James Froud. Julian Laumeier, the Caribbean Cruise and TESLA in Miami March 30, 2014.

Skyler, James and Hunter Froud 30 odd years later after meeting James in Bishopscourt at the Barnards home at 157 Bishopscourt Drive. Magic. Pure magic to be with him and to see and meet his boys and also Leslie. She is in the Face Book photo I posted on 21st March. Great to meet her finally too.

Julain (Laumeier '89) and Jody in Stuart Florida. So good to see him again after so long. Gracious hosts. Julian or 'Julio' as he does live in Florida, is a Physical (physio-) Therapist. He has a very nice Town House which has a gym and pool in the complex. we lay at the pool and chatted merrily one afternoon. We also spent time at a magic Saling Club with awesome live music, s Country Rock Band who played a string of classics from the 60's, 70's, 80' 90's and 2000's as well. Most awesome being with them there. Also ate at two restaurants - starters at one and mains at the next - as we had to wait for an hour for the second one which was awesome. Also persuaded to eat a carrot cake waffle. Oh boy! Calories deluxe and a taste sensation. I put on 2 kgs at least! The waitress is one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen and I just had to make her smile because she has a killer smile. Amazing how charming I can be when I see someone like her!

Carnival Glory and the Caribbean trip. Main entertainment deck for the masses as we leave Miami. Early morning after gym I could watch the news before the millions arrived and the 'entertainment' began. Two pools and a waterslide up there. Also a pool at the stern for more dsicerning passengers. Many restaurants and bars on this level!

My cabin for the 7 days. Only slept and showered there. Comfortable and well-equippped. It was not so nice on the night of the storm as I learnt that big ships like this can surf waves and smash down pretty hard after the bow has become airborn for a while. Pretty nerve-wracking during the night. I rwad for most of it and slept in the early morning for an hour and a half when the stormy Atlantic calmed a bit as we approached Grand Turk.

Nassou and three ships in - Carnival, Disney and Royal Caribbean shortly to be followed by a 4th cruise ship. Town was crowded with visitors. Good for the locals, but a nightmare of taxi's, vendors, busses, scooter for rent, photographers, etc. Pretty hairy.

Arrival in Nassou before serious suntan nearly put me away! This is proof I was there!

4th ship arrives! From the old British Fort above the town.

The Queen Victoria steps - all 67 of them. Built by 1200 slaves carving them from the hillside. They carved out this grotto from the living rock! Much of the rock was used to extend the warf.

Beach  at 90 degrees and beautiful Turquoise water. Had to wear my SACS shirt, just in case a saw a SACSie. I did not. People were also wary of me as they suspected I was some kind of official as only officials wear Bermuda shorts of this colour and a shirt with an embroidered badge!

Our guide, Marvin, taking pictures

One of the many glass sculptures in 'Sol's' Atlantis Hotel. Very exculsive, very expensive, very OTT! Massive security.

At sea, but very early in the morning before the people emerged en mass. Giant TV screen was great for watchin the early morning news. No traffic jams for me. Quiet breakfasts. Just like during all my days of teaching. I went to work very early to mis traffic and get stuff done before the masses got going.

Docking in St Thomas a former Danish colony purchased by the USA for $25 million! They drive on the left! Mills was our guide. Interesting fellow. Great sense of humour and amazing knowledge of history - Danish, Spanish, Columbian, British and American. Great to chat with him.

One of the many Iguana's awaiting a handout! This one lost a bit of his tail. usually they have a very long whip-like tail. Far too tame I think. About a meter long plus another for the tail if he had it all! He was the 'owner' of the wharf.

Three of the 5 ships in Charlottestown, St Thomas that day. Crowded. Beautiful views from the montaintop drive. Bit of a scary road. Very narrow and no railings or guardrails of any kind!

This is where the Banana Daiquiri stems from. Spectacular view from right on top of the mountain.

Spectacular Caribbean unset as we leave St. Thomas.

Natural Rain Forest in Puerto Rico. Mostly saved by Teddy Roosevelt, the great environmentalist. Only 28 000 acres remain. Not nearly enough! There are only 28 Puerto Rican Parrots left in the park. Much is being done to provide nesting boxes for other birds that compete for nesting sites and kick the timid parrots out, so a breeding programme has been started. So sad that these parrots are unable to adapt to man's raging greed for hardwood. Mostly mahogany and teak up here, so the rainforest has been ravaged brutally. Re-establishing it is a tough and demanding and very scientific task as the rainforest does not take kindlt to regenerating itself as the whole biosphere vanishes along with the trees and so cannot naturally regenerate as it requires so many insects, birds, buterflies, frogs, plants, shrubs, trees, algae, lichens, bacteria and other animals to enable it to work. Remove one or two and the chain is broken. Sad that manhas been so rapatious and greedy and still is.

