Hardly Here

My blog has moved to http:\\ilanpillemer.com

2007-05-01T14:31:00.000+02:00

Hi.

You should be being redirected... if not then click on this link as...

My blog has moved to ilanpillemer.com

See you there...

MAT111N

2007-04-25T22:13:00.000+02:00

MAT111N has been one of those repeating frustrations. I have registered for it three times already in the past; and never... never... never managed to get the first assignment in. And then realising that as the work piled up, and other, "more important" courses took priority I would not be able to cope with it - I have had to repeatedly deregister for it...

Well.... "NO MORE!" I cried. And I closed my eyes, and then opened them again so I could see, and grabbed my latex2e manual and registered for it again. I do not even need it to complete my degree; but I could not bear the idea of MAT111N sniggering at me as I lay beatan and broken on the ground.

And with eyes blurred with synthetic divisions and Upper Bound theorems and radians and polynomials and DeMoivre and a load of spinning mathetmatic symbols I completed the 17 page assignment in beautiful clear readable fonts and submitted it 5 minutes ago.

I now sit here... proud and defiant with my head held high and MAT111N cowering before my Latex2e Manual.

later...

All fluey, poor little me...

2007-04-23T17:55:00.000+02:00

On Friday I started feeling twinges of not so niceness; and decided to take it easy and not to go to shul. On Shabbat I did not move out of bed, hardly at all... On Sunday I spent most of the day in bed hoping that I would be cured the next morning. I did spend 2 hours each night working on my assignment though; but I could not manage more without feeling dizzy. The stuffiness of the study did not help. Sandra meanwhile has a test tomorrow morning and her anxiety is growing.

This morning I woke up to a headache, glassy eyes, and a horrible cough. So I made an appointment with the doctor and crossed my fingers that my platelet count is not dropping and hospital only a few hours away. As this is what happened the last time I caught the flu.

Sandra meanwhile drove for the first time to the Technikon by herself today. This is a watershed moment; as it means dealing with real traffic in the area. She successfully got herself to lectures and back again.

I went to the doctor and took a platelet count, and thank heaven, the count was approximately 270. Which is wonderful. She has prescribed me antibiotics - specifically Augmentin - and has told me to spend today and tomorrow taking it easy; and only to return to work on Wednesday. I am not allowed to take generics as apparently the binding agent in the generics may have bad effect on me!

Today is Yom HaAtzmaut. Which means I can shave as I consider it to be the dawning of our redemption. This belief has been approved by the chief rabbinate and its only Haredim and Chassidim that do not follow it. Jews who don't believe it is the dawning of our redemption need to wait until Sunday the 6th May before shaving. I, and others like me who believe that this day is the dawning of our redemption, can not shave again from tomorrow until Lag Ba'omer (6th May) as once again we are mourning for the hate in the world between man and man.

later...

its hot in here with the door closed...

2007-04-22T22:06:00.000+02:00

Sandra and I have been studying all evening in the study. Its hot in here without air-conditioning and the door closed. Under normal circumstances the door into a stuffy study would be open. But in the middle of the night Sandra woke up and could not fall asleep. She had read somewhere that the smell of lavendar can help one relax and fall asleep.

In fact Wikpedia says:-

It was used in hospitals during WWI to disinfect floors, walls and other surfaces. Lavender is soporific, and added to bath water or sprinkled on pillows aids relaxation and sleep.

And she had some lavendar oil - so she decided to put a little oil in her pillow...

... well in the middle of the night I woke up to a pungent smell and a distressed wife. Well, we had to change all the sheets and linen and swap the mattress and turn on the air-conditioning full blast in an attempt to make the air in the bedroom breathable. The lavendar rich mattress is now in the corridor directly outside the door to the study. In order to be able to breathe whilst studying the door had to be left closed despite the humid stuffy heat of a sultry durban night.

later...

Oooooooooops....

2007-04-19T22:24:00.000+02:00

I was playing around pressing buttons in blogger and accidently deleted my template... I have been rushing around trying to make my blog semi-presentable again..

Geez...

Well I have to stop now.. at least the panic has subsided a little bit as I managed to retrieve the essentials from Google's cache. And Sandra is threatening to get cross if I don't shut down soon. Well - I suppose this will motivate me to spend some time on the template which has not been changed for a few years - until now.. Grrr... lots of work to do still....

later...

sierpinski blur

2007-04-18T21:16:00.001+02:00

sierpinski blur
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

I have written a little program that creates this blurry sierpinski gasket.

I have written it in C.

So if you are interested in that sort of thing here is a link to the code.

Meira joins the fray...

