But the twat was the cause of a really bad start to the day for me!

Reversed into some other dude’s Pristine Condition White Golf Rythm! Cause this muppet had parked in his bay. Approx R2000 damage.

Then went on to crash the Network for an hour!

Then had my car battery die at Vineyard Engen whilst filling up!

Great Day!!

NOT!

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy ‘-(

Hating My Life!

lol

Yip, that is a POWER BUTTON!!! And that’s exactly how I feel right now!

Think that I’m going to restart 2011!

3 months in and everything (aka my life) has pretty much gotten pretty fucked up! lol

April 1 I’m gonna pull a “wr e”, “reload” on my life to date this year.

What a mess.

More to follow … soon!

Nunnsby

Living this Life!

Picture 1: The bottom of the mountain at the cable car station.

Picture 2: The view of one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

What more can one say?

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

Can give the liver a rest.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

STORM SAAM!

The Stormers take it 33-0! Great game.

Dinner at Cubans.

Then . . .

Nunnsby
Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

A week of Drinking and Debauchery awaits!

Day 1: The Waterfront!

Nunnsby
Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

I now get 404 permalinks errors for all pages outside of the front page! Not cool!

I tried changing the permalinks structure to a custom one and away from the index.php/%date%/%postname% I kept gettting, to just a /%date%/%postname%/ link structure, but then I discovered it was broken.

This is a bug in the latest version of WordPress, and appears it is quite wide spread. Just do a search for “wordpress permalinks error 404 index.php” and you’ll see. I have come across a bug trac for it: Error 404 with /index.php/%postname%/ permalink strucutre, but appears there is no official fix for it yet. There appears to be a few ad-hoc fixes, but nothing substantial. Hopefully they’ll have it fixed soon though.

I have reset my structure to default, so =?p…. So, if you have pages linked, please bear with me in the meantime!

Most frustrating!

After deleting the database and restoring it TWICE, along with removing the WordPress directory and re-installing it again and then having to recreate everything again, it has been an experience, and I have learnt loads more about Ubuntu and WordPress. Nice one.

Anyway, currently back in Cape Town, and it is pretty nippy compared to Luanda! Here till Sunday!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

- – - – Update – - – -

Just applied a new patch, which made it worse as in it didn’t display anything. Bummed.

Cape Town from the Tampon Towers

Luckily I managed to get back to Cape Town just in time for the 2 day week. 3 public holidays almost in a row led to some serious debauchery and over-indulgence on my side. This was well timed, as I was in serious need of a break after my last week in Luanda. Well, I took serious advantage of it!

We: The Pharmacist, Bokkie and myself, hit Oblivion on the Friday night which was pretty good. I landed up at Tiger on Sat after rugby with Borat, and that was once again a late night. Can’t remember much about the night to be honest, but it was a good one, and I got pretty drunk, and landed up getting some chicks blood all over my jeans, which apparently I had caused when she fell off her chair, but I very much doubt it. Well, Johnny Walker doubts it!

It landed up being a week of complete excess – the public holidays very well timed for me!

I got a dive in on the Wednesday afternoon with The Advertiser and a college friend of his, and we did A-Frame which was chilled. Not too cold and good to be back in the water, especially with my new mask, a Mares X-Vision, which was just great. I had borrowed one briefly in Sharm when I was there back in 2004, and as my Cressi had now given up the ghost, it was a good purchase. Very happy with it indeed. Vis wasn’t bad for A-Frame, but the wind was absolutely howling, so it was cool to get under the water. The Advertiser found us an Octo, which was always cool to see and there were the usual “strepies” (fish) hanging around the A-Frame itself, with loads of starfish, with the big legs.

