So I guess 2013 has started and I find myself in a good place that I've been working towards for the past several years. I should be excited and happy, but there is something that is holding me back from celebrating.  Its been a year since my gran passed away and my birthday will never be the same as the memory of her passing falls on this day. Its a sad day, but also I see it as a memory of her that I should always cherish because of the life that she lived, and her passing on my birthday is maybe a message of her saying that she will always be there. I dont know, its just crazy to think that a year has gone by of her not being here. 

2012 was a year that all my hard work paid off and I got my TV Show picked up by Fox International Networks and come July 1st 2013 my Show airs on TV. I am excited for this day, because I had a lot to prove to myself that anything is possible if you just believe in can be done. So your thinking that wow, I should celebrating none stop. Im really content and humble with my show, Im in a good place and state of mind, Im travelling the world and having an adventure. 

I got asked a question the other day why am I still single. I have a good life and having someone involved in my life isnt fair as I am a nomad and have no roots anywhere, I live out my suitcase and always on the move. So imagine how hard it would be to have someone in my life that I will never get to see. I see my friends and the relationships that they are in and in all honesty that isnt for me right now. I love the fact that when Im on the open road I can take in my surroundings and breathe in the in air and gather memories of my adventures. 


I was on top of Mount Kenya during the filming of the Kenyan Episode of the show, and there was this moment during the hike that I felt something that I havent felt in a long time and that was pure freedom. I was so off the beaten track of life that the only thing that was on my mind was I wish i could fly and float with the clouds. The sky was blue and the air so crisp. The clouds in the sky slowly started to set off my imagination of the shapes that started to form. 


I see 2013 being one of my last years on the continent of Africa for awhile as I know i will be  in Europe and the States a lot. I guess right now im finding where I can plant my roots in the world, I might even settle down and try this relationship thing that everyone is on about. I dont know what is in store for me, I dont know whats going to happen to me for the rest of the filming in Africa. This point of time, im loving me time and taking full advantage of it. So please bear with me and sorry if i forget to call you back!!!




 

Sometimes you just have to let go, only then will you find out what you capable of. What drives people to Let go, as that is the hardest choice in life anyone can make. I love the statement Just Do It, its never a question more than just an action. You can never question it because the real answer you have to let go to find it. 3 years is the period of time that it took me to bring to life just a simple Idea that I thought up in my head. Anyone in the film industry will state that the Idea I had was the hardest yet impossible thing anyone can do. 99% of the time they are right, but you still have that 1% in your pocket and that’s all you need to make it happen. Making a TV show and selling it to a network can really mess with your mind and your emotions there are so many obstacles that come into play, but being naïve and stubborn was the reason why I managed to pull it off. If you could only read between the lines and understand that 1% is all you need to prove to yourself anything is possible, will you still try and see where it takes you as 99% stands in your way to achieve what you set out to do.

You question why something so hard, can’t be done. The answer is- it can be done, why shouldn’t it. Scientist’s state Bee’s aren’t meant to fly as their bodies are not designed to fly, yet Bee’s fly like the birds in the sky. I guess im trying to say that if you listen to people and you start to believe that It can’t be done, then it just will never happen. I swear to you a lot of my friends think I am crazy believing in something so much. One of which even told me that I have an imaginary TV Show. My imagination got my TV show on FOX International Networks. So that 1% I kept so close to my chest got me where I am.

Kenya was never on the list of countries I wanted to travel too. In all honesty I stereotyped it due to what I have seen on TV. So I went to Kenya because the Kenyan Tourism Board requested we come and film an Episode there. So we decided to take up their offer and off we went to the Heart of Africa as it is known as. When you draw African Animals as a Kid, the lion always tends to be the favourite one as it is such a strong figure in the animal Kingdom. Power and Pride, the King of Africa as it stands. Arriving in Kenya one can feel that they have landed in a kingdom, as the energy that surrounds you is nothing that I have felt before. The blue skies and puffy white clouds where the elements that first caught my eye as I took a deep breathe in. As the royal African air filled my lungs for the first time awaking the sense of confusion of what I have never felt before. I could safely say that that stereotype I have felt for Kenya simply just drifted away and a blank page appeared in my thoughts, like a sponge I started to absorb everything that my eyes and ears could take in.

I could honestly state that I arrived in the New York of Africa being in Nairobi, I kept on questioning myself, is this real. They have a Central Park in the middle of the city with huge skyscrapers that shadow parts of the Park when the sun starts to set. The Buzz of the city was the universal Buzz that one can get from any other famous cities as I kept saying to myself, I honestly feel like this is the New York City of Africa.  Which really messed up my perception of the stereotype of Kenya when we ended up at this pool party which brought out the Las Vegas buzz. At that point I was completely in a realm of questions is this really Kenya? I only had One week in this country and was determined to see as much as I could. Nairobi has already shocked me in such a universal way that the conclusion of the City that doesn’t sleep in Africa. 