2007-04-18T19:57:00.000+02:00

Meira is now blogging too. Since she is about to leave for Italy in less than two weeks time for a 3 month holiday - there should be some interesting travel writing from her. I am sure that it will be well worth reading.

Here is the link; I am also adding it to my blogroll down down the left side of my blog.

She is using wordpress which in retrospect is the blogging technology I should have used. Maybe one day I will change but not this year.

Oh... and Sandra has been driving the car to the supermarket and to the fruit and vegetable market by herself. But she has still not crossed Berea road whilst driving by herself.

hmm. and when looking at her blog I discovered that Eric Edelstein is also blogging. Its worth going to just for a look at his funny picture. Here is a link.

Oh... and here is a link to Simone's blog.

& 5,6,7,8!

2007-04-14T23:41:00.001+02:00

steve_5678_advert
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Last week Sandra and I went to see the premier of Steven Pillemer's and Terri Pillemer/Davidhoff's play "& 5,6,7,8!". Its "their" play because they wrote the script after being commissioned by the Catalina theatre.

The play is rivetting and holds the attention from the first moment until the final bow. It uses the high-stress high-pressure environment of backstage interactions to set the stage, as it were, for exploding the very human psyches of the the protagonists. Through excellent performances from the actors working with a script that was clearly carefully crafted, the audience is allowed to share in tragedies whose banality only deepens the sadness of their trials.

The main character, Frankie, we see struggling to hold himself together as all the bad decisions, betrayals and bad turns in his life all come to stake their claims on his life. It however, is difficult to feel too much sympathy for his travails as they are clearly deserved. But it is the intensity of his anger and his frustration that provide an excellent foil for the sufferings of the other protagonists. Each one of these characters in some way, through Frankie's downward spiral, have their pain exposed to the audience.

The script is well written, the direction is well-paced, the casting is perfect and the performances startling.

Well worth seeing. There is still a week left of performances. So book your ticket now.

later...

Anton's project

2007-04-07T19:30:00.000+02:00

Anton has started an internet project. The project is estimated to last a year; with a carefully planned ending.

He has said that it

has shades of Tarrentino and Wood Allen, wrapped in Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisophus...

Here is a link.

Vroom Vroom

2007-03-31T20:15:00.001+02:00

Charade Side
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Finally. Yes.. Finally Sandra has a car.

We have been going for regular drives around the neighbourhood.
Here is a sample itinerary of one of these drives.

Down to the supermarket.
Park.
Back to the flat.
Down to the supermarket.
Park
Down to the Technikon.
Up to the Supermarket.
Down to the Technikon.
Up to the Supermarket.
Up to the flat.
Down to the Supermarket.
Park.
Back to the flat.
Down to the supermarket.
Park
Down to the Technikon.
Up to the Supermarket.
Down to the Technikon.
Up to the Supermarket.
Up to the flat.
Down to the Supermarket.
Park.
Up to the Flat.
Park.

... hopefully soon she will be willing to drive by herself without a passenger called Ilan.

later...

Jonas_Torben_Poh

2007-03-12T22:37:00.001+02:00

Jonas_Torben_Poh_07.03.2007_00.42
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Congratulations!
Mazel Tov!
Glukwensch!

I am now a Uncle of the smallest Poh in the world.

Andrea, my sister-in-law, is now a mother!

later...

What fun!

2007-03-02T14:50:00.000+02:00

I finished the koch snowflake (question 3 of Assignment 1) today.

I was really pleased with my algorithm, as it is very simple and has no special cases.
I did not use trigonometry, so I did not need to worry about quadrants etc.

Very beautiful structure; both the output and the code.

I then played around, and tried out variations.

Here are three different experiments for your amusement.

The first one was done by simply inverting the direction of triangle. Instead of opening outwards, it opens inwards. I provide the case for n=0,n=1,n=2 and n=4.

The second example was done by instead of creating perfectly equilateral triangles, each time it creates a slightly longer isosceles triangle. I provide the case for n=0,n=1,n=2 and n=8 (the most pretty - it looks like a buddhist mandala!)

Finally in the third I used the Koch snowflake but I interlaced two large green ones and then put two smaller ones inside.

Beautiful images, hey! What a fun course!

Letter to the Professor...

2007-02-27T22:30:00.000+02:00

I just wrote an email to the author of my prescribed textbook in computer graphics at UNISA.

Here is the text of the email..

Hi,

I have just finished reading p78, your section on creating a Sierpinski triangle using recursion.
I am using the International Edition.

I think I have found an error that is not listed on your errata page located at this link:

(I am a student studying UNISA, the University of South Africa; and in the third year undergraduate course on computer graphics your text is the prescribed literature.)

