| No relation to Ben Tune | August 2002 |
Tuesday 20 August
I want to dedicate this issue to all the Australian or Aussie-at-heart ADT-readers. That's just so that you don't feel left out when I go on about how happy I was when the Springboks beat the Wallabies in the final game of the Tri-nations on Saturday. I've said this before - Werner Greeff, you rock, Province boy! Okay I know we came last in the competition, but the reality is that we have an awesome and special team and I knew they could do it on Saturday (see my fax to them - oh, no, sorry, you can't). I won't go into the details of the previous Saturday's game against New Zealand, but if it wasn't for a few horrible refereeing decisions we could have won that game too and then maybe we would have been the Tri-nations champs. Still, in the end we won the last game in South Africa and it was obvious how much that meant to the players and the fans, as if that Tri-nations trophy didn't matter at all. It was cool enough just to get the Mandela Cup and to win at home against the World Champions. We also scored more tries and more points (103) than either New Zealand or Australia (they each scored in the 90's). Yes I do read quite a few rugby articles (and not just those written by South Africans). I have my own viewpoints, but I haven't been a big rugby supporter for a long time so my rugby law and history knowledge leaves quite a bit to be desired. Therefore I see if what I feel about these things links up with what other people think before I just go blabbing about it in my newsletter. Gavin Rich writes brilliant stuff - he's got a column on the Supersport rugby web page (www.superrugby.co.za) if anyone's interested. Not that confirming that my opinions are sensible is the main reason I read the articles - did someone call me obsessed (twice in one email, no less!!)?
Oh here it is. But firstly, Shelley, a public apology for not having replied to your July email! For some reason it got into my "deleted" folder (do not analyse this). But I remembered it now because I knew I wanted to put part of it in my newsletter. Here is that part (and I will reply to the rest privately SOON!):
30 July - Shelley in Cape Town:
I've just read your newsletter and I've got a few things to say. Firstly, stop being so obsessed with the job thing. If it's because you're worried, I understand, but I admire your strength in making that decision and wish I could do the same. I keep thinking of what I would do if I wasn't scared and there's lots of more interesting things to be doing with my life. Don't knock your decision. Secondly, the rugby thing. *sigh*. Face it, you're obsessed.
Thanks, Shelley. I suppose I can at least take heart in knowing that I don't take my rugby "obsession" further. For example, have you noticed how some of the fans dress? And have you seen some of the elaborate banners people make? I also haven't travelled out of Cape Town just to watch a rugby game. Yet. Can't wait to watch that Western Province game at Newlands on Friday night though! Don't worry I've said all I'm going to about the rugby, for now. I can't make promises about the rest of this issue because I'm just bursting with it.
There will be a few more email snippets later, but for now I was asked why I hadn't included details of my first visit to Grandwest casino in the last issue, so I think I need to get into that before Verity (aka Soap Opera Queen) bugs me again. I had completed the content of the last issue before my two outings with Verity at the end of July. Hence the "exclusion" of the Grandwest evening. It was only days later that I actually finalised and emailed the newsletter so I wasn't surprised when Verity asked.
Let's see: if my induction is correct the date was 25 July. Verity and her sister, Melanie, picked me up in the evening. They both had work the following day so it was not the intention to stay out too late. Alas it was already quite late when they collected me (after ten p.m.?). I delayed proceedings further by having to run back inside for money. You'd think it would be the first thing I would remember to take along. Not that we were going to gamble. Luckily there's more to Grandwest casino than gambling. You may remember from my last newsletter (highly unlikely, I know) that the original intention was to go to Billy the Bums that night (yep, definitely 25 July). However the plan changed because Verity thought we should rather go to Grandwest since David suggested it (he was probably also going to be there). As it turned out we did Billy's on Saturday night before the Castle Loud party. With Lauren and without Melanie. Again we caught up with David at the Castle Loud thing. I thought I'd better mention this now because you might be wondering about the pics on pages 1 & 3. They were both taken at the Castle Loud party (27 July) and can also be found on the website www.theusualsuspects.co.za.
Anyway, back to the Grandwest night. Who can guess what does it for Verity? :
1. being good and following the parking lot rules at all times
2. discreetly finding parking close to the entrance where really only City Lodge or Grand Hotel guests are allowed to park
3. Fibbing to four Grandwest people about visiting someone at the City Lodge, having a make-believe conversation on her cell phone with a phantom guest of the City Lodge in front of two of these people, just to park near to the best Grandwest entrance.
