Bog Roll

(or toilet paper for the uninformed). Why is it that the corporation (my employers) have now degraded the quality of bog roll that they procure for the toilets. It's a hard (thin card?) continuous roll (NO, no perforations) and is visibly of poor quality! Is it really so much cheaper, or is it that "some" of the staff are stealing the stuff to take home?

Just asking....

(PS - please note that I did not mention any colour / race / creed....., and you will take note that the person stealing in this simulated photo is of European decent, (( that's because the black guy who posed first stole the roll and the camera)) and people in the cartoon, specifically chosen for this post, are neutral in colour)

Salagatle!

Update on this and that.

Welcome to a new reader here - Dark Raven - nice blog BTW.

Just to clear some things up:-

J - no it's not for real. In fact it was Fishman who called me and try to phone scam me. Hence the reason why I never use my name, or those of my family members, and will never post a picture of any of us either. My blog isn't really an online family diary, but a venting station, for me to get rid of all this crap in my head, and the frustrations which build up in me.

So, don't worry, I'm not really on the Apartheid head hunters list - well, not yet anyway!



Princess confirmed last night that I didn't do her any favours with my actions. In fact, there is now a noticeable tension in the office, but it will end soon - the boss and his slag finish off end of this month. Sorry my love!! And yes, she also confirmed that she reads my blog, a fact I was not aware off!! But, having thought about it, I've never posted anything bad about her, and never would. Not that I'd ever find anything bad to post about her. But it does beg the question:- Can a blogger be brutally honest, or do you have to watch "what you say"?

Steve - I was on form man - I really could have hurt him - but then knowing what he's like I would have got myself arrested. He's a typically recently emigrated Hollander, no balls, big mouth, always saying things like " back in Holland......"! And would probably have phoned the cops and had me arrested!

Salagatle!

My next Project!

Some of you will recall the Aprilia 125 I rebuilt for Gman. - http://soufafrican.blogspot.com/2007/01/project-ii.html

Well, Seaman, a fellow blogger, and reader, and my brother too, found a bike on http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/, and called me about it. I looked into it, got hold of the seller, and today, after getting him to drop his price I bought it!

This is what the original probably looked like:-

It's a 1996 - 1999 Aprilia RS250.

And these are photo's of what I bought today!

Rolling Chassis - That's GMan's back, and my head...

Tank, fairing, exhausts, and in the bottom right hand corner you can see the semi stripped motor.

"Rare" Plastic crate with some engine parts, frame parts, air filter box, radiator, odds and ends.... Oh, dear, this isn't looking so good right now.....

From top left, clockwise:- Tank, fairing, exhaust, box of parts, nother exhaust, plastic 2Lt Coke bottle cut in half full of screws, bolts, nuts, and stuff and in the foreground, bottom left, front wheel.

The owner had it for about a year, and the last time he rode it, about six month ago the engine seized. He had forgotten to check the 2 stroke oil. Not a good idea on a high performance 2 stroke bike.

Anyway he stripped it down, took the motor to the shop where he was quoted ZAR4000 to repair it. He didn't get round to having it done, and has now lost interest. He wanted ZAR7000 for it on the web, but I got it for ZAR6500.

Boy am I going to enjoy restoring this baby!!! Once I get started I will maintain a progress report, with pics, on this blog.

However, work will not start until I have built and finished my bar counter. This is on instruction from the Princess, and she knows and sees all....

Salagatle

Want me To Rip Your Fucking Head Off!!

Some years ago, the guy who employs my wife started his own business. It grew well, was well run, successful. He employed Princess a few years ago, general office work / secretary / dogs body / PA /.....

Then, about 3 years ago, his main suppliers from Germany bought him out, and he and his wife stayed on as employees. Things were ok, but the Germans are not easy to work for or with. In fact, last month / beginning July, The "boss" and his wife both submitted their resignations! They are going on their own again, in another business.

Over the past few weeks Princess has been telling me how more and more miserable its getting in the office, and this couple are doing less and less, to the point where Princess is now almost running the place on her own, with the sales rep and factory staff. Replacements for the resignees have not yet been found.
Anyway, this morning I sent said boss an sms, (they are "friends" of ours, and were even before they started this business), telling him that he was not being fair, and in fact making things very difficult for the Princess. I was just trying to give him a heads up to a situation he may not be aware of, due to the stress he is experiencing with his situation.

The clown phones me, tells me he's not impressed with my sms, denies everything the Princess has shared with me... and tells me if I was more of a man I would have called him, not sent him an sms.

7 Minutes later I was in his office!! So was the Princess, nearly in tears. I offered to rip his head off, but he declined. So we discussed the issue, he had already apologised to the Princess, and I shook his hand and left.

This evening Princess asked me what I tried to do with the sms. I tried to explain, but she's not convinced.

Salagatle!

Apartheid Atrocities

I got a call from the "Hunters". These are the people employed by the current regime to hunt down anyone who may be linked to apartheid atrocities.

They have found my website, and read about my military exploits. And somehow found my cellphone number. I think I may have a spy in my midst. I plead the 5th! (Can I?)

I fear that they may come for me in the night, when I am sleeping as they don't have the balls to come for me when I am aware. It's not over yet, in fact, it's only just begun.....

Salagatle!

The Princess's boss

This morning I came this close to beating the crap out of the Princess's boss.
More detail to follow once I have calmed down enough to write it down coherently!

Salagatle!

SADF IX

After the blowing up of the guard tower and guard house, referred to in SADF VII, an enquiry of sorts was held by the SADF, but we denied any knowledge of what went down that night. We had uplifted camp and marched about 7 km east as soon as that tower had fallen, restored camp there, and called in on the radio that we were on our way to investigate what the noise was about! The final statement from the enquiry was that it was probably faulty equipment which the Russians had provided the other side which had caused the incident!