You write :-
"Suppose that the vertices of our original triangle are given by the array

GLFloat v[3][2];

Then the midpoints of the sides are given by the array m[3][3], which can be computed using the code

for(j=0; j<2; j++) m[0][j] = (v[0][j] + v[1][j]) / 2.0;
for(j=0; j<2; j++) m[1][j] = (v[1][j] + v[2][j]) / 2.0;
for(j=0; j<2; j++) m[2][j] = (v[2][j] + v[3][j]) / 2.0;

Surely it should read
Then the midpoints of the sides are given by the array m[3][2], which can be computed using the code?

Or am I just an idiot; with an error in my brain?

Kind Regards,
Ilan Pillemer

And the longest sentence is...

2007-01-18T10:19:00.000+02:00

I was looking at the longest line in the texts (see previous post) of Heart of Darkness and Alice in Wonderland; and I was struck by the fact that these longest lines were not whole sentences. So I now adjusted my program to find the longest sentence in these two texts. I pleased to tell you that the longest sentence in a book is much more interesting than the longest line.

With the Heart of Darkness example, I provide the preceding and following sentence of the longest sentence in the book as it frames the longest sentence very nicely. In order to make clear which sentence is the longest I have presented it in a boldface.

Without further ado... Here are the longest sentences in Alice in Wonderland and Heart of Darkness.

Alice in Wonderland

Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight,and rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, to keep herself from being run over; and the moment she appeared on the other side, the puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking it was very like having a game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again; then the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its great eyes half shut.

Heart of Darkness

How could you?--with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbours ready to cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums--how can you imagine what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammelled feet may take him into by the way of solitude--utter solitude without a policeman--by the way of silence--utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbour can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things make all the great difference.

later...

And the longest line is...

2007-01-17T22:27:00.000+02:00

I wrote a little program this evening that takes a text and works out the longest line in it..

I fed it (1) the dictionary (2) Heart of Darkness (3) Alice in Wonderland

Here are the results:

(1) pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
(2) the _Golden Hind_ returning with her rotund flanks full of treasure, to be
(3) `Why,' said the Gryphon, `you first form into a line along the sea-shore--'

hmmm....

"Free Will is considered a conceptual confusion."

2007-01-17T16:32:00.000+02:00

This year one of university courses is on Artificial Intelligence.

I have started on the first assignment which only requires one to get a general feel of the different fields and ideas which one will be required to confront and to situate oneself within in order to be able to, in turn, also situate the ideas that will be taught. Ouch.

Anyways... Of the ideas that artificial intelligence needs to examine are the notions of free will and determinism. In my reading I discovered a philosophy called "Pessimistic Incompatabilism" which states that there is neither determinism nor free-will in this world!

Here is a definition of it from Wikipedia

Pessimistic Incompatibilism
While hard determinism clearly opposes the concept of free will, some suggest that even non-determinism might be incompatible with free will. This is pessimistic incompatibilism. Under the assertion that events are not predetermined (e.g., for quantum mechanical reasons), it is then suggested that any event has a probability assigned to it. Taking this concept further, it is suggested that an event is determined not by free will, but by the concept of randomness. For example, if there is a probability of 1% that one will delete this article, then whether or not it is deleted is not considered to be of free choice, but rather a brute random fact about the world. On this account, the notion of free will is considered a conceptual confusion, i.e. it does not exist in the sense which is misconceived, regardless of whether or not the universe is deterministic.

hmmm....

I hear its been hot in Europe this year...

2007-01-16T16:39:00.000+02:00

Hot in Europe this year... polar ice-caps melting... hmmm...as my new favourite internet comic book writer, xkcd, says...

hmmm....

my tooth hurts

2007-01-05T12:11:00.000+02:00

Last night of my Fedora Core 5 installation I upgraded my kernel to the latest stable kernel release; in order to make use of its better abilities to work with my ATI graphic chip. I also had to install the source for the latest kernel in order to build and link in the ndiswrapper module for my wireless.

I just was at the dentist, where for 1 and 1/2 hours he did things to my teeth. Its sore. He also gave me the quote for all the work that needs to happen due to damage I did to my teeth. I think I cracked one or something. Two crowns are needed. I already have four crowns. Its not cheap. In fact its so expensive its depressing. But I think medical aid will cover most of it.

I am also hungry, but my mouth is too numb for eating anything. Useful thing the mouth. If you don't know I had a car accident last week. I hit the back of someone else's car when there was a sudden traffic stoppage in the fast lane of the freeway. I am now driving a hired car. The spares to repair my car were meant to arrive tomorrow, so hopefully I will have my car back. I miss the car. I am still hungry; I suspect I am going to get more hungry as the day progresses.

