Sparrow Village is a semi self sustaining, miniature town in Gauteng, South Africa.  They support terminally ill children & adults, as well as abused or deserted children or children who have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/Aids.

Since they’re a non profit organisation, they need support any many ways.  From volunteers, host families, sponsors, to food & other items or donations.

Society has become flippant about the HIV/Aids pandemic, since we hear about it all the time and the common thought that if it doesn’t affect our lives, then why should we worry, has unfortunately become too prevalent.

As I browsed the website and looked at each of the little one’s faces,  I wondered what horrors they must’ve been exposed to or experienced.  I look at my own children and realise once again just how very blessed we are!  My children go to bed every night, showered with love, wearing warm clothes, with a full tummy and fall asleep in a comfy bed – healthy and happy.  What we take for granted, is a wonder for these little people.

For a bit of an education on the hardships of the other half or to find out how you can make a difference, go to www.sparrowvillage.co.za

I’ll be heading off to that side of the world in September and I’ll be stopping off there to donate whatever I can, that they need.

While taking my stroll around Montrose, I came across a statue of a great big St. Bernard called Bamse.  According to his write up, when the war broke he went to sea with his master and was registered as a crew member of  Norwegian navy minesweeper called the Thorodd.  By all accounts this dog was hero, during action he would stand guard up in the foremost gun tower and would not leave until all the fighting was over.  There are also stories of Bamse breaking up bar brawls by standing with his hind legs and placing his feet on the brawlers shoulders.  Quickly ending the dispute.

There is another account of Bamse saving the life of Lt.Commander Olaf Nielsen.  Apparently the officer was walking along the docks in Dundee when a would be robber attacked him with a knife.  Bamse, who had been following some distance behind the officer, raced forward and standing on his hind legs used his momentum and great weight to push the would be robber away from the officer.  He continued to push and eventually steered the attacker off the edge of the jetty into the water below.  There are a great deal more stories to read and I am sure that I wouldn’t do them justice so I have placed a link at the bottom of this article which opens up the Bamse website for you all to read.

Just Nuisance never actually went to sea but would regularly follow the sailors into Cape Town.  For those of you who know the Cape Town/ Simonstown area this is a long way so the train had to be used.  Just Nuisance would jump on the train and ride it through to Cape Town.  This, however, was not popular with the ticket collectors and once discovered he would be turfed off at the next station.  Naturally, being a dog of some cunning Just Nuisance would simply wait for the next train to come along and then hop on that.  Eventually such a fuss was made by the rail operators that letters were written to the owner and said that the dog would be put down if the freeloading continued.  Enter the Navy.  They enlisted the dog in the Royal Navy and in those days all volunteer servicemen got free train travel.  Thus the dog was saved and the Navy got themselves a new poster boy.

Naturally there is a lot more to the story than I have just written here, Just Nuisance would also round up all the sailors from the different bars prior to curfew time and make sure that they all got back to their bunks safe and sound.  There are even tales of Just Nuisance “Helping” some drunken sailors back to the base in Simonstown that weren’t even stationed there.

For a full write up on Just Nuisance and Bamse see the following links:

Able Seaman Just Nuisance, R.N.

Bamse

]]> http://www.peteandlauren.com/2010/08/10/the-dogs-of-war/feed/ 1 -34.1893845 18.4254150 http://www.peteandlauren.com/2010/08/09/happy-womens-day/ http://www.peteandlauren.com/2010/08/09/happy-womens-day/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:31:12 +0000 The Clan http://www.peteandlauren.com/?p=1449 “You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock”…

This is the common phrase known today, derived from the original “Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo!”, which (when translated) means “Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock”.

It was a song composed for a women’s march that took place 54 years ago, on this day.  20 000 women marched in Pretoria at the Union building.  They were opposing the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act, better known as the ‘pass laws’, of 1950.  For more information about this day, click on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women’s_Day

Since then this day has been known as women’s day in South Africa.

Women’s day would be regarded, by many, as a sexist holiday.  But in a so called “mans world”, would that not make every day, a man’s day?

Throughout history women were made to be submissive and under-represented for their contribution to mankind.  It’s not just from legends and stories passed down through the ages, but prevalent throughout our history.  Great moments are commemorated by the men who defeated adversaries, or invented gadgets and the like or made life changing decisions.  Only a few women are remembered and revered.  This is partly due to their restrictions in education, recognition in professional societies and limitations in various work forces.  It is also due to the idea that it was inappropriate for woman to have recognition without the help or assistance of a male family member or friend.  But thanks to our endurance and a changing society, perspective has changed and towards the end of the 20^th century, women started getting the deserved recognition.

But it’s not just the women who make profound contributions to mankind, who deserve all the credit.

Each of us has a story to tell or a memory to share.  Each of us has made a contribution.  Whether it’s putting a smile on your child’s face in their saddest moments, or sacrificing something so that a loved one may prosper.  All these things make a difference.  In a few years time, that little moment may be remembered as part of what will make them who they will be, or help them to where they will go.

Women are definitely more respected now.  Even though we didn’t have to earn it, since we were never of inferior mind or ability.  We did need to prove ourselves to receive that respect.  Through our strength and endurance we have surpassed what our foremothers ever imagined for us.

It is important to keep our spirit alive.  We should be teaching our daughters to be of independent mind and to recognise and acknowledge the strength within them.  This is our world too and we deserve to be a part of it, in every way.

