JANUARY 2010

JANUARY 2010

NEW YEARS DAY
RUNNING AND SWIMMING AT THE BEACH.
MERCEDES IS STOLEN
MERCEDES IS RECOVERED BY FLYING SQUAD AND TRACKER.
VEGETARIAN MONTH
TEA TOTALLER MONTH
PURCHASE OF THE CARAVAN AT GAMTOOS RIVER MOUTH
SUMMERSTRAND NIPPERS CARNIVAL AT KINGS BEACH
ACHILLES MARATHON
RESTART MY BIKE RIDING: FRIDAY MORNING RIDES WITH MIKE DEAN


Finally the BIG YEAR for South Africa has arrived.
We have been waiting for this year for so many years that it seems impossible that it is finally upon us. The year that the World Cup Soccer will be played in South Africa.

Friday the First was a little lazy for us. We have been having a drought here for so long that it was really pleasant to see a little rain falling in our garden. I moved the cars just so that the rain would be able to wet the grass. I have this vegetable garden that I am trying to cultivate. Mainly unsuccessfully but recently I bought some Peat and this forms the base for the seedlings to grow. Today I did some transplanting of the Spinach (Swiss Chard). Barbara and I now have a DVD player in our bedroom and we watched some of the Shield Series. And not much else.

Saturday morning I did my morning run at the beach. THe beach is very dirty after all the New Years day revellers have made their mess. But the clean up team was there early. I had my swim after the run. I am going to miss the swimming. The swim is such a pleasant way to end the run and is so incredibly relaxing to swim out to the end of the pier to the swim buoys. The run started off with just Adrienne and myself but we took the route going up second avenue to meet up with Annie and Adrian who we had seen along the route. We ran down Admiralty and back along the promenade. Gerlad and his family had gone off to Jeffries for a 15kay race.

Barbara & I did some shopping and then I went to the office mainly to complete the application for DBA form. I had seen Charles' proposal at his house on 31st night and was energised to make certain that I am in the program for 2010.

This afternoon both Barbara and I seemed to be very sleepy and crashed at alternate times. Ally and I did a little cycling. Back and forth to the DVD shop. First to return a DVD and then home to fetch some cash as Ally wanted to rent a new DVD.

Sunday 3rd: for some reason I was feeling a little feverish and very tired with head aches today. I had to sleep most of Sunday afternoon. THe following day I was feeling awful and later thought the reason may well have been a case of Tick Bite Fever.

As a result of this and also as it is January, I decided to eat carefully: vegetables etc and to give up alcohol for the month. My little vegetable garden consisting of a few spinach and cabbage leaves are now able to be part of my daily diet. I was able to return to work on Tuesday but still felt pretty awful. Wednesday I started feeling stronger again and Thursday I was able to undertake a trip to King for the day. I had planned a trip to East London but had to cancell due to the way I felt.

Evenings this week had been spent playing bridge with Lene and Michael. They have certainly improved and regularly beat us.
Thursday evening I had an Achilles meeting at Old Grey and Friday evening I met with the Nippers Committee including Lee Collier who has agreed to stand in as the Chairman for this season until after the National Champs in April.



Regarding the Merc:

Saturday 9th January 2010;

This week should have had a great week. Tuesday was my Birthday and I had been spoilt with a set of gifts from Mom and Ally: a pair of swim goggles and a set of cycle gloves. Lene had bought me a box of chockies that others ate up, a special lunch box with knife and fork attached and a belt knife set.

But I had come down with what I thought was Tick Bite Fever: From Sunday afternoon I was woozy, Headaches, Fever, Hot and Cold flushes. No flu symptoms. This set me back for the week from running or swimming for the whole week. Even my Saturday morning run was out of the question and this is one of my high lights of the week. I was also not able to carry out my plans to travel to East London.



Saturday evening.

Michael, Lene, Mom and I had been playing bridge in the evening. Michael parked the car and I put the keys on the kitchen table.

I awoke around 6am, saw the kitchen door open and thought that one of the family had been up before me and let the animals out.

