Powerplay

Sweden won the icehockey Olympic Games gold medal!! And I did not see the game... though I actually for once had the opportunity to. It was being screened on DSTV and a friend was watching it anc I could have gone there.

IF not things had got in the way. Friday evening the power went for the whole area or line we are on thanks to a rather impressive thunderstorm. Then on Saturday it came back for all but us and 2 of our neighbours. Again.

So once more harassing ZESA to get power back and finally got it back just before the game was to start and then we had multitudes of cleaning up and cooking and whatnot to fix so did not feel right to leave Mia alone with it all.

Speaking of power - we must have been the only family in Zimbabwe (or Harare at least) that never noticed the earthquake last week! All slept through it and were more than surprised the next day to hear of rattling houses and moving beds. Strange since I am normally a very light sleeper but I guess that either I was really tired or that our house was spared somehow.

In a place gone mad

Am currently in Lusaka, Zambia and oh boy has this place gone mad or what?

Since last time I was here the currency (Kwacha) has strengthened against the US and other major currencies so that from close to 5000 K to 1 USD we now have 3200 K to 1 USD.

But - prices have if anything gone up! This has made this place possibly one of the most expensive places to be for a foreigner right now. Some prices; I had a "burgerlunch" yesterday and drank a beer to it. Over 10 USD...

Today I had a pizza for lunch. Most likely my first ever "normal size" pizza to cost in the area of 14 USD!! In the shops it is the same, prices are easy twice what they were last time I was here.

Did I mention that a very "average" hotel room is around 120 USD a night...

Small wonder those I know here that are paid in foreign currency are complaining bitterly on a daily basis. Their cost of living must have at least doubled in the past 6 months!

And arriving tourist will get a very rude awakening if they are planning for a "cheap" holiday, to say the least.

My advice; travel somewhere else until this weird situation has normalised....

Heaven and hell in Kariba

First of all a nice photo of the Victoria Falls bridge spanning the Zambesi river and some 111 m high. From this Sandra did her bungyjump...

Last weekend we spent at Mauya Lodge in Kariba and that turned out to be a great place! OK no elephants in the pool as on the photo but at a nice viewing distance. We relaxed and spent time catching up with friends Håkan Lutz and family. Also drove around the lake a bit.

So what was the "hell" part? Well, waking up the first night with Eric first vomiting and then having a burning hot fever! At 00.30 we decided we would have to try and find a clinic, hospital or whatever. Now driving in the pitch dark night on bad roads towards a clinic you have no idea where it is with a kid with high fever is not fun. At all. In fact I have not been so scared for long long time.

We eventually found the place thanks to a busdriver we stopped but what a hospital... nothing like what we have in Harare. A nightnurse was the staff and he took the temperature and immediately dosed up a malaria-cure. When we asked why he said "well the child has high fever and this is a high-risk area for malaria". When I pointed out that we had just arrived and that he was on malaria prevention then he wrote us a prescription for antibiotica to pick up in the morning and assured the temperature would go down. As it actually did but I did not sleep until 4 am or so and was not much fun the following day.

Lesson learnt; next time we go "bush" we load up with medications and check the kids look OK before we leave... but otherwise a fabulous place for spending a lazy weekend! And special thanks to the caretaker Shadreck who turned out to be both a most friendly person and a really good cook!

The Victoria Falls experience

Mia and visiting niece Sandra flew to Victoria Falls day before yesterday, due back later today. They seem to have done everything except going down the Falls themselves....

First of all they visited the splendid restaurant The Boma (highly recommended) and ate food such as crocodile tail (taste like something between fish and chicken). Yesterday Sandra did the Bungi Jump from the bridge over the Zambesi river, at 111 m supposedly the highest jump in the world.
http://www.game-reserve.com/zambia_victoria-falls.html

And then today they went white water rafting... check it out at
http://www.afrizim.com/Places/Victoria_Falls/Activities/Rafting.asp
http://www.shearwateradventures.com/rafting/gallery/default.asp

They got guts the girls!!

