Friday, September 30, 2005

 

Kung Fu Hustle

What a great movie! This, for me, is Chinese Monty Python - very offbeat but if you're a little strange, you'll enjoy the movie. If you don't know, it's Chinese (picked up both Mandarin and Cantonese with my highly limited understanding) with English subtitles. I laughed a lot (Heath told me that the people in the row in front of us kept turning around) but that's about normal. Hey - they don't teach me any of this stuff during kung fu class! None of the 12 kicks of the Lau school...no Lion's Roar...no Buddhist Palm Kung Fu...although we *do* do "Frog." One of the guys was using a lot of South Horse and Wing Chun - gotta get my skills up to scratch, methinks. Thanks to Mike, Jo and Heath for a great evening :)

Thursday, September 29, 2005

 

Lyndi leaves

(How poetic). Lynd left for England yesterday - for an indefinite period - to live/work etc etc. She'll be based in Redding for a week and then...? Sean (her bf) and Chris are already there and she went over with Quint (flying Air Namibia via Windhoek...). Quite sad to say goodbye, but then goodbyes need to be more her than about us. Good luck, Lynd! Have fun and keep away from those dodgy South Africans! (with apologies to my friends already there).

 

Word for the day

bakgat - expression of appreciation for something very well accomplished; cool.

(From Wikipedia)

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

 

Sex in Iceland

Promise you won't tell? I watched Oprah tonight after getting home late from work (about 10). After a hearty meal of peas, rice, gravy, butternut and lots of balsamic vinegar all in the same bowl and heated up, I settled down to see if there was anything on TV. Behold - Oprah (don't tell anyone) was doing her "Women around the world" tour. I tuned in for India, Iceland, Singapore, Belgium, Portugal, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Each segment started with a clip filmed in that particular country showing something of life there with some of those guests then joining Oprah (don't tell anyone) in studio...which of course meant some gifts for her.

India bought her a sari and helped put it on. Oprah (don't tell anyone), once she found out that sari's are meant to be worn without any other clothes, suggested maybe she should take off her jersey - because she had rather a sexy bra on underneath...well good then.

Israel was interesting because their segment was put together by an Israeli and a Palestinian woman - who are both friends and are encouraging their nations to live together in peace. Soldiers with guns dominated the daily life segments. Singapore had the usual cleanliness showing large fines for littering (and no chewing gum). The host encouraged Oprah (don't tell anyone) to bring lots of bra's if she was to visit since ALL Singapore bra's are padded - for extra cleavage. Thanks for that bit of trivia, Singapore woman.

Portugal (Lisbon) had, well, rather scary women - who looked pretty staunch and were proud of the fact they smoke more than men (that particular fact got mentioned twice).

Saudi Arabia was probably the most different to the States. Since it's a Muslim country the women are forbidden to show their faces in public and must submit completely to their husbands. I don't know how common wife-beating is, but this particular Saudi Arabian woman was the first who was published in newspapers around the world, first as a TV presenter and then as a very badly beaten (and strangled) wife. I can't imagine what level of inner anger her husband must have to want to kill her (as he told her his intentions were) - but he got the wrist slap of 6 months in prison. Guess it's better than nothing. Oh - and she got custody of their child - and unprecedented victory - one for the good guys girls.

Belgium bought chocolate to the show - they make something like 172 000 tons of chocolate there each year! Gotta visit! Plus they have 200 different types of beer! Gotta visit! (Wait, I don't like beer...but after my recent experience with Chinese beer I *must* give that a try). Oprah (don't tell anyone) was quite funny when it turned out her gift was Belgian chocolate - I quote (to be said with a strong fake southern African-American accent):

"Girl, jus' this mornin' I wuz speakin' to Jeezuz and awl heezz dee-sciples and I promised him I wuz not going to be eatin' any chocolate for six weeks. And then you come in here and offer me CHOCOLATE...I KNOW who YOU are!"

Hee hee. I think she ate the chocolate.

But best of all was Iceland. 4 hours of sunlight in winter and 24 in summer. Hot springs bubble up from the earth making relaxing swimming any time of year. Babies are left outside at least an hour a day to sleep in their prams because the air does them good. Reyjavik (hope I spelt that right) - the capital - lays claim to being a city that never sleeps. And they *do* seem to frequent those bars a lot.

If a 15 year old girl sleeps around, she isn't known as promiscuous; that's just pretty normal - and the same for the boys. I wonder how the Catholic church is doing there?! And apparently it's normal to have sex on a first date. Let me say that again - it's normal to have sex on a first date.

Many of the women are tall, beautiful, blonde and blue-eyed. And it's normal to have sex on a first date. It's not uncommon to have 5 kids, all with different people. And it's normal to have sex on a first date.

I also learnt there are only 300,000 people in Iceland. Hey?! The Icelandic guest (she fits the description above, by the way) bought her country's phone book - which is smaller than Joburg's one. And everyone is listed. Even the prime minister. So Oprah (don't tell anyone) looked him up and gave him a call. Unfortunately he'd already left work but she got to speak to his secretary. Poor guy.

