Karoo rain selfie

I enjoy taking selfies.  It is something one has to do if you travel solo a lot (which I normally do when travelling for business) and want to at least be in a picture.  Selfies are also a way to tell people "Look where I am and you're not" making it a great tourism marketing tool.  Driving back to Port Elizabeth from Johannesburg I was on a quiet road between Steynsburg and Hofmeyr in the Karoo and stopped to stretch my legs.  There wasn't a car in sight so I decided to do something I have seen a lot of bloggers and Instagrammers do.  Take a selfie with the camera on road level while standing right in the middle of the road.  Plus it started raining so I could do the stretch out my arms and feel the rain pose.  This was the result.  One moment I like the picture and the next it feels all wrong (what with lines and thirds and all).  I know I need to work on it a bit but lessons have been learned ala Heyneke Meyer and the Springboks.  So what do you think? 

My Mandela House selfie

I recently had the privilege to go on a Soweto Tour with City Sightseeing Joburg and one of our stops was Mandela House in Vilakazi Street.  Last time I was in Soweto they were still busy with the renovations on the house so I took the opportunity to visit and have a look.  There are various quotes throughout the house and decided to do a double whammy with this picture, taking a selfie while getting the quote on the window.

The significance of posting this today is that it is the one year anniversary of the death of Nelson Mandela.  Mandela truly gave his life for the betterment of all in South Africa and making the transition peacefully while others wanted to do it otherwise.  For that I have all the respect in the world for this man and as a tribute I post this picture today.  My Mandela House selfie. 

Happy Birthday to me

Last year on my birthday I went down to the beachfront and took a self portrait of myself for birthday sake, so at lunchtime I headed down to Shark Rock Pier to do it again. This time I had nothing to do a reflection or mirror shot in, so I just did the whole "hold the camera up with both hands and smile while taking the picture into the general direction of my face" photo thing. A guy was standing on the pier staring at me with a puzzled look on his face, but I thought what the hell... its my birthday.

Oh yes, and moments later I could have been wet. My timing was just right. The lesson may well have been: "Don't turn your back on the ocean when trying to take birthday self portraits!"

Left: Big 5 vs Right: Not Big 5

Yeah, yeah... I keep on threatening that I want to try out a couple of creative ways to take a self portrait, but I prefer being behind the camera which means that I am avoiding a self portrait photo shoot as long as possible.

I got to spend the night at Pumba Private Game Reserve last night along with a couple of international journalists. On our afternoon game drive we encountered a male lion and I couldn't resist the temptation to make it as much about me as about him.

Snakes at Reptile World

We decided to take the Rugrats to Reptile World at The Boma today to experience some slithering serpents. Well, guess who had a legen... wait for it... dary time and who was hiding at the door.

The visit starts with a guided tour showing you all the different snakes. This guy is the most common snake we find in this area. Its called a Puffadder and is a distant cousin of the Rattlesnake. It is responsible for a lot of snake bites as it tends to lie in footpaths sunning itself and people would stumble over them there.

This green snake is a Green Mamba. It is very poisonous and is found more to the north east of here. It doesn't grow as big as its cousin the Black Mamba, but is still one to avoid in the bush.

The best part of the visit starts when the guide takes out the non-venomous snakes. Then the fun starts. Here he is holding a baby boa constrictor.

I did find time to give up my camera in exchange for a snake... actually a couple of times... whenever they offered. I was in my element. I loved it. What an experience. I've never held a snake and here I am standing with the biggest snake in Africa. An African Rock Python.

For more picture of the family interacting with the snakes, pop into Firefly's Personal (B)log, Supplemental.

Potjiekos

When you think of traditional South African foods, a couple seems to put up their hands. But the two that must be right up there in the top three or four must be braaivleis (barbecued meat) and potjiekos (stew made in a cast iron pot on the coals as well). Now I'm not the world's best cook, not by a long shot. My ranking would probably be somewhere in the top 500 million, but I would be able to help myself if my life depended on it. While on our holiday camping trip, I decided to make potjie for Christmas lunch.

This is how I did it. There are hundreds of different recipes and ways of doing it. This is mine.

• The fire gets lit and when there are sufficient coals, the black three leg cast iron pot gets put on it.
• Put in some olive oil. Just a bit. Not too much. Just enough. (Get the idea?)
• We decided on a chicken potjie and had about 4 drumsticks, 4 wings and 4 pieces of white meat. Put in the pieces and just do a quick fry on both sides of each so that it gets a bit of colour, then take out.
• Put in one onion (sliced into rings) and fry till light brown
• Put chicken on top of onions
• Add baby potatoes, slices carrots, pieces of butternut, mushrooms and peas (or any other vegetables your heart desires)
• Then I add my concoction, I mean sauce (can somebody explain to me how to do that typing thing with the line through?) It consist of a packet of spare rib marinade, some chutney, tomato sauce, tin of tomato puree, salt, pepper and water - can't remember what else we had, but at home I'll also add worcester sauce, sweet chili or whatever else you have in stock.
• Don't add more water. It makes it's own water. In this case the Damselfly added more water and the sauce didn't get thick enough.
• Now leave it to do its thing for two hours or so. Important: DON'T BOTHER THE POT SO DON'T STIR IT! UNDERSTAND? Trust me (and thousands before me) it won't burn and it will all be cooked.
• Towards the end you may want to take out some of the sauce to add corn flour to it to get the sauce thick. Don't forget to pour it back in after mixing the flour in.

Here is the end product. Don't criticise the presentation. It wasn't a food fancy dress party. It was just supposed to get our tummies full. The bread is beer bread. One 500mg self raising flour and a tin of beer. Mix well and stuff in three standard tins. Cover with foil and bake on the coals. The tins can be see in the first picture on the right hand side.

The Damselfly couldn't resist (ok, so I had to ask her) taking a picture of me with my new springbok horn pot opener in hand. I'm not really a hat guy, but the temperature came close to 40C (104F) that whole week and my receding hair is leaving my forehead a little exposed.

So that is the end of today's cooking lesson. LOL. Next time I'll do one on a braai (barbecue).

Self portrait of a birthday boy

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me... Happy birthday to me.

I always wanted to try and take one of these rear view mirror self portraits and have just never gotten around to it. So today I though I will give it a go. For Birthday's sake. LOL. I just needed to get out the office and drove down to the beachfront and just did it. After making sure nobody was looking. Didn't know if I would look stupid taking a picture of myself in my cars side mirror.