Tree ferns up to 30 meters high. Jenny Barnard would love these in her Phantom Acres garden in Hout Bay!

Looking out accross the canopy of the rain forest from atop the mountain 4000 feet up. Rain had just stopped. It rains most days still even though so littel fo it remains.

More spectacular tree ferns in the rain forest. Different to the previous photographs.

Looking East along the coast in San Juan from the principle Fort to one of the outpost forts in the city.

Outpost Spanish fort from a different view as we leave San Juan, Puerto Rico. Interesting that the people do not want to become a state of the USA as it will increase income taxes, add property tax and allow interference by the Federal Government in their everyday lives. Something which the Republicans also don't like in the USA! Federal 'interference'.

Grand Turk Island. Replica of Commander John Glenn's Capsule retrieved from the ocean nearby on his splashdown return from his three orbits in 1962.

Spectacular Bougainvilla on Grand Turk. Pretty desolate island. This is one of the few well kept homes. Most are unkempt and many half restored after two massive hurricanes a few years ago. Many abandoned and many left unfinished. Sad as the island just looks shabby and no-one seems to care about garbage and various pieces of timber, metal, concrete that just lie around. Many unclaimed dogs, wild horses and donkeys inhabit the island.

"off road' vehicle that took us around the island on pretty rough and untended roads.

Random shot in one of the main dining rooms, Golden Room, on board. I only ate there twice as it was too lonely and a mission to wait for food. The Buffet restaurant had so much food and so much variety and no waiting in line and plenty of people to talk to. Much more pleasant for me. People all dressed up for dinner here. Looked very spiffing I must admit. I also 'dressed up' in Black.

Final night in the Cinnebar with Dave the piano man in the light coloured chequered shirt and the guys. Good fun was had by all. Dave compsed a song about each of us that had frequented the bar. Great fun was had by all. Met so many really nice people there.
I enjoyed the trip and much of what I saw. The cruise was great as many of us retired to the 'Serenity Deck' wherre only adults were allowed. The only smoking joint was the Casino which I avoided like the plague and only used to commute between the Sports Bar and the Piano Cinnebar and Entertainment Auditorium where the comedy guys performed each night. They were really pretty good, specially the last evening with a guy from Georgia who called himself a 'Redneck', spoke like one and ripped himself off merrily!
The Serenity deck had two great whirlpools which were sometimes warm and sometimes cool and a shower to cool down under. lots of deck chairs to recline on and a bar and the Red Sails Buffet Restaurant was within easy reach for sustainance which was available 24/7. Boy can some people eat! Phew! I used the gym most mornings and sometimes twice. Usually I got there around 6 a.m. so there were just the die-hards and plenty of equipment to use without having to wait. There was a Sauna and Whirlpool in the gym as well. Very well laid out and highly organized.
I also used the library which has some great books - First call from Heaven by Mitch Albom. Another book about am American family Evetes who had a succession of over 300 years of George's who each served in the USA forces and how the final George fought in Iraq and Afghanistan before become a part of JPEG and being a commender who goes out to find MIA's from WW2, Korea and Vietnam. An amazing true story of duty to their country. The third last George was killed by a sniper in 1966 in Vietnam with TV camera's viewing the entire tragedy. Hence the problem that 'Good Morning America had with 'live' shots from the jungle showing dead and dying and wounded GI's before their parents knew about it! Tough book to read, but worth every page. Finished it literally while waiting to disembark (debarkation as the crew called it) from the ship in Miami.

While I was awaiting my Hotel room to be ready, I went to a major mall and what do I find? a TESLA Gallery. They don't have dealerships. Here is a shot of the TESLA rear end with the motor almost invisible about the size of a 1 gallon paint tin with 430 horsepower and air ride suspension adjustable by 7 inches.

Front end with a good view of the alumin(i)um chassis. Batteries lie in the bottom and have an 8 year 1 million mile warrenty. The engine goes into reverse when you lift off the accelerator to break and repowers the batteries. The car is just beautifully built. It is simply a stunning piece of technology. 25 000 have been built with a 6 month waiting list. The 4x4 SUV and car come out in 2015 and already have a 6 month purchase waiting list!

