It's been a while...

 ...since I heard from my BFAM in the USofA, to the extent that I'd thought he was pissed off at me for missing his birthday by a day.

Inexcusable and a poor excuse, I know, but with so much happening these days it slipped my mind.

As it turns out, he had been without a phone for a month and just got a new one yesterday, only to see my message pop up when he got Whatsapp running again.

Still, I am extremely happy to hear from him again, even if it is only his usual cryptic message that he is okay. What with the whole USA Covid spread, and him without a decent job for a while now, it is understandable that I would be concerned not to hear from him. We do go through patches where we don't communicate for months at a time, but our relationship is such that when we do it's as if it was just yesterday that we spoke.

Be safe, Big Man...and stay well. Love you.

I am suffering...

 ...from a distinct lack of motivation to do much today. I hope this isn't going to be a common thing on retirement. If it is, they can shove it and I will kit out the Mazdarati for long-distance touring and take extensive trips into the unknown.

The weather is playing a part in my melancholy, as I had planned on going for a cycle this morning but then it started raining again. We had a big storm last night and 14mm of rain in about an hour between 3 and 4am. Needless to say I was awake for most of it, checking for localised flooding and listening for sounds of the roof trying to tear itself off the walls. It is still quite cool and rain is threatening again.

I also want to finish redecorating the house, but I absolutely abhor/detest/hate/despise painting. Did I mention I don't like painting? It is an exercise in futility. If we move to Sedgefield our next house must be face brick so that it doesn't ever need painting. I am probably 80% done on the house, so I just need to get my finger out my arse and get it finished. If the weather had been better today, I would have carried on with painting the boundary wall. So much for that.

Knowing that I have recently been spending a bit on new cycling gear (shorts, helmet, socks - have to look the part on Meredith), a new PC (the old one was a dog with only 4GB RAM, about 8yrs old and too many programs to function effectively), some other bits and pieces, I took a look at the budgets and that is even more depressing than the weather. So, from now on, the spending will be curbed too. Sucks being a pensioner...

On the bright side, on Tuesday I got the Marauder a new battery and a trickle feeder, charged it up and took the bike for a run over the mountain yesterday...to buy more stuff for Meredith (chain wear measurement tool, chain cleaner, chain lube) and a new pair of biker gloves as my old ones were falling apart. The Marauder still runs like a dream and, even though I am thinking of exchanging her for a BMW GS, I still enjoy the ride on the cruiser. I really do need to get out on her more often. One of our Tuesday drinking team (named TIAB - There Is Always Beer) has a soft tail Harley and goes out regularly for a Sunday run. I'll see if I can join him on a couple of them.

I see the tides are looking good for a throw on Sunday afternoon, but the wind looks like it might be up a bit. Maybe I'll see how the wind goes, then go for a little throw down at a beach close to us. Then again, it also depends on whether I go for a cycle or bike run on Sunday. I like to go for a long cycle on Sunday while SWAMBO goes off to church and a coffee with her cronies.

Right now, my tea has gone cold and SWAMBO is due home in an hour or so, so I think I'll see if I can make myself look busy for when she gets home. It must be a bit demoralising for her to get home and find me lounging about on the couch like a potato while she is out looking after her 94yr old geriatric patient. Still, it gets her out of my hair for a few hours and brings in a bit of an income for her. It will be an adjustment in Sedgefield. not having that few grand every month, but maybe she will be able to find an old dear there to look after. Goodness knows there are enough of them in that village.

Be well, friends...

Ok, so I thought I would write more...

 ...but I haven't recently. Sorry.

There is so much going on at the moment that it is difficult to find the time to post on the blog.

If I had to list the things that are going on, they would be:

- Retirement: Yep, I am now officially retired. Fuuuuck, that means I am old. Thanks to Covid-19 and an unscrupulous owner of the company I used to work for, I am now in forced retirement. At my age (I have a young mind for a 58yr old) and the lack of employment opportunities due to aforementioned virus and the dumbfuck cANCer government's BBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEE (I've lost count of how many B's and E's there are supposed to be in the acronym) policies, my chances of getting re-employed are virtually nil. So, I opted for early retirement. And now I am wondering/hoping that our retirement funds are going to last until I (or we) finally kick the metal receptacle down the passageway in the direction of the bright white light.

