We Hof’s are fairly well known to be difficult to pin down w for too long: the call of the wild is too strong to resist. My younger brother Stephen (not to be confused with the singer of the same name) is no exception. Although he is often to be found tweaking a PC or [...]
Coming on duty for a night call is certainly easier when this is the view through the floor-to-ceiling window…
Reading my last post, I realised I alluded to the Zee PHG photo without actually publishing it. Daft. Here you go: While the uninitiated might presume this tiny aircraft to be a microlight, it is actually a powered (aka motorized) hang-glider – the wing is a perfectly normal standard hang-glider with which (unlike a microlight) [...]
Yowzer…I loaded the same pictures from my last post onto Facebook last night, and the response has been phenomenal. Imagine my surprise when I get a forwarded forwarded forwarded email from the surf community including my picture as evidence of a huge shark terrorising the surfers at Noordhoek! Well, lads and lasses, a big shark [...]
Short story (longer one to follow): I was joined this morning by a fellow powered hang-glider pilot for a sortie from Hout Bay, on the western coast of the Cape Peninsula. Due to my current lack of a PHG, I was flying my PPG while he took to the sky in a Zee PHG trike [...]
…if you learn it to become bilingual, *grin*. It turns out that any two languages will do. Having been born into a very English-speaking household, making the transition to studying (and often practicing) medicine in a very Afrikaans environment was entertaining, in a darkly-humourous-while-deeply-uncomfortable way. Once, when being interviewed in Afrikaans and asked to describe [...]
For some time I have been watching a trend emerge; a meme and theme that resonates within me. Recently I’ve witnessed it progress from conception to creativity concrete reality, and now the evidence abounds. While I inevitably and unavoidably turn to the wilderness to find my peace and beauty, I am grudgingly but increasingly forced [...]
Some time ago I posted a video clip of self-laryngoscopy with a C-MAC. For the sake of proving I don’t necessarily endorse on product over another, here’s a shot from a recent airway course… Yes, I do have a gag reflex. These video laryngoscopes are remarkably atraumatic when used carefully, allowing this kind of visualisation [...]
I stumbled across this article examining the risks of various extreme sports from a statistical viewpoint on the BBC Future webpage. It makes makes brief, interesting reading… and I was particularly attentive as I enjoy several activities that are mentioned. Bottom line: BASE jumping and high-altitude mountaineering are a fairly effective way from dispatching yourself [...]
You’ll no doubt recall my rough notes from the 2012 South African Society of Anaesthesiologists Congress last month, which were surprising well recieved. The good news for those that wanted more detail and info from the sessions I missed is that most of the presentations are now available in PDF format on the conference web [...]
