal and proper administration of the complex is taken over by a skilled and qualified attorney or Advocate - this will also relieve a number of the owners that are also victims of the dodgy behaviour of a dastardly money-addicted developer and restaurant proprietor.

Apart from that, life goes on for Kat and me. I still pine for USA and New York City in particular, and we've just had the pleasure of co-hosting someone from Boston for Katherine's work - a really cool guy called Paul Le'May. We took him around the place as best we could under our frail and sickly conditions, and hopefully exposed him to the better parts of South African (and in particular, Durbanite) culture.

It was quite interesting for me to realise that there's quite a bit to offer for tourists here but at the same time not so much to offer at an appropriate time. We managed to tackle the following:

• A bunny chow (must-have when visiting Durban)
• Skycar ride to the top of the Moses Mabhida Stadium (must-do when visiting Durban now, thanks to FIFA2010)
• Steers burger
• Moyo uShaka Pier at uShaka Marine World (we did this during the evening, and it really is fun driving through the old Point Road district where it's now cleaned up a bit; it was especially useful driving along the beachfront to uShaka Marine World and chatting about our history and how the neighbourhoods used to be dodgy and have been revamped, just to arrive at the rather inspiring water fountain just before uShaka).
• We also showed off the Cargo Hold restaurant and let him snap a few shots of the sharks

Paul also had the opportunity to travel around the Midlands / Drakensberg on his own over the weekend, and I gave him a baptism of fire on the laws of rugby in advance of the Sharks / Bulls Super 14 contest (pity we lost, but it was a thriller nonetheless - double pity that it wasn't on in Durban, because that would have been worth taking him to). I am mostly disappointed that we couldn't show off our very own Sunrise Chip 'n' Ranch "Johnny's" Roti!

One notable highlight was Paul's and my encounter with an overly zealous beachfront car-guard who offered us ladies and marijuana... naturally we declined and got out of there ASAP.

In the end, it turns out there's a lot of stuff to do in Durban, but most of it closes at 4pm during the week and is closed on weekends, so in my opinion it's not really tourist friendly, in particular if you have a local who's going to show you around, because they aren't accommodating for working people. Also, next time we would simply have to take a visitor to breakfast in Umhlanga because that's probably a great uniquely Durban experience (sunrise)!

Not so bad for Durban, and not so bad for just two days with the guy ... who knows, maybe one day we'll be offered similar hospitality on our way to Boston (and a repeat of the USA trip we've just had)...?