1 cup self raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essences
quarter cup fish oil
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs
mix flour and sugar baking powers pinch of salt
separate bowl mix 1 cup boiling water vanilla essences and 3 TSP of cocoa
beat eggs and add
7-8 minutes in microwave
no 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla essence, quarter cup fish oil, pinch of salt, 3 TSP cocoa, 1 cup boiling water and 2 eggs
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Costumes ordering, heated cars and hospitals
Yesterday, one of my suppliers asked me about my question in regards to splitting my latest order of costumes into two packages. Once I told them why I have requested that, they agreed with that. If it wasn't for the problems of size/weight and customs, then I wouldn't have to go to all of that trouble.
Another supplier is having issues with money transfers. Now I am waiting for confirmatino on that particular order.
I had a good chat with somebody who wants to become a maskot for a sportsteam. The whole thing sounds like lots of work, but work that is fun.
A friend of mine has nothing better to do than getting all exited about how many days still to go until a game that he is waiting for is going to become available. He plays far too many games the whole day in any case. He buys many games and DVDs, but really cannot actually afford to do so.
Today I will get the spare parts to sort out the heating problems of my car, hopefully then thigns should go a bit better.
On Wednesday, my father is going to get another examination at the hospital. Hopefully he can finally leave that place after that.
Another supplier is having issues with money transfers. Now I am waiting for confirmatino on that particular order.
I had a good chat with somebody who wants to become a maskot for a sportsteam. The whole thing sounds like lots of work, but work that is fun.
A friend of mine has nothing better to do than getting all exited about how many days still to go until a game that he is waiting for is going to become available. He plays far too many games the whole day in any case. He buys many games and DVDs, but really cannot actually afford to do so.
Today I will get the spare parts to sort out the heating problems of my car, hopefully then thigns should go a bit better.
On Wednesday, my father is going to get another examination at the hospital. Hopefully he can finally leave that place after that.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Heated car
On Saturday the temperature of my car went to the maximum that the indicator could show and there was a nice and think steam cloud coming out from under the bonnet. Last night I found out that the thermalswitch of the fan doesn't work anymore. The fan is supposed to prevent this from happening. The fan itself is working, obviously if the fan isn't switched on, it is useless in that scenario.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Costumes ordered
For my home business, the next Free Comic Book Day at the Readers Den and the next German carnival (Matieka) in Stellenbosch, I have ordered several new costumes. The costumes include Iron Man, Invisible Woman, Batman, Captain America and Mr Incredible.
Weekend results
This weekend was yet another hectic one:
On Saturday there was not enough time to sort out banking, shopping, driving to Stellenbosch to pick up photos, pick up a friend, drive to another friend, get soem other things sorted out and still free up space on my PC by backing up files onto DVD.
On Sunday a friend of mine phoned me at least five times, I was beginning to get highly annoyed.
On Saturday I bought a Bluetooth USB Dongle, now a friend of mine wants to borrow it to transfer some files to his phone.
On Saturday there was not enough time to sort out banking, shopping, driving to Stellenbosch to pick up photos, pick up a friend, drive to another friend, get soem other things sorted out and still free up space on my PC by backing up files onto DVD.
On Sunday a friend of mine phoned me at least five times, I was beginning to get highly annoyed.
On Saturday I bought a Bluetooth USB Dongle, now a friend of mine wants to borrow it to transfer some files to his phone.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Ongoing MSN Messenger connection problems
Yet another day where signing in with MSN Messenger just simply does not work. The connection testing still tells me that I can connect to MSN. What a bunch of lies!
Seeing is believing, and I saw it did not work.
Currently we have to use a temporary IRC solution. For other purposes I am using Yahoo Messenger which seems to work perfectly. The fact that my one ISP doesn't get its routing to the Yahoo site working is another annoyance.
Seeing is believing, and I saw it did not work.
