And so the year ends...

I'll be away for a bit so this is my last blog entry for the year.

Top News Story :

The biggest shock internationally this year must either be Michael Jackson's unexpected death or the election of Barack Obama as president of the US. For me personally, it was Michael Jackson's death that is the biggest news story this past year. It's weird to live in a world where the King of Pop is no more. Not that I was ever a fan, I prefer other styles of music.

Locally, the endless corruption of officials in the ANC is neither shocking nor news anymore. The news for me would be an official untainted by the corruption. Does such a person exist?

Then there was the, eventually, sad story of Caster Semenya. It defies logic that officials would use this poor woman, lie about so many things, and then leave her to the newshounds, exposing her unmentionables for all the world to gnaw at.

Personally, J&C have done well at school so we are expecting a pass into the next grades, Big C's pregnancy is progressing very well, baby's due mid Feb (hey sis, think you can make it on J's birthday? ;) ), we were adopted by a cat which is sadly no longer with us, I found the perfect Christmas gift for Himself and life is generally good!

And then there's the blissful 4 weeks away in the greatest spot on earth. Watching whales from the rocks, eating freshly caught crayfish (TGU, you better bring your boat with!). Hanging out braaing, sitting around the fire at night watching the stars and listening out for the owls, catching up with old friends.

Presents on Christmas morning, trifle, lunch, trifle, vegging out while the kids play, sneaking the last brandy-sodden bowl of trifle.

Did I mention trifle?

Then New Year's, pretty much the same except for presents. There will be trifle.

And then the last few days with M&S from Oz.

Then home.

And the start of a new year.

Memories of trifle slowly fading away......

To the handful of people who actually read this blog, have a great time over Christmas and New Year. Eat well, drink loads (but don't drive!), stay safe and have a blast!

I'll see you all next year!

Lapa update

I forgot to post pictures of the final product.

Halfway on the second day :

Finally done on the third day : The outside :

Inside :

Inside :

The roof inside :

Why do we celebrate Christmas?

If, like us, you live far away from any family, it's about being able to spend time with people you see once a year. It's also about food, presents, Santa (not even the kids believe in him anymore but what the heck we can pretend can't we?), more food, mmmm trifle, sleeping the afternoon away and family. And then we do it all again at New Year's. With trifle. But mainly, it's about family. And trifle.

Tell me about yours. No, not the trifle! The family, and what you celebrate at Christmas!

(but tell me about the trifle too please)

Lapa rebuild

Today's the day! Our lapa (thatched structure for my non-SA friends) has been damaged by years of neglect and horrendous rain storms the last few weeks. Today, a specialist company is coming out to remove the grass, fix the damage and replace the grass, which hopefully should last forever.

As promised, some photos of the day's progression :

Starting to strip the old damaged grass

Halfway with the front

The mess it leaves

LOL Friday

A tattoo that you might regret forever?

We've been adopted

by a cat!





For a few months now there have been a few cats roaming around our backyard. On the weekend, this one decided to brave the unknown and sneaked into the kitchen when no one was around.



J&C have blossomed with all the attention they are getting from this cat. He/she/it has gone from being terrified to letting you know that he is damn hungry and where's the damn food?!? Oh and no cat food for this animal. He is a specially FSM blessed cat that just loves digging into a bowl of pasta. J&C have named it Casper but I feel that just maybe Garfield would have been better!

10 years ago today

I had an empty womb and an even emptier heart.


Weeks and months go by and I seldom give you any thought. This year for some reason I've been thinking more about you and what you would have been like, with a younger brother and sister chasing you around the house.


Happy birthday. I miss you.

Himself's weekend in the bush

Himself spent Friday to this morning at Mashatu Game Lodge in Botswana at a conference. Inbetween all the "work", this is what they got up to...

Elephant calf and juvenile having a sandbath



Elephant crossing



Elephant stripping a tree




There's a National Geographic team filming the animals in the park and part of their programme is to collect information by darting the animals. That's himself grinning like a kid, the conference members were taken out and shown how an elephant is darted and what information is collected. That's Stella, the oldest elephant in the park.