Visitor!

Got my niece Sandra visiting from Sweden! First visitor from "home" in 4 years, seems people are very intimadated by Zimbabwe's reputation. Admittedly, there have been times when I have not recommended people to come but for the moment things are OK.

Poor girl has had some bad luck I must say. First she forgot some money at home (found by my sister and all that sorted by now) and then this morning she and Mia were supposed to fly to Vic Falls for a couple of days of sightseeing and fun. Then she wakes up with a really itching skinrash all over her body!

Turns out she was having a reaction agains an antibiotic medicine she was given in Sweden. Hopefully all that sorted after visit to the doctor this morning, trip to VF was rescheduled for tomorrow instead.

Help her by keeping your fingers crossed for no more mishaps now!

Sick Sunday

One strange Sunday. Beatiful weather, really hot and wanted to do a number of things. BUT wake up with an extremely sore stomach (could hardly even touch it) that did not go away until afternoon and THEN I get a fever and start shivering/sweating.

Brilliant. Spent the day watching A1 motor-racing in Durban on TV, had no energy whatsoever and had full time problems stopping Eric from jumping on my tummy as he normally will do given a chance.

National ID

Those who have, over the years, followed my meetings with the bureaucracy of different African countries in general and Zimbabwe in particular know that it is many times a daunting and very timeconsuming business. Like getting a birth-certificate for Eric, that took a few days of waiting in queues and running around. Getting a passport is more of a Kafka-like black farce and loads of patience is a must.

Because of this and other reasons I have never bothered to try and get a Zimbabwe national ID, something a resident is supposed to have if you have been living here more than 1 year. The last 2 times I have been to Immigration to renew my residence-stamp they have been "pestering" me over this so I have had on my "to-do" list for some time now.

So when a friend told me he had applied and it took no longer than around 20 minutes I had to try myself and see if this was really true!

It turns out that Registrar General (who handles these issues) have opened satellite offices here and there in Harare, one of these being a small cabin behind the City of Harare offices in Mount Pleasant. Very few seem to have realised this option. I went there with 2 copies of residence permit, 2 copies of passport "photo page" and Z$ 5000. It took like 15 minutes to fill in the form, get a receipt, do my fingerprints (yep) and take photos (they do this).

And now I have an id-number! In about 3 weeks I should get my "paper-id". After that one is supposed to get a metal-id (virtually indestructible) but how long that might take is a completely different story altogether...

TGIF

Thank God it's Friday! And the sun is actually shining, it feels like it is the first time in ages. I was getting afraid the frogs in our garden were going to drown soon if the rains did not hold up soon.

Of course rain is good and this is the rainy season but it has absolutely been too much of late. Things like the traffic lights (robots in Zim English) stop working and there seems to be no spare parts to fix them. Makes driving to and from town during rush-hours extra fun.

Well, I am gonna call it quits and leave early. Off to the gym and later a bit of "odd jobs" at home, hopefully a couple of drinks with friends when the evening sets in. Wish you all a nice weekend!

An evening at work and KDE

Just spending time in an office trying to sort a troublesome download-and-installation problem. These things are not so easy when you live in a country where "broadband" access means a leased 128k link shared by a LAN. Not to mention that since all ISPs are forced to use TelOne (the government phone network provider) international links ALL of them go down when TelOne has a problem. Which is at least a couple of times a day. Good for the country's development, yes or no? Make your own opinion, I know mine.

Nevertheless, now we are only a few in the office and most other users have also left work so speed is picking up and my rather massive upgrade of Kubuntu/KDE Linux seems to be over in an hour or so. Then I plan to leave that experiment in a (hopefully) stable version for a while and work on a software I am coding in Windows. Just wanted this "sidekick" sorted first so I can concentrate.