But I was craving more, and the more I wanted to explore I found myself in a raft with English military going down rapids, down a rivers name I cannot pronounce. Is this really happening, as the reality of the seriousness of the military training for the wars that haunt the world we live in. It wasn’t long as we were on the road again on our way to a bucket list thing I want to do. We found ourselves at the foot of Mount Kenya where the morning rays we will warm the cold morning as we set out and climb a mountain that is the perfect view point of one of the highest peaks in the world.

At first breathing was extremely difficult as the sea level below me kept of getting further away as each step I took. One’s body is a very strange thing, as life fills it up yet you take an element away and your body shuts down. I never thought that the altitude would affect me like it did, but the more I fought against the lack of oxygen the more I realised that sometimes you have no control of circumstances that you find yourself in, as 10hours of hiking up a Mountain you find out a big lesson in life and about your body. We adapt to life, life doesn’t adapt to us.

You tick off your bucket list and below the page you see another goal you would love to achieve and that is to meet an Olympic athlete. So on the road again as we pass the Equator as we quickly stop and take a photo. Yet being in the Northern and then Southern Hemisphere doesn’t change the weather from Winter to summer as this is Africa and it is just Hot all the time. We arrive at the camp where these athletes train, and like a kid all excited to meet an Olympic athlete the excitement becomes a disappointment when the coach of the athletes denies us access and I head back to my accommodation after spending 2 days of travelling to meet these guys I go to bed unable to tick off my bucket list.

Morning comes and I find myself at an Airport as I am about to board a flight to the coast. We are heading to a place called Lamu. No Idea where this place is or what to expect, all the research I did was on Google and the pictures took my breath away. I just really wanted to go for a surf and have some alone time in the ocean. We arrived and it felt like I was in a story book out of TIN TIN, I honestly didn’t feel like I was in Kenya anymore. I kept on rubbing my eyes and realising that what I am seeing is real. Honestly it was the most beautiful place I have ever been. But the mere beauty got interrupted as the reality of this place sunk in, as the locals started to tell me what Lamu is all about. I don’t want to write anything negative about this place, but I will state that I hope they manage to fix and resolve the issues that haunt the beautiful place.

Waking early was a habit that I found myself in, as the speakers from the mosques that where close to the hotel screamed out the early morning prays as the Muslim religion ruled this part of the world. To add that this is also a donkey town as there is not one car in this town. So the sound of donkeys awaken you even more and you question yourself over and over again, is this Kenya? Going surfing was such an interesting task as you had to catch a boat from point A to point B. Not the fastest way to get around but then again it was the only way in Lamu. I finally managed to get into the ocean and not a living soul around and Just me in my happy place. The waves were rather small, but I hadn’t surfed in ages and it was just so good to get back into the ocean and just smile again.

When you think of Kenya you think of wild animals and nature, but there is so much more than that. This country really blew me away, we did so much and kept on being surprised and it made us want to explore more. I learnt a lot about myself on this trip, and it just sparked off a new understanding of this continent being Africa. I now pack my bags and set out to go on my next adventure. This is my Blueprint of my Travels. 

               

So I have been really quiet over the past few weeks, honestly its feels like it has been months. But my days have been so busy that I have lost track of time and reality. What is my story is the question and the statement that I am about to write sums up everything that has been going on. I’m nervous in what is to come… 3 years have come and gone, but what I guess I can say my motivation was and has always been, is that I was never going to stop until I achieved what I set out to do.  I never expected someone else to do it for me; I don’t work like that. 

If I tell you how many doors shut in my face, I can safely say that if it wasn’t for those doors closing in my face and the negativity that was said, it wouldn’t have fed the fire in my belly and make me want to achieve this more than anything else. I wouldn’t have found myself and the show picked up by the biggest TV Network in the world. In fact it feels surreal knowing this, making it hard for me to sleep as my dreams carry me into a realm of reality that has come to be. I learnt the most important aspects in what drives me as a person. But saying that I have given up a lot of sacrifices in my life and it has lead me to become a nomad as I feel that I have blocked myself from the world and found myself lost as a person. But it was all part of the plan as I think now as what the show is about. Loosing myself as I set out on an adventure to find who I am along the way is the purpose and part of the story, so it had to be done.

I still have my confidence and my pride, but what I don’t have is what I lost in return for a TV show. Friends, Family and relationships took the back seat, but I’m not saying that they are lost and gone; I’m saying that that I separated and blocked out my emotions from them. I guess this was brought to my attention was when my gran passed away this year. I found myself celebrating my birthday at a karaoke bar knowing that my grans days were numbered, but I didn’t want to come to terms with the fact that she will not live forever and she passed away the night of my birthday, she was 93. The last words she said to me were; Stephen I’m dying but I love you very much… I process that sentence from time to time when I am alone.

