Blogs gone private

Well it's been a long time since our last post to this blog: sadly, it's been two months of silence and the main reason for this has been that a very sorry group of people have found it worth their while and  (apparently limitless time) to scour through our blogs and extract any tidbits of information that they can use to harass us and generally just cause headaches. Yes, these people are connected to our High Court case, so it's no surprise that they've resorted to this nefarious (and based on the logs indicating their time spent on the site and their browsing habits, also desperately sad) approach in order to somehow "gain the upper hand". In order to err on the side of caution, we've had to take our blogs "off the grid" for the time being, but rather than keep you all in the dark, and because of popular demand, we've opened it up to a select list of readers (you should feel honoured that you made the cut!).

Don't expect much coming from us at the moment anyway, because we've been so used to NOT posting news that it's going to require some changes of habit, and also Kat and I are both presently desperately sick, so we're not really in the mood right now :)

A lot has happened in the past two months, and hopefully over the course of the next several weeks we'll be able to catch those that care back up to speed!

Life :)

Aaah. What bliss! A peaceful trip down the coast and a welcome break from all the muck of the past week+ ...

Good friends, good rest, good food, good times!

And of course, I got to enjoy pretty much all of the Super 14 rugby action, and Kat / Steve had their fair share of RomCom's, and we indulged in a good night out (dinner & a movie) - The Book of Eli is as how I predicted it would be; Mad Max with a biblical twist (I'd give it a 6 out of 10... But that's a story for another time).

The verse for the weekend; Rom 12:1-4 ... Do not conform to the pattern of this world... renew your mind!!

What temptation it is to sell our flat and buy a beach house...

Peace out!

Twelve minutes means mighty fine

What started off as a lovely sunny day out together at Umhlanga beach has turned into a rather expensive excursion for us!
For the record, this is Kat's responsibility, not mine :) ... This had better not be coming out of my birthday budget!

Back into the swing of life in sunny RSA

Highly recommended! Woodrose in Hillcrest Heritage Market!

Final posts of holiday are up

The final posts (with more photo's than text) from our holiday blog are up:

Day 18 is up: http://bratandkat.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-18-san-francisco-penultimate-day-of.html
Day 19 is up: http://bratandkat.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-19-final-day-san-francisco-new-york.html

Hello World... I mean, South Africa!

A few milestones today!

First, it happens to be the FIRST day of 2010 that we have spent on African soil!

Second, I just realised... When we woke up earlier "this day" we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and now here we are back home in South Africa! How insane!!!

You see, our day started at around 10am on Thursday morning (that's about 8pm Thursday your time) and did a lot of sightseeing and exploring for the day.

The highlight was undoubtedly walking across the Golden Gate Bridge and watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean (around 5pm our time... 3am your time). After that we headed to our hotel where we shuttled to SFO International Airport.

We hit the flight from SFO to JFK around 11pm our time (9am your time on Friday) and landed in JFK 8am their time (3pm your time). From there we flew to JHB, and then DBN.

In other words, our body clocks started flying 1130pm Thursday, and landed 36 hours later on Saturday 1130am. In reality we were up since 10am so add on another 13 hours or so, and we've been awake for almost 40 hours with 6 hours' worth of naps (they were never long or good enough to be termed "sleeps").

What amazes me - and maybe it's just the tiredness talking - is that earlier in our "woken day", we were in San Francisco, checking out Golden Gate Bridge, before flying to JFK, and then off to JHB and finally, DBN.

How small this world has become!!

Final Day

Goodbye USA!

We are presently sitting at JFK awaiting the boarding call for SA flight 204 to JHB. The time here is 7 hours before the time on this post (US Eastern time). We took off from San Francisco around 10:20pm Western Time (is it Pacific Western time?), and landed here 6am'ish in JFK. It was about 6 hours of flying, but it was actually very comfortable - the Boeing 757-3 cabin flight we were on had ample leg room (even for under-seat storage AND legs), and the arm rests folded all the way back. It was very pleasant! Best flight I've ever had. Congratulations to United Airlines!