4. Number 3 when number 2 doesn't work and anyway number 2 isn't any fun for her so whatever injects the most drama into an outing without her husband finding out about it!
Friday 23 August
I must admit I stopped in the middle of a thought a few days ago and so I just finished off the idea I was on before continuing under the correct date now. I will say more about what happened after Verity drove over a pavement, parked in the exclusive City Lodge parking area, made up a story for the City Lodge people and then moved the car to less exclusive, but still hotel parking. But I have a few other things to say first.
I went outside past the fragrant jasmine creeper just now and searched for my friend, the chameleon. I usually find him every second day or so. He likes the red tree even though he can't turn red. I found a pic on the web the other day of a chameleon that looks a lot like him (of course it may be her, I realise that) and I might add it to this issue for some colour. He looks like he has orange sunglasses on his side and a big smile. The other day I was looking for him and I said to Wendy: I wonder where my friend is. And immediately I heard this crunching sound further down, at the level of my knees, and I said: what is that crunching sound? It was the chameleon eating a red and black ladybird. Imagine that. He was obviously having a good day because his tummy was pretty swollen compared to his normal slim look. The even funnier thing was a few days later Michael and I were at the back of the garden and I heard a strange sound again and discovered a second chameleon chewing. I knew it wasn't the same one because I'd just recently seen the other one near the beginning of the garden and these guys aren't known for their sprinting skills at the best of times. Plus I thought his back looked a little spikier and Michael says his stripes were different. I didn't check them out closely. Michael had picked up the other one for the first time earlier. I tried my luck months ago, but he hissed at me so I didn't want to give him a heart attack although I didn't let it stop me when I was a child. And then Ross (Lauren's boyfriend) arrived while the three of us were checking out the new chameleon at the back of the garden and he immediately chased after it (because they can move when they really want to) and picked it up. So both chameleons were picked up that day. I don't want us picking them up regularly, disturbing their natural ways and all that! Also I think we now have a duty to protect the state of our garden because you don't find many chameleons around - I read that all species are threatened and some are endangered. Is this my nature talk for this issue, you ask? Pretty much, except to say that it's so cool to see more and more flowers now that Spring is hinting its presence to Winter.
Oh and another thing, I went to St James Beach on Wednesday to collect some seashells. I wanted to put a few in the bathroom. Fifty-nine shells later… there were mostly thousands and millions of black mussel shells, but I picked out some other nice ones. Nothing terribly awesome, but I was contented. I've found a couple of St James pics on the net for you. The colourful shed-thingies are changing rooms and toilets. They are what makes St James different. I took a train there because St James station is right at the beach. When I got to Kenilworth station, I had to buy my ticket from one of the ticket-checker guys presumably because the ticket office machine wasn't working. He had difficulty giving me a return ticket so I agreed (very pleasantly of course) to buy another single (one-way) from St James when I returned. I went and sat on a bench. I was there a couple of minutes when another ticket guy comes up to me: "Excuse me, what station are you going to?" (He'd been with the other guy and had heard me asking for a ticket) and I'm like "St James" (still not clicking) and he's like "You have to go to the other side of the station". And finally she sees the light: "Oh I'm so stupid! I'm so used to going the other way. Thanks!!" and I rushed to the other side via the subway. Luckily he'd come to me just then because my train was due and arrived just then. See, Metrorail isn't so bad!
Later I've got a very edited version of my friend Averall Ann's reasons why she won't emigrate, why she loves this country. She wrote it and sent it to all her friends and I asked if I could use bits of it in here and she said ok that would be so cool!!!!!!!! So... later!
It looks like we're going to have to take our rain jackets and towels to the rugby tonight. It started raining yesterday, albeit intermittently, and this situation has continued today. Michael's going to try and leave work at 4.30 (which is really his official end-of day time since he usually starts at 8.30 and hardly ever takes lunch, even the compulsory half-hour). Then he'll come and pick me up in my WP cap and shirt and we'll try and catch as much of the curtain-raiser (i.e. the match before the main game) as possible. I suspect it will start at 5pm. It's the WP Merit A side vs the Boland Merit A side. One person who apparently won't need to take a towel along in case his seat is wet is David Beukes. He's apparently going to be sitting with the "big boys" in the Fedsure box with his friend, Julian.
