I can’t come on here and attribute this quote to the individual who actually made it, for reasons of personal safety. However, I do feel that it deserves sharing. So here I am, sharing it.
It was while we were viewing a map of South Africa, that my companion remarked:
“This must be an old map: it’s still got Swaziland on it.”
She was right though. It had.
Which is a good thing for all our Swazi friends out there (a whole 14 of whom have visited this blog in the last 12 months).
If all is well, I will be on a plane to George when this post pops up onto the interwebs. Such is the magic of WordPress.
I say “if all is well”, but I have grave doubts that all will be well. I’m writing this with exactly 12 hours to go before take off; my son has bronchitis, my wife has bronchitis and in a foolish act of solidarity, little K-pu is displaying the first signs of bronchitis.
It does not bode well. In fact since I just took up a Med-Lemon to my ailing wife, it’s boding a whole lot worse as she just told me how much the flights cost. Now I too feel slightly sick, which explains the medicinal brandies I’m just poured myself.
Anyway, given that I expect to have almost exactly no sleep tonight, I’m going to leave it at that for now.
If we do make it to George, I am going to make a special effort to meet the mayor, Phillipus Hendrik “Flip” de Swardt.
I will tell him that he has a great name. Then I will ask him if he has any decent brandy.
Tomorrow’s post is all about maps. I know that because I wrote it 10 minutes ago.
Ask any (non-whining) South African about the World Cup next year and they’ll tell you two things:
Firstly, it’s going to be brilliant, exciting, amazing; and secondly, Bafana Bafana don’t stand a chance. We’re talking cat in hell, snowball in hell, fishcake in… hell (?) stuff here. No chance. At all. Not even a little bit. Nil. Zero. Zilch.
You get my point. And that’s still one more than Bafana are going to manage*.
But we’re all singing the praises of the South Africa Homeless World Cup team this week, who are fresh back from Milan, trophy in hand! Fantastic stuff. That is, until you read the small print and discover that they won the trophy for finishing 16th.
It’s all enough to make you wonder if they didn’t just steal the trophy. In the traditional South African way. I’m not suggesting that they did nick it or anything, but getting a trophy for finishing 16th? It does sound a bit fishy.
You must forgive me, because I recognise that even being there representing their country was a special experience and an honour for those guys. And I can only salute the great positive work that NGO’s and charities do in organising these sorts of events. But, being a traditionalist at heart, I have to say first, second, third… fair enough. But a trophy for finishing 16th? Well, that devalues thing a little for me.
16th deserves more of a certificate and a pat on the back. A well done and thanks for turning up but there were another 15 teams who were better than you kind of thing. Not a trophy.
So South Africa didn’t win. They didn’t even come close. But there are those who can overlooked this minor detail if it brings in some nice publicity. ID leader Patricia de Lille for one:
I am so proud of our National Homeless Soccer Team, who persevered right until the end of the World Cup, beating Malawi in the final.
Poor deluded Patricia de Lille is still under the impression that her political party won the recent election and can’t understand why Jacob Zuma is claiming to be President.
Fortunately, for the purposes of accuracy in this article, reporter Harriet McLea helped de Lille out by adding the word “(match)” into the published quote at an appropriate point.
All a bit of a joke as far as the competition goes, then. But this surely offers some hope for Bafana Bafana in the real World Cup next year. After all, if you get a trophy just for finishing 16th, maybe they won’t be empty-handed at the end of the 2010 tournament.
* That’s enough now. Ed.
It is important for readers of this site to understand that not every photo posted on here is necessarily a quota photo.
To clarify, a quota photo is a device used to fill space in order to maintain my “post a day” promise. Quota photos are used on days when news is slow, time is short or inspiration has run dry. These conditions do not apply today, thus what is published below is a photo that I took this morning and that I want you to see, not one that was posted because there was nothing else to say and no time to say it.
Glancing out of my passenger window for my favourite view of Table Mountain from the car as I was passing Rondebosch Common this morning, I saw that someone had daubed a rainbow across the big rock. Everybody loves rainbows.
The disappointment that immediately followed at not having my camera to hand rapidly vanished as I realised that it was in the boot. I swung violently across two lanes of no traffic, jumped out of the car and began painting with light.
You can see it bigger or visit my Cape Town set for a few more that I took this morning, plus loads of other varied and eclectic photos, each with some vague link the the Mother City.
This was not a quota photo post.
I was delighted to see that cover article of this week’s Sunday Times Magazine was about the Pet Shop Boys and even more delighted to read that they have a new album “out now at selected retail outlets”.
And that’s great stuff, because there will always be a place for cheesy electronica.
Imagine then, my disappointment as I read that this new album was called Yes. Disappointment because Yes came out back in March. Six months ago. So why are the Sunday Times telling us about it now? What’s the story?
The copyright for the article showed that it was from The Guardian, so I had a quick google (behind closed doors) and found that the original article was published on the 14th March 2009. A full 183 days before the local rag got round to publishing it.
How emboeresing.
I don’t mind the local newspapers publishing articles from the international press. Not at all.
But please, keep it relevant. This is just outdated nonsense.
One further irony in Alex Petridis’ article was this paragraph:
The Pet Shop Boys occupy a unique place in the public affections, long after most of their ’80s pop peers have vanished: it’s perhaps worth noting that when their first hit, West End Girls, reached number one in 1986, it was fighting off stiff competition from a-ha.
Of course, in the intervening period between this article about the Pet Shop Boy’s tenth studio album being published in the UK and over here, a-ha released their ninth studio album (even the Daily Mail knew that!).
All of which – reading in September – makes the paragraph completely nonsensical, as any half-decent music journalist would have noted.
Maybe the Sunday Times should get one of those.