That pause between "drop" and "plop"!

Oooooh boy - are you gonna love THIS one!

Today Della and I had to go to the Mutasa District Council Offices - on Company business.

The Offices are located 45 minutes away from the hotel, and by the time we got there I felt the need to off-load the three cups of coffee that I had drunk this morning, as well as the 'mac-and-cheese' I had last night. I asked for the toilet, and was directed to a structure in the grounds which fairly obviously housed what we call 'long-drops' - or pit latrines, as they are known in other parts of the world.

And how nice they were! Here is the first view you get as you enter.....

As you can see from the previous photo - there was a certain degree of 'missing' that went on prior to my arrival in the public conveniences. (You know - "we aim to please - you aim too, please!")

I was able to hit the target not less that 95% of the time.....

Of course - the options are not limited to a 'Number One' - and the need to cater for a 'Number Two' has not been totally ignored. Obviously should the folk visiting the Mutasa Offices feel the need to 'push some putty', there is the additional requirement of paper......which eventuality has been extremely well-catered for. 

Providing not more than 20 people per day require the ablutions, are happy to share, and content to use the one-ply product provided, that is.......

I am sure the spider will not have escaped the attention of the lady readers of this blog?

When producing a 'Number Two' - the balancing act is something to behold - but the main concern for participants is the 2-second pause between "drop" and "plop". The depth of this particular facility is around 12 foot - and 2 seconds is a more than reasonable time to wait for the distant "plop" from the depths. The sound of silence is something you do NOT want to hear.

If.........however, the "plop" does not happen - the only recourse is to look down between your feet - and see just how much you missed the hole by.

The following photograph - taken with the camera held in the hole and pointing downwards, is not for the faint-hearted, but does contain proof (in case you wanted it) that my own 'Number Two' made it safely to the bottom.

I really can't believe you paged down to see!!! You seriously need to re-examine your life in fine detail.

Honestly!

Have a nice day one and all!!!

Make me a whitie!

The last couple of days have been somewhat chaotic - because the painter has been in the house. Eish.

He started in the kitchen, and has now moved to the lounge - with everything being piled in a 'hip' in the middle of the floor. Trying to watch cricket and rugby has been particularly difficult! However, the old nail holes have been filled in, and the wall painted, and everything starting to look nice and clean again.

The difference between the old paintwork and the new is quite marked - and noticeable. He managed to paint the whole lounge, and just turned the corner into the entrance-way - to the right the new, and to the left the old. Tomorrow we should complete the job.

As most of you know, I have a dog called 'Blackie' - who has three legs. He is a black Labrador - though his muzzle and front paws are now decidedly grey with age. Everything else remain black.

Blackie lost his fourth leg as a puppy because he got caught in a wire snare, and we didn't find him until gangrene had properly set in. So off came his back right leg. He normally gets around just fine with only 3 legs, but can be a bit wobbly when walking. This normally isn't a problem - until the walls are wet with paint! That is when Blackie becomes Whitie! Especially his tail.

Stoopid animal!

David & Goliath.

So..........how did our provincial swimming team do? Well, I am pleased to report - rather well.

Manicaland took a team of 10 swimmers - and we were far and away the smallest team at the National Championships. Here is a photo of our team in the Opening Parade - Manicaland wear yellow and black, while Mashonaland wear yellow. (You can see half of the Mashonaland Team in the background - they didn't all fit into the picture).

Could this small group of 10 country bumpkins really beat a Team of 140 polished swimmers? Here is Manicaland warming up -

I will not comment other than to provide a clipping from the national newspaper 'The Sunday Mail' - (purveyor of truth at all times). I will leave it to them to announce the Manicaland Team's achievements...

Astonishing, isn't it?

Then - as further proof of our giant-slaying abilities, here is a photo of  the scoreboard on Day 4.....

Of course..........there are those who would say that we 'doctored' the scoreboard slightly in our favor.

And they may well have a point

But that still makes us Winners!

The day a husband got trashed!

As promised yesterday - today's blog is about some of the people behind the gala.

There is a regular reader of this Blog - Mike Doorman, who along with his wife Tracey, is heavily involved in swimming. Mike worked as Starter for some of the sessions, and Tracey did the Announcing for the entire 5 days of gala - to the extent that her voice was giving out on the final day.

Tracey is also involved in the swimming club (Dorados) which my daughters Dayna and Courtney attend, and very much an integral part of swimming in Zimbabwe. She is also on the Board of national and provincial swimming bodies.

Mike reads the blog daily, and so today the blog is really about a regular reader of the blog reading about a regular reader of the blog - if that makes sense?

Here, then, is Tracey. As mentioned above, she did the announcing at the gala, and her daughter Amy (on the right) helped out too by bringing medals forward for whoever was presenting them - in addition to also competing. This photo was taken in the Announcers booth - with the crowd visible in the grandstand across the pool.

And this is Mike. I can, however,  tell you that the smile and happy face was actually all bravado - because............ he had gone and left their camera at home! Eish! And it was too far for him to go back and get it. And there was a good chance their daughter Lorna would be in amongst the medals.