Lions on the horizon. Can you spot how many?



Sleeping leopard



Leopard with a kill

Another random act of kindess

A selfish one on my part this week! Jen over at RAK has challenged us to let someone cut in front of us, anywhere anytime.

I went to the market to pick up my gnocchi order (Sorry Ei, I tried that recipe you sent me again and it failed, miserably!) from the Italian Lady and got stuck at the Polish sausage and meats stall. Sausage Dude gave me a piece to try, probably in the hopes that I would buy some (I did) but he failed to realise that because it tasted so damn nice I might want more...and the Carnivores I birthed might want more too. So, while we were oohing and aahing over the awesome taste, I let 2 people cut in front of me to actually purchase a much more substantial amount of his meat and sausage than I eventually did! :)

Freaky coincidence and LOL Friday

Himself is currently on a prop plane to Botswana. He sent a photo to me while still in the air. At the same time I got it, Annie Lennox's Little Bird started playing on the radio. The bit about wishing for wings to fly away....that was playing as I opened the link to the photo...




Because I am a man...

when I lock my keys in the car I will fiddle with a coat hanger long after hypothermia has set in. Calling the AA is not an option. I will win.

when the car isn't running very well, I will pop the hood and stare at the engine as if I know what I'm looking at. If another man shows up, one of us will say to the other, "I used to be able to fix these things, but now with all these computers and everything, I wouldn't know where to start." We will then drink a couple of beers and break wind, as a form of holy communion.

when I catch a cold, I need someone to bring me soup and take care of me while I lie in bed and moan. You're a woman. You never get as sick as I do, so for you, this is no problem.

I can be relied upon to purchase basic groceries at the store, like beer, milk or bread. I cannot be expected to find exotic items like "cumin" and "tofu". For all I know, these are the same thing...

when one of our appliances stops working, I will insist on taking it apart, despite evidence that it will just cost me twice as much once the repair person gets here and has to put it back together.

I must hold the television remote control in my hand while I watch TV. If the thing has been misplaced, I may miss a whole show looking for it...though one time I was able to survive by holding a calculator...

I do not want to visit your mother, or have your mother come visit us, or talk to her when she calls, or think about her any more than I have to. Whatever you got her for Mother's Day is okay, I don't need to see it. And don't forget to pick something up for my mother too.

you don't have to ask me if I liked the movie. Chances are, if you are crying at the end of it, I didn't...and if you are feeling amorous afterwards, then I will certainly at least try to remember the name and recommend it to others.

I think what you are wearing is fine. I thought what you were wearing five minutes ago was fine, too. Either pair of shoes is fine. With the belt or without it, looks fine. Your hair is fine. You look fine. Can we just go now?

there is no need to ask me what I'm thinking about. The true answer is always either sex, cars, sex, sports or sex. I have to make up something else when you ask, so don't ask.

and this is after all, the year 2009, I will share equally in the housework. You just do the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning, the vacuuming and the dishes. I'll do the rest, like wandering around the garden with a beer wondering what to do.

Random acts of Kindness

I'm not a morning person. Ask Himself. It takes at least 11tybilllion cups of tea before my brain surfaces and is ready for action.

Every morning on the drive from home to school and back again I have my car radio on, blaring mostly 80s hits with me and the kids singing at the top of our voices. Yes, we are those people, the freaks who love to sing along. When I'm alone in the car I get those stares, the ones from unhappy lumps who aren't morning people either and who haven't had their caffeine fix for the day. I like it, it keeps me (mostly) from yelling obscenities when people cut me off, or hoot at me because I'm driving the speed limit or doing the right thing on the road.

And twice a week I buy a newspaper from the News Dude at a certain set of robots.