I set out into Africa in 3 weeks’ time, yet feels like I have been there for a long time already; I guess I’m just going to meet up with myself, hence find myself along the way. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. But the unknown is the draw card for what I am about to do. Do I regret anything that I have done thus far, as I question some of the out comes over others… If I look back in what has brought me to where I am, I honestly don’t think changing the past would change much. It was never about money nor was it about being on TV and what comes with it, those things are not relevant to who I am. I guess that’s the question I seek, WHO AM I? 

You and I are both are unable to answer that, as you might compare this over that, in this case nothing should be the same, as there is not an outcome as yet, as my heart still beats from the air that I breath. My heart beats to the sound of a continent I was born on, and only until I set out and explore shall I find what I seek, as an outcome to what that is, might be the question that will be answered to WHO I AM…

As I look around of what is now, but only to try avoid the moment I find myself in. 
As the polished clean tiles beneath my feet reflect an upside down realm as Peter Pan found himself chasing his shadow only to discover  that looking down hides what’s really around him. 
From the nations and cultures that find themselves underneath the same roof, as confusion sets in the mind frame of what makes one different. 
Not only now but what the next generation that follows, as the get dragged behind what can be labelled following footsteps. 
No interaction amongst fellow man taking place, but seeing what the eye can see as everyman stands out, igniting a pulse of wonder where he or she shall be as the days that follow before them. 
Everything is in slow motion, as the sounds echo through your skin making you want to turn your head to see what your eyes have missed out on. 
Any moment now as the clock strikes the time that I have been waiting for. No more I stare into the tiles beneath my feet as that realm was nothing more than a hypnotic state of mind of a distraction of the beginning that shall be called the connecting flight.   

   

When staring at your shoes on your own two feet take a minute and think back to where they have been and where they still have to go. The bottom line is that the millage on the soles of your shoes carries a different story as every step that has been taken in them. Between reality and fiction your own two feet shall carry you to endless possibilities that only you can achieve, as failure doubts the unforeseen circumstances of life or thereafter. I haven’t really written in a while and I guess the reason behind it is that I haven’t really been motivated. It feels that the ground beneath me is a ticking time bomb ready to explode as the scenes of what feels like a dark cloud building over the rainbow nation of South Africa is ready to have a down pour of blame and pointing fingers of history that shouldn’t be repeated, as they say lightning never strikes the same place twice, yet this is a questionable debate as grey skies surround us all.

Social media stretches the opinion of what’s happening in the world. Motivational quotes are put up to be read as if the person who submitted it doubts themselves even more, due to them trying to live up to it, but getting lost between the true meaning as they need someone to “Like” what they had to say, just so that they can feel accepted as if that’s importance of the meaning of life as speaking softly but wearing a loud shirt doesn’t classify oneself belief of accomplishment.

Like a herd of sheep, protesters scream and yell, they try to speak out but get lost in the noise that they have created, which only they believe is the right message, but in this situation two wrongs don’t make a right. As they march in anger passing a homeless man begging on the side of the road hoping to get enough money to buy some food so that he can live another day. Humanity is stuck in their ways of crying over spilt milk instead of taking notice what really the situation is, as the homeless man cries out for help, but on the other side of the coin another defaced rhino losses its life but means nothing since its old news.  As the earth starts to shake no one takes notice of what’s really developing around us, as the ticking clock of the cycle of life will never go backwards. The scars left on the Earth’s surface will leave a message that will haunt mankind and yet humanity will always find a way to blame something...      

So This weeks show is called Closing a chapter of Cape Town. The Music im playing is from the movie sound track called 50/50. Amazing film and fits well with getting ready for my next chapter. LA is around the corner Thats all I can say!!! Thank you Cape Town, its been 4 years now the time has come. So long and good bye until we meet again. 

Trans Africa Radio Every Saturday between 4-5pm South African time. 
Online- www.transafricaradio.net

Mobile phone- www.taradio.mobi


TV - Audio 172 DSTV 

ONE VOICE ONE AFRICA 


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1. Jacuzzi Boys – Bricks or Coconuts 
   
2. Radiohead – High and Dry 
3. Mr little Jeans – Angel
4. Pearl Jam –Yellow Ledbetter 
5. Roy Orbison – Crying 
6. Bee Gees – To Love Somebody 
7. Diplomats Of Solid Sound Featuring The Diplomettes - Soul Connection 
8. The Aggrolites - Work To Do 
9. Mr Little Jeans – Rescue 
10. Liars Inc. - The Other Side Of Mt. Heart At