I wandered out stretching and noticed that gate was open. I broke out in a sweat. I knew that something was wrong and ran to the gate. Then I saw that the Merc was gone.



I ran to wake Michael and phoned the police. I phoned to get the tracking company number but could not remember the registration number of the car. I phoned people from the office to meet me there and to open up so that I could get all the details. I drove to the office and there met with Godfrey and Earl who opened up. Mom phoned to say the Police were at home.



I went to my office and made copies of my ID and the vehicle documents TND 766 GP. The police arrived. I had phoned the tracking company 086 150 5505 again and given the correct registration number. I began to give a statement and the Constable (Hattingh) phoned the investigating officer: Flying squad and gave him the tracking company details. From there we continued to complete the case documents and phoning to find out that the officers were after suspects. They were able to tell where the car was at any time. Before we had completed the case document the car had been recovered. I told the constable about my wallet, GPS, Drivers Licence etc that was in the car. He offered to go to the scene and to recover as much as possible and to deliver it to our house.



I left the office and went home. At this time it was about 08.00am. The vehicle had been recovered within an hour and a half of me discovering that it had been stolen. A little later the constable Hattingh, arrived at home with my wallet and ID book and some credit cards which I had already cancelled. He also handed me the set of keys that were attached to the car key all except the car key.



Then a fingerprint man arrived and dusted on the door, gate locks and window panes but did not find any usable prints. From here he went to the vehicle pound where he dusted for finger prints on the car.



Today was the first official day for Nippers training and despite the fact that we were all feeling a little shaky, we decided to go to the beach. We had a good turnout of Nippers and were able to do a number of beach and ocean exercises. Varrin, Clint and I were with the U14’s. I was having a great time in the water swimming with the youngsters. We did some In’s and Outs’. This is very good exercise for the Nippers to learn the importance of entering the water and bashing through the waves. The wind had been easterly when we arrived but by the time we left there was a strong west wind picking up. On the way home I stopped off at Spar. Here I met up with a man who we have seen a number of times on the road. He cycles with a flag with the word JESUS on the flag and a second flag flies behind the saddle. This is a star of David flag. It is an interesting combination so I started a conversation in which he told me that Jesus and Israel are intertwined and cannot be separated. He has a strong belief which is interesting to listen to and uses his bicycle to show his message.



This afternoon I received a call to say that we could obtain the full details at Mount Road Police station. Michael and I went to the station and after some searching we were able to find out the case number for Mount Road (208/01/2010) as well as for Kwazakhele (181/01/2010)which was the station nearest to where the car had been recovered.



We also went to Crawford Street Police station (Flying Squad) where we met up with Inspector Joubert who was the man who had chased down and boxed in the car in Koyana street in Kwazakhele. He described how he had been in contact with the tracker company and had followed the instructions that they gave and had finally found the car and had been able to arrest two of the three occupants: the Driver and the rear seat passenger.

The third suspect had fled and there was some shooting. Inspector Joubert thinks that he may have wounded the suspect or the suspect may have cut himself when fleeing. A household had been invaded and this was reported some time later. Blood samples were taken from the house where the suspect is thought to have sought refuge. The two suspects alleged that they had been walking when the third person had asked them to drive as he was drunk. One of the suspects had a prior conviction for armed robbery in Port Alfred.



Monday morning as we were on our morning training run Michael Dean pointed out how South Africans have this game they play called “At Least”.

· We lost about R4 to R5 000 worth of goods but “At least the vehicle was recovered”

· The inside was damaged but “at least there was not serious damage”

· The house was burgled and the key stolen but “at least we were not attacked”

· He goes on to play the game: My wife was attacked but “at least she survived”

· My wife was attacked but “at least the children were unharmed”

Quite scary when you look at it like that: we cannot be completely myopic and say that all is good but we can be realistic and look at the brighter side.