Double Eish

And the medals were going to be presented by Kirsty Coventry on that particular day. Triple Eish.

I reckon this is a bit of a nervous grin - because at this point he hadn't yet told Tracey what he had done!

So it was left up to me to take a picture of their daughter Lorna being presented with her gold medal by Kirsty Coventry. I took this photo for them, and emailed it to them when I got home.

However Tracey was NOT amused. And, when she gets irked, she is indeed a formidable woman - as Mike found out.......

This astonishing spectacle greeted all and sundry who dared venture behind the grandstands after she had had a 'quiet' word with him once he had admitted leaving the camera behind!

Quadruple Eish! In Capitals!

EISH!!!!

Watch the black pipers of the Black Watch?

So back from Harare - and time for the blog to kick in again! I have had moans from Harare and, unbelievably, America, about the lack of postings. Thanks, guys!

So - the gala in Harare. Or - as the Americans call it - the 'swim meet'.

This was the Senior National Swimming Championships, in which my youngest two daughters competed. At the same time, Dayna also took part in the Zimbabwe Junior Squash Championships in Harare - essentially for national selection. So the blogs for the next few days will pretty much be taken up with sport!

Except, today.

Different cultures around the world develop different practices, and when cultures merge, some of the accepted behaviors from one culture will be taken up by another culture. And sometimes not. For example, I have taken groups of American women around the rural huts of Zimbabwe, and to see the ladies squirming on the stony ground while I, as a male, sit in splendor on a chair as is the norm here, is quite funny. But my guess is that they didn't take that cultural norm home with them! And when we, as Zimbabweans, travel to England or Europe, it comes as a shock to us that we can't just stop the car, get out, and have a roadside pee. As we do here.

So what happens when you take one of the most distinctive of cultural practices - for example a bagpipe marching band complete with kilts, sporrans, garter tabs, and tasseled hats, and then plonk it down in the middle of Africa. Would that work? Possibly not, did you say?

Surprisingly.......

So Europe represented by Scotland, and then there was an American-style Jazz Band.......

Of course, there was other music too - the traditional African marimba band in attendance with wooden keys above calabashes.......

This, then, was the Opening Parade of the Gala - with the Bagpipe Band leading the various provincial teams out (a total of around 250 Swimmers, at a guess - you can see them all in the background ready to march)...

The folk running the Gala did a fantastic job. But.........more of them tomorrow.

So nice to be back!!!! Have a great day one and all.

How does your garden grow?

No posts for a couple of days - partly because the rain kicked my system out, and partly because they have been pretty dull days! Apologies.

I leave tomorrow morning for Harare - my kids are competing in the National Swimming Championships, and the Zimbabwe Junior Squash selections, so I will not have access to internet, and will only post from Tuesday 19th Feb.........

Now then - today.

They call Cape Town "The Garden City" - and that is because they have planted trees and shrubs all over the place. It does look very pretty, as do those English towns that have competitions to be the prettiest towns. But...........they got nothing on OUR town!

Because we grow stuff everywhere. And not just in the boring old soil - we actually grow stuff on our buildings! And not on boring old pots and planter boxes. Nah - we grow OUR decorative plants.......well, kind of anywhere we feel like it! There is also an intersection with grass growing in a pot-hole - but I nearly got killed trying to take a photo because the traffic lights there stopped working ages ago. I will come back to this at a later stage!

Here, then a selection of the most impressive plants decorating our sleepy town of Mutare........

Firstly we have trees on our roofs. This is a budding Jacaranda tree - more of which I will no doubt post during the Jacaranda 'season'. But I bet you folk in Cape Town and England don't have trees growing on YOUR roofs?

Losers!

We have a variety of cactus (unfortunately the best selection was removed from some guttering before I managed to get a photo of them) - but here are a couple of cacti which would not be out of place in a John Wayne Western movie!!!

And then we have shrubs - mightily impressive ones at that, growing in our down-pipes......

Soooooo - we agree that Zim wins again?

Of course it does!

spot the leaf....

So - as Sundays go, La Rochelle was pretty dead today.

Only livened up by the "sellers of mangoes" as they tried to offload the last of the season's fruit - on me! The kitchen entrance became a hub of commerce as the staff all gathered to buy these tiny, but oh-so-delicious kidney mangoes. Some of the staff were content to take their allotment (the standard price is US$1 for 15 fruit) and there was even a choice of small, sweet bananas.

Here is Febi - the bedroom maid - in full buying mode...... as the 'fruit merchants of Penhalonga' look on suspiciously!

Nyasha the waitress was a little less accepting, and spent a lot of time arguing the merits (and otherwise) of every mango she bought. Lots of haggling - and she was the only one to get 19 fruit as opposed to 15 like the rest of us!

She can be quite intimidating when she gets going!

Now - here is a slightly different picture - showing just how well the plants are doing in my garden. Look at every leaf carefully, and you will see just how much change has been brought about by the recent rains.

Look VERY carefully at every leaf......

Of course......... you noticed Fred the chameleon, didn't you?