New Dimensions

  This is a picture of our members in 2012. We rode in the Southern Skies Relay Race. My wife and I are on the far left, and my son-in-law and daughter are on the far right. The younger ones are Joshua and Courtney. I decided to call this team Super 7 because I haven’t seen families compete like this. Three families became one bigger family for a weekend 24-hour race. I am writing this now in 2026, twelve years after our first race. Recently, my mountain bike was stolen whilst I was away in Cape Town, where my son participated in the March Cycle Tour. About two weeks later, I got a new mountain bike and have already started riding it regularly. After the MTB bug hit me, I continued to ride intermittently but never stopped completely. Lately, I am riding every week. The benefits to my health are important to me, and getting as fit as possible at 73 helps too. Who knows, maybe I will be able to ride in a competition again on my own. I say that because I don’t know of any other member...

Modern air-conditioners often include anti-bacterial filters. Checks should be done for leaks. A gas and lubricant recharge is often necessary. Usually, when the air conditioner is blowing warmer, it is a sign that it needs service. This is where Leonard Solutions can help. Just stop at our place opposite Boundary Silk Bazaar on Pomona Road, Kempton Park, for a quick check and re-gas the aircon. Leonard has 8 years of experience regassing car air conditioners and has built a good reputation.

  At the start of this year, I watched the movie Jaws just out of curiosity. It still had an unnerving effect on me. A couple of years ago, my client lost his little daughter in the sea off the coast of Kwa-Zulu-Natal. Her nanny took them to the sea, and the little girl disappeared. They found her remains the following day. Sharks caught her and ate parts of her body. My client felt immense devastation and grief. I attended her funeral, where they laid her body in a tiny white coffin. That changed my attitude towards swimming in the ocean. The next experience I want to talk about happened when I was in high school. One day, some friends and I went to Simonstown to swim, snorkel, and spear fish. Sounds okay! Well, the weather was perfect, and the train ride there went well. There were many people and kids already splashing and enjoying the water, which settled our nerves, and there were no warning signals. I swam to the floating raft, where many were climbing on and jumping of...

Aerial lift platforms are a highly specialized field of expertise since it involves safety to a great extent. The equipment must meet the highest maintenance standards, and drivers must have proper training and licenses. SA Platforms is the right company with an outstanding record if you need a lifting platform. They have the right lineup of machines that most people need. Below is just one example of their machines. All you need to do is call them, and they will ensure that you get the right lifting platform for the job. The Z135/70 Aerial Lift Platform can reach an amazing 43 metres into the air, enabling workers to access and carry out maintenance and other operations in inaccessible elevated locations. This is an amazing Super Boom! The Z135/70 Genie® is an engine-powered articulating boom that provides amazing lifting versatility. It combines up, out and over positioning capabilities and outreach, which is ideal for outdoor construction and industrial applications. Overview The Ne...

 War is a favourite topic in the news. The big ones are the ongoing battles in Ukraine and Palestine, where the IDF is very active. Since this is a hot topic, it is no wonder that we ended up playing a war game during a recent family reunion last Friday evening. After the delightful time we enjoyed, I wrote about it in a fun way since I am practicing my writing skills. That was fun too. When I read it again this morning, I enjoyed my writing. I got a kick out of it. A long time ago — I can’t even remember when — my son gave me a special book for my birthday titled A Writer’s Book of Days, by the famous author Judy Reeves. I started reading and studying it to write better. Then I wrote to her. Not long after that, she replied. Then, I shared something I had written with her to gauge her response. She was very kind and encouraged me to continue with my writing. That meant so much to me since she was very enthusiastic about my style of writing and clear voice. Encouraged in that way...

  So, my son gave me a book as a birthday present a few years ago. It was called A Writer’s Book of Days. It was to help me with my writing. It challenges me to write with prompts for each day. The prompts would mention something short and then I have to write for fifteen minutes flat without stopping. There are no rules, except I must not stop during that time. I must just get a picture in my mind and write, write, write. I don’t have to worry about punctuation or grammar or rules. I must just go with the flow and put everything down on paper without even thinking. No preparation or anything. The idea is to create a flow/stream of words in 15 minutes without stopping. It sounds easier said than done but I decided to try it. This was my first try and I had my clock on my phone next to me. Once done, I had to read it out loud to myself. As I did that, I felt good and strong and empowered. Like a champion, a winner in a Greek Olympics in the past. They ran without robes. That was a c...

  When I created this card, I thought it would be interesting to see how many people from different countries would read this blog and look at the photograph. In 25 days, 78 people were reached. In 13 days, this blog post has been read by 63 visitors from different countries, quite an achievement for a little blog. My target was to attract at least 80 views from different countries all over the world in 80 days. After one month 119 visitors have read this blog post and it has travelled all around the world. This blog is not one of those super blogs where influencers promote  I know that wass expecting much but it would be fun to discover what happened after a while. Would visitors send a link to a friend in another country, or would all of this be left to chance? The movie was interesting to watch because the characters encountered many obstacles, dangers, and losses along the way. They left London for the Suez Canal. From there to Bombay in India. Then to Calcutta and on to V...

