Boxes (sic) Day

I asked Sandra why the day after Christmas was called Boxer's Day. Sandra is very useful sometimes because she knows everything. So she told me very emphatically :

"All public holidays the day after another public holiday are called Boxes' Day ... and it has nothing to do with all the empty boxes left over from Christmas!"

later...

Stevie is now blogging

Stevie is now blogging from Thailand.

..and the verdict is out; it has won the "Best New Pillemer Blog of December 2006"!

Check it out at: link.

Me... I am very tired most of the time as I am suffering from cortisone withdrawal. I have been off it nearly a month; which means hopefully I will have more energy to do something else apart from work, sleep and eat.

Enjoy the holiday season.

later...

4 firsts, 1 second

And my university marks this year are...

COS301Y Theory of Computer Science 076 Passed
COS3114 Advanced Programming 080 Passed
COS3216 Operating Systems 080 Passed
INF303D Database Principles 083 Passed
INF305F Software Practise 061 Passed

Not bad, considering....

later...

Jonx brings it to the internet....

Jonx is now online. His internet site is still in the beginning stages; but he now has digitial portfolio available to the world.

Check it out at http://www.jonx.pillemer.co.za.

Congrtulation Tracey on graduating from law school!

And keep your open for future pillemer.co.za websites that are on their way....

later...

The Purple Cow Tournament...

I just received the following email for an idea I submitted ages ago... and after watching it for a while - thought no-one had liked it. Well looks like its popularity increased unbeknownst me!

That’s right ilAn,

Your idea Pandora's Secrets has been selected for the big show – the Purple Cow Tournament!

How it works

Every month 16 of the top community ideas are selected to compete in the upcoming tournament. Each week, ideas are paired off to battle one another with the winner advancing, and the loser dropping out. After four weeks, the top idea will emerge and is declared the tournament winner.

What’s in it for the winner?

Besides the obvious fame and glory from winning such a prestigious tournament, winners will be forever immortalized in the Hall of Champions on the as well earning a Cambrian House Market Test.

Next steps

Prepare your idea for battle. Check your title. Double check your description and inspiration to make sure they are as compelling as possible.

Good luck!

Make sure you tell your friends and family your brain child is in the tournament and get their support. All they have to do is register:

http://www.ideawarz.com/login

And then vote!

http://www.ideawarz.com/tournament/matchup/49

The honor is all ours. Best of luck in the tourney.

Your tournament host - JR

dictionary navel gazing....

In the English dictionary the following words are those in which the string 'ilan' is contained; but neither begins or ends the word...

ailantery ailanthic Ailanthus
ailanthus ailanthuses ailantine
ailanto aphilanthropy assailants
Bashilange bilander bilanders
Cheilanthes chemosterilants cilantro
cilantros defailance demilance
demilancer dilaniate Dilantin
dilantin failance filander
filanders Guilandina hypervigilantly
hypervigilantness invigilance invigilancy
jubilance jubilancy jubilantly
jublilantly koilanaglyphic Maorilander
milanaise Milanese milanese
Milanion Milanov Milanville
minilanguage multilaned nonphilanthropic
nonphilanthropical nonsibilance nonsibilancy
nonsibilantly nonvigilance nonvigilantly
nonvigilantness Philander philander
philandered philanderer philanderers
philandering philanders philanthid
Philanthidae philanthrope philanthropian
philanthropic philanthropical philanthropically
philanthropies philanthropine philanthropinism
philanthropinist Philanthropinum philanthropise
philanthropised philanthropising philanthropism
philanthropist philanthropistic philanthropists
philanthropize philanthropized philanthropizing
philanthropy Philanthus philantomba
pilandite prevailance previgilance
previgilantly pseudophilanthropic pseudophilanthropical
pseudophilanthropically psilanthropic psilanthropism
psilanthropist psilanthropy semilanceolate
sibilance sibilancy sibilantly
sibilants silanes silanga
Spilanthes subsibilance subsibilancy
subsibilantly supervigilance supervigilantly
Thailander theophilanthrope theophilanthropic
theophilanthropism theophilanthropist theophilanthropy
Thilanottine unjubilantly unphilanthropic
unphilanthropically unvigilantly vigilance
vigilances vigilancy vigilante
vigilantes vigilantism vigilantist
vigilantly vigilantness Ypsilanti
zeilanite

Almost December

Grafs in Jerusalem Pillemer home
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Almost December. I am almost off the cortisone, all going well. Its almost time to go to bed. I am almost writing a long blog.

Grafs and Granny

Grafs and Granny
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Exams are over. I am tired. Its hot in Durban. Sandra is learning violin again. Sandra has just shown me her favourite toothbrush. Its a kind that is rare to find. She tells me that if I see any - in any shop - I must buy 12 immediately. One for every month.

Well, this cheered me up a little.

As I mentioned in my post last night I was not very happy with my second Unisa exam (INF 305). Whilst I was sitting writing the exam I was very dissapointed with the format as it was not what I had expected. 55% of the exam were questions like "List the 6" and "Name the 4" etc etc etc. It was obviously expected that the exact wording was to be filled in for each point. I had not memorised all the many many lists. I had memorised a few which had seemed to be important. Of course not one of the lists I had memorised came up; and many of what had seem arbitrary lists did. I tried my best; and upon looking at the text book I would get one out of three; 2 out of 4; four out of seven; one out four; 4 out of 4 (uncommon) etc etc 0 out of x was common. I think I may have got 50% (or a little bit less) for that section. The second question also had a 8 mark bit that needed me to first know a list of four; and then discuss. I think I got two-and-a-half out of the four. And the rest, since we had never been actually marked on a case study in an assignment; was unclear to me if I had answered in the expected way or not. So all in all - very iffffffffffffy. very very. very very very.

The guy sitting to my left in the venue. I will never forget his anger. About half and hour before I ran out of space he gave up...

(Yup... We had to answer the question on the question paper itself; and there was not so much space on the paper. Once I had filled in all the space available; including writing very small on the bottom of the pages - I thought.. what can I do now... and left the venue. (Half and hour early.) )

Anyway... the guy sitting to my left. He had stopped half and hour (or maybe more) before I strolled out of the venue. I only noticed his angst about half and hour before I finished. He had stopped. Put his paper neatly in front of him. He had crossed his arms and was staring directly in the empty space in front of him. He was very angry. Very angry. I think his eyes had become two tiny hard little red vortexes. And he did nothing else. Just stared in anger. I left him like that.

Today I went to the Unisa message board to see if that there had been a reaction. And boy had people cried and thrown their toys and screamed and swore. Take a peak....

Page 1 of complaints.
Page 2 of complaints
Page 3 of complaints.

But the nicest effect of all the toy throwing were these two responses from Unisa.

Re: The irony cup runneth over.

Posted by: TvD (Moderator)

Date: October 13, 2006 08:25PM

yes I agree that written assignments is a requirenment and I did get a number of voluntary written assignments from A01 to A05.

Anyway we are not monsters and I will take the comments into consideration when marking the exams - I will first discuss, and then consider letting Q2 count more for those students that did not do well in Q1 - as far as I am concerned Q2 is a better test of the academic requirements for your final year than Q1

Quality of design notations is strongly related to choosing between them.

TvD

Re: The irony cup runneth over.

