Apparently, they've been around for a while...

but I've only recently started listening to them. If you're into Rock music, check these guys out. Their new album, IV, is awesome, particularly the track Ten Speed of God's Blood and Burial (Ten Speed for short, which you can watch on the site) which introduced me to them when I saw it on MTV late one Friday night. Under the Media link, they also have an awesome couple of pictures you can download as wallpaper for your machine, like I have... Here's the link: --> Coheed and Cambria

Ok, he asked for it...

so I told him what he thought he wanted to hear... "Who?" I hear you ask. His Royal Highness, the Master of The House, he-whose-praises-shall-be-sung-on-high-by-angels, the legend in his own lunchtime... No, people, not Max...my boss. Just over a week ago, I get stopped in a passageway in the office by my manager, saying he wants to get together for ten minutes to discuss some things. I can see there's a worried look on his face, and with due reason. We have had his boss, the department executive, going around the office for the last couple of Fridays talking to various of my colleagues, and myself, asking whether we know of any "factions" within the business unit. Factions? There's bloody great rift valleys at the moment. And the manager's oblivious to it cos he's never there for one, and two, he doesn't listen to his people anyway. Anyway, due to various reasons including a two-day conference I was at last week about Shit Towne's (Joburg) (in)ability to host its part of the 2010 World Cup (more about that perhaps, in another posting if I feel inclined - it's been 20-odd fuckin' days since my last posting, so gimme a break) and his busy schedule, we've missed the opportunity to meet and talk. So I decide to send him an official invitation. Needless to say, it's not answered by after 13h00 and we're supposed to be meeting at 14h30. I'm going to go into the office especially for the chat. A quick call to his secretary and I determine that he's on his way out of the office with one of my colleagues to have exactly the same chat as we're going to have...the plot thickens. I chuckle into the phone as, the guy he's about to have coffree with at a local restaurant, has just about vowed that if he gets you-know-who into an office alone, he'll punch shit out of him. Perhaps that's why he decided to do it in a public place... I get to the meeting place, early as usual, sit and have coffee and a chat with Max and another colleague and ten minutes from meeting time the phone goes. He's going to be "ten minutes" late...yeah, right. Would that be local time, or fuckin' Martian light years? Twenty five minutes later, he rocks up, nonchalant as if he's two days early. "Shall we find somewhere to chat?" he says. "Sure", I reply and we go sit in a corner out of earshot of everyone else around. "Do you play golf?" he asks, looking at the logo on my Polo golf shirt. I think "You know I play golf and that it's usually about once a year that I play", so I say to him "You know I play golf and that it's usually about once a year that I play", and he says with a smile "Yes, I know you play".....so why fuckin' ask, twat? Good start... He opens by saying, "I hear you have some issues that we may want to discuss and resolve. I can see you're not happy and what I'm seeing is not the Steve that I first started working with." I think "No shit, Sherlock?" and reply, "Yes, I have a few, some of which you know and some others as well, but we haven't had a chance to discuss them yet." So I start off by telling him that I hope this hasn't come about as a result of my chat with his boss, which I'd hoped would be confidential, and he looks acceptably sheepish, which speaks volumes. I remind him that my biggest issue is the volume and type of work I do for the unit, compared to my crappy salary that I'm getting for it. I also tell him that what he told me in our last chat about needing a special business case to justify an increase out of salary review cycles is bullshit. I have first-hand experience at that, as Steph also works for the company and recently got a 15% increase out of the blue when her boss found out how much she earned compared to the rest of her team. Basically, I was calling him a liar. More sheepish looks... So we talk about his lack of trust in his people and how more decision-making should be left with the people. We need a manager, not a controller, as he currently is. I talk about how he needs to listen to his people, be receptive to them coming to him with issues. He's very business-driven and rightly so, but his people management skills are sadly lacking, and I tell him so. I figured that if my conversation with his boss could have been career-limiting, fuckit, I'm already doomed. There's various other things we chat about, mostly myself talking, him listening and his face getting longer as we progress. Fuck knows what was going through his mind, but I don't think it was "When I get home, I'm going to rip the wife's knickers right off and roger her on the lounge coffee table." Somehow, I doubt it... Forty minutes into the debate (so much for ten), he looks like he's about to get up and leave. So I ask him my piece de resistance question..."You've been in the job for sometime now. Do you ever feel like you were set up to fail?" He knew what sort of state the business was in when he took over, what it might entail to bring it out of its slump, and his background as a Client Executive (glorified sales person) was not exactly the training I figured would have suited the manager's position. Anyway...it's his career, not mine. He thinks for all of about five seconds and with a confused, surprised, look on his face, says "Why would you think that?" I tell him about the above (state of the business, et al) and unconvincingly he says "No, I don't think that. Why would management do that to me?" Well, there's various reasons, I think. "Perhaps they wanted to close the unit down, prove to executive management that it's not one of the core business functions of the company, and needed an expendable scapegoat to carry out their fiendish plan?" I ask. He's clearly never thought of this before and I can see he might be discussing it later with his wife as he rogers her over the lounge coffee table. Another fifteen minutes of debate ensues and I know that he has to leave for another meeting, to discuss some issues with our Marketing people (another hopeless bunch). On the way out I reassure him that if he wants to continue our discussion at some point, that I'm always available. Maybe he'll invite me for coffee one day, just before they hand me my marching orders for insubordination. What the hell, C'est la vie...he asked what was on my mind...

In case you're thinking of coming to SA for the 2010 World Cup...

here's a sample of the type of hotel you might be staying in...rustic, original, the real African experience, located in an affluent township (not too far from oor hoose, actually)... Viewed from the unusually tree-free street walkway. Front view. Note the photo of the model, upstairs between the windows. Close up on the front door security system. Really makes you feel safe. Everybody still keen on coming out for the big event? :-)

EVEN BETTER NEWS...