- Lockdown: damn fuckin waste of time, expense and effort. Ban the lockdown, I say. The less said about lockdown, the better.

- Potential relocation: As I am now officially retired, I need to get us "bond-free" to make sure we get the most out of our retirement funds. That might mean relocating, and we have Sedgefield in mind. Other friends of ours are already there, and we like the place. Did I mention there is great fishing?

- Brewing and distilling: I have added distilling to my alcohol-based hobbies. I am still learning a lot and have yet to finish my first product worthy of being bragged about. Right now, I get the alcohol out, but have to teach my taste buds the difference between the good and bad stuff...before I go blind. Beer brewing is a long-time hobby and will always be in the background.

- Cycling: I recently bought a Merida Big9 29er bicycle so that I could get a bit of exercise and, should we move to Sedgefield, to make sure I have a semblance of fitness to keep up with my good mate who is a cycling machine. These days, I try to do a minimum of 25km per ride, even if it means doing thew same route multiple times in a row. There are only so many rideable roads in this part of the world and episodes of riders getting mugged if they venture onto the trails, so I stick to the tar roads for now.

- Redecorating: In anticipation of relocating, and to give the house a new look, I am redecorating the entire house, inside and out. I am about 80% done currently, but am struggling to keep my momentum going, what with everything else that is going on. And painting...who the fuck likes painting anyway? It sucks.

- SWAMBO: She Who Always Must Be Obeyed had a physical done recently and all her tests came back negative, including hyperglycaemia, from which she is supposed to be suffering. Doesn't make sense. Typically, by 8pm she is snoring on the couch, a sign of a spike and drop in her insulin levels. SWAMBO is also slowly losing her memory and sometimes cannot remember things she asked me fifteen seconds earlier. Some time ago she had a session with a neurologist who said that it may be related to the hijacking she went through in 2006, and could be PTSD which can manifest itself many years after the event. Whatever, it is probably affecting my blood pressure.

- Fishing: Or lack thereof, in my case. My crew has just about given up on fishing and it is dangerous to go alone these days. So maybe Sedgefield is a good idea as it is a lot safer out that way and there are more fish in those waters.

- Blood pressure: I also had my first physical exam last week and, to my dismay, the doc told me that I have high blood pressure. It could be as a result of all of the above, but I don't know. Probably. When I spoke to the doc about the results, she said my pressure goes normal at night (understandable, thanks to sleeping) but spikes again through the day. I asked her if it happened around 2pm, and she said yes. I said, okay, I know about that...that's when the missus gets home. No jokes. I have just started medication, which I hate as I don't like putting pharmaceutical substances into my body, but I suppose this is a medical necessity. I would hate to be forced into a heart condition, similar to which took my dad a little over a year ago.

There are probably a couple more items I could add to the above list if I really thought hard enough, but it is time for another cuppa tea. It's a tough life being retired.

Time...

I have so much of it on my hands these days, but it is getting ahead of me physically.

For the first time, I am starting to feel my age. Being at home, I am working in the garden, also busy slowly renovating the house filling in cracks, scraping open and cementing bigger faults in the plaster, then preparing and painting walls.

At the end of a day, I am properly knackered. And the following morning, I usually feel like a train has hit me from behind. My hamstrings are tight, my calves ache and my feet feel like I am walking on rough stones. It takes me about ten minutes to get over the morning-aches, as I call them.

So, things have to change.

A friend of ours recently returned from a six-week shag-athon with her boyfriend in Joburg (what else are new lovers going to do during lockdown?) and while she was there was introduced to cycling and mountain bikes. As a result, with her not having the boyfriend at hand at home, she has had to find a new way to expend the energy and she has bought her own bike.

Now, three times a week we are cycling for forty-five minutes or so, to Noordhoek Beach and back. It is a distance of about 11.8km. Not much, but it is a start.

Hopefully, it will bring the body back into shape a bit and delay the aches and pains a bit longer...

Lockdown Day Log # 54. Fuck this.

The Legend of Eddie Aikau...

Wow. What a story. A sad story.

I used to surf a few years back and had only ever heard of Eddie, but had never done any research into what the man was about.

