Whats wrong with this picture?

So the ANC have managed to push through the {Protection of State information bill) , a little late for Mr. Maharaj I would say. So what does this mean to the average South African?

Well it means that reporters, newspapers as well as other media will be ?? and that means those that are corrupt, enrich themselves by robbing the poor or are sex pest or other deviants will be safe from exposure as “whistle blowers” who have the public interest at heart will be liable to jail time. So who will this bill protect..................Well Dodgy politicians that’s who! That means no accountability and no transparency from our politicians who have been very busy stealing whatever they can with no protection, can you just imagine what they will get up to with no one blowing the whistle on their nefarious activities....................Ah well not much I can do about it so why worry.     

Well this week was in EL for most of the week, had to ride through on Tuesday afternoon after training and got back to PE very late Friday after I had finished training. Weather was ok, for both rides, had rain over the 3 days I was there, but that’s not too bad. Not really much else happened other than on the way I saw my first ever “Pineapple jacking”..............Yes Pineapple jacking. As I was coming around a bend I had to swerve to avoid a pineapple, then another then another, as I came to a long uphill here was a kid sitting on the top of a large lorry throwing pineapples onto the side of the road (some ending up on the road). Obviously they wait for the trucks to slowdown on the uphill’s climb on the truck and grab what they can.......reminded me of the scene in mad max one were the Nomad bikers are stealing petrol from a fuel tanker.  

That was the last time that I will be going to EL for the year, must say while perhaps still not my favourite place on earth it’s starting to grow on me, absolutely love staying at Tindale Lodge, the owners Carl and Glenda are just awesome and its really like home away from home. This week I trained at the Blue lagoon Hotel (on the Larney side of EL) it’s on the Nahoon river and some really expensive properties as you can imagine line its banks. I had a 500ml draught at the Blue lagoon at R21.50 and the day before on the way home popped into the nearby country club and the same beer was R 11.50..............WTF  a R10 difference, I don’t mind paying a little extra for drinking in a Larney place but that’s just taking the piss. 

   

Sat morning woke up and my initial thoughts were ‘what’s wrong with this picture” ...........it was hot, the sun was shining bright, the skies were blue and surprise surprise no wind. The perfect way to start Gabbys’s 15^th Birthday. To start the day we had Cake and T with the PE family, Gabby got calls for the Gauteng family and then it was off to the beachfront so Gabby and Ricky (her boyfriend) could meet up with a few mates at the Super tube place, we also hit the beach and played some American football (nearly died) and then we had a goof and caught some waves(first swim of the season). Tania and I had a drink or two at Barneys and the kids walked around the boardwalk, we met them on the Pier and then it was home to get ready for supper....................Sushi for Gabby and cooked food for the rest of us. All in all a pretty good day.  

Sunday was the Toy run (20^th Anniversary) but it pissed down with rain and I decided after arriving at the gathering point that I would not go to the Stadium. A good decision as it rained most of the day.  

Talking about 20^th Anniversaries on Wednesday it was the 20^th Anniversary of that all time legendary front man of Queen ......Yep Freddie Mercury........can you believe it that 20years have gone by since his death, seems like just a few years ago. I don’t know about any of you but Queen were probably the best group that ever graced a stage and I had the privilege of seeing them at the Sun City Super bowl in the 1980’s.................What a show. 

Well that’s it for this week, next week I start SAMTRAC, hopefully by 9^th December I will have done enough to have been signed off to present this 10 day management course, which will hopefully mean a promotion and increase.

Seems that the Poms are getting upset with foreigners stealing jobs from local lazy Poms  at the rate of 12 000 a month and that 1.2 million young Brits can’t find jobs , well here is a simple idea, if you did not let in thousands and thousands of people from countries who your empire once ruled over (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand etc etc) and give them jobs over your own residents then perhaps you would not have that problem, does not take a genius to figure that one out. Or why don’t you stop paying the Frikken dole and that would mean that people would actually need to get off their asses and get jobs and not leave them open for people escaping their own countries. Look after your own people first , if there is still some pie left over then share it.  