It's now just about 12h15pm and Dad arrived home about an hour ago. I spoke to the folks just a few minutes ago and they're both in fine spirits, especially Dad who has already had umpteen cups of tea. Apparently the hospital only made tea twice a day, which tasted like piss. Anyone who knows Dad will also know that his "normal" tea has the consistency of swamp mud and teaspoons, left too long in the cup, have been known to rust away adding to the sediment at the bottom. It's good to have him back...

GREAT NEWS...

I just got a text message on my mobile that Dad might be going home tomorrow...excellent news...

This Past Weekend - Part 3, Sunday...

Sunday morning was not much different to Saturday, up early to go fishing only to find the wind already blowing. Not a problem though as Mum was already awake and sitting up in bed, reading. We turned on the TV and tuned into the Japanese F1 Grand Prix which was just about to start. I didn't even know that Mum liked F1...go figure. She's a bit like Steph when it comes to sport..."oh, for fuck sakes, sport on the telly again", so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to watch the race with her. And what a race it was...just as I thought the German fuckwit was about to go and win another race, with 6 laps to go, the Ferrari engine goes and blows up. Disgust on Mum's part, as she's a "Schumie" fan (I thought she had taste), but cries of elation and punching of the air on my part. Yes, I support Alonso. There's just something about that square German jaw that makes me want to punch shit out of it... Today, we decide to shower and get ready earlier than Saturday and go and have breakfast at the same place we had lunch the day before. After breakfast and buying the newspaper for Dad, we arrive at the hospital right at opening time. To cast a little more light on Government hospitals in SA, let it suffice to say these are places you don't want to end up in when you come out to for the World Cup in 2010 (if it happens). To give you a small example, Mum had to take a towel through for Dad, as the hospital "does not supply towels to patients" (straight from the ward sister's mouth). Anyway, he's getting treated and that's the main thing... Dad's in fine spirits when we get there, except for the fact that he'd had the nurses making a racket again. I told him I think it's cultural...SA blacks have a tendency to speak loudly, but this is to let you know they are there and not sneaking up on you to steal your stuff or assault you. I notice on the digital machine above the bed that Dad's blood pressure is more or less normal, but that his heart rate is up by twelve beats from the day before. I ask the sister about this and she says it's a good sign. The heart is beating faster because it can as it is a little less restricted than the day before. A good sign indeed... Apparently Dad will still be in the hospital for a couple of more days, more for observation and rest than any special treatment, but I'd rather have him there for that period so that he can continue convincing himself that his smoking days are over and his lifestyle is changing for good. Some friends of my folks arrived while we were still there and it was during that time that I decided that things were looking up, that Dad was getting better and Mum was handling the situation, that I was going to drive home after leaving the hospital. If I had been in any doubt as to either of those reasons, I would have stayed on longer. As it is right now, I'm happy with the progress of both parents, so I'm happy with my decision to come home to my life up here in Joburg. The drive home, however, was not without mishap. The road was busy, with more trucks and heavy lorries than I ever remember seeing travelling between Durban and Joburg on a normal, "non-holiday", weekend. The accident I witnessed though, had nothing to do with lorries. I was about 175km from home and it had been dark for about 30mins. About 100m in front of me was a Nissan bakkie (pickup) and I moved into the righthand lane to overtake it. As I got into the lane, I heard a loud bang, saw a puff of dust from under the Nissan, and reslised that he'd had a tyre explode. The driver must have stood on the brakes (wrong thing to do in the circumstances) as he lost control of the car. It swerved in front of me, first left then right, upon which the righthand wheels dug into the road and the car rolled twice, straight across my path. Doing about 140km/hr, I stood on my brakes, while trying to watch what's going on and reach for the hazard lights switch at the same time to warn other drivers behind me. I noticed in my rear view mirror that other drivers had also switched on their hazard lights and were slowing down. The Nissan came to a halt, about 50m ahead of where it had started rolling, half on the fast lane of the highway and half on the grass verge between the opposing sides of the highway. I managed to stop without hitting anything, or being hit from behind, and pulled onto the grass shoulder with my full beam lights on to show what was happening in front of me. I noticed a child, perhaps 5yrs old, jump through the open hole where the windscreen had been, run across the highway onto the grass, an adult get up and run from the middle of the highway onto the same piece of grass as the child and grab hold of the boy. I saw another adult drag an elderly lady from the road and lay her down on the grass in front of my car. In total, there were five adults and two children in the bakkie, and each one of them had some form of injury except for the driver who was shaken, but unhurt. I grabbed my phone and jumped out of the car, remembering that I'd passed a police car about a minute before all the drama unfolded. I ran back up the way I'd travelled, waving at passing cars to slow down and move to the lefthand side of the highway. The policeman had stopped about 50m back from my car, and turned on his blue roof lights. When I got to him, he was already on the phone, calling for assistance. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, the policeman and I were the only ones to stop and offer any form of assistance to these people. To all the others who had stopped behind me and witnessed the carnage, and had carried on without at least offering to help, FUCK THE LOT OF YOU!! My car was still parked just before the accident scene, with hazards flashing a warning to oncoming motorists, but was quite ineffective when you are working in otherwise pitch blackness. The policeman had no charged batteries for his torch (fuck knows what he'd been doing with them) and no form of attracting attention other than a luminous strip on his overcoat. While he waved the overcoat to get cars to move to the left, I ran back to my car and grabbed a hazard triangle (compulsory in bakkies, as they should be in ALL vehicles) and started waving that at the oncoming cars. We were about 100m up the highway from the scene, and, needless to say there were some absolute fuckin' arseholes coming at us without reducing their speed. On two occasions, cars passed us doing more than the speed limit and one of them missed the Nissan by mere millimetres (I thought he was going to plow into the Nissan and complicate things more) and just carry on without even touching his brakes, while the other one saw the accident at the last moment and almost lost control of his car while trying to swerve out of the path of the Nissan. FUCK YOU TWO, AS WELL!! Happily, nobody connected the Nissan or any other person at the scene. An elderly man, a passenger of the Nissan, had been in the road picking up belongings just seconds before the speedsters came past us. If he'd been there seconds later, we would have had another accident. I offered a bottle of water, the only sustenance I had with me at that time, to one of the female passengers to offer to the rest of the victims while we continued slowing traffic. We managed to create enough of a backlog of cars so as to slow the entire highway down to a crawl, getting everyone to move across to the left. Needless to say, there was also a considerable amount of "rubber-necking" going on as people tried to see what was going on as they passed the accident scene. The first of the paramedics arrived within 15mins or so of the accident happening, and immediately the lady paramedic took a look at the elderly woman, who had been propped up by (what I assumed to be) her family, her back against the legs of one of the other female passengers. The elderly lady had considerable head injuries and I saw the paramedic feel for a pulse on the jugular vein, then lie the old lady down, so I fear the worst for her. I can't confirm it, but I think she died at the scene. An ambulance arrived, as did an Emergency Medical Services person from the toll company who control that piece of the highway. I asked him if he needed anything from me, but was told that they just needed my contact details in case there was an inquiry (I expect that, if the old lady did die, I might be getting a call for a statement). After that, I gave my details to the policeman with whom I had been directing traffic, and he said thanks for my efforts. As I got back in my car and reversed from the scene, a doctor was putting a stethoscope to his ears to check for a heartbeat on the old lady, but I don't know what the outcome was. The lady paramedic also came up to my window and said thanks for my assistance and I told her I'd given my details to the other two guys if they need me. As there was nothing else I could do, I got back onto the highway and immediately phoned home to tell Steph that I'd be a little later than expected. She said that she'd expected me to be home already, but was glad that I was okay and on my way. I got home about an hour later than expected, but unharmed... A weekend, as I'm sure you'll agree, I don't want to experience again...

