Parting with the Superfly

11 April 2006

I'm rather sure most ladies would agree that seeing men in a overly sensitive, emotional and slightly confused state is both hillarious and scarce. Now if you would, lend me your imagination for a minute, and I'll paint you a picture part comical, part rediculous…

First allow me to introduce da Superfly… At first sight, even those with no aptitude for vehicles, would agree she is sleek and elegant, emanates danger while being incredibly inviting and has power to spare… Ahhh what the heck, I won't bore you any further with these nouns. Truth be told a picture is worth a thousand words.

So this is what it is all about. It's Friday. You spill out of bed and drag yourself over to the bathroom hoping a shower will break the hold of your Friday lethargy… You look at your watch - 07:00. The thought of the painfull, nerveracking commute (90 minutes' drive from Pretoria to Johannesburg) threatens to drive your fist through a door. Then again you might aswell collapse back into bed and call in sick… Then, a lonesome ray of sunlight finds it's solace on your helmet and mercyfully cathches your eye… mmm suddenly the commute morphs from painfull irritation to exhiliration and joy. Pure bliss. With a spring in your step and a urgency to get going you scrample though the meagre tasks of getting yourself presentable. It only takes 10 minutes but feels like eternity… Finally you are sitting on your honey, her engine happily warming up.

Gloves … check,

jacket … check,

helmet … check,

andrenaline… ready. In a moment you find yourself cruising through rush-hour traffic, pitying the "cage-drivers" waiting in queue, a looong queue. In 30 minutes flat you pull into your Johannesburg office's parking lot. Refreshed and exhiliarated, wishing you had time for more, but wait! It's Friday, which implies that soon it will be Saturday… Yea baby! On Saturday morning you and some mates will be heading to the awesome roads of the South-African Lowveld. You'll be up before sparrow fart (very early), bike clean and ready, backpack packed with a spare tshirt and your toothbrush, ready to experience heaven on earth! Twisty roads, high speed corners, huge plantations of bluegum trees and the smell of spring in the air… Yes these times were fun and if you don't ride, you should know that even the greatest expression of glamorous words can't give you the slightest idea of this experience.

Last week I had my last parting ride. The emptyness of my garage is rivalled only by that of my heart. Men are strange creatures for sure. Please do not expect of me to explain the bond between man and machine, rider and bike. If you don't ride you might think all this emotional blabber is slightly over the top, however - only a rider knows the feeling!

And so this post is an ode,

to the Superfly.

I cherished every minute on every road and so this Fireblade will be the CBR Superfly forever…

The Superfly:

The SuperFly and I:

My close riding friends - You made the times great!

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So it starts

20 March 2006

And so this little adventure begins!

I suppose that some history regarding this adventure thing is in order! I will, however, cut down on the details a bit and keep some narrative splendour for the day of tomorrow.

In 2004 I enjoyed a pretty supernatural trip to the USA after which I had a liittle premonition that I would not be living in South Africa all my life. So in November 2005, when a good friend of mine told me he wanted to move to New Zealand and instantly, this journey began!

Now my friend, John Davidson, his wife Annelize and I are carried to the "land of the white cloud" on wings of grace... There are a million things to organise before we go, things to sell, people to tell and paperwork to complete. Agghhh the paperwork... TONS of the stuff.

We plan to arrive in New Zealand with no more than our 20kg's of luggage and stay for at least 3 months. With the help of a South-African expat at a New Zealand based employment agency we will be attending some interviews in the first few weeks after our arrival and trust that God will provide work for us as he has before! After this little job hunting excapade we have to organise work permits (which is a walk in the park if you have a job offer) and then navigate the gauntlet of Immigration's residency application. :-)

Seasons like this always have more implications than is immediately visible... Some of the sacrifices we make now in the hunt of a few dreams are really challenging but how do you put a price tag on the reward of living ones dream? One of the hardest things I have faced is seeing the unbelief and sadness flood a friends eyes after you tell them you have to leave. I have known some real lonely times so I treasure every single friend I have... O Lord of the Heavens, bless them and comfort them even now...

Sooo before I get way emotional I'll stop this little post with a quote (Pardon the plagiarism y'all)...

"Ends are new beginnings,
as one day soon you'll see,
the best is never over,
the best is yet to be!"

And sooo it begins.

This is what you look like when you have just purchased your plane tickets to brave the unknown… What a feeling!

John and I being, well, silly I guess…


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