Then a couple of days ago, I saw that DSTV was running the old ESPN movie "The Legend of Eddie Aikau" and knew I had to see it.

Unfortunately, Youtube does not have the full movie available (probably because of ESPN copyrights) but they do have the trailer for the show.

Do yourself a favour. Watch it. Then, if you possibly can, watch the full, tragic, 90minute movie. It will touch you.

Only at the end do you realise why the man is a legend.

Run...

...said Collective Soul in their song, but one of the opening lines is about being bored.

Lockdown day Eleventy Ninety Forty Million...

Finding something to do during lockdown...

...can be like looking for a needle in a bunch of needles.

There is always something to do, but it comes down to whether you want to do it or not at the time. There is always tomorrow. We will still be on lockdown. Except between 6am and 9am for exercise, during which time I am usually in bed, reading, with a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

So each day tends to blend into the next, some being a little more productive than the others, some less so.

For the last couple of days, because I have a "mix tape" of music (okay, a "mix-SD card") in the cars, in which some of the tracks have volume issues and are too soft for my liking, I have been messing about with a downloadable application called WaveEditor. I suspect I, some time ago, inadvertently levelled and lowered the volume of a bunch of my music collection tracks before I knew what levelling was. Lesson learned. The hard way.

Anyway, WaveEditor allows me to manually boost the volume levels on a per-track basis, so I have been going through all 400-something tracks on the SD card checking which need to be changed or not. Anyone for something tedious to do? I didn't think so.

But it had to be done, so I did it. And later I will find another needle to remove from the needle stack.

Stay healthy, y'all...

Someone pass the Vaseline, please...

...I think I've been bum-rushed. In fact, I think the entire planet has been fucked over.

Yes, it's another Covid-19 posting, but I am quite fuckin angry and need to vent.

/Rant ON

I have been stuck in the house for the past five weeks, believing (like many others) that I was doing my part to prevent the spread of a deadly virus. True, the virus has been deadly to many people, for many different reasons which I am not going into.

Having had just about enough of the sight of the inside of our house, I arranged with a friend to meet at a clandestine spot so that I could pass him some home-brewing kit (fermenter, bubbler, tube, iodiphor, rubber bung) that he is going to use to brew some pineapple beer (all the rage at the moment, thanks to the lockdown).

I left the garage feeling like a naughty child, wondering whether I was going to get stopped by the cops and fined or arrested for breaking the law. I had even put on jeans and a nice shirt, thinking I might tell them I was on my way to a job interview.

I needn't have bothered.

I was astounded at the number of people out on the roads, either walking, cycling or driving. Granted, most of the people we saw in the mall we met in were wearing cloth face masks, but for the most part of the people outside of the mall there wasn't a mask or pair of surgical gloves to be seen, which got me to thinking that we have been taken for a giant fuckin ride.

I have come to the conclusion that the need for the declaration of the pandemic, and the subsequent lockdown, have all been for fuckall. I DON'T BELIEVE IT ANYMORE!!!!

I now want to know the whole gamut of answers, the who, why, when, where and WTF of Covid. And I think the global population needs answers from our politicians and business leaders, who stand most to gain from it all.

Until then, fuck your lockdown.

/Rant OFF

It's about time...

...that this fuckin lockdown was over.

People have lives to lead and, unless you are one of the "essential services" companies, you are stuffed. Stay at home, we are told.

There are too many thoughts running through people's heads, okay through mine, about this fuckin pandemic.

Is it, or isn't it a pandemic?

If it is, why isn't it killing more people? We haven't gotten that much smarter since the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. Well, let me qualify that a bit more...a whole lot of people haven't gotten any smarter. Some European countries are taking a beating and blaming thousands of deaths on the Covid-bug. But are they really? There may also be underlying conditions that the bug is exploiting, resulting in the high death numbers. But just how many is the bug itself killing? I don't think we will ever know.

Africa, with all its underlying problems and issues, isn't experiencing the large number of deaths it was expected to. Yet. Perhaps its time is still coming, who knows? Having seen the lack of "social-distancing" skills of the local population, I think the numbers are still going to escalate dramatically. Our winter is on its way, the traditional flu season, so we will see folks picking up the "normal" flu and, with immune systems already low, more people getitng (possibly dying) from the Covid-bug or related issues.

