6 posts tagged “east london”
The minister of home affairs and I took advantage of the Easter weekend to spend some time with my family down in the Eastern Cape province. As money is a little tight at the moment, we decided to drive down.
Being the avid statistics collector that I am, here are some of the details.
The road distance from our house to my parents' house in Chintsa East (near East London) is 995.5km. On the return trip we left Chintsa East at 01:57 and got back home at 13:15. The average moving speed was 99km/h and we stopped for a grand total of one hour and 16 minutes. Actual travelling time was 10 hours and two minutes. That's a bit better than the trip down, which took 10 hours and 18 minutes actual travelling.
We had a great weekend. We left Johannesburg on Friday morning at 01:30 and arrived in Chintsa East at lunchtime. The weather going down was awful - a lot of heavy rain - but for the rest of the weekend we experienced lovely weather.
It was so nice to spend some time with everyone (and to take photos of the beach and my parents' lovely garden).
We left yesterday morning, at, as I say, 01:57.
The minister of home affairs and I flew down to East London for the second weekend in a row. With yesterday being a public holiday (Heritage Day), we flew back yesterday afternoon.
It was a much nicer weekend than last weekend. We enjoyed spending time with my parents and on Sunday also visited the home of my brother and his wife for the first time, and had a nice lunch there.
It was the first relaxing weekend we have had in a while!
But it's always nice to be home.
P.S. My mom bakes the best rusks!
P.P.S. The Pats won again! WOOHOO! 38-7 against the Bills.
The minister of home affairs and I spent the weekend in East London where the funeral service for my grandfather took place. It was a sad weekend, but at least there is closure now, and we know he is in a better place.
We arrived back home late yesterday afternoon.
My grandfather, Robert Craig Scott, died at the age of 87 this week, at 16h50 CAT on 5 September. He was born on 24 January 1920.
On 12 November 1998, Glyn Williams, the former editor of the Daily Dispatch, a newspaper printed in East London, wrote about my grandfather in a column. In his honour, I reproduce it below:
Great Scott -- you can't keep the old folks at home
BOB SCOTT was aged 65 in 1985 when he came to East London from Johannesburg and ran the 42,2 kilometre Buffalo marathon from Berlin -- which was the route in those days -- in a few seconds over two hours 58 minutes.
It is every runner's dream to complete a marathon in under three hours. At 65 it was an astonishing athletic feat that was in itself a tribute to a modest, likeable and abstemious man.
He deservedly won the Buffs' most prestigious award for the outstanding performance of the race. There was a standing ovation for him when he went up to receive his trophy. After that, I always called him the great Bob Scott. He still remains an inspiration to youngsters like myself.
Bob, who runs for Rand Athletic Club, has a son living in the East London area, which gives him and his wife a second home status in the city. A grandson, Iain, who is now an editorial executive with Business Day, worked as a reporter for the Daily Dispatch.
Bob called me out of the blue the other day. At 78 years old he was as bright and optimistic as ever, despite a couple of operations, including one for the bane of older men, the prostate. It seemed almost superfluous to ask Bob whether he was still running; it is in his blood now after a relatively late start in life -- he first concentrated on his career and bringing up a family.
He said he still went out regularly and is planning to enter and complete a 32 kilometre run in the Gauteng area. Bob had considerable success in his age groups in races up to and including the 56-kilometre Two Oceans but he never entered the 90km Comrades, out of deference to the wishes of his wife. He told me he knew she would worry too much about him tackling the gruelling ultra at his age.
Bob is not alone. There are lots of other older people who are shunning the rocking chair. Jenny Allen, who is 86, has just run a 16km race around Dundee, Scotland, after entering her first marathon at 71.
There are others: John Vine, 80, who goes scuba diving in the English Channel and who used to swim with killer whales and giant octopi in his 70s; Margaret Ballard, 69, and her husband, Owen, 74, go water ski-ing near Bedford, England -- and that includes slalom and jumps; astronaut John Glenn has just completed a 5,6 million kilometre journey in space at the age of 77; in the world veteran marathon championships in Durban last year I was overtaken by scrawny, biltong-like tough 80-year-olds. It did not please me, but they had my admiration.
It emphasises that elderly people can continue to be active and take part in activities that used to be dangerous if not impossible -- perhaps just as well in a country and a society which hardly respects its older generation and gives the impression of considering them dispensable.
The recipe for quality life in later years is to keep active physically and mentally, and eat and drink sensibly.
There is little junk food in our household but there is plenty of exercise for body and mind.
The snag is, as always, that as people live longer, the more they outlive their dogs and horses. Our faithful old boxer Jess can no longer be taken on the long walks she loved; but we will all stay together as long as we can.
It was an emotionally draining weekend for us.
My dad flew up from East London to take my grandparents down there so they can look after my grandfather while he is dying.
My grandfather is deteriorating quickly, and it is so awful to see him in so much pain.
They had lived in their house for 54 years, so there are so many memories there for everyone. It is all so sad.
What's your favorite vacation destination?
Locally, the east coast resorts area, where my parents live - between East London and Transkei. I grew up in the area and went to school in East London. We don't get to go too often, but we are going down there in December for the summer holidays.
