Lights on......no one home....

Happy March everyone! Seeing that the current crime situation is on everyone’s lips these days, I felt the urge to jump on the bandwagon.

For the uninformed amongst us, there is currently an anti-crime action group urging you to drive with your car’s headlights on at all times, not only at night. This will hopefully shed some light on the situation, and who knows it might even make the lights go on in government who is completely in the dark about the fact that we are spending millions of hard earned money on security systems and insurance just to protect ourselves and what is rightfully ours. I suppose generalizing like that is also not fair as our president has given the go ahead for the new R80 million wall to be erected (no pun intended) around his residence, while he claims that the public exaggerate the threats of crime.

Maybe we are exaggerating people! The helicopter circling above Pretoria East every night might be the new Skattejag series being filmed, or OJ Simpson might have moved into the area that the police are just watching his Ford Bronco chasing down Hans Strjidom. My insurance premium on my car went up by 165% last week, not because I claimed, just because my type of car is the most popular on the road these days, not popular amongst drivers, but rather cash in transit specialists. Getting to my home is no easy task anymore, with fingerprint and number plate recognition, smartcards and e-tags in place, don’t think you are assured of access granted, yesterday I was informed that “yur card is not wekking!”, but no complaints, I can’t wait to stand in the line again for 45min, after I’ve been there twice before, it gives one the perfect opportunity to get to know one’s dodgy neighbors, as they say rather the devil you know than the devil you don’t……..ok this was not supposed to be such a long blog, ….. I got a bit carried away……where is my cell phone!!!!!!!

From Germiston to Beijing

And so did the dream team (Rock, Paper & Scissors) complete their first triathlon. Not only did they survive the agony of the external forces Mother Nature heaved upon them, but they also managed to have a lot of fun in the process. Below are a couple of visuals from the Joburg Tri-Series, and as you can clearly see from the pictures that Rock, Paper and Scissors totally ROCKED!

Rock, Paper & Scissors (Snap, Crackle & Pop?)

I'm the one in the red cap

Dawie cruising by on an uphill

John strolling across the finish line

Who is this?

And then the trophy we took home! We now set our eyes on Beijing 2008, that should be a jol!

Clueless Conclusion #1: Black on White or…white on black?

I was wondering the other day, as I do sometimes. It is considered to be the truth if something is written in black on white. What if one writes with white on black? Food for thought…….

Barloworld Logistics – Best logistics company to work for 2005/2006

If I ever doubted the credibility of the Deloitte’s survey on which company is actually the best to devote your life to, all reservations has been laid to rest and I have substantial proof that Barlow Logistics is in fact the best logistics company, and is willing to work together with the general public to make South Africa a better place.

I refer you to the photo below, maybe I should first sketch the scenario: I was stuck in traffic (part of life as a consultant) at Olifantsfontein Rd in Midrand after a 6am meeting at one of my favorite clients Agrinet. I refer you to exhibit A (the idiot in the white Nissan 1400 bakkie…..ja one of those never ending ones… on the market since 1971) was trying to overtake us all on the yellow line, I suppose it was beneath him be stuck behind normal working citizens waiting in anticipation for the light to turn green.

Unfortunately my attempt to reroute the bastard towards the bushes did not succeed as I do care about my car, so he managed to pass me! But then the Barloworld Logistics dedicated PPC fleet member came to the rescue! As you can see Exhibit B (the hero with the elephant on the back) moved slightly to his left to ensure no passing and Exhibit A was stuck next to me! This of course granted me the opportunity to educate him through sign language after I drew his attention by pressing the horn.

I suppose this serves as a prime example of Barlow employees working together to make a difference…..I wonder if this gives me exemption from the next community project…..ag never mind I do this as a gesture of goodwill in any case.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma - Dressed by ....Donna eClaire?

I watched the opening of parliament the other night on TV. Guess where? Top Billing of all places. I kid you not! Our politicians seems to have got one thing exactly right! The whole House of Representatives seemed to have pulled off a fashion extravaganza of note. At first I confused it with the Durban July, but then I realized that it was not July nor was it horses in the background (?).

I suppose it’s a good thing that the crew of the main ship support the local fashion and textile industry seeing that everybody else are forced to buy cheap Chinese products in Woolworths these days, but stretching tax money that far is debatable, especially covering some of our ministers requires a lot of stretching and yards of fabric. The whole affair was very beautiful and colorful and makes one think of……a circus…..no pun intended. . .

