The tyranny of labels

We're busy building and surprise, surprise what we are getting ain't quite what we would consider acceptable so we have ended up making compromises, to a certain degree, on the quality of the workmanship. It is frustrating to the n'th degree that we get to pay someone to do something just so that we can complain at how badly it has been done. The builders of course know that some things just can't be redone without a huge cost so they play the "what will they accept" game and try to get away with as much, or little, as possible.

A strange way to start a post on "the tyranny of labels" but what got me to thinking about the labels we commonly use to simplify life and discussions was a meeting with the builders where I was complaining about the quality of the carpentry which is pretty shoddy. Surprisingly, the builder agreed that the workmanship was shoddy but blamed it on "South African Quality" and this after having vouched for the (future) quality of their workmanship. By blaming the poor quality on "South African Workmanship" they were implying that, in their particular case, that if it had been done by "Germans" it would have been of better quality. I beg to differ, quality or lack thereof has nothing to do with nationality, it has everything to do with individual training, aptitude and experience not to mention price but it is so convenient to blame it on something that everyone knows is a problem in South Africa i.e. the skills shortage.

This got me to thinking about the labels we commonly apply like "Swiss Quality", "Fat Americans", "German Humour", "Nigerian Corruption" and how really unfair and wrong it is to treat these commonly held conceptions as the rule and the converse doesn't really exist. Personally, having worked with some swiss products, they aren't as good as they should be and I have met numerous thin americans and germans with a sense of humour do exist; as long as you don't mention "the war" (joke courtesy of John Cleese).

The problem with labels is that they stick, we innately like using labels and both marketing departments and those with prejudices to share know it and abuse it. So why do we continue to make these labels? Well, it's because they are partly true but the trick is that they are not wholly true and we have a bit of a weakness for extending what may be generally true to making it absolutely true.

Taking american obesity as an example, 55% of Americans have a BMI of >25 whereas there is a negligible number of Indians that are overweight; so are americans fat? Well, compared with indians, definitely and on average, yes they are, but there is still that 45% of americans who are at the ideal BMI or below it and 45% of a population is a big percentage to ignore by making a sweeping statement like "Americans are overweight"

Labels are particularly dangerous when used either derogatively to put a group of people in a negative light; for example "militant muslim" used often and indiscriminately enough leads people to believe that if you're a muslim you are therefore militant. This example is a bit more tricky than the BMI of americans because objectively assessing whether muslims, christians or any other faith or non faith are more or less prone to militant behaviour is not so easy. I would guess that we are all equally prone to militant behaviour but the point is that nobody really, I think, knows; the label is just attached to an identity and prejudice soon follows.

UK in Crisis!

Excerpts from "The Sunday Telegraph" - 18th May 2008

• "Superbugs cause more than 6000 deaths in UK hospitals in 2006 - a fourfold increase from 2001."
• "Police seize 900 weapons over a two year period. This only covers police confiscations - there are up to 8000 confiscations per week according to teachers unions."
• "Richard and myself were partners for 11 years. On the face of it everything was perfect. We had a six bedroom house and I had a lovely, tall, good-looking husband. I had ticks in all the materialistic boxes. I had security ... but not enough excitement. We split because I needed to find out who I was, not because there was anything specially wrong. I saw I needed to make big changes if I was to be proud of my life" - Roz Savage
• "It scarcely made the headlines: after all, fatal stabbings are two-a-penny now. ... That lightness is no more. In British towns and cities, now, people carry a silent weight of fear."
• "The government is staring at a corporation tax black hole of more than 10bn GBP per year, as the pensions crisis ravages companies' balance sheets."

These cherry picked excerpts from the Sunday Telegraph which, in itself, are from the cherry picked articles that the telegraph chose to publish - picture a nation in crisis. My view is that the nation isn't in crisis but it is in newspapers interest to present it as such in order to sell.

A childs view of marriage

My niece aged 3 years came home from playschool the other day and told her mother that jonni's mommy and daddy live together. "Now isn't that funny!" she says.

Depending on your personal convictions, this may or may not be an indictment of modern society that a child thinks that it is normal to only have one parent living with him/her. Since more than 50% of marriages end in divorce it seems to me that normal is no longer a couple with their biological offspring living together and that our vision of normal may need some revision.

Police Brutality ...

Woke up to my morning fix of news websites to the following report where it is clear that Jackie Selebi and spokesperson were delighted that 11 would be robbers had been killed. The twelfth is in a serious condition. That's 12 out of 12 as far as I can read from the article.

The general feeling amongst people both black and white that I have spoken to is that the robbers had it coming to them and that rather this than that they get off on some technicality or in the miniscule chance that they don't escape custody and actually go to jail - that they get paroled in a few years. Harsh but true.