This Past Weekend - Part 2, Saturday...

As we were only going into the hospital at around 10h30, I woke up early to see if I could do a bit of fishing (of course I took my rods down, just in case I got some time), but the wind was up earlier than I was, blowing from the North East and not good for throwing flies. Instead, Mum and I pottered about around the house, had a cup of tea and a slice of toast to keep us going until after we'd been to see Dad, when we'd go and have a decent lunch somewhere. Around 10h30, we got the car out of the garage and headed into Port Shepstone hospital. Dad was propped up in bed, a pillow supporting him, with all sorts of sticky pads stuck to various parts of his chest and shoulders and a couple of them leading cables to a digital machine above the bed. He was in surprisingly good spirits and I know this cos he crapped all over me for driving down to be there. We chatted about how he felt (okay, considering), what sort of a night he'd had (noisy nurses in the ward), and what the prognosis from the doctor was. As I mentioned previously, the doctor has told him he is never to smoke again, or he will die. I can tell by his tone of voice that he will now give it up for good though. Dad is not usually scared by medical problems and they are usually seen as an inconvenience, but this time is different. He is not scared, but is angry at himself for getting to be in this state. What was that about hindsight? Dad has always been of the opinion that, when he goes, it will be sudden. This episode, however, has given him new food for thought. He's also had enough time alone in the hospital, so far, to think. He's stated that he has now given up smoking (even said he wasn't craving one after two days of not having had one), is going to change his diet (we joked about going out shopping and top of our list is carrots - Dad hates carrots) and is going to try and get some exercise, even if it just means walks on the beach (something that hasn't been done in a while since Pandora couldn't manage it). I hope, for all our sakes but especially for his and Mum's, that he keeps to his word. Anyway, at about noon, the nurse told us in a roundabout way that we had to leave and we went and had lunch, followed by grocery shopping. That afternoon was spent in fron of the TV, watching the Currie Cup rugby semi-finals where both the teams I wanted to win (Sharks especially) lost. The final is going to be a humdinger though, going by the semi's performances. That evening, we had "Stovies" for dinner (years since Mum made them - for those who don't know, it's a Scottish dish of boiled potatos with ham and veg on the side) and sat down to watch a series drama called "The Commander". It's an English police drama and is quite good. During the commercial break, I switched to the TV guide and noticed that Scotland was playing France in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. "Oh, shit", I told myself, not expecting a favourable result. Much to my surprise, when I switched over with about three minutes left on the football clock, I saw that Scotland had gone one up...ya fuckin' dancer!! We happily watched the end of the game (Mum is as staunch a Scotland supporter as I am) and then watched the end of the drama. With not much else on the box for the rest of the night, Mum ended up dozing off on the couch and then went to bed around 9:30pm. I sat up for a while longer, watching the final qualifying round for the Japanese F1 Grand Prix, then went off to bed around 11:30pm...

This Past Weekend - Part 1, Friday...

