Lights Out!

So once again, we woke up without power this morning! The auto re-closer (whatever that may be...imagine a giant trip switch) tripped again in the middle of the night- according to Vyan at about 4.30am- I was in no state to comment at that time! But luckily the lovely people at Escom managed to pop it back on again by 7.30am, so its not the end of the world. Except, that I didn't get any toast this morning...or coffee! So I started the day a little grumpy but its fine, I can have a cup of coffee in 15 minutes, finishing packing, and then I'm of to Durbanville, staying at a friend's house and then its off to Lesotho again tomorrow! Plenty of time to sleep in the car tomorrow! So no blogging for a week or so, but rest assured that I will be back on Monday with LOTS of pictures!

Storing up more trouble...

Yeah! we get to clean out another storeroom today! Hehehe! I don't know why, and I'm sure my parents would scoff at this after 20 odd years of telling me to tidy my room, but I derive great pleasure from taking a cluttered space (normally not my own) and making it WORK. The programming store was very satisfying and I had high hopes for the Adventure Centre Store too... So we cleared out all the junk- as per usual, piled it all up- as per usual and stood and looked at it in a slightly horrified way for a few minutes...and then decided it was lunch time....

After procrastinating over some toast and peanut butter (if you're going to procrastinate, at least do it on a full stomach!) we decided that it would only be right to procrastinate still further by going to see a pod of Southern Right Whales that were in the bay near to Simon's Town...so we asked the boss and were granted permission on the condition that the store was tidy by the end of the day...

Alas- my photography skills are such that, out of about 8 whales, in 20 minutes...this is the best picture I got...BUT I finally got to see a whale breech for the first time in my life- and an awesome sight it was too! I do feel truly blessed to live here- not so many whales breaching in Bingley...

So back to work, there was an entire store room of stuff to put back in some semblance of order before the rains came...so a quick sweep, a couple of minutes of resuscitation, a couple of minutes with an oxygen mask, and we were ready to start putting it all back in...that is when the dust had settled enough to see again...

We stacked the VAST quantities of very nice wood in a sensible way, stacked the 5 doors we found, the window frames, the meters of piping, the truckloads of fertilizers, gallons of paint and the spare mattresses. We tidied, sorted and threw away well past 3.30pm knock off time, and then stood back to admire the fruits of our labours. Hey its dirty work, and someones got to do it! But I love every minute of it and it CERTAINLY beats sitting in an office five days a week typing at a computer...for me at least!

Monkey See Monkey Do...

A day is never going to go well when it starts by hearing Baboons ripping each other a new one mere hundreds of metres from your back door. Especially when you have 120 men women and children due to descend on your campsite in an hour. Living on the mountain here at Rocklands is a privilege, I wont dispute that, but some of our neighbours (the hairy variety) leave something to be desired! We could see them moving down the mountain all morning, until a camper politely said 'Erm...did you know there's a baboon in the dining room?' 'Oh, OK thank you, we'll deal with that now now.' *camper leaves* 'Aarrghhh! Paddy Come, now!'
So we chased him out of the dining room (sugar in hand...the baboons hand...not ours...sugar doesn't make a particularly good weapon against the apes) and chased him down off the games field. Silence. 'He's down there somewhere...' Silence....*pop* a sugar lid is removed, followed by a hail of marbles from the catapult into the nearest likely looking bush. Vyan, feeling brave, decides to go and confront Stanley (the baboon) who is sat on the drive eating the sugar that he has now spilled in the drive during a duck and cover move to avoid flying marbles. He however, is not backing down this time, and turns to walk towards Vyan...who doesn't want to back down...a scuffle ensues and Vyan gets pushed in the knees a couple of times before I lept down the bank (albeit a little late) and scared the life out of a car full of campers by leaping out of the bushes and running full pelt across the driveway in front of them catapult in hand on the heals of a ticked off baboon.
I then chased them all the way up the hill and caused a minor scuffle between the Alpha Male and a challenging male. So I could just stand and watch them chase each other around screaming at each other. Unfortunately I think there may have been ticks.....
Still, keeps things entertaining here! Siya then had to chase the whole troop away at lunch time - I swear they have watches...

Sunshine On A Rainy Day...

So once again the weather here has decided to bless us by peeing on us all day- so much so, that as regularly happens, the electricity tripped off. 11am-6pm without power. Its not quite as fun as it used to be when I was a kid- get the candles out, play monopoly, have the obligitory fight after the game had been going too long...those were the days! Luckily, before the power went out I managed to make a stack of pancakes for one and all! Hurah for pancakes, Hurah for days off!

Like a kid in Candy Store...

