Planes, pains and experimental starvation

I changed my clock forward to Taiwan time the moment we got onto the plane. It says 4:08am right now, which means it is just after 10pm back home. I haven't done a lot of air travel, but every time I do I come to the conclusion that I really enjoy being in interesting places, but I hate getting there. Flying is a pain, if they ever invent a teleporter, I will be first in line. Perhaps by some miracle we'll be able to fly business class one day, but right now I it's just painful. I can't sleep, I'm uncomfortable and there is too much light.

I did manage to convince Renalda to try one of my more interesting experiments.  We ate breakfast this morning, but have had nothing to eat since. That means we have been fasting for about 13 hours right now. I plan to only eat again at 8am Taiwan time, which will mean we won't have eaten for 17 hours. Why? I read an interesting article regarding jet lag. I may get the details wrong but the gist is that you can theoretically switch your circadian rhythm, by changing your meal cycle. The idea is that when we were hunter gatherers, if there was a scarcity of food we could quickly change to being nighttime hunters. This would quickly change our rhythm from diurnal to nocturnal. 

The problem is they also recommend you get lots of sleep on the flight, and I'm really struggling with that one. We'll have to see how we feel in a few hours time.

Ok, so it's a bit later now, and we had our supper at 8.30 am, Taiwan time. The stewardess was not impressed and warned me sternly that if I get food poisoning from the cold supper it was on my head.

A few goodbyes

We are only going to be away for a year, but as I get older that seems to be a shorter and shorter amount of time. However, there are still a lot of people that I won't see for quite some time, so the past few days have been spent doing some last minute admin and saying goodbye to people. It's amazing how many things there are to organise when you are leaving your home country for an extended stay.

We tried to organise to see as many people as possible, so we invited some friends to a pub on Friday night. Had everyone arrived it may have been a bit crowded. But it was very nice speaking to the few people who pitched up and I really appreciated them making the effort. 

The next morning we went to the Pretoria Boeremark to say bye to some of the people we have gotten to know there. It's a real little community and if you get to know them the people working there are fantastic. We have a few favourite people and stalls, so we had to go talk to them.

Jerry, my Chinese friend and ex colleague, also came to say bye at the market. While we were chatting, he was accosted by an old man who had just spent a month travelling in China. This guy had only good things to say about his experience there. We will definitely have to go to China!

After the market I visited my previous boss, Kevin, and then later that evening some of Renalda's family came over to say bye. We had our last South African braai for some time, it was a merry affair with too much food as usual, and the Englishman doing the braai, because the Afrikaaners were  enjoying their cigars too much.

On Sunday I managed to catch up with another mate, Gareth, my partner in crime during my last Orange river trip back in 2008 (gotta do that again!)

Then we went for dinner with my uncle Tom and aunt Donna. My uncle Reg (Tom's brother) also came so it was a small family reunion. We got treated to Donna's great cooking, stories about travels, dolls and, as always, camels. 

A few days earlier, I'd asked Tom for some information about my maternal grandparents. Tom had gotten out a whole bunch of old photos of my grandparents and my mother, himself and Reg. He also managed to find the baptismal certificate of my grandmother, and the marriage certificate of my grandparents. All very interesting information which will most likely come in handy one day. You never know what morsel of information a bureaucrat somewhere will want from you some day.

As always Tom regaled us with interesting stories and opinion regarding his travels all over the world and the current political situation in the country and abroad. Tom and Donna, being the jet setters that they are, gave us great advice and insight about our upcoming travels. Many thanks to them.

All of the above will be missed. Till we meet again!

New things

Wow, I can't believe how long ago I wrote here and what I'm about to do!! Renalda and I are about to embark on an adventure I've been threatening since before the SARS outbreak in 2003. How do I know? Because I used the outbreak to justify not going back then. Life happened after that and I started an engineering career which I finally put on hold early last year. What are we about to do? Go spend a year or more in Taiwan!!

I spent most of last year getting to know my dad better and helping him throw away piles of junk he really didn't need. I did some maintenance on his house, though not nearly enough and I helped him organise his home and his workshop better. I also managed to convince him to eat differently which had great consequences for his weight and his...ummm... regularity. I think I can come away from that experience feeling good about myself, even though I know he will now miss my company, help and cooking. I have gathered a lot of anecdotes about him which I plan to record very soon for posterity.