A little later as we ran up Mount Road I saw a Hadida that was hurt on the side of the road. When I got home I told Barbara and the two of us (me in Mom’s Pink Gown) drove down to see if there was anything that we could do for it. Mom picked it up and took it home where she gave it some Sugar Water. Later she took it to the 9th avenue vet where she left it in their care, all the while lamenting the fact that we don’t have a recovery farm area where we can help poor animals to recuperate.

This morning I was planned to be in East London but the car theft had made this an impossibility. For the second week in a row I had to cancel.



Monday morning I was at the Mount road Police station at 08.00am and after I had found the investigating officer: Inspector Debbie Pauls, 041 394 6112 - was out. I then went to the bank to obtain a new cash card. My cash card was in the wallet and I had cancelled it but the robbers had also stolen or destroyed the card. Back at Mount Road I waited for inspector Pauls. She arrived at about 09.15 and soon gave me release papers for the vehicle.



I went home to collect Barbara and the two of us drove to Kwazakhele where we found the police station only to be told that it was not required for us to go there. We then went to the Vehicle Pound in Struandale where we finally completed the last set of forms and were able to collect the Merc. We found the Merc at the back of the warehouse of vehicles. The centre console was damaged.



Stolen from the vehicle: My cash reserves of probably about R500; My GPRS Tom Tom that I so enjoyed (R1900); My Drivers Licence that was on the key ring; My cooler bag that I keep in the boot with some cold drinks and Power Play; My office tog bag with documents and my 2009 diary; my car Cell Phone that I had recently purchased at R600; my tow rope; a pair of spectacles and a pair of Sunglasses and a few other odds and ends. Strangely they left my two office name badges.



Having now received the vehicle back – just 31 hours after discovering its loss – I realized how lucky we all were. No one hurt, only minor expenses incurred, some time but no real problems in that I will still have to register the vehicle with the traffic dept as a recovered vehicle or else I will not be allowed to licence it again. I will have to spend a morning to stand in a queue for a new drivers licence.



And then back to work where I realized that I have the Daewoo Licence disc. Dean Moyes has just finished the repairs and I will be able to collect the car this afternoon after the Nippers Level Test at Hobie Beach. Michael collected the Daewoo and it looks a lot smarter except for the Petrol flap which still has to be replaced and the rear Windscreen wiper which was fitted incorrectly.



Tuesday 12.01.2010

I was at the Traffic Dept at 07.00. I was greeted by a Photo rep: he ushered me to a nearby shop where I had a Photo taken for a Temp Licence R20 for two photo’s. I completed the form and stood in the queue for the next 30 minutes. I was prepared with a water bottle, newspaper and lunch box. I had a little stool that Michael and Lene had given me for Christmas. I parked myself along the fence with everyone else. Finally we were allowed into the building and then began the next wait. This was a line for photo’s, eye test and Finger printing. This took probably an hour. Here I saw Elaine Braatvedt: she was also in the queue for her licence. Once this was done I had to stand for about another hour in the second queue for the cashier. Finally at about 10am I paid the R264 for a renewal and a Temporary licence.



Tuesday afternoon we had an urgent Nippers meeting at Summerstrand. We were putting on a Carnival on Sunday and had to do some urgent planning and set up. We would meet on Saturday afternoon to load the trailer and then take all of our equipment to Kings beach where we would set up for the next morning. This issue of losing the car made my week miserable. Even though we recovered the car I was upset due to the stuff lost and the broken console.



Friday morning I met up with Mike and Susan and the three of us went for a short cycle around the Moffet. This is a great little cycle. Not what a real cyclist would call a training ride but sufficient for us.



Saturday morning I collected Adrienne and we drove to the beach for our run / swim. We met up with Maryna, Susan, Mike, Ben, Suzanne, Chris, Jeff and Annie. We did our normal Strandfontein route and back along Admiralty. I was feeling good and pushed the pace a little harder than I should. The swim was great. Barbara and Ally had given me this pair of goggles which I really enjoy using.



The first part of this morning was at the Home Affairs where I applied for Jacqui’s birth Certificate. Then work and then collected Mark and we went to the beach to load the trailer and to set up as much as possible for the next morning.