Speaking of David and Julian, lets go back to the Grandwest story. When Verity, Melanie and I finally got into the Grandwest casino it was far later than it would have been had we just parked "legally". Melanie had to spend five minutes signing in and handing over her mace/pepper spray thing at the Grand Hotel entrance. But to give Verity all the credit, it really was quite an exciting trip. We traced David quite easily (just looked for a big bald head), but we were surprised to discover that he wasn't gambling. He said he'd already lost R850 for the evening so he was stopping. Good idea. I suppose he also wants to start saving money now since his wife, Sharon, is slightly pregnant. I found out that evening so congrats you guys! Now you will have more than a naughty staffie to look after. Here's one for you David, Michael saw someone had a sticker on their car that said: If it's not a staffordshire bull terrier, it's just a dog. Anyway David pointed out Julian to us, sitting at a machine, and then later he joined us in one of the pubs at Grandwest. There was a Supersport Arena in the casino and David told us it was really full since there was a karaoke there. Anyway at some point we decided to go in anyway and perhaps it was full, but dead as anything! And those karaoke songs… please bring on the gravedigger! So we just bought drinks and got the heck out of there, much to Melanie's dismay (NOT). None of us had any plans to gamble and shame the people there all look so down or at least morbidly fixated on their machines. None of them were wearing smart clothes or anything so do you think they're really winning big bucks? No. Smoking and gambling. Like David and Julian hahaha. David actually invited me along to Grandwest tonight since some other UCT people are supposed to be going as well, but I have basically declined. Don't really feel like going there after the rugby, but we'll see what Michael feels like doing. He probably won't mind going straight to sleep.
We went to a late movie on Wednesday. We used one of our rugby ticket stubs along with this voucher thing they handed out at the last game we were at - buy-one-get-one-free (only at certain shows of course) within a month of the rugby game. So I suggested we watch "Bend it like Beckham" - it was very good! We enjoyed it. I rarely am interested in watching a movie twice, but I wouldn't mind seeing that one again. We seem to only watch discounted/free movies at the moment. We saw a free showing of "High Crimes" recently too. I think I mentioned in the last ADT that we were going to. That was good, but I far preferred this one. Anyway Michael had a late night then and sometimes he stays up late doing stuff I can't fathom on the computer. Yes there are far too few hours in the day for someone who works full-time! Even for me the time just disappears!
Anyway I doubt we'll be visiting Grandwest tonight. It was cool going there for the first time though - looking at the elaborate decor etc.
Anyway when I was there in July, Verity, David, Melanie and I stayed in the casino until we finished our first drink. Someone asked me the time and I said "Twenty to eleven" not realising that it was actually much later. My watch had stopped. Every time someone asked what the time was you can imagine what answer they got from me.
Wendy got a new watch as an early birthday gift from Jef round about that time so my idea was to put her battery into my watch, but couldn't get the back of her watch off so I took it to a jeweler. Wendy's silver strap was broken and the person assisting me commented on her watch being nice so I thought, yeah maybe I would prefer a change and hers is nicer anyway. So I bought a new stretch strap for her watch and also got a new battery for my watch (which is black with a narrow leather strap) so now I have two although I haven't worn my one again. Technically the watch (excluding strap) still belongs to Wendy so if she ever asks for it back I don't think my defense will hold up in a court of law!
After we'd finished our drink in the casino we walked to one of the pubs. Enroute some of us decided we needed to use the loo and one of us (me) decided I may as well go since we were there anyway. This is the part Soap Opera Queen was hoping I included in the newsletter (don't ask me why!). She recommended we take a race in the toilet. Now I'm never sure which one wins, the one who finishes first or the one who's last?? One of Verity's mind-boggling games, especially exciting when there are also other people we don't know in the bathroom. Melanie's comment at the end: "A person can't even pee in peace!" - hopefully she never reads this newsletter because she'd kill me to be quoted in this way! By the way, no race actually took place - I think we need to retain some dignity here. I should actually suggest to Verity that she play this game with Karen!