I also managed to get to know my niece, nephew, sister and brother in-law better in this year and I hope that I helped them in some way. My niece is the sweetest little child who unfortunately has Cystic Fibrosis, a horrible disease. I hope my sister can learn to manage it well so that she will live a long time. I remember when I was first diagnosed with a heart condition, I was terrified. I asked my doctor how long he believed I would live. I can remember his response clearly, "with the right care, you can live a long time." I think the same probably applies to my niece.

I also got engaged this year to a wonderful woman who is perfect for me. She is a sexy, fun, adventurous outdoorsy woman and she has agreed to come with me on my latest adventure to Taiwan and the longer adventure into life. I'm really excited.

We are currently in Pretoria at our "forward launchpad" with her family. We were actually planning to leave a month ago, but were offered English teaching positions by Hess. Their training only starts on the 14th of February so we postponed, and what a good thing we did! In this time I managed to sell my bakkie, and my bike (sob sob). I also managed to organise a trip to the UK for my father, which will be a trial run for a trip which he will make to Taiwan later in the year to visit us. We also managed to get hold of most of our paperwork which would have been a nightmare for someone else had we already been there.

We are currently doing the final few things that must be done, cancelling policies, visiting family and friends etc. I don't suppose this post will do much to bring across the excitement, but it's definitely there. I can't wait for Monday!

Good intentions

What is it they say about good intentions?

I remember clearly a discussion with one of my older colleagues earlier this month regarding my resignation. One of the reasons I cited was to get closer to family because you never know when they may be taken from you. During that conversation, he mentioned that his father was slipping away slowly and that it was no longer possible to have a full conversation with him.

Earlier this week he reiterated his support for my decision as his father had died a week or two earlier, days after our original conversation, and he hadn't had a chance to say some of the things he wanted to because they lived far apart.

I currently have my father with me in Pretoria, and it is fantastic spending time with him. I still have time with him as he is strong and fit at 73. However, in stark contrast is his older brother, my uncle, who has been bedridden for the past few weeks. He has been getting more frail for years now and I've known I should be trying to see more of him. Should have phoned him more. I saw him last on Valentines day and spoke to him last more than a week ago.

I heard tonight that it will probably be the last time... I am very sorry

This is a man who filled a huge gap in my life, which my father could not, for reason's beyond his control. He tried to teach me to take more calculated risks, to enjoy life, to have fun while I am young. When I moved away, I think I forgot about those lessons. One thing he didn't teach me, and which I think I've just begun to understand, is the importance of family.

In the last two years of his life, I will be able to count the number of times I've seen him on my one hand. It's one thing when someone is taken from you suddenly, and thank Heavens that hasn't happened to me, but when the writing is on the wall and you don't do enough...?

What is it they say about good intentions?

Time for a change

I resigned from the CSIR at the end of February without a formal job to go to, and I've been thinking about why ever since. I guess there isn't one single reason, more a number of them, and today I feel like I have enough of them to write a post. I'm not sorry I resigned, I'm mildly terrified about the consequences, but very excited about the opportunities. Lucky for me, I'm in a position to enable me to resign, I have two commitments I will honour, my girlfriend, Renalda, whom I love very much and my homeloan, which is mostly paid for by my tenants.

So why did I do it? I think that perhaps now is just the right time. There are a number of reasons why I've been considering this for some time. I guess it all started with the paradigm shift about diet. In my book, take everything you think you know about a healthy diet and throw it out the window! Low fat isn't the better option! Neither is wholegrain! Fat does not make you fat! I applied it to my life and haven't looked back, i feel wonderful, i still get astounded comments from people about how I look.

So if something as basic as what we eat is wrong, what other basic truths that we take for granted are also not right? I started reading self development books and business books. A friend pointed me towards The Four Hour series, of which I've read some of the Body and listened to all of the Work Week. He talks about lifestyle design, thats when i started to consider that perhaps a 40 hour work week (read 60 hours) was not the be all and end all of life, and that perhaps I was missing something.

Then I started thinking again about my eye and the fact that just after 30 years old I no longer have perfect eyesight, probably permanently. And that now and then I can feel my health deteriorate when things are stressing me out.

I also started thinking about family and that it is conceivable at this rate that I could count the number of times I may see my parents on two hands. Not to mention missing out on nieces and nephews growing up.

