Sucker For Punishment

Yup, that's me...  As jy dom is, moet jy kak!

This coming Saturday, 3 October, is time for "Die Voet" that I've been rambling about in previous posts.

And as with previous half-marathons, I still haven't done much in the way of prepping for it!!!  Maybe the odd kilometer on the treadmill at gym, but that was also more than 2 weeks ago already...  And a treadmill is no substitute for what basically amounts to a trial run in the Bredasdorp/Napier mountains, with a few kilometers of road running thrown in for good measure!!!

Oh well...  Even if my finishing time is abysmal, I'm still looking forward to it.  And me and my cousin'll also get to spend a weekend with the best person that we both know:  our Gran!!!

Wikus! Wikus! He's our man!!!

Distric 9 - Go and see it!

For a multitude of reasons!!!  The top reason on my list being that it proves that South African films doesn't have to be the dreg that we've come to accept as standard fare SA films these days.  Bakgat, Poena is Koning, Mama Jack, etc., all comes to mind.

Don't get me wrong, those movies are good and well in their own right and when I'm in the right mood, I find them entertaining myself...  But ja, they're just not on the same level.

So, again, go and see it!  A South African movie (that's not a drama, a la Tsotsi) that we can truly be proud of.  If I hadn't know it was South African and/or didn't recognize more than a smattering of South African actors, I could have easily believed that it came straight from Hollywood without so much as a South African's pinkie finger touching it.  For a sci-fi action movie, it's just that good.  And it's just that entertaining.  If you don't do sci-fi and/or action, then go get Tsotsi from the DVD shop :-)

Official site:  http://www.district9movie.com/
Write-up on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9
IMDB entry:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/

And I Made It...

OK, so today was the Canola Carnival 21 km that I was going on about for the past couple for days!!!  I made it, but also just barely...

Slept over in town last night and ran into some old friends.  One thing lead to another and I finally got to bed a few hours too late and a couple of drinks too many ;-)  That was all still well and fine until one of the "house mate's" phone started ringing about once every 15 minutes from about 3:00 am.  That finally stopped around 4:30 am.

Some sleep finally!!!  Which was not to last...  At around 5:30 am one of the other guys that stayed over, had to go out to his dad's farm to start milking!!!

A few more minutes of sleep....  And then the alarm went off at 6:30 am.  So I drag myself off the couch, head pounding and feeling none too fresh!!!  Take a shower, dress, leave for the starting point.

At the starting point, semi-confusion reigns.  It's about 30 minutes before the race is scheduled to start, but they're still setting up the starting point banners.  And the registration point is a few hundred meters down a side street from the starting point.  So down the street I go to fetch my goody bag (the joys of preregistering via the internet), and head back to the house to go drop off the goody bag, which mercifully, is less then a 100 meters from the starting point.

As starting time (8:00 am) approaches, they make an announcement that there's a delay, since a lot of people that decided to drive through the morning only instead of the previous night already, are stuck in thick mist along the roads.

So 'round about 8:30 am the shot finally goes and we're off, my head pounding in alternate beats to my footfall.  The first couple of kilometers is run through the town and everything seems to be hunky dory...  After a few kilometers, as we start leaving Swellendam and heading into the foothills of the mountain, the endorphins start to kick in and the headache starts to subside.

Now, this is were the fun and games start!!!  Next time they advertise a race as "a scenic race, run mostly on gravel roads" I'll read it as "up and down mountains and hills with thousands of switchbacks"!!!  You'll run 2 or so kilometers and then you go round a bend and it looks as if you're finally headed back towards town... But that's not to be.  A few kilometers further on, you go round another bend...  And head straight back into the mountains...  And up a hill!!!

But I made it.  It was slow going and it took me a whole 2 hours, 40 minutes to finish.  But taking into account that I was basically down with flu for the last 2 weeks and didn't run a single kilometer, I still feel that it ain't a half bad time.

So, now some more prep work for the Potberg race in 2 weeks.  Hopefully they've changed the route, because turning around at the halfway mark is a bit of a demotivator...

Potential Pain & Suffering...

Saturday's approaching and I'm gonna go do the insane thing again:  Run 21 km without much preparation.  I ran about 3 km last Monday and another 3 km on Tuesday and then the cold took me, so I haven't done anything.  Wish me luck or call me a fool, but please understand that if I'm grumpy next Tuesday when back at the office, it's because I'm still suffering from my own foolishness!!!

Of Snot and Things...

Geezze!!!  I never thought it would be possible that one person can produce so much snot mucus in such a short period of time!!!

Everything started last week, after putting in a few extra hours at work.  I started feeling the onset on Wednesday and by Thursday morning I felt like death warmed over.  Dragged myself off to the doctor on Thursday afternoon and got booked of.

He prescribed this wonderful nose spray, Vibrocil, that opens up your nose withing about 10 seconds after spraying...  My nose haven't be this open in years!!!  It's even better than my previous wonder drug, Advil CS.  Too bad the good stuff's only available on prescription though...

