Its Gaddafi.........................."Duck"

Whenever I have seen photos of Muammar Gaddafi he reminds me of a cartoon character, while he may look like one for those living in his fiefdom its no laughing matter, Libyia is another country run by a Dicktator (No I have not miss spelt that word) that is seeing its citizens stand up and wanting to oust those that feel the people love them. Lybia it seems is using mercenaries because the normal men that make up the security forces are defecting or refusing to shoot unarmed civilians. Mercenaries obviously have no such compunctions; the mercenaries are probably Zimbabweans and Chadanian’s. The latest atrocity being mourners at funerals for those killed by the army bring shot at by men from helicopters. It would also seem that SA sold Lybia weapons in 2010 (we always seem to be doing business with the bad guy……just a coincidence ?)

Bahrian is going ahead with GP and here is a picture of their line up for next Sunday’s race. I will be shouting for the Red one.

The problem with all this unrest in oil rich states is that the oil price is going through the roof, this in turn means that our petrol price is increasing, since beginning of year it has gone up twice with another 43c in crease on Tuesday at midnight……….Oh happy days.

News from NZ is the recent Earth Quake (The second in 6 months) that has killed 145 and has 200 people missing the Prime minister has labelled it New Zealand’s greatest disaster, this news got me wondering how safe those South Africans in Christchurch feel now and perhaps this will not be New Zealand’s greatest disaster, that still has to come….”what is it” you may ask? The Boks beating NZ at Home in the finals of the World Cup. I find it ironic that so many South Africans have left this country for New Zealand due to the safety aspects of that country and have been injured by this earthquake. I have to say that it gets my goat when local papers (here it’s the Herald) has to go overboard about former Port Elizabeth residents who live in the affected area and we have to muddle through 2 pages of crap about the family, when they left, what they do in their new homeland and what they were doing when the quake struck………………I actually don’t care to be honest. You live there (a decision you made) you got caught in an earthquake, not nice but live with it.

While I am on the subject of NZ it seems that the love of extreme sports has moved over to the pub, I believe that in a number of establishments in that country you can now order a shooter called (Horses Sperm) “what are the ingredients” I hear you ask……….Well Horses sperm…….Yep I can see the ladies on a night out “barman” 2 apple daiquiri’s, 4 gin fizzes and a round of horse sperm please” . Tania tells me that in the states (New York) there is an ice cream parlour that is making ice cream from breast milk, now I am a big fan of the breast, but think I would be hard pressed to rush out and have a Nipple Ripple ice cream.

Had a pretty stressful week, trained on Monday and Tuesday and on Tuesday afternoon when finished training was informed that I could present Intro to Samtrac to get signed off on, this means that I present the course while another trainer who has presented the course for at least a year sits in and sees how you present. I have to say that I put s lot of pressure on myself and I nearly did not do the 3^rd day training but thanks to support from family and work colleagues I got through it and I am now signed off on that particular 3 day course.

Was so great to wake up on Saturday after a full nights sleep, as did not sleep well On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, must say I do really enjoy weekends and we usually have a good one.

My dad was in Zimbabwe this week, “that reminds me, it was MAD BOB’s birthday on Monday, I think the old Fcuker is 87, another Dicktator of note”. Anyway I digress, Hi impressions of Harare where that its like the city centre in JHB and that outlying areas are very neat and tidy, the shops are full of stock with people buying and prices are not that much more expensive as SA. Companies such as Edgars, Steers, Checkers etc are well represented in Zim. My dad was doing some work up at a diamond mine that actually has diamonds lying around on the surface, part of the induction that you get when you go on site (you need a police clearance jut to get through the gate) is that if you drop anything on the floor “DO NOT’ bend over to pick it up, otherwise you could be looking down the business end of an AK47.