Borat and I hit Tiger again on the Wednesday night as Thurs was a public holiday and it landed up being an absolute ripper. I actually started off at Jade bar in Green Point  with the Sales Man, and a few of his mates. From there we went to Karma in Camps Bay, which was okayish. Borat pulled through and then very aptly called it a “Coloured Jol”, which it seriously was. haha

From there we HIT Tiger . . . and  . . . I can’t actually remember what happened next. I do remember running around Harfield Village at about 04h30 trying to wake people up to help me with my car, as I had run out of fuel – not immediately obvious to me at the time – something to do with dicing Borat back from Camps Bay and burning the rest of the half a reserve tank, and then forgetting to fill-up when I left Tiger . . . oi vey the Sales Man comments! The funny thing is the cops drove past me twice. Anyway, I called Borat and he said he would pull through. 30 mins later, he hadn’t arrived, and I had finally sobered up enough to realise that I was actually covered by the AA, a company thing, a good thing, and I called them and made it their problem. The guys arrived about an hour later, now around 06h and had to knock on my window, I had fallen asleep again, whilst listening to Harry Potter on my iPod, and was now completely lost in the story too. The AA dude found a 500ml bottle in the road, which he took off to get fuel in, luckily for that, as they don’t carry with them, and I waited another while for him to return. He did manage to get me going, and I headed off home to sleep big time! And still with no word from Borat. I called him a  few times, to no avail. Think it went straight to voicemail, and texted a few times too, but they never got delivered

I got a text from him at around 11h30 that morning saying: Got busted by the pigs on my way to you, just got home now. And that was it. I didn’t hear from Borat for the next 4 days, and I reckoned it was cause he was miffed with me.

Thursday afternoon I got out a bit and went up Lion’s Head, as it was great weather. The lack of gym showed very quickly though with me being completely stuffed, without my pump halfway up the path, just past the paraglider’s launch point. It was also probably due to the fact that I had hammered it getting up there, and that wasn’t very clever either.

My phone decided to give up the ghost around about that time, and the sim card just died! Little did I know what fun I was about to have trying to get it replaced.

Saturday I decided to go diving in the morning after the relaxing dive I had had the Wednesday. So pulled through to Hout Bay to head for a dive from there. Met up with the dive crew from ProDivers. We heard reports from the guys coming in that the vis was amazing, like up to 20m at parts. Hmmm, that was ringing bells in the back of my head, but I couldn’t remember why . . . I got my kit ready and we launched from there. We were supposed to do some site or other but the swell was pushing a bit so we landed up doing Vulcan rock instead. The boat stopped, we all kitted up and dropped in, and BANG it hit me what great vis in Cape Town meant. BLOODY FREEZING WATER!!!

Like 8 degrees freezing!!! Man it was cold. My head got serious “ice freeze” on the way down,and I just remember my body going f#ck this is cold! The dive lasted about 25 mins max I think – I didn’t have my computer on, the strap was broken – and we all agreed unanimously when the DM said time to surface! It was a great dive though, and the vis was truly amazing. Probably about 15m there even with the effects of the surge around the rock. Saw loads of urchins and some really large starfish. We were also joined by a few seals at the end of the dive, and they were rather playful, which is always cool to have with.

Fish and Soft Corals

Starfish and Urchins

Seal and Diver

When we got back to the boat the one diver was already there. She told us she got about 5m deep and decided no way it was too cold, so cancelled her dive. Clever girl. Once back no land I decided I was only doing one dive, that was cold enough for me that was. My hands were burning the entire way home due to the senses finally returning to them from the sheer cold of the dive. Our Instructor Exam had been done in 11 degrees, but this took the cake! Won’t be doing that again in a hurry! And will definitely remember what great vis means next time round!

Headethrough to Tiger that evening, once again, and who did I see at the one counter on the far side?? Borat. Hmm, he hadn’t beein in touch sine Wednesday, and to be honest, my phone hadn’t been in operation since Thursday afternoon, so I wasn’t actually sure if he was pissed with me, or just hadn’t been in touch. I went over and said Hi. Well,to cut a long story short,he had been pissed with me at first, then got over it, and then said that  if it happened again, he would call me a taxi! Now that’s a mate. He had also been trying to get in touch, but my phone was off,so once again we were on the lash! It was a good sat night and fun was had by all.