I do have a deep respect for Icelandic humour. Aside from sounding like a softer version of Dutch when they speak, there's a definite sly/sharp grasp on life..."icy" perhaps? I say this because the speciality from Iceland was food..delicacies if you will. Namely shark meat - which by nature must be rotten (don't know why, but judging from audience and O*rah reaction it was nAsty) - and then sheep's testicles. Mwahahaaaa! Give that woman a cigar! Who comes on Oprah and says, "In my country we have delicacy - rotten meat and sheep balls?!?!" Unfortunately Oprah (don't tell anyone) didn't eat *anything* on that platter but she did throw back a tot of some clear vodka-and-fire-like liquid (and laughed an awful lot after that).

How much fun all of that was. So many countries to visit. Iceland sounds great. And it's normal to have sex on a first date.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

 

Open Source Astronomy

The Open Source Astronomy cdrom project has lots of open source programmes to download if you're interested in any aspect of astronomy.

 

Working late

Why work late? It's been a day where I haven't been able to do much work. *sigh* From fixing the Enneagram test on the TomorrowToday.biz site to downloading Doom 3 (heehee) for Mac and Reason...that should be fun. Lynd is leaving for England in 2 days - which sucks (well, for me - for her it's very cool).

The Enneagram, btw, is a personality profiling test - but an ancient one (been around for millennia, apparently). Take the test and figure out what you aren't (since that's easier - and more valuable - than figuring out what you ARE...).

 

Miriam Makeba



She was on the front page of the Sunday Times "Insight" section 2 weeks ago. The caption said something about this being her last tour before she retires - and since she's been performing for just on 50 (spending around 30 of them in exile) years I felt it was my patriotic duty to see her. Andrew thought I was just plain crazy. So, this past Mondayy night, Lynd and I went and saw her at the Civic. Mz Makeba only came on after interval and until them we were treated to music by the MIAGI orchestra (Music Is A Great Investment, ha ha). The first words she said when she came on stage were (very slowly, in her style): "Much has been written about 'Makeba Quits!' You should not listen to them so much. All I said was this was my last tour before my retirement - then I'll start the first tour of my retirement! There are people all over the world to whom I need to go and say 'Thank you.'" Not bad for a woman who's 73...

She sang really well (duh) and there were a few interesting moments as the orchestra conductor tried to hold together a jazz band, an orchestra (with 3 (!) double basses) and the vocalists - mostly succeeding (and at least one moment of audience hilarity). Awesome to see a true South African legend in concert.

Friday, September 23, 2005

 

Grabbing a beer at Mug n Bean

Can't believe I've never done this before. Andrew thinks it's hilarious I have a Mug n Bean card. Haha. I think I'll give him one for his birthday. But here I am, sitting at the Mug on Friday night. On my own. Hooray! Actually, earlier tonight I helped Marius do some youth group stuff in Kensington. Interesting church...interesting area. Often get the feeling I live quite oblivious on the "other side of the tracks." Still have to go and live in an informal settlement sometime. Some pics below from earlier tonight.

 

Carlo's raided!

IOL reports that police are raiding restaurants and asking for driver's licenses, arresting drivers with unpaid fines. And they raided Carlo's - who make a fantastic health breakfast and great cappuccinos. I often go there with Simon Cashmore for coffee and good chats. It's a short walk from church - so to hear that it was raided by police is rather...strange. To quote from the article:

Joan Bortz of Carlo's Coffee Bar in Norwood described Friday's raid as "ugly and unpleasant".

And *maybe* I have some outstanding parking fines...maybe...

 

Canadian humour

vancouver dog sign



From:Ewans corner

 

Newsboys and SonicFlood in SA

Just put some last touches on the Day of Destiny blog - and looking forward to going to see some lekka bands tomorrow at Gallagher Estate. Not often we get quality international Christian bands to come to SA - should be good.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

 

SA vs USA

Bonnie posted something about the similarities and differences between South Africa and America. I wrote some comments and thought they'd bear repeating here.

Someone commented that there aren't any "biscuits" in SA (she asked for one at KFC and got a roll instead) - and so begins my reply:

Actually there are many biscuits in South Africa, but they're non-American biscuits, not American "biscuits." Our "biscuits" are your "cookies" and our "cookies" are your "cupcakes." Fun, huh?!

Other differences? I've generally found Americans louder and more confident in themselves than South Africans...more self-assertive (that's a generalisation - spent most of my time in the North East).

American coffee - excellent. Can't find a French Vanilla here but in *every* petrol station (oh, right, "petrol" = "gas") you could get French Vanilla to go (or "take away"). Probably the thing I miss most about the States!

Shameless self-promotion and extremely cheesy ads - radio, tv, you name it. I love the medical advertisments which tell you how good the product is for you, and then the guy pretty much raps the side effects: "May cause sickness, diabetes, excessive sleep and death." Hilarious!

Thursday, September 15, 2005

 

Embarrassing...

So I managed to embarrass myself today - but only in retrospect. Not having made lunch for myself, I'm sitting by Greg and he starts singing, which reminds me I don't have anything in my stomach to throw up so better do something about that. Grab a Scooters menu, call the nearest branch and order a Chicken Tikka Pizone for Greg and a Greek salad for myself (I'm feeling tired recently, ok). The woman who took my order was very friendly and a little bit giggly.

Well anyway, an hour goes by and no lunch. So I call them back at which point they establish they never heard of me...
Doh. So I re-place my order and soon(ish) the food gets here. Hooray!

So the embarrassing part is that I phoned a wrong number and placed a pizza order with someone who has a nasty sense of humour...just not my day today! And wait until I find that woman...

Friday, September 09, 2005

 

Mwahahaa!


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