Friday started as most Friday's do...up about 7am, shower, shave, shampoo, shit, (no shag this time), shumshing to eat, schlepp off to the office... All was going well until Mum phoned at around 11h50, and I could hear straight away there was something not right. Turns out, my Dad had had a "mild" heart attack. What I could get out of her didn't tell me much as she was understandably weepy and distressed. I asked her if I needed to be down at the coast with them (about 6.5hrs drive) to be with them. Typically, as a colleague later put it, Mum said that it wasn't necessary. For the time being, I left it at that. At about 12h30, I phoned Mum, who had just arrived home, still in a state, for an update. At about 7am that morning, Dad had got up, done all the usual stuff and complained about a sore chest, saying that it was "worse than the night before" when it was thought to be gas, or suspected shingles. Dad had a doctor's appointment already set up for 11am, so they weren't too concerned at that time. By 8am, however, Dad said that he couldn't take the pain any more and Mum would have to take him to the doctor right then. Off they went, and once there, the doctor told him he'd suffered the "mild" heart attack, gave him a nitro tablet to melt under his tongue and immediately had him hospitalised at Port Shepstone (about 30mins from home). Mum had stayed with him right up until when she'd phoned me with the news, just after he'd told her to go home as there wasn't anything she could do except stress him out further. Stress him out? Imagine what she was going through... In between the phone calls, I'd been questioning myself about going down to be with them and had almost decided not to, due to the cost of the travel (things are tight since the build). It was at that time that I could have slapped myself for being so selfish. What if things were worse than I'd been told? What if I was putting a cost on not seeing my Dad alive again? I cursed myself and immediately told Mum that I'd be down later that day, that I would drive down, leaving the office immediately and hitting the highway after getting home to pack a few things. After letting Steph know what was up, and telling our Illustrious Leader as I was leaving the office, I went home to pack. The drive took me about six and a quarter hours, uneventful, except for thoughts running through my mind about what the future might hold and again berating myself for initially being so selfish. I arrived at Mum's at 8:50pm, about 10mins earlier than I'd expected to be there. Usually Mum greets me/us with a little wave and a smile as we drive in through the gate, but this time she didn't and I could see on her face in the glare of the headlights that she was taking strain. While I let the diesel engine run for a couple of minutes to cool the turbo down, I held Mum who started sobbing quietly, then we went inside. I poured us both a stiff single malt, sat her down and told her to tell me the whole story. Now that I was there, I could put a picture of events together and ask some questions. It appears that the doctor has told Dad that he is extremely lucky to have had this "mild" heart attack and that it was brought on by his excessive smoking (at one point, a few years ago, Dad was known to have regularly smoked 90 cigarettes on an 8-hour shift...you work out the math on that one!). Due to the smoking, he has had severe hardening of the arteries, to which the doctor has told Dad it will never get better but will get worse and will kill him if he carries on. Needless to say, Dad has vowed to quit and so has Mum. Ironically, in the week leading up to the attack, Mum and Dad had both been cutting down on their smoking with a view to quitting altogether. Anyway, Friday ended up with Mum in better spirits (she only had one drink so it wasn't that). I think it was because I was there, had spoken her through the day's events, reassured her as much as I could, and we'd put a plan of sorts to carry out on Saturday...into the hospital (visiting hours between 11am and 12pm) to see how Dad was progressing, and some retail therapy for her (even if it was only groceries). So, at around 11pm, we decided to call it a night...

For Want of a More Challenging Fishing Experience...

I've decided that, unless we got to a trout resort, or Steph needs a few trout for the freezer, from now on I'm going to target one of South Africa's best fighting fresh water fish, the Yellowfish. I'm a member of a forum, Fly Talk which, though based in SA, gets subscribers from all over the world and where one can exchange all sorts of information fishing related. On the forum, I posted a brief note asking the members where their favourite sites on the Vaal River would be to catch these sought-after fish (which are taken on Catch And Release only), from which I was referred to another bloggers site, Yellows On Fly. It's an interesting site, full of valuable information and maintained by Keith Wallington who is obviously more of a fanatic about catching "Yellows" than I am (for the moment anyway, or at least until I catch my first lunker). I'll add the link to my list down the side for anyone who cares to pop in there now and then...

"Someone finally said it..."

This is a transcript of an email that was sent to me, not my own writing. Obviously it was written by some rightwing yob in the USA, but he/she raises a few valid points... {start quote} There is some truth to all of this.... Someone finally said it. How many are actually paying attention? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc. And then there are just Americans. You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me "Whiteboy," "Cracker," "Honkey," "Whitey," "Caveman" and that's OK. But when I call you "Nigger", "Kike", "Towelhead", "Sand-nigger", "Camel Jockey", "Beaner", "Gook", or "Chink" you call me a racist. You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live? You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have BET. If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we'd be racists. If we had any organization for only whites to "advance" our lives, we'd be racists. We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that? If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, we'd be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were "White colleges" that would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists. You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist. I am proud. But, you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists? There is nothing improper about this email. Let's see which of you are proud enough to forward it. {end quote} Jump up and down, shout foul, or whatever you want to. There is some validity to the above...go on, admit it...

I'm having issues right now...

on a personal level with my boss and, as a result, am feeling quite depressed. Not suicidal, I hasten to add, but thanks for thinking like that. Such is my depression that I have abstained from posting anything for a while due to a total lack of interest in writing anything more than reports for my customers and responding to the flood of emails in my Inbox on a daily basis. Rest assured, however, that I do still pop into my regular blog-buddies' sites now and then, read their latest offerings and post the occasional comment. You lot will be the first to know what comes of my relationship with my boss and when I eventually surface from the fug of this melancholiness.

Human Nature, Religion, Culture Clashes and Terrorist Plots...