  This is an exciting moment for me because I have worked on my book for a long time and can finally make it available to the public. There was one slight obstacle, but I worked out a solution to that requirement. Patreon allows file sizes up the 5MB.  My book is too large with too many beautiful photographs in it and at that size it just did not work. The resolution of 72 pixels made the photos a bit too fuzzy, and it spoiled everything. Even splitting the book in half was not helping. That is why I broke the book down into three sections, which enabled me to choose the right resolution for the photographs.  I numbered the books one, two, and three. This book is mainly about waking up in Bela-Bela in the rural part of Lesotho. It quickly progresses to the Basotho Heritage blankets, a section with blankets from the first years to what is currently available today. I took the photographs at the Sanlam Art Collection in Sandton. Here you can see the impressive blanket displ...

  The Chinese lantern plant is strictly ornamental. Its bright orange, balloon- or bell-shaped husks make this species prized. You can harvest and dry these husks to use in fall décor and craft projects or simply enjoy their vibrant hues in the garden. Ensure that children and pets cannot access your Chinese lanterns, as ingestion of this species is highly toxic. In midsummer, the Chinese lantern plant blooms with small white flowers, which grow into tiny berries surrounded by a balloon-like husk, or calyx. The husks start off green, then shift to yellow, and finally a vivid orange. When it dies back for the winter, cut down the plant at its base. Its roots will survive the cold season, and when warm weather returns, your Chinese lantern plant will begin growing again. To preserve its attractive foliage for floral decorations, tie the stems of your Chinese lantern plant into bundles, hang them upside-down in a cool, dark place indoors, and replant any dropped seeds next year. Once ...

In an endeavour to keep the ball rolling with my art and blog, I decided to create this piece, which did not turn out exactly the way I wanted it to because of the wrong paper I used to work on. If I used a more expensive paper to work on, the finished product would have been neater. It just goes to show you that the experts were right. Don't use cheap paper for art. When I started painting with watercolours, I bought a Hahnemühle pad for painting but never actually painted on it. Yesterday, I got fed up with the cheap paper I had used and decided to see what the Hahnemühle paper would do with my paint. To my surprise, I was delighted with the results. Where I had added too much paint and it ran over the lines, I could lift some of the water paint up and everything looked perfect again. That was obviously on a different work of art. I have started a page on Patreon where I am selling my book called Love For Blankets, People, and Lesotho and feature tutorials on how I create my lit...

Last night it was time again. I was relaxing watching the TV and wanted to draw something. I got an image up on my cell phone and just drew this lady whose husband was criticising her about her big bum. Because I struggled to find the marker colours in a hurry, I messed up a bit and had to fix things on my computer. In the end, you can still see most of my original piece of art. More practice would significantly improve my drawing and coloring skills. My aim is not perfection at the moment. No, I just want to have fun, be creative, and unwind whilst doing my art. If what I create looks good enough for me, then I am happy because I am just doing it to relax, and I can see I am getting better all the time. My book is nearly complete, and I believe it will bless readers. I used an ordinary A5 notepad with lines to draw on and the results are quite pleasant.  

  Sometimes we feel like doodling something that we have seen and take a chance at drawing it as quickly as possible in ink. When we succeed in getting close to what we want on paper, we add some shadows or dark areas and colour too. Here I decided to add some text to the sketch because of all the white space around the image. This was purely a practise session to see what sort of result I could achieve. Sometimes we see something brilliant by another skilled artist, and we see if we can create something similar. It is not to copy their work but to use it as inspiration. My work does not come close to the original piece. As I said, it is just for practise. The more we practise, the more we enjoy trying to improve our skills. That is the pursuit - even if it takes a very long time. Even when our sketch does not look that good. To us it is art. Today is 12 May 2025. I am about to publish my book. Keep visiting this blog and you will be able to get more information about my book and h...

A screenshot of visitor countries to my blog. There are more countries. Today is 12 May 2025. I am about to publish my book. Keep visiting this blog and you will be able to get more information about my book and how you can read it. Thanks. This is an unusual way of telling the story, but I am going to fly by the seat of my pants by just jumping in without a structure or an outline and just go with the flow for a start anyway.  When I was young, I witnessed some extremely traumatic things which I can’t share here because, if I shared them, they would put some people in a bad light and certain things are best kept unsaid. Thankfully, I am still able to do that! Many people blame their past or upbringing or circumstances or parents for the way they turned out. They are just good at excuses. When things happen to us, we still have the power to respond in the way that we choose instead of reacting negatively. As I said, what happened was traumatic. I thought that my father loved my bro...