With regards sports, Protea’s beat the West Indies on Thursday, so a good start, on Friday the Warriors best the Dolphins in the first semi-final of the pro 20 league. The Cheetahs snatched defeat fro the jaws of victory and the Lions almost beat the Stormers. The Sharks did well to beat the Blues at home, see that in the cricket world cup there are 25 South Africans playing in the tournament.

Talking about sports Gabby has managed to get chosen for the schools paddling ream, which is pretty impressive considering that before she had gone to trials Gabby had never (as far as I am aware) ever paddled a canoe/kyak/paddleski before.

What I have noticed is that the sun is getting lazy in the morning and is taking longer, like me to drag its ass out of bed, this means that Autumn and winter is on its way……..Sucks. I have to admit though that Winter in PE s not half as bad s that in Clarens or Europe. Hopefully we will get rain this winter, if not I think we are going to be in deep Siht. At present the combined dam levels are 35%. Everywhere else there are floods and more rain that they can remember. Water is even being stolen in PE, yep people are going around and emptying pools and then selling the water to people who want to top up their pools the question I want to know is how the police would prove that you are in possession of stolen water? The stealing is even done while people are sleeping , the water thieves seem to put the pool pump onto waste and suck out all the water from the pool into tanks on the back of bakkies or trucks, others throw a water pipe over the wall into the pool and pump the water out that way. (Only in South Africa).

Nicole (Tania’s sister) posted a message on her Facebook profile this week that she misses and loves her family (can only be her SA family) as the majority of Doug’s are in London, or the UK, nice to know that we are missed Nicole I am sure that you will enjoy seeing dad when he comes over for a couple of weeks mid year. While Doug’s family are Nicole’s as well, must be hard not to see “your own” family on a regular basis, especially if you are close to them. Nicole knows we miss and love her and that we also miss seeing Amber growing up, she seems to be such a character and while Skype, Facebook and Mixit are effective means of communication compared to years ago, it’s still just not the same as interacting one on one.

Port Elizabeth is called the Friendly city as well as the Windy city and it also has the honour of being known as the cleanest city in South Africa. (or at least it was in 2009, not sure who won in 2010). We also rank 6^th with regards size of municipality (Gauteng comes 1^st)

Regards PE being the windiest place in SA this is not 100% true

A Weather Services study of 128 recording stations over 30 years, East London's percentage of wind-free days was so low that it was rounded off to zero percent.
However, when it comes to wind speed and frequency of strong winds, the city loses its breezier-than-thou status. "East London has the least calm but if you take all three into consideration and add it all together you'll find Cape Point is the windiest station and PE is the windiest city," said Hugh van Niekerk, station manager of the South African Weather Service in Port Elizabeth.

East London did not even make the top five windiest places in South Africa. The average wind speed in East London was 4,1 metres per second, and nine percent of the city's wind blew at eight metres per second. In comparison, the average speed at Cape Point was 6,9 metres per second and 42%of its wind blew at eight or more metres per second. Port Elizabeth notched an average speed of 4,3 metres per second and had the country's second most frequent strong winds. The study was done after airline kulula.com claimed Port Elizabeth was South Africa's windiest city.

Calm was measured at absolute zero wind movement. Winds that were not noticeable to people are regarded as "uncalm". According to sailing members of the Algoa Bay Yacht Club a basic rule of thumb is that every month with an R in it will have wind in it in Port Elizabeth. i.e. the winter months of May to August are relatively wind free and the months of September to April coincide with the sailing season in Algoa Bay.

On Saturday Ryan, Gabby and I joined by Kirsten’s cousin from the States (we wont hold that against him) also called Ryan by the way had a great body boarding session at Hobie beach, great waves and we had some fun, I felt like I had been hit by a truck this morning (Sunday 27^th) but was worth it, when we left home the weather was glorious and as we got to the beachfront we had a fog bank hovering over the sea, it was weird because one street back it was hot and sunny and over the road was cold and foggy.