how often is it that one of these leads to, or influences, one or more of the others? More and more often, as it seems. It's a foregone conclusion that with the spread of people through the world, often as a result of wanting a better life for one's self or family, that sometimes as a result of intolerance and countless other reasons, there are eventually going to be differences springing up between people and nations. And rather than handling them properly through honesty, deliberation, tolerance, understanding, and an acceptance of each other's differences and staying "out of each other's faces" to the benefit of everyone, the differences escalate into disagreements and violence, sometimes localised but in the case of recent events international, to the detriment of people, property and cultures. Disclaimer: Before you read the next paragraph, be sure that this is not a(nother) literary attack on the USA, though they are used as an example and these are all my own ramblings... Let's face it, everyone knows (though may not be prepared to admit) that the "war on terror" is a not-so-veiled excuse for getting George W's troops in to put puppet governments in countries that have the natural resources the USA needs to carry on its existence as the "most powerful nation on earth". Actually, I remember reading somewhere that the USA probably has more oil reserved under its own territories than in all the countries their troops are currently deployed in. The problem is that the USA wants to use everyone else's before its own so that it can be seen as even "more powerful" and can have everyone kissing their ass for the resources, and so bring the world to "embrace" their version of Western culture (also known as the "American Dream"). Global slavery, I'd call it...but back to the topic at hand... Take the recent spate of international attacks and bombings on civilians and holiday makers as the first example. Many people around the world are under the impression that large numbers of these bombings and killings are because of religious reasons - because that's the impression you may get from listening to the media and other influences they may be receptive to. Not so...I believe they are cultural with religion being used as an excuse. In many instances, local politics is the reason behind attacks on innocent populations and tourists, with the attacks carried worldwide by the ever-hungry media giving the attention to the perpetrators of the violence that they want. That's the attackers' cowardly way of trying to bring about change in their country, claiming that their Governments are not listening to their demands (maybe that's part of the problem assholes, stop demanding things and start working together toward achieving them through peaceful means - it is possible, I believe) and so it is perceived that violence is part of the culture in those countries. As the second example, take Iraq, where terrorists/freedom fighters want the Western Forces out of their country (and who can blame them, we all want sovereignity for our motherlands) because they do not want the western culture and means of government instilled in their people and want to live their own culture (which includes religion and government). The Iraqi fighters are also prepared to do anything to achieve the withdrawal of the western forces, including killing their own people in these attacks. Popular dissatisfaction is growing in Iraq and no matter how much PR the Western forces throw at the problem, there will be no peace in Iraq until the troops are deployed elsewhere and the culture is allowed to return to an Iraqi culture. Eventually, Iraq will become another Vietnam for the Western forces and there will be no "winners", only losers, the people of Iraq. I say leave them to their culture and if it doesn't look or sound nice to Westerners, so what? It's theirs and nobody should be trying to influence/change it, except themselves. The same goes for the Western culture. As the third example, the recent "war" in the Middle East is another example of the mix-up between culture and religion. Again, it's not religion, but a cultural battle raging to the detriment and destruction of Lebanon and its people...as if they haven't had enough war in their recent past. In this case, Hezbollah wants to destroy Israel and the Israeli culture, with religion as one of the reasons. Take the wars that have raged in that area over the last few millenia and they've all been fought over the same reasons with culture at the heart of it all and religion used as the excuse. That's something that's always baffled me...religions are supposed to spread the word of peace and harmony among men, yet it's often at the heart of many a disagreement between those same men...go figure. Two weeks ago, in the UK, there was almost another Jihad against the West. And for what? The simple, ridiculous, reason that one of the Pakistani cricketers was perceived to have tampered with the ball. No religion involved there, but for some people sport is a part of their culture, my partially-adopted South African culture included. All because that daft fuckin' Darryl Hair (the centre of more cricketing controversies in his short umpiring career than Ian Botham in his entire playing career) decided to lay down the laws of the game in a rush of blood to the head with no definitive proof. He was perfectly entitled to enforce the rules, I hear you say, and I couldn't agree more. It was just the way that it was done that caused the furore and almost led to another culture clash. The latest to come out of the UK is the Government admitting that it may have made some mistakes regarding its immigration policies. I couldn't agree more with them. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes people want a better life for themselves and their families, and often that means moving to a different country (my family included in that, as we moved to SA from Scotland in 1969). You cannot blame people for wanting better lives, it's part of human nature, but then those people should be prepared to embrace all the good things about the culture they are moving to. Unfortunately, religion comes into it again though. Take any Westerner who wants to go to a predominantly Moslem country and they are required to live in compounds (in many instances) and their freedom of movement is severely restricted. This is not only an infringement on basic human rights, but it is ascribed to religious requirements. If this is the case, then how much of an uproar do you think there would be if the predominantly Christian countries suddenly created compounds for Moslems (or any other religion for that matter). In short, it's nothing short of cultural racism, blamed on religion. I guess one also has to look at what makes up a "culture" and the use of the term. Human nature is one of the prime ingredients. The influences of people on others causes influences in the culture of that country, city, and hell, even down to street level. In fact, taking it to the extreme, even down to individual home level. My home culture is different to every other home around us and it's partially due to influences from the neighbours. Some of them we are very good friends with, others we greet on the odd occasion we pass each other in the driveway or on the street. Human nature and culture has dictated whom we will and will not socialise with, and our respective cultures are affected accordingly. In other words, there are many different ways to interpret "culture". It goes without saying that religion makes up part of a culture too. The differences between Christianity and Islam, to name but two religions (though there are many similarities between them), are many. Christians are/were traditionally seen by the Moslems as infidels, and vice versa the Moslems are/were seen as babrarians by the Christians. Archaic terminology perhaps, but these are/were terms used by the different cultures in which these religions are/were dominant. We all have our ideas of what culture means to us. For me, aside from human nature and religion, it's things like language, government, skin colour, sport, love for the motherland, caring towards your fellow man and not just countrymen (something sadly lacking in SA, but that's another posting), law abidance, politics, tolerance for other human beings and their differences, culinary "peculiarities" (take spinach for example, that's peculiar, and not in my culture), style of housing, customs, habits, humour, curios (the Hairy Haggis is a prime example of Scottish "culture" where we try and convince the world that this is the edification of some poor little creature that we like to eat, which inhabits the highlands of our beautiful country), fauna and flora of the country (most countries have a national flower and animal - SA has the Protea and the Springbok, Scotland has the Thistle and fucked-if-I-can-remember-what-the-animal-is, probably beaver). My list is by no means comprehensive, but you pick it and somewhere it fits into the cultural make-up of a nation and its people. Sadly, each culture also has its nasty side too. SA is a prime example of that where a few arrogant white politicians tried to impose apartheid on the population (no colour mentioned there as it affected all colours in one or other way, even to this day). Religion can also be a nasty due to the above reasons of having caused more wars than any other cultural trait in history. There are many lessons learned from history where cultural differences caused hostility and wars between nations, clans, and even family members, but somehow the human race seems to keep repeating these mistakes. Personally, I embrace all the positive things not just about SA and Scotland, but about the human race itself and I try to "stay out of the face" of other people and not antagonise them but understand them and come to agreement with them and agree to disagree on issues. And that makes up my "culture"...what makes up yours?

