When Gods become men

All teams see cycles of ups and downs, some manage to keep those cycles to a minimum...................Manchester United is a good example of this (much to my disgust). An interesting aspect about the RWC 2011 is that we are seeing Rugby Gods being brought down to mere mortal level and mere mortals bring elevated to god like status. People like John Smit, bakkies Botha, Brian Habbana and Victor Mattfield  are those that are showing their age and don’t seem to be the force they once were in world Rugby, however others like Houggard, Steyn and Aplon are ;looking to fill those spots.

I think that a lot of how we are perceived in sports as well as in normal life has to do with age and age stops for no man (or woman for that matter, no matter how much they say it does not).So today Monday 19 September I “The village idiot” who often uses the phrase “what did morons do before they invented jogging”   ........................wait for it started jogging, yep 3.5kms in 24 minutes (7 and a half minutes per km) I am hoping that by tomorrow I will be able to get off the couch and go to work. At least the couch s comfortable

My Mom is coming to visit us in a week’s time, she arrives on Monday 26 and leaves again on 7 October. Looking forward to show her around PE and to show her our new house.      

Tuesday I was able to get off the couch, must say had a comfortable sleep. Trained on Tuesday and when I got home I went on another 3.5 km run...................2 days in a row, legs are feeling a little worse for wear than yesterday but managed the distance in 23 minutes: I minute less than yesterday. 

I see that the Bok team for Thursday against Namibia (who will do us no favours has had 5 changes , but looks like it could do some damage. With Ireland beating Australia its possible we may have to beat Australia in the Q/final and All Blax in the semi’s a tough call for any team.   

Wednesday was my 3^rd day going for a run, managed the 3.5 kms in 21 minutes today but that is mainly due to there being no 60 knot headwinds today. Legs are sore today but need to try and get over that, so I will continue and persevere. 

If you were paying attention last week you will remember that my brother in law and his family are in Belgium on holiday and he managed to lock his wife in the flat and himself outside (with keys  in his pocket) while it was raining cats and dogs. Well it would seem that bad people had no such problem with a locked door and while they were out discovering Belgium stole Doug’s brothers laptop and Doug’s external hard drive. Luckily he had backed up all the info the week before. So it would seem that SA is not the only place that South Africans get robbed.............as I said to Doug, “Crime is bad and not lekker no matter where it takes place”  Update:  Seems that they found the hard drive after all so that is good.   

Work is ok, still do not think I am being used as best I could be, in fact feel that specific person/s are over utilized and others are to their detriment held back. I was supposed to get signed off on SAMTRAC in November but the decision maker/s in the office have decided that it will not be and its hopefully early 2012.....”Hopefully” being the operative word as I have a horrible feeling it won’t happen. If it does it will mean that I will get a decent salary (well again hopefully because I feel that some are looked after better than others in the office when it comes to that department as well). I know I am as good as or better than 1 senior trainer, so hopefully I will get a salary that is compatible to that. To be able to buy a brand new BMW as well as a house and have a second child in the space of a year says to me that someone is being paid well.   If I don’t get signed off on SAMTRAC I will have to look for employment somewhere else................hopefully not, but such is life.  

Learnt a good new swearword this week.................”Fucktard”  been thinking of various sentences  or situations that I can use it in.  Spose the word comes from an amalgamation of Fuckwit and Retard. 

Well Xmas season is here 21/9/2011 was the date it started this year and here is proof. As you can see I have photographic evidence of 1 of Santa’s little helpers setting up the Xmas display at the Game centre at 17^th quarter at Moffat on main.......................after all there are only 95 days (as of Wednesday 21^st) left to Xmas. Remember you heard it first on The Diaries of a village Idiot.  

Boks vs Namibia was a game of 2 halves...................Fisrt half we did not look like we did against Fiji but 2^nd half was good, we ran out 87/0 winners best winning margin in the RWC2011 so far. Hougaard is showing why he needs to be in the starting line up and Gio Aplon also needs to be in any team......how Helium can choose Ndungane over him is a mystery.   

Saturday was Heritage day and somehow that day has been equated to one of our national pastimes .......Yes the Braai. We had a  Braai at work on Friday and also gave us the opportunity to get to know the new tenants of the building we use. Have to laugh though a building behind us and 1 stand to the right burnt to the ground yesterday morning and not one of the many of us in the office noticed that a house burnt to the ground........mmmmmmmmmmm maybe not a good sign for those of us in the Health and Safety field. 