Barbara had found a possible Caravan to purchase. We needed an extra room for Mark who would be coming to stay with us later this month. There was one advertised at R8 000 which was a much better price than the around R18 000 to R25 000 that we had seen so far. We drove out to Gamtoos River Mouth where we found Frikkie who runs a construction business and has a whole lot of vehicles, boats and caravans there. It appears that he makes Log Homes that are set up against the caravan as a permanent structure.

The caravan we saw had been dismantled from a kind of park home. It had no papers and would not easily pass a Road Worthy test. It is about 25 years old but the interior appears to be sound so we paid the R8000 and he promised to deliver the caravan to our home on Tuesday the following week.



Sunday morning we met at Summerstrand at 05.30am to set up the arena’s and the kitchen for the tuck shop. The carnival started at 08.00am with sea and beach events running at the same time.



As always, Ally took part in everything. She started off with a Swim, Malibu board, Taplin Relay, beach sprints, beach relay and flags. And in every event she did exceptionally well. Ally is in her first year for U14. Yet she still came in the top 5 for every event. In Flags finals she was placed 4th against all odds. In the beach sprint she got through the heats into the finals and was placed second overall with only Layla from Summies beating her.

Ally did well in the Long Run which was the last event of the day. In every event she earned the Club points. It was a pleasure to see how well she was doing and how she is liked and cheered on by the Nippers of not only Summies but other clubs as well. I had a small team of Mom’s assisting with the recording of results. Barbara did the registration as the Nippers arrived. She does the writing of names on the arms or wrist bands of the Nippers. Barbara also collects the entry fee of R10 per Nipper.



We probably finished the last event at around 13.30 and finally off loaded the last of the equipment at around 5pm. Andrew and I loaded the two gas braai’s and tables & took them back to Summerstrand. Thomas loaded the trailer with all of the boards and he dropped it off at Terry’s house. Terry and Karryn had all of the catering to sort out including the excess food. They also had their runner duck to take back home. It was so hot and sticky that everyone had left the last cleaning up to a few of us. By now Ally was finished and slept in the car as we drove home. I was also exhausted and looked forward to an hour or two of doing nothing. The sun, wind and sea had taken their toll and we were all a little burned.



The final result was that Kings Beach had beaten the Summies team by NINE points overall. One of our problems was the loss of Layla Carelse and Anke Spies who had both left early due to injury and not feeling well. Both of these two U14’s had reached the Final Flags and would have scored points even if they had just laid down on the sand and never moved. But that is Nippers.



Monday morning we did the town run returning up the back of Collegiate and finishing on the Golf Course. This afternoon I phoned Insp. Debbie Pauls and she promised to let me know if I could see the two men who were arrested for the theft of our vehicle.



Hi All

The Summies Carnival ran smoothly yesterday, and the weather behaved itself!

Many thanks to all the nippers who turned up – we know so early in the new year, with so much on, everyone is very busy! Our performance was greatly improved, as the results below show – more about that later!

To the nippers who did not turn up, we missed you. Remember we only have a small number of nippers, compared to the ‘Giant’ clubs, so we rely on the support of EVERYONE!!!! Please diarise the next competition, East Cape Champs, on 21/22 February. We need EVERYONE to participate. This one is in Plett, so it’s a good excuse for a mid-term break!

A very big thanks to all the helpers who were so willing to assist – without you, the carnival would not have run so smoothly! A VERY special thanks to the following:

- All the safety officers

- Clint Meintjes for organising the safety officers and for being an official

- Claire Meintjes for the thankless task of managing the scoring, even though she doesn’t have a nipper anymore – unselfish dedication to the club!!!!

- Charmelle Maree for bravely offering to learn how to score –a very technical job!

- The Hepburn extended family plus helpers for running the tuck shop – a huge task, well done!

- Warren Collier for giving up his weekend to help, even though he doesn’t have a nipper anymore – that’s selfless dedication!

- All the coaches for all the hard work.