If it isn't a pandemic, how is it possible that global governments can hold an entire planet to ransom? Given what we have seen so far, it is obviously possible for (say) 10,000 people to hold 7.5 billion people at bay. And how, you may ask? FUD....Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Instil fear into the masses through mass media campaigns. Create uncertainty by telling them you don't know the way the bug moves, how it came about, that you have no antidote for it. Then create doubt in their minds by not keeping people up to date on the true numbers behind the virus, exactly how many have died, whether the "curve" in your country is positive or negative, that you don't know how long it is going to take for an antidote to be made.

And when you've done all that, tell the masses that the way to control this thing is by putting the entire planet on a lockdown. Shut the entire planet down!! If that doesn't get the FUD going, I don't know what will.

But I do think the people have woken up to the possibility that the whole thing has just been a massive hoax. There are already groups threatening to take China to court for starting all the shit (good luck with that), learned people like doctors stating that they are convinced it is a hoax and giving their reasons why, other "woke" groups claiming that the whole thing has been elaborately planned by governments to realign economies.

Whichever is the right answer, or the right response to the lockdown, has yet to be seen. But rest assured, when it comes, it is not going to be pretty. Someone is going to take the fall for the outbreak. Hell, we may even have WW3 on our hands.

If, on the other hand, it is a genuine pandemic, it needs to take down 4 to 5 billion people if the human population is to survive more than another 100 years or so.

In the meantime, cancel this stupid lockdown. People are doing their own thing anyway. If it catches or kills them, they were warned. Let's get the rest of this planet back to the new "normal".

There's life, Jim, but not as we know it...

...said Spock when they landed on some or other planet in some or other Star Trek movie.

And it is quite apt for what we are going through these days in this COVID-19 lockdown. It is four weeks today since I left the property, apart from two seperate trips to one of the malls to get some supplies. And it is boring the pants off me.

Life, since being retrenched for the third time in forty years, is quite literally becoming a drag. I'm lucky if I crawl out of bed at around 10am, after being woken at about 7am (if I'm lucky) by either the cats fighting, the cottage tenant tripping the fuckin' burglar alarm, or SWAMBO waking me up with her snoring. Fuckit, I wish I could sleep through half the shit she can.

Once I'm awake, that's it. I cannot get back to sleep again. The only thing I haven't tried is a sleeping tablet, partly because I dont't have any and I don't like to throw that kind of shit down my throat anyway.

So, I read. Until four weeks ago, I was reading about a book a week. Now, I am reading a book every three days, at most. While it probably isn't a bad thing, I am struggling to find good books to read. So much so, that I am now reading the old Sidney Sheldon novels again. I probably read those about thirty years ago, so they seem pretty new to me again.

I have read all the Baldacci, Childs, Follett, Hassel, et al, books and am struggling through Sheldon for want of something newer and/or better. I have a bunch of Cussler novels on the tablet too, but the plot and characters in his novels are all the same. Just change the dates, locations and the bad guy's names and you have the next Cussler novel. Ka-Ching on the way to the bank for Mr Cussler.

When I eventually drag myself out of my bed, I have some breakfast, potter about the house a bit, do some chores, watch an episode of some old series (lately I watched the whole series of Band of Brothers again, and am now on The Pacific - both WW2-based), have a cup of tea, wander about the property, rinse and repeat.

B-o-r-i-n-g.

I need the hardware stores re-opened. Then I can get some more paint and wood supplies so that I can finish my projects around the house.

Until then, b-o-r-i-n-g.

Come on, Cyril, use the establishment to make better use of the resources you have at your disposal. Get the country working again.

Rinse. Repeat.

Do we need more...

All the postings about how nature is changing (Thailand showing record numbers of turtle hatches, giraffes wandering the streets of Nelspruit, etc) got me thinking...

Do we need to have a global lockdown more regularly, perhaps every ten years or so? No diseases, just a lockdown, for nature to correct the world a bit...

W T A F...

It's been seven years and ten days since I last posted anything here.

Other social media platforms seem to have killed off blogging to a large extent, and people requiring a quick response to something that someone else has said have probably contributed too.

