A bit of this and a bit of that!

This week was just another week of knitting, work and driving, more on the driving later. I'd finished my shopping bag last week and have been using it to take my lunch to work. And word definitely went around that I made it. Random people have been coming up to me saying 'are you the one that knits?'. The office manager was so interested and asked me to make one. This one took a bit longer this week-for some reason it took ages to crochet even though it's a straight forward pattern. Anyway, so I finished it last night while watching Wall-E( very cute movie). I still have to take pics of the finished project. But here it is in progress.





I really like the finished product and am actually a bit jealous. I'd like to keep it! I have a tiny bit of the yarn left so maybe I can eek one out. The bag is great as it will stretch and I've already had so much shopping in it!
I've also always wanted to make the BYOB from Knitty. But that requires a lot of yarn-maybe another day.

I also finished another bag - IT'S BAG MANIA!! This one is the Mineco 1. For this one I picked sunset colours.


In this picture it is also unfinished. I added two short handles. This pattern was a bit disappointing to me. Well, not the pattern really but the nature of the pattern. The actual knit was easy to do, yarn was fine. But the bag unfortunately doesn't stretch sideways but lengthways. So what you are left with, when full, is a long orange sausage! Weird! I'm not sure if I like it? Or maybe next time I'll add a few more pattern repeats to make it wider. I still like the look of the bag though. mmmm.......

Work is still going fine, though a bit quiet. I'm not saying anything in the hopes of keeping the job for as long as possible. It's money right?!
Driving to work has been interesting to say the least. Having lived in the UK for 6 years, you tend to forget certain things and also don't really drive in the UK. So when I got this job, I had to drive from the suburbs into the CBD of Cape Town along the highway. It crawls at a snails pace every morning, slow enough for me to drink my mug of coffee in the car! WHOO!
BUT...I totally forgot about another factor of South Africa. Taxis! Now these aren't your usual black/ yellow cabs that spring to mind. No, these are minibuses, operated by any Tom, Dick or Harry ( and lately Sue). They don't belong to any kind of Taxi organisation which regulates them in any way. In fact, if you have a minibus, you could operate one. So Tom decides to drive a taxi. Basically, he decides on the route that he wants to drive and off he goes. Taxis do not, i repeat, DO NOT follow road rules. If someone inside wants out, they stop, anywhere. Middle of an intersection, middle of the highway, ANYWHERE! They love their horns and will use them to annoyance. Every taxi has a spotter. Basically a bloke hanging out of the open door, spotting for passengers to pick up. He also acts as the horn, indicator, traffic coordinator. So if Tom wants to turn right in peak traffic and there is no space, the spotter will start shouting at cars, directing them aside to make space for the taxi to pass. The taxis are generally packed beyond any legal limit. A taxi accident usually involved quite a few dead and injured-partly due to the number of passengers and partly due to the fact that they aren't serviced at all-so have faulty brakes, no indicators, etc. So, you get the picture! These taxis exists in their millions like swarms of bees. This week the cops had a crackdown/ road block. They generally try to have these stealth road blocks to eliminate unroadworthy taxis and drivers with no licences. Also, many of the minibuses were stolen from families to use as taxis. At this road block, you always see loads of confiscated taxis, passengers walking to work and shouting drivers...oh, and about 500m before, taxis desperately trying to make u-turns to avoid the roadblocks.
Well, in order to keep the public informed, I documented some footage i.e. pics and video of these hooligans on the road. The pics were taken on my mobile while driving so excuse the quality. I forgot to up the image sizes.

Exhibit 1

What you're looking at is an intersection on a busy road in the middle of Cape Town. The road that I am on, is a two lane road. Can YOU see the two lanes on the opposite side? Cause I can't? Judging by all the taxis, they are making 5 lines!!! Crazy!



Exhibit 2

I have now crossed the intersection into the two lanes..can you spot the two lanes...apparently there are 3? I must have missed that 3rd one!



Exhibit 3

Maybe I should change lanes like this?!



And finally, exhibit 4...

I'm trying to cross the intersection but there are cars everywhere?!?!?! WTF?!?!?! It's green for me but I can't cross!




So you see, it's a miracle I haven't had road rage yet!
Life in Africa sure is interesting....

We went for some sundowners and took these of Table Mountain. Beautiful, isn't it!



The lights are the bottom is Cape Town.



Have a great weekend.