the perfect mojito

there is nothing more refreshing than a well made mojito. it is the ultimate sundowner. this holds true in the transkei as well. so without further ado:

take one tall glass (a mojito is a built cocktail, meaning that you make it in the glass you drink it from)

add 3 teaspoons of granulated sugar (simple syrup also works, but granulated sugar provides a rough surface to muddle the mint leaves with)

pluck 8 mint leaves of reasonable size (if you live at canzibe mint can be found growing outside the admin building)

 

add a dash of soda water and muddle (muddling is a fancy bar term for beating ingredients with a blunt object) you want to bruise the mint leaves and dissolve the sugar so give it a bit of a stir as well.

add a shot of white rum, im quite partial to Havana club but bacardi should be the cheapest you go

now for the most important part, the limes. a mojito is pointless without limes, dont even bother (half of my luggage was limes when i came back here from cape town last time). you need at least 1 and a half limes per cocktail. squeeze the juice from one lime and cut the half into four. add both to the glass and muddle again.

head for the freezer and add enough ice blocks to fill the glass, i prefer whole blocks to crushed ice as it keeps things simple, no ice crusher required. also i find that a mojito with ice blocks just looks so much more presentable.

top the glass off with soda water, this gives the mojito just a bit of fizz

get a long spoon and use it to scoop the contents from the bottom of the glass to the top so that the end product is well mixed.

i know you are super eager do drink it right away, but give a few seconds to chill. all drinks should be ice cold!

enjoy

coming soon (maybe) after many hours of research and nights of practice, the perfect frozen margarita recipe (no artificial concentrates required!)

girl on the moon

one of those days. sometimes the transkei is not where i want to be

sugar shacked

on the way back to canzibe from induction we stayed at sugar shack in east london. we had a four bed dorm to ourselves, which was cool. seemed like a nice place but the stay was rather fleeting. we did get some balance practice in tho. it was also good to hit some cape town addictions: mug & bean and kuaii (how ever you spell that)

getting induced

the eastern cape department of health induction for community service is a great event to:

go on a road trip to jeffery's bay. stopping at grahamstown on the way down and east london on the way back

stay in three star accommodation on the marina in jeffery's bay at the taxpayer's expense, marvelous

get decent food, three times a day, for free

meet up with some old friends

meet interesting new people... colleagues, coworkers. fantastic

laugh at lecturers. the stuff they say is hilarious. how they say it with a straight face is beyond me.

bunk the afternoon sessions and go surfing. seriously, this is jbay.

will's guide to bunking inductions:

attend breakfast in the mornings, sign the register for the day and head into the lecture hall. you could bunk now, you have after all just registered for the day. but hey, might as well listen to what they have to say. spend the morning session with your eyebrows raised in mirth. have lunch. ditch for the beach. point is safer than kitchen windows and the billabong factory shop. they have spies there. return for supper and the evening amusements. repeat the next day. on the last day you get a certificate confirming that you attended all lectures. congratulate yourself on a job well done

watch out for dr wagner. she is intense

why go to port st johns

when you can go here? good question. port st johns is great to visit once and thats about it really. rather spend time in the slightly more far flung areas. cool weekend

water water everywhere

a peaceful morning at canzibe dam. the water disturbed only by a duck. things are less peaceful at the hospital. the water supply has not been operating for the last two weeks. certain parties are getting annoyed, certain physiotherapists included, with taking sponge baths from buckets. certain other parties are a bit peeved so to speak about the lack of water to scrub in and sterilise with. the patients, who must have thought that the hospital toilets were pretty below par when the water worked, long for those days once more. something must be done. an elite crew is assembled. an expert who knows the entire dam and pump house blueprints arrives promptly from bisho and the problem is brilliantly diagnosed after a few minutes. efficiency is the name of the game... in switzerland.

meanwhile, back in the real world, the entire workshop staff, the medical superintendent, the pharmacist and one skiving physiotherapist descend on the dam in two hospital vehicles of dubious road worthiness. number of people present who know the layout of the dam and pump house: zero.

on arrival many theories are put forward. it has pretty much been decided that the pipe in the dam is at fault. there are two pipes coming out of the pump house. one of them is the backup. ok then, we can just switch to the back... oh, it doesn't work and hasnt worked for a while, ok. well then, where do the pipes that are in the dam lie? anyone? no? ok. good thing you came along. no i dont think cutting that pipe there above the valve is a good idea. do the words giant gravity powered siphon mean anything to you? they should.

its around about know that a pharmacist comes in useful since in their job descriptions can be found the requirement to be a competent diver. send your pharmacist off for an early morning dive. for about four hours or so. visibility? say 30 cm if you're lucky.

but hey, anything to get in the papers, at least three times

original article http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=315640

i cant find the letter written by Dieter, one of the doctors boyfriends, but it summed up the whole situation very well. here tho is the response: http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=316971

all and all it shouldn't need the medical superintendent and the pharmacist to get the water fixed. but it did 

i leave you with rob gracefully entering the dam. where are those darn pipes anyway?

hospital life

so it turns out that this blog tends to deviate slightly from topics of the hospital. oh well. anywho, the next few posts should be directly related to life in the public service. time is flying and the halfway mark of the year is swiftly approaching. so what have i learned so far that i can pass on to eager/ 2nd rounded and gatvol physio students? 

when you arrive in your room, you may find a heater is already there. a heater? what would you need a heater for in the transkei? well first off, it rains so much in the summer that your clothes will grow mould without one. secondly, the hospital doesn't charge for electricity. there is nothing better than being toasty warm in winter.

 don't expect too much, its better to be pleasantly surprised than frustrated.

 things go wrong in the transkei, be prepared to go without.

 you never get another community service, unless you are incompetent (no names mentioned) so enjoy it. go on as many courses and conferences as you can. without doubt go to the eastern cape DOH community service induction (more info coming) dry needling is fantastic and painful and everyone is a sceptic for you to convert

there is no xhosa word for physiotherapist. saying i-physiotherapist doesn't help. just deal with getting called doctor. learn to say "i have no medication"... "hai, andi amayesi" usually works

if cape town is south africa's beautiful face and joburg is the armpit, then umtata is in between the barefoot, not often washed, toes of south africa. umtata can take an hour to get through on pay day. don't go to umtata on payday.

if you must go to umtata, someone decided to put the only decent shops there, shop at savoy spar. it will surprise you. it doesn't carry just your average spar stuff. it also has fairly secure parking and a tops right next door. yay!

coming soon: how to bunk lectures at community service induction; and a return to rob's beach cottage. oh yes

driving class: in pictures

hey kids. its driving lesson time. lets go through a few do's and dont's

Do: buy a second hand bakkie from your uncle/mother's cousin (is there an official name for those?) for a pretty good price

Do:  drive your bakkie to your new job in the transkei and use it to gallivant around south africa

Don't: forget that traffic comes to an abrupt halt on the N3 by the pavilion shopping centre, durban. if its your first time driving there well that's just too bad

Don't: crash into someone in front of you while checking your blind spot

However, if you do:

Do: wear your seat belt

Do: crash into a company car which is comprehensively insured

Do: exchange all the necessary particulars

Do: call your friend and go on holiday to the drakensburg anyway

After the holiday:

Don't: worry too much, the flash backs start to go away

Do: take some pictures at the panel beaters of: your car; your passenger who survived; and yourself looking cool

Don't: assume that you do look cool, you don't: but nice try

Do:  tell everyone that your car sustained R34000 worth of damages. even though theoretically over half of that is labour and value added tax. 

 and that's the end of the lesson

now, if only your hospital wasn't 1 hour away from the nearest bus stop by dirt road...