There is an old saying .....................”you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family”. I am lucky in that on the whole the family is pretty cool (just joking your all awesome) , people you call friends however can sometimes be a problem......................why am I saying this? To be honest I have NFI (work that one out yourself) but lately I have been thinking about old friends that I have lost contact with, old school friends and work mates, it’s sad that we do lose contact, I would love to know what they are doing now........................................... So maybe I should get off my ass and try contacting them.
As some of you may know was in Grahamstown from Sunday - Tuesday stayed in a nice Guest house called the ‘White House” Very larney I must say.............Had to get the police to escort me to the place as the roads (no road signs) had me totally lost. The last time got the cops to show me how to get somewhere was many moons ago when I got lost in Durban central trying to find the North Coast road and my GPS system (Tania) could also not assist. The up side however of getting lost was that I rode past (oh yeah I did get wet and it was frikken cold) a pub called Pirates the sign says drink, eat, play. So after settling in I decided to go and see if they could sell me a beer and some food. It’s a student bar so very rustic (old digs that was converted into a bar), but a lekker atmosphere. Reminds me of the Mystic Boer in Bloemfontein, which is also a student hangout and very popular. Got chatting to Kelly the bar lady (Journalism student) so we had an interesting chat about writing etc etc. Place was busy with the Tri -varsity weekend just having finished, part of the tradition is to wear a overall and not wash for 3 days, some even body paint or face paint themselves..............
Kelly said that Mondays were always very busy as it was Cougar night and that the bar staff wore cougar Monday T shirts and that the patrons to get one had to do something outrageous, I asked what was classed as outrageous and was told that 2 ladies had poured tequila on their boobs and set them alight and one guy had drank Jagermeister from his buddies ass (yeah my thoughts exactly). Anyway popped in on Monday to have a beer and 3 T shirts were up for grabs, (no I did not get a T shirt, but would be lying if I said did not think of a way to get one) One went to the lad that head dived from the bar counter onto the wooden floors and then had his friend dive on top of him from the bar counter (had to hurt) One girl first stripped down to underwear and then had her four friends drink tequila shots from her while she lay on the bar, the barman decided (after she had finished of course) that this had been done before and was not worthy of a t shirt. She however came back with a friend and “made out with her” while the barman decided if he should give her the T shirt or not.........He did. I did not see who got the 3rd one but do know that the one girl was debating if she should allow her friends to tie her topless to the pole on the bar counter and have all the guys score her for her boobs on a scale of 1-10.........................”Gabby is not going to Varsity”Grahamstown had rubbish all over it Monday and Tuesday due to the municipal strike and i have to say that even with the rubbish and the numerous potholes, it beats the shit out of East London any day of the week, at least the people are friendly and I do like Pirates.
If you have not listened to ADELE who is awesome, gives me goose bumps when I hear her sing, her voice is amazing, hard to believe she is only 21, Amy “is their Wine in the house” compared to Adele is like watching one of the current batch of SA Idols performing..............what a load of kak.
Talking about strikes the police used water cannons and stun grenades on striking municipal workers here in PE on Wednesday after they tried to set the ?? doors alight................Not a Hoody in sight, but they did have matches.
Saturday morning was fun run day , 5kms and i have to ask myself why do I do these things, your 48 and you don’t need to prove that you can run with the other idiots. I have to say I would like to high five in the face (using a chair) the “doos” that called it a Fun Run, in my case it would be better to call it a Unpleasant Hobble. First 25 meters started off well and I decided after 50 meters to push through the pain barrier (that’s what us athletes call it when your muscles are going into spasm and the pain is unbearable). I pushed on and was very surprised to get to a sign that said 1km...............”1 km, nah, you got to be Frikken joking.......... its surely the halfway mark” having pushed through the pain barrier at 50 meters and knowing I had 1.5 kms to go before I could “legally “ head for the finish line it was time for a decision, stupidly I decided to ignore the pain in my groin and carry on, at 2.5 kms my chest was sore, but not the bad side, as you can imagine by now the pain barrier had not only been crossed but had been moved to another time zone.
