Kasparov vs the Company! - September 2012

Garry Kasparov came to Discovery! 

For those who don't know him, Kasparov is a Russian considered by many to be one of the world's greatest Chess players that has ever lived. Now chess to me is hardly an entertaining game. I know it to be a game of strategy and quick thinking, if slow action, but who wants to watch a man play chess?

What if it's against 8 of your co-workers?

All at the same time?

That's right, Discovery got 40 members together to play chess until only 8 players were left, the cream of the cream. Could these 8 players beat the master?

Let the games begin!

All 8 players where on an L shaped stage that allowed Kasparov to move from one table to the next, playing against each person in turn. They got to rest and think strategically, while Kasparov moved continuously from one player to another, with no time for a "sit and think."

We got to watch each choice the Pro made before moving on to his next victim, sorry, rival. Even the most ardent chess hater couldn't help but watch, secretly hoping, maybe we'll get him yet!

Please! Kasparov moved so quickly from table to table that getting a photo of the guy was almost impossible as he was always moving! He was a chess playing machine!

Yeah ok, let me move my pawn, you just lost yours, next player please!

Occasionally he stopped to think. Usually just long enough to come up with another devastatingly clever move that made almost every single player on the stage huff, sigh and hold their hands together in new found religion.

Even Adrian Gore was there to watch the master at work. Keeping an outer cool, I bet inside he was cheering each of his employee's on screaming, "Win you moneky's, win!!"

Eventually Kasparov was down to just one opponent. Would she clear the floor with him?

No such luck! In the end, Kasparov reigned supreme, sending 8 of our very best back home, tail between legs.
It was quite the show! Well done to our guys and congratulations to Mr Kasparov, what can we say other than... W  O  W!!!

Salvation Army Fete - Saturday 25 August 2012

Bright and early, and I do mean EARLY, we headed off to what was advertised as one of the biggest do's in the bargain hunter calendar, the Salvation Army fete! It was... an experience!

 Even though we were there before 8am, the official opening time, the place was, oh, some what crowded...

Perhaps all the police there, and guys with helmets and nifty guns they won't let Jo's hold, seems a tad too much? If you think so then you've obviously not seen the horror of one bargain item and three determined housewives! 

 Jo plots her course of action. Maximum ground coverage is essential! Each tent must be explored! Take no prisoners under 99c!

Sadly there were also a lot of lines to get into the more interesting tents. We decided to give those a skip. The crowd could sense we were not die hard browsers and they're always keen to take out the weakest first! Being battered to death with a stuffed chihuahua - they lose more first timers that way...

Oh my section! A tent full of fat, fluffy toys! Just go on without me!!!

Seriously though, these tents held some weird stuff and, like hungry gazelles, we browsed!

Glow in the dark "golden" Halloween witch! A must have!

 PVC toy dog that looks like a prop for a video that could get daddy into a lot of trouble if mummy ever found out about it!

More sweets than you could shake a stick at! (And trust me after eating half of that candy, you would only ever be able to shake!)

Hey they could be selling actual babies for all I know...

A true blood bargain hunter can spot at least 3 things in this photograph they absolutely HAVE to have!

A life size sarcophagus! I'll get one for my mummy!

 Bren enjoys the spoils of war! Victory is sweet!

And I got something as well! Envy is an ugly emotion.

We had a grand time of it, but my my, aren't I glad we don't do this every weekend? The crowds and lines and people, people, people, would just be too much! 

I wonder if anyone bought the sarcophagus?

Candy Making - aka EPIC FAIL!

Right! Making Nougat, granted I'd never made candy before but how hard can that be? 

Oooooooooooooh boy!!

We found a good looking recipe online, bought all the ingredients and commensed candy-fi-cation!

Below we have a symphony in pots of how something so simple can go so horridly wrong!!