Currently we have to use a temporary IRC solution. For other purposes I am using Yahoo Messenger which seems to work perfectly. The fact that my one ISP doesn't get its routing to the Yahoo site working is another annoyance.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
USB modem issues
Two days ago, my SmartLink USB modem started with issues where from my two USB 1.1 ports at the front of the PC it could not dial out anymore and the sounds are very distorted. The modem still functions fine using the USB 2.0 port at the back and then the sound is right except for the volume being a bit low. Maybe there is something faulty with the front USB ports, or Windows decided to give issues. I also tried to get my modem working in Linux, but the documentation is a bit wrong on how to set it up. The modem drivers don't work when SMP (Symetrical Multi Processor) support is compiled into the kernel. After recompiling the kernel and recompiling the modules, I got this nice error messge: Invalid Module Format
The recompiling was supposed to rebuild the module, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I will retry again later this evening...
The recompiling was supposed to rebuild the module, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I will retry again later this evening...
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Messenger wars
It seems like there is more competition amongst the different instand messenger applications. The new Messenger from Google showed up today, Microsoft brought out versino 7.5 of MSN Messenger. Yahoo Messenger isn't bad either, it is in any case far more reliable in regards to conenction and has got a lot more features than MSN Messenger.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
A lot of nonsense happening
It seems like my father is being released from the hospital too early yet again, because he is causing so many problems there and fighting with the doctors and nurses. Last time it nearly killed him three weeks after he was released. Now he needs a bit of rehabilitation, but I doubt that he will do that. His mind isn't quite 100% right yet due to his kidney problems. He thinks that if he can walk or at least stand up, he can leave the hospital, and if he can leave the hospital he is healthy. It is impossible to explain the situation to somebody who doesn't listen and doesn't want to understand the situation. During the day, there is nobody who can really look after him, since everybody is working full time at stressful jobs.
Monday, August 22, 2005
The great sleep
Coming back on Sunday morning between 3 and 4AM left me a bit tired. I nearly swirved off the road a few times. Once I got to bed I slept for at least ten hours.
On Sunday afternoon, my father came for a brief visit to pick up his car. He was out of the hospital for the weekend, and can actually now stand on his own.
On Sunday afternoon, my father came for a brief visit to pick up his car. He was out of the hospital for the weekend, and can actually now stand on his own.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Cheques and lack of sleep
Yesterday a phone call came along from a friend telling me that I have to come to his place to pick up a cheque from the receiver of revenue. This means that once I get back home from the hospital it will be nearly 8:30PM. Getting to his place takes another thirty minutes, then he still wanted to look at my DVD collection, which is going to take an awful long time. Afterwards I still have to drive back (another thirty minutes). By the time I get back home it will be close to midnight. Once I finally get home, I can have my first meal for the day.
Tomorrow morning I have to find a shop that sells car headlights, then I have to stand in the queue due to the cheque, then I have to do some shopping since I have got hardly any food left. A couple of other things also went empty. This is going to take a while in the morning, and the crowds are going to cause delays.
In the afternoon I have to do some cleaning up in the house, watering a couple of plants and try and get some sleep before the next hospital visit hits. Then I still want to watch something and then another hospital visit, followed by a long drive to visit a friend of mine and only coming back sometime after 2AM or 3AM. Usually I end up sleeping on Sunday until at least 11AM and/or later. By that time there will be a lot of noises outside which disturb sleeping.
Tomorrow morning I have to find a shop that sells car headlights, then I have to stand in the queue due to the cheque, then I have to do some shopping since I have got hardly any food left. A couple of other things also went empty. This is going to take a while in the morning, and the crowds are going to cause delays.
In the afternoon I have to do some cleaning up in the house, watering a couple of plants and try and get some sleep before the next hospital visit hits. Then I still want to watch something and then another hospital visit, followed by a long drive to visit a friend of mine and only coming back sometime after 2AM or 3AM. Usually I end up sleeping on Sunday until at least 11AM and/or later. By that time there will be a lot of noises outside which disturb sleeping.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Issues and more issues
Today is just one of those days that I would like to forget:
Some clients from a very small project came again and wanted changes, even after they have been long ago explained certain limitations of the system being used and that the system will not be changed because that would affect other clients as well. They are just trying to push their luck and not do any work while they are at it.
