29 October 2009

Good evening all,

Well, the kid in me just has to say… one more sleep.

That’s right… tomorrow evening, the wife and I will be flying to South Africa for a whistle-stop tour of the coastal cities. Not really, but hell… I think that it really is going to feel that way after a few days. On our list of places to go is Johannesburg (admittedly, only the customs queue, but if they are having a strike… as they have had the last FIVE times we have flown through… it FEELS like forever.), East London (where the bulk of the visit takes place) and a family road trip that will take in Knysna and some other places in the Eastern Cape. Lastly, we get to fly to Cape Town to hook up with our old roommate, his girlfriend (soon to be wife) and their sprog.

(You know we’re looking forward to seeing all the new additions to the Bear Family Squire.)

So, things have been a little busy, what with the list of jobs and niggles that need to be squared away before our trip. There is some rule that even though we won’t physically be here, we still need to pay rent on the place. (Which sucks.) And the bills need to be paid whilst we’re away. All of our classes at school need to be prepared for while we are not here and some substitute teacher takes them. (Of course, this rule doesn’t apply to everyone, and I actually was left with a class for THREE days by a colleague.. and the bastard didn’t even leave me a fucking book. Thanks “bru”. Assbag.) Still, the wife and I are getting things set up so that there is a minimum of fuss for when we return.

Let’s see. In other news, I have now received the money for the sale of my bike, and all the paperwork has cleared too. As a result of selling my bike, I have been going about on Shank’s Pony for the last week. This isn’t all that bad, as it is a 4 block walk to the MRT (Subway) station from my place, and then just a one-stop ride to my destination station, and then literally door-to-door service from the MRT to my school by bus. The trick of course is simply to work your way through a bus timetable. In Chinese.

(Is it just me, or are bus timetables the world over deliberately obtuse? When I lived in Ireland, the bus timetables there would regularly confuse the crap out of me. And there is little worse than bouncing around in sub-zero temperatures waiting for a bus that is ALREADY late, and you’re not sure will be coming anyway.)

Of course, all of this public transport has given me the chance to get re-acquainted with my iPod. Yes yes, I am one of those “anti-social” people who ignore everyone else when they travel. I’d get defensive, but more than likely, I simply don’t want to talk to you.

I am most likely NOT going to be online very much while I am in South Africa. Let’s face it, the South African concept of “broadband” in the household is that black rubber band that holds the braai wood together.

Yeah yeah, all my South African friends are going to have something to say about that, but I am going to miss the 10Mb line I have here at home. (For which I am paying a princely R180 a month for. Uncapped.)

This means that you will be without these regular blog updates for a while. As a make-up for the desertion, I will upload some semi-decent holiday shots on the next blog back.

One last bit of personal news – Bunny and JebbX have made it to the three year mark. Congrats guys.

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This week’s musical contribution comes from Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking.

Enjoy.

1. A computer error gave two women in America called Patricia the same social security number. When the two women were brought together in an office to rectify the blunder they discovered that they had both been born with the names Patricia Ann Campbell. Both of their fathers were called Robert Campbell. Their birthdays were on 13th March 1941. They had both married military men in the year 1959 (within eleven days of each other). They each had two children aged 19 and 21. They both had an interest in oil painting. Both had studied cosmetics. Both had worked as book-keepers.

2. In 1893, Henry Ziegland ended a relationship with his girlfriend. Tragically, his girlfriend took the news very badly, became distraught and took her own life. Her distressed brother blamed his sister’s death upon Henry, he went round to Henry’s house, saw him out in the garden and tried to shoot him. Luckily, the bullet only grazed Henry’s face and embedded itself in a nearby tree. In 1913, twenty years after this incident, Henry decided to use dynamite to uproot a tree in his garden. The explosion propelled the embedded bullet from the tree straight into Henry Ziegland’s head – killing him immediately.

3. On December 5th 1660, a ship sank in the straights of Dover – the only survivor was noted to be Hugh Williams. On 5th December 1767, another ship sank in the same waters – 127 lost their lives, the only survivor was noted to be Hugh Williams. On 8th August 1820, a picnic boat capsized on the Thames – there was one survivor – Hugh Williams. On 10th July 1940, a British trawler was destroyed by a German mine – only two men survived, one man and his nephew – they were both called Hugh Williams.

4. Mr McDonald was a farmer who lived in Canada – nothing extra-ordinary in that – until you learn that his postcode contained the letter sequence EIEIO.

5. In 1996, Paris police set out to investigate a late night, high speed car crash, both drivers had been killed instantly. Investigations revealed that the deceased were in fact man and wife. Police initially suspected some kind of murder or suicide pact but it became apparent that the pair had been separated for several months – neither could have known that the other would have been out driving that night – it was just a terrible coincidence.

6. Michael Dick had been travelling around the UK with his family to track down his daughter, Lisa – who he had lost contact with ten years earlier. After a long fruitless search, he approached the Suffolk Free Press, who agreed to help him by putting an appeal in their newspaper. Fortunately, his long lost daughter saw the appeal and the pair were reunited. The odd thing was, his daughter had been right behind him when the free paper took the photograph – shown in the photograph above. What are the chances of that!

7. A fifteen year old pupil at Argoed High School in North Wales was to sit his GCSE examinations in 1990. His name was James Bond – his examination paper reference was 007.

8. In 1965, at the age of four, Roger Lausier was swimming off a beach in Salem – he got into difficulties and was saved from drowning by a woman called Alice Blaise. In 1974, on the same beach, Roger was out on a raft when he pulled a drowning man from the water – amazingly, the man he saved was Alice Blaise’s husband.

9. British cavalry officer Major Summerford was fighting in the fields of Flanders in the last year of WW1, a flash of lightning knocked him off his horse and paralysed him from his waist down. He moved to Vancouver, Canada, six years later, whilst out fishing, Major Summerfield was struck by lightning again and the right side of his body became paralysed. After two years of recovery, it was a summer’s day and he was out in a local park, a summer storm blew up and Major Summerfield was struck by lightning again – permanently paralysing him. He died two years after this incident. However, four years after his death, his stone tomb was destroyed – it was struck by lightning!

10. Businessman Danie de Toit made a speech to an audience in South Africa – the topic of his speech was – watch out because death can strike you down at any time. At the end of his speech, he put a peppermint in his mouth, and choked to death on it!

This week’s PURE AWESOME video is this.

And now? PEEKCHUZZ!!