Verity insisted she wanted a "flag" in her drink (you know, one of those umbrellas they stick in cocktails) and luckily for her the barman was obliging since he'd run out of lemon slices for the Savannas. There were very few people there (I suppose weekday evenings are like that at Grandwest - well, the casino was full), but we did dance to a few songs. Verity and Melanie got quite excited when they heard some old-time favourite of theirs that I must admit I can't say I'd ever heard before. So David and I talked about the rugby at Newlands that coming Saturday. Or at least he told me how he doesn't pay when he goes because he sometimes works at Newlands checking tickets so he knows someone there (I won't mention names, but it's the same person I buy my tickets from) who says he can go in via the Western Province Rugby offices. Oh and I'm not saying this isn't all perfectly legal - I would never try to get anyone into trouble in my newsletters!! I'm just saying he's lucky. But you know, he always has connections. It's through Julian he's sitting in the Fedsure box today, but I don't know what Julian's connection is!
Anyway I mentioned earlier that Julian joined us in the pub. And then Melanie and I convinced Verity (a few times) that perhaps it was time to leave. David wanted Verity to let Melanie drive us home, but you know Verity doesn't need alcohol to act tipsy so she actually was quite all right once we got outside into the fresh air.
We went back out via the Grand Hotel. While Melanie collected her mace, Verity and I, with nothing better to do (apart from behave ourselves) signed the Grand Hotel guest book while being eyed by a suspicious receptionist. Then we went home! We left David and Julian in the pub so I don't know what they got up to. Presumably David went home to his wife at some point and ended up in the doghouse. Go Sharon! Julian… well we saw him two nights later at the Castle Loud party. Tipsy is not the word!
On that Saturday of the night of the Castle Loud party Michael and I went to watch Western Province play the Griffons (not sure if David went in the end). It was great, pretty exciting most of the time and then we won with maximum log points so that was the best part. Pietie Ferreira was the captain because Corne Krige and Bob Skinstad were involved with the Springboks in the Tri-nations at the time. Now that the Tri-nations is over, and Corne unfortunately is out injured (fractured sternum) for up to 8 weeks, Bob is captain (you go, boy). Corne has also had an op on an old thumb ligament injury now so that he can heal two body bits with one injury-break! Enjoy the rest - you need and deserve it, Captain Courageous! Unfortunately we won't get to see Werner play today because he ended up with a haematoma on his lower leg at the end of Saturday's Bok victory where he scored that fantastic equalising try and then the winning conversion, even with a sore leg! The funny thing is he tried to call Stefan Terblanche to take the kick, but Stefan apparently couldn't hear him above the noise of the crowd and kept walking away. So Werner was like: ok this is a sign. And it was a perfect kick. Whooooohoooooo!! Oops, I am talking about the Western Province game and there I was back reliving that Bok win! Sorry!
It was an afternoon game so we got home sometime after five. I had briefed Lauren about a possible Castle Loud party trip in the evening and she decided she would come along. Her boyfriend, Ross, was in England working during his college vacation (he goes to an ad school in Cape Town) - she might instead have gone out with him if he'd been in the country.
Verity picked us up. Melanie was too sick (they'd both been starting a cold/flu thing on the Thursday) and Verity wasn't going to let her cough prevent her from partying (while her husband was out of town). We first went to Billy's and had a drink. It was pretty quiet there (still early I suppose) and I tried my first apple sour. Good, but those sour apple sweets that come in that sour sweets tub that Woolworths sells is similar and even better! In fact they are fantastic! Of course, you can't drink them, but that's fine, I don't often want a drink. I thought I saw Francois (aka Swys) Swart at Billy's - he played in the WP rugby team earlier in the day - but I can't say for sure it was him. However it probably was since it looked like him and the place is owned by WP rugby players. Oh yes, we parked the car where only tenants are meant to park - do you notice a trend?
For all the parking sins, when we eventually found the Castle Loud party, we had to park far from the party. When we got there we were asked if we were VIP. Verity asked the guy if we needed a card to show that we were. Yes, apparently.
When we left later David drove us back to Verity's car. It really wasn't all that far to walk, but anyway.
Verity actually hadn't had dinner I discovered way into the party and so she bought a boerewors roll. The three of us actually shared it. It was delicious, lettuce and all! I offered to buy another for Verity, but she said she didn't want one.
It was a pretty cool party, we got lots of dancing done. David visited us every now and then. If you want David to dance just play him old Debbie Gibson remixes. When the picture of him, Verity and me was taken Lauren was taking a break on the side… taking a nap more like it! She'd been out late the night before too. Anyway this is actually supposed to be the August issue and I made notes of quite a few other things I wanted to say. Also I have a few more emails to include! So this is another one of those long ones. What's new? you ask. I have to get ready for the rugby now though so hopefully I can tell you the rest tonight or else I'll have to complete this over the weekend.
