Johannesburg 22 January 2009. Julia Braatvedt Choc Chip Biscuits.

The organisation that I work for is known as JDG. This is the Joshua Doore Group. Morkels is a division of this organisation and I started with Morkels in June 1984 as a manager of the PE Main Street (now Govan Mbeki Avenue) shop. This was a new store opening at the time. I worked as manager of this shop for around 3 years and then moved to the North End shop where I was the manager also for about 3 years. The then Regional Manager, Cliff May, resigned and I was given the task of RM for the Garden Route area.


This meant the shops in Oudtshoorn, George, PE and Uitenhage. This was a great time for me but then Tony Ashton who was running the East London shops resigned and I had this region added to mine. I think that I botched up some of my decisions and Arthur Flemix (my GM at the time) changed my job title to Regional Credit Manager and Johan Claassen become the RM in my place. Botha DuPlessis was the Regional Personnel manager but under Johan this did not go well and he resigned and took up a contract position with both the University and the CCMA. For a short while I was appointed to the postion of PM but when to opportunity came I moved back to Retail Regional. Justin Strydom became our PM. And then after Justin resigned some years later to join the RMI (Retail Motor Industry) as a HR consultant we had Lynne Vogel join as PM. Our division became part of the Western Division under Johan Sadie and I moved back to RM when Johan Claassen moved to JHB for a promotion.


Again I had a bit of a tough time operating under a elderly man (Norman Daniels) but when he left I did exceptionally well working for Joahn Sadie. For a short while this changed and I worked under Glen Phillips but when JDG took over Morkels he resigned to open a Bottle Store in Port Shepstone. And I moved back to work under Johan Sadie. In 2007 JDG decided to split finance from Retail and I became the Regional Finance Manager once more. I had to do a lot more travel as the Border Transkei was once more part of my region. Around this time Johan Sadie took a Regional Position and Martin Labuschane became my GM with Belinda Deyzel operating as Divisional Credit Manager and my immediate superior. Early in 2008 Joahn Sadie resigned and opened a Pie Shop. we saw him in the middle of the year when we had a super with him and his wife Poppie. He was having all kinds of trouble in the business. Early in 2009 Johan became extemely depressed and was booked into hospital for sleep therapy and I hear that they will sell of fhte pie business.


My position as Regional Finance lasted for a year from September 2007 to October 2008. JDG decided to completely split Retail and Finance and I applied for the position of GM in the Eastern Cape. I was interviewed by Corrie Neven who would become my new senior.


In the position of GM Finance I was asked to attend a meeting in Johannesburg from 22 to 24 January 2009.


Nicci and Stefan were also in Joahnnesburg as they had launched the Little Pink Book (Gauteng) on Tuesday 21st January and had a big function at the Indaba conference hotel. Susanne Braatvedt went to see what was going on and reported to me that it looked like a very fancy party. Some important Celebrity people were there including TV people, the top make up artist in SA & the "You" magazine. Nicci and Stefan had stayed with Keith when they were first in Joahnnesburg to set the whole function up.


Nicci has a way of attracting people as she tells me she asks people: "Would you like to become involved in the Little Pink Book" rather than asking them to sign up for advertising. She had good response and the whole function was sponsored and all they had to pay for were the flight tickets. Unfortunately while they were there they discovered that a "Friend" from Knysna / George area was trying to copy their idea by producing something similar there but without consulting them. I spoke to Nicci after she returned to Cape Town and by all accounts this was a huge success and now she has a tight deadline for the publishing of the final product.


I was also able to stay with Keith and Susanne rather than staying in an hotel. After work, Susanne picked me up from the Randburg Contact Centre and took me to their home in Bryanston where I have stayed before. I met up with their long time maid, Ellen. Nils was off at a camp in Sterkspruit. He completed his Matric at St Peters in 2008 and had enrolled at Rhodes for this year. Julia has two more years to go at St Peters and is in Grade 11 this year. Edmund has four years of school left and is currently in Grade 9. He is three years ahead of Ally who is in Grade 6 this year. Edmund was also off at a camp somewhere.