So I'm going to take some time to think about things, move closer to my folks, help my dad with all the maintenance he is now to old to complete...complete the circle 😊

Laser Ablation of my Eye

I went for my third appointment at the ophthalmologist yesterday to see how my central serous retinopathy is progressing . I could have predicted the result, which was that there is not change, but I had to go through all the tests again. They did a laser raster scan of the back surface of my eye. In the first figure you can see the state of my left eye. The depression in the middle is the fovea where most of your vision is centred. 

Normal left eye

 However the right eye looks significantly different as can be seen in the second figure. The fluid has leaked into the subretinal space and detached most of the macula region of my eye from the back of my eye. This results, in my case, in blurred and distorted vision and deteriorated light sensitivity.

Faulty Right eye

This is what the scans looked like in August, and they haven't changed much. The cause can be seen better below in the fluoroscein angiogram pics. The white spot is where fluorescent dye is leaking out of my veins, pushing the fovea away from the back of my eye.

There has been very little change since August, so my doctor recommended I get the laser ablation. I thought there would be prep required and that I'd have to come back another day. I was wrong. The surgery took minutes, Renalda could attest...thinking about it now, I hope you closed your eyes babe!!

First they put more drops in my eye, this time an anesthetic, the previous time was to dilate the pupil. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not painful. You sit with your chin in one of those bucket things and look with your good eye at a predefined spot. Then he put a handheld lens onto the surface of my eye, which I tried to blink out. He then took aim, asked me to sit very still and shot a very bright laser onto the spot in my eye. Hopefully it was successful and I'll be able to see normally again soon!

Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens Walk

Gauteng has a few nice day hikes about and I'd wanted to do this one for a while. Walter Sisulu national botanical gardens is a little bit like Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, with wide open lawns and a large variety of plants, shrubs, trees and wild flowers. It's about 45mins drive from Pretoria. Not too bad for a Sunday walk, and it makes a nice change from our local, the Faerie Glen Nature Reserve.

The view of the gardens looking towards the waterfall

Myself, Renalda and Louis decided to spend our morning doing the walk. You start by walking past the outdoor amphitheatre, where they sometimes have concerts. That day the place was over run by girl guides in brown and yellow!

One of my favourite things about the walk was the giant insects and spider mounted in appropriate places.

Shelob awaits..

I really like dragon flies

This guy wood give Po a run for his money :P

Renalda and I in front of the waterfall

Louis looking very serious

 And then we walked up beside the fall to the top of the ridge, where I thought it was an easy hike, but it got harder and there was more of a climb. The veld god rocky with lots of interesting rock layers of different origin, sedimentary and igneous.

View from above looking roughly northwards

The hiar was getting a bit long!

Scary looking dude with 4 eyes :P

Lots of mooi blommetjies (pretty flowers)

Nog blommetjies (more flowers)

Nog meer blommetjies (still more flowers)

View of the layers of rocks above and the lawns below

All in all it was about a 2 hour walk, with a well deserved beer afterwards. If you haven't done it, give it a go, you won't be disappointed.

Kranskloof Hike - Mpumalanga

After putting in tons of effort getting fit and well equipped for the Fish River, we decided we should try to do a weekend hike at least every 6 weeks. The long weekend in September, due to Heritage Day, was too good an opportunity to miss, so I put out that call and got 6 others to join Renalda and I. This was the first time I'd really tested my leg after the operation, so we looked for an easy one.

Kranskloof is about 250km from Pretoria, we left early on Saturday, meeting at the Sasol petrol station on the N4 to Nelspruit. We decided to skip the more expensive toll road and traveled down to Carolina via Hendrina. That must be one of the bleakest roads in the country. Coal mines on either side, coal trucks and dust everywhere. I despaired that the hike was too close to this area and that it would be a waste of time...we were pleasantly surprised.

The trail is in a private nature reserve and there is a gravel road to get to the base camp. The condition of the road is ok, but the Toyota Run-X we were in bumped the ground on a number of occasions. If we had been in my car, I think it would have been worse. When we got to the parking lot, a very friendly chap named Richard came out to help us offload. And we needed lots of help!! The camp is not accessible by car and if we weren't doing an out and back hike we would have taken only what we could carry for a significant distance. That wasn't the case, so I planned a potjie for the first night and everyone brought tons of food.

