The Real Jenty

A rhino at the Krugersdorp Park was killed by poachers during the night.

Lance and I were discussing it this evening, when Bradley asked about what we were talking about.

So I told him.  He asked how they killed the rhino.  I said that they used poison.  He asked why, did they want her skin?  I said, no, her horns.  They cut her horns off once she was dead.

He says “Oh ja, for the chinese people because they think it’s makes them clever”

Then there was silence.

And he said “That makes me sad.  Where am I going to see rhinos now?”

Ja thanks a LOT Mr Poacher… you selfish git!!

It’s not just future generations that you’re depriving of beautiful animals… it’s my kids!!!

And I’m so not happy about this!  It doesn’t only make me sad.  It makes me very very angry.

Some people still have the flags on their cars, but what are you doing with all the flags you bought for WC2010?

I know of some people who bought flags from every single country that participated.

Well, don’t throw them away quite yet.  Firstly, there’s a Keep Flying campaign going on trying to encourage people to carry on flying them for the next month.  And in fact, there’s an entire Keep the Flag Flying website that’s been set up too!

If you do insist on not using them though, here’s an even more brilliant idea! Donate it!

That’s right it’s not that ludicrous… there’s an organisation in East London called Recycled Inc that’s wanting to use the old flags to make bags and shirts etc to sell to support vegetable gardens in their  local schools.  I like that idea!!

And they have a blog too… check it out, and send them your flags

Seriously, some days like today, I really really despair over the lack of good retail websites in this country.  I’m not talking all of them, but seriously, the really big brick and mortar shops should have a better presence online by now.

I suppose it’s a chicken and egg situation, where they’re not getting enough traffic and clients from their websites so they’re not prepared to jack them up… but I swear if they were better… they would get more online orders… especially if they were clever about the costs of delivery.  The old excuse about the size of the web audience in this country doesn’t make sense anymore, based on the recent stats I’ve seen… retailers should do their homework again.

Take this evening for example, I’ve been trying in vain to update my “stuff” page (my page with stuff that I want in the hopes that Lance will get me a surprise for my birthday).  I’ve been trying to get a link to a site for a steel colander.  Now that’s quite a basic thing to have in a kitchen (even though I don’t have one, and Pierre melted my Tupperware one when he steamed the rice in it one night), so it shouldn’t be difficult to find. Well, now… Woolies have them in the shop, I saw them today, yet their online store doesn’t list them.  Home Etc and Boardman’s websites are truly pathetic… what’s the freaking use of a brochure ware site for a retailer?! And that actually goes for most of the brick and mortar shops locally.

I ended up having to link to Amazon… it’s just really useless.  I would love to shop more online, but the retailers here are just so freaking backwards.   I’m not surprised more and more people are shopping overseas and importing stuff.  I, for one, don’t have the time to wander around shops anymore, I’d much rather buy online.

It’s time the local retailers caught a wakeup, seriously!

It’s the morning of the World Cup, and last night I watched the opening concert broadcast from Orlando Stadium at home in front of the fire with Lance. The boys stayed up to watch a bit of it, but it’s a massive pity they didn’t get to see the big songs like the flag song… I was actually crying at many parts of the concert…

I can’t remember when last I’ve felt so proud to be a South African. It was awesome sitting there watching the tweets about #wc2010 and chatting on FB and Twitter with friends at the concert and in their living rooms around the world all experiencing the same thing as us.

Oh and that speech by the Arch was phenomenal! Mike Stopforth described him so perfectly on Twitter “Archbishop Tutu is a precious little black Yoda”

This morning Connor even got into the spirit. As he woke up the first thing he said was “It’s the World Cup!”.

I feel it… it is HERE!!

The place is really buzzing now about the FIFA World Cup 2010.

The DJ’s on 5FM are talking about it all day. Twitter is abuzz with tweets with #WC2010 attached, especially when teams or players are spotted or like today, where some daft cameraman was seen in Sandton City wearing a bullet proof vest.  Almost every second car on the street has got flags on their side mirrors and flags sticking out of windows.  There are so many people wearing soccer shirts or just shirts with South African flags on them.