Monday morning early I nipped through to Malmesbury to get my new Jumbo Passport I had ordered, as mine was due to expire in March of 2009,and judging by the amount of time I was due to be spending out of the country, I decided to organise a new one 2 months back. I had already been informed that it was waiting for me. The reason I couldn’t have it posted was due to the fact that I still required my current one for travel, so had to go get the new one in person. Why Malmesbury? It is a little trick for Capetonians. It is only about 40 mins out by car,and is a fairly pleasant drive. You get there at 08h45, and there is literally no queue. You land up being first, second or third in the queue, and are pretty much done within half and hour. Not like having to wait 4 hours in a queue at Home Affairs in Cape Town somewhere,only to be told you have to wait again for the form, etc. Absolute disaster that place. I believe you can also get your drivers done in Malmesbury. That’s on the cards soon too, so I think I’ll be taking another trip soon enough. Plus there is also the Engen where you can stop off at for a decent Wimpy breakfast on the way back.

From Malmesbury I headed straight through to the Angolan Embassy to get my Visa sorted. I arrived around 10h30, and it was an absolute disaster. The queue was at about 47, but I managed to get in fairly quickly,for once,only to be told my LoI (Letter of Invitation) had not yet been received. In order to travel to Angola, you require a Letter of Invitation from an individual there. Our representation company usually sorts this out for us, and I had organised mine way in advance. To be told it wasn’t here, meant that I would have to request a new one and come back tomorrow. This would also mean my 5 day ordinary visa would now have to be treated as an Emergency Visa, and cost an additional R250! Which it did. I landed up returning every day for the next 2 days, as when it did arrive it was then missing some sort of contract number, which we had NEVER included in the past, and had never had a problem, but now we required it to do on there for them to process. Why was I not surprised. So I eventually got my application in on Thursday, which left 1 day to get a visa, as I required to have it by Friday afternoon, to fly out on Sunday morning. This is pretty much unheard of, getting a visa in 1 day, but I managed to wrangle it,and I collected it Friday afternoon. Why do we have issues every time we go to the embassy? It is crazy man.

I also put my car up for sale, as if I realistically only going to be spending approx 4 more weeks in the country,it didn’t make sense to keep it, especially since it was still be paid off. So I advertised it on AutoTrader and literally got a call the very next day by a guy who really wanted it. He took it for a test drive a few days later, and job done, he took it. We had to get a few minor issues sorted,which dragged on, once again Cape Town service , and then eventually he got the vehicle. I was sad to have let it go,as I absolutely lvoed my little Jetta V5, but at the end of the day, at least he will get pleasure from it, and it removes one more burden from my life, especially since I know that my sister had been driving it whilst I was away!!

I got one hell of a Tummy Bug on the Saturday, the day before I was due to fly out, and was literally man down the entire day. Cramps and the the good old toilet tap scenario! Not cool,especially when you literally have to t spend a whole day flying the next day! It didn’t help either that I only got 2 hours sleep on sunday morning before getting up to go to the airport. My eyes were burning whilst I was showering I was sooo tired, and I almost fell asleep in the shower from exhaustion.

Next thing I knew . . . I was back in Luanda, for another tour of duty!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

Cape Town CBD from the Tampon Towers! (Disa Park)

Oblivion! Man what a Venue! Especially when you haven’t seen a White Female in about 4 weeks! Okay, bar Rachel who was with us for that weekend at Mussulo. It was a Mind F#ck!! Whoa, I was like a dog on heat!

Nic kept saying: “You’ve got that Rotation Look!” Meaning I looked like the rotation guys usually do when they have been on rotation for 28 days on the rigs. Well, it wasn’t just the girls. It was everything I guess. White People in general – not that I am racist, I’m very liberal, but being able to speak proper English to people and not resorting to “Pidgin” English, cause no understands you, and just being able to fit in, and have a good time. All Good! Oblivion landed up being a bit of a late one. I met Dave and Nic there, and bumped into Mel, Michele, one of the twins I think, and then also Belinda, Melissa and then Karin’s mate, who is kinda cute, but I keep forgetting her name every time we meet.