The idea of spending time setting up a Linux in a LAN here is of course mainly to see how it works for normal office work and how "average" users will react. The idea of Open Source and Free software is of course very attractive in a poor and developing country. NOT having to fork out hundreds of USD with every PC for software or run pirat copies should be something that really has a future here.

If you are interested in how KDE looks check here

"Reality" shows

Among the most stupid things often shown on TV these days are so-called Reality shows. The only thing more stupid I can think of is american "wrestling"...

I have never understood the fascination for shows like "Big Brother" or "Survivor" (the later can be interesting in the "tasks"-section though) and lately the most absurd ideas are made into "shows". "Fear Factor" seems to be a lot about eating the yuckiest stuff (live worms, goats eyes etc) and I hear that in Prague they now have a "Big Brother"-show with the gorillas in their zoo. Duh?

The other day we watched Missy Elliots' own take on this. 13 rap or r'n'b wannabees are subjected to "tasks" and then one is voted out. I can tell you I heard more lousy rap and "yo bro watsup" than I need for the rest of this year. Not to mention watching the rather short and plump Missy herself constantly sucking on lollipops whenever she was on camera.

Did I mention "Cheaters"? This guy who tries out like he is some understanding man doing people a favour will spy on the partner of whoever thinks they are being cheated on and then follows, of course, nasty confrontations with either furious or crying people. Sick if you ask me.

To quote Nick Cave "People they aint no good" - and TV seems to attract our worst emotions.

Burglars in the neighbourhood...

What a way to start the new year for our next door neighbours! Last Thursday some time after midnight we were awakened by screams, shouts and lots of noise. In all honesty I thought they had a bad domestic fight but I was very wrong.

It turned out that 2 guys armed with iron bars had managed to get into the house using a "flapdoor" for their dogs and cats. They normally lock this at bedtime but just happened to sit up late and had left it open.

To force the man in the house to open the safe they beat him with the iron bars, this being some of the shouts and screams we heard. They got away with money, cellphones and cameras.

Since I know how it feels to have armed intruders in your house I feel really bad I didn't react and check it up but the problem is that some years ago they had some really loud arguments...

I have never understood though how they think about security. No alarm, no guards and a very unsecure "see-through" old gate. Dogs scare many people but a lot of people don't give a damn and most dogs then back off actually.

Next day we tested our alarm only to find out that our "panic-buttons" that saved us that time were not working... the company recommends testing the alarm weekly and we will definitely increase our frequency.

Hard year on the planet

Loudon Wainwright III once wrote a song called "Another hard day on the planet" (correct me if I am wrong someone) and when I reflect more on 2005 it sure seems to have been "another hard year on the planet".

From what I remember and can read more conflicts than ever either continues or refuse to die. A lot of these are connected to what used to be called the "north-south"-problem or in short the underlying conflicts between have and have-not. As an added dimension over the last few years we have the religious dimension and the seemingly increasing terrorism.

On top of that I can not remember any year that have been so clearly marred by natural disasters, one after the other. It seems our way of wasteful living is finally catching up with us. Many years ago (1976) the artist duo Godley/Creme of 10cc released a 3LP called "Consequenses", in many parts rather unlistenable but interesting. It dealt with the concept that Earth would hit back on humanity using natural disasters and I am asking if they were not simply ahead of their time?

It is thoughts like these that sometimes makes me wonder what on Earth(?) or maybe what kind of Earth we are bringing our kids up to live in.

New Year

So 2006 has started "for real" with the first official working day. It feels good to be back after a relaxing break (though Xmas has a tendency to be rather hectic for a day or two). We certainly all hope this year will be a better one than last that was quite stressful in many ways - though not necessarily on a personal or family-level.

Not much to say really but thanks all for nice xmas- and new years-greetings via mail and sms and Compliments of the New Year!