The actual huts were basic, but well kitted out with a gas fridge and freezer, gas cooking, two hot showers with a donkey heater, flushing toilets, hot water for dishes. The huts sleep 24 people, but that would have been a squeeze, we spread out nicely between the three huts.

The hiking was good, but the trail on the first day was a bit confusing as we did an 8km hike as opposed to the promised 5km. I think we took a wrong turn, but otherwise it was very good. A decent variety of terrain, vegetation and views of the surrounding hills. Part of the second day's hike down to the lodge took us along the edge of a spectacular cliff, and then back below the same cliff. We stopped in at the lodge for a well deserved beer and headed back for a braai on night 2.

The huts cost R110 per person per night, but I think we all felt it was well worth it. Unfortunately I didn't take any photo's and don't feel comfortable publishing the pictures from the people who did.

Strength Training

I've been following the Primal Blueprint for most of this passed year with great success, but what I haven't been successful at is following the exercise routine. I exercise a lot and really enjoy it. but it's not regular and for that reason I don't think I've made as many gains physically as I'd like to. I did taper off working out before the Fish so that I could get hiking fit and strong. After the Fish was the op and eye trouble, so now I finally feel like getting back into it.

I'm going to do the Primal Blueprint Fitness Plan, which is available on Marksdailyapple. The "Lift Heavy Things", Primal Rule 3, section concentrates on 5  basic body weight movements, and allows you to progress from whatever condition you are currently in, up a ladder of movements to build your strength. I have done the self evaluation before and I wrote my results down, but can't remember the date. I'm mildly disappointed that I haven't progressed much!

These are the results:

• Pushups - 27 then 41 now
• Pullups - 3 then 4 now
• Squats - 61 then 71 now
• Dive Bombers - 8 then 9 now
• Plank - 60 seconds then 60 seconds now!!

So I'm going to try improve this significantly over the next few weeks.

Radio Frequency Catheter Ablation

I have arrhythmia, called atrial flutter, which can cause me to feel miserable and dictates that I take a rather nasty drug called cordarone/amiodarone. The drug potentially has numerous side effects including lung problems, eye trouble (not related to CSR), skin problems and digestive trouble. The catheter ablation was done to permanently repair my flutter, which would mean I could get off amiodarone, not to mention warfarin.

I've had the same procedure before, in about 2003 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. At that time it was unsuccessful as the electrical wiring of my heart was very very messy, and the doctor who did the procedure, Prof Okgreglicki who unfortunately passed away recently, doubted any further surgery would be any more successful. However the electro-physiologist I saw in Pretoria recently, convinced me that the technology had moved on significantly and considering my age, it was definitely worth a try.

So I went along on September 3rd and had the operation, no sweat. So what do they actually do? They make some incisions in your groin to gain access to your femoral artery, which supplies the most direct route to your heart. It is the same procedure they do for an angiogram. They then push a catheter up the artery into the heart, all the while viewing what's going on using radioactive dyes and a mobile Xray machine, which rotates around your chest. But I didn't see any of that this time as I was under general anaesthetic.
Then once they have an idea of what's going on in the heart, by doing stuff like giving you little shocks to pace your heart externally, they then burn the faulty neural pathways so that the spurious beats don't happen. One that was done I woke up talking nonsense to the doctors and nurses.

What the doctor said was that my wiring was still very bad, he said, electrically degenerate...heehee...crocodile clips anyone?Aand that while he knows he has fixed my rhythm at the moment, he thinks the chances are good the arrhythmia will return. Also he said that I have previously unreported calcification of my pericardium, the heart sack. This is usually indicative of a past infection of of TB. I don't remember having a previous infection, but perhaps my university days count. The doctor said that this problem is for the plumbers, he called himself an electrician, and that I should speak to my regular cardiologist in this regard, I have an appointment when someone else cancels, or else next year.

I think the most uncomfortable bit of my time in hospital was lying in bed without moving my legs. It was terrible.I kept the operation quiet, having lots of people coming to visit me in hospital is not my idea of fun, so only my family and Renalda knew I was there. She had to be kicked out by the night nurse :P The next worse thing was that I couldn't sleep, it was a mixed ward and on of the ladies was a HUGE snorer! I only got some rest after 4am when they started waking people up again!

