Tag: humour

KokkieH Reviews Men At Arms by Sir Terry Pratchett

I reckoned it’s probably time I drop this laziness and do one of these again, what do you think?

Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett — Cover illustration by Josh Kirby
Publisher: http://www.transworldbooks.co.uk

‘What’s so hard about pulling a sword out of a stone? The real work’s already been done. You ought to make yourself useful and find the man who put the sword in the stone in the first place.’

The City Watch needs MEN! But what it’s got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), Lance-constable Angua (a woman…most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving).

And they need all the help they can get, because someone in Ankh-Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas – about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny. And the problem with destiny is, of course, that she is not always careful where she points her finger. One minute you might be minding your own business on a normal if not spectacular career path, the next you might be in the frame for the big job, like saving the world… – Book description on cover

Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews Men At Arms by Sir Terry Pratchett” →

On sports and other stuff that make people cry

I’m not too big on sports. Some of my countrymen would say that just makes me a poor South African. Especially the fact that I don’t particularly enjoy rugby (but considering that we are probably the only country in the world who fired our coach after the national team won the World Cup can you blame me?)

I watch the odd game of cricket (and by watch I mean I don’t mind it playing on the television while I’m busy with other stuff in the house) and at one point I even knew the names of the players in the national squad. However, at the moment the only player in all of international and local cricket I can identify by sight is Hashim Amla. Must be the beard.

And then there’s soccer. I’ve never been able to get excited about Bafana Bafana. I was not particularly upset when they dropped out of the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and, knowing they only made it into the tournament that year because we were the host nation, I wasn’t at all surprised when they did not qualify this year either.

(Hmmm. That does sound frightfully unpatriotic…) Continue reading “On sports and other stuff that make people cry” →

Song Title Challenge #55: Listen to the Math by Tokyo Police Club

It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge.

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. You can pick your own genre or use the one suggested to me. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is Listen to the Math by Tokyo Police Club and was suggested by mikiren at Jump Into the Fog. No genre was supplied. As always comments and critiques are welcome.

Listen to the Math

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On needless and unnecessary words

I had a very nice idea for today’s post. Then I wrote it up and decided it wasn’t such a nice idea after all, so I trashed it. I had just decided I’m not going to post anything when the universe came to my rescue.

The wife asked me how to spell “colleague” (in our home my roles include being a dictionary and encyclopedia along with chauffeur, dishwasher and financial manager). That reminded me of one of my pet peeves as far as language is concerned.

And like a sign from the South African Broadcasting Corporation, just at that moment on the television the theme song of that great British comedy, Mind Your Language, started to play.

I’m not one to disregard signs, so here’s a quick language rant.

Continue reading “On needless and unnecessary words” →

Did you hear the one about the woman who joined her own search party?

After yesterday’s post I can do with a laugh. Luckily the interwebs are full of humorous tidbits to lighten the mood.

Like the story of the woman who stepped off a tour bus in Iceland to freshen up, and when she came back they didn’t recognise her and reported her missing. They immediately started looking for her and she, not realising the missing person being described was her, joined in the search that lasted until three in the morning. This begs three questions:

How bad did she look when she got off the bus and what did she do to affect such a radical change in appearance in what seems to be the middle of nowhere? (Side-note: Could she be a superhero?)
Did she not speak to anyone on the bus? Surely this wouldn’t have happened had she been on a first-name basis with any of her fellow travellers.
Most important of all – seeing as she had an entire search party helping her, did this experience at least help her find herself?

And here’s another rendition of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, the song for this week’s Song Title Challenge.