Busy watching India playing the Pom’s in the World Cup, hopefully they will beat them, cant stand the likes of Peterson and the other South Africans who have turned their back on this country, but that’s a complete other story.

Well that’s about if for this week

Ciao

Spad

Being unreasonable ?

So the brooohaaaa this week was about U2 and Bono, first he managed to piss off black people with roadie hiring practices and the Steve Hofmeyer got the “Moer in” (pissed off for those English and Ex pat readers) because of his statements regards the song “Kill the Boer” Below is what caused Steve Hofmeyer to throw his U2 tickets in the Jukskei river and start many a South African to get pissed of with Bono.

“Johannesburg - Irish pop singer Bono caused a stir in South Africa on Sunday after expressing support for the singing of an anti-apartheid struggle song that includes the lyrics "shoot the farmer". The song has been at the centre of a politically charged controversy in South Africa, where the firebrand leader of the ruling party's youth league is locked in a legal battle with a white lobby group over whether the song should be banned as hate speech. The U2 front man, who is in Johannesburg ahead of a Sunday night concert for the band's 360 Degrees Tour, said in an interview with South Africa's Sunday Times that struggle music like the "shoot the farmer" song has a place.

"I was a kid and I'd sing songs I remember my uncles singing... rebel songs about the early days of the Irish Republican Army," he said, proceeding to sing a song whose lyrics spoke of carrying guns and readying them for action. "We sang this and it's fair to say it's folk music... as this was the struggle of some people that sang it over some time," he told the newspaper. But the rocker went on to say such songs shouldn't be sung in the wrong context. "Would you want to sing that in a certain community? It's pretty dumb," he said. "It's about where and when you sing those songs. There's a rule for that kind of music."

Talk radio and the internet burst into discussion on Sunday morning of whether the comments amounted to support for Julius Malema outspoken leader of the ruling African National Congress's youth league, or for Afriforum, the Afrikaner lobby group seeking to have Malema banned from singing the song at rallies. "That's hate speech. They don't know our history at all," said one caller to Talk Radio 702. "He did not condone the singing of 'Shoot the Boer' in public," said a comment on the Times' web site.

Afriforum has taken Malema to court for publicly singing the song, which includes the lyrics "Awudubele (i)bhulu" -- "shoot the Boer" in Zulu. "Boer" is itself Afrikaans, the language descended from South Africa's Dutch colonizers, and translates as "farmer". But Afriforum argued in an affidavit that the song's meaning was much broader. "The word 'Boer', in this context, is a derogatory word referring to farmers, whites and to Afrikaners in particular," it said. Malema's singing of the song generated heated debate last year in the wake of the murder of Eugene Terreblanche a white separatist leader who was allegedly hacked to death by two black workers on his farm. Violence on farms is a divisive issue in South Africa, where a series of racially charged rural murders, with both black and white victims, have made headlines since the end of white-minority rule in 1994. Bono, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism on behalf of developing countries, has long been involved in South African politics. U2 were part of the group Artists United Against Apartheid that raised more than $1 million for the fight against the white-minority regime in the 1980s, releasing a song that called for artists to boycott apartheid South Africa.

It would seem that Steve “got a kid in every dorp” Hofmeyer used this as a Publicity stunt to promote that the violence against farmers is serious, and he is right over 3000 have been killed since 1994, this to me is targeting a section of the population and it needs to stop. You would think that the government would want to stop these killings due to the fact that farmers produce the countries food……………. I have never liked U2 think that Bono cant sing and is a pretentious twat…………………….Am I being unreasonable?

Flew to East London this week, as I was walking past the gift shop it struck me that they were selling items wit other countries flags or names on, who would come to SA to buy a teddy bear with a Spanish flag on it at 5 times the price you can get anywhere else? I flew Scare Link, a 36 seater with 2 prop engines, I sat in seat 3C a window seat right next to the propeller, I have flown on this type of plane before and its cramped, if you take hand luggage you have to put it on the floor and sit with your feet on it, not very comfortable. It was also incredibly noisy I thought that they would be handing out earplugs with the muffin and juice they throw to you for breakfast. It was so loud that I could not hear the Captains announcements, so if he had of said the plane is going to crash I would not have known…………….Being unreasonable?