The office is talking about who’s taking leave on Friday to watch the game, and what time we can leave the office; while some people in other offices are scheming how they’re going to be able to watch at the office (our company has everything well organised for everyone to be able to watch).

Everyone is talking about it.

A friend of mine in the US spoke about it on FB just now, and said I need to take photos of it to capture the excitement; and I realised that I should.  And I need to blog about it more.  It’s something I’d like to remember, and would be nice for the kids to read one day.  So, I think my focus for the next few weeks should be soccer related on my #365.

First thing happening is the street procession on Wednesday that I’m there for.  Not sure what I’m going to do on Friday.  We have a half day, and I’m going to have to let Beauty go home early too.  The roads are going to be bedlam.

Lance is watching at work… he started a new job this week and he has to be there.  Maybe I should watch the opening ceremony and the match with my mom at their house with the kids…  hmmm… think that’ll be my plan for the day.

What are you doing?  Where are you watching the game?

I attended an interesting meeting the other day, and one of the guys that were in the meeting was telling us about the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and a little bit more about how it works.  I cannot help be impressed by what he said… I had no idea that…

1.  When a child get looked after by the fund, it’s a holistic funding.  A foster family is found.  They get money from the fund and instructions on how they expect the child and his/her siblings (cos they’re never split up) must get looked after.  The funds pay for everything including all the schooling until the age of 18.

2.  When the child reaches 18, they then get educated further by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

3.  When they’ve finished studying they have to go back into the community where they grew up, and work there for the first 3 years to uplift the community.

Impressive hey?

Then, you know those 46664 bracelets?  Well, I didn’t realise that the serial numbers on them were so important.  I knew they were serialised, but had no idea what the reason was… it’s so that you can track where your money went.

Cool hey?!

I like what I heard

… and I’m in!!

I know it’s not like going out into the country, but seriously, a few nights away would just be awesome… and we could catch a show… just wander around… maybe book some time at a spa… and just spend time by ourselves!  Sounds divine, and it sounds especially divine after the crap traffic this evening that ended up causing me to get home after 7pm!! Can you say stress?!!

Anyhoo, here are the details:

Southern Sun announced last week the opening of their latest hotel on 24^th April, the Southern Sun Montecasino.

What’s really cool is that they’ve opened up a competition to bloggers!  Just think, how awesome it would be for some of the other city bloggers to win this and to come up for a weekend and meet all us awesome Jozi bloggers!!  So get to it, and write your blog post!!

Here’s the deal.  Blog about the Southern Sun Montecasino opening

1. In the blog post mention that this competition is open to all bloggers

2. Answer the 6 easy questions

3. Send the blog post link to sheenag@aquaonline.com to tally all entries

Questions are as follows:

1.       What is the opening rate special?

2.       Where has the latest Southern Sun opened? (they opened on 24^th April)

3.       Who is the General Manager of the hotel?

4.       How many rooms are there in the new hotel?

5.       When is their room service available? [How many hours a day?]

6.       Which item would you most like to order off the Punchinello’s menu?

*Hint: visit the website and download the fact sheet for more info.

On Friday 14^th May, one blogger will be chosen to win a weekend stay at Southern Sun Montecasino for 2 adults sharing, bed and breakfast and dinner to the value of R200 each.

Terms & Conditions:

Subject to availability, not applicable during 2010 World Cup

Children under 18 sharing parents’ room stay and eat breakfast free

Valid for 6 months from date of issue

Winners need to make their own travel arrangements to the hotel.

They fixed it!!

They arrived yesterday to fix the water problem.  I didn’t actually realise that they were also striking… that makes sense then.

And then they also went above and beyond duty a little.  The main tap inside our garden had also been leaking, and Lance had fixed it, but not covered it up yet, because he was waiting for them to fix the problem on the road so he could stop the water for a while, while he sorted it out properly.