Saturday Night landed up being Tiger Tiger, and . . . well, it ended in grief. I apparently threw up in the drive-way, just outside my car this time. Luckily not inside like a previous time the year before . . . long story, also involved Tiger funnily enough though, and then woke up wondering where the hell I was. Ooops. Not cool. Well, I got home in one piece and that was that. I was fine till I started dancing . . . that always seems to do it. Well, that was when my throat decided to go to the J&B Met and find a horse to race, as I was hoarse as anything. And it lasted then entire 13 days I was in Cape Town. Got back to Luanda and it cleared up immediately! Weird! So, obviously I didn’t remember much of the Tiger eve, and I was seriously man down for the entire day Sunday, only rising in the late afternoon I think. Ahh, we did watch 10 000 BC before heading to Tiger I think, and that was okay. Pretty funny with the accents though, as they are actually speaking Shangaan or Tswana, or some other African Language, which just made everyone in the cinema laugh! Dave wasn’t too chuffed with me as we were supposed to be organising the speech for Gav’s Wedding.

The next few days were a bit of a blur. Gav’s Bachelors on Tuesday Night, which was pretty cool, especially the marks left on his ass the next day! haha

Gavin looking good!

Thursday was his Wedding, in which Dave and I were the Best Men, and really had Gav worried the entire time. He was sooo worried that we were gonna take him down, and embarrass him to no end, and at the end of the day it was actually very tame. He’s is lucky I guess, but I suppose he suffered at the Bachelors! hehe The wedding was at Meerendal, and he got a friend of mine, Emma (http://www.shine-photographs.com), to do his photography. She seems to have done a good job, even though I haven’t seen the pics yet, but I believe they’ll be good.

We got ‘ol Haydn, Garry and Dave on the dance floor at one stage, along with the bloody DJ, who I think got more pissed than anybody else! He apparently got the moer in with everyone requesting songs that at one stage he played Kurt Darren – Ek Wil Huis Toe Gaan, to which Dave knows the words perfectly, which is actually quite scary. Don’t worry Dave, you’re next buddy! hahahaha

Gavin’s Wedding – Haydn Garry, Dave, Ilse, Gavin and others! – 4:32

The night ended with Garry and myself adding a bit of chaos to the mix by dispersing polystyrene balls, the really small ones, to the entire bedroom. And bed. And car. Well, it was funny at the time. hehe Yeah, Yeah, I know . . . I’ll be getting married at some time in the future. But Gavin, if you’re reading this . . . who says you’re gonna be invited?? haha Only kidding mate. But, on my wedding night, I will definitely be staying in a different room/hotel/location to one you all think I will be in and I will certainly not be driving home in the car I arrived in! So Go Wild my man!! haha

Anyway, Wedding aside, which was really good – Oh, just be lucky the sheep was too heavy mate, as if it was a light one, it would have been in the back or the car too – and the issue of the morning after bedroom aside, his Missus was not happy, it was a huge success. They are still married after all!

The rest of the time kinda went by in a whizz. I got to the beach once with Nic, and got in a bit of beach bat too, which was cool. Lamed also happened, which you just can NOT do. I never got to gym , and it is really starting to show I can tell you that. Sitting around not doing any sport is not good for me at all. Guess I’ll have to start push-ups and sit-ups and possibly pull-ups too now that I’m back in Launda, as there is no gym here. Well, there might be, but none that I have yet seen!

The break was cool, but I was getting a bit impatient as my job actually requires me to be in Luanda, and it is far easier to keep a hand on things here in country than remotely.

I got my new Visa, which has me back in Cape Town on the 25th April, just in time for the next long weekend! Yay I didn’t see hardly as many people as I had hoped this time, and will definitely touch base when back! I will also get out to our Guest House in Swellendam, Klippe Rivier, for a nice break too. It’s been way too long!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Barrie the Braai Meister relinquishes “The Apron” (My Handover Present from the previous weekend)

Saturday I was up early. 06h30! There was a power outage cut-over at one of the branches at 07h00, so we had to make sure we had a guy on site to power down the devices. Osvaldo, one of our 2 local guys, offered to go do it. I gave him to a ring to make sure everything was cool. All good from his end. Great. Back to Sleep! Sylvester went to work in the afternoon to do the monthly checks and help test a satellite comms issue. I was gonna walk down to Sistek a few blocks away to get a few electrical bits and bobs, a S-Video to RCA and a Mini-jack to RCA cable for connecting the laptop to the TV. I stepped out of the house around 11h, and stepped straight back in. At 38 degrees there was no friggin way I was walking! So, I landed up spending the rest of the day pretty much in the house, pooping out every now and again to get a bit of sun. Thank God for Aircon!

