Day 7 - Can you Believe It?

Day 7. Sitting here wondering how it got to day seven so quick and where the last week went? It won't be long now and we'll be saying Merry Christmas to each other and speaking in tongues under the mistletoe, people will be hanging Chinese made cheap plastic crap on every available hook and in every cranny, and cooking battery bred oversize turkeys and GM reared greener than puke veggies in Iraqi gas guzzling Japanese made ovens. OK, so its not exactly politically correct (I reckon you know I don't give a shit) and before you ask, yes, I do celebrate Christmas and try hard to spoil my kids too on this special day in our family.


But - and this is that famous but again? - the year flys by so quickly and often we promise to do something, commit to something and before you know it the year is out and its next years resolution. This week I have written about my hangover, a bit of my history - and there is a whole lot more to come - , about my biker mates and about Thursday in 'texas. What has not been written about is who is reading this blog and what effect its had. My mate Craig, in NZ, is a regular commentator, I've had a comment from mates in Thailand - the actually live in Dubai but are / were on hols in Thailand. There is / are a reader in the US, in the UK, in Australia, where I'm pretty sure 'mother of 4' comes from and of course in SA.I guess my purpose is to garner response and debate, and not having done this before, I guess this will guide me later on with regards to the content of future blogs. There is currently no other purpose really. I have no real desire to talk about the political situation is SA - my view, quite frankly, is; if the ANC continues on this path, you should leave this country or at the very least, bank your opportunity to do so. Have a plan, stash some money, make sure you have a passport, make friends with people who live in foreign land and most importantly, take your head out the sand. 
I'm also pretty sure that certain people enjoy the read as bizarre fascination - someone else's take on the world? My closest local mates, and family,  couldn't be bothered, it seems, to read this blog which I find a bit odd. If I was your mate I would want to read your thoughts, I think? I would have a need to find out what you think of me - am I weird?
We buy books about people we don't know, we spend hours in the company of people who mean nothing in our life and we respect their opinion without even challenging it. Society leads us to decisions based on what is considered to be accepted, even if the behavior and the end result is wrong. Sadly not many people have the balls to do anything about it. And I get it. Really I do. Life is busy and there is precious little time to devote to stuff that does not have immediate benefits. We must have the latest / best / sexy cell phone because we can get our e mail on it. Ask yourself. What would happen, in the greater scheme of things, if you don't get your e mail for a few hours? Would the sun still rise tomorrow?
Up until quite recently the chase for riches was everything. And I had everything that I wanted for the size of business I had. If life hadn't changed (for a variety of circumstances still to be told), I too would have had the phone with email, I too would have considered myself important as I could have checked my mail in the supermarket or worse still, in the pub! 
I'm not knocking you. Not at all. But spend a day noting your own habits. Write down every time you check your phone, every time you make a call, or worse still, an email. I think you might be quite surprised. 
We can't stop the march of progress but we can choose our sanity.


And finally, you've probably figured out that I'm a simple guy, definitely not perfect but with a pretty well ingrained streak of old fashioned'ness. I believe in good manners, and good grammar, being respectful for those who deserve respect, being straight up, unfortunately a trait not shared by most, a friend is a friend, fairness is fairness, a secret is a secret and a deal can still be done with the right person on a handshake. And for my naivety I continue to suffer for these views. People I like and enjoy being with, often, most times in fact, don't reciprocate this, and honestly, it hurts. It's normal to get self important, and led along a different path as your stock improves - God knows I did it -  but don't forget your history, don't forget what you look like in the mirror, and don't forget where you came from. 


It's not cool. I get it. But you know what, it's me.


Until tomorrow.