Entries Tagged 'South Africa' ↓

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.

What was the name of Lucky Luke’s horse? I am 99% sure that I’m correct in saying that it was Jolly, but still people argue with me… Anyone else got any ideas?

I can still remember this cartoon’s theme song… LOL

It was definitely one of my favourites, that, along with Moomin. Loved it!

I love that song. Most SA readers will know this song, but for international visitors who would like to know what I’m on about, check the video on Youtube. I love the Parlotones and I need to buy their new album, but as I was going through my playlist this morning, I can across “Dragonflies and Astronauts” again. Such a nice song.

I’m really taken aback by the South African bands lately. Prime Circle’s latest CD is really good, and I simply LOVE it. Still Parlotones are a bit higher on my rank list – I really need to get to the shops for their latest CD.

Every now and again one person in society shocks people around them so much, that they literally don’t know what to say. There’s a stunned silence, and then suddenly people start getting their opinions together and then lash out at that person.

We’re probably all like that: If we hear of something, or see something that is totally against everything we believe in, we don’t keep quiet. We fight. We will do everything in our power stop this person, or convince them that they’re in the wrong.

For the first time today, I read about Mr.Fayzal Mahamed’s weird philosophy. (Please be warned that link is for adults only in my opinion.) This man from Johannesburg, South Africa has written on various blogs and forums why exactly it is he masturbates his son who suffers from severe cerebral palsy. To me this is just so sick. I feel that this poor child should be moved to place where he can be cared for in a decent legal way, and the time spent with his father should be monitored by someone. I can’t believe that people are actually justifying this act! This is nothing less than rape!!