News Dude is a young man who stands in the middle of the traffic and very pleasantly tries to sell newspapers to passing motorists. The first morning I saw him standing there, like most others, I rolled my window up because I was in a rush and didn't want to be bothered. The next morning I watched (the lights were out) as he weaved in and out of the cars. It was chaos but he never let any of the bad moods and rudeness bother him as he went about his business. Which intrigued me. The next time the lights were red, my window was open with music blaring as usual. He casually walked by and came back asking if I would like to buy a newspaper. I didn't have any cash on me so said no thanks. He said ok, have a nice day and walked away. The day after, he waved hello and walked on by. And the day after that I bought a newspaper. Now I buy one every Tuesday and Thursday, sometimes on other days if the lights are green and I can't stop. He's always pleasant and friendly, takes the time to say have a nice day.

This all ties in to my friend Jen's blog about random acts of kindness. After this week's challenge of saying thank you or smiling or have a nice day to random strangers, I realised that because of this young man's pleasant attitude and always having a smile ready no matter what, I started buying newspapers from him instead of reading all about it online. I can easily do that but the difference is, we wouldn't have our almost daily exchange which adds something nice to an otherwise dull day.

Who does this?

Himself went to the market this morning. Well he was supposed to go to Woolies for croisants for breakfast and ended up at the market. I think because C guilted him into it for custard tarts and spring rolls. What was only supposed to be a half hour round trip turned into a 2 hour delay. Himself got the croisants then when he came back to his car at the market, he had a flat so he went to the nearest garage to see if they could fix any leaks. There weren't any. Which means that someone must have let the air out of the tyre. There is no other explanation. Wanker. Breakfast was very late.

LOL Friday

Nature

See those two white specks near the snail? Those are eggs. J&C found her laying her eggs in a flowerpot when they went to bury another moth. Of course now all they want to do is dig them out and care for them. We've decided for now to leave her be and keep monitoring to see when the eggs hatch and baby snails come popping out of the sand.

We have a cemetary in our back yard

That's right, we have a cemetary. Why? I hear you ask. Well, a moth died. And I dumped it in the rubbish bin. And then we had tears and there was no way on this earth that I was going to go digging through the trash to remove it and bury it. So we struck a deal, the next moth to die would get a proper burial. This morning, two little furry, squishy corpses were waiting for J&C in the box. I had to keep my word.

You ever have one of those days?

Where you just want to kill someone? In a bad way? Mush their bones together until the marrow leaks out?

If you have, tell me about yours.

You can eat tequila?!?

Ok so we all know that tequila the drink is very popular, you know....One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila.....FLOOR!

I don't like it, at all. I'd rather drink turpentine thanks.



I do however cook with it. If I do say so myself, my tequila lasagna is very popular with my family. Nothing fancy, just chuck 8 tots into about a kilo of minced meat while you are cooking your meat sauce and that's it.



Last week while browsing around the Irene market, I noticed a tiny little plant at the back of the Plant Lady's stall. The name of the chilli was tequila. I didn't buy one. Himself was....well...beside Himself. (He likes tequila see....)

This morning I thought I'd surprise him (he's away and on a flight home right now) so after visiting the Veg Guy's stall, the Bread Girlie's stall and the Italian Lady, I stopped by the Plant Lady. She had to look for it but it was there, hidden at the back of the habanero and tobasco chilli plants.



So, I am now the proud owner of a tequila product that I can eat.

And this is why Pretoria will always be tainted with racism...

Last week J's grade 2 year (6 classes) spent the morning at a working farm that has a small part set aside for guided tours. You get to touch farm animals too! He enjoyed it immensely. Later on in the week, a friend asked if J had also complained about "those blacks". I said no, what was going on? She then told me that there had been a group of kids from another, black, school there and that a few of them had attacked a few of our, predominantly white, kids, stolen money, scratched in bags and just generally behaved like a bunch of savages, you know, like only blacks can (insert eyeroll from her here). Her child was one of the kids attacked and choked from behind by a black boy, she said.

I was quite shocked because surely the teachers would have intervened, I asked. No she said, they were nowhere to be seen and the kids had to fend for themselves.

Did any one of the parents ask the teachers what really happened? No she said, there was no point, it was obvious that they did not have the best interests of the children at heart and she had an appointment to see the headmaster anyway to lay a complaint and to insist that the other school be held accountable. After that the conversation became a rant on her part about how black people are the scourge of the earth. I must admit, at one point all I heard was blah blah blah blahblahblah blahblah....until she left and I had time to think about it and to question J.