Julia had to go off to Waterpolo training. Julia loves the sport and plays for her school, for Gauteng province and even was in Trials for the South African team. The pool "Wahoo" is located at her school and is a huge commercial aquatic centre. Susanne & I dropped Julia at the pool and then after a short stop off at the Spar went home where I met their friend Claire who was also staying with them for a while. Claire had been in a car accident and in a coma as a result. while she was in a coma a curator sold off her house and left her destitute. she took then Curator to court and won but lost on appeal. Keith is assisting Claire to appeal to the Constitutional Court.


Susanne made the supper and Keith & I went to fetch Julia from her Waterpolo training. Susanne made us a delicious supper of lamb, potato, butternut and gem squash. Keith showed me his album of his climb up Mount Mera with his friend Peter Hey. It was a three week trip taking two weeks to climb up and then just four days for the (short cut) climb down. Mt Mera is within striking distance of Mt Everest which is in the background of many of the photo's.


I was reading a collection of thillers and went to bed after a coffee and choc chip biscuit that Julia made. Julia gave me this recipe as a swap for my crunchie recipe.


Julia Braatvedt's choc chip biscuits.

• 300 ml Cape Flour
• 1 Mil bicarb
• 2 mil salt
• 125grams of butter
• 50 ml firmly packed brown sugar
• 125 mil white sugar
• 1 X Egg beaten
• 5ml vanilla
• 100 mil cooking choc chopped

1. Mix flour, salt and Bicarb
2. Cream the butter and sugars until light & fluffy
3. Add Egg and Vanilla
4. Beat well
5. Stir in the dry ingredients and chopped chocolate.
6. Drop tea spoons onto the greased baking tray
7. leave room for spreading
8. Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 Degrees
9. Cool....Makes about 30 biscuits.

And this is the Recipe for Cruchies which I gave to Julia

Mix together

Two cups oats, One cup sugar, one cup flour and one cup coconut

125g (half a small block) of BAKE margerine, melted together with two table spoons of syrup and put in one tea spoon of Bicarb when it is nearly melted.

Mix into the dry ingrdients and press the mic\xture firmly into a glass baking tray.

Put this into an oven at about 140 Degrees for about 45 minutes.

Take it out and while it is still fairly warm cut into biscuit size and then leave to cool. Should make about 5 X 8 or 5X 9 = 40 to 45 biscuits.

Thursday at the JDG Contact centre was a real bore. We looked at how the follow up , trace, granting of credit etc was done and hung around for the day. I tried to get an earlier flight but it looks like I will be spending a day at the airport.

This evening Claire told us about her efforts to sort out the debt that had piled up while she was trying to sort out her court case. Road Accident Fund seemed okay, Vodacom were reasonable, Netstar refunded her but Nedbank did not even grant her the time of day. I advised Claire to see the National Credit Regulator 0860 627 627 or the Ombudsman 0861 662 837 to apply for Debt Review or for Debt Counselling.

Susanne made us a delicious supper of stewed beef, rice and vegetables cooked in a special dutch sauce. Julia showed me her scrap booking that she had taken time to create showing pictures of her family and various activities since she was a baby. Keith showed me a number of pictures of his Game farm in Clarens in the Free State. He leases some of the land for cultivation to a neighbour and has Game on the farm for their own pleasure. They employ a manager to run the day to day activities.

While I was in Johannesburg, Barbara was opening her school. The first day was Wednesday 21st Jan 2009. today Barbara brings in the New Mom's and has a tea and introduces the children to the school. Benita Barton and Michelle Elfic were two moms who are also running friends. Then Thursday was the first day of school. Barbara now takes the Bigger children. One Mom arrived without confirming her booking for the year. She had not completed an application form. Barbara decided to not turn her away but this means that she has 29 children alltogether with Suzanne Gendall taking the Littlies and Barbara and Gloria with 20 children in her class.

Friday 23rd: Susanne & I dropped Julia at school and then took me to the Randburg office where we met Corne who took a small group of us to the Airport. I spent the entire day at the airport as BA refused up change my booking. I felt like Tom Hanks who acted in a movie about a man who spent a year in an airport. I alternated between coffe, reading, walking around with my bags over my shoulder, sleeping on a bench and staring out the windows at the comings and goings of airplanes.