A bit retrospective but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the Tuck Shop transformation that happened earlier in the year! It's quite a thing when your bosses not only go away for a week and trust you not to burn the place down but also let you loose on redecorating something especially in pink and green...

So this is what the Tuckshop used to look like- a bit tired and erm...well uninspired shall we say?

To put it another way- it needed some lovin! So we cleared it out, fridges, shelves (which weigh a ton by the way!) and everything else, and set to work giving it a new lease of life! Darla came up with a funky 50's theme, and so we cracked open a tin of pastel pink and a tin of mint green and set to work on the walls! She came up with a cool idea of different sized circles in patterns on the walls- although dubious at first, I agree it looks awesome!

After that, I got with making some new shelves out of super wood (MDF) which went together quite nicely. A lick of yellow paint and a coat of varnish and they were good to go!

The same had to happen on the existing shelving to give it a bit razzmatazz, and we were getting there! The desk got a 'Cash Rap' an MDF front (painted yellow of course) and a custom made bespoke chequer board top. I was insist ant that chequer boards had to be used somewhere- if only we could afford to redo the floor....

When that was done, there was but a few finishing touches to complete before we were ready for customers. Not least our huge and possibly illegal Coca Cola poster rip off which adorns half of one wall...hopefully its altered enough to get around most copyright infringement laws...

And that was us pretty much done- from tired old camp shop into a rockin 1950's Candy Store in a mere week! I think its probably the most unique shop on a campsite I've ever seen!

We did get the seal of approval from the kitchen ladies though...so all is well...

Boer-dom

So I have realised that hosting is one of the most frustrating aspects of life here at Rocklands. Not, as was the case in Scotland, because you miss out on anything in particular, but mainly because you cant get your teeth into anything. You have to stay reasonably clean and tidy, you are constantly broken off from things by meals or Tuckshop or campers wanting things. You have to be 'Available' but you aren't necessarily 'needed'. So what you're left with is a whole load of short snippets of time that are hard to constructively fill. So you end up checking your emails for the umpteenth time or cruising round on Facebook...again...and then...and then...you write your blog...

I just realised that this could sound very negative! I like hosting! Its a great chance to actually get to know the campers and to interact with them through their camp!

Fall from Grace

So it would seem that President Thabo Mbeki's party, the ANC, don't like him anymore- he's being forced to resign along with the Vice-President. I personally only ever saw him as an empty suit and to my mind a change is as good as a holiday and all that- so we shall see what happens when, as is most likely, Jacob Zuma gets into power. But, as Cathy, one of our trustees, said 'He will get there by God's hand' so all of this must be part of God's plan for SA.

Fresh blood....

We have a new volunteer! After 2months of nail biting and worrying, and wondering what we are going to do when the schools start coming in and we need to offer full programming, we finally have a third team member! God is good! I often think He sits up in heaven in a mixture of frustration and amusement wondering why we can't just trust Him! He has said very plainly on MANY occasions that he will provide all our needs, that he will look after us, that he only wants good things for us and that the faithful shall be blessed! Yet still we try and take control of everything and in doing so realise how rubbish we are and start worrying!

So anyway, Siya has joined our team, on a 3 month contract for now. He's a really nice guy- very much trying to keep God in the centre of his life, he said 'I try to keep busy because, as my mother always says, you should keep busy because Satan finds things to keep you busy if you don't keep yourself busy', a Xhosa version of 'The Devil makes work for idle hands'. So anyhow, I think it'll be cool to have him on the team and I'm looking forward to Siya teaching me more Xhosa!

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy...

Shaun very kindly agreed to take me through my 'Discover SCUBA' course earlier in the year in our pool, and then foolishly agreed to to take me diving in the sea... Well due to life on a campsite, it didnt happen for a long time, but last week a break in the weather with no hosting constraints meant that the hour had arrived! We piled into the Tucson laden down with kit, and headed down to Windmill Beach about a 5min drive. Vyan went first, and as husband and wife donned their kit, I suddenly realised- I couldnt remember a thing about diving...surely it would be fine...

So while I played on the beach with Mr. Nathan, they had a dive, their first in ages! Then, a couple of be-goggled heads appeared in the surf and it was my turn! I Got into my wetsuit, struggled into the BC, and stummbled off down the beach. Then it was time to put on fins, mask and hood and get exploring!

So if a Dive Master/Diving Instructor ever tells you that it'd be a good idea if you don't have booties to wear socks under your fins- I recommend that you listen to him- he knows more than you! I didn't listen to this advice and as a result have rubbed my feet almost to the bone! Not fun!