J told me that he didn't know about any physical fighting but that he saw one boy try and grab a sweet out of another's hand. He couldn't remember the colour of their skins.

Today, for the first time since last week, I saw his teacher long enough to ask what had happened. I though, let me find out from someone who was there and saw firsthand what had gone on.

It turns out that one of our schoolchildren verbally pestered one of the other children in the other school group. The guides had taken our children around the farm and then left them in the care of the teachers to eat their lunch before climbing back onto the buses. A handful of children didn't listen though and sneaked out to a small play area and started pestering the black children whose turn it was to play in the play area. And as it happens in any schoolground around the world, the kids involved got to fighting and the teachers from both schools jumped in to stop it.

So, our kids were the culprits. To further complicate things, she said that some of the parents had taken the matter up with the Parent Control Board instead of going to the headmaster or even the teachers to find out what had happened. That these same parents demanded action and even wanted to get a protest march together to force our school headmaster to do something about the children from the black school. That they also wished for the teachers to be disciplined in some way.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Racism is so ingrained in many households here that the future of our country's minds are being poisoned from the cradle. They are being taught to hate black people for no reason other than skin colour. White children here are taught that blacks are less than human, that they have no worth. And when it comes to incidents like these, it's better to lie to your parents than tell them the truth. Because white people don't lie.

Which makes me think that my friend's child may have lied to her mother just to be part of the group.

I hope that in this environment I can raise J&C to be better than that, to not see colour at all except as a novelty. That any prejudices I might have do not rub off on them about anything and anyone. That they have their own minds when it comes to the colour of someone's skin and that they judge a person on their actions and not by racial makeup.

A random act of kindness

My friend Jen has restarted her blog about random acts of kindness. The challenge for this week is to pay for something for a stranger.

Reminds me of that movie Pay It Forward. A random act without thinking about what you can get out of it, how you will benefit instead of the person you are supposed to help. This is going to be interesting.

ECC 25 years on...

25 years ago this year, a group of young white men stood up to a government and told them they would not be conscripted into an army out fighting the big bad black man not only in our own backyards but also in other countries like Namibia and Angola.

I was 14 the year they came about. The 80s was a very violent and anxious time for many young white kids in the suburbs. The government at the time was in the midst of fighting the Swart Gevaar (Black Danger) that existed in the townships and hell bent on dominating the black population permanently. The country was also suffering from sanctions by the rest of the world and there was enormous pressure to release Nelson Mandela and unban the ANC. The white media at the time were full of stories of white people suffering at the hands of black people and perpetuating the myth that the Black Man was out to end the lives of all white people. Many white people were genuinely scared that they were going to be slaughtered in their beds by rampaging masses of black people.

At the time, it was required by law that any eligible white male would serve in the country's defence force for a 2 year period upon leaving school. The ECC opposed this, and as a result was banned and their members harrassed by the government and jailed or exiled. Even so, they helped overturn apartheid rule by denying the government the lives of young men unwilling to fight a war that was wrong on such fundemental levels.

I remember young men in our community at the time going off to fight in a border war they couldn't begin to comprehend. I remember those same boys coming back scarred for life after witnessing some of the most horrific scenes you can imagine in a war that had nothing to do with them, a war perpetuated by a government unwilling to treat all human beings as equal. I remember too the families just in our little community of a few thousand houses mourning the loss of their sons.

The ECC is having a celebration in various locations this month to commemorate the legacy that the ECC gave this country. One of the most exciting items on the agenda will be the performance that the 5 original members of Bright Blue will be doing at Spier this Saturday, the first time in 23 years that they will be performing again.

Their song Weeping was, for me and many others, the ultimate protest song that spurred on the movement to bring down the apartheid system.

This is the original video shot by Bright Blue.



I knew a man who lived in fear
It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near
Behind his house, a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon he could never face.

He built a wall of steel and flame
and men with guns to keep it tame.
Then standing back, he made it plain
That the nightmrae would never ever rise again
But the fear and the fire and the guns remain.