I got a bit adventurous that evening and suggested to Sylvester we head to what looked like a restaurant about 2 blocks away.  I had finally been getting to grips with my bearings and our routes around the city. Not that hard you may think, considering we only actually drive about 5Kms max roundtrip everyday to work and back. But there were a few weird goings on. Like we never turned left into our road. Upon further investigation I discovered it was because it was illegal! Not allowed! Against the Rules! Now this was a real irony. You can’t turn left (from a main road only it appears), but you can gladly go down a one-way, go straight through a traffic intersection in front of a traffic officer whilst he is directing traffic for the perpendicular directions – and he does nothing, and calmly create your own third lane of traffic, on a 2 lane road, directly into oncoming traffic, expecting them to move out of YOUR way, yet . . . YOU CAN’T TURN LEFT!! That’s just insane! ! !

Anyway, back to the story, so I had been getting my bearings, and had seen on numerous occasions a little place about 2 blocks down, around the corner, that looked like a nice little restaurant called Casa do Dao. So we decided to head through ON FOOT! Now, it’s around 20h at night on a Saturday night. It’s pretty dark, and I’m heading out with Sylvester to walk about half a km through a city to find a place we don’t even know that’ll be open. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I’m the ONLY WHITE PERSON AROUND!! well, this for me was nerve wracking to say the least. Why??? Well, let’s see . . . In Cape Town I would think twice about walking from my mother’s house to Cavendish Square (a distance of about 500 metres) at 19h30 on a Friday night, and that is in Claremont, a pretty good area. And here I was, about to walk through an entire city, well not really, but definitely through a really busy area of town, in a foreign country, where they speak a language I still don’t understand, as the only white guy around!! I must have been pretty crazy at the time! In South Africa we are so fearful of anyone with a darker skin tone to our own. It is actually quite frightening to realise what sub-conscious fear we live in in South Africa. Constantly checking who is around us. Do people look dodgy? What are they doing? Are they watching us? Where are our keys? Where’s my wallet? My cellphone? Man it is crazy. Constantly on our guard back home.

Well, I am really liberal, always giving people the benefit of the doubt. But this . . . this was different. It was weird. Walking down the road with at least one guy who was well liquored in front of us, and yet it was cool. Seriously Nerve-Wracking at the time, but in hindsight . . . EXHILIRATING! I didn’t get very many stares, hardly any in fact. No issues. No beggars running up asking the White Man for money. No children following and harassing us. It was as though we were walking down the street just chilling. And . . .  that is exactly what we were doing. It was cool. I actually discovered a lot. We found a hospital, police station, bike hire place, and a restaurant that was actually a little cafe all done up to look fancy like! So, yeah. Bummed! Casa do Dao was really a little caf. Haha, What a muppet! I suggested to Sly we head to another place I had seen in the block opposite the house, and so we were on the way again. Angolans seem pretty relaxed. Weekends seems to be all about chilling and partying. Relaxing and making the most of people around you and just getting on with you own life. Nothing like back home in ZA. There it is all about opportunity. You find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, you’ll get ripped off for sure. Just too much opportunity for people back home to take advantage of you crime wise I guess. Here there probably is too, but they make it less obvious, or I haven’t seen it yet I guess. Oh hey, don’t get me wrong. If I go out to get something from a vendor they’ll rip me off senseless for sure. If it costs 150 Kwanzas, they’ll take me for 500 without a doubt, that’s why Oscar or Jeje, our drivers do the basic shopping for us. The necessities that we can’t get at Shoprite or Fresco, or if we forget to get something whilst shopping. Oh, yeah, our drivers??? More on them later. Anyway, so far I have had pretty good experiences of Angolans in general. Hopefully that doesn’t change too soon.