To all our nipper families, please encourage your nippers to work with the coaches. There were too many cases of nippers, who were at the carnival, but wouldn’t compete! Again, we NEED THE SUPPORT AND COMMITMENT OF EVERY NIPPER AND PARENT! Please have faith in your coaches, they won’t ask you to do something you are not capable of!

The results were as follows:

U10

3 Plett 133 2 Summies 185 1 King’s Beach 360

Top Competitor Boy Corrik VD Wath

We need to work hard with our U10’s as this is where KB is killing us!

U12

3 Plett 171 2 KB 241 1 Summies 286 – well done!

Top Competitor Girl Jamie Lee Engelke Craig Dagleish was second in the boys section!

Keep up the great work, U12’s

U14

3 Plett 147 2 Summies 290 1 King’s Beach 299 – by a mere 9 points!

Top Competitor Girl Christie Vaughan

Well done, U14’s this was a much better performance. Let’s work hard in all age groups to improve our performance for EC Champs!

Regards

Lee Kemp

This week I went to Queenstown for business. Of the two evenings that I was there I was able to run with the Queenstown Harriers both evenings. The first I only just managed to make it to their time trial and asked one of the men to hold my bag while I ran. It was good for me to run hard for a change. The following evening was the opposite with a really slow group and a lot of fetching. I enjoyed both evenings. Saturday morning was our Beach Run. Another really fun activity which I love to do. Sunday was our normal Nippers training. Lots of swimming and boarding.

The last week in January I spent three days in East London. Peet Booysen (forensic Auditor) travelled with me. I had a good productive week but no running. Peet likes to take out supper so it was a very quite week in EL. We were back on Thursday morning and I was able to make the Cycle that Mike Dean has set up for Friday mornings. This evening we had the first of a set of Friday evening Nippers training. I enjoyed the evening but did not manage to get into the water.

Saturday 30th morning was the Achilles Marathon event that started at Homeleigh Farms. The parking and start area was my responsibility together with the Lucky Draw prize collection. Charles had donated some Eveready torches and some House of York products. I also managed to scrounge some stuff from Morkels. The Five Kay event was over subscribed and was the only real problem of the day. I was working with Chris Darke just as I had the previous year with John Kotze. The dust, cars, children etc is simply more than this venue can take.

The following morning I did a bike ride with Mike Dean. We cycled up Cape Road in to the wind as far as the Greenbushes hotel. Then right and past the Fire station where we expected to meet up with the Achilles Helpers Run. We met them in Butterfield Road. We stopped for a coke and then headed down Kragga Kamma Road with the wind. What a pleasure! It had turned out to be a great cycle. This morning after church we had a wonderful morning at Summerstrand with the Nippers.

The afternoon I was really busy; washing the car and then I spent the rest of the day tuning bicycles. I first put the Knobblies (Track Tyres) on to my mountain bike and then cleaned it up and generally had it going really well. Then I took the old Green Bike that had been lying in the open for some years and with not too much effort: cleaning, Lubing the chain and other parts and then changing the tyres and tubes. The bike seemed to be in great condition and is now ready to ride.

Michael and his family had been staying with us for a few months and they now moved to a house just behind Collegiate. Moving is not fun. Michael had his old friend and how work colleague, David to help him. They used the old bakkie and cars to do everything.

Monday I was able to get back into running: the slow runners did the whole of Dias road and Langenhoven. The next morning I managed to do the whole of the Susan's Route. This evening I met up with Charles and we took out his mountain bike and did the same tuning and cleaning thing that I had done on my bikes. It had a inch thick layer of dust and the chain derailer was out of line. But again with not too much effort we soon had the bike going like a charm. I arranged to meet Charles on Wednesday for an afternoon cycle. We rode down to the beach and back. It was great.

Thursday I flew to Johannesburg where Suzanne collected me from Malibongwe drive. I love this family. Suzanne fed us a Venison (Kudu) supper. We sat chatting and finally I fell into bed exhausted. Friday morning Keith and I went to their school swimming pool complex and he and I did a really healthy swim. He must have done over two kays non stop. I did about 1.3kays but with plenty of stops. I would swim four lengths (25m) and then recover. Mark moved into our house on Friday. I was still in Jhb. In fact my plane was delayed and I only arrived home after 21.30.