Sunday 25 August
It's a beautiful day today! And this morning I found a baby chameleon - it was awesome to find this little thing, shedding tissue-thin white skin. Only about 2-2.5 cm long excluding the tail. Michael, Wendy and Lauren have also had the privilege of checking it out and I even saw it stick its gooey white tongue out and catch some tiny morsel. I can't find it now though - it was in pretty much the same place for hours trying to scrape its white mask off on a twig. Anyway we're unlikely to see it again and if we do later when it's bigger we won't know it's the same one. My camera wouldn't have been successful at catching it on film because it doesn't have a zoom lens.
Lauren slept over here last night and then left early for a Biology field trip at Kalk Bay, a beach near to St James. She came back earlier, barefoot and jeans rolled up. A whale jumped up and splashed them all so her socks and shoes got soaked. Luckily she got a lift back so she didn't have to get a train in that state. She's really chuffed at the moment because she's got her own cell phone. Ross got one for her in the UK and it was a bit of a mission getting it organised for SA use, but it's all fixed up now.
Michael had a haircut yesterday and Wendy cut my hair about a week ago. You'd think my hair would get thicker with all the cutting. Not a chance! Speaking of things related to heads, I got new specs a few weeks ago. I can probably still wear my old pair quite happily (especially now that the frame has been sorted out with a self-tapping screw where it was worn), but I don't want to mess around with my eyes. I'm waiting for the medical aid to refund me now. Luckily I had my test on the last day of the Specsavers special where they double your medical aid benefit for the lenses and frames. The only catch was you had to pay cash and claim from the medical aid yourself. I know at least that the account has been received since I can check online. I had to bug them the other day because they still hadn't refunded me for my flu shot from four months ago. For some reason it wasn't processed (the account had got lost somewhere along the way although they admitted it had been received). I definitely won't have to wait that long for this one - hopefully I'll get refunded next month.
Michael and I have been invited to tea at Shelley and Rudi's this afternoon. They moved into a flat in Wynberg earlier this month so we're going to check it out.
It's Paul T's birthday - happy birthday, Paul - pity I can't sms you in Brazil (they don't have GSM cell-phones). It's also my cousin's son's third birthday today (Jordan). Speaking of birthdays, I am not going to mention all of them that happened recently, but it was also Michael's mother's on the 2nd. Unfortunately we couldn't be there since they're in Pretoria. And it was Marcia's on the 6th (I gave her a call and she seemed fine if a little tired of the Joburg cold weather). Then it was my dad's on the 14th. We just visited him in the evening since he wasn't feeling up to going out. Besides he had other visitors too, but he would have liked to go to his favourite curry restaurant in the city centre if he'd been feeling better.
Wendy's birthday was on the 4th. She had stayed up way past midnight to see her birthday in, at Jef's place. So for that reason and other lack of sleep reasons, she was pretty exhausted on the rest of her 24th birthday. We went to the local Mugg & Bean for a late afternoon cake and coffee (or hot chocolate in Michael's case) - Wendy, Michael, Lauren, my dad and me. We were worried about my grandmother though, or I certainly was, I shouldn't presume the feelings of other people even if they probably were similar to mine! She had a horrible scare earlier in the day - it turned out to be a severe angina attack. Her daughters (i.e. my aunts) drove her to a nearby day hospital and that is where she was diagnosed. She thought she'd been having a heart attack. Later, after we dropped Wendy at Jef's parents' house where they were having a birthday dinner for her, Michael and I visited her at home. She was in bed (of course) and was rather dizzy, but at least she had survived the whole episode. I think she has better medication for her angina now.
As for Wendy's birthday gift from us, I don't normally mention the gifts we give people, but Michael got to use the drill he got from his parents this year. Wendy had an open-fronted white wooden box in her room that she got from Jef when we moved here. It's what she put her hi-fi on top of. Anyway it was possible to turn it into a bookshelf just by adding a shelf to the middle. So we bought a piece of wood and some bookshelf "pins" to rest it on and Michael drilled some holes and voila. In addition we bought three pine shelves for wall-mounting and although they were not up in time for Wendy's birthday, it was the thought that counted right? Our grandfather also put together a white desk for Wendy from the pieces that had been Wendy and Lauren's desk when they lived with my parents in our old house in Steenberg. She's stuck with using a stool to sit on for now though. Maybe by the time she starts studying next year, she will be able to afford a wheeled chair meant for desk usage.
