Foo Fighters Tickets Bought!

Foo Fighters are coming to South African in December.

Today tickets went on sale at 9am and there was loads of excitement, frustration and butterflies in tummies to get tickets online.

I managed to get tickets by 9:17 and I can't wait until December.

Now I just need some Fooz merchandise.  Any ideas?



I'm coming, Dave....

Voting Over...

Some of us stood in the queues all morning, and some of us lucky bastids waltzed into the voting station at 2:30pm in the afternoon and were in and out within five minutes.

This was definitely NOT our first time voting and naturally we learned from previous general elections that everyone wants to get to the voting booths early and get it "over and done with".  That's why A Daft Scots Lass, her Boerewors and Wee Lassies went later in the afternoon to avoid the Christmas rush.



The IEC did a great job with organising the entire process of the South African General and Provincial Elections. Everything ran pretty smoothly in our areas and the atmosphere was light and friendly at the voting stations.  

The IEC have even provided us with an App to download and keep up-to-date with the results and news. It's a free download for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian. Go get it.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have been flooded with #thumbies and voting #selfies from the voting booths and its been awesome to witness the patriotism of all our fellow South Africans.

We patiently await the outcome of it all...

Voting Fever

So, Wednesday we get the day off work to go and vote in the 2014 South African general elections to elect a new National Assembly as well as new provincial legislatures in each province. 

Final rallies are happening all over the country and the political parties are meeting anywhere and everywhere.  The commercials are splattered all over the television and social media.  They are all working damn hard to fight for our votes.

The elections this year commemorates South Africa’s 20^th anniversary as a democratic country. 

South Africa as a country has progressed over the last 20 years since breaking the chains of apartheid in 1994.

Expats overseas got to brave the queues today, but Wednesday it's our turn to make our mark and let our voices be heard.  

I hope the queues aren't too long!

 

A to Z Blog Challenge Theme Reveal Vloggy #atozchallenge

Go sign up for the A to Z Blog Challenge this April.


 

South Africa at the 2011 ICU International Cheer Union World Championships

Team South Africa you did us proud!! Well done Justin and Sam!



Co-ed Partner with Justin Spotting



All Girls Group



Congratulations to Canada for winning this Co-Ed Elite Team section! Here's some highlights


Got to www.varsity.com to view all the team's performances under Varsity TV. Enjoy!

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Day 29 - The 30 Day Blog Challenge

Topic : Something you could never get tired of doing.

I would never get tired of looking at the ocean. 

I've spent the last four days down at the South Coast, Palm Beach, visiting with my mum and dad and its both lovely to spend time with them and be able to visit the ocean, watch the waves and spend time with them and the girls on the beach.

I missed my Boerewors and although it was a great few days by the sea side, it was GREAT to get home...

Palm Beach, South Coast, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa

I'm at the seaside.  Yipeee!

My girls at Palm Beach

My mum and dad, me and the girls

On the Twelth Day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Twelve nymphos mating,

Eleven virgins waiting

Ten colonels spanking,

Nine schoolboys cranking,

Eight nuns assenting,

Seven monks repenting,

Six queers consenting,

Five dutch caps;

Four birth pills,

Three condoms,

Two IUDs,

And a call girl calling on me.

Only in AFRICA!

Yeah, you gotta have a sense of humour to live in South Africa. 


The taxi drivers are a nightmare - it could either push you to regular bouts of road rage, or drive you to drink.  The wildlife and scenery is a sight for sore eyes - enough to take your breath away and leave you speechless.  The lack of gammar, half-decent spelling and proper use of punctuation from the government, is laughable.  The Spaza Shops are plentiful and the resourcefulness of the locals is verging on creative genius.


But that is Africa and why I love it.

Hey!  At least they warned us

Spaza Shop

The irony...

Ostrich strolls into a Filling Up Station...

Crap!

Resourcefulness even in the Suburbs

The Enormous African Beauty making a Golf look teeny weeny

Visit tomorrow for Half-Nekkid Thursday

The Sun Has Got His Halo On! Hip Hip Hip Hooray!

The majority of South Africans woke up yesterday morning to see a ring around the sun, known as a sun halo.

It was gorgeous and so unusual.  Well, I hadn't seen anything like it before.

According to South African Weather Service meteorologist, Mksufhuwa William Msimanga, this is a very common occurrence.

“It happens when we have a high-level cirrus cloud. It’s located between 5km to 10km in the upper atmosphere,” he said.

Msimanga explains that cirrus clouds are filled with ice crystals and as the sun heats crystals inside the cloud, they move apart which creates the ring which is actually a circular rainbow.