I don't know if anyone is still following this blog, but if there is, let me know and I will start writing again. Fuck knows, I have the time. I got retrenched two weeks ago....bastard.

It's been a while, but I couldn't resist posting this little gem...

It's one of those spoof phishing emails that you get from "people" around the world, some genuine, some fictional, hell some even dead for many years cos I got a few from J Edgar Hoover already (at least, I hope he's dead).

Anyway....here's today's little piece of phishing art......fuckin' hilarious...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir
I am BRIGADIER GENERAL ( PETERSON KWAME), the Chief of General Staff,
GHANA. I am mailing you in respect, of the present development going on
here in my country GHANA.
I decided to contact you, after much investigation which was carried out
by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and the Ghana Police
Service, to make sure our country is free of these fraudulent activities,
which is going on here in Africa and for our country to bear a good name.

The Airport Authority detected that trunk boxes after been scanned the
authorities detected that the boxes contains funds on your name and email
that has been tempered on, were been smuggled into the country by foreign
Personnel who were on transit from London.

These men were trying to enter the country with the trunk boxes, when the
airport authority detected that these boxes contains, some huge amount of
United State Dollars. After much investigation we found out that these men
were among those men, spoiling the good name of Africa.

They opened up to us that, they actually work with a Lotto company before
their dismissal and used the opportunity to perpetuate their crimes, they
told us that the funds inside the boxes was won by you, but now they
planned to turn back on you and decided to take the money all to
themselves out of the country. We later found out on the investigation
that was carried that, these men are truly members of a well established
organization to act on their criminal activities.

As I write you this mail now, the three(3) men that were caught are now in
the custody of the Ghana Police Service over here in our country Ghana,
while we are trying to track the others left, because they have proved
to us that they belong to one organization.
That is why we have to reach you by your mail address and name that was
tagged the boxes, so we can give to the diplomat to deliver to you hand in
hand.

Your response will be very much appreciated as soon as you have received
this email.as the diplomat is already to talk his flight to your country.

Thank you for your kind attention, for us to make sure our beloved country
Ghana, bears a good name.

Please in your reply include your
A: FULL NAMES:
B: ADDRESS:
C: DIRECT CONTACT PHONE NUMBER:

So you are only to contact us now with the below a scan copy of your
identification so that it will be forwarded to the diplomat to know you as
soon as he arrive.Please in your reply include your
D: SCANNED COPY OF YOUR INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT OR ANY RELEVANT
IDENTIFICATION PASSPORT.

As this information will be required, by the authorities in Ghana to
draftthe new change of ownership in your name as the rightful owner of the
funds in our custody and also to verify the information given to us
because the documentations covering the boxes have been tampered on.

Regards,
Brigadier General (PETERSON KWAME)
Tel:+233542812281
reply back on via this
email:diplomat123kwume@hotmail.com

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

Anybody want to give him a shout? You can have that "some huge amount of United State Dollars" if you can track him down. I don't need it............muwaahaha...muwaaahaahahahaaaaa...

Take care, y'all...

Spread the Word, folks...

South African citizens....tired of all those annoying email and cellphone marketing messages you get? Try this...

Register on the NationalOptOut database to have your details removed from ALL direct marketing companies' databases. Apparently, BY LAW, they have to check this database regularly to see who does not want to receive marketing information.

Here's the link: https://www.nationaloptout.co.za/

Please sir, I have a valid reason for not going fishing...

The plan had been to head to Cemetery for a fishing session with Sparky and the gang but in the end, I couldn't make it....here's why...

Over the last couple of weeks, we'd noticed that our large sliding door was becoming harder to open and finally, yesterday, the runners just about seized solid and the door was a pain to open and sounded like someone was turning a Bowie knife inside a pig's belly.

So off I go to the Penny Pinchers (should be Megabuck Stealers with their prices) and buy the last two runners they have in stock, thinking "Kewl, now I'll sort this puppy out and be on the beach at 6pm."  Ha-bloody-ha!!!

A quick call to Swartland Doors, who made the slider, and I know what I need to do. This is sounding easier all the time...should be on the beach by 17h30!!

I quickly remove all the screws holding the frame border with my new cordless screwdriver (replaced the old one following the burglary we had last week) and prepare to remove the plank. It's wedged in a little tight because of old varnish and contact with wet plaster some years ago so I wiggle it a bit.

