In January 1990 I stepped off a ferry in Ceuta Morocco and started a love affair with Africa that has lasted 25 years and one I hope will last another 50 years, as long as I still have my wits about me as I will then be 102 years old.

What then followed was a six month journey covering fascinating lands, lakes and rivers and took in over twenty African nations, all varied, challenging and fascinating in their own way. The memories from that adventure will live with me forever, but it will remain uniquely the only six months of my life about which I can recall, even a quarter of a century later, exactly where I was and what I was doing in any particular month. A truly amazing experience and virtually impossible to repeat today, as many areas of Algeria, Nigeria, DRC (Zaire as it was then) and several other nations are simply no go zones and or completely inaccessible.

Sitting in Sydney Australia earlier today, it occurred to me in the middle of a business meeting that it is, as they say, “twenty times harder to win a new client than it is to keep an existing client”, listening to certain people here I can see that it applies as much here as in SA, because as many people don’t get the idea here as anywhere else!

When is a contract not a contract, when does acting in a fit and proper manner not apply, and when does acting in a fit and proper manner still lead to debarment?

Someone I know well, a colleague and partner that I have grown up with my entire working life, let’s call him Mr. Jones, has been a horrible substance addict for around five years. That is actually a little unfair, as he has been clean for almost a month and I personally think he is going to make it all the way back to a normal functioning existence!

The wonderful thing about democracy is how politicians are just so much more intelligent than the mere people who elect them into power in the first place.

Yes, it is a common fact that democracy has to be seen to be, rather than actually be, democratic. The man with the vote matters very little, he is spun a ‘manifesto’ of ideas that he votes for, but he must then accept that these were simply nice to haves and not necessarily things that would ever occur. In fact he might even find his chosen politician, and or party, swimming in the opposite direction to that for which he voted.

Ian Kilbride Appleton Warrington, Ian Kilbride Appleton School, Ian Kilbride Appleton the Company. A long term association, a slow progression over many years and a lifelong love of Appleton as a concept, village and as my home. My name and that of Appleton have been linked, and or used, in the same sentence since I was nothing but a wee boy, in fact even as a big boy when I captained Appleton Grammar School 1st XV rugby team, well to be honest I wasn’t very big then either!

My journey to South Africa was indeed itself an epic one, but once here I knew within days that I would never leave.  I had taken seven months to reach the Mother City, travelling from London to Cape Town, via foot, car, truck, boat, train, bus and finally an old “mail and milk flight” from Johannesburg to Cape Town.  That final hop was a cold 2am flight which then cost around R50, one way of course!

I have four fabulous children that I know of (two by blood and two by marriage) I say that with humility and candour, as one day it may turn out that I actually have a couple more out there that I don’t know about, however, in the meantime please don’t tell Mrs K that I said that as I value my life and it is now said only as a way of introducing the idea of one’s own “reality”. So what is your reality, how solid and how happy are you with your life’s reality today? Personally I am one of those people who is never happy, passive, or accepting of their current position, and to be honest I don’t know why that is.