It was really hard taking the pictures as the sun was really bright.  I just pointed my cellphone in the general direction and hoped for the best.

This was the result.



This phenomenon does not last long. “It should last as long as we have the cloud, but this particular cloud is starting to move away, so it should start to dissipate within the hour. It all depends on the momentum of the cloud,” Msimanga concluded.

Youth Day in South Africa

16 June was previously known as Soweto Day.

In 1975 protests started in African schools after a directive from the previous Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as a language of instruction in secondary schools.

The issue however, was not so much the Afrikaans as the whole system of Bantu education which was characterised by separate schools and universities, poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms and inadequately trained teachers.

On the 16th June in 1976, more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto began a protest march. In the wake of clashes with the police, and the violence that ensued during the next few weeks, approximately 700 hundred people, many of them youths, were killed and property destroyed.

Youth Day commemorates these events.

Anyhoo, enough of the South African history lesson and, more interestingly, this year on Youth Day our South African football boyz, Bafana Bafana, are playing in the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.  Whoop!  Whoop! 

They will be playing their second game of the cup and the entire country will be watched as they play Uruguay at Loftus Versfeld at 20:30.  So, out come the Vuvuzelas once again and our patriotic gear in order to support our team and scream at the telly.

Now thats so Ayoba!  Click here to buy tickets and go experience the game live! 

The Picture is Khune - Bafana Bafana's Goalie.
Happy Birthday for Monday, Itumeleng!



 

So What is South Africa really like?

I was asked from a fellow blogger what it is really like to live in South Africa.

I will tell through a Scots lass' eyes instead of what you will hear in the media - instead of how Hollywood portrays our country; I will tell you what day-to-day life is like here in South Africa.  

I already hear you saying how can a Scots tell us about South Africa?  I consider South Africa my home.  I have been here for 30 years!  God, that makes me sound old!

In order to do this, I need to take you back to when I was ten years old and let you know what I experienced stepping off the plane after a very long and nauseating flight from London to Johannesburg.

Arriving in the country for the first time as a child, I had no idea what I to expect. My family had sold almost everything to immigrate to South Africa because of the early 80s recession in the UK. 

The recession had my dad working away from home for sometimes months at a time, often very far away. It was no life for a family man - so he sought opportunity and work in South Africa. Finally he’d be able to work and see his family everyday!  They took a shot!

As a 10 year old little girl, I had visions of Africa in my head - only from what people had told me and what books had shown me. I expected to see people with bones through their nose and wild cats roaming the streets. I had no idea it would be a normal civilised society.

I arrived in South Africa when PW Botha was president and so I have witnessed both the old and the new South Africa.  The apartheid era and witnessed the first Democratic General Election in 1994. 

Yes, I stood in the neverending queues for 6 hours to put my cross on my paper and vote in the first democratic election in South Africa with millions of others.  And some for the first time.  It was a brilliant day! The atmosphere was joyful and electric.  

I have also seen what it was like during the apartheid years.  When blacks and whites were separated in many areas, from the areas where we lived in, white-only schools, to places we could use the bathroom.  Blacks and whites used different public transport and trains were segregated for blacks and whites.  

Growing up in the “old” school system, blacks were not allowed to attend our schools; it was only when I was in my final year of high school in 1989, that they started allowing blacks and coloureds to attend our school.   So, I will not be able to tell you what the schools are like now as I never experienced mixed-race schools. 

In South Africa Kids go to school 5 days a week:  Monday to Friday from 8am until 2pm with two breaks of 15 minutes. My children do know what it’s like to go to school with all races.  My girls are both in either pre-school or primary school where races are mixed and different religions, cultures are studied and respected. 

A lot has changed since my school days in the eighties. It has all changed for the better I believe, as all our South Africa children are growing up together.  They are taught each others cultures, religions, customs and languages in hope for understanding of the differences.

South Africans in generally are a warm, friendly, helpful, polite, extremely hospitable and fiercely patriotic nation. 

South Africans are generally quite conservative, family and community oriented and spend lots of their time outdoors because of the longs summers and wonderful weather. The winters are cold and short (normally around 4 months) and it very rarely gets so cold that it snows.  In fact it very rarely goes below 0 degrees C. Only on very cold days in the dead of our winter do we see temperatures of around 3 degrees C.

We have many different cultures in South Africa - hence the nickname “Rainbow Nation”. There are blacks, whites, coloureds, Indians, Asians and with 11 official languages it’s only natural that we still have “segregated” areas.  Buts its not the law - its preference.  Its only human nature that we “stick to our own”. 