Then things started going pear-shaped.

A couple of weeks ago we'd also noticed that a section of the plaster on the reveal had cracked away from the lintel and I was careful that I didn't want to bring it crashing down as I wiggled the plank. The only thing was, as I was wiggling away (holding onto the loose section of plaster), a section about a foot away (and about a foot long) comes loose and crashes to the floor instead!!!! I stare at the pieces of plaster in incredulity and then start pissing myself laughing. At least now I don't have to worry about not bringing down the first piece and I tear it off with less than a worry.

Once I'd stopped laughing, I unscrewed the track holding the top of the door to the frame and the whole door comes loose in my hands. I really do not want to drop this thing as I would never be able to find all the glass pieces if I did, so I enlist the help of SWAMBO (Sy Wat Altyd My Bakkie Oorlaai) to help me stand the door on its side to allow me access to the runners.

The old runners merely slide out as they had no screws in place on the older doors (the runners just wedged in snugly) and I immediately see they are different in size to the new ones. Not only that, they are smaller and I would need some carpentry to make them fit.

Anyway, to make a long story short, SWAMBO had to leave for her afternoon "Loop en Val" class (Run/Walk for Life) so I was on my own to finish the door ("Ja, I'll be fine, don't worry about me").

It's also in times like this that you find that there is no such thing as a straight line in the building industry and door frames are almost never square.

I needed to wedge some offcuts into the old holes and use the power file to sand the slots into the right size for the new runners, but it took me three occasions of fitting the door onto the rail only to find that the depth of the new runners was different to the old ones as well and that I needed to recess the new ones deeper to allow for the difference. Without doing this, the door was too high for the frame, so it was a case of take it out, take some more off the slot, refit it, curse and swear, take it out again, chisel some more off the door, refit the runner, refit the door, curse and swear.....you get the picture.

After about the third series of cursing and swearing, the door finally fit into its position and I could get the top track on as well. Have you ever tried to balance a 60kg door on a rail, while fitting a screw into a hole, while trying to get the posi-bit onto the screw head, while trying to not run the screwdriver too fast so as to make sure the screw goes in and doesn't fall to the ground (happened twice), while cursing and swearing at the screws on the floor........

Somewhere around 7pm, I stood back and admired my handywork and declared the pub "open" as I needed a drink after what I'd just been through. I was tired, sweaty and covered in fine meranti dust, so I also need a shower.

When SWAMBO came home at around 11pm, I made sure the door was closed so that she would immediately declare me her hero as she slid the door effortlessly on its new runners. Job done.

Now, all I have to do is work on my plastering skills so that I can close up the reveal under the lintel...

Live by the sword, die by the rifle

It's world news now and is on Sky, at least. Yesterday, about 30 miners died in a hail of bullets fired by the SA Police Services (SAPS) during an illegal mine union gathering in Marikana, North West Province.

There are all sorts of speculation as to why the shooting took place, who fired first, was it provoked, et cetera, but the primary reason seems to be that there is a new union trying to make its presence felt. This new union is supposedly an off-shoot of the existing National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and is apparently not happy with the passive way the NUM handles its members' grievances or interests.

Personally, I think that's a crock of shit and is just propaganda, with the new union trying to create a membership base. The underlying reasons for the massacre (as it was called on Sky News) will be political, but it is unlikely that this will ever be brought to light. It is well-known that the black population as a whole are not happy at the lack of "progress" since the inept ANC took over, almost 20 years ago now and this new union is trying to use this to its advantage.

The upper management (note I didn't say "leadership") of most organisations in the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) space, are very politically- and power-driven, doing whatever they can to progress their own agendas, even, in extreme cases, at the expense of their own employees' or members' lives. Basically, the power-hungry have not moved out of the 15th century, believing they can still rule, and progress, by fear and death.

What Dingaan and Shaka did in their time was simple. You fucked with them, they killed you. End of story. Today's black management does not think much differently, except that they will get someone else to do their dirty work for them. Even the SAPS, so that the managers can be seen to be squeaky clean and can continue their political rhetoric, unharmed by the bullets killing their members, accusing the government agencies of sticking to apartheid means. Playing to the listening ears of the majority vote. Playing to long memories.