Have to say I am very Happy that we live in PE because East London and surrounds is a real dump with a capital D, don’t know why anyone would actually choose to live there. It has changed because when Tania and I lived there in early 90’s it was so much nicer. On Thursday I was at a game farm about 40kms from EL were 6 of us from NOSA put on a SHE REP day for ESKOM. Have to say I am not a huge wildlife fan but was pretty cool to see 2 Hippo’s as well as Lions and other wildlife without having to drive for miles and miles.

So other Arab countries like Lybia and Bahrain are experiencing upheaval………..Now isn’t that a F%$^#%^ing surprise, who would have seen that coming…..”Yes I am being facetious”. I am sure Gaddafi and his family as well as the royal family of Bahrain are not going to go quietly and a number of lives will be lost. Just imagine if Muslim extremists take over all of the oil rich Middle Eastern countries………to put it bluntly we are F%$#ed..................... but maybe I am jut being unreasonable?.

In SA a mini revolution in Ermelo (that’s in SA for all non South Africans and ex-pats who may have forgotten) took place with the local community rampaging and destroying property because the ANC controlled council are not living up to promises and an African gent has warned the ANC that upheavals like those in the Middle East will occur in SA if they don’t pull the finger out of their asses. They are apparently not happy with this. (I will post the letter on a separate Blog)

The ANC in Gauteng are pissed off with the Minister of Transport regards new Toll roads in Gauteng that will see users pay 66c per km, Cosatu are planning a march and a protest ad like 1995 and 2010 World cups I can see white and black South Africans standing shoulder to shoulder on this on. As many of you know I always defend South Africa, but have to be honest feel that the Whities now also need to start making our voices heard, we supply most of the tax money and it gets wasted on Shit. I hope that the municipal election that will take place this year will give the ANC a good shock, The local authorities are spending R17 000 000 on trying to register voters (mainly ANC) as they are scared that they will lose the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality………..Voter Registration is the Independent electoral commissions job, not the local municipalities. Anyway good to see the ANC squabbling amongst each other, means that not all is well in the land of ANC.

I am sure certain individual/s will see this as me now not loving SA and conformation that a move to greener pastures is justified. Let me put your minds at ease. I believe that I have to say something as I do love this country and unlike many others who have pissed off I am not jumping on a plane and heading for the first white run country that I can find. Its all good and well to complain that something does not work but running away and not staying to try and actually fix it is just running away…Taking the chicken run as they used to call it in the 80’s. I think that I need to become more involved with the politics of this country, who knows I could run for office. One thing for sure is I would look into why it costs us R16.99 for 6 mince pies in December and two months later only 6. 99, don’t tell me that ingredients have come down in price to be able to charge that much less………We got ripped off by the shops that’s why. I would also look into why we are paying so much for petrol, nearly half is the road fund to be able to fix roads but a) they don’t get done and b) when a road does get upgraded they put Frikken toll gates on it. Mark my words by the end of March we could be paying nearly R10 .00 per liter of petrol which will see food etc rise in price which in turn puts pressure on inflation that will see to increases in the interest rate …etc etc. Ok so what world I stand for to get elected by the community……Here are a few.