Posted by: TvD (Moderator)

Date: October 16, 2006 09:45AM

After discussions with the School's Director we have found a solution that will satisfy those who are unhappy about the omission of mcq's from the exam, as well as those students that are unhappy about the cramped answering spaces for Q1

We will use another mcq mark that is available to us for each student
individually, as a substantial addition to Q1

This is unfortunately all I can say so please do not ask me to elaborate on this any further

TvD

So... anyway... tomorrow is my next exam.
I have only prepared by reading through the text book and going through the assignments and a past paper. I would get 100% for the past paper and the assignments; so I have a chance.

Tomorrow morning I will read through the study guide grab my pens and go for it.

I am not as prepared as I am normally am for exams; but I think under the circumstances I will not feel guilty or bad about that.

oh...

And then into hospital; to have an infusion into my birthday... well so it goes

Tzoras

I have had Tzoras of late. Swaziland went well but I worked about 12 hours a day; and slept very little getting everything done. On the plane on the way home I saw the dreaded petichiae on my arms. I arrived home; and had to tell poor Sandra (who spent the whole day baking chalah and preparing for the Sabbath) that I was not going to be sleeping at home tonight - but that I had to be rushed into hospital. I stayed in hospital until after Yom Kippor. Whilst in hospital I got authorisation for the monoclonal antibody treatment that worked so well two-and-half-years ago. Its a weekly 12 hour intravenous infusion which is described in the medical aid codes as a chemotherapy infusion. I have also decided to try and write my UNISA exams that just happen to be right now. I feel confident about the first exam but very dissapointed with the second one. I was caught off guard by the format as I was expecting a different format and had studied to pass the format and not what I ended up having to confront. I have worked out that it is theoretically possible for me to scrape through it - so I have not given up hope in it yet. But it would not be a rude surprise if I end up with a supplementary for the second paper. My third paper is on the same day as my next infusion. So I will go to the exam venue and head straight from the exam venue to the hospital. The medication and the cortisone (I am still on dramatically large doses. Today I took 50mg) really effect my concentration and moods which adds more difficulty with the studying. I am no where ready for the Tuesday exam; and its Sunday night... After I finish this blog I will return to study a bit more.

I now am going to write out an extract from diary recorded in hospital on Yom Kippor 2 October.

My tooth aches. I am sitting in the hospital Oncology ward and I am smelling like some kind of sweet sweaty smell that I find a little nauseating. I want to bath and I have even set up all neatly on my new freshly made bed a shirt, shampoo and a toiletry bag. I only found the shampoo today; but it must have been there with my things since I got here. I got angry and frustrated again this morning when I discovered that the doctor had not remembered to put down the requirement that I have blood count taken for my platelets. The sister in charge did not now want to have the count taken as a result. This kind of ridiculousness, maybe because of the added emotional side-effects of the cortisone, is so frustrating it feels like physical pain. Not that I don't have enough physical pain from the toothache. Why did a filling have to have fallen out at the exact moment that I end up in this place of death? I don't want to get back into bed again until I have a bath. Again this is frustrating me. I am only connected via a drip to saline solution. It is not important and I could easily be disconnected to allow me to clean myself. But the attendant, I don't think she is a nurse; did not obviously feel the need to listen to my request and told me I could clean myself later. Some of these people have power and are too careless with it. I guess I could make a fuss again. But creating a nuisance of myself with so many suffering people all around me feels so spoilt and badly behaved that I end up feel depressed and ugly about my behaviour. I have been endlessly difficult over the last few days because the fancy computerised Baxter drip has not been working as it should; and almost definitely the saline solution would infuse instead of the immunoglobulins. Each time this happened (and it happened a number of times) at first the attendant sister would not believe me; and I would have to wait 2 hours seeing the system not working properly before calling a nurse again. Since it was not working properly the volume on the immunoglobulins would not have decreased over this period and I could then say to the sister :- "Look at the volume. Look at the time. Its meant to be half-finished. Look!" But this would still not work immediately. For at first they would be blind to reality. They would like at the computer display and not at the volume in the polygam; show me the computer display and say:- "See... its working."

At this point I would need to become slightly more forthright in explaining to the sister the problem. Trying desperately to get her to use her eyes. Eventually they would see the reality (since it was unarguably obvious that nothing had infused from the polygam and much had infused from the saline) was on my side; the problem would be recognised and then fixed. But not without me first having to make a noise and then feel ugly about it. My tooth is aching again. Its bringing back memories of 1995/6 when I was backpacking in the Sinai desert, Dahab, and got unbearable toothache. It got so bad that slept until pain woke me up; and then stayed awake until exhaustion overrode the pain. It was a weird kind of equilibrium. The clean bed before me is very inviting; but, I really want to be less smelly before I get into the hospital bed zone again. The hospital-bed-zone is a strange kind of place where time drifts... Bad toothache again. Yom Kippor. What a day to be in hospital. Day of Affliction. Well at least I am afflicted and in torment. How appropriate. The toothache is beginning to give me a headache. The doctor did not care about the toothache. Its not why I am her patient I guess. Not being able to bath is also beginning to drive me to distraction. I created a fuss yesterday getting the basic line into my vein changed to a J-loop. A J-loop can be disconnected, allowing me to bath. And naturally, once a line had been created into my vein, it is a huge effort to change to a different kind of line. And then when it was done, something went wrong, and it was leaking; and a more senior nurse had to be fetched to fix it. Eventually this was resolved making it possible for me to bath. So... Now I am sitting here, with a tooth-ache, with a J-Loop; wanting to bath and unable to because no one feels like "disconnecting" me from the Baxter.

The doctor has prescribe me oral cortisone. She also insists that the cortisone must be an ethical and not a generic due to some problem with my illness and the binding agents used in the generics. However when she passed the prescription on to ward she did not make a note of this; and then I found myself presented with the generic medication after being given specific instruction not to take the generic. It is a constant deja-vu. Just like the regular omission not to put my name on the list to test my blood for its platelet count in the morning.

I am thankful I don't have a brain tumour like the man lying in the bed next to me. He kept talking in his sleep all night. I do not know if he makes more sense awake or asleep. The other guy here does not appear to talk unless calling for more morphine due to unbearable pain. I think the man that was in his bed a few days ago died. I am not 100% sure; but they cleared him out and made his bed about 11pm Friday night. So unless he was suddenly being rushed to ICU; he died. I think he died. Three weeks ago when I was in the hospital I saw one of the patients die. He coughed and died. My platelet count was taken hours ago and must have been returned to the ward; but no-one thinks to tell me the result. The toothache is getting worse. I can feel the nerve all the way to my ear and forehead. It pulses with a pain. The pain does pause; and then suddenly goes sharp. Someone had just brought in some ice-cold water for next to my bed. It looks and feels like an instrument of torture. I know what the cold water will do the toothache; just looking at it produces pain. A nurse came in to ask if she could get me anything; I asked to be disconnected so I can go have a bath.

so it goes...

I am going into hospital again tomorrow morning for another treatment.
They give it to me over twelve hours through a drip. I will sleep over
in the hospital.

I also have two Unisa exams. One on Thursday and one on Friday. I have
not even started learning properly because of the chaos. I am still
intending to write the exams; and will be taking the material for the
exam on Friday with me to hospital; and I read through the text book
for the exam on Thursday over the weekend.

geez.

Sandra is busy packing presents she is sending out to lucky recipients and there is a beautiful Jazz being played. I think its Jazz.. it might not be; I am not very good at distinguishing genre. Maybe its Latin American. I had better ask.

"Sandra, what kind of music is this?"
"I don't know..."

Oh well.. Its nice and I am enjoying it.

I went back to work today; and one of the rituals of returning to work after an absence longer than just a few days is one has to go through a ritual at the surgery at the mill. This involves mostly sitting and waiting in the waiting room; and watching people with damaged feet or carrying packages of AIDs medicine walk past you. I must have sat there for at least two hours; but, I was wise enough to have brought my iPod. So I sat there listening to music and chilling out. I was leaning forward elbows on my knees and looking downwards... and I could not believe my eyes. I suddenly realised I was wearing two different kinds of shoes. Luckily they were both black. We went to my parents for dinner tonight and I showed everyone my silly shoes. My father told me, he once went to work (many many many years ago) wearing one brown shoe and one black shoe; after getting dressed in the dark not to disturb my sleeping mother. My mother then told me; that she at work today had an individual sitting in the room wearing his shoes the wrong way round. Yip. He was wearing his left shoe on his right foot and his right shoe on his left foot. She said this made it very difficult to concentrate every time she looked up and saw him.

Its getting close to midnight...

later....

www.ilan.pillemer.net

Its a bit boring at the moment....

But now I have my own website. I have a little bit of space on a server and apparently scripting and database usage.

Check it out... www.ilan.pillemer.net

later....

It's just passed midnight.... and Sandra is sitting working on her puzzle. I mean literally. She is sitting on the puzzle itself; well kneeling with her hands supporting her as she contemplates the puzzle and its pieces. Occasionally picking up a piece; whilst leaning on one hand and looking at it and the rest of the puzzle. And then stopping for a moment and then returning the piece; shifting a bit so she is leaning sideways a bit as she almost find a piece. The TV is on in the background but no-one is actually watching. Sandra is now lying sideways on the puzzle her knees bent a little as she examines a bluish piece of the puzzle.

Tomorrow I will decrease the cortisone by 5mg again; making tomorrow's dosage 50mg. Its a lot. It makes my head always feel little stretched and the insides taut - like as if there are strings tied to the insides of my ears; and a very small nasty goblin is sitting crosslegged in the middle of mind pulling the strings tight so that my head hurts. The drug also has the effect of making my mind jump very quickly; and getting distracted - which means I keep leaving things half finished. I discover cups of tea I was making etc all the time. My mind also spins on an idea obssessing on it but not necessarily progressing in the thought itself. This is most problematic when I want to go to sleep. If nothing is worrying me that fine I can just drift in my spinning thoughts like a leaf in the wind and fall into a cortisone sleep. But if something is worrying me I can end up not sleeping at all. Either way I don't get deep sleep. I sleep but its almost as if I don't get refreshed from the sleep. And I know from past experiece I will start developing rings under my eyes. Anyway enough self-pity.

I have been using this time off work, the Doctor has said I should only return to work on Monday; immersing myself in my computer. I have finally got Gnus set up and have made it my news and mail reader; and I also have been improving my Emacs familiarity. I have over the last year slowly been using Emacs more and more. It was recommended to me by a UNISA lecturer for a 3rd year course on Advancing Programming. But slowly I have been using it for more and more and more; and becoming more and more familiar with its use. Its reached the point when I am getting frustrated when using other tools such as Word or whatever because I can't do easily what I now have become accustomed to. It may seem strange to become accustomed to pressing shift-alt-> to move the end; or alt-; to make a comment... or alt-Q to reformat text.... but I have. I also have been working a bit at getting my latex2e skills up to scratch to make it my main text processor (from within Emacs of course). Who knows maybe I will write some poetry or prose again; I haven't done that since 2000. hmmmm....

Sandra is now curled forward on top the puzzle her feet tucked under her knees tucked under her arms with her elbows on the table closely examining an area of the puzzle.

I went to mincha and ma'ariv prayers this evening for the first time since I fell sick. I was blown away by the smiles on the faces of the people there when they saw me. I was warmed up by the kindness and good will that filled up the shul.

Sandra has stopped with the puzzle and is closing doors and windows and things....
later....

Well, there it went again, my bubble.... pop.

... and I got the flue, and it triggered my ITP and I found myself rushed into emergency and plugged into a drip and staring at a television screen. I am now back on the huge cortisone dosage of 60 mg a day and feeling it throughout my body, mood and mind. Its not a easy thing to keep up the smile and accept the things that one has to bear with equanamity and peace. But this is my challenge today and over the next few months as I fight to get this monster back under control again.

At least I am out of the hospital and in my home again.

later....

Sandra is working hard at her 5000 piece puzzle. She has been working at it for over a year now; and over the last week she has been highly determined in her puzzling. And she has now completed over half the puzzle. The weather yesterday was horrific when I drove home. The rain was pouring down cats and dogs and there had been many accidents. The roads were all jammed up. I found out today that Rabbi had been trying to get down Ridge road to shul and was caught in the traffic. He had had to drive onto the pavement to get out of the traffic; in order to get his car off the road before Shabat arrived! I had been caught in same traffic (albeit an hour earlier for an hour and half); and I could see it was getting worse and worse at that time. (I was stuck for half an hour in the middle of an intersection with cars hooting at me continuously). Once I was at home I relaxed and enjoyed the sound of the pouring rain. When you able to inside and comfortable I find the sound of rain very comforting. I saw Steven on TV this week! Stevie made it onto one of the most popular South African tv programmes. Its a candid camera type production in which the "team" plays pranks on celebrities. Stevie was part of the team playing a prank on the South Africa Springbok scrum half - Neil de Kock. I laughed out loud .

later...

I am listening to music, and somewhere in the home Sandra is studying epidemiology. The weather is slowly warming up and the days have started lengthening. I can feel the edges of summer arriving. My nose is itching and my left ear is thinking about itching. A sure sign of the beginning of Spring.

Good night.

I am writing this using writely... hmmm

later...

Pillemer Clan

Pillemer Clan
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

A nice group shot of the Pillemer clan and their grandmother. Its a pity Sandra and Terri were elsewhere when the picture was taken. And Tracey was taking the photograph. If you click here you will find some more pictures of Pillemers and some pictures from the wedding snapped by Jonx and Tracey.

Oh.. and if you're into geneaology check out the Pillemer Family Tree website.

later...

Wedding pics and a fun game...

Yip Terri has posted some of her and Robbie's wedding pic picks! Check them out here.

And for a little but of fun....
Dave Gilbert's The Shivah

.. later

And I was not even surprised...

Last night at about 10 pm there was a lot of commotion in the house at 316 Cato Rd. Maurice was checking every drawer over and over again. Where could the friggin' keys be? Jacky was planning on taking the car to go off towards Eshowe to visit an old friend. He had the directions; and he was checking for the keys. And where were they?

Well.. Sandra asked "Don't you have a spare set of keys?"

And there were.... But no spare immobilizer. Car keys are not very useful if the car won't start with them.

Eventually through a lot of discussion it was clear that the last time the car had been used it was by Stevie.

So....

With some trepidation my father picked up the phone and called Cape Town.

"Hi Jonx..."
"Hi Dad."
"You wouldn't have the car keys for the Chico with you?
"I seriously doubt it Dad."
"Could you just check.."
"Hmmm... well if they were anywhere they would be in Stevie's bag which is in his car. And I don't have keys for the car at the moment."
"Well, can you figure that out, check and call me back."
"OK"

We keep searching and searching.

The phone rings again.

"Umm.. Dad.. Well. Umm..."

Yip. They had the keys. They took them with them to Cape Town!

My mother had smoke coming out of ears.

When I left last night, Jacky and my father were waiting for the Automobile Association (AA) to arrive to see if they could disconnect the immobilizer. If that succeeded they would still have needed to go to a locksmith this morning, before leaving, to get the petrol tank open!

I wonder if Jacky managed to get to Eshowe today?

And I was not even surprised...

Some notes from within Israel...

And for some blogging from within Israel check out these blogs....

Powerblogger
An unsealed room

A round up...
Israeli Bloggers

And others...
Not a Fish
IsreallyCool
Dry Bones Blog
On the face
Balagan
Israpundit
Jew School
At ground level
Israel Matsav
Abba Gav"
The view from here

Notes on the current Middle-East crisis from inside Lebanon and Cyprus

Here are some English blogs from Lebanon and people that are there; or, on the way out to Cyprus and futher. Very fascinating to hear about the stories that are not coming via conventional media. The Israel thoughts and feelings I know because I have lived there and I have family and friends there. But not so Lebanon; and it is interesting to hear from people out there and their opinions and thoughts. Worth a peek....

Thawrah's Den
Beirut Notes
Middle East Politics
Cold Desert
Beirut Spring
Manamania
Kerblog

later...

Evening thoughts....

Well its about quarter to eleven on Saturday night, and I am sitting in my study using my Linux system, listening to Galgalatz, an Israeli radio station. Half-understanding the regular news broadcasts in my broken Hebrew, and enjoying the music. I have spent most of the weekend in bed, hoping to throw off the flu before it gets me down. I had a sore throat and a woozy feelings on friday, so I went to bed and only got out Sunday midday. I have found that this bed rest can work magic against illness. And I was asleep most of the time so my body was not under pressure to do normal activities. My Israeli family is in South Africa at the moment. Unfortunately I have used up all my leave days, and so I cannot take any time off work to play and enjoy the company. But almost every evening I have joined them for dinner and conversation which has been wonderful. I miss living in Jerusalem. Work had been a drag lately. I am a bit worried about the situation in the middle-east. I don't like the fact that hostilities started on the 17 Tammuz. Sandra tells me not to worry that its a minor rise in temperature and won't last longer than another week. I hope she's right. I feel nervous, like Israel is being led into a trap set by Iran. It feels like she is being pulled like a puppet into this war that is being started by Iran through its proxies in Gaza and Lebanon.

I will probably go to work tomorrow as the bed rest seems to have helped. I am also very pleased with my success in getting a Linux desktop up and fully functional.

Sandra is sitting in the Living Room, puzzling at her 5000 piece puzzle. She has been working on it every night for months now; and finally it is beginning to take its proper form. I am looking forward to her finishing it so I can get the use of the coffee table back. It has been unusable for a very long time now, and I can hardly remember what it looks like.

Nights in White Satin is playing on the radio, and I feel bed calling me...

later....

Robbie married, and I spoke....

Here is a copy of the speech I made at Robbie's wedding. Well almost. There were some last minute changes. Only one story of the two about Robbie as a child were described; and a little bit was added about Robbie's sporting prowess. This is a copy of the speech the night before the wedding; and, not the morning of the wedding. But its pretty almost the same. If you want to see the real thing you will have to wait for the DVD release.

Also there are grammar mistakes etc in the speech that obviously I corrected when presenting it at the wedding.

...

"Hello.



For those of you who don't know who I am - I am Ilan, Robbie's elder brother.

This is the ninety-seventh version of this speech, the earlier versions sounded distinctly like something covered in hearts that you might find at Cardies's cards and later versions like philosophy ideas at university. Terry told me diplomatically that best man's speech is, and I quote , "humorous and not soppy. It takes a good natured dig at idiosyncrasies or past behaviour of the groom." My father said get rid of the schmaltz; and my mother use short sort sentences with words with no more that three syllables in them.

So on that note I turned to my family for help. And there was an explosion of stories of Robbie's idiosyncrasies and past behaviours that had us all laughing about moments in his childhood and youth and what a smorgasbord of flavours. My mother's favourite humorous memories revolve around two epigrammatic phrases out of Robbie's young mouth. The first one dates back to when Robbie was two and 5 sixths of a year old. My parents are great nature lovers and now they had decided that we were old enough to give us what they considered a great privilege and present. We were all taken Tendile, in the Northern berg in the amphitheatre which is a truly special place in the Royal Natal National Park. A place where all there is to is walk and talk. Well we walked for a one day; we walked for half of the second day… we were out far for everywhere when Robbie decided that this was it. This situation could not continue any more. And Robbie took control. Now everyone, take a second… Everyone look at Robbie; now I want you to imagine him almost three years old and about as high as your waist. Now little Robbie sits down…. Plonk… on the ground and says clearly and with absolute certainty – "Me too little. Me no walk"… And that was the end of the holiday. He had to be carried home and we left Tendile the next day.

This following bit was cut out of the speech as we decided it did not provide any real addition to the flow of the speech and was just a non-sequitur - but it is still amusing for anyone who is interested in the last minute changes to the speech..

{The second phrase that my mother never forgot happened when Robbie approached her and asked her to make him some sandwiches for school. My mother told him make his own sandwhiches. And then little Robbie stood firm arms akimbo and said..
"You know, the problem with this family is that there are two fathers."}

Who knew in when Robbie was a little child that he would come so far? Because he has come far, an up and coming advocate, is now married to the most beautiful, intelligent and caring young woman, have such good hair and teeth. Some people might think from these two stories that Robbie lacked ambition and did not want to do things for himself. Not true, it shows he knows how to use his mind, come to a logical conclusion and apply it effectively. Case in point: Robbie has never lost his marbles, on the contrary they are still piled up in many huge massive plastic containers in Durban still. In fact not only has Robbie never lost his marbles he in fact has everyone else's marbles. Robbie cleaned the entire middle school out of marbles. Robbie had learnt to think out of the box. He would set up a small circle of super duper fancy shmancy marbles at the bottom of the grandstands at the school field. Then you, the person who was about to lose his marbles, got to throw a marble off the top of the steps. If your marble landed in this special pile of marbles you got to keep the prize. , if you didn't, you lost your marble. Know how big a marble is? This big. Know how big a small pile of marbles is? This big. Good luck. Robbie used to stand at the bottom of the grandstands and on his signal he had the entire middle school throwing their marbles at him. As a result marbles were banned at school, not so much because he won them all but because the mothers could simply not cope with their children buying them back.

Jonx told me that he went to Durban High School a teacher came out of his way to find him. Why? He wanted to know if Jonx was going to turn into a reprobate like Robbie? However, he meant this as a mark of respect for someone who was willing to stand up against authority. He used to be nasty and downright unpleasant to the students in his class. This teacher had given the class an essay to write. The topic My First Day Back At School. Robbie described a bored and frustrated teacher giving an unoriginal topic while at the same time wandering around behind the different students; checking their hair lengths and insulting them. Robbie did it knowingly to get a message across to the teacher. The essay was held back and Robbie had to see him after school. Robbie was asked "How would you like it if I showed this essay to your father?" "I already have, said Robbie, and all he asked was whether or not it was true?" The conduct and attitude of this teacher towards Robbie and the class changed from then onward.

But if you were to ask Robbie about his school days though he will always tell you that he was done an unfair deal. Why, because he was pressurised into studying important subjects like Latin; and not allowed to study Art. And he knew he could have been a great artist; and he has undisputable proof of his artistic merit. In Standard 7 he got a B for his apple he drew which was the second highest mark for an apple in the entire school; and his art was not limited to the visual as in standard 8 he wrote a poem. In fact I have a copy of it here. It rhymes and everything.. So let me present it to you.

Fire. By Robbie Pillemer. Prometheus stole fire/ because he had a desire/ to give it to man/ and the rest of his clan/ so the human race/ could continue its pace / for survival.

After finishing his Business science degree, his LLB, his articles Robbie set off to the UK for two years to find himself. He wasn't prepared to take any old job and was waiting for the perfect job; during which time his money ran out and he had to take any job. He wrote home "Mom. I have eventually job as a stripper. The long email dealing with all of sorts ancillary matters ended by describing his job in graphic detail; he had to strip plastic sheeting off clothes at the duty free shop at Heathrow airport. He also packed smelly fish in sub zero Scotland and washed dished in the kitchen of a hotel in Sark where they wouldn't allow to serve guests because he refused, point blank, as a matter of principle to cut his hair.

After he completed his bar exam and was sitting for his oral he described a huge table with him at one end, the judge and other examiners at the other whose mouths were moving but in his nervousness he could not hear a word that was being said. Have we said that he still had his long hair? Well he did, because as a matter of principle he still refused to cut it. The words of the judge eventually came through to him "Have you found yourself? You did well in your exam. Good luck in your practise." So you may be asking yourselves, what happened to the long hair and Robbie principles? And the answer is, eventually Robbie got tired of being confused with the accused.

{Here there was a bit added about Robbie's sporting prowess, I do not have a copy of this addition.}

Now… my earliest memory of Robbie involves the two of us, as intrepid explorers, wandering around a childhood garden with paints and paintbrushes painting all the snails and frogs and rocks and things we could find the different colours of the rainbow. Well now Robbie and Terry are about to set of, as entrepid explorers in the garden of their marriage to paint their garden with rainbow colours of love. The Talmud Lomar, The Talmud teaches us Matzah Isha Matzha Tov. He who find himself a wife, has found himself that which is truly of value in this life. Mazel Tov. I ask you all to rise and drink l'chaim to the happy colour. Le Chayyim."

Check out some of Jonx's photography

Jonx has done some work for the BLSF.
And I quote from the BLSF website:-

"The Social Development portfolio would like to thank Jonx Pillemer for generously donating his time and effort in taking such beautiful photo’s for us. He came to the school most Saturdays with us as well as whenever we asked to other events…

Click on the photo gallery to view these pictures. More pictures will be uploaded as we receive them. We would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that they are his photos and if you copy them off this site please respect his copyright and give credit where it is due…

Thanks Jonx"

(link)

Check the photographs out here...

Some of the photographs are very touching, powerful and give a glimpse into an otherwise inaccessible world.

Well done Jonx!

later...

next week today...

Next week, today Robbie gets married....

BLSF

Well... not so long ago I got skyped by Jonx asking for help troubleshooting setup problem he was having with a web site he was setting up.

A web site he was setting up for Tracy.

A web site for the Black Lawyers Student Forum for which Tracy is the social development officer.

Yup, even though she is not black - unless being a woman makes you black?

Check out the web site the two of them put together. Tracy tells me that that there is still quite a bit of work she is going to do with setting up after she finishes her exams. But it looks pretty good to me already - Jonx has done a marvelous design!

Oh.. and check out the human clock website - or jump straight to the clock itself. Hilarious!

This may not mean a lot to you...

OracleInstalledSnapshot
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

...but it means a great deal to me!

It shows that I have successfully installed an Oracle 10g database on a linux operating system.

I have been working on getting this running over the last couple of days. Now that I have done this I can start working on understanding the ins and outs of this latest version of the Oracle database so that in a few months time I can write the exam and upgrade my qualification from Oracle 9 OCP to Oracle 10 OCP as well.

And it is very important that I learn these skills on Linux. I have already built the basic Oracle skills in a Windows environment and it is now time that I develop the same skill and confidence in the more sophisticated environment of Linux. Since all the major database always run on a POSIX (or a mainframe which is similar) environment; only once I have mastered Oracle in this environment will I feel that I have Oracle DBA skills under my belt.

Finally, now that I have Oracle set up on Linux the basic steps are done; the spaceship has landed; and I can try do a little flying.

This makes me happy.

later...

woohoo

woohoo
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Busy busy busy. When I got back from my Oracle course in J'burg I hit the ground running. I had two assignments due in the last week and a half and I have not had a moment to breathe.

One thing which really affected my relationship with computers was my close exposure to POSIX standards when working with Oracle which was installed on a Red Hat Enterprise Server.

The course lecturer helped me find a suitable copy of Linux. SLES 9, which as you can see from my little picture to the right, I have successfully installed.

I have not yet installed Oracle on it yet though. But its more the *ix operating system that has me enthralled. I have been compulsively studying operating systems since the course (which is good since one of my courses is on Operating Systems) and am planning to install Mimix soon. Mimix stands for Mini Unix and is a very well written small operating system which was created purely to teach operating systems. So thats quite exciting.

later...

Off on course soon and Terri makes a video

Well I am quite excited because next week I will be attending a 5 day course on Oracle 10g. I have been wanting to do this course for some time now and am quite excited.

Durban has been very cold.

oh.... and Terri has made a funny video when she is sitting at her desk. Hmmm.

later...

Stevie and his world

Stevie feeding hyena1
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Well my little brother Stevie, a.k.a, intrepid adventurer the Steve, a.k.a, professional actor Mr Steven Pillemer; has done some interesting work over the last few years.

I have told him that I will see what I can do about helping get hold of various material that exists "out there" for his showreel.

So far... not had time to do much. There was a crisis at work and I had been called in to help "save the day." I have a policy of not writing about work on my blog; so I will say no more except that the crisis involved over time and total focus on my part. As a side effect I have not done any tracking and phone calling yet.

Its a nice Sunday morning today. I have started reading The Fellowship of the Ring to Sandra. I have read her the prologue and the first chapter. It is delight, for both of us, now that her English is of the calibre to enjoy and understand the epic novel.

On my part I am reading Margaret Atwood's collection of short pieces called The Tent. There is something very melancholic about how the stories thread together; and it seems to scratch away at today's world with the screech of long haggish nails against a blackboard.

If the weather is good maybe we will go for a walk on the beach today.

later...

Well, pesach is over...

pesach4
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Well Pesach is over and my brothers have returned to Capetown and all my cousins have gone home. Lee is currently working for Investec but is looking foward to heading to London soon.

It was nice having my family all around, full with life and buzz. I heard more about Stevie's holiday in Ethiopia and the conman who fleeced their one fellow backpacker of a large percentage of her travelling cash.

I heard how he was shown the supposedly legendary location of our holy ark of the covenant and I saw pictures of beautiful ruins. I also watched the trailer of a film in which he he has brief appearance. Interestingly, he even gets quite an appearance in the trailer. Here is the link . I kept watching it a few times as it was quite surreal to watch Stevie in a trailer.

Jonx had his camera and took some beautiful pictures of the family and the seder. Unfortunately he has only sent me a few via email with high compression.

Jonx.... send me a CD with all the pictures and at the original size! Please!

The seders were fun and I sang out of key as usual. I am now eating bread again. Back to work on Monday.

Soon there will be a wedding in July with even more family (my Israeli cousins will be here!)

C'est la vie...

15 kilos lighter

ilanandsandra
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Well when I left for my holiday in Germany in January I was overweight. Even though I had been off the cortisone for over a year, the weight had not, as I had been hoping just magically fallen away.

So from the day after I got back I focussed on my diet to get myself to a healthy weight. Now on the 20th April I am 15 kilograms lighter. I am still not yet at my ideal weight but wow what a difference.

I have decided, well Sandra has decided, that I should maintain at my current weight for a while before losing the rest. She thinks this is healthier.

I am quite proud of myself and it feels good for my weight to be approaching what was once normal for me. (I still have approximately 8 kilograms to go to be what was once my normal weight.)

later...

Two amusing links and some thoughts.

The seder in 60 seconds

bouncing Bush

Funny hey!

Tuesday night I was on a panel discussion about the Israeli Elections. It was a community consciousness raising exercise in order for us to think about and discuss the Israeli elections happening at the same time. I had to do some research, and interesting enough after only a few hours of research I had completely shifted my allegiance from Kadima to Avodah. I reckon given another week to research I may have ended up supporting Meretz.Naaaa... maybe not; as it was really Amir Peretz's biography and interviews which attracted my attention.

After the panel discussion a few people came up to me and said they really enjoyed what I had to say. The most delightful compliment was the observation that I brought topical information about Amir Peretz to the table; where the general knowledge about him by the people present was quite rudimentary. Thus I had provided knowledge of educational merit at a topical time when people were interested to learn! So I was quite pleased with myself....

I am also now pleased with the election results, especially now that with the soldiers' votes in the left alliance has 61 seats!

later...

Nothing else matters

I took Sandra to the Metallica concert at the ABSA rugby stadium yesterday; and she loved it.

She closed her eyes, shook her head about and jumped up and down for hours.

As Metallica screamed at us: "Be who you truly are; for that is all that is real. Nothing else matters." Or something like that.

later...

Schwepppppppppps soda water.

Well, I was sitting drinking some Schwepps soda water when I idly looked at the ingredients label. The ingredients were carbonated water and buffer salt.

"Buffer salt?" I thought.

"I wonder what buffer salt is and why its inside the soda water?" I mused aloud.

Sandra was sitting, idly, on the couch.

"Oh..." she said, "...in chemical reactions a buffer is that ingredient you use to control and stabilise the PH."

hmmmmm....

Bad Mazel Good Mazel

Well this morning I had bad mazel. Just low level bad mazel. I woke up went into the toilet and broke the toilet lid of the whatever-you-call-it. Well actually it started the night before when we saw that the toilet had started leaking water constantly - which is not good. I therefore jimmied the thingimajigi-a-ma-bobbie inside the top part of the toilet (you know - where the water and the plastic floating thingimajigi-a-ma-bobbie is ...?...) so that water would not fill the whatever-you-call-it.

Oh... and my alarm went off this morning to wake us up to get to shul; but the volume was turned to zero. Does that count? If an alarm goes off and makes no sound - is it still an alarm? Anyways.... so I woke up late and in a daze wandered into and went to the toilet. And of course the toilet would not now flush. So I had to lift the top of the whatever-you-call-it and then something unmazeldik happened and it fell and broke.

My airconditioner also broke this week. Its hot in Durban.

Well its Purim soon and thats all about mazel... kind of approriate I guess.

later...

oh... and later we realized we could have just turned off the tap that allows water to the whatever-you-call-it and if I had done that I would not have needed to jimmy the thingimajigi-a-ma-bobbie. Blech...

Stock Market Investing

Recently I decided to take more interest (pun intended) in the stock market. I participated in the MAM Game; and although I came no where near winning the game - I took a healthy profit on my initial investment of R1800. (A little over 200 Euros or approximately $300.) I also saw the top 50 in the competition all took profits of over R10000. (A little over 1000 Euros.)

This as all definitely made me want to take even more interest.

So I now attended a course with my brother and father on how to use the basic indicators (trend and cycle indicators) to predict price movement and the applicable entry and exit points. I hope to have the software soon so I can continue to take more interest in the stock market.

later...

Thursday

Well its Thursday again and the wheel keeps on turning. I have finished two UNISA assignment already and have now started on my third. Sandra has settled back into the routine of lectures and daily studying.

We have booked tickets for St Petersberg Ballet peformance of Swan Lake on the 2nd May. We are greatly looking forward to that.

Sandra is studying in the air conditioned bedroom and I am going to go join her now with my text book.

later...

Scrambled Kefir Eggs

For those who do not know; Sandra has become a Kefir culturer. And every day I enjoy the product of her work (normally at breakfast time.)

This evening I was asked to quickly make a supper. So I made scrambled eggs with tomato, bell pepper and onion. But when I beat the eggs before adding them to the pan I added a little of our new "secret" ingredient. I did this without telling Sandra.

I later served supper. Sandra initially was a bit nonplussed about the idea of scrambled eggs for supper. But after she had her first taste, she said to me:-

"How did you make the eggs taste so nice?"

And I replied:-

"Kefir".

later...

My sentiments exactly....

How about this cartoon of Mohammed!

I quite liked that one. For those who have still not seen the cartoons that the Islamic world is making so much violence about; here is a link.

And if you want to know the whole story and context of these events, click here.

And if you want to buy the t-shirt click here.


Oh, if you were wondering what the piglet reference is about click here.

hmmmm.....

Tired and in Durban

TIRED.

In transit...

I am in Dubai Transit and its really weird. Its 2:30 am in the morning and there are thousands of zombie like people wandering aimlessly around, occasionally buying something from the innumerable shops selling anythings that is shiny and glittery.

Its weird.

The flight to this zombie shopping paradise was uneventful. Watched some movies and ate some food. Leg space was great...

We just spent out last dirham we had left over from our visit here not so long ago on two cups of Starbucks coffee. And now I am standing at the Samsung free internet space whilst Sandra stares aimlessly at the strangeness.

Still 20 minutes to check-in. Dum dee dum. Be Boop.

Sandra and I are now going to check in...

See you from the other side of the equator.

Hmmph...

This morning I woke up and saw to my left a bundle of blankets that I decided not to disturb. First I lay for over an hour without moving staring at the ceiling trying to fall back to sleep. Then eventually... very very slowly... I inched my way off the bed... and then in the absolute darkness I searched for my tracksuit pants and my shoes; which was no easy task in the dark. Eventually I then, quiet as a mouse, slipped through a crack in the door - so no light could slip in. The bundle never stirred, never moved and most importantly did not get irritated and angry with me.


Very proud of myself I walked though the kitchen into the eating area and discovered Walter, Martin, Doris and Sandra all eating breakfast.

Hmmmph...

I spent most of the day watching BBC and CNN and listening to their commentary on the dramatic democratic revolution in the territories.

Hmmmph....

Well day is done, and we are packing to go homewards.

Back in Germany again...

The drive was uneventful. Sandra seems adamant that tomorrow will be spent here in this house and then of course on the next day we head homewards...

I am being called for supper...

On the way back to Germany...

We are about to leave for Germany. Walter and Sandra are busy packing the car and we have all just finished breakfast. Five of us (Walter said he was not interested) chose numbers for the Swiss Lotto for 220 million Swiss Francs (give or take a few million); if any of the chosen sets come up we will split the money five ways.

Once back in Germany we will spend the next full day in Germany, I am hoping for chance to to go the Cologne art museum, but it seems we may just spend the day in the house whilst Sandra sorts Sandra stuff out. I am not in charge of this day. But I am still hoping a little...

later...

A bit of a stroll....

Today was taken very leisurely. A slow breakfast and then in the early afternoon a leisurely stroll around the Swiss and French countryside. The Grafs live in Crassier in the countryside on the border between France and Switzerland so as we wandered and looked at the fields, farms, animals, ducks etc we constantly criss crossed between France and Switzerland.

And then we relaxed indoors after a vegetable soup to read and relax. I am reading Coetzee`s new novel "Slow Man".

Nicole and Karine, just back from Cape Town, joined us for supper and we heard the stories of the rest of their holidays in South Africa.

All in all a slow, leisurely and relaxing day.

Tomorrow we return to Germany.

Sleep tight....

About in Geneva

Modern Art 1
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Walter and Doris were not interested in joining Sandra, Rémond and I in visiting museums, so just the three of us set off this morning. Our first port of call was the main museum of Geneva. Wow! Sandra and I wandered around with eyes and hearts wide open. We saw great paintings from all the great artists modern, surrealist, impressionist and classical. There were also Rodin sculptures and an area in which an old castle that was taken down had been "rebuilt" indoors. It was wondrous. This took us to lunch time, and we had coffee and shared some cake between us... We then moved on to the next stop, a stop which was to take my breath away, we went to see what if was not the largest private book collection in the world, was damn close. We went to the the museum of the book of the Foundation Martin Bodmer. There were original Egyptian papyrus scrolls, copies of Virgil and Homer and Homer from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I saw a Gutenburg Bible. I saw the oldest copies of Shakespeares plays. I saw pieces, poems etc from Satre, Kant, Marquis de Sade, Lord Byron and many more written in their own handwriting.

And the first editions.... Sir Isaac Newton's "Principles", More's "Utopia", Galileo, Copernicus... Even a first edition of Gulliver's travels, Goete, Rousseau and so on and so on and so on... to be able to almost reach out and touch (if it was not for the thin pane of glass separating us) books that changed the way people think and act. The first editions are editions of books as they existed before they changed (in some cases literally) the entire way the world turned; the way governments acted, revolutions turned and people thought. Pages, blocks, papyrus with Greek, Hieroglyphics and even an artifact from the earliest writing ever recorded.

Sandra and I, both being bibliophiles, left stunned.

But our wondrous day had not come close to ending yet. Rémond told us he will be retiring in the next year or so and probably the next time we are in Geneva he will be retired; so if we are interested in how air traffic control works now was the time. And of course we were more than just a little excited to be given such a privledge:- to see into how the air traffic of the world is controlled and kept safe and secure.

We then got a complete tour. We started at the air traffic control center (after going through passport control) and from above we learnt how the control center is divided. Rémond pointed exactly what was happening in each area, who each person was; and, what each person did. From there we went to the training area where there were apprentice air traffic controllers being trained. In this area a copy of the control area is created, and in another area there are trainers playing the roles of pilots communicating with the trainees.

From here we then went into the real air traffic control room. Rémond then gave us a rare privledge! Using the real-time live system he logged in and showed us what it described to the air traffic controller; and how he used it to receive information though the system. This was in the section for planes flying through the air space controlled by Geneva, and we learnt how to read the radar screen. What each blip meant, and what exactly was happening. He also explained what the air traffic controller had to do in order to keep the skies in order, and what he had to pay the utmost close attention to... to prevent tragedies. Once we understood what we were reading on the radar screen it was hypnotic to watch. He then took around the different areas showing us the screens for the different sections (or different altitudes). We started off in the area of high altitudes, ie for directing planes passing above in the skies but not landing or departing from the Geneva airport; to the departure section where the moment a plane takes off, from here the next instructions are given. And of course all the time this was happening in an air traffic control room in which people were working. So once something was described we could see it happening in front of us.. But the privledge did not end here. Once we left the air traffic control center we went through passport control again; and then onto the runway; and then up into the control tower! From here the actual landing and departure instructions are given. Once a plane has taken off it is "given" from here to the air traffic control room; and when a plane is ready for landing it needs to receive final permission to land from the the control tower; for the tower can give it the order to fly over and come back for another pass if this is necessary.

From here we could see the entire airport with every plane. We saw how the control tower works and from such a vantage point Rémond explained every area of the airport, all the different kinds of planes (passenger, private, cargo etc) and how the different parts of the airport work together, and what the air traffic controller in the control tower needs to be aware of, and what he needs to do.

And then we watched it all for ourselves in the busy airport with a plane taking off or plane landing almost every minute. We could see every tiny detail of the airport itself. In the control tower we saw the equipment, we heard the conversations between the pilots and the controllers and we of course we saw the planes contsantly taking off and landing, parking and others immediately getting ready for take off.

Quite a thing. And I felt very privledged and lucky not only to see how these vital arteries of the world work. What beauty and power! ...But also to have been given such a thorough personal guided tour which covered every detail of the process. What I have written here in this stuttering, "scribbled" post is just a thin slice of the information and knowledge and insight provided to us by Rémond.

After this Sandra and I, after such a full day that not for a slightest moment did not contain amazement, came back to the Graf home for a delicious supper.

When I excused myself after coffee to "quickly write on my blog", Doris misheard me and thought I said that I wanted to be excused for "quick run around the block".

What a wonder fulled day...

In Switzerland after a wonderful relaxing week...

We arrived a few hours ago at the Grafs in Switzerland. We then were treated to a delicious meal filled with warmth and love. I have just excused myself from the lively talkative table to quickly write this note for those avid readers of this little place on the internet.

We drove up to Balderschwang in two cars. Martin and Doris in the one; and I and Sandra and Walter in the other. The drive was pleasant and comfortable. Slowly the surrounds got more and more white until we were surrounded by a winter wonderland. We arrived in the evening and went to sleep early (well at least I did.)

The next day was sunny and the sun was bright and hot and reflecting off the white snow everywhere. Sandra and Walter and Martin and Doris went off to ski and I spent the day lounging and reading. Occasionally venturing out onto the balcony to enjoy the sun and the view. There was a cross country snow track that passed quite close to the balcony of the house we were staying in; and I watched the different types. There were obviously experienced skiers that just glide; and there were the others (the majority) that looked a bit unsure of themselves and moved in jumps and starts. There were also a quite a lot of young teenagers. And there was the occasional sod that fell on the one dip I could see and then could not figure out how to stand up again. Sandra was destined to be one of those poor sods in a few days time when she decided to go cross country skiing. Eventually the Kelms returned from skiing and Sandra complained that every muscle in her body was in pain.

The next day the snow came down all day long. Walter and Doris went to Austria to help Andrea who had called saying there was strange smoke coming out of her car could someone come and help. Martin declared that this snow was perfect for snowboarding as the snow was soft due to the current snowing and went out to snowboard. Sandra and I spent the day warm and snug as bugs reading.

The following day was sunny and thus Walter and Doris went skiing again. Sandra and I (after getting very warmly wrapped up) went for a walk in the snow covered surrounds. We walked through the forest to a small restaurant in the mountains (not very up) where we had hot chocalate and shared a piece of home-made cake. We then walked back again. It was approximately a 5 kilometer walk.

That evening I cooked supper. I cooked a potato curry; I had accidenltly declared myself an excellent cook and Doris had said "Good, you will cook supper." Luckily I know how to cook a basic curry; and it was delicious. Walter was at first very suspicious and at the beginning of dinner had said he was not hungry and would probably only have a little salad; but in the end he had two full helpings and declared the meal - "Good."

The next day was a little overcast and we drove up to nearby nature walk along a river through a ravine. I think "ravine" is the right word. We walked under frozen waterfalls and all sorts of beautiful natural wonders. You have to pay entrance and the path is kept gravelled and there are fences and wooden balconies etc to allow one safety and at the same time the opportunity to view wonders of Nature.

The following day (Friday) Martin left with the one car back to Germany and Andrea and Rudiger arrived. I think I may have got some of the days mixed up but this definitely was Friday. Unfortunately although they brought their Wedding DVD and a laptop with them; the DVD would not play on the laptop - and we could only look at the pictures.

The next day, Saturday, I can not remember what I did. Probably read my book as I did a lot of the time. Walter was a bit amazed that I spent so much of the holiday indoors reading when I could be out in the snow. But I found the leisure and comfort to be able to read in such a spot one of the greatest luxuries I have had in the longest time. That evening we had raclette and conversation.

And then it was Sunday. Sandra and I did a short walk whilst the others skiied and then we met up for lunch. Andrea and Rudiger then went home and the rest of us stayed up late talking and chatting and telling stories of the last years.

This morning we left for Switzerland; in quite a crowded car and eventually arrived to the warm welcome I described at the beginning of this note which brings us to now.

We will spend the next two full days in Switzerland. Rémond has said that tomorrow he is not working which is good as that menas we will we doing something interesting with him tomorrow.

All is good...

Off to Balderschwang...

Well last night we took a GPS navigator with us to the find the way to Mark and Susanne and find the way home again.

Amazing. Turn left to 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m. Turn left now!

Impossible to get lost with one of those things and they talk to you and everything. ubercool.

We spent the evening there, chatted, looked at their wedding photographs and then went out to supper with them at a nearby restaurant. It was difficult to find a dish that did not have pork in it somewhere! In the end I had a fillet with onion latkes and the beans (without the bacon sprinkles!)

We all woke up here at the crack of dawn so that we can begin the 8 hour drive as early as is decent. We will be driving in two cars. Walter the one and Martin the other. Which will be very soon. Sandra is calling me so I had better go help finish the packing.

So we are all off to Balderschwang.

later...

Some pictures from Dubai and off to visit Mark and his wife

Self Portrait in Dubai
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

I slept very well last night and woke up after nine in the morning. I had some hard boiled eggs for breakfast. Most of the morning was spent relaxing and reading. I am reading the Time Travellers Wife and it is extremely enjoyable reading. For lunch we had fish and vegetables and potatoes and salad and then I downloaded all our photos off our camera onto a CD so that we can take some more. Digital cameras are a lot easier to deal with than film cameras.

Later today we are going to go and visit a long time friend of Sandra, Mark; and his wife, Susanne. They recently got married and we have a wedding present for the newly weds that we bought at the BAT center in Durban.

I also have a slideshow of a couple of pictures we took whilst in Dubai. (Click here for slideshow)

Enjoy!

Safe, sound and in Germany

(By the way, if you look again at my post called "Daisy... her voice was full of money" you will see I have added some links showing more about our short holiday in Dubai!)

The transfer to the airport from the hotel was smooth and easy. Once there the process went like clockwork. Change all my dirham into Euros, check in luggage, go through passport control, walk through duty free, buy a coffee, sit and drink coffee, go through the boarding gate, board the plane, take my shoes off, sit in chair, watch three movies, watch plane land, exit plane, go through passport control, go to baggage claim, go through customs and hey presto Doris and Walter and a coldish Germany.

Emirates is definitely has the most comfortable planes I have ever flown on in my life.

Germany is not as cold as I had the impression it would be. It feels no colder than the Drakensberg in Winter. Doris says the worst of the Winter is over already. I was tired and nodded off on the drive to the country home. Once here we all had a glass of champagne and then a good solid lunch of vegetables and chicken and rice and potatoes.

Our room is warm and very comfortable. A double bed and a tv!

I then took a nap for a few hours and woke a few minutes ago.

I am now drinking a nice warm cup of tea and feel very relaxed.

I think tomorrow we will go into Cologne to meet up with some of Sandra's friends; and tonight probably some conversation followed by a good night's sleep.

I still can't get over Dubai, in fact, the whole city felt a bit like one of Gatsby's parties (just without the alcohol!).

later...

And we're off...

We woke up a 5am here at the Golden Sands. We have just checked out of the hotel at 5:40am and are waiting for the transfer to the airport.

We both slept well and are rearing to begin our next leg...

later from Germany...

Daisy... her voice was full of money.

Yesterday afternoon, my how time flies, we walked from the hotel to a shopping center (the Burjuman) about ten minutes away. It is by no means the fanciest shopping center in Dubai. I know this because we chatted to an American... and yesterday evening we took a 2 hour evening cruise (which included a buffet dinner) down the Dubai Creek.

... it was stupendously beautiful. The food, the views,the sights... wow!

And then this morning (12th January) we went on a Big Bus tour of Dubai. This included an hour long walking tour of the old city and the variuous souks. The walking tour not only took us through various areas of the old city and the souks, but also a delightful ride on the traditional mode of transport across the Creek - the abra. It also included admission to the Dubai museum and of course a tour of the entire city with commentaries. Because one could jump off and on a different points we also explored a little - and went and looked at the indoor ski area in the Mall of the Emirates shopping center.How weird. It was snowing inside and the temperature is kept at -2 degrees centigrade.

This took the entire day.

Sandra is busy packing our bags for tomorrow morning's flight to Dusseldorf, I had better get back there as I was sent to fetch her jersey she had forgotten at the buffet supper and was meant to return immediately.

Its all good...

In Dubai and ready to explore

We had a pleasant relaxing flight to Dubai and were asleep in bed at our hotel early enough to wake up and have an enjoyable breakfast by the hotel pool.

Tonight we have booked a river cruise that includes dinner, and tomorrow a full day city tour and then of course the next day we will head for Germany.

Now we are off for a stroll to a nearby shopping center.

Having fun!

later...

Dinner At Durban Harbour

DinnerAtDurbanHarbour
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Post now updated with links!

Karine and Nicole got back on Wednesday from Himeville. They were full of stories about their trip up the Sani Pass to Lesotho and clearly had enjoyed themselves.

Yesterday they went to Ushaka and visited the Durban aquarium there and walked on the beach.

In the evening we all went down to the Trans Africa Express bar cum restaurant on the harbour (and above the BAT center) for a dinner and to enjoy the view of the different ships and the harbour activities.

This morning they left for their road trip to Cape Town. They are planning to first go up via Harrismith to Bloemfontein which is the more scenic route.

They will then head towards PE but spend a few days at the Addo Elephant Park. This is the same Nature Reserve Sandra and I visited in July. Once they reach PE they will take the garden route to Cape Town.

They are having a wonderful summer holiday!

later...

New Years Eve

New Years Eve
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Well on the afternoon of the 31st December Sandra and I left home to collect Karine and Nicole from the airport, after their long trip from Switzerland.

They arrived tired but very excited about the wonderful Durban weather. We soon got home and they were soon asleep.

That evening we went to the Durban Playhouse to see the show The Sound Of Music. The show ended exactly at midnight and then the cast did a count down and then sang Auld Lang Syne.

Afterwards in the foyer there was champagne and a jazz band and we toasted the old year gone by, and the new year just born.

The next day, when eventually everyone was awake we went down to the Gateway shopping center - and discovered everything closed. And then it began to rain. We ended up at our flat watching the DVD Donnie Darko.

The next day (yesterday) Karine and Nicole took themselves off to the Gateway, followed by the beach and then a few minutes at the casino. They ended their evening by coming over to our flat and drinking green tea with Sandra, Meira and me.

We had spent the afternoon at the Umbilo Bird Park with Meira and then had gone over to Sandra's violin teacher Beatrice for evening snacks and conversation.

After that we met up with Meira again at my flat and were later joined, as I mentioned above, by Karine and Nicole.

Today the two tourists are off to Himeville for a night (or maybe two.)

later...