It doesn't matter now
It's over anyhow
He tells the world that it's sleeping
But as the night came round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn't roaring it was weeping.

And then one day the neighbours came
They were curious to know about the smoke and flame
They stood around outside the wall
But of course there was nothing to be heard at all
"My friends" he said, "We've reached our goal
The threat is under firm control.
As long as peace and order reign
I'll be damned if I can see a reason to explain
Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain."

The background song you hear, that is Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, rallying song of the ANC during apartheid and now part of our National Anthem. Weeping spent two weeks at number one on Radio 5's top 40 after the radio djays played it over and over in defiance of the ban the government felt this song warranted.

Random photos

C has a new obsession, a digital camera we don't use.

Hey hey it's Friday!

I'm supposed to be clearing out some paperwork (self imposed work) but am soooo not into it. It all started with a phone call from Leo. Leo is trying desperately to sell wine over the phone. Poor Leo. Maybe if he'd caught me in the middle of the afternoon after trying to calm down 4 kids in the heat, I'd have bought the entire harvest and had it shipped up express courier or something...

Instead, he called me an hour ago at 9.30am, sounding all breathy and so stoked he actually got someone on the phone who wasn't instantly trying to end the call. Poor Leo was so intent on going for the jugular he totally missed the point of a cold call - keeping the person on the other end from losing interest. Comes from sounding unsure of the product you are selling and waffling on about harvests and wine makers and the John Platter guide. I'm a wine ho bro, shove a bottle in my hand and it'll be downed before you can even try and pry the cork out. I don't need to know that a particular wine is made by Such-and-Such and has 4 stars in the John Platter. Mr Platter might have been the eminent wine guru back in the day but his guide has become an unaffordable bribable whore who rates wines according to who pays more to be in it these days.

Market day and silkworms

Yesterday morning, J&C came to wake me up at sparrowfart to tell me that they now had a female moth...and look mom! They're stuck together! Why are they stuck together?....me at 6 30am...ur fnljemmmal huh? My head was still under the duvet. Mooooom! What? Oh they're stuck together because they're making babies. But how are they making babies? Oh the daddy moth puts his seeds into the mommy moth and she lays eggs. Oh. Cool! Me.....nowgetoffthebedsoIcansleep.....off they went happily babbling about the eggs they're going to get...me....ARGH!

So, market day. It was damn hot yesterday morning and idiot here forgot to take a hat with. And I left the half frozen water bottle at home. First stop was at the deli section to get a medium sized iced coffee...yum fair trade stuff.

The loot :

Second stop was the Curry Dude. Curry Dude will mix whatever you want for whatever type of curry you want to make. I'm making chicken curry today for lunch. Himself has been in Zambia on a conference since Thursday and is lekker lus for a good homemade curry. Oh and Curry Dude also gave me a seasoning mixture with a bit of a kick, can use it on any meat, roasted veg....I mixed it with some melted butter last night and poured that all over the cauliflower and broccoli. YUM!!!!!

The bag on the left is the bbq spice.

After Curry Dude we visited Veggie Dude. Veggie Dude comes every second week and has the most awesome tasting tomatoes, these things are so fresh and taste so sweet and sunny. This week he had red and green chillies so two bags of those plus fresh dhania and I had the makings of a nice curry. I bought some of his artichokes too, dirt cheap! The bread, a large ciabatta type, scarcely made it home before it was devoured, plain with butter on.

Check out those tomatoes, so red and juice. Gosh I sound like an orgasmic ad for adult toys or something. They are good though.

J&C had gotten some money from The Mother when she was here visiting and decided to spend it at the market. I just knew the minute we walked past the stall with the handmade Barbie wedding dresses and ballgowns that C was going to spend her money there. So now her fake Barbie has a bright red ballgown with sequins and a gold panty to match. J was a bit more conservative and bought a box with 3 wooden cutout and glue together then paint toys.

So with all my shopping needs taken care of, off we went to see what else the market had to offer. Two hours later and we were ready for lunch so off to the tearoom section. J&C opted for calamari and chips while I had a steak burger, all washed down with ice cold water. Then we headed off home to gloat over the loot.