Great start to 2007!

And then this Sunday.... my 3 year wedding anniversary!

And onward ho, driving into 2007

2007-01-01T11:52:00.000+02:00

Well. What a week. I had a car accident. Ugg. Am now driving a rented car whilst waiting for my car to be repaired.

Last night, Orli and Denzil came over for supper on the last night of 2006. It was a really enjoyable evening. We had a cheese fondue and laughter.

Its now the 1st January 2007 and instead of going to see a movie I will be cleaning the study.

later...

Boxes (sic) Day

2006-12-25T13:47:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-22T11:58:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-12T21:59:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-12-03T20:48:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-12-01T09:22:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-11-26T22:29:00.000+02:00

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

2006-11-25T22:29:00.001+02:00

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

2006-11-22T21:46:00.001+02:00

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.

2006-10-16T23:58:00.000+02:00

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

2006-10-15T22:48:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-10-09T23:12:00.000+02:00

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.

2006-09-11T23:45:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-09T23:59:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-09-07T00:38:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-09-02T20:39:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-08-26T19:37:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-08-22T00:00:00.000+02:00

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.

2006-08-21T21:04:00.000+02:00

I am writing this using writely... hmmm

later...

Pillemer Clan

2006-08-06T12:05:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-08-01T16:10:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-07-26T19:08:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-07-23T11:30:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-21T14:54:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-07-16T22:45:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-07-12T12:35:00.000+02:00

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

2006-07-02T12:21:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-07-02T12:16:00.000+02:00

Next week, today Robbie gets married....

BLSF

2006-06-10T19:00:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-06-06T23:38:00.000+02:00

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

2006-05-30T19:07:00.000+02:00

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

2006-05-09T18:44:00.000+02:00

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

2006-04-30T10:07:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-04-21T12:52:00.000+02:00

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

2006-04-20T00:15:00.000+02:00

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.

2006-03-30T20:30:00.000+02:00

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

2006-03-22T22:43:00.000+02:00

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.

2006-03-12T21:05:00.000+02:00

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

2006-03-11T20:36:00.000+02:00

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

2006-02-26T11:03:00.000+02:00

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

2006-02-23T21:31:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-02-23T21:25:00.001+02:00

Scrambled Kefir Eggs

2006-02-19T22:52:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-02-10T14:16:00.000+02:00

How about this cartoon of Mohammed!

2006-02-06T19:17:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-29T18:29:00.000+02:00

TIRED.

In transit...

2006-01-29T00:33:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-01-27T21:17:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-01-26T19:54:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-01-26T10:13:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-01-25T21:50:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-24T23:00:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-01-23T21:46:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-01-15T08:43:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-14T15:14:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-13T21:39:00.000+02:00

(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...

2006-01-13T03:43:00.000+02:00

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.

2006-01-12T20:31:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-11T10:44:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-06T11:05:00.000+02:00

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

2006-01-03T10:27:00.000+02:00

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...

New Scientist SPACE - Features - 13 things that do not make sense

2005-12-29T10:35:00.000+02:00

I never realised how many things just don't make sense.

New Scientist SPACE - Features - 13 things that do not make sense

later...

Happy Holidays

2005-12-25T21:28:00.000+02:00

Channukah
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Well all over the world every body is celebrating. Tonight Sandra and I lit our Channukiah to celebrate the first night of Channukah.

There is a tradition that no work may be done whilst the candles burn; and I found sitting on the balcony whilst the candles burned and the rain whispered in the cold night strangely peaceful.

I was also thinking, seeing both Christmas and Channukah fall on the same day this year if I could see similarity in the traditions.

On the surface the traditions are clearly different. Channukah being about the redemption and rededication of the Temple after its desecration by the Greeks; and Christianity about the birth of their messiah.

And then I saw the similarity which lies in the seasonal timing of the festivals. Both festivals are celebrated during the winter equinox. During the longest, coldest and darkest nights of the year. And essentially at that moment when the night is darkest we celebrate hope and salvation as these are the longest nights. But they are also the moments when the darkness turns and starts getting lighter and warmer once more.

So season's greetings to all my friends and family and may we all enjoy light and the warmth in the time to come.

Its all good.

Super Sandra

2005-12-15T15:15:00.000+02:00

PortSyJohnsPool
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

At the beginning of this year Sandra registered for Homeopathy at the DIT. She had a difficult time registering as she had not studied courses such as physics, chemistry and mathematics at the official requirement levels of the department. Eventually she got accepted as a "mature student" and was exempted from these requirements on that basis.

But the requirements are there for a reason, and many of her courses assumed knowledge she did not already have - and this meant she had to catch up this material.