Salary cap for politicians, No fancy cars for politicians, Corrupt politicians fired and jailed, Farmers protected better, Schools for all of our children and those teachers that are crap to be fired (like the 3 teachers that allowed 59 children to be stuffed in a single taxi this week that was driven by an unlicensed and drunk taxi driver, they should be fired..........or am i being unreasonable?), price cap on fuel (especially the fuel we get from SASOL)., Better use of the money for roads, Better treatment of Dr’s and Nurses (we only trained 7000 nurses in SA last year and the Eastern Cape alone has a shortage of 26 000 trained nurses), Trade schools and apprenticeships re-established, Men who abuse women and anyone who abuse children will be severely punished, Expats who in no way contribute to the economy of this country will be not allowed to vote in general elections this will also apply to prisoners and tax dodgers, Companies that price fix and collude to get the consumer to pay more will be see the board being charged and jailed, I will campaign to reintroduce the death penalty, Littering will be severely punished. Trade union powers will be severely curtailed as will those of taxi drivers and their associations. Health and safety in the workplace will be closely monitored by a well trained and motivated department of labour. Etc etc so how many of you will vote for me or am I being unreasonable with these items ?

This weekend was the start of Super 15 Rugby, with 2 South African games Cheetahs Vs Sharks and Lions Vs Bulls, was really looking forward to watch the 2 games (especially Sharks Vs Cheetahs) with Ryan who supports the Sharks but without a local pub to watch as well as well as my Rugby partner. Ryan he had arranged to go camping at ADDO elephant park with his wife’s cousin, “also a Ryan” from the States………………I mean its his wife’s cousin and with such an important weekend of rugby and cricket surely she should take him camping…………….or am I just being unreasonable ?

Also after the Sharks beating the Cheetahs 24 – 9 (which Ryan watched by the way, while camping……………….Nice one boet) . I have decided that I will be supporting any team that plays them from now on, even Aussie and New Zealand teams, hell even the Bulls, why? Well because they are like Man U fans, conceited and full of shit……………….Unreasonable perhaps?

This was also the weekend that the 2011 ICC Cricket world cup started with the first game being won by India who beat Bangladesh. The Protea’s play West Indies next week and while I have been disappointed to many times in the past I will be backing them all the way and hopefully we can shed the “Chocker label” and bring the trophy home.

It would seem that Doug (my ex –pat brother in law) is not going to supply the info he so wanted to share with all 3 of you about how great it is in London/England and why as South African they should benefit from not living here but still think they are South African so I will just have to go ahead and finish a couple of articles that I have written about ex-pats and publish them on the Blog. Hopefully I will be able to keep the spoon stirring levels below Defcon 4.

Talking about brother in laws, I have another called Gavin who lives in Gauteng( JHB for all those non South Africans and ex-pats). He competed in the Horse of the year competition this weekend (no not just him, he had a horse as well) and he came 8^th and 3^rd in two disciplines which if you take into account that he had not ridden a horse until 2 years ago is pretty Awesome, well done Gavin another example of how hard work and dedication (sticking to the task at hand) can bring rewards. . My dad also competed this week, but for his second show he decided to ride two horses (no not at the same time) and he did not do as well as he would have liked, but that’s how it goes, when you work with animals anything can go wrong.

This weekend was pretty chilled, had a great afternoon body boarding caught some awesome waves, have to say by far the best session I have had riding waves in PE, even managed a little turning in the wave action. Was really lekker (That mean nice for non South Africans and ex pats who may have forgotten)

Well that’s about it for this week

CIAO

SPAD

Like a fine red wine.

They say that women get better with age, just like red wine…………..many will scoff at this analogy but I happen to think its true. When I was a kid I used to think to myself how can my dad “Smaak’ (smaak means “like” for my Pommie and Expat readers) my mom I mean they are so old and my face contorted like I had just eaten 459 sour worms all at the same time if I even “God Forbid” thought about my folks doing the nasty. Come on don’t smile, I know that many of you thought the same thing. But to be honest as you grow older with the one that you decided you would spend the rest your life with the more you realise that like a fine red wine they mature and get better with age. When I look at my Wife Tania today I see a woman that to me is more beautiful today than when we got married and I love her more than ever. I am I know lucky to have met a woman tat I know that I will spend the rest of my life with, Tania and I have known each other 30 years this year and we will have been married 25 years on 12 April…………and in today’s world were divorce is as easy as going to rent a DVD I thank that is pretty good, however we do have parents that have been married for many years, so we have had good examples to follow.

