A strange ‘referrer’ popped up on my stats page a day or two ago. So, intrigued, I hopped on over to the link for a look. It was a bulletin board called Skyscraper City. I’d not heard about them before. I had a look at the particular thread that was referring back to my blog,…
This week, like the last few weeks in fact, is proving to be one of those where I wish that I could slow down time, or preferably turn it back a day or two. Alternatively, I wonder how advanced cloning technology is? I really need more of me’s (yes, I know that’s grammatically incorrect but…
… to my regular readers. I apologise profusely for not updating my blog in ages! It’s not that there haven’t been exciting things to tell you about. But I have been a little snowed under (though not in the literal sense, as our temperatures are currently soaring into the high 20s and early 30s –…
On Monday morning, bright and early, we “rushed” down the N2 (or rather, as slowly as the early-morning commuter traffic allowed) to make it to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Observatory, Cape Town, around 8h00. The sun was hiding behind a solid grey blanket of cloud, which fortunately did not release any rain.…
Background On 6 May 2009, four containers arrived at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Observatory, Cape Town. These weren’t just normal containers, though. These were very special containers: high-tech, RFI-shielded containers, especially designed and outfitted to accommodate all the complicated equipment that will be needed to control, operate and process the data from…
I met Noorjehan Abbass many years ago, in my past life as a legal secretary at an attorneys’ firm in Cape Town. I can’t remember exactly how long we worked together, and I lost touch with her afterwards. She phoned me once in the intervening years, and told me that she had had two adorable…
… has finally come to an end. It’s close to midnight, and we’ve just returned home from campus after another marathon session. Yesterday, I’d been at work until late at night, reconciling accounts… a skill I’d learned from my previous boss. It feels good to do reconciliations and to make sure that the numbers balance:…
… is my last day at UCT, which has been my home (at least in the work sense) for the last 4 years. Feeling a bit melancholy tonight, and touched by the kind messages of goodbye I’ve received in the last few days… but also exhausted from all the extra long hours of work that…
“Thank you for your patience, currently all our agents are busy.” Repeat that mantra about 100 times, and you can imagine that I am perilously close to exploding. And WHY, you may well ask, am I wasting my time with this? Because of UCT’s idiotic bureaucracy. Scenario: A non-UCT individual needs to be reimbursed from…
Nowadays, almost everyone communicates by instant messaging, whether it be email, SMS, MMS, e-chat, etc. They no longer write postcards or letters – and even faxes seem to be falling into disuse. I partly blame the South African Postal Services for this sorry state of affairs: When you write a letter, you have to stand…
I was so looking forward to attending a “Teaching with Technology” seminar offered to students and staff by the Centre for Education Technology) at UCT. With a title like “Web Searches: Life Beyond Google“, it promised to be both fascinating and instructive. I clearly wasn’t the only one who felt like that, as the teaching…
This morning when I arrived at work, one of the cleaning ladies on our floor was sticking a notice to each of the toilet doors. The notice had been neatly printed out in black capital letters, highly visible from afar. It said: “Don’t use this toilets. There are no water.” I asked her, “What do…
Hey everyone! Today is Sax Appeal Day! This year, the University of Cape Town’s student and fundraising magazine is celebrating its 75th birthday! The money they make from selling the mag (at R20 a pop) goes to RAG (Remember and Give) and to SHAWCO, which run stacks of wonderful community upliftment projects. If you don’t…
Grains of Sand 
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