Mark and I got stuck into Barbara's bike. First we had to fit knobblies and then make sure the bike was perfectly tuned with no sticky points. We fitted him out with cycling gear. We loaded the bikes into the Corsa Bakkie and were set for our mountain bike ride. Saturday morning we were up at 04.00am and drove to Gerald. He picked Alf Zemkhe up and we drove too fast to Addo.

We arrived with over an hour to the start of our event. There were three races: the 85kay technical and tough event. then the 65kay which was as technical but would have been more manageable for me. But we had decided to tackle the 30kay Family Fun Ride. I was amazed at how many people were doing this event who we know: Pat, Gerald and Ronel; Alf; Bob Howlett and brother Neil; Jonathan Coffey and friend Nico from Nippers; Peter DC; Tracey Brink (Leah was there in support); Rob and Michelle Elfick and Fred Allabone; Darryl and Avril Smith. Nicky's old diving friend Cathy and husband; There were probably more that I cannot remember.

This was both my and Mark's first ever attempt at mountain biking off road. Mark was not fit for this type of exersize and I am reasonably fit for cycling but this was new territory for me. We started off reasonably slowly. I saw Ronelle ahead and tried to stay with her but I had determined that Mark and I would ride together and so let her get ahead. Pat passed us. Gerald and ALf would bring up the rear.

There were no really tough mountain climbs. Merely a gradual hill that would make Brickies look like Mount Everest. We rode through the orchards of oranges and the fruit of the area. Occasionally there was a downhill that allowed us to have some real excitement. I saw Cathy Guard having a huge amount of fun on one of the downs. THere were some speed bumps which she ramped and flew a good few feet into the air.

There were just a few sections where the track narrowed and we would have to watch where we rode. Then there were plenty of soft sand area's that made us watch our way. With Mountain biking you have to watch just ahead of you much more that you do when you are on the road. On the road you should be looking ahead to see where you are going.

This was a Family affair with lots of Dad's, Mom's and children. I would often hear a child talking to the parent and the parent advising of the route to take. It was a healthy atmosphere of people taking care of others more than themselves. I had fitted a bell to Mark's bike and he would ring it every now and again to let me know that he was right behind me.

We were fortunate to be in shade for most of our 90 odd minutes of cycling. We had a cool breeze to add to our comfort. We thought of those doing the bigger events and the heat that they would have to suffer later on this morning. We approached the half way feeding station. There was a menu that would have made a restuarant envious: Banana's; Potato; Powerade; Borrie Rolls and a willingness to help everyone as much as they could. And this was just the 30kay fun event. This made me feel embarressed as how shoddily we had treated our fun runners last weekend at the Achilles event.

We rode on with the smells of fresh manure, dusty fields, Orange trees and the sweat of fellow cyclists. There was a great cameraderie and chatting going on as we came to the end of a great first time off road on the mountain bike. Rob came up to me later and said that I was surely a convert and would not go back to road running. Not quite but certainly I will be looking out for more of these events.

Mark and I loaded up the bikes and headed home. on our way home Samantha phoned. It was her birthday the previous day. She was at a WImpy with Crystal. It appears that their dad had been released from jail and that Crystal had flown Samantha to Jhb for this event. Mark had a short conversation with Mark Snr. I was supposed to drop Mark off at his Grandparents but somehow the lines got crossed and his Grandfather locked him out of the house. I collected him and took him to the office where he met up with Michael who was doing some moving.

This afternoon Mark and I cleaned up the bikes. I had realised how good it was to ride a bike that was in good shape. Not that there was no chance of a puncture or mechanical problem but having the bikes tuned and clean meant that we reduced the chance of being caught on the side of the track fixing punctures or loose chains etc.


I dropped Mark off with a friend in Rowallan Park. And spent the afternoon at home. Barbara had been in Uitenhage the whole day with Ally at a Gala.