They looked at what he had done, and asked where the cover was for it.  He told them that there had never been a cover, and the one reason he’s left it open was so he could put a bigger pipe around it to protect it.

They proceeded to go the truck and get him a proper meter cover!! How cool is that?!  So now it looks proper too

Today is Earth Day 2010, and I should really be blogging about what I’m doing to help the environment, and to encourage everyone else to do the same.

However, I’m too irritated with Joburg Water… and the subject matter is actually related!

We have a leak at our water meter on the road, and Lance reported it 3 days ago… do you think anyone has bothered to come and fix it?  Of course not!  When he logged the call, the guy couldn’t even tell him how long it would take to fix.

And it’s not a trickle!  OK, it’s not a fountain either, but that’s not the point, it’s SUCH a waste of a precious resource.

We only found it because we had a leak at our main tap, and we needed to turn it off at the meter to fix the problem.  So, until they fix the leak at the meter, we can’t actually replace the fitting that’s worn out inside our garden walls.

I wonder how much water has been lost with the leak so far?  It makes me mad even thinking about it actually.

Not only that.. but when Lance opened it up, he had to scoop out the muddy deposits on top of the actual meter to get to it.  Which leads me to the next question… when last did they actually read our meter?

And it’s not only ours, Lance went to check our neighbours meter too… and it’s even worse.  His is completely covered in hardened soil!!

How the hell are we being charged?

And also… if they’d freaking bothered to read the meter more regularly they would have found the leak sooner and less water would have been wasted!! So much for their banner on the home page of their website talking about being a water warrior – if you start some kind of campaign like that – you should start with your own employees!!

Every single little girl grows up learning about the gracefulness being a ballerina.

Every single little girl, at some point in her life, yearns to dance.

Every single little girl wants to wear a tutu and a tiara and prance around on tippy toes and dance to her hearts content.

Every single little girl dreams of dancing to audiences on a stage and getting praise and applause for being beautiful and graceful and perfectly girly.

Dancing to me, is an essential part of growing up.

Dancing is an essential part of human culture.

I got the link to the Save the Cape Town City Ballet site yesterday, and I think it’s a crying shame that the company is not getting the funding that’s needed to develop and bolster all the little girls in Cape Town’s dreams of being a ballerina.

Basically the Ballet company will close down if it doesn’t receive urgent funding.  We cannot let that happen.

I don’t have a little girl, but I have a niece.  A little girly girl, who learnt to walk on her tippy toes, before she walked on flat feet.  She has just turned 3, and is forever twirling and dancing and prancing around.  The thought of her not being able to go to that prestigious company, if she ever gets that good, just because a few bureaucrats were shortsighted, makes my blood boil.

So, lets all pull together to do something about it.  Please tell your companies.  Please tell your colleagues.  Please tell your friends.

If you donate something, you also stand a chance to win one of the following:

• One of 5 sets of double tickets to the Poetry In Motion Gala Event, to be
  held at Artscape Opera House on Sunday, 9 May 2010 [ More info ... ]

• 24 Bottles of wine, kindly donated by Michael Oliver, along with 3 signed
  copies of his books.

• A magnificent poster-size photographic print from Cape Town City Ballet’s
  current photographer, Pat Bromilow-Downing.

Please use the reference JV1 for your donations:

Cheques should be made out to:
CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET and posted to
PO Box 94, RONDEBOSCH 7701

For direct internet transfers:
Bank: NEDBANK
Account name: CAPE TOWN CITY BALLET
Branch code: 123 209 (Please note: Some banks will require 2 extra 00′s at the end, eg. 123 209 00)
Account no: 123 200 8842
Reference: Name + Reference Number (JV1)

If you make a donation, please send an email to win@savecapetowncityballet.co.za and with details of  your name,
contact details and the amount donated. All emails received will be placed into a
random draw, to be held on Tuesday, 4 May 2010.