Afternoon thunder shower brought some relief from the heat of the day, hail the size of quail eggs though. Lightning was pretty impressive until well in the night.

Some not so Caturday stuff

All about music

I'm an 80s baby, with some 60s and 70s in there and possibly some early 90s. Anything else after that is just atrocious.

The one thing I despise though is the rise of the boy band. You know who they are - Boyzone, Boys to Men, NKOTB....the 5 boy lineup that can act, sing and dance...well maybe not sing so much. The fodder of record companies when they want to make money, a formula that precludes any originality.

So in no particular order, here's a sample of what I enjoy listening to :



Annie Lennox's YouTube channel....oh the memories....

October 15

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance day. It's a day that many women who have suffered losses put aside to remember theire lost babies.

Hugs and sympathies to all who have suffered such a devestating loss.

The Saga of the Silkworms continues...

The box has been kept under J's bed now for about a week. The last worm spun its cocoon at the end of last week. Today J heard a slight noise coming from under his bed and when he investigated, there was a moth clinging for dear life to the threads holding a bed of cocoons safe against the wall of the box. It's wings are still wet.

What I find interesting is that he can hear a moth making a noise like uncurling it's wet wings inside the box under his bed from the top of the bunk but he can't hear when I call him to clean up his latest mess.....

An Afrikaans lesson...

Aparently, if you add the gutteral sounding ge- in front of any English word, it automatically becomes an Afrikaans word.

C in the car on the way home from school - Mamma kan ek asseblief 'n slukkie koeldrank kry? (Mom can I have a sip of colddrink please?)

Me - Yes, but don't backwash. (She frantically swallows the snack she'd been eating...)

C - Mamma ek het nie ge-backwash nie. (Mom I didn't backwash.)

For my non-South African friends, it's very difficult to try and explain how to pronounce the ge- sound. It's very gutteral and sounds like you are trying your utmost to clear your throat.

Funny email

Someone sent me this picture in an email today. Gives new meaning to hot willy....

Dressing for a visit to the gynecologist

Backstory - Five years ago we moved our entire household from Cape Town to Pretoria. Of the many things I do miss, my gynecologist is one. She's just the best there is (Christine van Heerden at Milnerton Medi Clinic - the one time I break my self imposed rule of mentioning real names of real people). She's such a sweetheart. So if you are reading this and live anywhere near Milnerton Medi Clinic....SEE HER! Awesome doctor.

Some time last year my GP said it was time I found myself a gynecologist up here as I'd last had a pap smear just after C's birth. I called around and eventually found one who still takes on new patients who are not pregnant. Lovely lady, she could be my old gynecologist's twin sister. Just as good. This morning I went to see her for my annual checkup.

The dressing up part....

I don't know about anyone else. Me, you take me as you see me. I'm used to walking around barefoot in summer, with a tshirt and capris on. I lived 5 minutes from Blouberg and there was no way I'd squish my feet into shoes in summer! Whenever I had to go somewhere more fancy than the local mall, I'd try and remember to dress a bit better, you know...smarter pants, shirt instead of tshirt, sandals instead of bare feet. Sometimes I'd wander into a doctor's visit barefoot with two kids in tow but hell, their view of Blouberg was practically on the water! They didn't mind or care.

Up here, in Pretoria, capital of the Jean Pant wiff a belt...it's a different story. Here, they not only plaster on the makeup whenever they take the trash can out, they really dress up for the occasion. So this morning, after dropping J&C off at school, I came home and pottered around first. Then wandered into the bathroom...showered...washed my hair...remembered to shave my pits...got out...saw that the hair on my legs could make a nice winter pelt for some hibernating wild bear somewhere so got back in and shaved....got out and got dressed.

There were 5 other patients there this morning, all dressed as if they were going to meet the Queen. With my shoes and my smart pants and shirt I still felt under dressed. Next time I think I'll just go in a pair of shorts, tshirt and bare feet, and sprinkle fairy dust on my you-know-what.