But this was not the only obstacle she had to face.

English is not her mother tongue and suddenly she was attending a full days of lectures all week long in English.

She had to pass exams in English. She had to deal with oral exams in English. She had to write weekly tests and assignments in English.

In the beginning she would sit in lectures and struggle to understand what was being said, never mind understand the difficult content of subjects such as histology, radiology and anatomy.

Well she worked virtually every night until midnight. She sat with vast huge texts in dense academic English and pored over abstruse diagrams.

Well to her great glory and acclaim Sandra was awarded two distinctions, one second, and two thirds.

She got her distinctions in biology and philosophy. She got a second for Physics. And she got thirds for Chemistry and Anatomy.

Super Sandra!

Woohoo and Weirdddd

2005-12-13T11:14:00.000+02:00

Well... WooooooooHoooooooo....

I got back my marks for my UNISA exams and I passed all the exams with two distinctions.
So five more courses completed on my steady march towards a Bsc.

yum yum yum

and now for a link to a web site that shows your something weird about your eye sight.

Sandra's marks should be out any day now! I have a feeling she will have done excellently.

later...

I now have a new computer

2005-12-05T23:02:00.000+02:00

I have just bought a new computer. I got it on Friday and have been installing and setting it up.

200G hardrive. 2G RAM. 3.2 Ghz processor. Pentium 4.

Robbie also just got Wireless ADSL Broadband. And to my delight I can connect to his router wirelessly. So I will pay a contribution; and have access to the internet at wonderful speeds.

Tonight I connected good speakers to the computer and its late so I am going to bed.

later...

What a roller coaster

2005-11-10T16:41:00.000+02:00

LeeWithAmusingExpression
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Here a nice picture of my cousine lee-anne.

Anyways... let me tell you about my platelet roller coaster.

On Wednesday two weeks ago I went for a blood test because I had a bruise and the test came back in the 40s. Not good. Anyways, continued along as normal and tested again on Friday afternoon.

My count was 18k.

I wanted to beat my head through the wall.

I phoned my haemotologist and she first thought I should go onto cortisone, and asked me if I wanted to go into hospital and get it intravenously.

I said, I only have petichiae on my feet, lets wait until the symptoms get worse. She made me swear that if I had nose bleedings, headache etc I must go straight to Emergency and that I must not pass Begin. I agreed.

Oh. That night there was an already organised birthday party/shabbas dinner; which I went to and tried to not be despondent - but I was soooooooooo tired suddenly.

On Saturday morning I tested again....

19k. It was up

I phoned the doctor and she said OK I don't have to take cortisone yet. But she doubted it would lift and we would have to make some kind of call on Monday as she believes anything below 20k should be treated aggressively.

I spent the day in bed.

Sunday morning I did a count.
19k again.

I studied the Talmud in the evening on illness and sickness. Tracate Brachot page 4 or 5.
I slept and dreamt that night. I dreamt that I looked at my feet and there were no petichiae.

I woke up and immediately checked my ankle and feet, I couldn't see ANY petichiae. I moved into bright light... and... they were still there except a bit fainter.

I tested and my count was 27k

I was ecstatic. This meant I was above 20k and the doctor would not make me treat. I saw the doctor that morning, she said she doubted I would go above 50k and she wrote a letter of motivation to the medical insurance for a treatment of Mabthera (I have been in remission for 1 1/2 years since I took Mabthera.)

I then phoned the medical insurance every day pushing to get the medication authorised. (I will write more on this later as I kept comptemporaneous notes on the conversations with the call center.)

Oh and I also wrote the second year computer science programming exam I am studying through UNISA. I tested after the exam (Wednesday last week) and the count was 65k.

Above 50. Nice.

I tested on Monday this week.

My count was 285k.

How about that!

UNISA exams written.

2005-11-08T21:39:00.000+02:00

I wrote my last of my 5 UNISA exams today. It was an iffy exam, the iffiest of the lot. We'll see.

Sandra did her Histology "spotter" practical exam today. Tomorrow she has her Anatomy "spotter" practical exam, and then she only has one left. Physics on the 17th.

Almost out of the woods.

later...

Well Done Sandra!!!

2005-11-06T20:00:00.000+02:00

Sandra just got an SMS from her Biology lecture. Actually she got it from an unknown number so she called it and then aplogised profusely for three minutes, aplogising for disturbing her Biology lecture so late at night.

Sandra wrote Biology last week and came home a bit distressed and concerned and asking questions if she got 40% for her test, and 74.8% for her year mark; will they let her through the year. She was complaining constantly about how unfair the exam was; and that the questions were obscure and did not truly test students' knowledge. She was also very frustrated with the number of questions presented in a multiple choice format; which involved subtle differences in the English descriptions of biological processes; which she found frustrating.

