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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!

Phew.  I’ve been back for a whole week, and can’t believe that I haven’t had the time to sit down and write something.  Anything!!

What I did do during the past week though, was pretty interesting   I’ve posted a couple of ads online selling things (for the first time yes – so its a bit of an experiment).  So far I’ve had a couple of queries even!  What am I selling?  Puppies amongst other things!  I am so happy that they are not MY puppies though, I’m not sure I’d be able to remain sane with animals in our home :S

Other than that I’ve been trying to catch up on work, and though I did that I found it particularly hard this time round.  This is the longest holiday that I’ve had in a couple of years, and I guess my brain just really switched off – which isn’t a bad thing while on holiday, but I tend to struggle to work without my brain functioning…

The holiday was absolutely amazing.  We had such a good time, the best weather, plus I learnt to do a couple of new things…  For  the first time I managed to snorkel without becoming completely phobic!!  I also flew a power-kite, though sometimes it felt as if the kite was flying me! It was still GREAT fun. We also had our second anniversary on this holiday, and I discovered again that I have the most amazing husband ever!!

If you’d like to see pics, have a look on my web album, below is a sneak-peek

Good News … Well for me I’m going on holiday today!! How amazing is that?!  I cannot wait anymore!  I didn’t really have a holiday in December so I am completely exhausted, worn out, and just plain sick of the city rushed routine.  I cannot wait to walk in the shallow waves, and dig my toes into the sand!!

Saturday morning my view will look something like this…. (we’re staying at the same place – same room than last year!)

So if you don’t hear from me for the next couple of days (I know this is not something strange), but at least it will be for a good reason now!

I’ll be back soon, but hopefully not too soon!!

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?