MPH 07

As you know I am what one would call an automotive junky, therefore it comes as no surprise that I didn't miss the MPH 07 show at The Dome this past weekend. Chances are that some of you might have been there as well and I just didn't see you because I was wearing my 3D spectacles or there was some middle aged teenager burning some rubber on stage in his Subaru causing a smokescreen. But then if you were there you would understand that looking at other people were also not really the main attraction (although the girls at the exhibition stands caused a bit of a distraction).

I was amazed by maneuvers that can be accomplished with everyday vehicles (I was even surprised and proud by the Barloworld Caterpillars performing on stage). Just a bit of advice if you are browsing for a used car, be very careful of buying any demo vehicle with low mileage and worn tyres over the next couple of days!

I have finalised my birthday wish list for next year, so the first person to give me an Aston Martin DB9 will be my best friend forever.

They don't call me Nemo for nothing...

Last night I picked a fight with Mother Nature, I almost lost the battle, so today I’m very grateful to be able to write this blog and share my experience.

To give you a bit of background, as most of you know I recently celebrated my birthday which means I am slowly but surely getting older, although I’m still looking damn good for my age. The other day I suddenly felt the urge to revive my youth. I suppose you can call it a quarter life crisis or something, I know there are a few of you that knows exactly what I’m talking about because you are experiencing the same thing, but the odds are that you would pretend that you don’t know what it’s about purely because you are in what they call denial. But that is a topic for another blog.

So I felt rebellious yesterday and decided to saddle up the old motorcycle (yip it’s the one in the picture on the right side of my blog), I haven’t had the wind blowing through my hair for a while since I was a varsity student, so I was really excited. I got home yesterday afternoon parked my car and said goodnight to it, quickly changed into proper riding gear (t-shirt, shorts and sandals), grabbed my gym bag, kick started the bike put on my helmet (the one without the visor….nothing an old pair of swimming goggles can’t fix!) and off I went.

After making a few stops along the way, and having dinner at my usual diner (thanks mom!), I finally arrived at gym at about 19:00pm. Parking was no problem of coarse I just parked in front of the entrance. I did my usual routine in the pool and got dressed. As I walked towards the exit I heard a noise on the roof of the gym! ……. At 16:00pm that afternoon it was 37’C and not a cloud in the sky….no need to take a jacket……., now the picture slightly changed…..it was pouring down! Remember I live about 8km away from the gym.

Plan A was to wait a while for the storm to quiet down. Because of my patient nature I couldn’t stare at other people trying to improve their looks for too long, and convinced myself that the storm has calmed down and that it was time to move on to plan B. So I saddled up again started up the machine and the ride of a lifetime began!

I quickly realised that the swimming goggles were not going to work as well as they did earlier, they fogged up so quickly, and after I almost took out an entire Chinese family in the parking area, I had to get rid of them (that’s the goggles I mean not the family). My first thought was to get this trip over as quickly as possible so I went full throttle, but I never realised that those sweet little raindrops falling on one’s head turn into vicious little fuckers at 80km/h! So I obviously had to slow down a bit.

Mense ek was deur diep waters! Literally!!! Hans Strijdom transformed into a river that would make the mighty Vaal look like a walk in the park! You remember the Garsfontein/Rubenstein crossing?? I hope you do because it’s not there anymore!!! The most fun of it all was when a Putco bus came past me as I was driving through a big puddle, 90% of the puddle landed on me! I wanted to cry, but what’s the use, no-one would notice as the kamikaze raindrops hit my cheeks at excessive speed and would just wash my tears away in any case!

The last time that I was so glad to see the entrance to Mooikloof Ridge appearing over the horizon was…….mmm…..no I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited before! I made it home! Luckily the feeling in my fingers came back during the night otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to share this with all of you, see there is always a bright side…something to be grateful for.

Funny or not?

Kan julle afrikaanse mense net vir my 'n aanduiding gee of ek die enigste een is wat dink die onderstaande poster (by Bayer CropScience) is vrek snaaks? Temik is een van hulle produkte vir ertjies. Ek begin al worry dat niemand die humor raaksien nie. Laat asb. 'n comment.