The other thing that contributes to the death toll of these people is the fact that they are still allowed to carry "traditional weapons" around with them. Assegais, pangas, shields, knives, knobkieries, you name it. It forms part of the list of "traditional weapons". And do they really think that the SAPS are going to retaliate with the same weaponry? Are they fuck. Automatic rifles are the weapon of choice for the SAPS...and so it should be.

Imagine 3,000 people, armed to the teeth (yes, including some with illegal guns that were hidden from view earlier), charging at you and your mates down a hill in a cloud of dust. As a SAPS officer, are you going to (a) run away and maybe get caught in the stampede, have your weapon stolen and face the wrath of the SAPS, or (b) shoot to kill, following the orders of your commanding officer and self-preservation? I know I would empty my magazine into the first fucker that came near me with a panga.

On the bigger picture side, it's time this country, and Africa in general, got out of the "victim" mindset that it's in and has been since Imperialism died. Stop blaming old systems and idealisms for the current failures it has created for itself. Take responsibility and accountability seriously. For fuck sake, half the world was colonised at some point or other by a European nation, but you don't hear South American countries complaining, do you? And look at Germany and Japan following the second world war...they pulled themselves out of the shit they had created for themselves, rebuilt their nations into the global economic powerhouses they are today. Yes, they had problems, but they sorted them out and didn't victimise themselves. Unlike Africa, which will always be victimised by itself. "Oh, poor me. Help me", you can hear it cry out. Fuck off, I say, and help yourself. For a change. For the better of everyone on the continent and the world.

If only the politicians would read this...

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 Julius Malema's Nationalisation would work 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 Julius Malema'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 Money - 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.

Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2016 elections. Plant the seed now.

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.

How to keep your baby amused...

Tamlyn sent me a short audio file of LJ giggling away, caused by something really quite simple...a roll of Sellotape.

I added a few photos and words, to create a little FLV video file...

Here it is...

It's been a while since I posted anything...

...but it's been due to a surprise overseas trip I pulled off last week.

I couldn't tell anyone, except those that needed to know, as I needed to make sure I had a place to stay (sister) and that my daughter and granddaughter (son-in-law) would be in town (imagine going all that way only to find that they'd buggered off to Europ for a week, or something as equally disappointing).

I planned the whole thing at the beginning of September, just after the birth of Layla Jane (born 4 hours after my birthday ended due to complications) and had to keep it a secret until now.

That said, I'll write a whole piece on the trip and post some of the hundreds of photos that I took on the trip, sometime this week.

I just thought, for now, I'd better let my only reader know that I'd been away...


Here are some pics to keep you waiting in antici---pation...


The main reason(s) I went over. Mum, dad and granddaughter

The outside temperature, taken from the car, at 10h30 in the morning....-1degC!!

Imagine waking up to fresh snow on your first morning in Scotland....I did...


Some family and friends at one of the numerous get-togethers (piss-ups) we had

Full moon over the Scottish Saltire (flag), flying over the Edinburgh cathedral at the bottom of Princes Street, on my last night "back hame"

Edinburgh Castle lit up in all its glory, with the trees up the hill decked out in fairy lights

Drinking gluhwein in the German Market at the foot of the Castle. Usually I don't touch the stuff, but the stall was called "Fire Punch" so we thought we would give it a go...and I had three mugs

The snow I woke up to on the last morning of my trip...


These photos were all off my cellphone, but I'll post some better quality pics from my DSLR soon...

Surprised? Not me...

Whacko Jacko's doctor was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Is anyone surprised? Certainly, I'm not. He was fucked from the start. He killed America's favourite black and white son.

Still, it's highly unlikely that he'll serve any time in anything worse than a motel for celebrities.

According to the news, he's on suicide alert. WTF for? The Whacko family is already saying justice has been served, but has it? Will a guilty verdict bring the fuckwit paedophile back? No, it won't. But Murray's suicide will ring the old "eye for an eye" idiom true and then there will be closure. Then the Whacko's can claim closure, but not justice.


Damn Hollywood trials...hate the fuckin' lot of them. All they do is take up airwave space that would be better off used on other more menaingful news...real news...