My sister notified me about the health of my grandmother, which is understandable due to her age. Not much luck yet in regards to enquiries about the huge hospital bill, the next one is still coming.
Other clients are also busy becoming a daily annoyance, as well as certain colleagues because those same clients weren't told certain details.
Some clients from a very small project came again and wanted changes, even after they have been long ago explained certain limitations of the system being used and that the system will not be changed because that would affect other clients as well. They are just trying to push their luck and not do any work while they are at it.
My sister notified me about the health of my grandmother, which is understandable due to her age. Not much luck yet in regards to enquiries about the huge hospital bill, the next one is still coming.
Other clients are also busy becoming a daily annoyance, as well as certain colleagues because those same clients weren't told certain details.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Painful Lasagne
Last night was yet another odd cooking evening: A few days ago, I bought some cheese for making lasagne. Normally a block of cheese doesn't stay around much before it gets eaten, so I decided to make the lasagne before I really go ahead and eat the block of cheese.
The ingredients this time were interesting: Mince, noodles, cheese, spices, peas, tomato sauce, BBQ spices, BBQ sauce.
The cheese made a nice crust on top. Something with that combination caused the food to lie really heavily in the stomach, I still felt the after-effects this morning.
The ingredients this time were interesting: Mince, noodles, cheese, spices, peas, tomato sauce, BBQ spices, BBQ sauce.
The cheese made a nice crust on top. Something with that combination caused the food to lie really heavily in the stomach, I still felt the after-effects this morning.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
New definition
Due to the existing experience of people becoming more stupid as mor rain falls, I have seen some really stupid driving happening the last couple of days. My thoughts were hovering somewhere around dorks and idiots until I combined the two words to become:
dorkiot
dorkiot
Hospital bills
Yesterday a nice hospital bill of 47 thousand Rand arrived. The first bill was 4 thousand Rand, which is already nearly half of my monthly salary.
The second bill might be arriving one of these days, but that bill is still under construction, and it is going to be nasty. If I get that and end up in hospital due to a nervous breakdown, then it was really bad.
The second bill might be arriving one of these days, but that bill is still under construction, and it is going to be nasty. If I get that and end up in hospital due to a nervous breakdown, then it was really bad.
Monday, August 15, 2005
More laundry
Last night there were two loads of laundry to sort out. Most of it was costumes due to a sudden flow of rentals. One costume ended up getting some interesting spots, I need to rinse that again this evening that the rest of the soap comes off.
My website also needs an update and I need to order more costumes once I got my finances sorted out. The main problem then will be the space to store them. There is hardly any floorspace left, and I need to thorw away a few things, plus get a new furniture piece.
My website also needs an update and I need to order more costumes once I got my finances sorted out. The main problem then will be the space to store them. There is hardly any floorspace left, and I need to thorw away a few things, plus get a new furniture piece.
Slow day, photos, hospital issues and more
Today is yet again another slow day at the office. Normally the day goes fast. I was expecting rain this morning due to the heavy rain last night and the predicted rain today, but that did not happen. Normally when there is rain, the intelligence level of the drivers in the morning traffic jam gets reduced based on the amount of rain coming down and the amount of water lying around. This seems to be a recurring phenomenon :)
The photos of Matieka (annual German carnival in Stellenbosch) are finally available at www.fokus.co.za. First I went to the actual event in Stellenbosch, then I went there a week later again to check if the photos are available, just to find only a few. Last Saturday, I went there again, just to find the same collection. Today finally the website is showing the entire collection of photos. Now I have to wait for a friend before I can start ordering photos.
My father is finally walking a bit, but he canot properly stand, so he needs to be supported for everything. He won't like the idea of crutches, but then again, his arms will most likely not be able to support his weight, since they are in the same condition as his legs. He seems to realise now finally, that he won't be able to do the work that he used to do. The options of what he can do are very slim, since he doesn't want to do desk work, and I cannot imagine him working in most shops. His age also counts against him.