Before Max gets all happy...

handing out another toilet seat, let me assure him that I'm busy working on a piece and expect to post it sometime soon. Right now, I'm off to the weekly meeting, otherwise known as a good excuse to waste an hour and a half drinking coffee...

Ah don'd no ow bud Ah god de flu...

ad ah reellee don'd no ow, cos ah wuz inn de zun de ole wikend pintin de gade. Ride dnow ah god de sniffels, ruddy doze, zore troat ad watry ayez. Ah tink ah'd be bedder off in mah bed bud ah god sum wurk ah huff te fennesh. Mebbe ah'll god te mah bed lader...{ahchoo, shniff}...

For want of something better to write just now...

we had a nice peaceful weekend. In case you're remotely interested...which I doubt, so why am I even going to go into this? Ah fuckit, you're here so you may as well read on... On Friday afternoon I dropped Max off at the Renault dealership to pick up his old wagon with the new gearbox and played my new old-school rock CD all the way back to Makro to buy a bottle of Single Malt scotch. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers and the like rang loud in my ears all the way down the highway (yes, Bachman Turner Overdrive are on the CD as well) and I pulled up to a strange look from the car guard, something to the effect of "Eish, get some new toons, honkey". I ignored him, then ignored his request to look after my car (I've ignored every one of them since some bastard car guard who wasn't at his post - or had been bought off - caused my car to be stolen a couple of years ago. I only had one payment left on it and it would have been mine, all mine, I tell ya!!) Anyway, into Makro and I found what's turned out to be a pleasant 10yr old Islay Single Malt from the distillery called Finlaggan. It sounds Irish to me, but I'm guaranteed by the splurb on the box that it's 100% Scotch. Tastes good too, not too peaty, and after the first sip, becomes quite smooth. Hell, if it wasn't 10h20am, I might be forced to have a wee dram right now, but then you'd all think I had a drinking problem too, which, without sounding defensive, I haven't...so there. I also picked up my free, inscribed, Johnnie Walker ice bucket compliments of a promotion they had last Christmas. Yes, that's right, it's taken eight months to deliver it, despite my occasional email query to the organisers regarding the whereabouts of said bucket. Now I have it in my possession, the only disappointment to it being the chip in the glass I noticed when I took it out of the box at home. No doubt caused by the inscriber... I tuned into the TV sports channels to see what was happening, in anticipation of the upcoming Sharks game at 19h00. Steph called to say we'd been invited round to friends for a braai to tan some chops on the grid and, no doubt, have a coupla drinks too. So, with Chris being a rugby supporter too, I agreed to the invitation. And a bloody good game it was too. The weather reminded me of the 1995 World Cup game, at the same stadium, between SA and France, where it pissed down for the entire 80mins. This was no different and made for some great running rugby, players passing the soapy ball between them like dirty kids in the mud. In the end, the Sharks ran out 16-6 winners, and the captain of the opposing Western Province applauded the victors on their handling skills in the wet. The braai was good too, there's nothing like a piece of meat off the grid to get the salivary glands drooling. On Saturday morning, the gardener arrived just short of 08h30, about a half hour earlier than usual and I think he thinks that, because I asked him to come a half hour earlier the week before, that he has to come earlier every week. I'm not going to correct him, as it's coming into summer and there's going to be plenty for him to do. This weekend, however, I had him slapping a layer of anti-rust over the front palisade fencing as I ground the old paint off ahead of him. Judging by the progress we made, it's gonna take us a while to do the entire fence as we only managed one side of the driveway. Next week, he's going to start painting over the anti-rust stuff to make the fence look all new again, and I'll carry on scraping the rest of the fence. At 14h30, I sat down to watch the Springboks get another rugby lesson from the All Blacks. I think it's time that the Springbok team was fired. Not the management, as Jake White is perfectly capable of putting together a winning side, but the skills and attitude of some of the players leaves a lot to be desired. After ten minutes, the Boks were ahead on the scoreboard and that's when it became very clear that they were going to lose. South African teams have a bad habit of sitting on their laurels when they go ahead early, thinking that they can now keep the "psychologically demoralised" opponents at bay for the remaining 70 minutes and retain their two point lead. As for attitude, there are a couple of players that should not even be playing club rugby, never mind international. How dumb do you have to be when, at just over five feet in height, you throw a punch at the biggest opposing bloke on the field? And it's every fuckin' game he plays, that he tries it on with the biggest no-necked fucker on the field. I'm speaking of Bolla Conradie, Western Province scrumhalf, luckily not playing this time, but it happens time and time again. Another one, Enrico January, the scrumhalf for the Lions does exactly the same thing. Maybe it's a scrumhalf thing, I don't know, but they shouldn't be on the field. Anyway, another lesson learned for the Boks (how many lessons does it take to learn something, for fuck sakes?). That evening, we went out to dinner and a show, as an early birthday present to me (before you ask, it's the 31st) from Steph. I was a little sceptic about what the show would be like, but it turned out to be a great evening. Two "camp" blokes on two baby grand pianos, tickling the ivories and amusing the audience with their humour, "A Handful of Keys" was well worth the evening out. They had a solid two hours on stage, with only a brief 15min interval in the middle, and played every genre of music you can think of. Their "piece du resistance" was a 15min-long medley of tunes spanning more than 100 years of music, consisting of 117 snippets, all perfectly in time sequence (from what they told us)...absolutely brilliant, with humour thrown into the mix as well. Unfortunately, yesterday was their last show so I can't even recommend it to anyone. I'm not sure if the show is just moving theatres or if it's being closed down, but I hope it's the former. My Sunday was spent sloshing anti-rust onto the main gate across the driveway. It took me a whole six and a half hours!! The gate is perhaps only 4m wide, but it has intricate circle patterns and nooks and crannies that are very difficult to get into with a paintbrush. I decided to do it myself for two main reasons, the first being that I'd ground the old paint off the day before and any more rain would have just brought back the rust. The second reason is the aforementioned gardener. He has a side job painting apartments and houses, but the rate at which he painted the palisade on Saturday made me feel that he was just fucking around and the quality of his work isn't that good. I decided that, as the gate is the centrepiece of the fence and, if needed, the fence can be repaired cheaper than the gate, I would do the gate myself. I might even paint it next weekend too, just to make sure it gets done properly. Anyway, gate done and a couple of small odd jobs done around the house before dark, I showered and had a scotch to celebrate my hard work, followed by another sumptuous dinner by Steph and a TV movie, "Flight of the Phoenix" on satellite. Not a bad movie, but one which can be left to the bottom of the rainy day pile. Basically, it's about a group of American oil-riggers in Mongolia (I didn't know they had oil either) whose well gets shut down by the company, who then pile on board an airplane which crashes into the Gobi desert after flying into a sandstorm, who then build another plane out of the remains of the crashed one, who then manage to fly off into the sunset just as smugglers' bullets fly around their ears. In my book, the only good scene was when the designer of the new plane, who turns out to be a 'plane designer by trade albeit of model airplanes, blows out the brains of one of the smugglers the good guys had captured while the rest of them were squabbling about how he was going to be a drain on their already low water supplies and what were they going to do with him. No emotion, the guy walks over, picks up the army issue revolver off the table and pulls the trigger. Problem solved... After the movie, I watched a bit more telly while Steph toddled off and had a bath then retired to bed, having an early rise. I wandered off to the land of nod at around midnight, arms and head slightly sunburned from the last couple of days out in the sunshine, contented. Hope you guys also had a good weekend...