It would seem that society and very definitely the police have past the point of letting the rule of law take its course because it isn't seen to be taking its course and if justice is not both seen to be done and done - eventually people will take it into their own hands. Methinks this is a wake up call for the courts and legal system, sort crime out or society will take charge in a manner which is not going to be fair, just or even handed.

Of course our politicians haven't exactly helped to uphold the rule of law and serve as role models have they.

Justice for the rich

Justice in civil proceedings, so it seems, is for the rich and powerful and not the poor and weak. The legal theory sounds so good, two antagonists present their case before an independent judge who makes a ruling. If either antagonist doesn't like the ruling which they are bound not to if they lost, they probably have an opportunity to take the case to a higher court and so on which all sounds pretty fair and evenhanded on the face of it. What my rant is about is that people that have legitimate grievances are sometimes denied justice due to the actual legal system, specifically the costs and time associated with doing anything in a court. Rich people, who generally aren't rich for being stupid, know this and are able to flout laws with poorer or weaker people knowing full well that there is a reasonable chance of getting away with it merely because they know that the poorer people don't have the resources to even engage in the legal debate.

I find it interesting the interaction of the legal system with capitalist society where the price of services is determined by the scarcity thereof. In this example better lawyers are more expensive than poorer lawyers and there are no lawyers for free and of course you can't go to court without lawyers and attorneys to get the justice to which the plaintiff feels entitled.

So what is one to do if one has been discriminated against in some manner and simply can't afford to take it to court? The obvious answer is to fester in silence or, as a last resort, to take the law into his or her own hands. This doesn't right the wrong at all and could just as likely lead to an injustice since there is no guarantee that the plaintiff has a valid case at all.

So our legal system seems to work reasonably well when the two antagonists are relatively equal in wealth and power but as the disparity between the antagonists grows, so does the chances of a miscarriage of justice.

I was talking to someone last week decrying the attitude of poorer elements of our society to the legal system but when they are excluded from the legal system by dint of their circumstances. What do people expect?

Advertising Rant

Sitting at home not being able to do a helluva lot I've been watching an inordinate amount of TV, in particular MNet which is a satellite TV station for which I pay an exorbitant amount of money each month. The way that I thought this was meant to work is that if I choose to watch the content on one of the SABC channels for which I pay almost nothing to receive I have to put up with advertising which is where the SABC makes their money. This seems like a reasonable deal to me but if I am paying for the content surely I shouldn't have to put up with advertising since MNet should derive its income from the subscriptions. In fact, since time is money or so I am told, MNet should pay me for my time that they waste with the advertising that I am forced to endure. In fact in the old days, one of the stated benefits of MNet was that one could watch without the annoying advertising interruptions.
Not going to happen I know but I had to let it out. Somehow it doesn't seem right that I am paying MNet for the pleasure of watching seemingly endless advertising.

Human Rights Day

Wednesday was a public holiday in South Africa, one of the excessively many such public holidays which we have these days. On this topic, I have figured out one genuine benefit that Religion, not that Human Rights Day as anything to do with Religion, has brought to humanity and that is public holidays. Masses and masses of them, not that I'm complaining at all. I'm still working out other benefits that Religion may bring but I at least have one that I can definitely count on.
Off the top of my head Religion doesn't seem to have a particularly good track record as far as Human Rights is concerned. Sure there are Human Rights campaigners who were religious but that is not the question. The question is what Human Rights has Religion advanced as opposed to Human Rights advance by people who happen to belong to a Religion. That ought to get someone hot under the collar and hopefully some good examples.

It was Kirsten and Carls son, Alistair's birthday party on Wednesday at the RSME which stands for the Rand Society of Model Engineers who have a scale model steam engine track out in Roodepoort. This proved to be a really big hit with the youngsters who just loved being pulled around and around on the model steam trains. Couldn't quite see the attraction but the kids certainly enjoyed it. That seems to be a common problem with adults, you need seriously expensive toys to generate some excitement.

After the childrens party which I had carefully timed to ensure that I arrived at about an hour before it finished the family remained for a braai. Almost needless to say that the token vegetarian ended up braaing the wors and my vegetarian sausages or wood chips as Carl calls them.

Bruno asked me why I was a vegetarian (hormones, anti-biotics and energy savings relative to meat in case you were wondering) and I was pleasantly surprised at his response which was that these were good reasons for going veggie. Not that I can see him changing but at least he can see the logic. Tried to foister one of my wood chips off on Carl but he wasn't biting.

