Phuthu Stay Phut, Don't go!

“I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
-Edward Everett

We live in a beautiful country, this alone is enough to make us start our day with a smile!  If we can add financial freedom to our list, it means we can automatically tick the ”peace of mind” box as well (I sound like Suze Orman!). Saving money is easy, the difficult part comes in when we need to be disciplined and say No.

Herewith a few tips that will help you to stretch your money, which means more moola in your savings account:

1. Organise your day so that you don’t have to drive back and forth to the school, shops, work etc.
2. Pack home-made lunches instead of buying take-aways and snacks.
3. Make your own gifts and birthday (and other) cards.
4. As soon as your salary gets paid in, prioritise: Pay all your debt, save at least 10% and divide the rest into 4 (or 5 when you have a 5-week month), this way you know what you are allowed to spend weekly (you don’t have to spend it all though).
5. Make your own baby food, blend and freeze it in ice cube trays, take out only what you need for the day.
6. If you stop smoking, you might be able to buy a cheap pozzie somewhere in South Africa!
7. Grow your own veggies and / or herbs.

We thought yesterdays last 3 km were mean. Well, we were wrong – that seemed easy in comparison to todays final 30km. The hills were relentless. Although we were only out there for 7 hours it felt much longer, more like 9 hours. I think both of us experienced more of a mental tiredness than physical fatigue. CamelToe ran out of water about 5km from the end and then I ran out at 2km to go so that didn’t help things and it was baking hot.  I had sweat running off my arms.. at one point I thought it looked kinda sexy but then I felt my nostrils caked with sand so that put an end to that…
 
Way too much sharing, sorry.
 
So although we curse about the unrelenting hill climbs, CamelToe and I remind ourselves every now and then that the Epic is actually not hard in the real sense of the word. We did sign up for it after all and when you think of people, like those who we saw today working in the blistering sun repairing railway lines, you realise what hard is. Living below the poverty line is hard, being homeless is hard, losing a child is hard, the Epic is merely physically challenging at times. 
 
Getting sentimental… moving on.
 
5 Days down, 2 to go!
 
Time to get some sleep.. zzzz

How pretty is this photo?!

Another beautiful morning.

Getting warmed up for the mountains ahead.

Cyclists snaking up the mountain. Eish!

The Dalai Lama was invited to partake in the 2010 World Cup Peace Conference in Johannesburg but was denied a visa; the event was postponed. It’s quite ironic that this happened shortly after we celebrated Human Rights Day… and here I thought human rights are universal, silly me! Better luck next time!

Reference: East Coast Radio Newswatch

The Epic course designer goes by the name of “Dr.Evil” and aptly so because he does evil things! Today we were about 3km from home (we could see the town it was so close) and Dr. Evil took us off the relaxing district road that we were meandering along and sent us up the mountain..and up..and up some more..and then down…and then up some more. Needless to say I thought of a lot more descriptive names than “Dr.Evil“.
 
We were on the bike for 7 hours today and up until the last 3km, we loved every minute. Thereafter we cursed a bit.
 
Eish… the leaders got a one hour time penalty today and won’t even make a podium finish… bummer!
 
I had a little fall today, was actually quite funny. I had just come out of the water stop and the premium package hosts (all varsity students) were shouting our names, “Go Jeremyyyyyyyy, go Louiseeeeee, woooo hoooooo”.  I got terribly excited by their cheering and then to add to the excitment, I had a packet of Jelly Tots in the other hand waiting to be devoured and before I knew it I had lost my concentration and crashed into another cyclist who had stopped on the side of the road. Doh! It was worth it though.
 
Anyway, we’re over the “hump” of the Epic, 4 days down and 3 to go!  And I have no chafe.

Us at the start.

Varsity students cheering for us. This is when I got a little excited.

Up we go again.

Cursing Dr. Evil.

South Africa offers many small towns where often you can buy a house for a bargain. South Africans are very family orientated so pitching a tent in their parents’ back garden once they are happily married would be a definite option, sometimes it’s the only affordable option!

They shouldn’t feel that they are not Welkom anywhere else in SA but they should consider that they may make an Aasfontein out of themselves if they make the wrong move especially if it’s just because they find a Poffadder in the garden. As long as there is a lot of Saamwerk in the community, it should be a good sign that they have not made a mistake. You will definitely have an Amajola once there is plenty of Stinkwater being served. There is also the other option of moving to Stoffelshoek where you might have all the Oranje sunsets that you could wish for, the only problem may be that no one may find you there!

Happy House Hunting!