Cork and water

One of my favourite summer event in London is the Serpentine pavilion. In its 12th year, the surprisingly permanent-looking structures are erected in the spring and dismantled in the autumn. They are variously strange and awe-inspiring. This year's is a reference to the pavilions that have come before. An archaeological dig of sorts, the 12 pillars represent the past structures, while geometric cork blocks wrap around the remnants: leftover cables, plinths, foundation pieces. All is covered by a flat metal disk collecting rain water, making visible the ground water that normally remains underground. How appropriate in this deluge of a summer!

Best of all, stools shaped as champagne corks. A hint?

 

GPS-less in the Middle East

Oh, how we love Sally, our voluble GPS, who has been guiding us through Africa with the help of Tracks4Africa, Garmin’s East Africa streetmaps and a useful Mac program for route planning called Roadtrip. With the help of Sally we have been able to cross deserts (although Anja and Jörg’s GPX tracks of the new Sudan roads helped a lot), been able to pinpoint those elusive ferry crossings in Kazangula, Dar Es Salaam and points North; and make sure that we always found a camp site every night, even in the wilds of Ethiopia (although for some reason it didn’t list Tim and Kim’s). But the further North we went the sparser T4A got and when we left Egypt, our GPSing finally stopped and we were officially back to paper maps. Unfortunately the Middle East is neither well mapped nor blessed with book stores where a lost traveller might pick up a route book, so we have mostly been relying on the US basemap Sally falls back on when she is as clueless as we are, and the - utterly unsuited to driving - town maps of various Lonely Planets and Rough Guides (the Bradt guides weren’t even in the running as navigation aides, as their maps seem to have been lovingly hand drawn by a casual visitor to the region without access to any of the freely available satellite imagery, i.e. Google maps). This has resulted in a lot of aimless driving round Arab city centres trying to establish where we are, where we are trying to get to and generally being aggravated with each other. Here is an example of our attempt to find the Baron Hotel in Aleppo:

As you can see we took a spiral approach to our destination, in fact we drove past the hotel a few times before we found it, despite asking a variety of extremely helpful but cartographically challenged pedestrians, peering at miniscule street signs in the dark and trying to divine the direction of North by trying to remember where the sun set an hour ago.

So now you know that GPSless driving in foreign countries can lead to frustration, arguments and eventually divorce. Don’t do it!

Prof. Wakho & Dr. Ismail

At every traffic junction in Joburg people are handing out leaflets, or try to sell something. We received this one last week. I reproduce it here, typos and all. The last line is a classic South African statement. I also love the way it gives an insight into the problems that concern people here: protection for security guards, cures for family infighting and bad spells on your business; and the solutions: control your enemies by use of a mirror, herbs to fix your physical problems, spells to find your lover.

Enjoy:

Prof. Wakho & Dr. Ismail is hailed as the Herbalist of the Year in 2006 and 2008, they opened up in Sandton. They are Astrologers, Herbalist, Healer and Resarchers. They are the proud winner of the East African Control Council Award for a Lifetime Achievement in Astrology & Herbal Healing.

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1. Each one has got a speciality in the following:

2. Read and tell ALL your problems before you mention them to him

3. Bring back lost lover, even if lost for a long time in 3 days.

4. Remove bad spells from homes, business etc

5. Ensure that promotion you have desired for a long time at work

Or in your career.

5. Herbal therapy for controlling early ejaculation.

6. Herbal medicine for enlarging the penis in both length and girth permanently

It stimulates growth of the tissue & muscle thus increasing size

7. Guarantee you to win that troubling court case, no matter what stage

8. Ensure success as you get rich quickly

9. Eliminate in family fights between children & parents, in-laws, husband, wife

And ensure peace & harmony in home.

10. Recover stolen property to your business and trace the whereabouts of people that hurt you

attract customers to your business & turn your trade into a favourite

11. Swollen body, pain of the joints & bones

12. Extreme protection for those doing dangerous jobs like security guards, bank managers, cash transporters, etc 

14. Guarantee that you are loved and trusted by your colleagues, husband, 

Wife, in-laws, friends etc

15. Quit alcohol, smoking, drugs using purely herbal therapies with no side effects

16. Do you have body and vaginal pains, bad periods, lots of fat all stomach pains, problems home/work/kids, many more

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Prof. Wakho & Dr. Ismail

The only professional doctor who will listen and attend to all your problems because of disappintments in your life

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15. Get married to that lover of your life in a short time and seal up yourr marriage with eternal love & happiness. 

16. Heal women problems of barrenness, disturbing menstruation, abnormally 

Long pregnancies etc. 

17. Ensure that a single person gets partner in shortest time

18. Bring supernatural luck into your life to win chance games,

19. Bring you to see your enemies and make demands on them using a mirror

(ALL THESE CHALLENGES CAN BE OVERCOME BEFORE IN 5 DAYS)

Stop suffering in silence rush to get that help that you need to change your life if not you, do it for your loved one.

CONFIDENTIAL GUARANTEED

Consultation R50-00

ALL WHITES, BLACKS, COLOUREDS, INDIANS etc. WELCOME

Melrose Arch Long Long Table

Last night, after two days of constructing stages and stetting tables outside, rigging lights and sound and removing cars from the road, the Long Long Table event took place here. It's a charity dinner for the Starfish foundation which looks after HIV/AIDS orphans, of whom there are far too many in this country. There were fire jugglers and stilt walkers and by all accounts everyone was thoroughly entertained and well fed.

You can see more photos of the event here.