Day 19 (Final Day) - San Francisco - New York

Well everyone, it is with great sadness that I type this final post and bring an end (almost) to our USA 2009/2010 holiday. It's been a wonderful experience and made even moreso by my trusty travel companion, my sweet BlackBerry Katherine. Since this is going to be a long "day" (wake up 10am on Thursday morning, land in Durban 11:30am Saturday), we will do our best to keep the post as close to a picture-story (with captions) as possible, for your reading pleasure. For those that have endured my lengthy accounts of our holiday, thank you for taking the time - it was a joy feeling like people that we value were sharing in our day-to-day adventures. Thanks too for your comments!

Day 18 - San Francisco (Penultimate day of our holiday)

Stayed up late last night to get ideas about camcorders, but got up 8:50am to escort Kat to work. I have to say, it's quite a romantic experience for me to know that we don't have to rely on our own transport to/from work, and that it's actually safe enough for Kat to go to/from work on her own too. Nonetheless, it's awesome to just get up, go with her on the bus, and then come home, and know she's going to be fine. The proximity to the bus stop from our hotel also helps immensely.

San Francisco has all sorts of funky people.

Check this girl with her devil's ears and tank goggles...

TRAVEL TIP: it's a good idea to book hotels near to metro stations (if you intend to use the metro a lot) and to buy a muni-pass; it saves you a lot of time! Prime reason to discriminate about choice of hotels!

Days updated to day 15

All days are updated to day 15 - check them out!

Day 13: http://bratandkat.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-13-la-lost-africanos.html
Day 14: http://bratandkat.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-14-driving-up-pacific-coast.html
Day 15: http://bratandkat.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-15-pacific-coast-to-san-francisco.html

I'll try to get the rest up to date ASAP, but it's more difficult without a laptop during the day (while Kat is working).

Day 17 - San Francisco (Kat's first day of work)

Woke up 8am to get Kat ready on time for her first official day of work (and the wonderful reason why we have had this holiday at all).

We missed the bus by half a block so we had to take the next one, but made it to her work in CHINA BASIN about ten or fifteen minutes late (ie. 9:45am'ish). Work seems to start at around 9am or 9:30am in SFO.

Day 16 - San Francisco

Woke up 8:45am and was ready and out by 9:15am to pick up and return car. The hotel doesn't offer breakfast but does do complimentary cookies all day, as well as tea / coffee in the reception hall. I suppose there's pro's and con's to this method.

Not dressed properly for the weather in SFO though, because it was still rather chilly and we were in T-shirts (no jackets), so we hot-footed it back to the hotel.

Kat needed a nap because she was still exhausted from the long and stressful drive, so I put her to bed and then hit the wifi internet (freaking fast ... Must be 20mbps again but I haven't tested it here) to plan our day and also update the blogs. Kat managed about forty minutes before she was woken up.

Days 8 and 9 posted (and now 10)

Hello from brisk San Francisco!

We've updated posts for Day 8 and Day 9 (and now Day 10) - check them out - more to come as we find time!

Time to explore San Francisco!

Day 15 - A picture story of San Francisco

I know I blog a lot. I find my blog posts to be more of a diary account for our benefit than a reading experience for those that actually are brave enough to read this blog. I apologise for being long-winded, so to update on our first day (evening, actually) in San Francisco, I intend only to post pictures with little captions! Perhaps I should have attempted this method a lot earlier? Sorry for the inconvenience!

Day 15 - Pacific Coast to San Francisco!

This Masterpiece motel continues to impress! Fresh orange juice, hot chocolate, and even hard-boiled eggs and cinnamon chelsea bread for breakfast!

When we were packed and done, we left +-9:30am (that's pretty early based on our track record) and topped up on gasoline at the AM/PM. It cost $2.99 a gallon, and it's all self-service. When I asked for help in the station shop the lady almost fell over!

Fuel-drenched and summarily humbled by how much we take for granted in South Africa, I proceeded to use the change from the gas cash deposit (no credit here!) to purchase my next big American delicacy, a corn dog. On special for 79c, I enjoyed a cheesy jalapeno corn dog on a stick. I have to admit it was pleasantly good, but again I fear the oily snack would reduce my lifespan by several decades! As a rare novelty, it's a bargain at 79c!