Tsunami aftermath

It's strange to realise that Boxing Day (or Annandag Jul in Swedish) will for a very long time be a day of mourning for literally hundreds of thousands of people. In many parts of the world, Sweden included, memorial services and other functions were held yesterday to commemorate those who lost their life in one sudden blow. It serves as a very grim reminder that sometimes the world can be a very harsh place and for that very reason we should do our best to enjoy life with family and friends and also to do what little we can to help improve life for the many that for various reason go hungry and suffer.

I promised to post a photo of Eric now that he is 2 years old and here it is! We all survived Christmas and had a good time with friends on Xmas Eve. Took some 4 hours to clean up the house the following day though... The bar is now by all standards officially inaugurated. Hope you all enjoyed Xmas and are now relaxing with friends or family. 

The Bar

I should really be writing a novel or something since it was so long since I posted. BUT I will leave that for now and just publish a photo of our new bar, installed last Saturday.

Lots have happened lately but this is (hopefully) the final day before Xmas break. Yesterday we met to plan for this year's Xmas Eve party to be held at our place. Then the bar will be very officially opened! Look very much forward to that...

It never rains but...

Having made several comments on how nice it is that we have got rain lately I can now say ENOUGH. On and off lately we have had several heavy downpours but I have never during my years in Zimbabwe witnessed anything like Thursday night!

I had just got home and was actually waiting for a guy to come and adjust or satellite dish settings. It had started on the way home and by the time I got home there was no more signal so I tried to call him. Impossible, but he never showed up and just as well. It then started cascading down rather than pouring and after a while I had to go out to save some items that were sinking in a fresh mud puddle inside the garage. I discovered I was standing in a muddy current up to my ankles outside (we are on a slope).

Next it turns into a hailstorm and then (of course) electricity disappears. Then when I look out a window I realise that the lower end of our lawn is now a small lake and rising! A brown muddy mass of water has formed because the water can not find its way past our durawall fast enough! I attach a photo (sadly very blurry since it was quite dark and a phone-camera) that shows how the kids slide is partly under water.

Next morning it had, thankfully, disappeared but the lawn is all muddy and we have to punch a hole in the dura to avoid similar events in the future. And power was not restored when I got home on Friday 24 hours later - it came back after like 28 hours...

The most stupid mistake or misinformation I can remember

Being an IT-pro and worked with PCs since they were invented in the early 80's what I, by sheer coincidence, discovered earlier today that I had done must count as one of my silliest or most stupid mistakes/misunderstandings ever!!

I work mainly on a laptop PC. It has a number of settings and you name it what, some in Bios, most in Windows XP that I run on it. Today I thought I should check exactly what type of RAM memory it uses since I am think of buying more. So I run a software for this that tells me more than anyone normally need to know.

One of the things it tells me is that the processor seems to be running at less than half the possible speed!! Now I of course start trying to figure out why, I run various diagnose software, I tinker with Bios-settings for Speedstep, the technology that allows the CPU to work at a lower speed to save battery life. Nothing helps.

I search the internet high and low and had started downloading a driver from Dell when I read something about the "power status" in an article online. Off to Control Panel and select Power Options. Notice that the selected "Power Scheme" is "Portable/Laptop" that sort of makes sense. Change this to "Always On". Back to the software that helped me spot the problem - and VOILA we now run at max speed...

So I have most likely run like this for months, I don't recall when I was last tinkering with these settings. What is obvious to me is that "Joe Average" would most likely not even be aware that the PC is running at less than optimal since most persons don't fiddle around there at all. It seems to me that this particular setting/options needs to explain what it actually DOEs to the PC rather than just quietly slowing things down.

Tiddlywiki & others

After a very quiet weekend with plenty rain it is once again Monday. Strange that kids always wake up at 5-6 am during weekends when I want to sleep but easily sleep beyond 7 am during weekdays when I have to get up early?

