Entries Tagged 'South Africa' ↓

Someone asked me if it is possible to fax from the internet to a normal landline fax number. I have never done this, and haven’t been able to find a service offering of the sort.

Do you know of a service like this? Obviously I need it to work to South African numbers, and preferably the service should be free

Let me know if you’re aware of something like this please?

This weekend was so good, even though I left my laptop’s power supply at the office, and spent only 1hr online on Friday evening! Pity I couldn’t blog, but it was a good weekend with NO time online

We went for a “hike” to the Wonderboom Fort, cave & waterfall yesterday. Can’t really be classified as a proper hike since the paths are “built” all the way up the mountain, though it was still good exercise for those of us who don’t hike that often. We have been to the fort a couple of times before, but this was the first time we went to the cave, waterfall and the fort.

Here is the full album if you’re interested.

(Caution, this is a very unpatriotic post)

Are you planning on visiting South Africa for the Soccer World Cup 2010? Have you booked your accommodation yet? How much did you pay? How much are you willing to pay? Does it bother you that South Africans are milking you just because you’re a foreigner?

In South Africa 2010 has been a highly discussed topic the past few years, why? Because we are hosting the Soccer World Cup! I’m not a great soccer fan, and neither am I too keen of all the changes happening for the world cup.  I am however curious about the way this event will affect the opinion of tourists about South Africa.

Those of us who live here know that the picture is often painted much different in overseas countries compared to what it really is, and I wonder whether “the world” will see that.

Besides that I’m very curious to see how tourists are going to get around. The Gautrain project was started to alleviate the transportation problems, but as everyone now knows, this will NEVER be finished in time. It’s still a good project, but unfortunately will not help much for the tourists traveling needs.

Accommodation is another challenge. People are already advertising their homes – at excessive rates of course.

Always taking advantage of the tourists paying in Pounds, Euros & Dollars.  A normal night’s stay in a decent four star guest house would cost about ZAR800 for two people sharing (That’s ZAR400 each, rounded off, which converts to about US$55 per person– now this will definitely not be the norm during the Soccer World Cup)

I took the liberty of searching around and found a couple of places, specially advertised for the soccer world cup…To illustrate my point, I’ve converted all ZAR to US$ to make the comparison easier. (Converted at a rough average of 1US$ / ZAR7.50)

House #1 (Consists of two units) @ ZAR1000 per person per night (US$133)! With a minimum booking of 7 nights! Though this looks like a decent place to stay, it ONLY offers a breakfast – at that price? I’d have thought they had taps of gold and complimentary satin slippers! Also, you don’t have your own space – you will have to share the unit with 5 or 6 other people.

Another example of a grand rip-off is this B&B which charges ZAR1300 per person sharing, for their most expensive room.  That’s US$173 per person per night!!  I checked their normal rates which you would pay any other time except during the World Cup, and its only ZAR300 (US$40) The difference is insane!!!

Self Catering Chalets @ US$300 for international guests, but for South African citizens, it’s a mere ZAR900 (US$120).  Though this price is for the whole chalet (sleeping either 4 or 6 persons) At four person, that would mean you pay US$75 per person.  Mmm… maybe there’s a reason why international guests are charged more than double, but I can’t think of any?

The Best Offer I could find, A full house @ ZAR4500 for the WHOLE house, which sleeps 10 people. That is roughly US$600 for the whole house, and if you can find 9 people to share with you, that would mean you pay US$60 per person, which is not too bad.

Now I know there’s always been the stigma in South Africa that you can overcharge international guests, especially if they’re American or European, but I don’t think it’s necessary to triple charge someone just because they have the money. These tourists will already be bringing in more money into our country, and taking advantage of that just does not seem right.

Last year it was October, and this year it seems to be a black December for the General Aviation industry in South Africa.

December has had five aircraft crashes so far, with three in the last seven days alone, claiming four fatalities.

7 December 2009: SA Airlink aircraft crashed in George, only overrunning the runway – no fatalities, only minor injuries

11 December 2009: The Yack, a semi-aerobatic aircraft crash landed in Bisho (Close to East London) after the elevator got stuck

13 December 2009: An Extra 300 (aerobatic aircraft) crashed into a veld close to Grasmere, Gauteng. The reason unknown, claiming two lives.