I also bought a DIY pine storage unit for our bedroom on Women's Day, not because it was that day, but I remember it was on the public holiday. No drilling required. Yeah right!!! As much as it had been my plan to put the thing together myself, I knew Michael was also keen. In the end he did most of it because he had to do quite a bit of drilling to deepen some of the holes and to countersink some as well.
I am making a very late (and small) pasta lunch for me, Michael and Wendy now and then we'll be off to Shelley for tea soon so the earliest I'll be back is tonight.
Monday 26 August
Unfortunately I decided to get an early night last night so I didn't wash up in the kitchen and I didn't continue this issue. Wendy made a great dinner: lamb chops, egg, mash and sweetcorn. It could be it made me lazy. Anyway, for those sins I had lots to wash up in the kitchen this morning (don't you just love pots? - luckily that Sunlight Liquid sure is fine) and a newsletter to complete today!
Michael's parents and younger sister, Julie, are driving down to Stellenbosch tomorrow. His dad sometimes comes down for work and this time is no exception, but he's bringing Wendy and Julie along as well. They're going back again on Thursday so they'll be spending a lot of time on the road, but hopefully it will be worth it. Julie is on school holidays (she's at a private school so they have different holidays to the majority of schools in the country).
Just an aside: Kelvin just called me now to tell me he got his tax refund (unexpectedly) so he says anyone who needs a loan can come to him. ;)
Anyway we're going to have dinner with Michael's parents and Julie tomorrow evening at their friends' house in Tokai. They're sleeping over there for the night and then Mike's dad has to drive to Stellenbosch for the day. We're going to fetch Wendy (Mike's mom, not my sister) and Julie on Wednesday morning so that we can spend the day with them. Michael's taking the day off work. Then we'll meet up with Rob (his dad) for dinner somewhere on Wednesday evening. They'll all go back to Stellenbosch and stay there overnight and then return home on Thursday (if I have this correct)!
Tea at Shelley and Rudi's was cool yesterday. They have a lovely flat and it was also a wonderful surprise to find Nadia there. Thanks for the tea and coffee cake, guys! I tried to borrow their Jamie Oliver cookbook, but no chance! I managed to borrow the third Harry Potter book for Lauren to read though. Nadia borrowed our copy some time back, but we never got it back and Nadia still hasn't told us why. I've given it up as a lost cause, I don't know about Michael. :)
While we were at tea yesterday, the black rabbit visited our garden, Wendy said. A few months ago Michael and I spotted a black rabbit on the railway tracks as we were driving across the line at Kenilworth station. We parked and tried to find it, but it wasn't anywhere to be seen and I certainly wasn't prepared to look for more than a minute. Some days later I thought I saw it run past the Chesterton gate and then another night Michael and I saw it outside our complex. I got close enough to it to see it had a white nose. Anyway we figured it was someone's lost pet. It had obviously decided it preferred to be on the loose and was surviving that way. I think Ross and Lauren also saw it at some point. And then Wendy saw it trimming our lawn yesterday. It had gone by the time we came back home.
Time for lunch!
I've arranged with Verity to visit her and Alex on Thursday. I haven't seen him in ages so it's really about time.
I thought it was meant to be a sunny day today, but it started drizzling earlier and I had to get the clothes inside. So, now the heater's out and all, to help speed up the process.
Remember how I said we'd have to take towels to the rugby on Friday evening. Well, we did and a good thing too since the seats were indeed wet. Although there was some rain during the game, it wasn't continuous and it was very light so our rain-jackets were perfectly capable of handling the situation and there were no annoying umbrellas in the way. Western Province won 41-13, an excellent win in wet weather. So our six tries vs one by Boland were plenty of reason to celebrate. Breyton was obviously pleased with his first try, acknowledging the applause of the adoring crowd and then doing a double classic Paulse flik-flak (flick-flack? can't find either in the dictionary, buth both are used) for us after his second. I actually haven't read any of the match reports yet, but Boland certainly made them work for their points - WP struggled to start scoring in both halves. One of the Boland guys had a bit of fun with the crowd when he had to change his shorts on the field. The first replacement pair they gave him was so small he couldn't pull them all the way up. It was a pity when Gus Theron had to go off with an injury - he scored an awesome try - although it was cool to see Marius Joubert come on as his replacement. I felt really sorry for Fleckie though. He also had to leave the field injured late in the game. He's been trying to come back and play a full game for ages now, but every time something goes wrong. He even got his hair cut for this game. Hope you're back soon, Fleckie!! (Oh by the way I spoke to David today and found out that he couldn't make it to the game in the end.)