An interesting blog I found...

that might interest some of you folks especially Stuart and Ross who, I know, do quite a bit of reading. Perhaps you've already been there... Joe wrote a comment on one of JennyMay's postings and, not having seen "Joe" before, I went to look at what he was all about (profile view, blog view, etc). Looks like he's got some really interesting stuff going on his sites about movies and books. Joe's Reviews The Edinburgh SF Bookgroup The Woolamaloo Gazette Judging by his profile, Joe certainly has excellent taste in music, so I'm sure his taste in books (also, seeing as he's a bookseller by trade) is just as good...

Yes, I'm still here...

shivering under the latest cold weather onslaught, but still alive and well. In response to Max's comment recently (and before I get another chunty seat award) I thought I'd better let you know in advance that I'm busy working on another novel-length posting, this time about cultural and religious differences. I think it's going to be a little controversial, but what the fuck, it's my blog and my opinions...coming soon to a posting near you. As for the last week or so, we went down to my folks on Wednesday morning for a few days R&R and, I hoped, some fishing. Salt or fresh water, I wasn't cared. Wednesday had been a public holiday, so we only had to take two days leave to get five off, including the weekend. We took Bonnie down with us, one of our Weimaraners, as she and Duke (the Dobermann) seem to be having a difference of opinions these days. It recently cost us almost R2,000 to have a wound fixed on her side caused by the big brown fuckwit after he had bitten her in some or other altercation. We also took down a couple of lounge couches for my folks, who had said they wanted them as they (the couches) weren't quite fitting in with the rest of our decor. Getting the couches onto the back of the Ranger was another story. I had to take the canopy off after hoping I might be able to get them in without having to lug the 100-odd kilogram weight on my back and onto some trestles. Anyway, it gave us some space to put our gear in between the couches, which I laid one upside down on top of the other. Naturally, the fishing stuff went on first. All this was done at 04h30 in the morning as, if I'd done it the night before, the car would not have gone back in the garage due to the length of the couches sticking over the back of the Ranger. I don't go to gym at the best of times, but doing some serious exercise at 04h30 in the morning was just fuckin' ludicrous. Good riddance to the fuckin' couches, I say. I took out the two large toolbox-thingies that take the place of a backseat in the Ranger and got Bonnie's bed settled in. This is the first time she'd be on such a long trip and, though she loves going in the car, we weren't sure how she'd take the extended time in the cramped space. Huh...she slept the entire fuckin' way, like she was part of the grey carpet. We got on the road at just after 06h00, an hour later than I'd wanted to, but when you have to pack and repack things to get two women into the car (Steph and Bonnie) things can take a little longer than anticipated. The road was nice and quiet, though we'd expected there to be a bit more traffic due to the "lemming run" that usually takes place to the coast on these breaks. We stoppped off about 200km from home to fill up (just in time, as I put 83l into an 85l tank) and let Bonnie have a runabout. A quick toasted sarmie and a coffee later and we're back on the road. We stop off again in the Drakensberg, about half way to the coast, for another "piss parade". From there onward, the weather deteriorated, in typical coastal weather for this time of year. From about fifteen feet inside KwaZulu Natal it started raining. A mist-like sort of rain, not enough to use the wipers, but enough to soak into the couches on the back. Luckily, I'd put a couple of sheets of plastic on the back and I'd covered the gaps as best I could. We stopped at the folks place at just after 2pm, right in the middle of a downpour. Thankfully, there was a carport that I could leave the Ranger, and couches, under until it passed. So it was, that I had my first beer of the trip...lovely and cold, Windhoek Lager. Rheinheitsgebot at its best. We let the weather clear a bit and got the couches and luggage unpacked and settled down for the afternoon as the weather was shite. Cool and rainy, the whole afternoon. I was glad to see the folks were a lot less heavy-hearted after Pandora's burial, and we had been a little hesitant in taking Bonnie so soon after it, but they took care of her like she was their own, not that I'd expected anything less. The folks pampered her, treated her like they'd done with Pandora for the 16-odd years that they'd had her, and they'd done it with gladness in their heart, no sign of their previous sadness. That was, at least, until I showed mum the little obituary I'd written for Pandora. Mum shed a few tears, but then went back to her old self again. On the Thursday morning, we took Bonnie for a run (read "walk") on the beach to see what her reaction to it would be. At first, she was a little hesitant as she had not seen crashing waves and such a huge sandbox before, but she took to it like a fish to water. Running up and down the beach, up to her backwards-facing knees in the water, over and under rock formations, she had an absolute ball. That morning, we walked further along the beach than I had ever gone in all the time my folks had been living there. We must have done a total of about 8km and eventually turned around once we started feeling hungry. The weather that day was blowing a gale and so there was no fishing to be done. On Friday, the weather was nice again, with the wind having dropped overnight. We took Bonnie for another walk along the beach and I bought a fishing licence at the post office (fuckin' ripoff - now we have to pay to amuse ourselves on the beach too). Once back at the house, after breakfast, I got the fishing gear together and took a hike down to the rocks in front of the house to wet some line. There'd