Valentines is here, the day of LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE, is it a day that we celebrate because we want to tell our loved ones that we love them or because the retail sector giants have hijacked it and made it a multi million Rand/Dollar/Pound/Euro/Yen industry and if you don’t spend money on Roses, cards and trinkets then you should feel KAK. Lets be honest we should be telling those that we love everyday that we love them and not have to buy little bears, chocolates and sexy lingerie on a specific day ……………Yes I take my wife for granted at times and I should bring home flowers more than once every 3 years but I am pretty confident that Tania knows that I love her and that she is the Love of my life.

So JZ gave us a state of the nation address on Wednesday and YADA YADA YADA, just throw more “Ching Ching” at the problem, “same old shit different day”. Its really great that they government are going to spend 29 Billion on job creation over the next 3 -5 years………..But Mr President here is a news flash you need educated people to give jobs to, we need to spend money on education, new schools, better teachers, text books , tables, chairs etc etc, Why? You ask well its simple JZ educated people are employable, educated people have skills to offer the country (plumbers, builders, electricians, mechanics, etc etc) and educated people can start own businesses and create work. We need trade schools to many PDP want to be lawyers and politicians because they see it as the fast track to being the elite, people need to realise that success should come from hard work not from a BEE deal or knowing the right people (JM is a great example of that)

I am as many of you know a loyal and fervent supporter of this country but I am worried about the statements or lack thereof about nationalization of the mines in JZ’s speech. Ryan (that’s my South African Brother in law) however reminded me that the people wanting mines to be nationalised are in fact those BEE benefactors that made bad deals with mines and are losing money and need a life line, if they nationalise mines then that means the government will have to pay them out and they will get their money back. That’s great but if we want investors to put money into this country they need to be sure that their investment is safe so we need our president to make a clear statement that mines will not be nationalised otherwise he just undermines (excuse the pun) the confidence in the mining sector of this country, a sobering article about this very thing was in this weeks Sunday Times, Business times section “SA will miss next boom” and “mining companies simply will not invest if they cannot be assured that assets they create will be secure and will relate SA to Zimbabwe. In 2009 SA’s mining industry shrank 1% while China’s grew 19%, Russia 10% and Indonesia 8% . SA’s competativness is also in question as well as corruption in this country. SO JZ you have to do more than promise, threaten and cajole to make the nation a better place for all.

So Mr Mubarak has decided to ‘Walk like an Egyptian” and the latest coming in from that country is the following نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور نيست يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور يدا نيست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور يدا ني...ست نور ا ر رفت سايه يدا نيست نور Hectic stuff! I will keep you all informed.

Let me say that this is the start of big upheaval in the Arab world with Algerians now starting to protest against the present government. In Muburaks defense he has stood down, unlike another gent near to SA who will only stop “F^^%#$ing” up his country when he is buried and even then they will have to put a guard there to make sure the bastard does not claw himself back from Hell. Amazing that SA does not encourage mad Bob to stand down and the citizens of Zimbabwe to demonstrate their unhappiness. How much money you prepared to be the next elections in Zim will be rigged and SA will say it was a fair and free election………..a strong and stable Zim is beneficial to SA but that’s another story. I am also going to say that I believe a Strong left wing Muslim government will take control of Egypt which will bring untold misery to millions……………..You heard it here first.

World cup Cricket starts next Saturday and hopefully this is the year that SA brings the cup home, wouldn’t it be nice for us to win the Cricket and the Rugby world Cups in the same year, If its not us then hopefully England don’t get a sniff in either of the competitions and the All Blacks must not win the RWC. Super 15 also starts next Friday so we have that to look forward to as well.

