Birthdays

In a couple of days I will be having passing suffering surviving come face to face with my birthday. And whilst I am generally quite happy and content with my life at the moment , I can not help feeling a little depressed when I think about it.

You see , in a couple of days I turn 33. And compared to other 33 year old people I know , I have very little to show for my 33 years on earth. And 'yes' I know , I shouldn't compare my life to that of others, and normally I couldn't give a rats arse. But just sometimes, I do.

And so knowing what I do , I have to answer two questions for myself :

Would I have still married Alet ?  Yes.
Would I have made the same financial decisions ?  No. 'Cause maybe , if I made better financial decisions both me and Alet (and by implication - my son) would have been in a better place to continue our lives after the divorce.

All I can do for now , is try to make better decisions and hope that some day things will work out ok.

And maybe,  until that 'someday' , I can ignore birthdays and just let them go by quietly.

A girl in my room

Last night , as I walked into my room , I found a very sexy girlie in my room. She had very nice long legs (although she could have shaved them a bit) , and a real curvy body. So , I asked her to stick around till morning so she can pose for some pics for me.

So this morning I took her outside and fired of some pics before graciously allowing her to take that sexy body elsewhere.

From what I could learn on the net she is called a Rain spider, or sometimes a Wolf Spider.  Her bite is not deadly , but will make you sit up and take notice with some localized swelling and discomfort for a couple of days. She eats insects and even small geckos once in while.  In South Africa they are commonly known as Rain Spiders due to their tendency to seek shelter inside human dwellings before it rains. So , Maybe we are lucky an she came to announce a rainy spell for our dried out part of the world.

Some pics :

Close call

This afternoon I developed a lot more respect for the ocean. Which , to be Honest, is just a polite way of saying that I very nearly drowned.

But wait , Let us start this story at a proper place. Like the begining for instance.

This morning was extremely hot and Humid here in Uitenhage and Myself Neville and Chris decided to go snorkeling at Sardinia bay this afternoon.  We got there around two and I went to stick my toes into the water . I must say , the water was piss Very cold! But as Neville said , we did not go all the way there just to turn around , and so , like proper Gautengers we donned masks, flippers and snorkels and got going. After the initial shock of the cold water I started to enjoy the swim and suggested that we swim out to the reef (+- 280m from our starting point) . All went well until I found myself in the middle of a fairly strong rip current that made plans to take me out further than I had planned to go .

I panicked fought the current for a while , but all this managed to do was to make me real tired. While I was fighting the current 2 big waves crashed over me in succession and knocked my mask and snorkel of my head. Luckily I managed to catch them in time. Eventually I decided to start swimming to the right and to try and make it onto the rocks so I could get my breath and energy ( that was now severely depleted) back. I must be honest, I barely made it. If the current was a little stronger , or the rocks a little farther away , I would have had to post this blog from heaven. But , by the grace of God , I made it onto the rocks with only some small dings and scratches for my trouble. Unfortunately , by this time I was completely drained of all of my energy and I just could not see myself swimming the 250 meters back to shore.

But thanks to God , I have a really great friend who deals with problems like a true McGyver. And so Neville got back into the water and swam to shore to go and fetch a boogie board. Then he and a stranger swam all the back to bring me the board , and then swam with me back to shore.

So, what have I learnt from all of this ?

1. Never underestimate the sea and its power
2. Never over estimate your own strength and fitness
3. It is very easy to drown. Scarily easy.
   
4. Do not panic. I allowed myself to get panicked and spent a lot of energy fighting the current and the waves, where if I had stayed calm and continued to swim in a normal snorkel style I would have spent far less energy and reached the rocks with energy to spare.
5. I am not nearly as fit as I thought  - and I need to get more excersize on a regular basis.
   
6. I have good friends who will go to great lengths to help me. Neville swam a bloody long distance to help me and Chris stuck with me all the time to make sure I am ok.

So , Thank you Father for Keeping me safe. Thank you for keeping my friends safe. Thank you for friends who are there when things go pear shaped. Amen