I’m not sure if we realised then what the impact of our plan was to be, but the total devastation was incredible. I had no idea what those claymores could do until that night. That is a piece of equipment that needs to be treated with utmost care and respect.

At times we would be sent out to fetch and sweep in an infantry “stick” (10 guys) that had been out in the bush fro 2 – 3 weeks, and had come across from another camp, either to the east, or the west of us. They would normally spend 2 – 3 days resting in our camp, refresh their supplies and then move back out, to return to their own camp. Sometimes I would meet friends in these sticks, guys who had been to school with me, or had started as apprentices with me, or even just guys I had met in clubs, pubs or disco’s! Then there would be much celebration (as much as can be had in the circumstances) and we would share stories, and they would get to sleep on one of the two extra beds we had in our two tents. (Tents were 6 sleepers; we had 2 tents for the 10 of us). As the guests for the night, they would have to pick up the drinks tab, a bit unfair as usually they would arrive without a cent in their pockets, but there was a facility in place where they could draw their salary / allowance at our camp, and the details would be sent on to their base for update. Handy.

There would be much story telling / swapping, probably even more lying than not, and feedback on news from back home. And the most popular subject was always discussing when we would be going home. At times, some sadness due to news of lost friends / acquaintances.

A dear friend of mine was killed one day while on a rescue mission. He was based with 32 Battalion, a group made up of ex-Swapo and Unita soldiers, as well as top South African soldiers. He was a Lieutenant with them. There had been an attack on a civilian settlement by the “terrorists” and our guys had gone in to assist them (the civilians that is). After pushing back the attackers, it was decided that the remaining civilians would be moved to a location closer to the army camp for their safety. They climbed on to the army trucks and assorted vehicles that had been part of the rescue, and my buddy sacrificed his seat for one of them, and found himself standing on the back of a Buffel (LIU), quite exposed, and as it happens, it was the last vehicle to leave. He collected an AK47 bullet in the back of his skull.

Another guy who had been at school with me, just a year or two ahead was caught up in an ambush. He was the “stick” corporal and quickly took command of the situation and started getting his boys out of there. A hand grenade was thrown between him and to other guys, one of whom was injured, and one was going with my buddy to help the injured one. He threw himself down onto the grenade, and absorbed the whole blast.

R.I.P. my dear, dear friends.

Salagatle!

SADF VIII

One of the funny things that happened in the army, and is probably common for most armies world wide, happens when the mail arrives!

During basics (first 3 months of training) we were not allowed any mail for the first 8 weeks. For some this was very difficult, as they needed some contact with the family / girlfriend to help them cope. And on top of that we had no access to phones for the first 4 weeks!

Anyway, this didn't phase me too much as I had been out of the house and living alone for 18 months already before I was conscripted, and I was never one for letters, and my girlfriend then, well, I didn't think any letters from her would help me cope. She was a girl for heavens sake! What would she know?

Once the mail was released there was more fun then ever. For the guys the worst thing to receive was a letter from a "typical" girlfriend. Pink envelopes, covered in kisses and lipsticked lips, and smelling like a ho from the south! Covered in perfume and or perfumed talc. This was suicidal for the guys. As soon as such a letter arrived, the corporal would make the guy do push ups, run around the parade ground, buy him cigarettes, whatever he wanted would be done!

And as for parcels, they were opened there and then, and the recepient would have to share his biltong, rusks, sweets immediately with the corporal.

I had been warned (but then so did most of the guys, but they didn't listen), so made sure that my girlfriend didn't do the pink envelope, kisses and perfume bit. Plain white envelopes, with the address written by her little brother, and my little brothers return address on the back.

This meant I got my mail with no pain, even though the corporal thought I didn't have a girlfriend, and found it strange that my little brother wrote so often..... DOOS!

Once we got to the border, it was more of the same. Just there, not all the guys paid a penalty for their mail. There were some guys that the corporals knew better than to mess with, so they just dished it out. The "softer" ones however, still had to do something for their mail.

The big thing there was to get a parcel. One guy knew his mom was sending him regular parcels, but they never contained any biltong. And that's the one thing his mom was sure to send. The problem was that parcels were opened and inspected before issues. Don't know why, maybe looking for dagga. So he set it up that his mom would lace the next batch of biltong with some of the hottest peri-peri known to man at the time.

When the next parcel arrived, the "postman" said he didn't know who had taken the biltong, as he said each time. Only this time, by about 7pm that night he was in serious pain, in the medics tent, looking for some relief from the flames coming out of his mouth, and his backside at the same time!!

There was much laughter and teasing after that, and the biltong never dissappeared again.
For some, getting mail was great, for others very depressing, as per the "Dear Johnnys" I refered to in a previous post.

Salagatle!

Email from Seaman

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German,which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languagis disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th"with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining"ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted inze forst plas.

Salagatle!

Vodacom

I will be posting my latest, and probably final, interaction with Vodacom on my Vodacom Sucks blog later today. I have finally got them to port my umber, and within the next 24 hours I will no longer be on their network, but will be on the MTN network. I've had the "grass greener" and other discussions, but for me it was a personal thing, and I just could not stay with Vodacom any longer. For about 11 years I have been their client, and for the past few I have had an ongoing running battle with them. Yes, MTN might be more of the same, but at least I know it's by my choice, and I don't think I will be as strung out, at least not for the first year or two.

I believe that if I had stayed with Vodacom for any longer I would have had a heart attack, that is how much I was stressing out with their pathetic service.
Anyway, once I have drafted the final comment I will post it.

Salagatle!

15 July 2007

Yesterday, the 15th July, was my, and the Princess's 18th wedding anniversary!!

Salagatle!