We usually have immense success in the kitchen but this time I was reminded about not getting too cocky with Koch in the kitchen!  :P

1. We added all the sugar, honey and maple syrup to the pot to cook. We put in water to ensure it didn't stick. Below we see the sugar and goodies mixing together in a rather unappetizing looking dish. But we are peppy and thinking, well, lets give it our best shot!

2. Ok, 20 / 30mins into cooking and it's yes, shiny and shimmery, but not much else is happening, hmmmm...

3. Ok ages later and besides a bit of bubbling still not much. And then a lot more bubbling! And more! And then we began to suspect that there was just waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much water in the thing! And what the heck did one recipe need so much sugar for? The scent of fear, like overly warm candy, filled the air...

 4. So if there's too much water add more sugar right? We split the mix, with a quarter into one pot and three quarters into the other. Into the smaller pot we added a ton more sugar. On the plus side things started looking up a bit! The stuff started to thicken and hope bloomed once more in our trampled down hearts!

5. We added the half mix with extra sugar to the egg whites, and hey, things were happening!

 6. We put the last of all the melted sugar in a pot, just cause, and spent the rest of the time cleaning en-sugared pots! A little while later we had a pot full of rock hard candy and no kids to give it to! It really was more of a weapon to bludgeon rhinos to death then something edible!

>Clink! Clink!<

 7. The Nougat came out half soft and squishy and almost too sweet to eat! Ironically it did taste like nougat apparently but it was neither a sauce or a sweet, more like some hideous mutant creature caught between!

8. But fear not, we shall try again! This time a little older and a whole bunch wiser!! So, want to taste test?

Hey! Where are you running off too???

Snow-Burg! 7 August 2012

Into August, the windy month, and lower temperatures are rather the norm, but what a surprise we got today! *Vibrates happily!*

It all started with some pretty low, low temperatures, at least for a South African province, (-1 to 8C) and some rather ominous looking clouds like so:

Creeeeeeeeeeepy!

 And then... The magic! Snow started to fall! First in isolated places, so you were like, "Humph, why did X town / city / destination, get snow and we didn't? I never liked them anyway!" and then suddenly -  right at an outdoors near you - down came the snow!!
Soft flakes, small flakes, delicate flakes but still snow! In Johannesburg!!! You can imagine the excitement?!
I don't think anyone talked about anything else the entire day!

I tried to get a video of the stuff falling but it's not easy on your cellphone. I meant to try again later but was far too busy enjoying natures freakish quirk! It was awfully cold though! I got frosty patches on my ears!

 Mind you in some areas it did snow a tad bit more than others...

 But how could you not just go outside and gape at the wonder of it all? Even adults were being silly, in fact especially adults, and snowballs were thrown and snow men made, and probably rather a few colds and sniffles were picked up as well! But it was all so worth it!

 Not sure the plants knew what to make of their sudden frosting!

By the looks of it, neither did the animals! That's king of the jungle, not winter wonderland!

 It was so pretty! All those tiny ice crystals! I know to a country that gets a lot of snow this stuff is a pain in the everywhere (It really is awfully cold), but to us it was just enchanting!

Sadly in many areas it dried up rather fast. This is Africa after all! Come back snow we miss you!!!

Well... mostly.... *Cuddles heater*

Discovery 702 Walk the Talk - Sunday 22 July 2012

At the absolute crack of Dawn, nay, before Dawn had even thought to get out of bed and flash her bits, Bren and I were up and ready to go do the Discovery 702 'Walk the Talk' 30km walk! WOOHOO!!!

Even for me 30km's would stretch my limits and hamstrings! 

5.30am and off we went to the Start and to our destiny! (I'm setting the mood here.)

And good thing went off as early as we did! With 50 000 entrants, there was traffic thick as scabs and twice as lumpy!

The sun is barely up and we're waiting to trot off! Us 30km and 15km walkers were all set to give that concrete a serious pounding! But oh, it was so cold, like doing a dawdle up in the North Pole! Kept expecting polar bears to come nibbling at my fingers! (They didn't though, I suspect they were like most everyone else not in the walk and having a bit of a sleep in.) 

