Pontif POPeS in to see the POMS

Seems that this is the first Papal visit the Island by a Pope, must be that the rest of them had taste?. I am sure that many of Pope Benedict the XV1’s family had plans to visit the island in the 1940’s probably being roadies or groupies on that Big world tour that the Super Band “Adolf and the Arians” put together between 1939 and 1945 ending in Berlin with a huge “Battle of the Bands” featuring Germany, France, England, America and of course the Russians, with the Russians just sneaking in at the end much to Adolf’s disgust and he was so distraught at not having won this prestigious event he decided to kill himself and anyone else around him. The Russians however where so happy that they all but destroyed Berlin raping and pillaging until the vodka ran out. I have heard that the island now has more Catholics than Protestants and I think the last time that happened was when Henry the eighth was a little boy. Presume the next major Cleric to visit the island will be the chief Suicide bomber himself or whatever they call the leader of the peaceful Muslims (Saladin perhaps?) wonder if with the Catholics taking over as majority in the religious stakes this has led to more Paedophiles inhabiting the island seeing that many a Catholic priests seem to like little boys, something that the present Pope is admitting has happened in the past and that the church has failed those being abused. ……watch this space.

Here is also a little piece of Trivia regards boys names in the UK at the moment.

For the last 13 years Jack has been the most popular boys' name in the land. But in multicultural Britain children named after the Muslim prophet Mohammed come a close second. In a reflection of the increasing influence of Islam, figures released yesterday showed the most popular spelling of the name - Mohammed - had climbed five places to 17th in the annual list of top baby names. However, when the seven other spellings of the name are taken into account, the total comes to 6,347 babies, making it the second most popular name of the year - up from 5,936 last year. Although Jack topped the list with 6,772 babies, that figure fell 156 on last year, meaning if the trends were repeated next year, Mohammed and its variant spellings would be the most popular choice in England and Wales. The other spellings are Muhammad, Mohammad, Muhammed, Mohamed, Mohamad, Muhamed and Mohammod.

Well enough of the history lesson what’s been happening on the Frontier this last week you may well ask. I was with Ryan in Humansdorp on Monday and then went to watch Cricket at St Georges with the Warriors winning their second championship game in a row. I was not feeling that lekker and on Tuesday I had the start of the flu. I was training at the Port of Coega for 3 days, about 30 km’s from the office, so the first day I used the scooter, was like going on a road trip, going there was not to bad but coming back was a nightmare with the highway busy and Truck drivers doing there best trying to see if they could get me to come of the bike, On Wednesday I felt like death warmed up but my students waited so I took the Triumph and thank goodness I did, because by the time I left that afternoon the wind was pumping at up to 140kms per hour. Now if you have ever ridden in wind that is moderate you will know that its not easy, but try 140km s per hour headwinds and side winds its chaos, If I had been on the scooter I would have ended up in the Bay.

So as you can imagine feeling ill and having to ride in that wind I was not in a happy place, I got home at 5 pm crawled into bed and woke up at 5.30 am the next morning, feeling worse (if that was possible) than the last two days together. The bright side is that Christine (my Niece) was coming to PE on business and staying with us. The wind was bad on Thursday as well but nowhere near what it had been on Wednesday. Got home and we took Christine to see a couple of the local beaches, wanted to have a beer on the beach but the wind was howling and it was cold, so we headed home ordered Pizza and sat and chatted till early the next morning.

Friday I woke up feeling like I was going to live, which was good as NOSA had a SHE rep day at one of the lodges near Cape Recife so I took the scooter and headed for the lodge, decided to go along the beachfront, there where a number of Navy boats from India, Brazil and SA in the harbour but the best was a submarine just outside the harbour near to a couple of chokka boats (squid boats), not something you see on a regular basis while on your way to work. The day went well, with Ryan and I Presenting the environmental play and than all of the NOSA team “acting” in a staged accident scenario for the SHE Reps. It was awesome and a huge success, Lunch was a Spit Braai that they managed to Sc*&w up 10 love, a couple of drinks after the prize giving and then it was the scenic route along the coast home and to take Christine to the Airport. Was great seeing Christine and hopefully she will come and visit us again. We will see here in December at her wedding, so that’s going to be another Blog completely.

Saturday Morning was lekker lie in and get up late day. We had plans to go watch cricket and decided to go and see the ships in the harbour, was great with us visiting a SA , Indian and Brazilian ship, I was surprised at how many people had gone to look, Gabby and Stephen enjoyed themselves and was a first for all of us to board navy ships. From there it was on to the cricket to meet up with Ryan and Vusi, we got ourselves settled in the Old stand (read cheap seats) but has the band nearby. The atmosphere was great and with the Crowd behind the home team (warriors) we beat the New Zealand Stags comfortably. The second game to start at 5.30pm was the Chenai Super kings vs the Victorian Bush Rangers, Tania Gabby and Stephen decided that they had seen enough cricket for the day so took the car home, Ryan and I then watched the second game with half of the Indian navy who had pitched up to watch the game. They had a blast and I am sure that a few of them having probably tasted Mr. Charles Glass for the first time would not make their 11pm Liberty. I am also sure that they will long remember PE as being their best port of call and living up to its name “The Friendly city”. I had a little run in with an inconsiderate smoker who ignored the signs as well as the announcements that people may not smoke in the stadium. I got called a few interesting names, most having to do with either male or female reproductive organs………..Ah well.

What was great to see was Warriors and Protea’s fast Bowler Mkhaya Ntini coming to sit in the stands near the band to celebrate with the fans and sign autographs, Ryan told me he does it whenever he can. We left a few overs before the end of the second match and with Ryan coming on the scooter had to meet him halfway down Brickmackers Kloof to try and avoid the local Traffic police, as luck would have it a few meters from where he picked me up we rode past 3 traffic cops cars, luckily they either did not see us or ignored the transgression of me not wearing a helmet………….Only in Africa.

Sunday has been the proverbial day of rest, I started to read The Long way down and got out of bed at 11am then did a couple of things including irritating both Tania and Gabby. The weather today was stay at home and indoors with it being wet and windy. Much like a European summer.

I was reading yesterday that there is a new action movie called the expendables about a group of Mercenaries who go to a south American country to do some “work” Yeah, so” well the reason I mention it is because its directed by Sylvester “YO ADRIAN” Stallone and has the following cast: Rocky Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Ludgren, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, even Bruce “Die hard” Willis and Arnold “I will be back” Schwarzenegger put in an appearance, so all those fans of old scholl shoot 12 people with 1 bullet, blow s*&t up and always come out at the end the hero, this one is apparently for you.

Sports news this weekend is that the Currie Cup seems to be heating up with only a few matches left, The Sharks beat the Cheetahs 30-16 and the Bulls just pipped the Lions 24-21, the Log has Sharks and Province 1st and 2nd on the log and seemingly on the way to a home semi-final with 3rd -4th place being chased by the Bulls (33 points) The Cheetahs (32 points), The Lions (31 points) and Griquas (30 points) so still lots to play for .

Well that’s about it for this week. I may be going to Kingwilliams Town and Bisho next week for a few days, so could be for an interesting week ahead. Oh yeah next week is national Braai day (24th) its on Heritage day so don’t forget show you’re a TRUE South African and have a Braai here in South Africa itself . And remember it does not count if you don’t live here anymore.

Ciao

S.P.A.D