Anyways....

She got 75%...

Yes! Thats what the SMS from her Biology teacher was informing her!

So in a foreign language, in difficult acamedic English, involving learning vast tracts of information; involving writing paragraphs in English to describe subtle complicated processes -
Sandra was awarded a distinction.

So Sandra is quite clearly a super super super woman!

Lucky me to have such a star by my side!

later...

(Lets hope the same effect occurs in other courses.)

Blech.....

2005-10-31T22:10:00.000+02:00

Blech....

An Office Romance RTF

2005-10-28T09:28:00.000+02:00

An Office Romance RTF is worth the read for anyone who has ever worked in an office with Office for months on end. (like me...)

Warning: This story was originally written for Playboy magazine, so it is a bit racy!

later...

Broccoli Toast and Spinach Spread

2005-10-28T07:53:00.000+02:00

Sandra has been developing her personal culinary specialities. She was very happy with her Broccoli toast creation the other night. I insisted on eating my boiled broccoli by itself; but, Sandra said I was being silly and the Broccoli toast was delicious.

Today in my lunch box I have spinach spread on the rolls Sandra packed for me this morning. I am not quite sure how she prepares this gourmet food; but I know it involves spinach, cheese and a food processor.

later...

The Engagement Party...

2005-10-23T15:15:00.000+02:00

RobbieAndTerri
Originally uploaded by ilanpillemer.

Well the weekend is almost over and so is the Engagement Party events. It all started at about seven thirty am on Friday morning when my father arrived to fetch me for the airport. We arrived in Capetown at about 11 am and picked up the hired car and made our way down to Claremont and the B&B at which we were staying.

The B&B was very comfortable and relaxing except that I kept sneezing and my ears kept itching. Anyways, I suddenly found out that my shoes were not acceptable (which was true) and that we were going to go shopping for new shoes. But first we went to say hello to Jonx and Steven and to have some lunch at Carlucci's.

After that we went shopping at the Claremont shopping center which I found to be quite an ordeal. Eventually I asked to be taken back to the B&B for forty winks whilst my mother stayed at the center.

Later I had a shower and set off to meet our new in-laws-to-be. We arrived at the President hotel where a suite had been hired out for a cozy warm heimische shabbas dinner.

The evening was a delight and was fill with laughter conversation and smiles. Afterwards we all headed homeward warm and flushed with the enjoyment of the family celebration.

The next morning I was up early and my father dropped me off at Stevie and Jonx's; and whisked Jonx off to purchase his fancy shmancy Canon digital camera with which he hopes to drive his career as a photographer.

[UPDATE]: The new photo of me on my blog; and the beautiful picture of Robbie and Terri were taken by Jonx with his new camera.

I relaxed and playstationed for a while; and then made contact with Arik and went over for a visit and a laugh. A few hours later I was back at the flat and then Jonx and Mom and Dad and Stevie were all in the flat. It was almost 3pm and I was hungry.

Jonx and I went off to Carlucci's for a bite. Howie then contacted me and he joined us at the table. Soon Robbie and Terri were there too and we all ate and chatted. Terri had just had her hair cut and styled in anticipation of the Engagement party at the Grace hotel at the Waterfront.

After lunch I headed back to the B&B with my parents to relax before the evening's fun.

At 6 we arrived at the Grace hotel; and after a bit of confusion finding the bar that had been reserved for the private function; I found a seat and ensconced myself waiting for the people. And people arrived.

Brett Pillemer and Howie Gasmin and Shaun Knox were the people there that I knew the best. It was a fun evening.

The next morning I was up early and spent breakfast chatting with Phil, the son of the owners of the B&B. He had completed an honours in Physics (in astrophysics) a few years ago; and, over the last few years had been studying philosophy. He had just received a scholarship from Oxford to study the philosophy of physics.

After breakfast I joined Jason and Naomi for the morning (whilst my parents and Jonx and Steven went up for a scenic journey around Stellenbosch.) I had and enjoyed breakfast and then wandered Greenpoint market. I bought a second-hand CD of Eddie Brickhill and the New Bohemians, a belt and a flying pig.

[UPDATE]: I was so exicted when I got home to give Sandra the flying pig as a present; that I dropped it on the floor and it broke.

After the morning of reminiscing and chatting and catching up I got dropped off at the flat.

I wanted to playstation but there is something wrong with tv remote so I could not get the station to change to the playstation channel.

So... I decided to be productive and write these memories down before they disappear into the fog of memory.

I think I will return to my current novel that I am reading, the new Umberto Eco novel.

later...