We have English speaking South African’s, Afrikaans speaking South Africans and the different languages within the african communities e.g Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho etc.

The food is wonderful here. South African's love their food and lots of it! Its out way of being hospitable - we want to feed everyone!  Its custom when someone arrives to visit at your home to give them a beverage and something to eat.  We all do it.  

Meat is not a luxury and it is eaten at nearly every meal time. We love our braai (aka barbeques) which is usually held in the back yard of our own homes.  We entertain at home a lot.  We usually make the braai fire out of wood and charcoal and has its own unique taste as the meat sizzles on the grill. 

The various meats on the braai usually consists of boerewors (South African sausage), lamb chops, good quality marinaded steaks, chicken kebabs or “flaties” where we slice a full marinaded chicken in half and and put on the fire like that.  Sometimes we keep them in their vacuum packed bag them and cook them on the open fire in the bag.  

We serve all the meat with salad (usually a few different salads) with home baked breads or side dishes like corn on the cob and baked potatoes.

We also have what we call “Boere Kos” which could be described as a big Sunday Lunch with two different kinds of roasted meat, savoury rice, roast potatoes with gravy and two or three different types of veggies with fresh bread. 

Then there is always dessert – a boerekos meal is not complete without a baked pudding with custard or fresh cream or ice cream.

South Africans are slowly becoming more healthy conscious visiting the gym and “going green”. Although organic produce and products are still quite expensive here.

Shopping in South Africa is mostly done at the malls because it is safe and we don’t have to walk the streets. Everything under one roof.  Parking is usually underground and is a nightmare to find a spot. The shopping malls are “everything under one roof” which is convenient. We have the usual fast food places such as MacDonalds, Pizza Hut and Wimpy. We have chain stores for clothing and grocery shopping. We get imports from all over the world and brand names are very expensive e.g. Nike, Adidas, Jeep. Prada, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo and Louis Vitton are only for the wealthy and a few and far between.

The Afrikaans language is similar to Dutch and was a compulsory second language when I was at school. Now it’s not compulsory but it still spoken lots but unfortunately its becoming less and less.

Our currency (South Africa Rands - ZAR) is poor. The exchange rate is R7.40 to the US Dollar and 12.07R to the GB Pound.  Prices of cigarettes are around R35 for a pack of 20 and a dozen beers will set you back R90. However if you are in a restaurant you can easily double that price. 

The exchange rate makes traveling from South Africa to anywhere else in the world quite expensive. However for visitors coming to South Africa its brilliant news!  So you want a cheap 5 star holiday?

Cars are expensive, personal loans interest rates are high, bank charges for credit cards are standing on 25% interest, home loans at 9.5% interest rate (that’s on a good deal).

Houses are fairly affordable in good areas. Our property for instance is 1100 square meters; we have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large study (which could be another bedroom), kitchen, dining room, double garage, lounge, and an entertainment area with bar, big Jacuzzi and pool room. We have a large pool and lots of garden and green space. We do live behind 6 foot walls with electronic gates and electric fence and a middle class home is equipped with armed response alarm systems. Our cars always have alarms, tracking devises and immobilisers.

We are careful about locking our windows and doors when either in our homes or our cars. We are very security conscious and avoid situations and areas where crime is vigilant. It is rather stressful living like this but we do not know any different so we don’t even realise it. The crime is bad but we take precautions, we join neighbourhood watches and take turns to patrol our local areas. We don’t venture into “bad” areas and it doesn’t affect our lives too much. 

Most of us do know someone who has been either car-jacked, broken into, robbed or mugged.  Sometimes it is a little “too close to home” but it’s a small price to pay for living in a beautiful country with a high standard of living. Like any other country there are areas that you can freely visit and areas to avoid.

South Africa is a brilliant country with many many good points from the large open green spaces to the stunning mountains and rivers to the breath-taking safaris with awesome weather, wildlife and plant life. 

Where else can you see “the big five” all in one day? African Elephant, Leopard, Rhino, Lion and Buffalo. And of course my favourite the Giraffe.

There are tons more things that I could talk about but I may do another post later on – I don’t want to bore everyone to tears.

South Africa rocks my socks off!

South Africanisms

The things only South African’s say…

Babbelas (pronounced bub-buh-luss)

This refers to a morning-after hangover.

Bakkie (pronounced bucky)

This commonly used word refers to a small pick-up truck.