Saturday morning I met up with Ben Carver for a run. We were joined for a short while by Adrienne, Susan, Gerald & Maryna. They all turned around at the Engen next to the beachfront spar. Ben and I continued up Walmer Boulevard, up to the airport and back via Strandfontein road. IN Admiralty Road we heard a voice behind us. It was a young lady (Martie) from Pretoria who had met Adrienne. Adrienne had suggested that she join us. So we Ran together as far as the Summies Club where we also met up with Elmarie and ran back together. As we approached Hobie beach we found two women with Champagne and muffins. It was a celebration of one of their Birthday (Caroline). we wished he the best and went off for a swim.

As we came in from the swim, Ben elected himself as guardian of the Muffins while the girls had a dip. I had to leave as I had a bit of a rush. After a shower and change I headed back to the beach for a Nippers Level Test. There were 6 U10's and 2U12s there. We took them through their theory and then Paul Lynch tested them. The two U12's really struggled with the swim. So we took both of them out for a second swim and they passed their test.

I had to spend some time in the office to try to catch up on some work. Later that afternoon Michael & I went to Kings beach where we teamed up with some parents to set out the Arena's for Sunday's Carnival.

MT MERA HIMALAYAS SEPTEMBER 2008 CLIMBED BY KEITH BRAATVEDT

"EVERSHEDS ON EVEREST"

KEITH BRAATVEDT
My trip to climb Mt Mera (6 476m or 21 247ft above sea level) in the Himalayas

I have, for many years, dreamed about climbing Mt Everest (8 844m above sea level) and reaching the highest point on earth. This dream will probably never be fulfilled. However, the dream has most certainly been satisfied by my climb of Mt Mera. This mountain is situated about 25km from Mt Everest and Mt Mera is the highest trekking peak in the Himalayas.

When I summited at approximately 07h00 on Monday, 13th October 2008, I had a magnificent view of five of the world's highest peaks, all above 8 000m. These peaks are :-
• Everest – 8 844m – the highest in the world
• Kangchenjunga – 8 586m – this mountain is situated in the East of Nepal and is the third highest in the world. Interestingly enough the summit of this mountain is "off limits".
• Lhotse – 8 511m – this mountain is the fourth highest in the world.
• Makalu – this is the fifth highest in the world.
• Cho-ouy – 8 201m – this mountain is situated in the West of Nepal and is the sixth highest in the world

There are 14 recognised peaks above the 8 000m level in the world. Of these, eight are situated in the Himalayan region of Nepal of which I was fortunate enough to see five from the summit of Mt Mera.

The Himalayan region is a fascinating and wonderful part of the earth deriving its name from the Sanskrit term of hima meaning snow and alaya meaning abode. The region is a zone of approximately 2 400km stretching across the Asian continent. In this area there are many peaks above 7 000m, many of which are as difficult and is some cases more difficult to climb than the "magic 8 000m peaks". The other six peaks above 8000m are situated in Pakistan (five) and one in Tibet.

Nepal is an extremely poor country, listed as the fourth poorest country in the world. The average income per capita of a person in Nepal is approximately US$200 per annum. 77% of the area in Nepal is taken up by mountains. Our expedition began with extremely strenuous hikes through the Hinku Valley. The hike began at a tiny village called Lukla, which is situated in the mountains and is an hour's flight from Katmandu. The flight itself is rather scary because Lukla is known to have one of the shortest runways in the world. Regrettably a week after we flew into Lukla one of the Yeti Airline aeroplanes crashed killing fourteen tourists and four Nepalese. The week or so of hiking through the Hinku Valley, prior to us even approaching Mera, helped the group with fitness and confidence. The old rule of "climb high and sleep low" in order to acclimatize was strictly applied. Lukla's altitude is 2 840m. After a week or so of hiking, doing between 5 to 7 hours per day we climbed to 5 000m in order to start the serious acclimatization process.

When camping at the Tangmang camping site (4 295m) we experienced a number of spectacular snow avalanches. The last avalanche was actually too close for comfort, about 100m from the campsite. I was, however, assured by a member of our group that this is a form of avalanche (a "powder snow avalanche) that is not that dangerous.