Today, finally the first client has asked for an RSS news feed. I am surprised it took this long, but that is not an issue, since there are already working implementations available on live sites.
Yesterday a potential client wanted to have a list of sites that I have worked on. Most of the more than 100 websites, I cannot even list, since I haven't done the actual design, I cannot list those.
A friend of mine had the following interesting new ideafor an organisation: Liberal Garden Gnome Society
The actual description would be somebody who is not allowed to smoke in the house, and stands outside in the garden somewhere smoking a cigarette.
The photos of Matieka (annual German carnival in Stellenbosch) are finally available at www.fokus.co.za. First I went to the actual event in Stellenbosch, then I went there a week later again to check if the photos are available, just to find only a few. Last Saturday, I went there again, just to find the same collection. Today finally the website is showing the entire collection of photos. Now I have to wait for a friend before I can start ordering photos.
My father is finally walking a bit, but he canot properly stand, so he needs to be supported for everything. He won't like the idea of crutches, but then again, his arms will most likely not be able to support his weight, since they are in the same condition as his legs. He seems to realise now finally, that he won't be able to do the work that he used to do. The options of what he can do are very slim, since he doesn't want to do desk work, and I cannot imagine him working in most shops. His age also counts against him.
Today, finally the first client has asked for an RSS news feed. I am surprised it took this long, but that is not an issue, since there are already working implementations available on live sites.
Yesterday a potential client wanted to have a list of sites that I have worked on. Most of the more than 100 websites, I cannot even list, since I haven't done the actual design, I cannot list those.
A friend of mine had the following interesting new ideafor an organisation: Liberal Garden Gnome Society
The actual description would be somebody who is not allowed to smoke in the house, and stands outside in the garden somewhere smoking a cigarette.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Best business month so far
Due to a sudden surge of birthday parties which are costume parties, my home based costume rental business has currently go its best month. This small financial bonus helps a great deal towards various expenses caused by having to pay the bills for two people.
After checking the log files of my website, I discovered a reference from the site www.namibier.de which is a site about German speaking Namibia born people currently living outside of Namibia. On that list I discovered somebody whose name looked very familiar from the last Matieka in Stellenbosch. That person is also living in Cape Town. Just to meet some more German speaking people here in Cape Town, I have contacted him. Now I am waiting for his latest response.
A friend of mine stayed at my place for one night, he was mugged in Tableview on Monday and badly beaten up (broken nose and other bruises). Five against a small and not very physical person is not very nice. My friend is known to always have money problems and then they still went and mugged him.
My father walked a few steps last night, but he is now thinking that he can get out of the hospital today. He is still very confused and probably forgot that there are still various tests being done on him, and the doctors still have to correct his irregular heartbeat.
After checking the log files of my website, I discovered a reference from the site www.namibier.de which is a site about German speaking Namibia born people currently living outside of Namibia. On that list I discovered somebody whose name looked very familiar from the last Matieka in Stellenbosch. That person is also living in Cape Town. Just to meet some more German speaking people here in Cape Town, I have contacted him. Now I am waiting for his latest response.
A friend of mine stayed at my place for one night, he was mugged in Tableview on Monday and badly beaten up (broken nose and other bruises). Five against a small and not very physical person is not very nice. My friend is known to always have money problems and then they still went and mugged him.
My father walked a few steps last night, but he is now thinking that he can get out of the hospital today. He is still very confused and probably forgot that there are still various tests being done on him, and the doctors still have to correct his irregular heartbeat.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Evening stayover
Last night a freind of mine stayed at my place for the night. His wife caused some problems and they were evicted from the house that they stayed in. She was supposed to be brought to prison, but persuaded the police to be brought to the hospital because she is in such a bad condition (drug addict). My friend got mugged on Monday, his nose is broken and dislodged and he has got a lot of bruises. This morning he went to the taxirank to get back to Tableview.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Public holidays leftovers
The public holiday wasn't too bad. I managed to gt most things sorted out that I wanted to sort out. The dishes will be washed today, since that could not be done yesterday.