I got a call from a real good friend in Clarens the other day, he was chuffed because he had won a legal battle regards a business deal that went sour in Clarens, so well done bro.

Have a great week.

Ciao

SPAD.

Getting Blown in PE

“Take your minds out of the gutter, it’s not what you’re thinking”............I am talking about wind for which Port Elizabeth is world renowned cause when it blows here you nail shit down. While I have experiences high winds on a number of occasions over the last 2 years that we have lived in PE (Ok nearly 2 years) but yesterday had to take the cake. Dropped Gabby off in Blue water bay about 20kms from our house to visit her boyfriend. Tania and I then went to Barneys at the beachfront for a drink. We decided to sit outside to watch the waves go out to sea, but I digress. 

I ordered a castle draught  and as I took a drink the wind actually whipped the beer away from my mouth and disappeared into  a seagulls gullet. The chairs were moving around the patio by themselves and one lady decided to open the menu only to see the menu paper disappear into the bay, as I write  this there is probably some Ukrainian seaman wondering who sent  him the take away menu from  Barney’s.   

This week I was in East London, rode back on Tuesday afternoon and surprise surprise it did not rain, was not to windy not to cold. Did manage to shred the bikes back tyre so had to put a new one on. R1700 later.......”yeah bike tyres are expensive” Wednesday and Thursday I co-presented SAMTRAC with Ryan, hopefully this will give me help to run my sign off course in a week’s time.

Had a Braai today and its was windy again, so much so that I had 3 apache Indians knock on my front door wanting to know why I was insulting the dude  who’s name you shout when you are pulling  the rip cord of a parachute..................”you know   Geronimo”.......................(SMOKE signals ok now you get it)  

Next week is also hectic, Monday and Tuesday doing training at the office, Tuesday afternoon ride to East London, do training till Friday then back home.  

Next Saturday is Gabby’s 15^th birthday..............Shit where have the years gone? Then on Sunday is the 20^th Toy run at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, so we will be going to that.    

The 2^nd Cricket test is not as yet decided at the moment it’s finely balanced and tense with SA or Australia having a chance to win it on day 5. If SA does win then it will be the first time they have won a home test series against the Aussies since the 1970’s. 

Anyway not much else to say so have a great week.

Ciao

SPAD

Lesson in Socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all). After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.  When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.Could not be any simpler than that.   These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment: 1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it! 5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation. Can you think of a reason for not sharing this?

Is it April already ??

Cape Town - South African rugby fans have not seen the end of controversial  New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence. SANZAR have announced that Lawrence have made it onto their merit panel for next year's Super Rugby tournament (ARE THE FRIKKEN SERIOUS). Lawrence was heavily criticised for his handling of South Africa's Rugby World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of Australia, during which he allowed a "free-for-all" at the breakdown. This comes after it was reported on Thursday that Lawrence was nominated for his country’s referee of the year award (AGAIN ARE THEY FRIKKEN SERIOUS??). There was, however, some good news for South Africans after 5 local referees made it onto the 10-man merit panel. They are: Marius Jonker, Craig Joubert, Jonathan Kaplan, Mark Lawrence and Jaco Peyper. The photo here is outside Majuba Lodge in Newcastle, Kwazulu Natal. 

At least Lawrence was not there to help the Aussies in Cape town, what a cricket match, the test match finished in 3 days with 23 wickets taken on day 2. The Smirk on the Aussies face’s after they had dismissed us for 97 was knocked off  when we dismissed them in their second inning for 47. One stage we had them at 21 for 9, but the last 2 men managed to steer them away from the lowest score ever scored in test cricket.      

I see that Malema has been suspended from the ANC for 5 years...................let’s see how that plays out. We have not see the last of that turd that is for sure. They should have suspended him from his “knaaters” (for my non South African readers, or those that have been out of the country way way to long..........”hint hint” that means BALLS.). JuJu is however a politician and I am sure like a cockroach he will survive. Lets see if the other member of the ANCYL start to eat each other as the vie for the position of leader...............that should be interesting.      