I need to say a little bit about the logistics and what made our group tick. The group consisted of fourteen climbers. The trip was arranged through a London based tour organization, Exodus. Our support team consisted of about twelve Nepalese porters who would carry tents, food and equipment. In addition, we had five kitchen staff under the strict control of the super efficient head of staff, "Mr Bim", who would make three wholesome meals per day (lots of soup, vegetables, porridge in the morning and the odd bit of Yak meat) for the hungry climbers. Needless to say, I still lost a few kilograms due to the intense exercise.

Our climbing staff comprised of the expedition leader, Krishna Gurung, and the Sherpas being Kajee Sherpa, Big Mingma Scherpa, Little Mingma Sherpa and Wang Chu Sherpa. These climbing Sherpas are amazing people. They will catch you if you fall, adjust your climbing harness and rope in the dark and give you Sherpa brewed tea when you feel close to exhaustion which, I guarantee you, will keep you going. It is interesting to note the fascinating combination of religions between the Nepalese coming from India and those coming from Tibet and Mongolia. On the mountains one can see simple prayer flags, altars made of rock and religious statues and offerings. Early on we were advised to walk clockwise around a monument because according to Buddhist theory it is not good Kharma to walk anti-clockwise around a monument.

I was always concerned about altitude sickness and this can be avoided by eating a lot of good wholesome food. Of course, we had to drink a minimum of three litres of water per day. As an added extra to prevent HAPE or HACE (high altitude pulmonary or cerebral edema) I took one Diamox per day. My very good friend, Peter Hey, and I called our Diamox tablets "the Big D". Thankfully I did not get altitude sickness but I must say that half a Big D twice a day most certainly helped. I am firmly of the view that there is no need to rely on these fancy vitamin shakes or energy supplements and it is really a question of lots of good food, water and sleep.

The golden rule in high altitude trekking and climbing is to maintain a constant body temperature. This is always difficult because in the early hours of the morning before dawn it is bitterly cold at sub-zero temperatures. However, after dawn, temperatures can rise fairly quickly and the secret is to take off the various layers of clothing in order to maintain one's body temperature. If the body temperature becomes too high then exhaustion will set in and likewise if you are too cold then the body will not generate sufficient energy to climb. I summited with two pairs of socks, outer plastic boots and inner boots. My legs were kept warm by two layers of inner thermals, a pair of trousers and gortex outer trousers. The upper body was covered by inner thermal shirts, a 100 fleece, 300 fleece, gortex jacket and outer down jacket. Little issues are important line suntan lotion and glacier sunglasses to protect oneself by the blinding sun made even worse by the snow and ice. A great feeling of comfort is the very heavy, but necessary, crampons clipped to the outer boots which prevent falling on the snow and ice. Fortunately, I didn’t experience any great difficulty with clothing and equipment but this is certainly always a big worry for climbers.

For the last two days of the climb we were roped up in teams of four with eight or ten meters between each climber. This is done for safety purposes and for the easy retrieval of a fallen climber.

The three days before summit day were the most nerve-wracking. The problem was the difficulty in sleeping well because of the high altitude.

Summit day finally arrived. We were woken at 01h00 to commence our six hour climb at temperatures of between -10o and -15o C to the summit. The last camp was known as High Camp at 5 800m, the summit at 6 476m above sea level. The majority of the group summited and there is nothing better than scrambling up snow, with Wang Chu Sherpa roped to me telling me that I had only 10m of flat ground to cover to reach the summit. The moment of the summit, as I have said, was probably one of the best in my life. I can really recommend the trip and the experience to anybody.

Generally, the weather was not that good. The normal pattern would be that it was clear in the morning and very cloudy and misty in the afternoon. It rained for a number of days which made camping at very cold temperatures even more uncomfortable. The earlier parts of the hike were most spectacular in the lower regions walking through the rhodedendrum forests and other wonderful flora indigenous to Nepal. A lot of the early morning mists and fog were brought on by the remnants of the latest monsoon rains in the area.

We returned safely to Katmandu to celebrate our success at the Rum Doodle Restaurant. This is a famous landmark in Katmandu and is a haunt of the Everest summiteers. As a member of the Everest Summiteers Club, your main course at the Rum Doodle Restaurant is free for the rest of your life on production of your Everest summiteers card.

I am attaching a picture of Peter Hey and myself on the summit with our firm's flag with the great mountain of Everest behind the flag and Lhotse on the eastern side.