I’m not encouraging a women’s liberation movement, since there are extraordinary men in the world too.  But this particular post is dedicated to each woman who made a difference to many or even just to one.

Thank you each and every one of you.

We have left the dramatic coastline of the Orkneys behind us now and are in a port called Montrose on the East Coast of Scotland.  Today I had a chance to take a walk around the town and managed to snap a few pictures along the way too.

One thing I loved about the place was that everywhere was spotless.   There is no litter lying around, gardens for the most part are immaculate albeit it a little sparse and public areas like parks and things are very well maintained.

The town itself is small.  I walked pretty much everywhere today and it was probably only a 10 to 15 kilometer stroll.

So, Scotland, I take back all those terrible terrible things I said about you.  Montrose has lifted my opinion of your land greatly.

For the pictures of my walk look in the gallery under Montrose or click HERE.

Pete

P.S.  It hasn’t even rained since I have been here so that is some more brownie points for you.

I am now back at work and we are up in the Orkney Islands.  The ship I am on is called the Sovereign and we are installing some enormous power cables.

There are two different areas in which we are working, the first is off an island called Eday and we were installing cables for a Tidal power generating system that utilise the strong tides in the area.  While on this site we notice rates of up to 6 knots at times.  So they certainly picked the right spot for it.  The second  site we worked on is a wave site off the west coast of the mainland in a place called Billia Croo, were wave power pushes against another contraption and also generates power.

For more info on how the projects work and what is being done check out the European Marine Energy Centre website.  There is loads of information here and a couple of really interesting videos showing the work being done and the area we are working in.

Our work started by running a cable to the shore.  We call this installing a shore-end.  For pictures of the process have a look at the gallery under work and then the Orkney Islands folder or click HERE.  Once the cable was floated safely ashore all the buoys were cut off and we moved the ship off laying the cable as we go.

More to follow on this topic.

Pete

As a PS to this story an article was run in the local paper featuring the Sovereign and our exploits.  Click here for the link.

When I built Kyra’s bed I had in the back of my mind that we might want the kids to share a room so I designed her bed to be square and modular so that I could add another on top of it at a later stage. Naturally design came first, most of the hard work was done during the build of Kyra’s bed so it was just a matter of sourcing wood and getting it cut to size.

First, I started off marking up all the pieces of wood. This is where the furniture screws and dowels would be placed to keep the whole thing together. I am a bit hopeless when it comes to this aspect of the build so everything had to be checked and then checked again. After about two or three hours I had all the pieces marked up and it was time to start drilling. A good few hours of work and I was ready to dry fit the frame together. By nightfall of day one I had most of the frame assembled.

The next thing to come was the ladder.  Strangely enough it took forever but by  the end of day two I had it all clamped together and glued.

The next two days were spent sanding all the pieces of the bed to a smooth, fine finish.  At night while the sanding was going on I started planning colour schemes.  First I took a picture of the beds in their stacked position and then used photoshop to see how the colours would look.

Eventually it was all done and the kids love it to bits.  Pictures can be seen in the Gallery under the Bloody sweat and tears folder in the Kayden Bed section.

This time we decided to pay the “whopping” R4 (rand) entrance fee and decided to go and look at all the animals. I was most surprised to see how much further the park extended. The park comprises mostly of birds and of course the vervet monkeys running around loose, which I think will potentially become a problem, due to their numbers. But we were fortunate to see raccoons – a first for me. They also had tamarins, marmosets, meerkats, flamingos and as I’ve  said, an array of other birds too. The crocodiles they used to have are no longer their unfortunately. I looked up the history of Mitchell Park, which was named after Sir Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell. It used to be an ostrich farm which is hard to believe, if you look at where it’s situated in a, now, densely populated residential area. The ostrich farm venture was unsuccessful and they converted it into a zoo. I’m told that there used to be a greater variety of animals than there are now, which included lions and leopards and of course the crocodiles that I mentioned earlier. The most famous animal, presented to the city council by the Maharajah of Mysore in 1928, was Nellie the elephant who would woo the crowds with her tricks & intelligence.

Today the magnificent gardens, rolling lawns, enormous trees that provide ample shade and the large play ground for the children attract many families to the park on weekends.

You may have to keep a watchful eye on your food, as the vervets have no  qualms about helping themselves to snacks left lying around unguarded. They’re harmless enough, but if you don’t like sharing, then keep your food close to you or hidden.

With so many people, these days, living in upstairs apartments or flats, or even a family just wanting a change of scenery, I would definitely recommend Mitchell Park as an ideal spot for any family to spend the day outdoors.

1927 – Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours. Obviously there was no ash cloud to worry about then.

 1506 – In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.

 As for Birthdays today, it is Cher’s . She was born in 1946 making her 64 years old today. Thus demonstrating that the bunny huggers are not wrong, plastic really does last forever. 

And last but not least, today two years ago the great Frank Sinatra died.  As it turns out Frank Sinatra died on the 14th of May 1998.  So he doesn’t belong in this post at all.  Ain’t that a bugger!!!

I will never forget your face as I walked down the aisle towards you. You had an expression of absolute love and adoration. We were both jittery but excited too and as Liz gave the beautiful ceremony, I just lost myself in you. We said out vows  and confirmed our union with a kiss. I was so proud to walk out of Falcon Crest Chapel as your wife, Mrs Bowen.

Pete, I love you more each year and miss you more with every trip that you’re away. But nothing can change how very much you mean to me.

Happy Anniversary,

With all my love

Your rabbit