The doctor also prescribed something that keeps the mucus running...  And boy did it run!!!  From Thursday night till Saturday  morning when I came back to work, I used up about 2 rolls of toilet paper just for blowing my nose!!!  Disgusting, I know!!!

But hey, things seems to be clearing up now...

In Memory Of...

Just a few lines to reflect on the memory of an all round good ou:  You're still missed and remembered by everyone who crossed your path.  A glimmer of bright light in our past.  And yet, also a reminder the we are all mere mortals...  A reminder to appreciate what we have here, now and today...

Thys Lourens - August 20th, 1980, to July 20th, 2004

Foot of Africa entries

As posted earlier, the Foot nearly wasn't to happen this year, but things got sorted in the end and it's scheduled for 3 October 2009.

Entries are to be made on Friday, 2 October and Saturday morning before the respective races start. Unfortunately there are to be no online or pre-entries this year.

For further info, please contact Tom at the Bredasdorp athletics club on 082 978 1971.

TV License: To pay or not to pay

The other day I received a reminder in the mail: Renew your TV licence before this-or-that date or face legal charges and/or black listing.

Now according to what's going around in the media and plastered on lamp post signs, the ship known as the SABC is taking on water. Whether it's just sprung a leak that can be patched up or struck an iceberg and is going down fast is probably a bit too early to say. Point is, I don't feel like paying when the SABC might actually be in danger of stopping to broadcast in the near future. Not that much of what they broadcast at the moment is anything to write home about. But that topic is a whole different kettle of fish and will provide ample fodder for a future rant.

And then the best bit: The threat of black listing!!! And that when their own financial troubles is probably big enough to get themselves black listed several times over!!!

Yellow blossom madness

Swellendam is hosting it's anual Canola Carnival (previously Canola Festival) again this year. It's scheduled for the weekend of the 7th to the 9th of August. And with the 9th being National Woman's Day, the 10th becomes a public holiday, giving those who've over indulged a bit, some time to recover before heading back to the office.

So, pop on over to http://www.canolakarnaval.co.za/ and have a look at what's on offer. I'm probably going, so maybe I'll see you there. And any excuse is good enough to get out of the city a bit and go "home" for a few days or so...

Foot of Africa nearly canceled

The Foot of Africa: The toughest race with the warmest Heart!

That is probably the best and most accurate description that any marathon could ever dream to have. But that heart seems to be suffering from arrhythmia and nearly skipped a beat this year!

I received an e-mail from one of the organizers yesterday in which they explained that the rumours going around regarding The Foot being canceled were indeed true. However, a good heart surgeon, in the form of the Cape Agulhas Municipality, managed to come to it's rescue this time round.

Details surrounding the near cancellation is still a bit vague, but I've asked the organizer to let me know if there's anything that any of us can do to maybe help keep this event alive in future. I'm still waiting for his reply though...

Saswitch fees

While on the topic of banks...

I understand the reasoning behind Saswitch fees being levied on your account when drawing from another bank's ATM. And quite frankly, if you're too lazy to walk to the other end of the mall (OK, that might be a substantial distance: anybody been to Canal Walk lately?!) to an ATM of your own bank, then you deserve to get charged!!!

But, you've finally managed to get a few days of leave approved. You're out in the country, in that little Town-without-a-Name, situated more or less halfway between Big Nothing and Absolutely Nowhere. And guess what? Your particular bank didn't think to install an ATM of their own there. Or they did, but it's either out of order, out of service or out of money!!!

Am I alone in thinking that it is unfair then for your bank to levy the Saswitch fee against your account because they were basically incapable of delivering a service themselves?

ABSA ATMs packs more than cash

According to a post on wired.com (originally from Independent Online), ABSA installed some sort of pepper spray system at a few of their ATMs. This was done after several of their ATMs were bombed last year and a substantial amount of skimmers (devices that criminals install or attach to ATMs to facilitate duplication of cards) were found on other ATMs.

Now this is all good and well... Except that, as most of us know by now, this being South Africa, even the most well intentioned plans usually tend to go wrong. Sometimes horribly wrong, other times just slightly wrong. But most of the time, amusingly wrong!

Turns out, when a maintenance team went 'round to service one of these machines, they got a little more than they bargained for!!! Yup!!! They got a very unpleasant dose of pepper spray in the face!!!

While I do feel sorry for the guys who got sprayed, I also cannot help but wonder why the mechanism was triggered? Did the trigger mechanism just coincidentally malfunction when they were there? Did they forget to disarm the machine before trying to service it? Or did the trigger mechanism detect their actions as potentially criminal in nature and just did what it was installed to do in the first place?

So, next time you go draw money at an ABSA ATM, consider that, if you're not an ABSA customer, on top of being charged the Saswitch fee, you might potentially get pepper sprayed too!!! Sure does make driving a bit further down the road or walking to the other end of the mall to use your own bank's ATM just that little bit more appealing!!!