So, we arrived at this restaurant, and Sylvester had actually been to it before. I was actually thinking of the place downstairs, but he knew of the place upstairs so we went there. Well, it was a big Soccer & Basketball night it appeared and they had a BIG screen up. Now, this was on the roof, and the  roof is literally that. A roof top with a tables, and umbrellas, and a few make shift shade net gazebos. So pretty open and cool. Ordering drinks was trying, as it was our first real introduction to a Porra only speaking waiter. We finalyl get a Carling and Gin and Tonic (GinTonic) out of him, adn asked for the menu, which resulted in us having to point to the table next door to signify what we meant. The menu was only in Porra, which didn’t help matters. But, I did recognise one thing – Fillette e Dorado, or something to that extent. Dorado Fillet. Great. 2 of those please. Well, the shaking of the head obviously meant that they were out of them. Oh oh, back to the menu.

Note to self – Get a small dictionary to carry around!

We landed up choosing “Chopa” at his recommendation, after lots of finger pointing and gesticulating. Chopa??? Have no clue! But we were going to find out soon enough.

Then . . . it began. A few drops at first. Nothing much, just a slight drizzle in a way. At this point in time it is probably worth noting that the wind had picked up during the day, which was a definite note of impending rain as I had been told, and the sky had grown sufficiently darker and greyer throughout the day. Prior to the few drops of rain, I had seen a few flashes of lightning in the distance. Something I had not yet experienced here. Within minutes the few drops had changed to rain. Not too hard, but not light either. We moved under the shade netting, but shortly it really started to bucket down, and now everything was getting wet. Particularly me, who had been sitting under a gap in the netting. We decided to hot foot it outta there and mission home to eat leftovers from the braai the night before. The 12 metre dash across the open roof top to the covered bar, resulted in my top being totally drenched, so being all practical, I took it off. Well, that got loads of stares, but cleared the way I can tell you! ;-0 By the time we made it home, literally 200 metres or so, we were drenched, and had to change our clothes.

The house however was a disaster. Man there were leaks everywhere. Over the Kitchen, Bradley’s room, lucky he wasn’t here, Sly’s room too, and even the toilets. Man they were supposed to have fixed this issue a few weeks back. Well, Hugo will be hearing from me about this tomorrow. That’s for sure!! Luckily for us the rain only lasted about 45 mins or so, but it was pretty intense whilst it lasted.

Sunday was chilled once again, doing a bit of damage control wrt the leaks and water all over the place. but nothing was seriously damaged so everything was okay. We missioned off to Fina building to perform the power up of the equipment and found they had also experienced water leaks. However theirs was considerably worse in that it had left a horrendous smell behind! Man, that was not going to be well received on Morning there!

Sunday night was spent at home.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

1) Who the fuck in the first place BUYS a new-shape beetle?

2) A PUKE GREEN one at that?

3) BUYS a personalised number plate with “LINUX“?

4) And then puts a bike rack on there as to signify:

“Look at me, I’m really actually cool because I do get out and I’m NOT a geek! Really!!”

Seriously folks, if you wanna throw your name away, this is a really good start at doing it!!

So there were definitely a few questions left regarding what had happened, and I wanted to try and find out the answers. So, I ventured round to the house to have a chat with the students Fri afternoon, the next day after the incident and noticed a whole lot of balloons at the house. They were obviously having a party. I then suddenly remembered that the Dutch girl, Charlottte, who was involved, was writing an exam that morning. Oi Vey! Tough call huh? Having to write an exam the morning after being involved in a robbery in your own home!

I was welcomed into the house and discovered they were having a braai and celebrating Charlotte’s finishing, and another dude’s birthday. I was offered drinks and invited to stay. Cool, why the hell not. I didn’t exactly have any other plans!

So, through a few questions I managed to get the following answers:

1) How the hell had he gotten in next door? Well, it appears that he had climbed over the front gate, it isn’t that imposing, and then had jumped over the second fence next to the front door to get access to the property.

2) What had actually happened in the house? It appears he had actually spent quite a while in the house. Around 20 mins or so. Weird man. He had entered through the back door, obviously after seeing a few students watching tv on the couch, with the door closed. He then went upstairs as Charlotte heard him on the stairs, and he must have spent sometime on the landing as they found 2 cigarettes on the floor outside the toilet. He then tried one of the doors, but the student was asleep inside and had for the first time ever locked the door. Lucky him. He then made his way back down and entered Charlotte and Nicole’s room. Charlotte heard the door open and rolled over thinking it was Nicole. She then saw him with the knife between his teeth, obviously so he could rummage through bags etc. She wasn’t sure what to do. Should she scream, and risked being attacked, or keep quite and hope nothing happens? She screamed, like any good girl should!!