A friend of mine came for a visit from a long distance away and he ended up renting a Superman costume for a birthday party. At least my monthly expenses are covered and I made a small profit from my home business. He also gave some good suggestions about what else to order.
The rest of the day was filled with sleeping, hospital visits, cleaning and trying to continue watching a series that I have been trying to finish.
A friend of mine came for a visit from a long distance away and he ended up renting a Superman costume for a birthday party. At least my monthly expenses are covered and I made a small profit from my home business. He also gave some good suggestions about what else to order.
The rest of the day was filled with sleeping, hospital visits, cleaning and trying to continue watching a series that I have been trying to finish.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Weekend fiasco
Saturday was a long drive. The morning was filled with paying bills and shopping, followed by picking up a friend in Oranjezicht and driving to Stellenbosch for checking if some photos can be ordered, just to discover that due to the sheer volume, only half of them are there. Next weekend we will drive there again, and the weekend after that as well to pick up the ordered photos.
There were the usual two trips to the hospital (mostly snoozing there due to lack of sleep), followed by a LAN Session (copying stuff and network games) in Bergvliet, followed by a drive back at night with only one light.
Sunday was mostly sleeping and waiting for the rain to finish before going shopping to get breakfast at 3PM. Lunch followed after 6PM.
As I was about to take my friend back home at 10PM, I got a phonecall from the mother of another friend who asked me to phone him, since he got tossed out of the place where he was staying. His wife caused a lot of nonsense and nobody knew where she was, the landlord has changed the locks, and my friend needed a lift to a place where he could stay for the night. A crazy drive through Tableview followed that trip, just to get back to known roads. In the end I ended up back home at 11:55PM and having to get up after 7AM for work. So much for a nice quiet and relaxing evening...
There were the usual two trips to the hospital (mostly snoozing there due to lack of sleep), followed by a LAN Session (copying stuff and network games) in Bergvliet, followed by a drive back at night with only one light.
Sunday was mostly sleeping and waiting for the rain to finish before going shopping to get breakfast at 3PM. Lunch followed after 6PM.
As I was about to take my friend back home at 10PM, I got a phonecall from the mother of another friend who asked me to phone him, since he got tossed out of the place where he was staying. His wife caused a lot of nonsense and nobody knew where she was, the landlord has changed the locks, and my friend needed a lift to a place where he could stay for the night. A crazy drive through Tableview followed that trip, just to get back to known roads. In the end I ended up back home at 11:55PM and having to get up after 7AM for work. So much for a nice quiet and relaxing evening...
Friday, August 05, 2005
Matieka 2005 photos and related laundry issues
Hopefully the Matieka 2005 photos should be ready for ordering this Saturday, which means that I have to drive out to Stellenbosch and look at them, pay there, then drive back there the week after to pick them up.
The costume that I had on at the costume party has got some nasty stains that don't want to come out properly. I am concerned about the fabric colour coming out before the stain comes out.
The costume that I had on at the costume party has got some nasty stains that don't want to come out properly. I am concerned about the fabric colour coming out before the stain comes out.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Hospital stories continued
The second extended visit of my father in the hospital is turning out as expected: his condition is getting better, worse, better, worse, better,...
The dialysis improves his condition, once that wears off everything goes downhill. Some of my family members have no real understanding of the situation and are impatient and make a big fuzz about the matter which just worsens things. The irregular heartbeat is another matter as well as the not fully functioning digestive system.
I expect this to go on for several weeks at least, for that time, I will continue my daily visits to the hospital.
The dialysis improves his condition, once that wears off everything goes downhill. Some of my family members have no real understanding of the situation and are impatient and make a big fuzz about the matter which just worsens things. The irregular heartbeat is another matter as well as the not fully functioning digestive system.
I expect this to go on for several weeks at least, for that time, I will continue my daily visits to the hospital.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
An evening spent in a Spider-Man costume
The recent German Carnival Matieka in Stellenbosch had a costume party as the main event with lots of people. For the evening I wore a two-piece high quality Spider-Man suit, which covered me from top to bottom.
