My Joburg

Wikipedia Facts

• Johannesburg has more than 1o million trees and is the biggest man made forest in the world
• There are more than 10 million people living in the greater Johannesburg area
• The greater Johannesburg area consists of Ekhuruleni (East Rand), The West Rand, Lenasia, Soweto
• Is one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world
• O.R. Tambo International is the largest and busiest airport in Africa
• Johannesburg`s land area is 1, 645 square kilometres (635 square miles)
• The average high for summer is 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit)
• The average high for winter is 17 Celsius (63 Fahrenheit)
• The highest recorded temperature is 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit)
• The lowest recorded temperature is -8 Celsius (19 Fahrenheit)
• Is 2000 metres above sea level
• Produces 16% of the GDP of South Africa
• The container terminal in City Deep is the largest "dry port" in the world
• Johannesburg`s Sister Cities are Taipei (Republic of China), Birmingham (United Kingdom), New York City (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Xi`an (China)

My Johannesburg

• Has the most amazing thunder storms
• Has the most awesome friends in the world
• Houses the best family-in-law in the world
• Has some of my favourite golf courses
• Has the best climate in the world
• Has some of my favourite memories
• Has an energy all it`s own
• Has been our home for 7 of our 9 years together
• Has the worst taxi drivers in the world
• Is the place where we got married
• Is the place where we raised our canine kids and God willing will one day raise our own kids
• Is where I started my career and where I`ll get it back on track
• Is where I plan on staying

Heeeeere`s Johnny!!!

And a good day to y'all! After a really Loooooooooooooong week, I can finally take my place in the blogging world again.

We are officially back in the Big Smoke and it`s great to be back. Although I love Somerset West and the Western Cape, you cannot replace family and lifelong friends. That is what we have here in Joburg. Awesome family and awesome friends.

And what can I say about the move? It was horrible and I`m glad it`s over. They dropped off our stuff yesterday, so now it`s just a matter of unpacking EVERYTHING, which is a massive job on it`s own. But at least we can do that in our own time.

The worst part of the whole move was the drive back. It took us 16 hours. 14 of those 16 hours was taken up by Elvis, hyperventilating. It was absolute hell. I nearly lost it a few times. As you know, bulldogs can overheat and die very easily. So I was literally waiting for Elvis to die in the back of the car. Nothing helped. We gave him medicine to calm him down, that didn`t work. We gave him food, that didn`t work, we gave him water, he didn`t drink. This went on for approximately 1, 300 km. He only fell asleep 2 hours outside Joburg. I also had the aircon on full blast, so the car was icy cold and I had no warm clothes with me. All in all, the worst trip of my life.

But, we are here now and all is forgiven and forgotten. Elvis is back to his normal self and him and Phoebe have just carried on where they left off. Hayley and I are slowly getting settled in our new place and I`m positive that it`s gonna be a good home for us.

Tonight we are off to the In-Laws for supper and wine and tomorrow we are going to Dale and Kerri`s for supper and wine. Happy days.

Ps. Thank you so much to all of you for your comments and kind words after my previous post. You guys are awesome friends and a massive part of our lives. We luv ya!

Quiet on the blogging front

This week will be a bit quiter than normal. The big move is happening and it`s gonna be hectic, so I thought I`d apologise in advance. You will unfortunately not be getting your daily fix of the Running Golfer for the next few days. Rest assured however, he will be back. If everything goes to plan, I`ll be in Johannesburg by Saturday afternoon. So I`ll probably be back to my normal posting awesomeness by next week.

I`ll however try to pop in every now and again to check up on you guys but I don`t expect to have too much free time on my hands.

So till later, this is the Running Golfer signing off.

Ps. Our little girl Phoebe (ok she`s quite big but she`s our little girl) is going on the plane today. I`ll be dropping her off at 11:00 and then Hayley will pick her up in Jhb at 16:00. Elvis will drive up with Hayley and I on Friday night.

My gorgeous wife, me and an awesome day

Today was a pretty cool day. We attended Hillsong Church Cape Town and Pastor Phil Dooley was once again awesome! He is one of the most gifted speakers I have ever come across and he always gets the most amazing messages across!

Some GREAT news is that Hayley and I are going to a Hillsong United Worship evening in November! They have scheduled 2 worship nights here in Cape Town. We are so excited. I`ll hopefully get to see Brooke Fraser sing Hosanna, how cool is that? The night promises to be a huge blessing and I cannot wait.

I digress, back to a great Sunday! After church we headed out Simonstown way to see if we could spot ourselves some whales. We did, not the best sightings but at least we saw a few of these amazing creatures. One specific one was jumping and playing. Great to see. I heart whales.

We got home and this was the sight that greeted us. Phoebe had made herself very comfortable in the afternoon sun. These dogs of ours are such characters.

We then settled in to watch some very serious sport. Manchester United drew 1-1 with Chelsea, after leading for most of the game. It was a great match and a perfect example of why I love it so much. Then, onto the Ryder Cup. I watched basically every minute of golf over the weekend and found it an incredible event. Hats off to the USA for winning the cup for the first time since 1999. Some of the golf was breathtaking. I predicted however that Nick Faldo would cost the Europeans the trophy and that proved right. How clever am I?

Lastly, you know how much I love sunsets, this was the gorgeous one that graced the Cape tonight.