He might not have been aware of her, and this is when he fled. Luckily no one was barring his way, at that is usually when the issues arise. If he had found his way blocked, he might have resorted to violence!!

3) They weren’t aware of the attack next door, so I filled them in on the details.

Obviously they all wanted to know what would happen to him now, and I said I wasn’t sure, but that he had attacked a police woman, so I imagine he would go to jail, but not sure for how long and what the charges would be.

We had a cool braai, and I got a bottle of whiskey from our house, as I don’t drink beer or wine. we then all went to FTV afterwards, where Jason and Jason met us. Jason M had been drinking for about 9 hours already and was tickets, and vulgar, as could be expected, so I didn’t really introduce him to anyone, surprise surprise, and then we buggered off a little later as FTV was just crap!!

We headed through to Hemisphere and that was pretty sweet. We got Free VIP entry, thanks to someone who knew someone, always helps and it was pretty much rocking. I spent the rest of the eve chatting to the various students and they are a really cool bunch.

Got home around 04h after dropping the various members of my taxi ride off all over the place and then had to get up at 09h30 for Aikido at 10h30. I was buggered!!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Well, my second thought was confirmed the minute I answered the phone. My sister, Terry, told me that something had happened. “A robbery next door, a guy in our house, the entertainment area, mom attacked, okay, police there . . .”

“Whoa, slow down there a bit”, I told her. She asked where I was, I told her town, and that I would be there in 10 minutes. I dropped Charlie off at his place, and shot, literally, through to my mom’s house in Newlands.

I could see the flash of the blue police light from around the corner already, and I arrived to find 4 police cars in the road right outside our house, with my mother and sister there too. I got out and heard a screaming coming from the back of the one police van. Screaming at the top of his voice. An almost hysterical scream, as though he was being attacked or something. I asked my mother, whom I could see was still in a bit of shock what had happened, and she was kinda all over the place, trying to act composed, but still visibly shook. I managed to get pieces of the story from my family members, and the events follow thus:

A guy had entered the property next door to us, a student house that is actually vacated by foreign language students, via the back door that they always leave open as they have students staying in the converted garage too, so there is no need to keep the door closed.

He had “apparently” assaulted a student at knife point, and then fled when she screamed. (I say “apparently” as I have subsequently gained more details as to what happened next door and will update it in the next post.)

He then jumped over their wall into mom’s property. There is lowish fence between their property and mom’s, and a tree in their garden that would definitely aid escape. He then must have run through mom’s garden, as the one girl’s toiletry bag was found outside a window, in the garden at the back of our property.

He probably continued around the house, as we later discovered a cigarette on the ground outside the far side of the house. On that side of the property there is a very low fence to the neighbours driveway that you can literally step over, but the neighbour has a big dog, that probably wasn’t out at the time, but he might have heard it earlier as apparently it had been barking shortly before the incident.

Then, and this is a bit of speculation, but we assume he headed right round the house to the driveway, which is actually alongside the house he had broken into, and was suddenly surprised when my mother arrived home and the driveway gate, a solid wooden gate, began opening. He must have then run down the passage at the side of the garage where there is a high gate that is usually closed and bolted, but not locked. This is now between the garage and the house and the funny thing is that this gate is virtually directly next to to spot in the wall where he jumped over into mom’s garden originally, on the garden side of the house. Seeing the closed gate he must have taken refuge in a little nook next to the kitchen door, which we use as a main door, on the side of the house, that enters the passageway/alleyway that separates the garage from the house. You can literally walk from the kitchen across the passage to the garage in 2 steps. The garage however is closed and the door is usually locked. There is a small recess behind where the kitchen door is that cannot be seen from the driveway, neither can you see it completely from the kitchen door. It is only upon entering the passageway that you can see fully into the recess.

Mom arrived home, entered the house and asked Terry, and Sam, my sister’s, to help her unload the car, as she had been shopping. As she was unloading the car, she suddenly heard 3 or 4 cars pull to a screeching halt in the road and heard police radios saying “Incident at 30 (roadname), Incident at 30 (roadname)” . What she thought, that is right next door. She went out into the steet and saw all the police cars. She asked what was going on, and was told there was a robbery next door. A girl had been assaulted by a man with a knife, but he had run away.

