Spuit-poep

Yes. Pronounced “shpate-poop”, it means ‘squirt-fart’ in Afrikaans and I have got it. Or rather, I had it. It is all in the preparation for a big race. It means that you didn’t train enough until the last minute so your body hates you and resorts to diahorreah (which I can never spell).
One week to go and there is nothing more I can do to get fitter now. I just have to trust that I can crawl the 55 miles from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in under 12 hours.

Actually, I just read about an HIV positive dude who is doing it to show that you can do so, despite being on anti-retroviral medicine. He is more hardcore than me, but I am not telling you who he is, so you will just have to sponsor me instead. Ha!

If you want to sponsor me, please look at http://www.jabulanifoundation.org/help.html to find out how to make a bank payment.

So off to Pietermaritzburg next weekend to stay with more of Gareth’s friends (who all seem to be utterly awesome). Kim is excited about shopping in a big city and I am not. The run is on Sunday and I will try to write something on Monday or Tuesday to let you know exactly which hospital I got sent to after collapsing after how many kilometres.

Folk have been really generous in sponsoring me, even Chris Horne who protested that I only write when I am asking for money. Sorry Chris, I love you really. Chris and I used to smash eachother in the face (thai boxing) for a hobby. Well, I smashed his face, he couldn’t really reach mine. Now we are both unable to muster more than about 4 press-ups and 2 squats – the mighty are fallen. I do miss the old boxing a great deal, but running is fun too and (hopefully) no-one hits you when you are running.

Braai time this weekend! And it shall be in the fire pit of destiny. We are taking it back to the old school with wood and paper to start, rather than lighters.

I have just made a marinade which will be applied to a massive-o fillet for 24 hours. The marinade is as follows, red wine (bottle of), Old Brown Sherry, onion, garlic, course grain mustard, Worcester sauce, chillis, sunflower oil, bay leaf, salt, pepper. If it tastes awful I have wasted a heck of a lump o meat. So fingers crossed please. I told myself yesterday that I would stay off the booze until after the race. Now I want a beer more than I want to see my niece. That is a bit unfair, but she is not here in my fridge, taunting me. I would rather see Isla than have a beer. Maybe I could look at Facebook and then have a beer. NO!

I thought about work (DfT) the past few days. Decided to write an e-mail to some folks there. Then realised that I should asked for sponsorship whilst at it. Then felt bad because I only write when I am asking for money. It is hard being me, with my brain talking shit to me, sometimes. I wrote anyway.

I read a book called the three letter plague recently. It is really good, if you like reading about HIV. I usually give up on books that are good for me, but this one was really engaging and easy going. Sad stuff in there, but very human and interesting. It is all about ARV programmes in rural SA, so very relevant. I sat in with Doctor Liz and one of the ARV counsellors this week as I am going to recruit a new counsellor soon, so I wanted to see what they do. She was a great translator. The most interesting bit was when a guy came in with his wife. He was just going onto ARVs and she was already on them. Liz quizzed him through the counsellor about “how long do you have to take ARVs?” (the rest of your life) and “what do the ARVs do?” (they boost your bodies soldiers and suppress the disease). She then spilled a box of assorted pills onto the table and asked him to put aside which ones he would take in the morning and name them. He got it all right so high hopes. It is important to have someone to help you with this stuff so it is cool that he has his wife going through the same thing. By the same token though, saw another woman who was happy to find out that her baby was negative.

So me and Sally have made an application form and we shall see how many applicants we get. Interviewing is not going to be like DfT. Competency based interviews are a thing of the past to me and I think it is back to the old gut feeling and asking hypothetical questions. When someone is long term unemployed, you can’t ask them if they have had relevant experience. We just need someone with good English (purely to translate for the doctors) who is organised and has initiative. Sounds simple enough.

Kim is back from the hospital from where she got called this evening. She is on call all weekend so we are here. It is nice in a way to hang around Zithulele and potter. Poor Kim has the Spuit-poep now, but I don’t think there is anyone to take her place. Grim.