Winter has arrived








Monday (8th June 2009) first snows fell on the Maluti’s and at Golden gate, on the way back from Bethlehem that afternoon with intermittent rain and heavily laden clouds on the horizon, I realised for the first time that the Eastern Free State winter landscape can in fact take your breath away. As I drove past a grove of trees I was amazed at the different shades of brown, with the veld grass verging on a reddish colour the effect was dramatic to say the least. Of course I forgot my camera at home and could not even get a snap, but even so, you had to be there to experience it and a photo would not have done it justice.

My moms dogs were poisoned on Monday morning on their plot in Benoni, the bastards that did it threw poisoned food in to the kitchen, luckily for my folks something scared them off with Tess and Purdy, both 16 years old and sisters dying. My mom is beside herself with grief, as she said if they had of died of natural causes then she could accept that but at that age to die like that she cannot accept. Well I hope the bastards die a horrible and slow death, no matter when or where it is.

The World cup 20/20 tournament is being held in England at the moment, so far SA are doing pretty well. “Am I correct in saying its summer in the UK”? well if it is someone should tell the weather as the spectators are wearing more clothes and jackets that we are in Clarens and we have just had Snow. I must say I get all worked up at the “patriotic” Sef Afrekens” who are all shouting for team, waving the flag, one dude even had a watermelon on his head “where do you get a watermelon in London, Brixton”? and we love “Sef Afreka” on badly made posters, Is it just me that this upsets ? Am I just being extremely jealous that these people live in a semi-Muslim state, with real crappy weather, even crappier people that live there and earn pounds ? After 4 days of hardly seeing the sun I now realise why the Poms are so dour and boring, its because they never see the sun, after only 4 days of no sun here the last week I was feeling real NAAFI, so how must they feel in the land of the rising damp when they only see 4 days of sun a year ? “Ok I am exaggerating, its actually 6 days”

Also after the IPL this world cup is like watching paint dry, the crowds are dull, the music crap and the dancing crews about as enthusiastic as British troops being told they have to go over the top in the 1st world war.

Ever seen a Durban car with surfboards or wave skis on the roof, so what’s wrong with that I hear you ask, well nothing if you are at the sea, but when you are up North or in Central SA then it’s a bit odd. I mean if you are going up North why have those on our roof, does not make sense to me. Sorry don’t know why I put this in, probably because I saw 2 ND cars this week with surfboards on the roof.


South Africa on cusp of greatness? Maybe I am being over optimistic, but I believe that South Africa is standing on the threshold of something great. I am usually the biggest pessimist but I have this feeling in my gut that Jacob Zuma is going to turn things around and with the help of us winging whites and other naysayers we can do it, so lets give old President Zuma a chance.


The Confederations cup Starts today and while I do not think the national team will win, I do believe that we all need to get behind Bafana Bafana and show them that we appreciate their efforts, so get behind them, you may not like the sport and think they are crap, but they are South African and we should be shouting for them as loud as we do for the Boks and the Proteas.


Rugby – how are the Boks going to play against the Lions, well that’s the million dollar question, some say not well and others we are going to kill them, I am somewhere in between as do believe the Lions will have the edge over us in the First and perhaps even the Second test, the reason I say this is because of lack of match practice from the Boks, being fit and being match fit are two different things and I just hope that we can pull it off. Also the stadiums are empty, why is this, well perhaps the R500 price for a ticket and lets be honest if I had paid R500 to watch the golden lions play the way they did I would have asked for my money back. The tests will be full but at R1100 - R1500 per ticket I don’t know how. I cannot afford it.


Seen in a local Pub in Clarens, winter wear this season is Cammo Crocs and Socks, the socks due to the cold weather (see picture) if you can work out who the legs and the hand belong to then you win a copy (the only one) of Gollum and the fender benders unplugged CD.

I was sitting and watching the rugby at Friends and as I was looking around I saw a number of young and “have to much money” for there own good brigade, again I don’t know if its just me or if other people my age feel the same. I have worked hard all of my life and while I have been fortunate to lead a reasonably comfortable life, I see these 20 some things rock into the village with brand new cars and with the obligatory thin, stunning looking girlfriend that you know is with him because of his looks and sparkling personality “Yeah right” or better yet the smug older guy with the “old enough to be your daughter” girlfriend or wife who is holding on to him tighter than a Trophy wife to her credit card”. Oh by the way if you ever want to taste the best chicken strips in South Africa -“Nay the Universe” then you have to eat them at Friends, great portion for a great price and they taste terrific.

The dreaded and unnecessary car guards have been re-activated in the village and as before its caused a stir, many of us believe that we don’t need car guards as this upsets the visitor who feels they are still in the city and don’t want to get hassled like they do in Gauteng and other large centres also makes a bad impression, I mean I would ask myself “if we they have car guards, then they must have cars being stolen and broken into” what makes it worse is that if anyone was to steal a car or break into one , the so called car guards would probably run a mile. Now I understand the CPF (Clarens Police forum) are trying to create work for the unemployed, however this is a short sighted initiative that was set up a few months back and due to pressure from Clarenites and business people it was scrapped. So why set it up again? it does not make sense. As Mark commented they are “Beggars with Bibs” We have decided that they as well as a number of other people (actually one has left already) should go and live on this street, (see photo)


I see that The Little Man has been quiet after she got carrots from locals about her comments on facebook, I do believe that the photo we took and posted on the site also had a part to play, or perhaps she is to busy polishing the silver poles at that new “Welkomonner” club called “Wys jou Muis”

Heard a good chirp the other day, what do you call a 5 litre papsak? “ A Benoni suitcase”

Well that’s about for now have a great week

Regards

The village idiot

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