Biltong (pronounced bill-tong)

This South African favourite is dried and salted meat, similar to beef jerky, although it can be made from ostrich, kudu, beef or any other red meat. It is synonymous with rugby, another South African favourite.

Braai (pronounced br-eye)

This is the popular South African version of a barbecue where meats such as steak, chicken and boerewors (boo-ruh-vorss) are cooked. Boerewors is a traditional spicy South African sausage made of beef or lamb and is also referred to as wors (vorss). Chances are that you will also be introduced to pap en sous (pup en sohss) at a braai. Pap is boiled corn meal, and sous is the sauce it is covered with, usually featuring tomato and onions.

Cooldrink or Colddrink
This is the common term for a soda. Ask for a soda in South Africa and you will receive a club soda. 

Coca-Cola is a colddrink or cooldrink, as is Pepsi.

Howzit

A traditional South African greeting that translates roughly as "How are you?" or "How are things?"

Izit?

This is another great word to use in conversations. Derived from the two words "is" and "it", it can be used when you have nothing to contribute if someone tells you something at a braai. An expression frequently used in conversation and equivalent to "is that so?" (Really?!)

"Just now"

If a South African tells you they will do something "just now", they mean they will do it in the near future but not immediately. For example, the appropriate reply to "Why don't we go shopping now?" if you wish to go a little later is: "No, let's rather go just now."

Koki (pronounced koh-key)

A coloured marker or felt-tip pen.

Lekker (pronounced lekk-irr with a rolling r)

Afrikaans word meaning nice or cool. "That was a lekker party".  It is also often used in association with food, as in: "That wors is lekker.". 

Robot

South Africans tend to refer to traffic lights as robots. 

An example of usage would be when giving directions: "Turn left at the second robot."

Sarmie

Colloquial term for a sandwich. 

If you are going on a picnic and your hosts tell you they have packed sarmies, you will at least know they have remembered to pack something to eat.

Skinner

Gossip, as in: "Have you heard the latest skinner?" Someone who talks behind someone's back is known as a skinnerbek.

Slap chips (pronounced slup chips)

French fries, usually the large, soft and oily type of chips. Also vinegar-drenched and bought in a brown paper bag. 

"Slap" is an Afrikaans word meaning "limp", which is how French fries are generally made here. If that's not how you like them, be sure to order them "crispy".

Tackies

Running shoes or sneakers. 

Sometimes used in conjunction with the word fat, as in "fat tackies", it describes extra wide tyres. Example: "Look at the fat tackies on that motorbike!"

Now-now

This is not intended to comfort but means shortly, as in: "I will be there now now."

Ag Shame! (pronounced like the "ach" in the German "achtung")

This one is used a lot! 

Can be used in various contexts as in "that's adorable!" or "that's horrible!" can be confusing but it’s always a reaction to something.

Eina! (pronounced “ay-nah”)

Widely used by all language groups, this word, derived from the Afrikaans, means "ouch." 

You can say it in sympathy when you see your friend the day after he got donnered by his wife.

Eish Wena! 
Its lekka to live in Sauf Efrika!

Riverbend Crocodile Farm

We visited The Riverbend Crocodile Farm and Megan got to hold one of the ten day old baby crocs. She was a little scared at first but then she was dead chuffed with herself. She wants to print this one out for her friends at schoolFeeding Time....

A female croc

South African Epiphany

I don't know about you but jislaaik I'm now getting really gatvol of all the bad news. South Africa once again seems to be falling through its own poephol. I think I'm going to puke if I hear any more shit about Jacob Zuma, Zimbabwe, Crime, Eskom, the Oil Price, Inflation, Soaring Food Costs, Bafana Bafana or even friggin Paris Hilton.
 
I've absolutely had it with all this negativity, doom and gloom! I'm really SAT of it all ek se!!! How about you? I mean it's not like I want to gooi the ostrich vibe and bury my head in the sand. This shit is real and it's serious and it's happening all over…but not to me….YET!!! Nevertheless I can't help but read it, hear about it it, see the headlines, hear the rumours…EVERYWHERE. It's like they are brainwashing me boet. And the worst part of it is that I feel totally and completely HELPLESS. Useless. Disempowered. Castrated (almost.) Frustrated (completely.) I keep getting this heavy ball of anxious dread filling my guts and it feels really KAK! And the worst part of it all is that I am a motivational speaker who needs to stay positive and optimistic.

