Author: KokkieH

On home (mine)

I realise I’ve been giving myself (and this blog) over to a lot of rants recently. Sorry about that. Sometimes you just need to, you know, vent.

But today I’m going to remedy that. See, yesterday when I got home I saw to my great delight that my neighbour had returned. His name is Elmo.

Actually, I’m not sure if he’s name is really Elmo, or even if he’s really a he. But the wife and I named him Elmo because we like Elmo from Sesame Street (who doesn’t?), we have a friend named Elmo and it’s fun to say Elmo the emu. Oh, yeah! Elmo’s an emu. Meet Elmo.

Emu — My name is Elmo and I’m an emu.
Hello Elmo

Emu’s are large, flightless birds indigenous to Australia. They are the largest birds in Australia and second-largest in the world after the ostrich. Emus are farmed in Australia, the US, Peru and China for their meat, leather and oil made from their fat. I’ve never eaten emu. I have eaten ostrich (note: not “an ostrich” – that would be impossible).

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The Drive

I cannot seem to formulate a comment that adequately describes how this made me feel. Just read it and decide for yourself.

allmostrelevant

Last Friday, in one sitting, I drove from Orange County, California to Seattle, Washington, my old stomping grounds. I left at 6:00 am Friday and arrived at 2:00 am Saturday. This is a list of some of the things I saw:

-Pavement. Lots of pavement.

-The Horizon.

-The sunrise gradually warm the hazy skies over Los Angeles.

-A sprinkler spraying water over a dry field, but the water turned to mist in the heat and drifted away before it could hit the soil. When I drove past, it looked as though the sprinkler was tired of being a sprinkler, and wanted instead to be a rainbow machine.

-Miles of cows on a cattle farm. Typically I don’t measure livestock in units of distance, but here it was appropriate. I’m not sure what the proper unit to measure stench is, but let’s just say it was not mild.

-A cow carcass…

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Song Title Challenge #9: Staying Alive – The Bee Gees

It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge. It’s later than usual today. I’m out of song suggestions (hint, hint) so was working on a rewrite of an old one. You can see my first attempt at this title over on A Crucible of Scribes.

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is Staying Alive by The Bee Gees.

Feel free to comment/criticise/mock relentlessly – whatever floats your boat.

Staying Alive

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On fixing what ain’t broke

I’m human (for those of you who were wondering), and like most humans, I’m not completely comfortable with change. We like the familiar. That’s why we invent traditions and customs – to ensure future generations do things the same way as us so that we don’t have to change.

However, along with a significantly smaller proportion of the world’s population, I also recognise the need for change. As stated previously, without change we run a big risk of stagnating. Blindly adhering to tradition is usually more damaging than not adhering to tradition at all.

But, and this is a big but, change for the sake of change is pointless, causes unnecessary stress and just makes life difficult. Continue reading “On fixing what ain’t broke” →

On vacation (the journey home) Part I

Prince Alfred s Pass Google Maps — Prince Alfred’s Pass
Knysna – Avontuur

I am a firm believer in the saying, the joy is in the journey. When I travel I don’t just focus on getting to my destination, but I like to enjoy the trip as well. To that end, whenever we go on vacation I try to spread at least one leg of the trip, either coming or going, over two or more days.

With the help of Google Maps I then plot us a route that strays off the beaten path, as it were. I avoid the main highways, stop over in little towns along the way, and sometimes take a road simply to see where it goes. (Once when I did that the “road” turned out to be a quad-trail and I had to go off-road in my bakkie to get back on a proper road, severing the speedometer cable in the process, so not necessarily a good idea.)

This time around I decided to try the Prince Alfred’s Pass between Knysna and the small town of Avontuur (Afrikaans for “adventure”. I don’t know why they chose that name. It’s one of those places you’ll miss if you were to sneeze while driving through and I spotted nothing particularly adventurous.)

This pass, named for the second son of Queen Victoria, was built in the 1960s by Thomas Bain who was responsible for many of the beautiful passes through South Africa’s mountains. A quick online search told me that, even though untarred for its entire length, the pass is driveable with a regular vehicle and our route was decided.

Continue reading “On vacation (the journey home) Part I” →