The first issue of course would be that everybody is looking at me and finding my outfit/costume choice amusing. fortunately that wore off quickly as the evening progressed. Some people tried to take my mask off, some asked me politely to see how I looked like underneath the mask. Others thought they knew me, just to discover that they have never seen me before. :)
Those that did know me, didn't actually recognise me until I showed them who I was.
Something that is never mentioned in comic books or movies is the fact when there is light shining onto the material covering the eyes, is that the wearer of the costume cannot see much.
One lady wanted to lift up my mask, and ended up giving me a kiss similar as in the first Spider-Man movie. Later in the evening, I met two ladies for photo shoots that I have met in the previous year for photo shoots.
Fortunately it was winter, so I did not get too hot in the costume, but being on the dance floor did start causing a bit of heat.
Since that costume is a high quality, it allowed for a lot of flexibility. To be able to drink or eat, I always had to lift up the mask and then lower it afterwards.
Somebody said that I have a tight butt, later some people thought it was funny to grab me from behind. Last year when I was dressed in a Batman costume, they threw the cape over my head and thought that was funny. This happened to a friend of mine as well. Some people just want to have fun at the expense of other people, instead of having fun together with other people.
Generally it was a great evenig and the costume is great, even though it cost me a great fortune to get it, since the costume wasn't cheap and customs is charging a lot. Photos of the evening should soon be available from Fokus and there are some in the gallery section of my costume rental website from the Free Comic Book Day 2005 promotion.
The first issue of course would be that everybody is looking at me and finding my outfit/costume choice amusing. fortunately that wore off quickly as the evening progressed. Some people tried to take my mask off, some asked me politely to see how I looked like underneath the mask. Others thought they knew me, just to discover that they have never seen me before. :)
Those that did know me, didn't actually recognise me until I showed them who I was.
Something that is never mentioned in comic books or movies is the fact when there is light shining onto the material covering the eyes, is that the wearer of the costume cannot see much.
One lady wanted to lift up my mask, and ended up giving me a kiss similar as in the first Spider-Man movie. Later in the evening, I met two ladies for photo shoots that I have met in the previous year for photo shoots.
Fortunately it was winter, so I did not get too hot in the costume, but being on the dance floor did start causing a bit of heat.
Since that costume is a high quality, it allowed for a lot of flexibility. To be able to drink or eat, I always had to lift up the mask and then lower it afterwards.
Somebody said that I have a tight butt, later some people thought it was funny to grab me from behind. Last year when I was dressed in a Batman costume, they threw the cape over my head and thought that was funny. This happened to a friend of mine as well. Some people just want to have fun at the expense of other people, instead of having fun together with other people.
Generally it was a great evenig and the costume is great, even though it cost me a great fortune to get it, since the costume wasn't cheap and customs is charging a lot. Photos of the evening should soon be available from Fokus and there are some in the gallery section of my costume rental website from the Free Comic Book Day 2005 promotion.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Matieka 2005
Matieka 2005 was a lot of fun. There were a lot more people than last year. Photos of the event can be ordered at Fokus.
More people should have worn costumes at the costume party, which would have made even more fun. I have met a lot of interesting people and had too much beer. :)
The people who dressed for the event made a good effort. I was quite surprised about getting the first price for best costume. My friend and myself also met for photo shoots with two very friendly ladies whom we have met last year at the same event.
Many people tried to take off my mask to see how I look underneath that, many failed, those who asked they were shown. That Spider-Man costume is nice for such events, except for some people with stupid comments or trying to make inappropriate jokes at other people's expense.
More people should have worn costumes at the costume party, which would have made even more fun. I have met a lot of interesting people and had too much beer. :)
The people who dressed for the event made a good effort. I was quite surprised about getting the first price for best costume. My friend and myself also met for photo shoots with two very friendly ladies whom we have met last year at the same event.
Many people tried to take off my mask to see how I look underneath that, many failed, those who asked they were shown. That Spider-Man costume is nice for such events, except for some people with stupid comments or trying to make inappropriate jokes at other people's expense.
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