Ivan Kaplan

Ivan is my spiritual mentor and a dear friend. I found him last year when searching for a meditation and a non-religious Kabbalah teacher. How lucky I was.

I did his first Kabbalah and Meditation course and loved it. My first meditation experience was indescribable and I have been doing it ever since. He's been doing it for more than 30 years and has told me that it has made an enormous difference to his life. And I believe him.

The Kabbalah teachings were also incredible and a nice balance to the religious Kabbalah Centre approach. As he said, it felt like finally visiting a country after reading various guides about it. He was spot on.

Having said all that, what really strikes me when I am with Ivan, is the soulfulness, goodness, kindness of his eyes and tenderness of his heart. I honestly have never met anyone with such a pure soul before.

Next weekend I'll do another course with him and cannot wait for it. This time we'll do a bit more on Kabbalah, NLP and Astrology. And of course, lots and lots of meditation.

Starting at the end

Swellendam, a beautiful "Cape dutch"-style village right between the Garden Route and the Little Karoo. What a beautiful place.

It was our last stop in our "long weekend" trip to the Garden Route before heading to Cape Town and then flying home.

In the pic below, Antonio and I, having breakfast at our guesthouse. It could be somewhere in Amsterdan.

Garden Route

Como esse pais e lindo, Meu Deus!

Acabamos de chegar de Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Wilderness, Swellendam, um pedacinho do Karoo e... Cape Town!

Tudo muito bonito, de tirar o folego, vou escrevendo aos pouquinhos sobre as cidadezinhas.

De volta a casa, gordos e corados, prontos para uma semana de batente.

E pra comecar... meu telefone da loja quebrou de novo!! So pra nao perder o habito, claro.

One more hilarious joke

"Official Announcement:

The ANC government today announced that it is changing its emblem to a CONDOM because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed!

Damn, it just doesn't get more accurate than that".

Not so politically correct

One more African joke / Mais uma piada Africana

A couple is sleeping in a small village in Zimbabwe and in their house there is no water, no electricity and outside there is garbage all over the place.

Suddenly, there is a noise and they both wake up. As if by miracle, the garbage truck comes to pick the garbage and inside the house the lights turn on and the water is coming out of the tap.

The husband then shouts to his wife: "Get up quickly and take your machete! The whites are back!!!"

Sooooo bad! Ah, Mr Mugabe...!

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Um casal dorme em num pequeno vilarejo do Zimbabwe. Em sua casa, nao ha eletricidade, agua e do lado de fora tem lixo espalhado por todo lado.

De repente, ouve-se um barulho e os dois acordam. Como que por milagre, o caminhao do lixo aparece e recolhe o lixo, a luz acende e a agua comeca a jorrar da torneira.

O marido entao vira-se para a mulher e berra: "Levanta rapido e pega sua peixeira! Os brancos voltaram!!"

QUE SACANAAAAGEM!!! Ah! Sr Mugabe...!!

Como eu amo esse menino!

Maybe a pub is the safest place to be in South Africa

Loved this e-mail I got today.

I love Telkom

And - voila! - the landline of my shop broke for the third time this month and today is still the 14th of February!!!

This can drive one barking mad and I admit being pretty upset yesterday afternoon.

T.I.A. (This is Africa), I know that... but I am also off to the Garden Route tomorrow, today is Valentine's Day, the sun is shining bright outside and I'll take care of it next week.

One must live here according to circumstances and try not to stress too much about little details. Or else one can go bananas.

Obama

Piada que ja ouvi por aqui algumas vezes...

"... se Barack Obama for eleito presidente dos Estados Unidos, ele sera o primeiro presidente Queniano eleito democraticamente."

Sera que vai dar ele??
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A Joke I heard a few times around here...

"... if Barack Obama becomes the president of The United States, he will be the first Kenyan president elected democratically."

Will that really happen??

Gold Reef City

Levamos Antonio e William para passar o domingo no parque de diversoes Gold Reef City aqui em Joburg. Foi uma dleicia! Eles amaram o dia e se divertiram MUITO!

