Tomorrow morning I leave, so it's time to get everything in place.

I'll be sending updates from my mobile phone to Twitter, so you can see how I'm doing. I know some of my friends are technology-shy, but don't be scared of Twitter. You don't have to join twitter or anything. Just click at the bottom here where it says http://twitter.com/speckleOD and you'll see my Twitter page and whatever I say will appear below that sexy photo :)

http://twitter.com/speckleOD

I doubt whether I'll send that many updates, maybe 2-3 every day.

Really bad start thanks to Hadley Cycles!

I got to bed after midnight and woke up tired just to find the tyre that I put on my bike last night deflated.
Hadley cycles, once again, messed up the simplest of things!! They fit a Presta valve onto my wheel, which is meant for Schrader valves. I'll tell the long version of this story later, cause there's more to Hadley Cycle's ability to screw up! But anyhow, point is that the valve does not fit properly into the wheel and so I couldn't get my pump onto the valve. Trust me, I tried - all three my pumps!

Finally changed back to the old tube, which they gave back to me and I thought everything was okay - at midnight on the night before my big cycle when I was hoping to be in bed just after 8:00pm.
Woke up this morning to find the wheel flat :(
Changed to the only spare I had with a Schrader valve and now here I sit. Fitting the 28 size tyre onto the 35 wheel is hard work and my fingers are raw from trying to squeeze it on. I know this, but these tyres are worth the effort. But it leaves me feeling tired and my thumbs take a couple of days (honestly) to recover.

Anyhow, it's 6 'o clock and I wanted to leave at this time. Haven't bathed or finished packing yet, but now there's no rush cause I'm waiting for a bike shop to open - not going out there without a spare.

!@$%@$%&$%* ^&@$!@#!@#@^&&

Dirk on your trip!!
You really has a difficult time,problems with tyres, magpies, bushfires, toilets. i trust that somehow someone will read what you are doing in aid of the children at Thamsanqa foster homes. On the one hand we are struggling financially. We still need money to finish the fourth house and o furnish the fourth house etc. On the other hand we see the fruit of our work. Our soccer teams had their final tournament on Saturday and it was prize giving time. We started from scratch in April and the children play as if they have been doing it all their lives. Today the two volunteers from the Netherlands are taking the children to Addo Elephant Park.

This year has ben very hard for us to raise funds. We are now looking for funds to purchase a new geezer for one of the houses. The geezer is leaking and the plumber told us that a new one is needed.

Our biggest need is to complete the fourth house! But the children also need summer clothes!

Thank you Dirk
Tia