Just a shot from the outside of the gallery (not dealership) where you order the car at a set price with extra's if you wish. All done elctronically direct to the factory. My kind of shop. No ultra-too-keen sales people to fend off. Go in, work on the touch screen displays. Order what you want - 3 stages of power, body colour, upholstry colour, pay - and wait for it to arrive. All the options are on display in the gallery as well as T-shirts, caps, mugs, blankets, etc and as an owner you also receive an exclusive TESLA headgear. The TESLA man, who I had a long chat with, is at university still doing Political Science. He, like I, do not like being harassed by sales people and so he is a TESLA agent who answers questions, does not 'do deals'. I had great chats to three potential purchasers and told them about Doug Rohdes TESLA and how much he loves it, how awesome it is and that it is designed and piomeered by a compatriot South African from Pretoria Boys High School - Elon Musk. YAY SA!

Florida, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and friends.

A view of one of the hundreds of spectacular Disney gardens at Epcot apart from similar ones at the Magic Kingdom and in fact all the entertainment parks. Yay! Spring has sprung in the Southern USA. It is warm. Shorts and golf shirt!

A view across part of EPCOT with floating flower pots.

A view of the entrance geodesic sphere, the signature of EPCOT with a photo opportunity for children defending a soccer goal against Goofy with Donald on defence!

More spectacular flower beds at EPCOT.

This fountain is connected to recordings of classical music and the various spouts react to the different chords and runs, etc. It is quite spectacular.

Close-up of a Flamingo with some luminescent colouring. They make sure that they get sufficient cratine for the pink colouring.

This artificial Baobab has a trunk made up of the many animlas and birds and fish found in Africa. You can go down below ground to the roots which are also all renditions of African animals. Just wonderous for the imagination. It is just enormous. Difficult to show the size as one cannot get near it. I am about 50m from the base.

I was able to get close to these Flamingoes as well as they are used to people and do not react. Just as well as there were 10's of thousands of people. I had forgotten that Spring break had started and the waves of Americans would be visiting over the next weeks as each state and school district has a coreagraphed (sp) succession of weeks so that not everyone has a break at the same time. Of course there were also thousands of  'snow birds' retired people who were visiting from the cold Northern States and Canada.

The Morrocco building at the Disney Animal Kingdom Park. There is a lot of indigenous African architecture and memorabilia which is available for purchase.

Massive live Baobab tree almost ready to burst into leaf. This is in the animal Kingdom itself.

Had to have the seriously endangered Black Rhino in my blog. They have a few and this is one of the places that we humans might be able to save it even if not in the wild. We will save it only if the South African government, bless their cotton socks, and the governments of China, Mynamar, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc, get together and determine once and for all that Rhino horn and ivory are useless for mankind's sexual prowess. The trade must be banned with horrific consequences if people are caught and governments are held accountable. All very well to track and capture or kill poachers, but it has to be stopped at the root and then these cartels will cease to exist.

American vultures and a Pelican in the wildlife park as we drove by in a truck.

View of a Hippo sleeping below the surface. They automatically surface every 6 to 8 minutes to breathe.

A number of very large Nile Crocodiles.

African fresh-water fish are bred here to preserve them. There are thousands in these massive pools with a glass wall such as this so that you can see them all.

One of 5 young male Forest Gorillas that are in the enormous jungle enclosure where a captive  group are bred and preserved. They breed very well and so can be spread out to other facilities where genetic diversity can be maintained to save these majestic beings.

South African wines, there are four shelves of them, in the Africa section of the Animal Kingdom.

Another view, with zoom, of the spectacular sculpted artificail Baobab with all the creatures that make up the trunk, branches and roots. Truly wonderous.

Skyler, Jmaes and Hunter Froud at Starbucks in Stuart, Florida. We were able to meet as they live in California, but Skyler is at college in Jackson Florida and the family came down for Spring Break and the Boat Show. So good to see James, who I have known for over 30 years since he was in Grade 8 at Westerford, and meet the boys. What a coincidence that they were driving through Stuart while I am here.

Julian (Julio) Laumeier  (SACS '89) and Jody his girlfriend, after dinner when we went to a club where the music was of the 60's and all decades right up to 2013. They were essentially a Country Band, but boy could they rock the place. It was good for the soul. all my old favourites from school and varsity days, which brought back memories, and some favourites of '80's, 90's and the 21st century as well. Thanks to Julian for his generosity in letting me stay at his home in Stuart, Florida. The journey continues.