2007 - in closing

What a crappy year it turned out to be.

Work wise one of the worst yet for me. Business in my sector was slow, and in the second half of the year I never came any where near making the target. I lost out on a lot of commission, but mostly due to the fact that the powers that be either deselected some of the opportunities I brought in, or they just cocked them up when it came to creative pricing and responses!

At home, although I got a lot done, especially garden wise, I didn't finish my bar counter, and that's actually quite depressing. it also means i don't get to start on rebuilding the Aprilia RS250 quite yet. We sorted the kids shower (at least I hope we have), but I still have some water problems when it rains a lot. Will need to get clever with this problem soon.

My casket business, although generating some interest, and looking promising, kind of ground to a halt, but I will be getting back into it asap. Will have to make my own jig after all as the person who said he would do it for me hasn't even started yet. And between him, and the cardboard box guys, and the damn coffin accessories guys, I couldn't get final pricing done. What a schlep to do business in this country!

As for the boys, well they had good year end results, both of them. They did well in their sports through the year, and overall were well behaved (save for the one incident where I was seriously disappointed...). They have had a nice long holiday, and even though we didn't get to go away to a holiday destination, they had a lot of fun, time with their friends, going out.

The rest of the family had their up's and down's. Queenie was the most consistent. She kind of keep things on an even keel, and apart from a funeral or two, didn't have too many "incidents" this year.
Mom had the bad fall mid year where she a) contracted shingles, b) split her skull open, and then spent 2 - 3 months recuperating at my brothers home.
My brother had some incidents of his own. He had the opportunity to get employment in Australia, but because the local public service and SAPS are so apathetic, he couldn't get all of the paper work done in time, and lost the opportunity. I'm not too sad, but it would have been a fantastic opportunity for him and his family. He then had Mom living with him for those 2 - 3 months, which could not have been easy on him and / or his family. They did a fantastic job though, and Mom is well recovered and back to her old self.

Then his position at the company he works for became obsolete - and he had to apply for other positions. He's got one now, but it's not at the level he was before, he's lost some of his perks, and because the changeover occurred at about the same time as their annual performance evaluations, he was subjected to a mediocre evaluation by his new manager! This meant that all the good work / over performance in his previous position meant nothing, and he didn't get the expected increase ++!

Then he had the disastrous "investment" into 3 "Made in Japan / China / Korea / Hong Kong" quads - 3 off them. They turned out to be really rubbish, and he got rid of them asap, but took a ZAR 18k knock within 4 months! He has since replaced them with branded quads, but is now having to pay a lot more for them. So, for him, as for me, times now are a bit tough, especially since the interest rate has gone up so many times in the past 12 months!

Politically in South Africa things are, well, interesting? Apart from the normal day to day fiasco's, we have our national police commissioner Jackie Selebi who is facing charges. Apart from his criminal side, he deserves to be charged with gross stupidity!
Then we have "Take a shower to prevent HIV /AIDS" Zuma, who was recently elected as the president of the current ruling party, the ANC. The problem is he's next in line for the position of President of the country! Why is this an issue, well, he's currently facing about 2 zillion charges, including fraud, bribery and corruption, etc. Apart from which he only recently survived a court battle after being charged with rape, and should, as with Mr. Selebi, be charged with gross stupidity.
We have whomever is in charge of roads / traffic etc. who is ecstatic that the death cunt on out roads over the past festive season has come down year on year. WOW! It's still over 1200 dead you stupid idiot. Here have a badge - it reads (I should be charged with gross stupidity!) If you consider that the whole world is outraged that over 1000 people have lost their lives in Kenya in the riots which following the botched elections, why not the local road kill count?
The minister of Education - she who studied at an English school in the UK, and who speaks the Queens English (albeit with a bad accent), is chuffed with the Matric results. The pass rate dropped year on year!!! However, she says, if you consider that there were more than 50 school days lost due to the teachers strike mid year, it's still a good result! It is? Less than 66% of the pupils who sat for this final exam passed And of those who did, less than 10% got exemption!!
Previous Minister of Education (national or provincial, I'm not sure) Mary Metcalf, who is now a professor of education at a prominent university blamed the system over the past 12 years, as the pupils are affected from day one. Maybe she's right, but thankfully she couldn't blame apartheid!!!
And someone recently stated that the start of the new year will be badly affected because the text book suppliers were behind on production / delivery. One of the main players in this game came on air this morning to state the following:-
When budgets are set and orders placed for the next years text books, they normally have to be done by the preceding March / April. Last year this only took place at the end of August! Hence is is almost impossible to have everything printed and distributed before the academic year starts!!! However, he did say that they were at least 80% delivered, with some more deliveries due in the next two weeks.
A Judge, darkie, who reversed his car through the wall of a neighboring home, and was as drunk as a coot, has still not appeared in court. There is video and voice evidence at hand, taken on a cell phone, which his defense team tried to have thrown out of court. Don't think he's going to get away with it, but you never know. However, it has been dragging for some time now.
And there is our dear friend, the Magoo's bar bomber, Mr. Robert McBride, who happens to be Chief of Ekurhuleni Municipality Metro Police, who is facing charges of drunken driving, driving under the influence, and total destruction of an official vehicle. He has denied all charges, but has been caught out having bought of some witnesses, including some of his officers who attended the accident scene, and who have now turned on him. He also got a crooked doctor to falsify a medical condition / test. His case has also been dragging for some time now.

The rest of Africa, was, to say the least, typical! Zimbabwe, the leading banana republic, continued it's down slide. Inflation is now unmeasurable, as there is nothing on the shelves to sell, so no prices go up, so no inflation. Their currency is now worth less than monopoly money, in fact, I could get more for a 25 year old $100 monopoly note, than I could get, black market or otherwise, for ZIM$100,000,000 (one hundred million!)!
For some reason the Kenyans have now lost the plot. All this rioting post elections is crazy. Apart from the fact that it's not civilized (lol - imagine using this term whilst discussing matters African!), it's also very damaging, long term. Already there is mass food shortages and hospitals are overwhelmed, etc. Rape is escalating to unheard of proportions!!!! Seeing as their economy is mostly dependent on tourism, i.e foreign currency coming in, it's now dead! No one is traveling there whilst the tribes are at war!

Enough already!

Salagatle!

Xmas day

My brother looking for his missing Xmas present - OR - The local bum digging in the bin for leftovers?
The kids in the pool doing what kids do.....
Xmas pud - baked by an octogenarian.
My idea of pudding - Chocolate Mousse cake!
And, custard for some, brandy for the Xmas pud!

Salagatle!

Happy Christmas

Somewhere in South Africa, every minute of every day, there is a child / woman / man being molested / raped / murdered.
Somewhere in South Africa, every minute, there is a crime being committed, violently.
Somewhere in South Africa, someone is dying.

Happy Xmas.

Salagatle!