The church 40meters from our house had their annual bazaar on Saturday morning was a quick 5 minute walkthrough...............felt like it was groundhog day as I remember the same stands at same areas selling the same stuff. Was the most boring 5 minutes I have had in a while.   

Ran another 3.5kms on Saturday morning and ran my first stretch further than the other 3 times but still only managed 21 minutes, must say legs not as sore and my wanting to hurl is not as ?? as it was the first 2 times I ran. I have to say that the first 1.2 km stretch is uphill and I hate running up hills, but it’s a good test of my stamina and perseverance. Now I need to start doing some gym work to get my upper body strength and toning better than it is at the moment.  So done 14 kms this week.   

The All Blax beat the French 37/17. Better team on the day but to be honest the French looked like a schoolboy team at times. Our paths will cross with Ritchie’s men this RWC and hope fully we will be able to show them that  we are better . Ireland beat Russia 62/12 Argentina beat Scotland in a close game 13/12 in fact Scotland have only themselves to blame for that. Samoa beat Fiji 27/7 setting up a game against South Africa that will have Samoa throwing everything against us but the kitchen sink next Friday. The pool stages are coming down to the business end  and then the Q finals will see some awesome games. 

The EP kings lost their first game of the season with a “Snotklap” from Boland 47/15 we are still having a home semi final but it would have been nice to come first in the division as this would have guaranteed us a home final as well. In the Currie Cup results for the weekend were Sharks 29/Griquas 18, Leopards 19/Puma’s 32 , Lions 18/ Bulls 21, Cheetahs 32 / WP 20 the log stands as follows after this weekend Lions, Sharks, Cheetahs, WP, Bulls, Griquas, Puma’s and Leopards. 

Sunday saw us going to the Beach with Gabby her boyfriend Ricky and his friend Graham. Water was cold so decided not to body board or surf, but i did manage to kick a rock while playing beach football, its Frikken sore and now turning a really dark shade of purple. "Note to self................in future kick the ball not the rock" 

So have a great week and as Luke Braaiwalker would say.................. “May the Wors be with you”

Ciao

SPAD

Fokof jy's Dof

It not something I brag about (well not until now that is) a few years back I won the Weakest link, you know that programme were you get to answer questions, shout bank , get  voted off by fellow contestants and then get embarrassed by the bitch of a presenter (in my case the late Fiona Coin, Coyn, Coyne, Coin ??). the contestants that I competed against like myself were all from small towns or villages and I happened to be the cleverest of the village idiots. Was a very interesting experience and not as easy as it looks when sitting on the couch that I can tell you. my mates in Clarens bought me a t shirt as well as a badge that said “don’t ask me Im’e dof” . the one question that i did get wrong was the following:  “Where do you find short curly hair on women...........................apparently Africa is the correct answer”.  

So how was my week?  Well a tad better than last week but still not the greatest, need to get myself sorted at work and home, been a bit of a doos (well a big one actually).  Busy reading a couple of Bill Bryson books at the moment , really enjoying his style of writing and sense of humour. A couple of suggestions to read if you want to try reading him would be    ‘Notes from a big country”, “The Home” or “The lost continent”. Apart from that not much to report on this week. Only funny thing was that my Brother in law who is in Belgium on holiday with the family managed to lock himself outside of the flat they are living in and get soaked in the rain until he realised that the door was not locked it was just jammed, the fact that he had the keys in his pocket could also make him a recipient of a “don’t ask me ime dof” T shirt.   

Saturday was a ok day went to watch the game at My Bosses house and then we went to smack a few balls at the driving range, then it was  off to the Duck to watch the Cheetahs beat the Sharks and  the Bulls beat WP 28/20. Weather was awesome on Saturday, started off cold but ended up being a day that i hope is the norm this summer. 

Sunday wanted to go to the beach.....”cannot remember last time was there” but with the wind blowing 10 on the Beaufort scale we decided that we did not need to get sandblasted. Again for those not so clever people what is the Beaufort scale? Don’t worry I am here to help. (info from Wikipedia)

The scale was devised in 1805 by Sir Francis Beaufort, an Irish-born Royal Navy Officer, while serving on HMS Woolwich. The scale that carries Beaufort's name had a long and complex evolution, from the previous work of others, including Daniel Defoe the century before, to when Beaufort was a top administrator in the Royal Navy in the 1830s when it was adopted officially and first used during Darwin's voyage on HMS Beagle. In the early 19th Century, naval officers made regular weather observations, but there was no standard scale and so they could be very subjective - one man's "stiff breeze" might be another's "soft breeze". Beaufort succeeded in standardizing the scale. The initial scale of thirteen classes (zero to twelve) did not reference wind speed numbers but related qualitative wind conditions to effects on the sails of a man-of-war, then the main ship of the Royal Navy, from "just sufficient to give steerage" to "that which no canvas sails could withstand." At zero, all his sails would be up; at six, half of his sails would have been taken down; and at twelve, all sails would be stowed away. 

The scale was made a standard for ship's log entries on Royal Navy vessels in the late 1830s and was adapted to non-naval use from the 1850s, with scale numbers corresponding to cup anemometer rotations. In 1916, to accommodate the growth of steam power, the descriptions were changed to how the sea, not the sails, behaved and extended to land observations. Rotations to scale numbers were standardized only in 1923. George Simpson, Director of the UK Meteorological Office, was responsible for this and for the addition of the land-based descriptors. The measure was slightly altered some decades later to improve its utility for meteorologists. Today, many countries have abandoned the scale and use the metric-based units m/s or km/h instead, but the severe weather warnings given to public are still approximately the same as when using the Beaufort scale. The Beaufort scale was extended in 1946, when Forces 13 to 17 were added. However, Forces 13 to 17 were intended to apply only to special cases, such as tropical cyclones. Nowadays, the extended scale is only used in Taiwan and mainland China, which are often affected by typhoons.

 After the scare against Wales last week The Bok’s played Fiji and to be honest after that performance I  thought we would be lucky if we got past the semi-finals, that perception has however changed after the 49/3 hiding of Fiji, what a game , a Bok performance to savour and one that we have not seen for many a game................My man of the match was Danie Rossouw. While that was a good game the fact that Ireland beat Australia 15/9 has to be the upset of the tournament so far. I can just imagine the partying that went on in Ireland. This means though that we will have to meet Australia in  the Q finals. The Cheetahs played the Sharks on Saturday afternoon and gave them a good Klap. An interesting fact is that al the players playing for Samoa in the RWC are in fact New Zealanders. Only teams like Romania and Georgia have teams of players who were born in that country. The Boks we all like to think are a home grown team....not so Tendai  “The Beast”  Mtawarira was born in Zimbabwe.  

The local EP kings have now won 8 in a row now by beating the Falcons on Friday night, I have managed to see all their home games this season so hopefully we will have a full stadium if we are i the Playoffs to get into the Currie Cup. We play Boland away next week and its’ a must win game, so here is hoping.

 

Chiefs broke the Pirates voodoo by beating them 2/1 in a ABSA premier league and Arsenals horror season continues with Blackburn Rovers beating them this weekend. Newcastle drew 1/1 with Aston Villa so also happy with that.     

Well that’s it for this week.........Short and sweet  

Enjoy the week

Ciao

SPAD

Like a bull in a China shop

Received an e-mail from a friend a few days back about China and some statistics that show how this country is such a powerhouse

China has 19% of the world’s population, but consumes
... 53% of the world's cement
... 48% of the world's iron ore
... 47% of the world's coal
... and the majority of just about every major commodity.
In 2010, China produced 11 times more steel than the United States New World Record: China made and sold 18 million vehicles in 2010. There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined. China is currently the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power. China currently controls more than 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements. In the past 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles. China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe. At the end of March 2011, China accumulated US$3.04 trillion in foreign currency reserves- the largest stockpile on the entire globe. While they manufacture 80% of the worlds solar panels, they install less than 5%. And, build a new coal fired power station every week and in 1 year turn on more new coal powered electricity than Australia 's total outputAlready the largest carbon dioxide emitter, output will rise 70% by 2020

On Tuesday I decided to go and re-new my drivers and bike licence so that unlike millions of other fellow South Africans I will actually have a valid drivers licence, all I can say is Thank God we only have to do it once per year. I was up before the local rooster and headed off to the department about 9 kms from home. Arrived at 6.45 am and stood in a queue to be let in the premises that only opens at 7.45am. payed a queue jumper R20 to give me a space 4^th from the front of the line (best R20 that I have spent for a while). I was clever and the day before got the forms and asked about what Ii needed to bring with as this allowed me to go straight to the area that i needed to present my forms and get my eyes tested. Gates opened and it was like the January  sale at PEP stores or telling the general workers of the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) that there is a free buffet, thankfully I had a large man just behind  me that acted as a natural barrier so the hordes behind me could not penetrate.  Was worried about having my eyes tested because over the last 5 years they have got a little, let’s just say I need reading glasses. That went well and by 8.10 am I was on the way to the cashiers  section, if I thought I was going to be out there in a few minutes I was sadly mistaken. I should have hired a person from Q for mesolutions to sit on the benches to wait for me (next time).

To cut a long story short with only 2 tellers on duty out of 5 and the second one only arrived after a large well dressed African gent complained about the lack of service (so you know how bad it was)I love it when black dudes complain to other black government workers because it shows that it’s not just us whities, the darkies can also get “gat vol” (pissed off). Got out of the building at 10.30am. But it’s done now and I just have to wait 2 months for my new licence.

This week was a rather slow one, no training, so tried to keep myself ?? at work, there is only so much looking at the OHSACT or training material you can do before you start falling asleep and drooling like my granddad over a bowl of oats.

Ok so it now seems that I won’t be signed off on SAMTRAC this year but only early next year (probably March). Disappointed as really wanted to do it this year and the added bonus is that i would then get a decent (well hopefully) pay increase that will allow us to do things like normal people do like have meat with our pasta and pay the electricity account on a semi regular basis. ‘Oh well while others forge ahead I seem to be slipping back”. If I don’t get signed off on SAMTRAC early next year I will have to sell a vital organ or look for employment elsewhere that will pay me better. Even the hospitality industry may be an option. 

Read an article about the mayor of Greytown who after being elected the mayor refused his salary and donated instead to fix roads and start crèches, not just that he also donated R700 000 of his own money to this fund......................”Yeah i know my thoughts exactly”  Who is this guy and why cant he be the President of SA...............Not sure what his name is but he made his money in the Construction industry and started his work career selling items out of the boot of his car, a true example of how a Mayor of a city, town or village should act.

Managed to watch the opening of the RWC........was ok but nothing brilliant. The All Blacks beat Tonga 41/10 but the Tongans played better than the score suggested, other scores from the RWC this weekend were Scotland 34 Rumania 24, Japan 21 France 47 (was 25/21 for France and the Japs could have won it at one stage), Fiji 49 Namibia 25 and England 13 Argentina 9 (Poms came back from 9/3 to win the game) they always do this start slow and then find themselves in a semi or final). Australia beat Italy 32/6 but only after playing a better game in the second half. Ireland beat the USA 22/10.

 

Pirates played Chiefs in the final of the super 8 and beat them 1/0 with the winning goal being scored late into the second period of extra time.

In the Currie cup The Sharks beat the Pumas 33/20 but had to come from behind and once again the Cheetahs managed to throw a game away by letting the Bulls put over a 3 pointer in injury time to draw the match 22 all, WP beat the Leopards 49/21 and the Lions who are now 5 points ahead at the top of the Currie cup log beat the Griquas  41/25.

Ok well that was to F&^%ing close for comfort, we started off well and then as we do when that happens went to sleep. Must say that the ref who obviously went to the Paddy O Brien school of rugby coaching as he was probably one of Wales’s best players, that penalty that he gave Wales (which thankfully they missed and would have given them the lead with only a few minutes to play) should have been a Bok penalty. 17 /16 was the final score. It was not what we wanted but a win even by one point is better than a loss.  

      

Ok well this week is nearly over, hopefully next week will be a better one, i am training the whole week, which is good.

Have a good one

Ciao

SPAD  

Letter to a president

The person who wrote this should be PRESIDENT! – BRILLIANT!

Dear President Zuma,

Please find below our suggestion for fixing South Africa ’s economy.

Instead of giving billions of rands to the government that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them R1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire.

Ten million job openings - unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new car.

Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university - Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy R100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week.....

And there's your money back in duty/tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

Also………..

Let's put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home.

This way the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies and walks.

They'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.

They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.

Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.

A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.

They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool and education.

Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request.

Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens.

Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls.

There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.

The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised.

Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week.  Live in a tiny room and pay R1,000.00+ per week and have no hope of ever getting out.

Think about this (more points of contention):

COWS

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Rivier-sonder-End almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept?

And, they even tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 200,000 illegal immigrants wandering around our country.

Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

LASTLY…………….

Think about this ... If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone -- YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! It is time for us grumpy old folk of S.A. to speak up!