Went home to my empty house, strange how one gets so used to having someone around, before I went to Hyde Park for supper on my own, Mantovanis has a really fantastic vegetable platter. Phoned Kim to see if she was interested in going to a movie which I don't think she really was but I laid it on thick about how she never goes out etc, etc. She succumbed and we went to see "Because I said so" which was a definite chic flick. A couple of humorous moments but nothing too wild. It did manage to get Kim to shed a brief tear so it couldn't have been all that poor.

End of the Human Rights Day.

Change Control ... Again

Ughh! Change control rolls around so quickly and it really does destroy a weekend although if I was honest, which I'm not on this particular topic, I would have to admit that I seriously helped to decimate this weekend. The weekend proceeded as follows:

Wake up at 04:30 to start cycling, it is totally pitch black at anytime before 06:00, and it is even starting to get a little chilly. After this summer, this is a very welcome relief from the heat. One of the reasons that I quite like Johannesburg is that by the end of summer, one has had quite enough of the hot weather and having some cold weather is rather appealing. By the end of winter, on the other hand, one is very glad to be leaving the cold behind and looking forward to some hot summer days. So we have the best of both worlds without either being really extreme.

Back to cycling, spent almost 3 hours on the mountain bike trying to keep up with Jason who just seems to get stronger and stronger. Very infuriating. We went through Northern farm and out the back and once again, I forgot my entrance ticket and had to borrow Jasons. Took a trip up some quite tough gravelly climbs to find the most fantastic views looking north over a valley with the Magaliesburg mountains in the distance. Absolutely fantastic views, it's hard to believe that they exist less than an hours drive from Johannesburg. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have my camera with me since camera = weight = slow = dropped = teasing for being dropped. Therefore NO camera!

Met barry and helena for breakfast at fruits and roots and they've taken my favourite meal off the menu. I can't believe it, fortunately they still serve it if one asks for it so no big deal. Met a couple of friends of theirs whose names I now forget but one of them is a photographer/journalist/art critic which was pretty cool. She is about to leave on a photo holiday which is a novel concept for me and sounds like something I might be interested in doing at some stage in the distant future. A bunch of people who have a common interest, photography, get together and go somewhere which is photographically interesting and then spend their time touring and taking photographs, I can think of worse ways to spend a holiday. The other lady, whose name I also forget, was absolutely fascinating. She must be a psychologists dream client and I only spent an hour or two with her.

After the breakfast they were all going to a nearby gallery so I tagged along wondering what I was letting myself in for which was just as well because I got cornered by said neurotic and ended up discussing fine art with her, a topic I am most definitely not even vaguely qualified to do.

Standing looking at a painting and being asked questions like "what does this say to you?" just confounds me, it isn't saying anything, we are just thinking/assuming that the artist is actually trying to pass on a message. Who's to say he is?, maybe it's like some kind of in joke amongst artists to see what people think that they are trying to 'say' through their work. I find it a bit like wine tasting where there is the 'in' crowd and the others. The 'in' crowd talk in terms like flavours of berries for wine and angst and anger in terms of art and for those who don't speak the language, pity on them, they're missing out. It all seems a bit pretentious to me, why can't people just enjoy or appreciate wine or art because they do, why do they have to have a reason why they do? I re-iterate my ignorance of art so anyone reading this whose toes I have just stepped on, it's only my opinion not a fact.

I spent most of the afternoon adding labels to this blog and before I knew it, it was time to go to work and start the change control. Frigging long and complicated change control and we only left at 04:00 having worked for a full 7 hours upgrading the system while only actually taking it down for a period of 3 minutes during the time. I had to get up again at 05:30 which meant only an hour and a half of sleep and even this was interrupted by the mother of all cat fights directly outside my window at 05:00.

Met Michael at 06:30 and had a very pleasant 60km ride. Alison, his wife, has just found out that she is pregnant so they are both very happy that they are once again going to be proud parents. Can't quite share the enthusiasm but I try my best. Really pushed hard up Judges avenue hill near the end of the ride and made about 90 seconds on Michael which I was very pleased with. Michael, not so, he thought I was just rubbing it in which wasn't actually the intention. I have finally figured out how to stop my heart rate monitor from beeping when it goes over a predetermined level which I do fairly regularly so now everyone can cut out their jokes about flatlining and beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeep.

Had lunch at kim and laurels with another couple who were very pleasant company. At one point in the conversation, samuel, who is being indoctrinated by his father, interjects and asks who goes to church. All hands stay firmly below the table much to samuels dismay, he is living in the company of heathens it turns out. He's going to have to come to terms with this because, outside of a monastery, it isn't going to change.