To top it all off, winter is coming so I can't even feel good about the lekker weather any more! Peter de Villiers, our new Springbok Rugby Coach, was quoted in a Sunday Times interview published on 4th May as saying: "The local media thrive on negativity. They have nothing good to say about their country. If there is something bad about this country the local media will break a leg to be the first to write about it. They're a bunch of negative people who live in a world of their own, and are merely there to earn a living and not make SA a better place." I agree completely with the ou. I'm think that most of our journalists, reporters and editors are uninspired, negative, disaster focused, sensation seeking, sad sorry scumbags. They find fault in everything and never propose any workable solutions.

Many of the ordinary people of South Africa are busy doing wonderful little things every day, but none of it is newsworthy.

Here's the truth:


There are roughly 6.6 billion people on planet earth. And according to the World Health Organization, some 56 million deaths occur per year, at the current global average. That works out to about 153 400 per day. That's right – 153 400 deaths every 24 hours! So it's not really hard work to find disasters, accidents, catastrophes, murders, muggings and general mayhem to fill the headlines. It's actually pretty easy. But during that same 24 hours, about 350 000 babies are born. That's right, every 24 hours, around 350 000 beautiful, miraculous, perfect, pure, happy, untainted, precious little beings begin their journey on this planet.


And what do journalists write about this? Fuck all that's what!


Unless of course a six month old baby is stabbed to death – then we never stop hearing about it! Every day about 48 million of us get up, take a shitt, clean our teeth (hopefully) and get on with our life. And many of us perform little acts of respect, compassion, kindness, service, giving, helping and creating.


As Cath Jenkin wrote recently in her blog: "There is noise and joy and emotional honesty in the way we live. When we as a nation are happy, we celebrate. When we are sad, we are sad together. Does anything else really matter? At least we are together in the queue for petrol and/or torches." But for our media this is not newsworthy. It's just life.

So I gave it all a lot of thought. Then I did some more real deep thinking. And guess what - buggerall happened! So I stopped thinking for a while, by learning to meditate. Then I stopped reading most of the newspapers. Then I stopped watching the news on TV and listening to the news in my car. And I stopped listening to people with negative chirps and bad energy. And I stopped focusing on what was going wrong in my life. Then I started to meditate every morning, after doing some simple yoga stretches and synchronized breathing exercises. And I replaced my morning cup of coffee and cigarette with some herbal tea and a dagga joint. (OK – joking about the joint!) And I re- read the Power of Now and Conversations with God and a Short History of Nearly Everything.


And I began to visit an awesome positive website called http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/ And MAN did I start to feel better. MUCH BETTER. Then I started to watch every sunset possible, ride my bicycle, watch funny video's on Youtube, work in my garden, walk on the beach – I fu&%#ng started living again BRU! From the inside out!


And it finally hit me between the eyes, an epiphany:


You can't change your thinking in order to improve your behaviour. You need to change your behaviour in order to improve your thinking.


It's taken me many years of searching and many many books, self development courses and personal growth experiences to come to this simple truth.

So if you, like me, are feeling anxious, concerned, depressed or gatvol, why not try changing your behaviour and DOING something differently, from today. For example:


Greet every SAP policeman you meet with a friendly smile or handshake and thank them for protecting you and your loved ones. Boy do they need some motivation!

• Visit http://www.sagoodnews.co.za./ Often.
• Read an inspiring book.
• Write a poem.
• Get into nature (or walk barefoot on your lawn!)
• Write down everything you have to be grateful for. Every morning.
• Play inspirational music, especially when the news comes on your radio.
• Find some way to exercise your body a little more. (Endorphins are lekker!)
• Try out one of the 100 available techniques of mediation or relaxation.
• Watch the sunrise and/or sunset.
• Create a morning ritual to make your day beautiful.
• Find out and speak about the good news.
• Choose to be happy.
• And don't allow the media to fuck with your mind.

Most importantly, seek out and speak your own truth and live a whole life. You deserve it. And in doing so, you will change your life and make a massive difference to this special place we call home. PS: To all the media people out there - I'm all for a free press. Really. I'm just sick and tired of your continued obsessive focus with everything negative. When are you going to realize that you are not merely reporting on what is happening – you are CAUSING some of it by your actions. Yes – YOU! You are helping to perpetuate a dangerous cycle of violence and destruction. I accept that bad news sells, but soon there will be nobody left here to buy it! Please cheer up and get a life or piss off and go find another job. Serious. I've had it with your sensationalism and scandal. Enough already. Start doing your job and working a little bit harder to creatively seek out and give some headline space to the good stuff going down in SA.
Trust me, it's there! (Pheeew it feels good to have got that off my chest!!!) I wish you an awesome day.
Choose to make it that way!

Mark Berger. (Trainer/motivational speaker)