 The book that I have been writing has suffered a few setbacks but that does not mean that I gave up. I started this project more than three years ago and have been determined to continue with it until it is published. The last hurdle was that I was told that the company I worked for was sold and that I should rather rethink the contents and name of the book because there might be complaints about them from the new owner. So, I obviously was not going to test that issue. I started changing things again for the third time because I wanted to finish my book. It sounds easier said than done but lots of determination and thinking enabled me to get to a good place with the idea of the book and the title which freed me from trying to stick to one topic. I am considering making the font on the cover bolder, but I think the picture is not too bad.  Any journey usually involves taking a suitcase of sorts along to carry your luggage in. That is the reason for the suitcase on the cover. ...

  I went into my blog stats to see where my visitors were coming from – in the last week anyway. It was a fantastic surprise to learn that most of the visitors this past week came from an awesome country called Brazil. I googled the Amazon jungle, and it confirmed what I suspected.   Almost sixty percent of the Amazon rainforest lies in Brazil. When I was very young, I watched a movie that was filmed in the Amazon and always loved the place. It is a fascinating place and also the largest tropical forest in the world. I once read that the storms in the Sahara lift up tons of dust which get blown by the circulating air currents and a lot of them land in the Amazon. I googled this and I got my confirmation: “Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plant proteins and growth, which the Amazon rain forest depends on in order to flourish.” (Link: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/calipso/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazons-plants/ ). It is so good to know that an...

  It has been a while since I last wrote an article. I have been quite busy with a number of things, especially the changes needed for my book. Just when I was trying to put it online three things happened in quick succession to derail the whole project. Today is 12 May 2025. I am about to publish my book. Keep visiting this blog and you will be able to get more information about my book and how you can read it. Thanks. The app that I was using to display the book online gave me two problems. First, it would not allow me to upload my changes anymore. Second, it did not function properly when the shopping cart also did not work. When I contacted them for explanations, they just gave me excuses. They did not provide me with any solutions. Just after that, I was told that the Frasers brand was sold a number of years ago and that it would be advisable to rather not write about that company. After all the effort I had put into the book glorifying Frasers and the people that worked there...

  Yesterday was Sunday and we were relaxing at home. I decided to do a quick sketch and paint it with watercolour paint. I didn't want to create a masterpiece or do something complex. I chose a picture on Pinterest because it looked easy to practise with. I also didn't want to use expensive paper either. The picture above is the result of my efforts. I first did the sketch in pencil and then added the blue and grey watercolour paint. Since it was just a little exercise I grabbed my Faber-Castell paints and added the colours. As I said, the aim was to practise and not to create a wonderful painting. I still get satisfaction from doing things like that. I have just watched a YouTube video on Atomic Habits by James Clear. Near the end he said that if you want to become a writer, you must not just write a book. That does not make you a writer. If you want to become a writer, you must write! Therefore, if you want to become a painter/artist, you must paint. You need to do that often...

  Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints always intrigued me. When I started my watercolor painting journey I had never heard that name. That was because I just jumped in and bought the wrong paints that caught my eye. Where I live we only have PNA stationery and art supply shops. I visited one and looked for the most impressive looking box of paints and purchased acrylic paints instead of watercolor paints. When I looked on YouTube for something to get started I then realised that I should be trying watercolors to paint something I saw there. The people presenting their tutorials were forever mentioning the best brands and Daniel Smith was usually mentioned. When I visited the PNA again, they did not have that brand in stock - only oil paints. Since I heard them usually talking about Daniel Smith watercolors, I decided to search for it online. There I discovered that Artsavingsclub stocked what I was looking for. Unfortunately, by then I had invested in Mont Marte watercolors. That was no...

  One day I watched a video where a gifted artist sketched a building and used alcohol markers to colour the sketch in. There was no messing around with water and paints and the paper did not buckle because no water was used. I thought that it would be wonderful if I could do the same. I proceeded to buy some alcohol markers to experiment with. That was where I learned that it was much harder than I thought. For one thing I found it difficult to avoid making marks when I coloured in with my new markers without creating lines when I moved them back and forth on the paper. It looked aweful. Then I also saw that my marker ink was far too bright on the paper. Another thing that I disliked was that the ink bled right through the paper to the other side. All my efforts looked far worse than my watercolour paintings. I hated them. To find the right markers and paper became an obsession but no matter what I bought I could not get satisfaction. I was about to give up when I recently decided...

  There are times when you want to doodle but you want it to look like something. Seated on a Lazy Boy chair is not the best way to draw and create art. However, I could not wait to do it properly and I was just feeling like practicing with my many markers which I found rather difficult to master. The best way to create is to just create no matter what the result looks like. After all, we all need some practice. So, I just drew something very basic to colour in. It is an opportunity to get away from the large computer where I design websites or create eBooks. Today is 12 May 2025. I am about to publish my book. Keep visiting this blog and you will be able to get more information about my book and how you can read it. Thanks. Painting or art with markers is my way of escaping from my usual work on a computer. It is my free time. So, the little house I made with alcohol markers my fit in a children's book since it looks so basic and plein but when I practice it doesn't matter to ...