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!!!

Hallo Wacky World!!!

OK!!! Finally!!!

After contemplating it for some time I finally decided to start recording my rantings on this here little blog.

- Liar!!! You've had a Blogger account for ages now and was just too lazy to use it!!!

Shttt!!! Nobody needs to know that!

Anyway... At least I got started now... And just so we're clear: I won't intentionally try to offend, but if and when I do, please be a grown-up about it!!! We're all entitled to our own opinion. And when your opinion differs from mine, "You're Wong!!!" is very likely to just be ignored!

A good counter argument, on the other hand, is food for thought and might also fuel the fires for future creativity and posts.

So, with all that out of the way, here's to my first attempt at blogging and to hoping that it might achieve a modicum of success (or even just a few loyal readers).