AGM for our complex 2009

Last night we held our AGM for our flat at the Westville Athletics Club.

A very abridged version:

I arrived and was greeted by a host of friends from church who were there to play soccer, which was awesome. I told them the story and got them to keep the meeting in prayer, and then went inside and set up.

AGM started off okay, with Mr. X (because that means WRONG) sitting polarised at opposite ends of the table to me. The only person he bothered to talk to was my buddy Justin and they seemed civil enough with one another.

When it came to my reading the Chairman's Report, Mr. X piped up "Excuse me, who says you're the chairman?" blah blah. I referred to the minutes of the meeting that his son and attorney (Kenneth Mustard) attended, and he started to shout and rave, so I said we'd minute his objections, and carried on.

When it came to the next agenda item - to accept the financials by made by the auditors - Mr. X again complained and said he objected and refused the Body Corporate to accept the audit since he was 51% shareholder. I then noted his objection and had it minuted but pointed out that he was still not entitled to vote because of his continued breach of the conduct rules, which allowed us to execute PMR 64.1.b on his ownership and prevent him from voting. He then got even more aggressive (probably because none of us took his childish tirades seriously), got on his phone (whether he phoned someone or not, we don't know), and said very loudly "It's me! Cancel the cheques! We are going to court", put his phone down, stood up - told everyone he'd bought the complex for R5 million, and sold his half for R12 million, and wouldn't mind putting R1 million down to fight us in court. He then called me a "little (pooh)" and began to leave. Everyone else became very aggressive at this point and shouted and heckled him and when he left, I think everyone kind of cheered and we carried on.


Ultimately, I received a good vote of support from everyone at the meeting, and in the end was re-elected as chairman for the Body Corporate, which I find to be quite an honour considering how things have been going with our complex.

All-in-all, it was a good meeting - and we certainly could feel God's hand over everything because we had lots of people praying for it, and we know that the way Mr. X behaved (and revealed his true colours) was more than just a handy coincidence.

To everyone who's continued to support us over the past few weeks and months and has offered us prayer support etc. we REALLY appreciate it, and we have no doubts that your prayers were in full force at the meeting last night.

The Best Man hits the big Three Oh

I know a little German. His name is Greg Landwehr, and thirty times three hundred and sixty five (and a bit) days ago, he was born a little skinny boy. Now he's oldehr, he's wisehr, he's marriedehr, he's Landwehr.

GUTENABEND MEIN THIRTY-YEAR OLD LANDWEHR!

Drac & Brattex, the reunion

Kai visited us a few weeks back; the first time I've seen the DooM2 loser since, well, I used to kick his butt at Barren Realms Elite (BRE), VGA Planets, and everything else to do with PCs. Um... We're talking 1997. 12 years. Phew.

Here's a picture of him and me. There's no picture deterioration here, we've just both hit 30.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiekitson/3385240545/

Oliver Bray 1988

Hectic! This guy was born 21 years ago, but I was already in Std 2!

Happy birthday dude - it's a great year, and we pray that it will continue to be a great milestone in your life. May you work forward alongside God and the blessings a relationship with him brings, and may you never have to look back! You've come a long way young padawan.

Keep strong!
BrYan & KateY

If we had a Book of Firsts...

The Botha family have something called "The Book of Firsts", where they record the first milestones in their home. Although they may not be the first with a book of firsts (this is up for some dispute, because back in 1997 we had our own varsity book of firsts - I had to make use of my lecture notebook somehow), they've made the most use out of theirs.

In the spirit of The Book of Firsts - and I doubt this one is in Oltman & Mary-Anne's book - we would like to record a milestone that we are sure no-one else will ever achieve, or even dare to achieve.

Let's present our very own...

THE BLOG OF FIRSTS

The (first) first we are proudly proclaiming is:

THE FIRST PERSON TO PLAY XBOX360 WHILE SITTING ON THE 'LOO.

And you'd be wrong if you thought this milestone belonged to me.

The logistics of sanitising while playing were not accomplished, so the game was paused momentarily while the sanitary procedures were followed. Now THAT is a milestone maybe I'll tackle one day...

SuperBru #6 moment of glory

I just have to share (read: gloat).

As of RIGHT NOW I'm in top spot on all three of my pools; including my $ pool (in line for R5,800 for first place).

Also, before last week I was in global pos # 386, before this weekend I made it to #297, and as of right now - out of 48,652 players - I'm in pos #111.