Started feeling really tired by the time laurel and I went to see "Notes on a scandal" which was great even though it can't be described as light entertainment by any stretch of the imagination. Judi Dench and Kate Blanchette were both fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a thought provoking movie to go and see.

Did you catch the subtle puns?

Dubious Advertising

I've just re-read some of my recent posted blogs and my English is definitely deteriorating so I'll have pick up the game and try to get into the habit of taking a bit more time over the posts. Having managed to squeak through school with an e means that it'll never be great but when even I can see that it is less than ideal, it is definitely time to make an effort. Actually, I shouldn't be blaming myself. My proof reader, Caron, didn't pick up the miserable English so really, it's all her fault. Just like in the Garden of Eden! :-)

We're having a controversy around northern suburbs because we have had a spate of strip and other clubs of ill-repute advertising on bill boards. I'll leave it to your imagination as to the pictorial matter; suffice to say that it has managed to get some sections of the population up on their soap boxes about protecting their children which is fair enough. The issue is that there really isn't anything sexually explicit or illegal i.e. no nudity so while I'm tempted to agree that they shouldn't be allowed to advertise on billboards, at the end of the day, the billboards are no more explicit (those that I have seen) than a suntan cream or exotic vacation advert so what is being objected to is not so much the material on display but the fact that it is advertising morally unacceptable businesses. If I was a strip club owner, I think that I would be morally bound to object to the advertisements for large church gatherings :-)

I would however be quite keen on banning all roadside advertising, not from some moral standpoint but simply because advertising, by definition, is meant to attract your attention. In this case it is attracting your attention away from what you should be doing which is driving. No wonder we have such poor accident statistics.

What actually started this was an article in the local newspaper which given that the headline contained the word 'evil' and a picture of one of the offending adverts with a picture of a beautiful woman on it, one could easily draw a relationship between evil and women. Now, I know that the point of the article was not to portray women of any sort as evil, it's just that that is the way it came across. So if you are a women, firstly it could be argued that you are exploited by the businesses of dubious distinction and then portrayed to be evil by those opposed to said businesses. What a conundrum to get out of.

Three things

This is one of those weeks where the world turns ...

Firstly, I don't find it often that I am proud to be a human being, on the whole we've made a pretty good job of ruining the planet as well as one anothers' lives. We seem to have a real knack for destruction of any kind.

What prompted this was PW Botha's funeral which Thabo Mbeki as well as other well known anti apartheid activists attended. Here we have people who fought tooth and nail against an (elected) dictator, who never repented nor seemed to feel remorse for the suffering he caused, going to his funeral to pay their respects. They didn't have to go to the funeral, the ANC offered a state funeral to the family who declined so there was absolutely no reason for any anti apartheid activists to have gone, they had already gone the extra mile by even offering a state funeral.

Perhaps they just went to make absolutely sure that he was gone and six feet under but either way the message came out loud and clear that it is possible to let the past go and concentrate on the future. All it requires is real people displaying genuine leadership.

Secondly, Schabir Shaik entered prison for a 15 year jail term. Although there is still a long road ahead, there does seem to be a real chance that we have an independent judiciary. In first world countries this might be taken for granted even when it isn't true. Here, it is definitely not a given, so to see an associate with very strong political connections having to go to jail for 15 years for corruption, is such a ray of sunshine.

Thirdly, Bush loses the majority in both Congress and the Senate. It remains to be seen if there is any change following from this, I have my doubts, but anything has to be be better than Bush with a majority in both houses. Personally, I don't expect very much because I reckon that the Democrats are just the Hyde part of Jekyll, they're actually the same underneath. Hopefully I am wrong.

Rug Rat Fatigue

Well, this weekend past was a long weekend and it sure felt like one, it seemed to go on forever.

Weekend started on friday afternoon with the drive down to Durban with the 1/2 a million other lemmings. This was when I realised that it was going to be a weekend to endure, not enjoy. In the car we had Kim as well as defendant one, rug rat Sage age 2 years and 2 months. I know, it's a bit of a wierd name but hey, your name (whoever you may be) is only normal by convention ... you too could have been called Sage if you had been born to different parents.

Drive down was horrible, crazy people driving like lunatics. As a percentage of drivers on the road they were actually only a very small percentage but they draw so much attention to their bad driving that one forgets all the normal sane drivers. Loads and loads of traffic ensured that what is normally quite a nice albeit long drive turned into a marathon and I was truly relieved to arrive safe and sound.