Ah but the crowd was all amped up and there was a great vibe in the air! We were all ready to do this!

There were tons and tons of people there! 12 000 doing the 15km walk alone and another  2 000 doing the 30km. You just couldn't see the people within the sea of people!

And off we went!
I want that hat.

Above is a pic of the little flying camera used to record the event! 

Below I tried to magnify it a bit so you could see what it looked like.

Doesn't it just look like a buzzy mosquito? And is that a tiny munchkin riding it?

Sun is coming up, we're saved!

<--My hat.

Things are starting to warm up nicely! Everyone is jabbering on excitedly. At least I think they were, I couldn't hear them over my excitable jabbering!

The 1km mark, only 29 to go!

People, people everywhere and in all shapes and sizes! It was a lovely feeling of camaraderie!

Sadly it turned out that the 30km walk was so badly planned that they just told us, "you've done 15km's that's enough". Um, no!! Some just went to finish line but we quickly slipped in with the 8km walkers who were only just leaving when we got back.
Dang it, if we were going to be gypo'd on the distance we could at least squirrel away 23kms!

It's a Jo! I wore that heavy jacket for almost 16km. It was very comfie.

Here we are with the 8km people. They were a relaxed, easy going crowd. (Jovvian for: they walked too damn slow!)
Congestion was mostly caused by folk at all the refreshment stands crowding for Energade and Coke.

And in amongst all this, I still managed to find Waldo!

Discovery was out in force as well, offering fruit and water and cool-drink stops! 
There was even a helicopter on hand should it have been needed.
I'm not so sure about the guy in the Strawberry suit...

I was originally given a 5/8km medal, because they'd run out of 30km ones, but I managed to trade with a friend to get the right one. I must say the loss of the 30km walk was a bit of a blow, it would have been a wonderful challenge!

BUT, so speaking! We still had an absolute ball, and quite the adventure at that! From freezing to frying, being passed by people faster than us, and then passing those so much slower! We saw dogs as big as horses, popular port-a-potties and people in all manner of costume! Our muscles were worked out, our enthusiasm rampant and, all in all, THAT is how you do a Sunday!!
(Er, just not too often...)

Nonto Primary - Nelson Mandela Day - 16th July 2012

On a frightfully cold Monday, 21 brave volunteers, who cared more about helping others then getting frostbite, headed out to Nonto Primary school for Nelson Mandela day to help paint, hoe, shovel and rake to make the school a little bit nicer for the children who went there!

It was though - SERIOUSLY FRIKKIN' COLD!!

We all grabbed tools and set to work! Ten of us went to garden and the rest went to paint!
We gardeners cleared a dump site to make a vegetable patch for the kids for school dinners.
We put effort into it, no forking around!

I felt like a pimp the way I worked my Hoe!

 Backwards and forwards we went, clearing rubbish and rubble I found coke cans so old they'd not been made in decades! Archaeologists would have wept!

There was a fire for plant debris. I show this fire because, small and innocent as it looked, we all ended up smelling of burnt hay by the end of the day!

There was a photographer there to get publicity shots. Bet his pics aren't nearly as interesting as mine!
* Professional competitiveness*

 We managed to clear a large chunk of land! Made me wish we could have started planting already!

 While my fork and hoe destroyed rocks and bottles and cans from the 1500's with reckless glee, it was fascinating to see what sort of items held up against all the abuse. Wonder if it still works...

The painters were also hard at work adding a bit of colour and pizazz to the kids playing ground. Those of us in the garden moved around a lot so we didn't feel the cold so badly. I fear the painters weren't so lucky.
Oh dude, you missed a spot over ........................................there...............

The cold, the hard work and the final warmth of the bus and we headed back to Discovery, tired and beat.
Job well done crew!!!