How’s this for luck, PE hosts only 1 pro-20 game this season with EL hosting the rest of the Warriors home games, On Wednesday I am in EL…………..darn. Got a great week coming up, busy the whole week training and doing environmental play for ESKOM on Thursday with Ryan. fly to East London tomorrow and drive back with staff that drive up on Wednesday . Friday I conduct SHE Rep training at the office and then its weekend again and before we know it March will be here.

Have been watching a couple of good comedians this week, one is Russel Peters a Canadian Indian (Charoo, not red Indian) who is brilliant and a British comedian called Michael Macintyre …………some good British comedians out there but then again to live on that island you need a good sense of humour. Michael talks about the “man drawer” that we man have and he is so right we have everything in their rom used batteries, old appliance brochures, keys from places we have long forgot about to light bulbs. I have a drawer just like that, bet many of you do to.

Next week my dad is competing in another horse show, this time with two horses and Gavin, my brother in law is competing in horse of the year, “No not him” his horse Doc (named after Doc Holiday of the shootout at the OK coral fame and probably best portrayed by Val Kilmer). So hopefully they will do well.

Well got to go, have a great week and don’t forget to tell those that you love ‘I Love you”

Ciao

SPAD

Phoney Fans

I can really understand coloured, Indian and Blacks supporting teams other than South Africa pre 1994, for them it was supporting symbols of Apartheid. But then April 27 came along and South Africa had a new democratically elected government, this should have seen those supporting overseas teams as a means of thumbing their noses at apartheid saying, “lets support South African teams”. The Rugby World cup of 1995 evokes emotional memories for me, especially when I think of those scenes after we had beaten the All Blacks 15-12 in the final. The Movie Invictus portrays that period very well and is well worth a watch. Surely after the Boks became world Champs and all South Africans had elected a new government we would all be shouting for South African teams, no matter what sport they participated in?

This is however not the case and since moving to Port Elizabeth I am amazed at how many residents, especially the coloured community support the All Blacks and not just half arsed either, they go the hole hog and fly flags from the house, wear supporters shirts and have stickers on their cars “Make believe Maori’s” I call them. It pisses me off to be honest that they do this, if you ask them why they support the All Blacks they invariably tell you because they are the best team in the world, but when you ask who are the current world champs are they mumble something about how many games the All Blacks have won and I usually counter with since 1995 how many World Cups have the all Blacks won and how many have the Boks won, you can also ask if they supported England after 2003 because they were the world champs, at this stage you usually get abused. If you ask them to tell you about the country New Zealand not many can give you an answer.

But its not just Rugby where you get false fans Soccer also has its share and the Soccer World Cup held in SA last year (2010) I got upset at how many South Africans supported Brazil, Holland and even England. I have no problem with you supporting another team as a backup I supported Brazil after Bafana Bafana had been knocked out of the World Cup and anyone who played England. Even people from overseas were amazed at how many South Africans were supporting any other team but South Africa. Can you imagine a Scot supporting England or a Spaniard supporting Portugal they would be tarred and feathered, here we just seem to accept it and not say anything.

Most recently I was annoyed to see how many South African Indians were supporting the Indian team, literally thousands with the majority having been born here, why then do they support a country that their forefathers came from? If you like India so much then go and live there.

As far as I am concerned we as South Africans living here should be supporting any South African team when they are competing and if you support another country over South Africa you are a traitor and the definition of traitor is “someone who is disloyal or treacherous”

So next time you see a South African supporting a team from overseas that we are playing against, make a comment or ask them why, you will be surprised at the the answers( sorry excuses you get) you get.

what a Catastrophe

I see that the Crude oil price is going up and up ,over 100 dollars a barrel this week due to the Egyptian crisis as well as the demand for oil because of the freezing winter temps in the north and the fact that most of Australia’s coal deposits are waterlogged………..what does those an well it means that we will have another hefty petrol increase in March again, the 4^th increase in a row, that means food prices will increase as well as transport costs that in turn puts pressure on inflation and that in turn ?? I really think it’s about time we look at alternate energy sources and actually utilize them more effectively