I must say it was satisfying to see that I was not last, I had a number of really old people, 3 dwarfs (sorry little people) and a lady with an overweight guide dog behind me. I was a little concerned that a lady pushing a pram had got to the half way mark before me but made the decision to walk for a little while, I had to keep moving otherwise my legs would have cramped up and would have had to ask the lady with the pram to give me a lift, which may have looked a little weird. So at the 4 km mark I got my 8th wind and decided to finish strong, probably because a really old lady wearing a road race number (you know they are serious when they have the kit and a number) came ambling past, I was not sure if the number 176 was her age or the number of races she had competed in, either way it spurred me on to get my feet moving again. Seeing the words Finish really got me going (I could hear VanGelis playing in the background..............Scenes from Chariots of fire flashed before me) and as I was heading towards the holy grail I wondered why they called it the Finish line, was it because you had completed the race or because you were in fact ‘Finished”? Rudy who I had run with had eaten breakfast, had his car wash and taken a surfing lesson while waiting for me. I got a medal and a chocolate carmello bear for my troubles. Ok so the morning may not have been great but the afternoon/evening was awesome.........got a ticket to the Bok/All Black game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, it was packed solid, had great seats 4 rows up from the field and right next to the tunnel. First time in 41 years that the All Blax have played in PE ( and that was at the Old Boet Erasmus ground were they won), Met at the office and had a few drinks and some snacks with clients that were going to the game, then headed off to the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (and it is an awesome Stadium) (nicknamed the Sunflower by locals)
The atmosphere was great walking to the stadium from our parking area the streets were filled with Bok supporters on the way to the stadium, having boot Braais (BBQ’s) or just chilling at a local pub, flags were waving and the atmosphere was one of optimistic apprehension. Inside the stadium the crowds were either at one of the many beer outlets (we rugby supporters love our beer) or at the stage area with the live entertainment. The atmosphere in the stadium as awesome and when the teams ran on for warm up a buzz of excitement could be heard, “this was going to a game to relish” I have been to a number of international events but I have never ever heard the National Anthem sung like it was Yesterday, it was just the most chest swelling feeling to hear our anthem sung like the whole world could hear it and hear it they did................Doug in the UK SMS’s me to say that the presenters on Sky Sports had mentioned that the crowd had sung the anthem so well and so loud. It was one of those................................... “Have to be there moments”, we won 18-5 and the local All Black supporters got some stick on the way out and a scuffle or two did occur. Apparently there was one during the game that the police had to intervene in but for the whole the game was played in a great atmosphere. Role on RWC.
Oh we have a new pet, it’s a rabbit that was going to be the lunch of some boa constrictor, he is fully grown and apparently house trained, we shall see, if he behaves then he can stay otherwise...........well let’s see. His name is Sweetie, if he stays that will have to change. When Mischief the cat realised he could not eat him, he then just got bored, although he is a little scared of the rabbit...........Mischief the Scaredy cat.
I flew up to JHB on Sunday morning to see my folks and family as well as write my national general certificate Diploma exams..................I am a tad worried because nothing seems to be in the brain but i am surprisingly calm about the whole thing, which for me is unusual, so I am either going to do well or fail...............no use in stressing now I suppose.
PE airport was busy due to the many visitors that came to watch the Boks play the All Blax. Flight up was ok, one thing you have to do when flying over South Africa you must listen to the Toto song “Africa” we have an awesome country and from the air on a clear day it looks even better. One thing I did notice that I have not before as i was coming into land at O T is that a graveyard from way up there looks like a book in brail..... Its true, next time you fly and have a window seat look for a graveyard and see what I mean. I was in row 17 seat F (window seat) across the aisle A - C I saw 3 of the biggest people ever squeezing themselves into the 3 seats, I can tell you they were not comfortable.
Spent a lekker Sunday with the family, Watched my dad ride, Karen showed me how Huckleberry (a horse) can play football and we played a mock game of horse polo cross, my wrist is still sore. Also watched a Trevor Noah DVD, he is really good, the DVD is called Crazy Normal, if you can get a copy to watch its well worth the effort. Monday morning my sister gave me a lift to the Gautrain and took the 12 min trip to Sandton so that I could write my exams, (thanks to everyone that sent me SMS’s or called to wish me luck, much appreciated) as I write this portion of the Blog I am sitting in a larney Caffe that charges R30 for a coffee and if you want a breakfast then the common folk like us would need to call the bank manager for an overdraft. So glad that I live in PE, people are nicer, distances are shorter and the coffee is affordable.
Well 1st exam was a nightmare, got the paper and first 4 questions answered and then realised it was the International certificate question paper and not the National certificate paper, so got the correct paper and was So Frikken hard, could not complete the paper (yes I was given the time that I lost doing the other paper ). Doubt that I have passed.....................No let me re-phrase that I know i did not pass.
2nd exam was even worse than the first and while I am really feeling down about the exams the fact that I did not do well may just be a blessing in disguise, its shown me that I do not know as much as perhaps I thought I did, its true over last 18 months I have come a long way regards the OHS field but I still have lots to learn. So I need to put more effort into reading information in OHS magazines and I also need to get out into different industries (more than I do at the moment) so that I can learn by seeing, I am the type of [person who remembers better when i see and can ask questions. So as I say while I am pissed off that I have not done well I now know 2 things a) got a road map to follow b) have great family and friends who wished me luck before the exams and gave words of encouragement after the exam
Been thinking about getting a tattoo, “thinking” being the operative word, Tania not to keen, but let’s see...............................watch this space.
Well that’s me for this week and a bit, have a good one
CIAO
SPAD
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