Na foto abaixo a ansiedade aparente dos pequenos ao entrar na Roda Gigante. Muito fofos esses dois!

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We took Antonio and William to spend the sunday at Gold Reef City amusement park here in Joburg. It was a fabulous day out! They loved it and had a great time!

In the pic below, their anxiety is clear, just before the giant wheel got into action. So cute these two!

Blame it on Eskom

Tomorrow night is Valentine's Day and as a "loving and devoted" wife (hahahaha) I booked us a table in an ultra-romantic restaurant set 45-mins away from Joburg.

Before choosing "Alfiume" as our venue I did some research on the net and came across a famous Joburg eatery called Browns. In its website, apart from a Valentine's Day special menu, it said in big, red, flashing letters "WE HAVE A FULLY FUNCTIONING GENERATOR".

Absolutely indispensable for anyone who wants to run a business and make a living in today's South Africa.

Ebaaaaa! / Yipeeeee!

Vamos viajar na sexta-feira: Plettenberg Bay (ou apenas "Plett" para os locais), Knysna, Wilderness, George, Mossel Bay... Cape Town! Vamos finalmente visitar a Garden Route.

Que delicia. To precisaderrima de um descanso.

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We'll go on a vacation on Friday: Plettenberg Bay (or simply "Plett" to the locals), Knysna, Wilderness, George, Mossel Bay... Cape Town! We'll finally visit the Garden Route.

How delightful! I need badly some time out.

The same old bugger

Hahahahahaha! Guess what?! The pothole mentioned below is "THE" Luanda pothole and not a similar one in Harare as it was mentioned in the e-mail forwarded to us. Our friend Stuart checked in his archives and VOILA! - it was the same one.

Below, a brazilian version of a pothole. A massive, gigantic, swimming pool of a pothole in Rio.

And then the question: who is better at screwing the tax payer, Angolan or Brazilian politicians?

Ok, ok... let's blame it on Portuguese inheritance.

It could be in Rio...

Just got an e-mail with the picture of "A" pothole in Zim, more precisely Harare.

We love a story our dear friend, Stuart Nicholson, tells us about "THE" pothole in Luanda, Angola's best known sight. Luanda, he claims, is the worst shit hole on the planet, a place with very little to do apart from observing magnificent examples of poor infra-structure and no urban conservation.

The sad thing about this story is that only last year, the exact same thing happened in Rio's South Zone, a place which holds the title of Latin America's most expensive square meter.

It is certainly hard to believe that Rio might have the same problems as Harare and Luanda but I swear it's true.

With compliments from our beloved mayor, Mr Cesar "nutcase" Maia.

Difficult choice

Patrick and I find ourselves facing a problem many parents have already gone through: finding the right school for our son and, most importantly, getting a place for him in it.

After our frustrated attempt with DSJ - the German School - we decided to visit all other top schools in the city, choose the best one and get Antonio into it no matter what.

Yesterday morning we attended the open day of The Ridge, an amazing school in the Westcliff area. I must admit I have never seen anything like that place. It is overwhelmingly beautiful and their boys are formidably polite. Their facilities are absolutely state-of-the-art and on top of that the staff is incredible.

Next day we went to Pridwin, a much smaller elitist school, good on sports, top in Maths, with beautiful manicured gardens. We chatted to the headmaster, a very fine chap, who assured us his school was no worse than other top schools worldwide, having one of his pupils recently accepted at Eton.

The funny bit was a tale we heard in both schools: in Joburg, parents put their kids' names down in waiting lists of top private schools as soon as the wife gets pregnant without even knowing the baby's gender. Later on they must drop out as they realize it's a baby girl coming along. And both schools are boys only.

I applied for The Ridge in 2006, as soon as we arrived in SA, knowing his starting date would be January 2009. It was for sure a shot in the dark as we had no idea if we'd still be here.

And now, after 2 years waiting, it's fingers crossed we get our little one into either or.

