What an “Oarsome” week for SA at the Olympics

So the main news this week is that SA has picked up  3 x Gold medals (well 7 X if you count the extra 3 medals for the rowing dudes)  and a silver, great achievement and what really impressed me is the rowers one who has the surname Brittain pipped the Poms at the post (which made victory even sweeter) I know that certain people will lambast me for not being true to my roots, but I am  not a transplant I don’t straddle the island and SA with my private parts dipping in the ocean. I am a South African, made a conscious decision to be so and Proud that I am one. That’ what you have to do if you move to another country, as someone famous once said “you can’t have your cake and eat it. Of in this case “you can’t have your koeksister and eat it”. Love some of the expat sites and you see the same names popping up that when there is kak in SA they are “just so happy and blessed to have left that god forsaken country, but when SA achieves or does good things they are ‘Just so proud to be South Africans” ....................”Hypocrites”

But anyway Well done SA athletes not just those that have won medals so far but those who have competed and did not win and those yet to compete. Oscar Pistorius is the talk of London he is the first person with no legs to compete in the Olympics, another first brought to you by South Africa........................"Go Oscar"   

Drove up to Aliwal North (Pole)on Wednesday afternoon  and there was snow on them darn hills, not seen snow for a while so naturally I stopped and made a snowball and threw it at some unsuspecting cow across the road. When I got to Jamestown i stopped to put in some petrol and when i wound the window down I thought someone had thrown a  snowball in my face, it was that cold. The last 20kms to Aliwal was lekker because the full moon was rising  above the hills on my right and on my left the sun was setting behind the distant hills. Must say looking across the veld with the kopies in the distant and the full moon rising  with a purple hue in the sky was nothing short of breathtaking, my cell phone camera is KAK so I did not even attempt to take a picture, but that memory will live on in my mind for a long time to come. 

Got to Aliwal and thought my guest house was in a certain direction, thank goodness it was not because the area i thought it was in was not as the chosen people would say “kosher”... ..........  was booked into a guest house across the Orange river in the Free State (where nothing is free and everything is in a state). Had to cross the bridge that was damaged by a truck hitting it about 7 months ago so there was a stop and go. Checked into La Riviera a working farm with guest accommodation, must say very  nice and the under floor heating a huge hit.  Thursday morning I woke up got changed and when i walked outside my legs got so cold that for a brief moment I thought that I may have forgotten to put on my  pants. The cold clung to my skin and the material obviously not working as an effective barrier. You know it’s cold when  the fountain outside your room has frozen over and the water that the general worker threw on the car to de – frost the windows froze so quickly that I could not get the door open, it was frozen shut.....................

        

Gabby got her bike this week so as you can imagine she is chuffed, gave her a lesson today, Sunday 5^th August and must say she did not too bad, still some way to go but she will get there.

On Thursday the PE municipality announced that 2 main water pipes filling water to the metros reservoirs had collapsed due to the big rains we have had the last while, so that means areas are and have run out of watery, bit Ironic when u think about it we have had flooding but we don’t have water..................at time of writing (Thursday evening) the situation is the following

Reports are being received of taps running dry in parts of Port Elizabeth, as the current, sudden water crisis begins to bite. The crisis was caused by two of the Metro's main supply pipes being damaged in the recent heavy rain, resulting in the supply from the Churchill- and Impofu dams to the metro being interrupted.

Listeners have already advised Algoa FM News of taps that are dry in Newton Park, Fernglen, Mount Pleasant and Schauderville, among others. The municipality says it is extremely concerned that some residents deliberately fill up large containers of water, depleting the supply in the reservoirs at a much faster rate. They have been asked to consider other people, as the Municipality has issued a call that Everybody should conserve water over the next few days.

An update regards the situation is that while some people did experience the loss of water and some restaurants etc did close because of that it was not as bad as some people (The sensationalists) tried to make out, you always get people that try to make things out worse than they actually are. We have not had loss of water and don’t expect we will. So just in case you were worried we are not dying of thirst, we do not smell and most importantly “the pubs are still open”  

So the textbook fiasco is nearly over Angie “get an f “ the MEC for education in Limpopo is however not going to bend to pressure from anyone, including the “ANC Yut league” to resign until a full enquiry has been conducted, you see its not her fault, I am sure she will use what will from now on be known ‘Verwoerd defence” I had to laugh because some tool from the department of education said that the Crisis is nearly over and most students except for a minority of grade 8 students had received textbooks................well don’t give yourself a raise because its August that’s 8 months into the year, surely they should have had them in January. The MEC also now has plans to ensure this does not happen again. You say that every year and yet it continues to happen. But don’t worry the kids won’t fail because we will pass them ................Eish it was not their fault so how can they be punished.

The Super 15 was won by the Chiefs they beat the Sharks 37 / 6 it was a Snotklap of note and to be honest a bit disappointing, really thought the game would have been closer than the way it panned out. Oh well always next year I suppose.   

Well that’s it for this week

CIao

SPAD