We've been invited to Helen's housewarming/birthday party this weekend and we haven't RSVP'ed yet. We should be able to make it though - will sort out the details with Michael tonight, Helen. Thanks for the invitation.
I've been enjoying watched the progress of "Popstars" each week. They're down to the last ten now and most of them seem to be from Cape Town. I must admit I am not surprised. I know not everyone likes pop music and even I think a lot of it is too "unreal", but luckily (well, I think it's lucky) I do like a lot of pop music regardless. And I think it's awesome that these top ten have got as far as they have. The sad part is that half of them will not make it to the pop group. But it's been cool to hear most of the Top 11 Idols being played on the radio. So it shows you don't have to be the ultimate winner to get heaps of exposure. If the loser Big Brother contestants (blah) can get publicity then these pop Idols and Stars deserve far more. So all the best to them!
Oh yeah I had breakfast with Kelvin nearly two weeks ago when he was in the area to fetch his last UIF money. We went to the Soho Café in Kenilworth Centre - awesome light English breakfast! Under R20 and includes coffee/tea and juice. Egg, bacon, toast, tomato.
I've just dialled in and collected a few rugby articles to read offline. So now I know Fleckie has concussion (caught a Boland knee in the head!) and will be out for a mandatory three weeks so he's "devastated". At least it's not three months. It's good to know that the Newlands attendance was over 22 000 on Friday - that's about half-full - this shows a new optimism about SA rugby, says Gavin Rich. Agreed.
Up next are a few more email snippets including the edited one from Averall Ann that I promised. You can read them while I make a start on dinner (lamb and butternut stew, I think). And while I'm still here, I think I'll say goodbye before someone makes me tell you how I managed to cause knives and forks and plates and salt and sugar to fall to the floor while watching rugby at the Keg a few weeks ago. Cheers!
29 July - Marleen in Australia:
Thanks for another beautiful newsletter. I love the townhouse - it's absolutely gorgeous, although the burglar bars bring back way too many memories. Am I glad we don't have them here - the closest we get are fly-screen doors on exterior doors which have some sort of burglar bars on them.
Thanks, Marleen. We're so used to needing burglar bars. At least we can push back the ones in our bedroom and in the lounge - that makes a world of difference. For the benefit of other readers, Marleen used to live in South Africa years back and that's when we started off as penfriends. Then she moved to Holland with her family and now they're Australian citizens after living there for a while. It would be great if we didn't have burglare bars, Marleen, but I'll take the burglar bars over supporting the Wallabies any day! Oops here's another email from an ex-South African living in Australia…
19 August - Denise in Australia:
I was referred to your Web site by Kelvin and I found it very interesting. You sure seem to be enjoying your writing. Having read everyone's news I would like you to include me on your mailing list.
Great to have you as an ADT-reader, Denise. Denise was my very cool boss at one stage, or even at two stages?? at UCT. It was so nice to see you in Cape Town a few months ago and it's a pity I missed the Cantina Tequila party when I wasn't feeling too well! I will email you back soon. Now I just need to do the web version of this issue (I first do it in Ms Word for the hardcopy version I post to some friends) and then I will start getting up to date with my emails all over again…
21 August - Wendy in Pretoria:
Thanks for the newsletter - I always enjoy hearing your news. When I have some time (maybe someday!!!) I'd like to send a message to your readers - something that I feel strongly about!
You probably didn't expect this to make it to my newsletter, but there you go. And thanks for taking such an interest! Funny, you just phoned me while I was busy with this email. I didn't realise you would be on your way to Stellenbosch today already, but it's obviously a good idea to take more breaks on such a long trip!
09 August - Averallann in the Valley of a 1000 Hills, Kwazulu-Natal:
Some of the reasons I have not emigrated from South Africa are financial, but I was born here and I love this country. This email is about the good things in my country and why I will die here!!!
