A very interesting church near Oudtshoorn (South Africa). The name of the place is "Volmoed" (Full of hope). It was built in in 1910 for the Dutch Reformed church. It is currently in use. 

I took this photo at the top of the "Swartberg Pass" in the southern cape on the way to Oudtshoorn. It was a very hot day, but when we got to this very high point in the pass there was an icey wind blowing. It was difficult just to keep the camera still. 

Chapman's Peak Drive South Africa

Photo of Chapman's Peak Road which has recently been re-opened for the public. (Cape Peninsula South Africa)

One can only get a true feeling of how big things such as mountains and cliffs are when you have something to compare it with. Look at how small the cars look in the picture above against the almost vertical cliff faces next to Chapman's Peak drive near Hout Bay in South Africa. Numerous people have plummeted down these cliffs with their cars in the past. This road has been opened for the public end of 2003 after wet conditions on the cliffs would cause rocks to fall on cars below. They solved this problem now by putting up huge nets and supports.

I can see something similar in real life...relationships. Relationships in real life are much similar to high cliffs. The view can be breathtaking at times, providing us with picturesque possibilities along this mountain pass of life, but the possibility of getting hurt is always there. But if we stay away from this coastal road out of fear of getting hurt we will never experience the joy of being able to share our most intimate and deepest thoughts and feelings with somebody else and getting to know their inner beauty. We're safe if we take the necessary precautions - just as the struts and nets provide the traveler with the much needed safety. A road on high cliffs next to the sea are not built using gravel by simply bulldozing a path...no, it is made by carefully laying a concrete foundation, covering it with the necessary tar to provide sufficient grip, making sure that there are enough strong nets above to protect against falling rocks which might come loose due to the inevitable rain which will fall. In a similar way a relationship must be built on a strong foundation of love and trust consisting of always speaking the truth with oneself and one's companion. You need to cover the road of life with enough caring and listening to prevent each other from losing grip. The nets of forgiveness and saying "I'm sorry" must be firmly fastened to protect against falling words which can crush and hurt. Safe relationships take years to be built just like safe mountain roads...

Though we might not always know where the road will lead us, we can travel securely, knowing that if we obey all the rules of the road, we won't plummet down to the rocks. And even if we might go too fast at times, we know that there is a barrier, a guard rail preventing up from falling.

The rules of these types of roads are : to go too fast is to die too fast. Don't feel rushed into having sex before all the guard rails and nets are in place!!

These must be some of the most beautiful coastline shots I know of. Isn't the Cape (South Africa) beautiful. This was taken on our way to 'Rooiels' on the road from Gordon's Bay.

We have a beautiful country. I am referring to South Africa. I love living here. What I love most of this country is the people. It is a friendly nation. We have a good leader...Pres Thabo Mbeki, successor to Pres. Madiba Mandela. We are a peaceful nation, we do not like making war - the majority of our nation dreams of a better future. A place where everybody has an equal chance in life. Nobody telling anybody you're not good enough because your skin are black or white or whatever colour. My dream for South Africa is that everybody will be able to find a place where he or she can find a place to work, to feel accomplishment, to play a part in the future rather than sit on the sideline like a beggar.

Our country has enormous potential, something I realised after listening to Nianell, a local singer and songwriter (she wrote the words of the song "Who painted the moon black"). Do yourself a favour and buy a CD of her and visit her website.

This photo was taken at Pringle Bay on the way to Hermanus from Cape Town in South Africa. 

Another picture of an insect on a flower found on Table Mountain. 

Here is the same bug picture cropped to be a bit bigger 

Anybody recognize these bugs? I took these photos on top of Table Mountain South Africa. 

Man with wheelbarrow on road - near Nelspruit South Africa

Yesterday evening I went to listen to a very encouraging speaker. His name is Nick Vujicic. He was born without any limbs. Yes, without ANY legs and without ANY arms!! But, you would expect someone like this to be discontent with his life, guess again... This is guy studying for a Bachelor degree of Commerce in Financial Planning and Investments. He has what you could call : "a beautiful heart" (in the same way as the guy in the movie "A beautiful mind" had an exceptional mind). He has learnt to be content with what he has in life as opposed to be discontented with what he does not have). He is from Australia and he is currently touring the world giving motivational speeches in schools and churches all over the world with the help of his brother and cousin.

As in the photo he walks his path, carrying his burdens with joy.

Have a look at his website and read his life testimony.

I photographed this beautiful flower near Nelspruit in South Africa. This is what the dictionary calls it:Noun: Strelitzia
1. small genus of large perennial evergreen herbs leaves resembling those of banana plants; sometimes placed in family Musaceae 

I took this photo of a spider outside our house.

The interesting thing about this spider is that it only hunts at night. In the daytime there is no trace of it. Every evening about the same time, it creates a brand new spider web next to a lamp outside the house. It quickly spins a web and then sits waiting for bugs. It has very impressive speed in catching these bugs. When it has successfully caught a bug it wraps its prey in a nicely spun cocoon until it has about 3 wrapped up bugs. Then it takes its prey and leave again.... Which made me think that my life is not much different from his.

Every morning when I get to work, I take my laptop out of the drawer, connect the wires and start looking for bugs in the software we write. When no measure of sitting around helps me to find the bug, I venture out on the World Wide Web, looking for clues as to what could cause the problem. When I find the software bug, I add some code comments to prevent me from doing it again and remove the bug from the code. I love new software development, since it gives you a nice sense of accomplishment in creating something brand new every day. But also the challenge of finding some hidden away bug or one which only happens sporadically when the correct conditions are met. To this means I use debuggers (especially the WinDbg and SOS I discussed on another place on this blog) to help me spin the web around my bugs...

And then in the afternoons I pack up my things and go home again...knowing that I have some pay to carry home at the end of the day.

I liked the feeling of depth provided by the lane of trees and the horse in the foreground. 

I took this picture of a horse when we were away for a weekend in the South African lowfeld near Nelspruit.