So far so good.

But then the “creator” of this little piece decided to spice it up. Some funny quotes had to be added, only this schmuck did not have anything original to add, so something was plagiarised. I know this because despite this “creator” going to the effort of changing airline names and flight numbers, possibly even <wait for it> adding  a flight number or city name, I remember most of it, except with other airline names. I can paste any sentence in Google and come up with the same list of witticisms, only with other airline names in it.

And to be fair, these reportedly true comments from all the other sites at best probably originated as one liner bar jokes. I’ll put my money of only a handful being actual comments by airline personnel. I’m sure of this because fun has long been legislated out of the workplace, and most of these comments are risque enough by today’s standards to quite possibly be the last that that person made while in the employ of said airline.

The same goes for music these days. The better you know some of the older tunes the less likely you are to hear a “new” one.

I’ve often wondered who these people are, these people that purposely dilute original creations. The ones who insist on telling you where <wait for it> the punchline in the joke is. The ones who <this is the best part> would not allow you to decide for yourself which is the best part of the joke is without first letting you which part they think it is. The ones who subtly changes original jokes to make it “new”, as if it’s like recycling raw materials. Except it’s not like that, not at all.

Somewhere the line Originality is dying, subdued by laziness and slowly being beaten to death by mediocrity. Eventually it will lie in an unmarked grave where the sun probably does not shine.

Hmmmm. Don’t really have much to say, a bit of a bummer update.

Did the Boven weekend, arrived Friday mid morning and had a lovely day. Was pretty useless on Saturday, but the highlight was definitely “Little Bonsai” (16). A really nice climb of about 25m. Dinner was fabulous: Fillet with ostrich wors and braai samies. Later that night another group borrowed our fire to make espetada’s, and insisted I have a taste – divine!! Apart from some other secret herbs & spices, they stuck the meat on bay leaf sticks and threw bay leaves on the fire to further flavour the meat. Quite a treat, I must say.

But then Sunday turned out a disaster. While making breakfast, news came in of an accident close to the campsite. From Climb.co.za:
“Heinrich Kahl passed away this Sunday at Waterval Boven. He was 27.

Heinrich was well known as a top level sport climber (competed in a couple of Roc & Road’s) and was fast becoming one of SA’s hardest trad climbers.

He and his wife Carlien prepared to climb All’s Bells (19 trad) at Tranquilitas. At the base of the climb was a refrigerator sized boulder which one has to scramble up on to get onto the climb; as Heinrich mantled onto the boulder it came lose and toppled over on top of him. Heinrich sustained serious internal injuries and died on the scene. Carlien broke her hand and got bruised badly but is otherwise okay.”

News24 article here.

Did not know him personally, but did chat to him once or twice. Good guy, very easy to get along with and had a lekker conversation with him.

No more climbing for me that day.

Farewell…

That leaves 4 songs to go….

In other news, there’s a Boven trip coming up next weekend, remember you may not ever get another chance!  

I’ve added a page for all things green, and kicked it off with some info on where you can drop off plastic to get it recycled. Hope to expand it with some more hard-to-find goodies.

And then some bad news: Woolworths did not keep to their promise – here an email from Mark who drives the campaign:

“Woolworths claims that the premium on free-range eggs has nearly tripled since June and this has prevented them from delivering on their promise to switch to free-range eggs.

Their first official commitment to us (in writing) was for the first 70 products to be rolled out in April 2010, a second wave to be announced in June 2010, and a new liquid egg factory to be built as a matter of top priority – so that they could expedite the complete changeover within 2 years. They’ve sent lists and plans, yet nothing has materialised.

We are going to meet Woolworths in August to find out more about this delay and report back to you.

Mark Fox (mark@activist.co.za)”

And that’s all the laundry, some clean and some not so clean.

I fell asleep during the Megadeth bit – sorry Dave. Not to be nasty, but I think Megadeth would have done a lot better with another vocalist. Everything else was good, it’s just that the vocals did not work for me at all.

And then Metallica. Man, they are simply in a class of their own. Good show, and “Am I evil” with all the guys playing together was magnificent. You’ll be hard pressed to ever find a fuller, fatter sound than the drums, bass & rhythm of four of the all time great metal bands put together on one song.

Two not so lekker things: 1 – I left my earplugs at home thinking it won’t be that loud. Big mistake. The sound quality inthe theatre is excellent so you don’t really realise how loud it was until you walk out. It’s 14 hours later and I can still feel the after effects. Heard the same from the guys in the other theatres. Heard….mwahahaha.
2: Although 75% full there was not much energy to be felt from the other people there. I heard it was a lot better in Brooklyn, but where I was I started feeling awkward tapping my feet to the beat. Everyone just sat while I thought we were going to be jumping on seats…

All in all a good show, finished at 1am. I thought I was going to be spread a bit thin today, but all is good. The boss is gone so it’s going to be an early afternoon

This weekend:
Delivering on my pet project tomorrow morning. Then entertain myself for a coupl of hours until Landmine Rock starts. Sunday looks like it’s going to be and my slackline. I might go check out some bouldering too – 2 spots I’ve been meaning to go see. Nothing new, but both spots seems to have stayed under the radar despite being close and safe. Hopefully not because it’s shit….