been a family of fisherfolk further along the beach earlier, who had had a pickup from a Garrick (large sportfish, just what I was after), so I tied on a large "plug" (a fish-shaped piece of weighted plastic with a couple of treble hooks attached in strategic places, designed especially for catching Garrick) and threw it a few times. On one cast I got a slight tangle and when I eventually got it undone, found that my line was broken. Before I realised what had happened, I'd let go of the loose end and it was "bye bye plug". Pissed off, I tied on a large spoon (a heavy fish-shaped piece of lead with a couple of treble hooks attached in strategic places, designed for catching large gamefish) and threw it in a few times. Same story as the plug, the line tangled and the spoon got snagged on a rock, the line snapped and I thought "fuck this, it's getting expensive" and decided to call it a day. Later I found out that the line was rotten, as it had been on the reel for at least five years...time to replace it, expensive lesson learned. By then, the wind had picked up again and dad and I chilled out for the rest of the day, waiting for their car to be delivered by the fuckwit servicemen who had taken four days to service the BMW (never buy a Beamer, I say). Mum and Steph had gone shopping, for lack of something more interesting to do. When the car eventually arrived, around 4pm, dad signed it off and we had to take it for a test drive along to the new pub for a beer. I hesitate to call it a pub, but it's the best they can do in a small place like the caravan park where it's located. It's more like a big room that someone built a counter in one corner of, stuck a fridge in, put up a few beer advertising posters, and called it a pub for the locals to frequent and the OAP's to hold their bingo on a Thursday morning. Worst of all, it had a couple of the local "boneheads" hanging off the counter, not-my-cuppa-tea-type-folks, but they were interesting enough for a couple of hours of personal amusement. At about 6pm, we staggered off home in the shiny Beamer, to face a Vindaloo curry that Steph had "knocked together". Excellent, as usual, tasty enough to make any good Charo's eyes water and nose run in culinary delight. It was so good that dad got possessive about the leftovers and froze it so that he could have it at a later date. On Saturday, we got up early-ish (about 7am) as I'd wanted to go and throw a fly line in the lagoon to see what lurks there, but the wind had got up again during the night and it wasn't conducive to that sort of fishing. Instead, we took a last walk on the beach, this time in the opposite direction from the previous mornings as the wind was from the other side. Bonnie was now very confident in the new environment and ended up chasing crabs around the rock crevasses while we picked up Cowrie shells off the sand. After breakfast and a shower, we got packed up and the car loaded. We'd decided to come home on the Saturday to have a day at home to chill out and do some things around the house before going back to work on Monday. Our washing machine was in the process of packing up (Steph has had it for about 14yrs) so we brought back my old top-loader that I'd loaned my folks a couple of years earlier and I loaded that on the Ranger. In addition, dad had decided that he didn't want the old freestanding bar counter on the verandah, and "traded" us that and the three chairs for the couches. Dad's strange like that...if you give him something, he has to give you something in return otherwise he feels like he "owes you". So, luggage, washing machine and new bar counter strapped down, we loaded Bonnie into the Ranger again (you should have seen her face when we were packing, you could have sworn she thought she was getting left behind) and we hit the highway just after midday. This time we knew Bonnie didn't want to get out as often as we'd expected her to on the way down, so we journeyed home a whole 90mins less than we'd gone down in, only stopping once for fuel and a second time for Steph to go for a leak. It's always good to get down to the coast, but it's just as good to get home again to settle down into comfortable surroundings. Right now, I'm working on a presentation for a client I'm trying to sell a whole bunch of consulting to, and later (even though it's probably around 10deg outside) I'm off for a bit of night fishing...fly fishing for trout this time. A good social evening out with a bit of fishing, a bit of drinking, but a whole lot of chilling out that happens every third Wednesday of the month. Hope you're all well out there...

Time for a Laugh or two...

might as well, the rest of the world just fuckin' depresses me...

The SA Government is in denial about crime statistics...

so maybe this is a good time to start taking notes, cos it's gonna get ugly...(What's that I hear? Ah yes, it's Aussie saying "Give us the World Cup" again...)... Apologies for the quality of the pic, but click on the image to enlarge it a little...

The Weather all over the world is really fucked up...

ask me, I know. Last night, really unseasonally, it rained. Not just a little shower, but a full-blown Highveld thunderstorm. And it had been raining most of the day too, which is why I got home early to let the dogs in...poor little fuckers were shivering in their pelts. And what do you know, I come out of a client meeting at 11h00 this morning and remembered that I had to go and pick up my new credit card from the Sandton Post Office (incompetence rules, right?) and I pull off the road just outside the client's premises to phone Steph who will know where the PO is. What happens? It starts fuckin' snowing on my car!!!!!! I kid you not!!! Snow, in fuckin' Joburg. I joked about it last night to Steph's sister, but never thought it might actually happen. There wasn't a lot of it, but enough to sit and watch for a few minutes while it flurried about in the wind then landed on the bonnet and windscreen then melted. The radio also reported light snowfalls in other areas, so I wasn't delusional...just in case you might be thinking that.