Well, so much for writing something for 365 consecutive days. At this rate I will only finish this in 2019 and you shall be stuck reading this with me as my hairline recedes and waistline increases even more. I shall by then be waffling on about the state of the bus journey to town, whether or not I should draw my pension in Italian lira - because lets face it the Euro will probably be gone by then as country after country goes into bankruptcy. The European Union will probably have been dissolved by then and as the holder of the green mamba (that is a SA passport in case you were wandering) I will again need a visa to go to the toilet. Ah, so much to look forward to.
Anyway, I digress from the important news of the past few days and news I am sure you are just hanging on to the edge of your seat to hear. Yes, this news will be ground breaking. The Springboks won a game of rugby today. Yes, they did honestly and you can check the news channels if you don't believe me. It did come as a surprise I know but a win is a win and we'll take it. It was obvious, to me anyway, that if Div reduced the average player age to about 24 the pace of the game will pick up like it did in the second half. As a side note it must have been quite interesting this morning in 'ol sunny SA with the churchies...decisions decisions...do we watch the bokke, braai and eat biltong or do we go and pray? Or do we pray for the bokke to win. Hmmm that must have confused the do gooders this morning.
And in other sporting news, equal in importance to the WC, my youngest kicked off his annual campaign to retain his player of the year trophy. First match this morning it was, so off we went, all excited and not dressed very warmly. It was one of those aha moments, football here might be a bit different and a whole lot colder. For us anyway on the sidelines. I think in a month or so we shall be taking along the mobile fire place to stand around - if today was anything to go by anyway. Nevertheless, being this dedicated parent that I am I gave up the opportunity to watch the other match live (in my warm lounge) and rather recorded it to watch as if it was live when we got home. These days its quite tricky not to be kept in touch with every moment of everyone's life so in a military manner we forbade the use of mobile communication devices until such time as we completed watching the end of the Springbok victory. I don't know why we bothered to be honest. What a shite performance. At least the youngest and his team dominated their opposition with a thrilling 3-0 win.
We also this weekend had the pleasure of hometown mates staying with us. There is nothing quite like talking shit over a few tequilas with someone who shares some of your history. I can only imagine what we were talking about because to be honest things are a bit hazy, in the later parts of the evening anyway, and I don't remember most of the detail. But I know we had a good time judging by the size of the bar tab anyway. Being of SA stock we drank our fair share and ate our fair share too. We even lit a fire and had a cracking braai yesterday afternoon. OK there were a few envious looks from passing punters as we sizzled the steak on the fire and drank beer but there are some things that need to happen. And this was one of them. We even had gem squash on the fire. No small feat finding gem squash over here apparently. Good times. And then we drank more tequila. Hmmm too nice!
Someone else I know posted in facebook earlier today the fact that he had been mugged at knife point last night while walking home, probably no more than 300 meters. Here it would be big news. He would probably be knighted for surviving a knife attack as quite a few of them don't survive. There, his fb friends say 'hey sorry bru, hope you OK man' or 'whatsup dude, at least he didn't kill you'. As SAfricans we are so overwhelmed by crime and so inebriated by it that we no longer have much emotion about it. I'm not judging it, I don't live there anymore so I don't have too and before you get all defensive, there is crime here too I know but in most cases it would be unlikely for you to die for your phone. In most cases.
Someone else I know also quoted stats recently, and they went something like this. The murder rate in SA has come down 6.5%. A real result by anyones standards. But there were still 15000 - yes fifteen THOUSAND - murders last year in SA. Don't quote me on the stats as they may not be absolutely accurate. Maybe it is 14500 or 15500. Its a lot that's the point. But we are immune to the emotion that comes with crime because it is part of our culture. But at least the sun in shining and you can braai. Strange but true.
Talking of fire, tonight I had a bit of a boy scout moment and for the first time lite the fire in the pub, just checking to see if it works you see. People were looking at me as if I was a bit odd but hey, its my fire. So there. It works is the verdict and no doubt we shall be lighting it up quite frequently in the months to come.
And finally, its ten years today since the attacks on the World Trade Center. Where was I when this happened? At Durban International Airport buying a cold drink at the sweet shop downstairs. Above the till they had a TV and they happened to have CNN on...and there it was. Where were you when it happened?
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