Sam was now also in the road, and Terry was in the driveway, when she got a weird feeling. She returned to the house, looked out the window into the garden and not seeing anything returned to her study to look out the window there. As she was about to enter her study, she suddenly smelt dagga (marijuana, dope, grass, weed, etc). She looked up and saw that the red alarm light was on on zone 13, which is in the garden area. She went to the door and called my mom, telling her there might be someone in the garden, because fo the zone light.

Mom told the cops and a police lady escorted her, and asked her to stand back whilst she checked it out. As my mother reached the passageway, the police lady was right next to her, and she suddenly saw the guy with a knife in his hands. She screamed and stepped back, falling into Sammy, who also fell over over. The man tried to stab the police woman, lunging from his head down, but missed and hit her arm and jacket. She also fell backwards against the wall. At this stage the cops on the road had been alerted and the next thing Terry, who was still in the kitchen, but unable to see anything, heard was a man shouting: “Get down or I’ll shoot! Get down or I’ll shoot!”

Thinking it was the robber with a gun, she hit the floor in the kitchen and scrambled off around the cooking island to try and hide.

The cops then grabbed him and threw him in the back of the police van.

Hence the screaming man I heard in the van.

There was assumed to be 2 guys so the cops were there for another 2 hours checking our garden, how we found the bag, but came up with nothing. I had suggested that the cops put the dog, they had a dog with them, in the back of the van, and let them “bond” a bit, but they weren’t having any of it! Bummed! But they did however “subdue” him a bit with Pepper Spray as he was at one stage getting really feisty and trying to kick out the vehicle door. Muppet!

I ventured next door to check out, I mean check on, the girls and find out if they had been told about the trauma counseling that was available at Rondebosch Police Station. There were quite a few people staying in there, and I picked up little bits here and there, but I could see that they were all really traumatised and left shortly afterwards.

When asked whether I should spend the night at my mom’s house the emphatic answer from both sisters was a resounding “YES!”

Both my mother and Sammy are okay, albeit a few scratches, and Terry is also okay too.

So it was, a night of adventure and stories and once again proof that no-one is really entirely safe in South Africa.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Well, it is now fixed, apart from one last thing that needs to be done tomorrow, and that’ll cost me an additional R 220. Man, vehicles. They are seriously expensive when it comes to it. I only just today found out that my car is actually costing me in the region of approx R 3 500 a month in repayments. There I was thinking it was a lot less, like R 2 500. Just goes to show what happens when you have a company car I guess. You kinda lose touch with the real world costs.

I didn’t have to get a taxi back, but instead got a lift with our driver Rowan. Cool, at least I was spared the taxi ride like last time, though I do kinda enjoy being at one with the rest of Cape Town’s festive people.

Well, back to SQL Server Express, Visual Web Developer and Access Databases, along with the usual office stuff that needs to be done.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

So, there I was, no vehicle, and having to public it this morning from Wynberg. Well, like a right toss I let a Golden Arrow Bus, heading to Cape Town go past me, thinking . . .

“I’ll take a taxi”, but the taxi’s only go to Cape Town from Wynberg Station, just outside Maynard Mall actually, and I was literally at Plumstead. This I should have known however, as the same thing happened to me last time I had to take my car in. Idiot!

Anyway, it was an entertaining ride, for R4.50 from Wynberg to Newlands Spur, the price went up on the 1st of Nov 2007, I think it used to be either R3.50, or R4.00. As per usual I was the only whitey on board, but a white chick did also get on at Kenilworth. We lost like 90% of the passengers at Claremont, as they all bailed out at the “A C Kermans” drop off.

I was then listening to the driver try explain to 2 ladies in the front where Camp Ground Road was, and how they could get to their destination, but he wasn’t really doing a very good job of it, as he didn’t really seem to have a clue about it. Then, it was my stop. Well, that was painless, and suprisingly safe. No banging bass, or smelly people this time, which was just great.

Looks like I’ll be using it to get home too I guess!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy