The National Census is on the go and I have not been counted yet, and quite frankly starting to feel a little left out. Seen plenty of cars being driven around with Census 2011 on side of car and yellow clad counters aimlessly wandering the streets but as yet not been visited to be asked the 72 questions that are filled in the form with a pencil...............”A pencil” surely you can then erase answers to suit what you need for the Census to show ?? for instance you can manipulate the info to show that whites still earn more money than blacks and this info will then be used by the government to push through tougher BBE legislation. ...............anyway let’s see if they have counted me by next week.
We have an alarm clock with four legs..............Black cat or ‘Bitch” as we prefer to call her wakes us up every morning pre dawn with a noise that sounds like Casper the ghost being put through a sawmill. It’s not too bad on weekdays when one needs to get up anyway but on weekends and public holidays it’s a pain in the ass. Bitch is hungry and needs to have her cat food from a tin otherwise she will moan and groan enough to wake the dead. And when you feed her she sucks up the food like a underwater vacuum sucking up diamonds on the Namibian coast sea bed, she just about inhales the food (I don’t think it even touches sides) as my mate Meat bomb would say “it goes down like a homesick mole”
Well enough how I wake up in the morning, although I must say its Lekker to be waking up and it’s actually light outside and you don’t need a searchlight to find were you work, soon it will be light early and dark late......................oh happy days
My mom’s time here has gone really fast, with the weather this week not being really conducive to the beach, high winds , cold and rain have seen to that. But I believe mom has enjoyed her time here In PE and that it won’t be to long before we see both her and dad in the Windy/Friendly city.
The more astute of you would have realised that last week i was pretty pissed at the Bokke bowing out of the RWC at the Q/final stage, to be honest still pissed off, but will eventually get over it .I just hope that Bryce “The F%$#ing Cheat” Lawrence comes to ref a match in PE as I want to be there, will be a rough time for that Asshole when next he sets foot in SA
Monday in PE was 39.6 degrees , highest ever recorded October temperature and very close to being the highest on record. Shit it was Hot. Sunday also not bad, the temp was scorching. Tania and i went to Kini Bay and it was HOT. Monday Tania and I took a beer and a cooler or two and went to SARDS, I have not been there for ages and was shocked at how much the sand has encroached on the road and parking area. Decided to run down the dune (no problem) to the beach and then run back up (a bit of a problem). Was a glorious evening and definitely Millers time...........Hell we live in an awesome city.
Tuesday afternoon I rode to Aliwal North to do training with Eskom Wednesday and Thursday. Went via Craddock as never been on that road before, was not the best decision as stop and goes put an extra hour on the trip and as it is Aliwal is 505/550kms from PE depending on the route. Is always nice to go a different route as you see parts of SA that u usually don’t get to see. Must say that I enjoyed going past a farm sign (sorry hurtling past at 160 so did not stop to take a photo) that says Daggaboer.....hell is it now legal in SA? No one sent me the frikken memo.
Craddock is KAK (really thought would be nicer) and the less I say about Hofmeyer the better, unless I equate the place to the singer? I do have to say though there is something rather lekker about riding into a small 1 burro village on a large motorcycle with ACDC “ Spoiling for a fight” playing in your helmet, your just waiting for some child to give you kak so you can sort them out. Steyensburg has seen better days and Burgersdorp has 2 distinct areas Poor and the not so Poor.
I have said it before and if I haven’t then I should have, there is nothing better than riding a big bike on a long stretch of road with the sun shining and blue skies. Depending on what direction your going in there is always a biker at your side behind you or in front of you and if he is in front you can never seem to catch him. There is something about riding long distance that clears the mind and somehow manages to make all the shit in your life disappear (even if only for that trip). Aliwal North is not that brilliant but the River Lodge was very nice, especially the pub and grill on the banks of the Orange River. Wednesday and Thursday I had to train and on Thursday I had to wait till 11.30am to start training as the Big bosses from Eskom head office needed to speak to the Aliwal North Staff, so I woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast took a couple of photos (as you can see its illegal to buy a Chameleon in Aliwal North), found a internet Cafe (of sorts ) to be at Eskom by 10am (as that was the time I was told I would start) and had to wait an hour and a half under the tree working on my computer “Only in Africa”
Left Aliwal 3;30pm and rode like the bike was stolen to make sure that I was not home to late, riding in the dark via mountain passes is not a favourite pastime of mine. Apart from a little wind and a smattering for rain the ride was nice and really enjoyed the ride and enjoyed a couple of the mountain sections that I did manage to go over in daylight
.
Friday was company medical
and as I have been exercising for the last month thought would be a doddle. Eyes ok, hearing ok (left ear not as good as the right one), no sugar in the water (darn cant pee on my corn flakes) and no traces of drugs in the system. Then the nurse took my blood pressure and it was off the charts, so we waited a little and took it again and while better was still not great, so she would not let me do the lung test as she thought I would have a heart attack, told her was just stress, because I am not overweight, I am running, I don’t eat lots of fatty and oily foods. Anyway have to see a Dr and see what the problem is.
Ryan and I then had to present a industrial theatre about e-waste
to the big wigs of VWSA which they liked so looks like we will be travelling around presenting
the play this and next year.
The guy at the bike shop that my bike has shares in says he may have someone who is interested in buying the Triumph for a good price, if he does , will sell and then I want to buy a Harley. Been a dream to own one and seeing that am having a ‘mid life crisis” and I don’t like Ferrari’s, a Harley would be great. Still haven’t found a design of a tattoo that I like, so I have not had it done as yet.
Still running, in fact this week I said screw Iron man I am going to do the “Stephen man” and ran from the Eastern cape to the Free State.............dit was maklik (it r easy for you pommie subscribers) due to the fact that all I had to do was run across the Bridge at Aliwal North and I was in the Free State. Seems that lady luck is smiling on me and I am now in line to to be signed off on SAMTRAC at the end of November, lots of work to do.
Now if I had not read the following I would never have believed it, but I checked and it’s true
(ANALYSIS)-An African record has been set as Zambia’s new President Michael Sata poured shame on his neighbour Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe assigning the second most powerful governmental post to an indigenous white Zambian, Paul Scott, something Mugabe would not do. Unlike Zimbabwe, for Zambia it is not the colour of one’s skin or a military record that defines a leader, but rather proven competency to lead that counts. “This is a strategic appointment which demonstrates how far Sata has embraced the diversity of the Zambian society and is going to reap the benefits of diversity. Sata has set an example for the region which is composed of various ethnic groups who together uniquely make up what Southern Africa is today, and that example should certainly emulated,” Leeds based political analyst Kisitor Ngong said.
Paul Scott was born in 1944 in Livingstone and did his education in Zambia and the then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe before heading to England’s elite educational institution Cambridge University. Paul Scott’s appointment and the smooth transition of power in Zambia make mockery of their neighbours Zimbabwe where Mugabe refused to hand over power after losing the presidential election to his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008 and subsequently blocked the appointment to the Cabinet of Roy Bennett, a white Zimbabwean politician from the opposition MDC-T party on the mere grounds of racial hatred. Along with the issue of racial tolerance, Zambia has set a record first in election conduct and also demonstrated how easily of power can be transferred with neither conflict nor bloodshed something unheard of just across the border in Zimbabwe since Independence in 1980. Michael Sata becomes number five in a long line of presidents who have swiftly swapped office one after the other in Zambia since the country’s Independence: Kenneth Kaunda, Fredrick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, unlike Zimbabwe where Mugabe has remained the sole supreme leader for the past 31 years over the country which has seen devastating economic and political instability during his tenure.
Sata’s own party The Patriotic Front-(PF) ironically also carries similarities with Mugabe’s ZANU PF but the similarities are in the acronym. While sata’s party has barely existed for 10 years, it seems to have learnt from Mugabe’s ZANU PF party’s mistakes which has yet been in existence for almost half a century. The similarities in name may also suggest that Sata decided to create a better ZANU PF from across the border scooping the lessons from all of Mugabe’s mistakes. Zimbabwe has been characterised by shocking political violence directed on Mugabe’s political opponents, both black and white citizens who have suffered the same fate although more victimisation was in recent years directed towards the latter as Mugabe seized their farm properties. Even the former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda commenting on the recent issue of the honouring of liberation heroes in the renaming of airports defined Sata as a real leader. He is quoted saying:
“I am saying to him and through him to all Zambians, thank you for this honour. It shows clearly that this new President is the President of the people, he knows where we come from; he knows what struggle we went through and now he is recognising those who participated in that great struggle for independence of Zambia,” Dr Kaunda said. “It’s not for me to say whether or not I deserve that recognition, what we should know is that he is President of the Republic of Zambia. There have been other presidents before him they didn’t think of that, he is a nationalist man, he knows what we did for that struggle, he also knows what we did after the struggle. So he is recognising our contribution to the fight for independence, to the development of Zambia.” Dr Kaunda said he did not expect the honour which came as a surprise, saying he was greatly touched by the gesture. A Zimbabwean commentator in diaspora, England, commented saying, “ This appointment may be a positive for management reasons in (not only) Zambia but a yard stick for racial tolerance for Africa at large. If you diagnose the current economic melt down and political intolerance in Zimbabwe, it was the major factor in Ian Smith’s fear of majority rule. Majority rule without human rights is secondary to minority rule with basic life essentials and right to life. “The current political intolerance in Zimbabwe beggars belief and is not doing any service to Zimbabwe’s status in the region. It makes you inferior to your neighbours and worldwide.” (and its only taken them 50 years to realise that its not about colour, its who can do the job)
A couple of Blogs back I posted a picture of Santa’s helper setting up the Xmas grotto at Game, was telling a client about this and she told me that a friend of hers had a girlfriend who had told him she had a phobia for “little people”. He decided to test this out as he was not that convinced of her story. He took her to the very same store and did not tell her that a “little person” worked there. As they came round a corner they bumped into wee man and she fainted, wee man wanted to help her but just made it worse, must have been hilarious to see..............No don’t know if she is still going out with guy or not, but I am guessing she has not seen Lord of the Rings.
RWC Semi finals this weekend saw the following results. The stuttering French beat a 14 man Wales after their Captain was sent off for a spear tackle, Alain Rolland will not be very welcome in Wales, that’s for sure, the Welsh are pissed off, “yeah we know how you feel”. An interesting point is that 60 000 people filled the Millennium Stadium in Wales to watch the game on big screen, not many countries could manage that. New Zealand beat the Aussies 20/6 giving us an All Black Vs France final. Wonder who will show up next Sunday as the French are like a lie detector test (all over the place). At this point it however looks like the All Blax will win the RWC which is exactly what the IRB , paddy O Brien and Bryce Lawrence wanted.
In the Currie Cup the Cheetahs beat the Griquas, the Pumas got a 43/18 smack and the Sharks massacred the lions 53/9. So next week’s semi finals are The Sharks VS the Cheetahs and WP Vs The Lions. Next weekend is a heavy sports weekend, 2 x Currie Cup Semi finals, 1 3rd VS 4th RWC playoff a RWC Final and Australia VS SA (cricket)in PE.....................Hope I can get permission to go and watch all those games.
The EP Kings lost against Boland for a place in the Currie Cup, lost 2 games the whole season (both to Boland) so now it’s back to the drawing board for Luke Watson and his men. I see that the Protea’s under leadership of Hashim Amla lost the 1st 20/20 game.....not that I am that bothered to be honest as I have lost interest in SA cricket, although I will go and watch them play Australia at St Georges park next weekend. Oh Ja eventually got Tania’s Hammock up this Saturday.
Got a busy week this week ahead, Fly up to Joburg later today (Sunday), fly back early Tuesday morning (red eye flight) to go straight to BASF to do work, Wednesday work in PE and then that afternoon go to East London. Back from there Friday early as have work to do 1t 12 at Aspen on Friday. As I said busy a week .
Well that’s about it for now, except to ask this question: If a lawyer takes a case for a Porn Star, is he doing it pro bono ??
Ciao
SPAD
Talk about being lazy this gent was measuring a distance between two points at a factory we had to do the Ergonomics play at. I am still running and getting fitter, but looking at this headline from yesterday (Saturday 22nd) it would seem that Jogging may not add extra years to your life................... “Five people died and one was injured when a car drove into a group of joggers in Midrand, on Saturday morning”.