On my soapbox

So driving to school this morning I got stuck behind a woman with a child in the front seat. Kid couldn't have been more than about 3 or 4. She had a car seat in the back seat, empty. The kid was, instead, playing with a doll while sitting facing the seat with her back to the windscreen.

I see this sort of thing every single day and every single day I want to get out of my car and smack the person upside the head, or something. People don't think about the what ifs, until it happens to them and they lose a child in a most horrific manner. And even then, they'll blame the stupid driver of the other car who crashed into them. They never think that maybe if the child had been in proper restraints in the first place, they would not have died.

What is it with the human race that we can breed without thought, treat our kids as if they are there for our entertainment but when we stupidly create the reason for their death, we blame someone else for their stupidity?

District 9

AWESOME! AMAZING! STUNNING! BRILLIANT MOVIE!

Last night Himself and I went to see this movie. Ok it started showing here 3 weeks ago but we hate going to watch a movie the day it comes out. Too many people pushing and shoving to get in. We like to take our time.

If you haven't seen it yet, this movie has put SA firmly on the international movie scene like Tsotsi the Oscar winner never could and like Leon Schuster likes to pretend he has.

The plot : Parktown prawn-like aliens park their spaceship over Johannesburg and 20 odd years later they are living in squalor and breeding at a rapid pace, with an angry human population wanting them removed. A company called MNU (read multinational agency trying their utmost to get their hands on alien weaponry, genetic engineering...) is in charge of the aliens. One agent, Wikus van der Merwe, is put in charge of forcibly removing the aliens to a new settlement some 200kms outside of Johannesburg as the human citizens do not want them anywhere near them (shades of apartheid at it's worst). Somewhere in the first 15 minutes or so, he is contaminated with a black liquid.....with MNU agents chasing him down because his human-alien DNA is now highly sought after.....

We laughed through most of the movie. The South African humour will probably be lost on an international audience, especially the Afrikaans bits.

If you enjoy sci-fi with a local lekker twist, go see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

All about silkworms

The Saga of the Silkworms 2009 continues. We had 19. Last week one died. By Friday we had 2 solid sunshine yellow cocoons. On Sunday, an off white cocoon and today, one is currently spinning itself into it's home for the next 3 weeks. My mulberry tree looks like a sad little thing with many many bare branches. Not only have I provided food for our 18 worms, but for a friend's 250. So far, only 12 have spun their cocoons. She has another coupla hundred to go.

So far, we've learned that silkworms eat for about 26 days before taking 3 days to spin a cocoon and turn into a pupa. About 21 days later the moth emerges. It doesn't eat or fly, but has a fantastic sex life, lays eggs and dies 5 days later. Six to 20 days later, the cycle starts again. I don't think my mulberry tree is going to last another round...

Catching up

So The Mother has been visiting. She arrived on the 19th and leaves next Monday.

I haven't been online much until this morning and have been trying to catch up on all that has been happening on the interwebz since the 19th....damn but people can talk a lot! :)

While wading through all these interesting events, my mail has been slowly downloading in the background. Slllooooooowwwwwwlllllyyyyyyyy.

When I checked why, there were 1meg, 3meg size mails coming from someone I know who likes to send endless streams of crap to every single person she knows who has an email address. I regret ever giving her mine. Maybe I should put her on my junkmail or banned address list.

Oh and she has a full time job, with internet access. One can only silently eat spaghetti in the hope that her boss revokes her access, soon.

This is for Fuku....

Someone commented on my post about what's nice about being a South African on the internet and requested mud huts....so I googled mud hut images because believe it or not, I don't really live in a mud hut...

So....Jen...here's some for you! :)

From this blog about life in a black rural town...now how about that view? That's off the Transkei coast.

From a website about architecture...this one and many more depicting adobe architecture in the Sahal region of Africa...



See, they aren't all round and have straw roofs!

And this one, in the Lesotho highlands, taken from this photoblog that has awesome photos!

So while looking through the images of mud huts, I came across a site called Mud Huts, this is their logo, cute isn't it?

Mud Huts - a travel site for all things African, they will even arrange your honeymoon safari in the wilds of Africa!