And on the same day a Piper Arrow had a engine failure after take off from Rand Airport, Gauteng – no fatalities

18 December 2009 (Today): A Beechcraft Baron crashed after take off from Wonderboom Airport, Gauteng, two fatalities

Even though there are no correlation between these incidents, they all happened in the same month. The same happened last year in October, claiming twenty lives!

I’m not one to believe in bad luck or superstition, but this sure is creepy.

The weather is miserable in South Africa, and has been for the past week. After spending the whole Saturday tidying my cupboard, and packing away my winter clothes, I had to pull them all out this week!

Its raining, the wind is blowing, and its flippin cold! Typical winter in Cape Town, only I’m in Gauteng – and its not supposed to be winter!

Though this weather brings back incredible memories from my time in the UK, it also brings a nostalgia with it which makes me realize how quickly time runs out, which is sad.
I took some photo’s to show you how gloomy it is outside.

Phew.  What is there to say after a long day of cleaning and tidying!?  For the first time since being married I had someone to help me clean the house, and what pleasure.

For those who don’t live in South Africa, let me explain a bit more.  In SA its the norm to have someone clean your house for you, do your washing, ironing and pretty much all other household chores.  When we were in the UK a few years back I realized for the first time that this wasn’t so common in all other countries.

Now having lived here for my whole life, I must admit that I am one of the odd ones out to not have a domestic worker, and I’ve had to get used to people’s reactions when I tell then that I do all the housework myself, on top of working at the office for a full day.  Now this is not some kind of noble act to gain favor with anyone, or some money saving plan.  Instead I am just too distrusting to allow anyone strange into my home to come and clean & organize it for me.

I’ve been having these arguments with myself, and even with my husband about who we should pick, who we can trust, and who would be able to work with such care that our perfectionism will be satisfied.

Well, we have now finally found someone, and she did excellent for a first day.  I’m hoping that she will continue to be so thorough in future as well, as the trend is to slack as soon as you’re settled in – in many jobs that is.

For now, I am ecstatic with a lovely clean home, and NO IRONING – Yay!! So I’m going to busy myself with baking a banana bread.

Happy “rest of the” weekend all

Every once in a while a tale so bizarre that it can only be described as weirder than fiction walks through the doors of the Daily Dispatch. Monday was such a day. It came in the form of Peddie chief traffic officer Johann Jooste, who took these pictures. See below for the story he had to tell…
Jooste said he was in his office at the Ngqushwa Municipality when he heard a commotion and went outside to see what it was all about.
“At first, I thought the driver was ferrying the cow on the bakkie’s roof. Then the driver got out, and told us that he was here to report an accident,” an incredulous Jooste said.
Apparently, the driver hit the cow on the N2 outside Peddie and the animal flipped right over, landing on the tough little Nissan 1400’s roof.
The shocked, but uninjured driver proceeded to the traffic department, with the cow on top of the bakkie.
Jooste said the unfortunate animal suffered serious injuries and was to be put down.
“In all my 29 years as a traffic officer, I have never seen something like this,” Jooste added.
All the DispatchOnline team can say is: “Only in the Eastern Cape.”

Source: E-mail from a colleague, however, origin seems to be DispatchOnline

Just something amusing for those of you who are from South Africa. I found this picture really funny.  Especially how the lions’ faces are manipulated to portrait Jackie Selebi & Jacob Zuma…

Pity its almost bed time!!! I wanted to tell you – specially the international readers…

I still get shocked by things that happen in South Africa – even though I live here.

Someone told me today, (and you might scold me for being so naive) , but there are really people in South Africa who sell their babies. Even sell them in pieces. Why you might ask? Selling organs on the black market? Nope. They sell them to the sangoma’s (traditional healers), who use them in the muti (medicine type potions).

This is absolutely horrifying, and not something that I deal with in my culture, but this is something that is relatively common in black cultures in South Africa. Its not like all black people do this, but they at least know about it.

As for myself, I knew that the sangoma’s brew muti with body parts, but never thought that it went as far as this. Its cannibalism and just sheer insanity.

I find it revolting.