This is really phenomenal. I can score myself a plasma TV if I keep clawing my way to first place in the competition. Not so easy when there are 48,561 other players out there.

I'm just very excited right now. Week 6, and I'm smiling :) Kat must think I'm a superhero.

B

Allen Johnston, 1974. Happy birthday Big Brother!

Two weeks after my birthday, is my brother's birthday. Five years before my birth day, is my brother's birth day. I was apparently born two weeks immature or something, because I was due on the same date or thereabouts as my brother. I have film evidence of a pregnant mom taking my brother and his friends to a birthday party at the then-Seaworld to play with the dolphins etc. back in 1979 because they were wanting to get it done before I popped out. Boy did I surprise everyone, and I don't think I've been as early for anything else since.

Anyway, this post isn't meant to be about me, but my brother;

It's Allen Frederick Johnston's 35th birthday today, and he's on his way to 40... I can't actually believe it because it really does feel like almost yesterday that he was 26 and back in RSA for my 21st birthday, and it's been about ten years since then. And Max is getting on too. But again, this post is meant to be about my brother.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD TIMER (I think I can legitimately say that now) - hope you make it another 35 years ... hectic, that's crazy. I can't fathom the implications of how old he is yet!

Anyhow, hope it was a good one Allen, and we'll make up for all of the missed birthday celebrations together when you finally migrate back to RSA :)

God bless,
Bryan & Katherine

A horrible student interaction...

I don't know if I should be blogging this on my hopelessly boring personal ramblings blog (http://brattex.blogspot.com) or not at all, but this just had to be shared...

A student came into my office and asked me about flowcharts / pseudocode / algorithms, and while I sorted him out, I noticed this oke must have enjoyed a much-awaited gastrointestinal experience right in front of me. Subtly silent, mind, but not so subtly aromatic.

Suffice to say, I rushed him through with some garbled final-breath words, waved him off, and have hastily scrambled into my "climate-controlled" server room for a bit of oxygen.

It is such a vile stench that I've had to blog about it. I don't know what label to put here, but it's something worth sharing ... With everyone.

I didn't get his student number, so I can't advise you or warn you of his name, but I'm fairly confident you'd know who I'm talking about - you'd easily win the sleuth award by a nose.

Gonzalo Campero 1983

I know a little Spanish. His name is Gonzalo.

And on this day back in '83 a little guy by that same name; the same guy in fact; was born in Argentina.

Happy birthday our exotic architect friend!

With much love and affection; your South African friends, BrYan and KateY.

Preparing for our 9 hour roadtrip

Here we are. Up since 7am Thursday morning, with a 1 hour break at 1230am for a "power nap". We departed at 02h40 and made it to our destination in Cradock at 16h00 or so. That's almost 14 hours on the road. Insane. And that means over 24 hours with only about 1 hour of sleep.

It's now 21h30 on Friday evening, and I'm exhausted. The Chinese food - just the thought of it - makes me want to vomit; my stomach is violently unstable (as is Kat's) and we've been at it non-stop since Thursday 7am, with just a 1 hour reprieve at Friday morning. That means... 36 hours+ with no sleep. I'm hitting burn out. I've been told I won't be able to watch the rugby. I'm feeling sick. I want to go home.

And then I came to Paul and Val's farm (our hosts for the weekend). I got chatting, and soon uncovered an avid rugby fan in Paul, and a fellow superbru'er. Hurrah! Modern bathroom, modern kitchen, and they're bee-keepers, newly weds, and 20-somethings. Insane! I'm in heaven - I think Paul and me, we'll get along just fine :)

Wend'sDay

Wend'sDay on Thursday. Foon Lok Nien. Two small groups. Joe's. BrYan's. It was fun. We sang happy birthday for Wendy. The Chinese lady actually even said she was "blinging the lice" when we asked for rice - that was entertaining, but only for me it seems. Word of the evening: "Barbarious".

Peace.