After the rains came the Cyclone that was bigger than Katrina…someone must seriously not like the Aussies at the moment, if they get a locust plague next I would be booking my ticket out of there

Had a little rain on Friday but Saturday was SUMMER weather for the first time since last summer I can honestly say Summer is here. It did not last long because by late afternoon the weather was kak again but it did bring 34mm of rain so we cant complain that much

Saw a hearse last week with the number plate FKT 026 EC, I would have to agree if you are in a box at the back of that vehicle then you are FKT. Couldnt get a photo as was in traffic…….pity

Cheetahs came to play EP Kings on Friday, could not go but they beat the Kings 46 to 17, which is a bit of a let down after last weekends beating of the Bulls but the Kings are on a learning curve so cant really complain, the Cheetahs were much stronger than the Bulls. We play the Lions next weekend.

This week coming going to be buy training 4 out of the 5 days and that’s great, enjoy the training as it allows me to learn more as well. Ryan will be in Mozambique next week, he is doing Intro to SAMTRAC at a mine in the Tete Province.

A couple of weeks ago a friend that had moved away from Clarens in a hurry contacted Tania and they started to chat again…….this person was very instrumental in me writing as well as enjoying photography , so it was great hearing fro them again and that all is well. Talking about photography my camera has gone on the fritz and I need to get it repaired……well hopefully I can and it wont be to expensive.

Registered to vote in PE on Saturday, really believe that one cannot complain about who is running a municipality if you don’t vote yourself. This statement caused a little confusion when I posted it on Facebook this week with a family member on the Island…..but that is another story. Ryan told me the other day that the Eastern Cape has 26 000 nursing posts vacant, that’s not good, but proves that if you do your homework and look at areas that need expertise you can find a job in SA……sometimes you do need to work your way up again, so if you can swallow your pride and work hard your perseverance will pay off…………..Just a thought)

Read this in an English ex-pat paper, seems that the Police chief in Yorkshire has banned his police officers from going into a particular park after dark because its to dark and dangerous for them, he believes that their health and safety will be compromised if they should have to do police work in that vicinity………How gay is that ? It’s actually unbelievable. I was reading a report from the department of justice in the UK that gave crime figures and while to their credit they are bringing some down (There you go Doug a compliment for the island at last) I was actually shocked at what I read especially when your told that England is a safe haven and you can leave doors open, walk the streets etc etc……………Maybe its just parts that are dangerous…..Like Yorkshire for example? These stats are for England and Wales only. Rapes increased by 6% up to 55 000 reported cases per year, Housebreaking decreased by 7% to 504 000 per year, Violent crimes against persons decreased by 4% to 871 000, Thefts from cars decreased by 16% to 495 000.

Mischief our cat decided to take a swim in the pool on the weekend, at least he knows now that he can get out of the pool, took him a few hours to get dry…..we laughed our asses off.

I see that ABSA have taken over the sponsorship of the BOKS , if we cannot get the teams to force BEE regards selection via the government, lets get the bank that has openly stated that they believe sports in SA needs transformation to buy the teams and subsequent selections via sponsorships (50 million, and who will pay for that, the bank customers with higher bank fees and miscellaneous fees). At least the SASOL shirts will be cheaper. Hopefully the Boks will give us better service and better interest levels than the bank itself………….Just a observation and by the way ABSA is owned by Barclays group, so in theory the Boks don’t even have a SA sponsor.. why couldn’t SAB or frikkin Mrs Balls Chutney or Rooibos sponsor them ?

The leadership of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party has resigned, including Gamal Mubarak, the son of embattled President Hosni Mubarak, says state television. (5/2/2011) one has to wonder who will take over the reins of power, Muslim extremists??

Well that’s it for this week enjoy the second week of February (yes the year is moving fast)

Ciao

SPAD