Chato mas fofo/ The cute nagger

Mesmo sendo um chatonildooooooo de vez em quando, nao da pra negar que o Patrick e um fofo. E', ou nao e'?

PS: Nessa foto o pentelho fazendo pose junto a versao Egipcia do Don Corleone.

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Even though he can be quite the pain in the ass sometimes, there is no denying Patrick is a cutie. Isn't that true?

PS: In this picture, Mr Nagger posing next to the Egyptian version of Don Corleone.

Free State

South Africa is such a beautiful country that people tend to take for granted the splendour of some of the less popular provinces. This is the case with our neighbouring state.

I went to the Free State with Patrick and Antonio to visit a supplier and was stunned by its beauty and generous landscapes.

Images can speak better than a thousand words. So I give you a bit of this amazing piece of land in this most amazing of countries.

Tutti buona gente

De tempos em tempos recebo da vida um presentao.

Me refiro, claro, as pessoas que conheco e eventualmente tornam-se meus amigos.

Com minha vida de nomade e mudancas frequentes, a chance de estar sempre em contato com novas pessoas e grande. E nao posso negar que tenho muita sorte com as pessoas que conheco.

Aqui na Africa do Sul ja conheci muita gente legal. Nunca em outro pais fiz tantos amigos queridos e convivi com pessoas tao especiais e atenciosas como aqui em Joburg.

A Nani e o Peter, sao um casal simplesmente fora de serie. Fui apresentada a ela atraves da Re Abitbol, que ao saber da minha mudanca pra Joanesburgo, foi logo dizendo: "ta aqui o telefone da sua mais nova melhor amiga".

Ele ingles, ela brazuca. Carismaticos, gentis, bons amigos, animados, boemios, viajados, vibrantes, queridissimos.


Tem tambem a Cindy e o Clemens (Sul-Africanos), Nikki e Clive (Sul-Africanos), Peta e Glenn (Australianos), Ify e Keith (Nigeria e Tanzania), Stuart e Antonia (UK e Bulgaria), Nick e Cecilia (UK e Suecia/Chile), Henrik e Suzanne (Dinamarca e Quenia), Anna e Christian (Suecia e Alemanha), Lars e Giulietta (Alemanha e Africa do Sul), Bayo e Ijeoma (Nigeria e Austria), Adrienne e Michael (Austria e Africa do Sul), Marco e Jana (Sul-Africanos), Dieter e Caroline (Africa do Sul e Argentina) e last but not least, meu querido amigo e mentor espiritual Ivan Kaplan (Africa do Sul). Toda essa gente querida que falo e vejo com bastante frequencia.

Mesmo com todos os problemas dessa terra, nao tem como nao ser feliz nesse pais.

PS: Nas fotos: acima Peter e Nani no meu aniversario e Ify e Keith no Natal.

A break in the honeymoon

It is no secret that I adore South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africans, the Springboks and etc, etc, etc. And I am more patriotic about my adopted nation than 80% of those who were born here.

However, right now, the energy crisis and lack of infra-structure, efficiency and professionalism in this country are getting to me. Badly.

Most of my time is spent trying to solve problems that are caused purely by bad management and lack of competence of other people. And let me put on top of that, serious attitude problems of an unhappy few.

Yesterday night, to make things worse, I heard a few gunshots coming from Craighall Park, a nearby neighbourhood. It's been a while since I last heard those "reality calls' around here.

Just another reminder that this is Africa after all.

Mercurio Retrogrado

Nao sei se e porque Mercurio esta nessa fase infernal e a comunicacao entre as pessoas fica pessima mas ultimamente eu tenho sentido vontade de matar alguem na rua.

No momento, a falta de eficiencia das pessoas nesse pais deixa todos - inclusive essa que vos escreve - a beira da loucura.

Pelo bem de todos e alegria geral da nacao, vamos tentar sair de Janesburgo esse fim-de-semana. Pelo menos assim, num acesso de furia, prefiro me engalfinhar com uma girafa do que atropelar algum nativo na rua.