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How does the old saying go? If you can’t beat them join them? Well… Vuvuzela’s cannot be beaten, so I will have to join in the buzz (pun intended )
People all over the world have become super aware of these (non)musical instruments, all thanks to the Soccer World Cup, and the fact that its being hosted in South Africa. Had it been hosted in a European country the vuvu’s would probably have been banned, and the cup would’ve passed as any other.

Unlike most of the rest of the world I don’t feel a particular hatred for these noisy instruments, and at the same time I am not particularly fond of them. What I do like about them is that they’ve given this 2010 world cup a very unique flavour (sound). Even though most tourists complain of the mundane buzzing, they still want to take a vuvuzela home with them.

Vuvuzela’s are being sold on e-bay at ridiculous prices – I cannot believe that anyone will buy it!! In South Africa, vuvuzela’s cost under R30 (check this site if you don’t believe me), however on Ebay, the most expensive vuvu I could find is currently being sold for
R100/vuvuzela – and that’s if you buy in bulk (10 pieces). Craziness.

For those of you who want to get into the spirit of things without buying your own vuvuzela, check the Facebook vuvuzela makeover, hehe

I cannot believe this complete idiotic behavior. Where is the sense in burning down the place you work for, in order to get more money? How can that make sense to ANYONE?

Reason why I am making such a big fuss about this is because I used to visit this pharmacy quite regularly as it was a stones throw away from our offices. Pity they’re not going to reopen, however I don’t blame them with R20 million’s damages.

This Dischem store was burnt down on purpose by angry workers who were striking for wage increases. A gas bottle can be seen on the right front of this picture, this was set alight and thrown through the window. A colleague saw the damaged building on her way to work, and we went to look & take pictures shortly after. Later that day (23 June 2010) the windows were closed with wooden panels. It is said that this store will not reopen since the damage is too much – ZAR20 000 000 (+/- US$2 666 666.667).

All that I’ve been seeing – all over the news, in the streets, magazines, the newspaper, EVERYWHERE is SOCCER.  WORLD CUP FEVER has hit South Africa, and HOW!  I understand its a big deal, but heck people, life as usual is still happening!! Believe it or not there are some of us who would still like an update on things other than soccer.

FIFA has taken over our country for nearly two months and everyone seem to be hypnotized into loving soccer.  People who have never even watched a game in their lives are diligently following the cup.  [FAKE] Promotional merchandise can be bought on every street corner, there are flags on all the light posts, EVERYONE suddenly has soccer shirts, almost all cars have flags all over them, and vuvuzelas sounding the trumpeting theme for soccer world cup 2010.

For the loyal fans I understand that this is a big deal, but what the heck is up with everyone else just “going with the flow”?  Actually spending their money on something which otherwise they would have no interest in?

To get back to my point about FIFA, I read the article about the ladies in their orange dresses, which mentioned that South Africa had some law altered in 2006 to ensure we adhere to FIFA’s standards?!

QUOTING AN ARTICLE ON TELEGRAPH.CO.UK: 
“What is shocking, however, is the manner in which the machinery of the state has been deployed to do Fifa’s bidding. Those Dutch women are being held under the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act (2006) and the Merchandise Marks Amendment Act (2002). The offenses are “unauthorised use of a trade mark at a protected event” and “entry into a designated area while in possession of a prohibited commercial object”.  Read Full Article

I feel sorry for the fans who visit SA, in fear for their lives, but at the same time so keen to see their favorite team play live at a stadium.  I feel embarrassed at the South Africans ripping of foreigners – charging them more than double what the locals pay for drinks, accommodation etc.  For police arresting visitors for wearing orange dresses!  Just because FIFA obliges them to?

If I see what some tourists said about not going out after dark, not wearing jewelry when they go out it sounds pretty sad, and a bit like a war zone.  On top of all this the weather has been pretty miserable, the coldest part of winter started on the day of kick off, 11 June.  I am freezing my butt off, and I’m not even on a stadium, so I don’t want to imagine how cold the fans & players must be.

All in all the spirits are high, the atmosphere is festive, and I guess some of the locals are friendly to foreigners without any mall-intentions, still I cannot imagine this being a too pleasant experience for someone visiting from a first world country…

Note the photo in the article above shows South America, while the heading over the image reads “South Africa“. Seems like there is some confusion in the US as to which continent exactly hosts the Soccer World Cup during 2010. Please be sure, if you do attend, that the plane tickets you buy takes you to the correct continent… Note: South Africa is a COUNTRY in the continent AFRICA. South America is a continent, which doesn’t have much to do with the soccer world cup hosting during 2010, except that some of the teams in COUNTRIES of that CONTINENT will be attending, and that perhaps a few American citizens might wind up there searching for the world cup due to this news report

To rub it in a bit more, here is a map showing the difference between AFRICA (On the right) and SOUTH AMERICA (On the left). Note again, South Africa is a COUNTRY, not a CONTINENT!

Original article can be found here

I got new boots! How nice are they? You may wonder why the heck one would need furry boots in South Africa.  It never gets cold here, right?  WRONG!

I was on a call to someone in the UK recently, and she was so surprised to hear that the weather was miserable, cold & rainy last weekend.

For those of you who think we have sunshine and warm weather all the time, we don’t.  Our winters are not nearly as cold as in the UK, and we don’t get snow in Gauteng really, but other parts of SA get snow every winter!  Another reason why we dress a bit warmer than people in abroad is because our homes and offices are not nearly as well isolated, plus we don’t have central heating.  Resulting in very cold winters, indoors, and hot summers too.

We are lucky to have an aircon in our home, and obviously in the office too, which takes out the bite of winter and makes it much more bearable.

Still, I am ALWAYS feeling cold, so I needed nice warm winter boots, and I picked these with the help of hubby!

Today I realized that I haven’t posted properly in more than a week! I could bore you with the South African politics of the moment, since that is quite eventful, and has even made it to international news.

In my search for South Africa in international news, I found this lovely website which shows South Africa in pictures. For those who will be visiting here during the 2010 Soccer world cup, its not a bad idea to have a look at these pictures, as they give a pretty accurate reflection of what our country looks like.  For those of you who won’t be visiting here anytime soon, and even those of you who live here, its still not a bad idea to have a look at the beautiful representation of the country we live in.  Its an excellent reminder of why its worthwhile sticking around, regardless of the not so pleasant circumstances.

Even though you will have to register (for free) in order to see the image gallery, its really worthwhile – the photographs they have up are stunning.

It has been so frustrating up until now, but finally it seems that we in South Africa can now also receive funds with Paypal!!! Sadly its only available to FNB clients at the moment, but hopefully this is only the beginning of things! You have no idea how much of a difference this makes, as up until now, there hasn’t really been a trusted electronic site with which people could receive money in SA.

If you’re interested, read the rest of the article at ITWeb

For now I am still deciding whether I should wait for my bank to also collaborate with FNB, or if I should just create an account with FNB…. I’ll give more feedback if I give it a try!

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. 

Click on the image below to view the album, with subscripts on each photo when you hover over it with your cursor.

I also searched for information around this fort, and the other four which were built around the same time in Pretoria. Have a look at the Wikipedia article if you are 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.