Busy at work this week and  I also had to co-present 2 SAMTRAC modules to see if I am ready to get signed off in a couple of weeks time, was really nervous as the modules are on Hygiene and Health and my subject knowledge is not what it should be, but must say think I did well considering. This week also busy training most of the week and I will have assessments to catch up on. We stop work this year on 15^th December and will be back at work on the 9^th January, so looking forward to a Lekker break.

In August I wrote my NGC Nebosh exams for health and safety and then sent in my practical, I passed 2 out of the 3 and will have to do a re-write on Hazards in the workplace. That was the one exam I thought I had passed and had failed Safety Management, but it was the other way round. Probably do a re-write early next year.    

My work colleague’s husband died 3 months ago and on Monday her youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia as you can imagine she was besides herself, the good news however is that after a second opinion it would seem that she only has Glandular fever (which apparently has similar symptoms)  

I was in Graaf Reniet this weekend with Tania and Gabby, never been on the R75 before and now know what the R denotation is for ....................Roadkill.  Drove straight to Nieu Bethesda 47 kms away from G.R as Tania and Gabby wanted to see the owl house. Some Nutty old lady used to live there and made owls, human etc from cement...R35 entrance fee to get into the place, “I declined”. I think a few years back you could have probably bought the village for that and had change to re-model. Typical village that has fallen into disrepair and then a few bunny hugging, tepee living, Bob Marley tobacco smoking individuals decided that this is the place to be. And just if you are to pack a box in a stairwell others always seem to get attracted, so we have all of these buildings that need repairs (but is charming to look run down) set up  restaurants and Cafes in old water tanks and try to outdo each other in dressing up really weird. Definitely won’t be making that trip again 

       

Well must say how Graaf Reniet got voted tourism town of the year in 2010 is a Frikken mystery, its Saturday a lekker day and most of the shops close at 12 noon........yes 12 noon, in fact as you can see by this photo the Tourism office itself is not open on a Saturday after 12 or a Sunday and get this on Public holidays.................the sign outside the town should say  “Welcome to Graaf Reniet.......Now F%$K Off” . The other photo is the main street at 1.30pm on a Saturday afternoon

Had dinner at the Spur on Saturday night............is actually open after 12 non, had a pretty cool waiter called wynand.........had the ghost for Gabby and was always at the table, he told us that on Thursday for the R89.00 all you can eat Wings and ribs special some dude came in and ate 150 chicken wings, 210 rib portions (as well as the chips and onion rings with the initial plate) he then ate a waffle with ice cream, had 4 beers, 2 coffees, 1 Cafe latte and a Milkshake, got up and walked out of the restaurant..................and he was as thin as a rake.   

Got home from Graaf Reniet today (Sunday)   (250kms)and then rode to El for training (310kms) I have to do till Tuesday afternoon then it’s back home for training on Wednesday. Again the trip to EL was either cold wet or windy or a combination of the 3. Only 1 trip this year has seen me ride in nice weather. I am not even going to bother looking at the weather forecast for Tuesday because I know it will be KAK.............. 

I want to Encourage you all to do something for kids this year that won’t have a Christmas that you may experience. NOSA office in PE have adopted a children’s home and have asked the kids for a Xmas present list so we can try and get the 100 or so kids a present that they want for Xmas. These kids want soap and toiletries, underwear, stationary, a football......items we or our kids take for granted. So again I encourage you do something for someone less fortunate this Festive season.

I am now looking to take photos of PWC (planks with cars)  and example would be these photo s of the spanner that decided he would put a wing on a Uno, and a homemade wing . Just looks KAK, don’t they realise this??

Well before I go let me ask you this question “what did the Cannibal do to his girlfriend after lunch” ?.......................” He dumped her” 

Well that’s it for this week  and remember there are  only 41 shopping days left to Christmas.

Have a good one

Ciao

SPAD.