Everything is better in panorama!

I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and click-through the 3000 odd photos I took while on our 3 week holiday in Africa. As well as choosing the good ones and deleting the many bad ones I have also taken the time to digital stitch several photos, that I took intentionally, to produce panorama images of some of the landscapes from Victoria Falls and Cape Town with some fantastic results if I say so myself.

NB Click on the images to see them larger

Panorama of the Devil's Cataract at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

I have been researching what lens to buy next for my new Canon 550D SLR camera. Of course it would be great to have a wide-angle lens for photographs like these but with amateur results like this from digitally joining photographs together perhaps I can put that off for a while. If you like the photo above check out the rest here.

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Rounding out the holiday

With only a few days left we had done most of the must see items on our list so it was time to just kick back and relax. That being said I had some doctor’s appointments, just checkups, not being daring enough to trust the Chinese medicine practitioners or their propensity to prescribe dried plant roots over FDA approved antibiotics. I got the all clear from the dentist but the dermatologist was a different story and I was scheduled for minor surgery the following day. I won’t bore you with the details but all went well.

my mom and Di catching up on the deck

By chance our trip happened to coincide with one of my mother’s best friends 60th birthday celebration. Her family and ours have been friends as long as I can remember as well as having gone on several holidays together over the decades so it was great to be there for that and catch up with some old (no pun intended) friends. The weather was just perfect for our last couple of days as you can see from the photo above. As is customary with the bigger birthdays, Di made a speech which was very funny as she ran through how each of the people there that night fitted into her life with the backup of a slideshow with a few surprises but it was after dinner that the party really started…

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From the top of Table Mountain to the depths of Robben Island

With just one week left in Cape Town we still had a few must see things to do but as many of you will know the weather in Cape Town isn’t very predictable so when the day dawned clear and still we took the opportunity to go up Table Mountain.

The magnificent, flat-topped Table Mountain, Cape Town

We didn’t hike up the mountain but before you accuse us of being lazy, it was just because time was short and we had to make the most of it. So we booked our tickets online (a R10 saving), packed a cooler with drinks and snacks and set off for the cable station.

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Our Cape Town Peninsula Tour

With the South Easter wind still howling it wasn’t really beach weather but the skies were clear and so we grabbed the cameras to head out on a tour of the Peninsula. Leaving from Llandudno, we were going to travel anti-clockwise and pick up lunch at either Cape Point or Simon’s Town before heading back around Table Mountain.

a map of the Cape Peninsula

Just over the hill was the village of Hout Bay and out the other side the road winds its way up to the start of the dramatic Chapman’s Peak Drive, arguably one of the most

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Back in Cape Town with a to do list

First things first I wanted to get my camera to Orms, the place for all things photographic in Cape Town. Trying my camera one last time before heading into town I was amazed when I flicked the ON switch and the screen came to life asking me to set the date and time. After setting these I took a few photos, tried some of the other settings. Everything seemed fine, and relief washed over me feeling I had avoided a no doubt costly repair fee. I don’t know what the problem was or why it suddenly started working again. Maybe the dry air on the plane at 37000 feet, maybe it just needed to rest for 3 days either way it seems fine now.

Second on the list was contacting Qatar Airways to claim compensation for our luggage that they had lost but subsequently found and delivered to my parents at 11 o’clock one night while we were away in Victoria Falls. Lacking faith in online claim forms we decided to go to their offices and confront them face-to-face. Wanting to use the element of surprise we didn’t phone ahead and just arrived, tirade prepared, only to be told

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Day 1 – Getting to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

I say getting to because our route wasn’t very direct; and that was before the travel issues started. We arrived at Cape Town airport at the domestic terminal and searched the departures board to determine which counter 1time was operating at for us to check our luggage in. After locating our flight on the board I scanned across to reveal that the flight status was “delayed to 12:00″. A five-hour delay that meant that we would only be taking off 30 minutes after the scheduled takeoff of our connecting flight in Johannesburg. Could this really be happening?

We made our way to the counter with desperate looks on our faces and told the check-in staff that we had a connecting flight in Johannesburg at 11:30am. She said they were trying to accommodate those passengers on other airliners and that we must follow her to the Kulula counter where we would be on standby.

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Airport official: “Excuse me sir, is this your bag?”

As we were waiting for our luggage at the carousel in O.R. Tambo International Arrivals terminal a security official is walking around with this cute beagle on a leash. Obviously a sniffer dogs of sorts, I wasn’t concerned being the upstanding citizen I am, but everyone has, at the back of their minds, that element of doubt. You frantically think back over the last 48 hours. Was you bag always in your possession, could someone have slipped something in along the way? What if?

The beagle that is cute unless it finds something in your luggage

The beagle was being led around the carousel, sniffing everyone’s hand luggage while they waited for their checked bags. I watched as it came around sniffed at Margaurita’s bag but he didn’t move on. He sniffed a bit more and then sat down, a prime example that could have been used in a beagle training video for future generations. The unlikely and dreaded moment arrived, could this be, ” Excuse me sir, is this your bag?”

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Four weeks notice

In my experience thus far the standard notice period when leaving a job is 4 weeks, some say 2 weeks while others argue that you don’t have to give any notice at all but I’ve always known 4 weeks to be the norm. Is it different with contractual work though? I mean, you have a start date and an end date so unless you are planning to break  contract and leave early then is it necessary to actually give notice. The fact of the matter is I have reached a crossroad, in fact I reached it a couple of months ago, and my life in the near future is to be determined by my choice between home and work?     

Life is all about choices

  

 As you know I left South Africa in September last year and my one year teaching contract with EF Xiaoshan will end 4 weeks today on the 28th of September. So you are probably asking yourself what am I going to do ? Well, here’s the thing.

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