I'd driven myself there stupidly, not remembering that even after a night in hospital, I would not be able to drive. So Renalda's folks kindly came to fetch me and drove me and my car home.

I'd been rather slack about keeping track of my INR and it was 1.2 when I had the operation. They were worried about clotting so I had to take some Clexane. I found out how much of a woes I am and how hardcore Renalda is. I held the injection to my belly for hours, but couldn't do it!! I'm not scared of needles, I just can't put one into my own skin. Renalda had to come do it for me.

It's taken me most of the month to recover fully. There was significant internal bleeding in my right leg and I still have a bruise. But I'm fine now, I went for a hike two weekends ago and played volleyball last Wednesday. Follow up appointment with the electrician later this month. 

Fish River Day 6, some ramblings and the trip home

We took it slow again on day 6, but we didn't have far to go, we had a lazy breakfast, although I think ours was nuts and some weak tea, and then strolled slowly towards the end. Probably having some bitter sweet emotions. The Fish was something I've always wanted to do, a Bucket List item, and before 2012, or perhaps late 2011 I really had never thought it would be safe for me to do it.

My physical condition this year has really been fantastic, even when you consider the eye and the operation I've had subsequent to the hike...wait for the post....I really have felt unbelievably strong and fit, and I attribute it to the Primal Blueprint mostly. Losing 14kg must have helped, hell my backpack was only 3kgs more than that! But the point is, it's a remote hike and if anything had gone wrong I would have put myself and other members of the hike in danger, and before this year I really wasn't prepared to do that.
So having minimal drama was something of a wonderful anticlimax. I had prepared well enough, was pretty fit by my standards, and didn't struggle at all. I had said I wanted to be fit enough to enjoy the scenery, and I did!
What is also interesting is that we actually had a perfect hike, the weather was perfect, there was tons of water, we had great company, with only a minimum of tension between the people wanting to finish earlier and us lazy ones. There is a dam just outside Ais-Ais, literally 200m from the camp site/hotel and as we crossed the dam wall, the wind picked up. There was sand blowing in our faces and as we drove home there was rain and the weather really started to come in. It was as if the weather was waiting for us to finish. As I said, a perfect hike.

The 6 slackers

We then had to get back to Upington that evening, to be in Pretoria late Sunday evening to go to work on Monday. So we had time for a nice soak in the hot baths and a beer with the peeps to say bye and to promise to hook up in Cape Town and to hike again. And then it was 90km on dirt road back towards the Namibian border at Ariamsvlei and then to find a backpackers to stay the night in Upington. The place we wanted to stay in was full, but they referred us to another place, where we slept and were up early for the long slog back, with some more stamps in the passport. Next mission? Otter trail! Who's in?

Fish River Day 5

On day 5 we woke up to more wonderful reflections and a beautiful sunrise over the much lower sides of the canyon. As I said we slept on the road and it was probably the best night's sleep we had, except perhaps for the next night. I think we were tired by the end of day 4 but I can't remember feeling any real stess about it. We knew the rest of the hike was going to be a doddle. So we took our time.

Sunrise over the Fish River

Four Fingers upstream from the road

Renalda's boots... there is proof :P

Absorbing the wonder of the place 

The group split up on day 5, it emerged that 4 people wanted to finish the hike that day. We wanted to leave relatively early on Saturday, but thought it pointless camping at the campsite when we could camp in the river and stroll out early the next morning. So the 4 people proceeded quicker than us. We stopped regularly to swim and make the most of the last full day in the canyon.
Truth be told it turned out to be a relatively easy hike...we weren't pushing to finish quickly, what would the point be? We'd driven more than 1000km to get to the cayon, why hurry to get out? Truth be told I think I only realised that on day 3 or 4.

More wild horses

Just before the end of the day we saw a herd of wild horses. The previous times we had seen them they were in two's. This herd had 5 or 6 horses, and there were 1 or 2 foals among them.
We camped within what we thought was about 1.5km of the end of the hike, in the middle or the river, on hard sand. We gathered tons of wood which I thought would never burn, but it did!

Bonfire

The last night's dinner for the cooks was rump steak with avo and... I can't remember what else, but it smelled delicious. We decided to try a fritata with our left over eggs and various rehydrated veggies. It worked quite well, but I think perhaps the eggs don't have the same sticking power as fresh ones. I wish I was there again tonight...