Discovered Tiddlywiki today on a sheer coincidence. It is basically a system to easy maintain and update a website or a todo-list or whatever, there is quite a few things one can use it for. Since I had been looking for something to update my company site Orionweb for a long time now this seemed perfect and I have spent some time today to totally revamp it. And it feels as this could help me to maintain the site with interesting notes, feeds, links and so on.

Time flies

When you are having fun, so they say. Well, this week has zapped by alright. Monday was basically spent trying to put a 2-day working trip to Southafrica together. After much calling, emailing and booking via internet it was up around 4.30 am to get ready and then off to the airport.

Air Zimbabwe (who now flies on most routes again) is the only airline at Harare International where the aviation authority does not allow the "airport tax" to be paid via the ticket. This because they never got paid from Air Zim... so after (or before) checking in you stand in another queue to pay the "service fee" as it is for some reason called. It now stood at 1.8 million (or USD 30) which meant a good pack of 20 000 notes.

Off to Johannesburg and what proved to be problems. On drawing some money from my visa-card it was refused - by a forex bureau, not the ATM. I sadly did the mistake of punching the wrong PIN too many times a while ago. But has used the card since with no problems.

To cut a long story short it took phonecalls to Zimbabwe and a looong call to customer service in Sweden (thanks Gustav in Göteborg) to sort this out and I was already 1 hour late when I finally drove from Joburg airport in a rented Kia Cerrato. A thoroughly boring but perfectly pleasant car if you see what I mean.

Off on a +350 km drive to Pietersburg on very good toll-paid highways. Not much to say, was in Pietersburg round 3 pm and did some scouting around. Then off to a littel b&b called Eagle's Nest some 5-10 minutes on the Tzaneen road.

Spent the night almost sleepless since I forgot to close 2 small windows. Something like a million mosquitos must have tried to feast on my blood and still have bites everywhere. Hiding under a thick duvet doesn't work for me, I overheat too much. Not even under a sheet helped.

So woke up tired and started driving to Tzaneen. Beatiful road through mountains with lots of forests, small lakes, tea- and other farms. But damned slow progress thanks to up-and-down hill, fog, traffic and whatever. Took over an hour to get there.

Where I had a roughly 1 hour long meeting with SA Avocado Growers (www.avocado.co.za) that was both good and fruitful. Then back in the car and a nonstop (almost, bought a Snickers and a drink around 1 pm) drive back to Johannesburg. Handed in the car at around 3 pm and went straight to the check-in counter.

Shopped a bit in the Taxfree (Laphroig whisky, hurrah hurrah), had a bite to eat and a beer (so tired my hands were shaking) and then time for boarding. Back in Harare around 7 pm and the normal confusion around Immigration and Customs. Home to family and a very early retiring to bed.

Life is sometimes a bit absurd.

On my drive to Tzaneen I heard on the radio this awful story about an armed robbery. I know that poverty creates crime etc. but some are just too much. These guys had robbed a creche (daytime care center for kids if you don't know) at gunpoint, forcing the kids to lie down with arms on the back of their heads etc. They then stole all the money they could find including what the place had managed to collect for the kids Christmas party. This was a place run by volunteers for parents/children who are poor in other words. Now that is just TOO damned dirty low down for anyone, no matter how poor or high on drugs or whatever they might be.

Thankfully the radio channel had found a donor (a casino actually) who not only replaced the money but invited all kids for a free fun day in their childrens area. Good someone still cares!

It often baffles me how poor people hit out at each other more than at more well off people. During the food riots in the late nineties here in Zim what was looted, burnt etc. was the shopping centers in the poor areas. Now that will make food cheaper??? Note the riots were over food prices.

In SA some weeks ago disgruntled train commuters BURNT over 20 train coaches. They were angry over the delays. Now I am SURE their actions meant the trains will go on time from now on - or?

I know logic and anger does not go together well but some sort of "is this really gonna improve the service" reasoning must have hit at least quite a few of the involved persons. Still they go ahead and burn. Why anyone??