For a first sea dive, it was pretty increadible! I obviously have no frame of reference but I saw starfish; brittle starfish; millions of urchins, all different colours; a crab; a pyjama shark! IT was fantastic! Oh the kelp beds! You see them from the top and they look really horrible! They look dark and scary, the kind of place that slithery slimey things might live...But underwater at 5m- they are beautiful! Like a forest of trees swaying in the surge, little snails on the leaves and branches, its an amazing sight!

So after a couple of boyancey issues (I didn't have enough weight so I was too bouyant and struggling to get to the bottom) and after adding more weight to my already laden self, we had a really good dive! Came back up tired but happy, just as the weather started to turn, the North wind started to blow and the rain came back....

Storing up trouble...

A thorn in various people's lives here at Rocklands has been the Programming Store. A nest of coiled ropes, barrels, seldom used activities, potjie pots and empty filing cabinets. Shaun (AKA Programming Director, Rocklands Centre Simons Town) finally plucked up the courage to grab a helmet, torch pick axe and shovel, and together we excavated the inner reaches of the store....

After fighting a couple of monsters; suppressing a couple of colonies of midgets, that had somehow evolved in the back left corner, and destroying the various ecosystems that had sprung up and flourished in and around the sink; we gave the place a good sweep and found that there were various previously undiscovered features in the store- a floor for one...

We decided that it was floor space that was at a premium in the store but wall space was something that we had in plentiful supply. We measured up and went to the workshop and found some rather nice wood doors that would make perfect shelves and then headed into Fish Hoek to Central Hardware and bought some more shelving. After recovering from the small heart failures on finding out that the brackets were to cost R48 EACH(!) we headed home and started adding shelves wherever there was a bare wall.

We bought some cup hooks as well to lift things off the floor and out of the way, I put the surf boards up there...just cos I thought it was cool....

We bought various hooks and brackets as well to make the most of the space we had. We sorted, measured and labeled the ropes we use for our various high level activities. A place for everything and everything in it's place.

And that was that! Quite an improvement, it will make a huge difference to the running of the programming activities! Hopefully you'll be able to just walk in a grab whatever it is you need and you know exactly where to find it! Magic!

Phantom of The Opera

So when a camper comes to you and says 'I think there's a cat in the organ' there are a number of responses, some are not too kind...I chose the very political 'Erm..right, I'll get on to that one as soon as possible....' (thinking in my head 'yeah right you psycho!') However, when another camper comes to you and claims to have heard mewing from the organ, you have to start to take it seriously. So off i toddle and fetch the screwdrivers, and low and behold look what I found....

So off came the back of the organ, and out came the cat, clawing and scraping my eyes out....Still, it makes life interesting...

Climbing the Walls

Well, the climbing wall here at Rocklands has taken another step forward! We have come on leaps and bounds! The original wall, starting as a low traversing board, became an inverted 'T' shape last year with the help of Lanet and Staci.

But there have always been plans to extend it...

So with out further a do, we set about extending the left hand side. We found that about 40% of the kids who came to camp couldn't manage to complete the overhang on the middle board so it was decided that a vertical wall would allow a greater range of kids to complete the wall.

We start by sanding, drilling, painting and camouflaging the boards (22mm shutter board) and then knocking in T-nuts for the grips to screw into later. After that we drilled holes for the expanding bolts and bolting batons to the walls for the boards to sit on.

After this we screwed batons to the back of the boards- 3 per board- and then we were ready to get the scaffold out and get the boards on the wall!

So then came the mammoth task of hefting the 2.4x1.4m 22mm thick plywood boards up onto the wall (a total height of 8m) but with the use of a couple of speed pulleys at the top and some help from Darla and Vyan, it all went well and there were no reported fatalities....

Then we measured and shaped the top board to fit the angled roof at the top of the sports hall, liberal use of power tools especially the circular saw a must, and hoisted this into place as well.

After the top board was in place, all that was left was to measure the angles to fill the gap between the vertical left hand wall and the overhanging middle wall. This was a bit of a brain teaser- especially for two mathematically challenged males! After a bit of head scratching tho, we worked it out and it wasn't a BAD fit, a little shaving here and there saw it slot nicely into place! We then screwed batons inside the wall to lock the whole thing together and the wall was essentially finished!

Then the FINAL job was to add the climbing grips- kind of a must when building your own climbing wall! The day started badly on this one- I climbed the scaffold and proceeded to knock one of the grips off the top smashing it to a thousand pieces on the floor below, then I screwed in an anchor to the top of the wall and popped the T-nut out of the back. There's no WAY that's coming out anytime soon, will have to get the angle grinder out and have a go at the bolt....

After that though the day picked up and we got all the grips on in record time- even with some left over! And now...for Phase III....