Ancient Persian Custom

2005-10-16T14:08:00.000+02:00

Apparently the Persians before they would serve their meals would bring out a silver tray to display to all diners. On the tray would be a whip and a scale. All diners would have some time to meditate on these two items; and then the actual food would be be brought out to enjoy. These two items were meant to lead one to eat with modesty and with forethought; so one would not eat what was not suitable to each individuals constitution and one would not eat out of balance with one's needs.

When I told Sandra about this interesting custom she thought perhaps we should emulate the Persian way and take this ancient tradition up ourselves. But its not possible as we cannot afford to buy a silver tray at the moment.

I have now written two out of five exams and feel saitisifed that I did all right. I have a third tomorrow. Sandra writes her first exam tomorrow - Chemistry. This is the subject she struggled with the most; so I am relieved that it will be out the way quickest so that her tension dissipates a little.

She has just been for a stroll to relax a bit; and has just returned to tell me that according to the fact that I am not studying "my lovely husband has ten minutes for me".

so, until later...

girl in the world

2005-10-15T19:55:00.000+02:00

Terri, Robbie's fiance has started blogging. girl in the world.

Phone fixed

2005-10-10T21:40:00.000+02:00

Well at last after 5 days without a phone our phone is now working again.

Last week we discovered that our phone was no longer working. I called Telkom and informed them that there was a problem that needed to be fixed. (I called them on the 5th.) I told them that there would only be people at home on the 5th and on the 7th. But that there would be no-one here on the the 6th.

Of course, on the 6th, I got a phone call at 8:30 am from Telkom technician.

"Hello, I am outside your flat."

Anyways, he said he would come back on the 7th.

Of course he did not. I phoned three times on the 7th.

Eventually someone turned up on the 8th. He looked at the line. He did things with his special telkom equipment. He concluded that the problem was not with our line but with the exchange. He said it would be fixed in 1/2 an hour.

Of course it was not.

I phoned Telkom again later on the 8th. I phoned again on the 9th. On the 9th the operator who answered the phone said she would escalate the problem to management.

On the 10th at 8:30am I got a call from Telkom management promising me he would personally make sure the problem was resolved.

1 hour later it was - apparently some piece of equipment somewhere somehow stopped working.

Anyways, I have a working phone again. After almost a week without a phone. Yay.

Tomorrow I write my first of 5 UNISA exams. Structured System Analysis.

later...

Physics

2005-10-06T13:07:00.000+02:00

Sandra just phoned me all excited, as she just discovered that for her last Physics test she got an amazing 74% - which means that her year mark for Physics is 68%.
She also got an average of 72% for her anatomy tests!

Not so long ago she was all despondent about Physics and felt that she had no hope in doing well enough to be allowed to sit for the final exams.

Well, it seems that its only Chemistry that is still unknown and a big worry.

She should know by the end of the day.

And on a more frustrated note something has gone wrong with my telephone line at home. It is not working. The technician is going to come tomorrow morning to take a look.

And on a more organised note I have organised a new passport. (my old passport was expiring in December). I now have a South Africa passport valid until 2015.

Sandra's passport has expired; and she has not yet got round to doing something about that.

[UPDATE]: Sandra says that this is not true. She has phoned them and they say she has to wait until someone gets back from holiday somewhere else before she can apply for a new passport etc. She says they also said that a temporary passport should be possible.

Thats a bit of a worry as we were thinking of going to visit Germany in late January to congratulate the newlyweds. Hopefully she will be able to sort something out.

later...

[UPDATE]: Sandra has her DP for chemistry. So she can write all the exams.

Platelet scare on Shabat before New Year!

2005-10-03T16:17:00.000+02:00

Well 18 months ago my platelets count were plummeting to zero; I needed absurd amounts of cortisone to be stay above 20k; IVIG stopped working and I was strongly resistant to take the treatments that could make me infertile. And then I took Mabthera and my count soared.

Since then I have been above 150k. Occasionaly 400+k. Once I dropped to 121k but went up again.

Since then (the 121k) I have been very careful to try and only do the count when I feel good and healthy; and when I feel uccky I try not to test unless I have good reason to be concerned!

And then on Tuesday, I had a headache did a platelet count (114k) went onto antibiotics crossed my fingers.

That night just after midnight I experienced rigors. I started shivering uncontrollably and feeling very very very cold. My wife took my temperature and I had no temperature. I was shivering so much I could not talk properly; and my wife rushed me to casualty at the hospital. By the time time I got to the hospital the shaking had stopped. I returned home.

I took a platelet count the next afternoon.
41k.

Not a happy moment. I have never been that low and not kept falling to hit zero.
I phoned my doctor and made an appointment for the next morning.

I did a count Friday morning.
48k.
I was really relieved. (Funny that the way one feels to a count is so relative!) Meanwhile I felt that worst of the virus was over. I was keeping my sinuses clear and sleeping.

I chatted with my doctor. She said that long term statistics were coming in on the Mabthera. That in Belgium patients were staying in remission 36 months, 48 months.

She said my strange rigors was probably because due to all the immuno-suppressants I have taken over the years my body does not react properly to viruses. (As well as being asplenic.)

I said I did not want to touch any cortisone or anything else unless I started presenting. She agreed, she said it was clear that cortisone for me was not a solution from my history. She said she would prepare the medical aid that I appeared to be relapsing and that I must test again on Monday (today) when hopefully the virus would be gone and lets all just cross fingers and press thumbs.

I tested at 6am this morning.
116k.

I immediately grabbed my tefillin and talit and rushed off to shacharit. (The Rav asked what my Mother's Hebrew name was and I was not sure, better find out so he can get the special prayer said for me...)

And I then set off for the 45 minute drive to work.

Looks like I am still in remission! And I had been trying to decide what books to take with me to hospital.

Well hopefully this is a good sign for the new year!

Happy New Year.

Some good pictures from Israel

2005-08-17T13:43:00.000+02:00

Flickr: Photos from velvetart

Its already half way through the week. Disengagement in Israel is well under way.

later...

All Assignments done.

2005-08-10T12:40:00.000+02:00

I got in my last assignments for the year in last night.

So hopefully I will get DPs for all 5 UNISA courses I have studied for this year. I definitely have 3 and am still awaiting results for the other 2.

It was Sandra's Birthday on Monday, and we went out for supper to celebrate.

later...

Holiday memories: the red wine stain

2005-07-29T12:50:00.000+02:00

One evening after coming home from a show at Grahamstown we decided to drink some red wine.

Sandra kept balancing her glass all evening in precarious positions on the bed. It made me feel very nervous, seeing all the bedding was in a very pale cream color.

But, somehow, the glass never actually tipped enough to spill anything. I eventually went to sleep to Sandra's disgruntlement - as she thought I should not be asleep. And so she kept waking me up. And I kept falling asleep. And she kept waking me up.

And then.... I got woken up and I moved my arm; and I felt my arm knock her arm in which she had a full glass of merlot red wine... and it was all over a pillow, and a sheet and a bed.

Well... for the rest of the night we accused each other of being the one who actually spilled the red wine. We did not get much sleep. (In fact to this day there is absolutely no agreement on who was the one to blame. I don't see how it can be my fault as I was asleep, but anyhows Sandra, I am sure, can provide you with a twenty minute monologue on why it could not possibly have been her fault in any way whatsoever.)

The red wine stain looked quite bad. The bedding was clearly new; and it looked like it may have soaked into the new bed as well. We immediately had reacted by putting vast amounts of salt on the marks... but still...

The next morning we showed the char what we had done. She looked very disturbed.

And so were we... How much were we going to have to pay to for the damage? Would it just be one duvet cover and pillow case, or a whole set? Sandra believed we may have to buy a new bed!

We saw a very good play that morning by Berkoff about a poor working class girl in London whose life was pretty sad and self-destructive. Sandra thoroughly enjoyed it.

We then went back to the garden cottage to see how bad the damage was after the char had tried to see if she could salvage the situation.

...and...

the wine stains had been completely removed. OK. There was some tiny discolouration on the bed mattress itself, but very minor (almost to the point of non-existence). And the sheet, pillows, pillowcase, duvet were just like new.

We were shocked.

We were amazed.

The char said she used Preen Vanish.

I gave her a big tip as a thank-you for her amazing act of washing skill.

later...

time goes by

2005-07-29T09:44:00.000+02:00

hmm. It feels like I have been back at work for ages. The last week I have been going to sleep after midnight every night as I have been working hard at the last assignment in the one computer programming course I am studying this year. I have been writing funny little programmes in Java. I have been trying to find a way to put them on the internet but have not yet found a suitable server yet.

Sandra has also been up late studying, as she had three difficult tests this week. Its been a very stressful week for her, but she is enjoying the work and the pressure. This semester she starts learning about homeopathic remedies; and if she passes this particular course she will get to have her own homeopathic first-aid kit to take home. She really wants this kit; and is very excited about it.

We went to see Charlie and the Chocalate factory last night. I really enjoyed Johnny Depp. He is from another world.

There is something wrong with out kitchen sink. Something is blocked somewhere in the pipes. I have no idea about how plumbing works - ugggg.

This weekend I will be working on assignments most of the time.

later...