Category: Assorted Hammers

Our new wheels

Sorry for being so quiet this week. After returning from vacation I just didn’t really feel like writing and just chilled at home with the wife for the last week of the school holidays. Tomorrow she’s on the job again, so I’ll also be back to my regular writing and studying schedule (once I figure out exactly what that is).

In the meantime, check out our new wheels.

Legally she’s the wife’s and technically she’s not new – we bought her second-hand from my sister with 90 000km on the clock but she’s still in excellent condition. On Wednesday we packed our survival kit and headed to the vehicle registration office and after a fairly painless two hours in line (except for the guy in front of us who never stopped talking, even when he started repeating himself) she is now registered to the wife (we still have to pay my sister, though). With power steering, ABS, aircon, airbags and mag wheels she’s a far cry better than the one she’s replacing. Continue reading “Our new wheels” →

On speaking out

On Monday the Reader delivered this post by 23thorns about a high ranking police officer who brought in a sangoma* to investigate a break-in at his office. Just in case you think 23thorns is making this up, here’s the link to the actual news report.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. Someone asked in the comments whether something like this will hold up in court. I jokingly replied whether he really wanted to know and got the following reply:

“I think someone else mentioned it, but this is a dangerous stand…. I hope you are flying under the radar.”

There was another comment on the post asking whether it was “safe to wax political in SA”.

I don’t know what upset me most about these comments – whether it was the fact that this is the view these people have of South Africa, or whether they are cautioning us to be careful about what we say. Continue reading “On speaking out” →

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On the road again

The wife and I have made the very impulsive decision to go on holiday. I say impulsive because we usually plan something like this months in advance and this decision was made with days to go before departure.

So, we’re exchanging the icy cold Free State for the icy cold and wet south coast. By tomorrow evening I’ll have the ocean before me and mountains covered with indigenous forest at my back. And the best part is we’re not paying for accommodation, so we can stay for the entire school holiday if we want.

Hopefully this change of scenery will be what I need to get my studies and my writing back on track again. And even if it doesn’t, at least I’ll have been in one of my favourite places on earth again (and quite close to where we spent our honeymoon).

Random Stuff

You know those days where you have nothing to write, but you really, really feel like writing something? Yeah, here’s the result.

It’s getting colder over here. I hate it. I’ve never been fond of winter, but I suppose it’s necessary – can’t really have spring without it. Thing is, where I live winter is just cold. There’s no pretty snow or anything, just constant, freezing cold. It’s also very dry. Think dusty fields, hard grass, runaway fires, bare trees…I know Roy Campbell got a kick out of that, but I prefer summer with it’s thunderstorms, green trees and picnics in the sun. On the other hand, now I have an excuse to whip up a batch of soup. Mmmmmmmm.

I’ve started on the third chapter of my novel. I’m seriously lacking in the discipline-department when it comes to writing. At this rate I don’t know when I’ll be finished. Any suggestions?

Wifey and I are currently on a Doctor Who marathon. Just finished watching Blink, probably the scariest Doctor Who episode there is (at least in the post-2005 series – haven’t seen any of the old ones yet). Very apprehensive about this weekend’s season finale. The Doctor’s Name. Oh, the possibilities.

If you haven’t heard yet, the Pianoguys have released a new video, this time a cover of Home by Philip Philips. It’s terrific. I especially like the cows. Apparently they respond positively to the cello. Who knew.

And, naturally, my post on spamming of Saturday received a spam comment today. This one worked, though. Luckily Akismet did as well. Speaking of which, if you haven’t voted in the poll on spammers yet, there’s no time like the present. Look. I even pasted it below so you won’t have to go back to the previous post.

Happy blogging, all.