Challenges, Comets, and Cape Town

Week 3 at work and I am no longer "transitioning" but fully engrained. I'm finding some challenges off the bat. It's a lot harder to bring ideas or plans to review, and difficult to implement or push things through and see results. And for a lot of different reasons - lack of budget or municipal hierarchy, lack of motivation or direction in the department, no set timelines or structure, or that the department manager is often away at meetings and workshops, so her presence and support in the department is sometimes absent. But I have to keep level and remember that I'm not here to implement per se, but I'm here to help them build skills, work together, and become more effective - carrying those trends so that they can implement and see those results long after I am gone. Everyday is a challenge, everyday I learn something new.

Managed to see that Pats game... I have an ESPN station in my villa and they showed the CBS broadcast believe it or not. So here I am 7 hours ahead, in the middle of the night, and when it ended at 515 AM, I got ready for work soon after. Funny huh. Tough loss for me to watch obviously, but good for Peyton and Dungy to make it to the Super Bowl, wish them the best.

To keep the astronomy thing going, landing in Cape Town on Friday night our pilot pointed out that to our left was a comet, Comet McNaught... the odds of us being in a pitch black sky with the comet viewable in the distance was unreal, just a streak dashing through the sky. Vivid and glowing and something you don't see everyday - or ever again.

We didn't make into the city at all (but I'm going back in a month), however, explored some areas around Cape Town which were amazing. Did wine tasting in Stellenbosch and hit up a few great wineries.



(Here, the view from Sylvan Vale)


Also last weekend at the University of Stellenbosch was the Touch Rugby World Cup... and Siobhain had a friend on Team England that had traveled here to play... so we went and supported and watched a few matches.



Sunday drove down the scenic route along the cliffs to the Cape of Good Hope. A lot of small towns along the way, and we stopped at Boulders Beach to see the only African Penguins in the world. Just a bunch of penguins hanging out on the rocks in the sun. Quite amusing to watch them. Here's me and Bryce and our new pal marching towards us in the background.











At the end of the cape is Cape Point, which is magnificent. To actually be on this continent and travel to something that is geographically significant that I remember learning about in school was pretty cool. But to stand at the point and look out at how vast and beautiful it is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet was incredible. The wind is uncontrollable, but the glow of the sun off of the waters is unforgettable. It was a pretty clear day and you could stare off so far into the world.