Other than that, it’s Friday afteroon – what are you still doing here?!

I’m not free of want, prejudice, jealousy, fear and so much more. I’ve fucked up all my chances to have a “normal” life – I dropped out of college, walked out of a 9 year relationship and managed to screw up the next one for the next 2. I’m not settled, have no kids and have no desire of changing the situation.

At least no one can call me a quitter.

It feels like I’ve been fighting life, not living it. Despite knowing better and having experienced being some years back I insisted on going back to the tried and tested ways of wasting one’s precious time on earth.

To quote the ever trusty Metallica :

“Stop to warm at karma’s burning
My lifestyle determines my deathstyle
You live it or you lie it
I’ve worn out always being afraid
An endless stream of fear that i’ve made
Treading water full of worry
This frantic tick tick talk of hurry”

The only thing it seems I know about love is that I have no real clue. I think I was James in a previous life:

“Love is control
I’ll die if I let go
Squeeze all within my hands
choke within my hands
I’ll die if I let go
Control is love, love is control
I’ll fall if I let go
Control is love, love is control
I will only let you breathe
My air that you receive
Then we’ll see if i let you love me”

Being the die-hard optimist I am, I guess that means there’s hope: one can work on what one knows is lacking. So, this not really a “new”-new thing, I’m sort of just re-dedicating myself to living, loving and learning. To surround myself with people who are living free, thinking free.

 This is a work in progress, I’ll update on the “About” page from time to time. I think I’ll start with this:

I will strive to :

• Be responsible and accountable for all my actions. No one else is and I will not, for instance, expect the government to ensure my well being. It’s my job.
• Become aware of me, through my body. All the guys who seem to know what’s potting says your body is the gateway to awareness.
• Allow others to aspire to and achieve the same as what I’m trying to achieve.

When I got to work this morning I could hardly speak so the boss was kind enough to let me go feel sorry for myself elsewhere. Freedom!!

A cosy morning in bed and then back to work. I decided to not wait until Saturday to move the remaining stuff to Refilwe, but rather get it done this afternoon – pics to follow. My storage requirement is rapidly shrinking – woohooo! I’ve also seen the progress the guys are making and listened to James talking to the volunteers: they are serious about a self sustaining organic environment – I’m so excited to be able to witness the evolution of their project.

I have placed my bets and I’m now absolutely certain it was the best thing I could have done with the equipment. Sure, I could have sold it and probably bought myself a plane ticket to Europe or somewhere else I want to go, but it would have been a tedious and drawn out process with little satisfaction. I KNOW I’ll be going back to visit these people again and again, and seeing my small contribution grow into something more than the sum of the parts will be priceless.

However, the night, not eating and the hard work caught up with me, so I let my inner girl out and soaked in a hot tub… but only after making food fit for a king – a weird mix of mince, pasta and stewing sauce. Awesome!!

The weekend is looking good too: spoiled for choice of entertainment and company tomorrow night. An almost errand free Saturday, followed by more difficult decisions regarding which excellent entertainment offerings to peruse…. <sigh> Life’s tough! Muahahahahaha!

PS: The girl in the pic looks tired, like me, so that’s the reason for the pic. Promise.

So, I should sit back and relax and just smile at the young, dumb, full of cum bigmouth youth, running on the field making a big noise. Chances are I did exactly the same a little while back. 

Damn. Takes away some of the fun though, sometime it’s fun getting on the soap box and letting the mere mortals know how things actually are

On the 11th of May 2010 a currently advantaged citizen decided to push me of the road in peak traffic and then drove off, leaving me with my side mirror dangling. I’ll cut the long story short by saying I reported the matter at the police (after first having to convince the currently advantaged station commander that it is indeed criminal to crash into someone on purpose and then drive off). I provided them with a detailed statement (which was trashed and substituted with a generic description of a collision), photographic evidence as well as the place where they could find the culprit – he was working on a construction site nearby.

This morning I got a call that they will be dropping the case, as the registration number does not exist in the NATIS system. Yes, it took them 2 and a half months to figure that out. Yes, the guy is no longer on the site where he continued to work for at least 3 weeks after the incident, and they failed to pay him a visit.

My real anger lies in this:
Did they merely take a bribe and told me they can’t find the guy? How would I know? With frequent headlines of cops being arrested for anything from housebreaking to rape and selling weapons (including assault rifles) from police stations, this is really not a far fetched thought.

In my hart I know I should let it go, but on the other hand I’m tempted to go to another police station and see if they can find the registration (I’ve seen it done first hand, it takes seconds) – but what then if they do find it and I’ve proven my point? Waste days and weeks fighting a corrupt system that goes right to the top?

Rather not. Fuck it.

For posterity:

“Man”, it said, “this might be next to nothing
and drawn through a bitter tap,
but it’s all you’ll ever have.
Don’t spill a drop.”
– John Glenday, from Grain, via Chris Floyd‘s ”Love and Strife: Don’t Spill A Drop”
 

the end