Anticipation of a trip

Okay so Bryan has been hogging the blog spot for weeks and he's starting calling out anxiously whenever he is more than 2 meters from his blackberry so I think it's time I put in some effort and relieve him of his duties for a post :P

We are going on an adventure tonight/tomorrow morning (possible 2am...time to be confirmed by mom), a 9 hour drive to Craddock in the middle of the Karoo to attend and celebrate the wedding of cousin Jess to her Murray! We all agreed that we must go and it would be great to be there and see everyone, especially as Auntie Mary has been planning this for years! Anyway you know how sometimes you decide to do something without actually thinking it through? Well now we're all thinking through the logistics of driving for hours and hours (I don't think I have spent more than 30 minutes in a car with mom and dad since I was 16) and I think we are all wondering how we're going to manage especially with Bron and Brian bringing Gracie (2 years old) and Micaela (3 months old). Could be very scary...I know Bron has cold feet and even tried to break her car down but it didn't work as mom has offered them the Jetta.

Anyway we have a typical Johnston day full of hecticness...it started this morning at 6:40am (too early for me...Bryan got to lie in a bit longer) I had to get to work early to get some programming done then I went on a trip to Welbeducht (I can't spell it) but it's between Chatsworth and Mobeni...I love field trips for work...alsways nice to get out in the sunshine and see a new place. Now I've eaten a whole roll of XXX mints and I'm gearing up for racing out of work early to see a potential tenant at 3:30pm (Bryan's probably racing around between work and work), no idea what the interview will achieve or what to ask but then we are going to tear off to the Pav to buy wedding present and food for the trip...then we race home... get food ready and packed... get to Wendy's party, gobble Chinese (the food) and then race home... jump into bed so we can catch a nap before dragging ourselves out of bed at about 2am to get to Kloof for the start of our weekend adventure to the Cape!
If you ran out of breath reading that then imagine doing all that! I often wonder if I have limited organisation skills or capacity or if we actually are living a super hectic life...it's always so busy that I can only imagine someone is playing a prank and we live in a Truman world where clocks are mysteriously fast forwarding or everyone lives like this and actually I have a slowed up brain.

Anyway, I have now managed to kill some time before I have to go and I will be contemplating on the road whether to stick with my job or take up a new job offer so please pray for God to give me wisdom as I make that decision.

I'm sure Bryan is feeling the itch to start blogging any minute now so I'll log off before we have overlapping posts and wish you all a great weekend ...cos I don't have a Blackberry and am not a blogaholic ...yet :P.

Wendy Etchells 1986

On this day, back in '86, a girl was born into this world, and she was named Wendy.

Also, on this day, back in '86, I remember I was in a two week detention reading my newly purchased Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules set, because I was an accomplice in the bullying of Warren Jones. I wasn't really involved, I was just on the scene and wrongfully imprisoned. And I made the most of my incarceration by reading the D&D manual while my four hooligan friends (Steve Ash, Andrew Crofts, Marc van der Hulst, Russell Smith) would sit in total silence outside the principal's office. For them, those lunch breaks were a chore; for me, they were an opportunity to read. The teacher even tried to stop me reading because she realised I wasn't seeing it as a punishment, but a few intimidating stares of disbelief ("you want me NOT to read??") soon shut her up.

Uh, where was I? Oh yes - HAPPY BIRTHDAY WENDY ETCHELLS!! We look forward to dining with you tonight (anyone else want to close that off with a movie line from 300?) - and so stoked to be sharing in your amazing journey :)

God bless
BrYan & KateY

How small is this world?

Get this:

Yesterday I met up with an old friend - Kai Hendry - and started telling him about our High Court case and our woes with the Thai restaurant threatening to kill me etc. and he piped up (after patiently hearing my story) that his godfather is the father of the restaurant chain owner! How crazy is that? And to learn this all on the day of submitting papers for an urgent interdict!

And then today, I take Kat's car into Honda for a service, and who do I bump into, but Simon Taylor! Last time we saw each other was almost precisely two years ago at our Cowies Hill home for a Casino Royale birthday party. How insane!

This world gets smaller every day. Good thing there are more Honda cars out there now :) if only everyone owned one, we could catch up in the waiting room :)

Gary Lewis hits 30...

Hectic! What on earth is going on in June, people??

Okay, I know the answer to that, so please, let's not elaborate.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY LEWIS - you're 30, you're crusty, you're married, you're somewhere in Ireland... and nothing else has changed, right? Yeah, I know how you feel :) 30 is a little over-rated.

Enjoy managing your middle - the metabolism goes into hibernate mode at our age. These youngsters (our wives) wouldn't understand that, so they just keep feeding us the same old heart-attack-inducing oily and greasy foods.

Keep well, hope Sharon spoils you rotten with a cholesterol-free rice cake (at your age, you need that).

God bless,
BrYan and KateY