Having consumed about 1/2 a bar of chocolate on the way I was kinda bouncing off the walls and consequently didn't sleep very well. I'm noticing more and more what an amazing effect sugar has on me these days. It has got to the point that if I want to be in a particularly loud and bouncy mood or to stay awake, all I need do is consume a small amount of chocolate and voila, loud and bouncy and very wide awake. Better not speak to me after a few hours as you will only get the odd growl and the occasional bite as I work my way through the sugar low. If I maintain a sugar free (or almost) existence I stay on a fairly even keel, generally upbeat but not over the top. These, of course, are highly subjective obversations and do depend to a certain (large) degree as to who is around me at the time. Some people can even knock the stuffing out of a sugar high, while others can moderate the sugar low.

Launched the yacht on Saterday morning and went sailing with Tim, Emer, Rug Rat defendent No 2 a.k.a Liam and Rug Rat defendent No 3 a.k.a Clare. Maybe I should dwell on the launch a bit more since I rather overdid the distance that I let the yacht go down the ramp. Tim's comment afterwards were words to the effect that I didn't really have to launch it right out the harbour mouth. Brad, who was standing on the trailer must have wondered when the water got up to his armpits just how far was he going to have to swim to get back to shore. Fortunately he is a rather amiable character so no real bother there, thank goodness. Approaching the harbour mouth I tried to winkel Liam out of the cabin to no avail and it required the father to wade into action in order to get him out. Once again, the answer from the PortControl was monosylabic and totally unintelligable so in the absense of any light and large freighters we proceeded out to sea. We were about 20 minutes out when emer started looking a little green and suggested that we go about, after 35 minutes she let loose overboard. So now we had two miserable kids, one seasick wife, one grumpy husband and me who was actually ok at that point in time. Radioed ahead to come back in and for a change there was a real response, one we could understand. So the pattern now is that if you can't understand it and it is very short just go ahead, if they had wanted you to stop they would have said so clearly. Still, they really should standardise on their replies, it would really make life much easier. We parted company for the day agreeing that the next morning Tim and I would take the yacht out since it had been a generally miserable outing for them as a family.

Next morning was pretty miserable, low cloud, scattered showers and when we arrived with MIL, FIL, SIL and defendent No 1 in tow, Tim announced that they were going to camp out at RNYC, have breakfast etc. So we cancel the planned breakfast at the harbour mouth while Tim and I sail past only to be told 5 minutes later that plans have changed and they are going out right now and do I want to join them. After yesterday, I don't think so but what really pissed me off was the constant changing of plans without taking anyone else into consideration. Anyway, this gave me the jig and Tim just couldn't understand why especially since I am not prepared to fight about it in front of the family, it's all my fault in any case. Really it is!

Spent a very pleasant couple of hours at RNYC having breakfast before I ventured out onto the mudflats with Sage on my hip. Learnt a couple of important lessons here. Lesson one, women have hips, men don't. If you are a guy and carrying a baby, trying to balance it on your hip is not an option unless you have well developed spinal sclerosis. Lesson two, conversations with two year olds tends to go like this.

"Look Rug Rat there are the crabs" as they scurry away
"Where the crabs?"
"There they are" pointing at the one intimidated crab who wasn't quick enough to get to his hole.
"Where the crab?"
Ummmm "There the crab is"
"Where the crab"
Silence while I think of what to say.
Excited "There the crab"
Phew, "Yes, there he is"
"Where the crab"
Gnnnnghhghh!
and on and on and on and on. There has got to be a better life than this.

I think childen are like this global conspiracy that all parents belong to. When asked they all swear that children are the best things to ever happened to them if, and ONLY if, you happen not to have children. If on the other hand, you do have children, well too late for you (snigger, you fell for it) so now the only thing left is to commiserate over how they are slowly leaching the life out of you. It is remarkable how after the initial exictement of being a parent, parents quickly realise their mistake and then the comic adult behaviour begins.

You can generally recognise this, not by what is said but by the amount of money that is spent on the cretins with the intention on occupying them so that the parents can have a little, just a little of their previously happy lives back.
The more desperate they become, the more money they lavish on kindergarden, preschool, playschool, primary school, after care, sports, secondary school anything, absolutely ANYTHING at all to have some peace and quiet. And you thought parents were just looking out for their progeny. No, they're not, they are trying to get some peace and quite.

Back to the weekend, after showing Rug Rat No 1 the crabs, I do believe that she genuinely did see some, we left for home. So much for sailing this weekend...

Afte the third SMS from various family members to remind me that it is/was my fathers birthday, I thought maybe I should phone and wish the old codger happy birthday. Having done my family duty I went to hide in my cave, actually my FIL's cave since mine is 7 hours drive away. Lots of sharp things in this cave to keep little cretins out.

Had a great nights sleep and woke up to howling wind and people wishing me happy birthday. 41 (fourty one). Expletive, I'm 41 years. That is enough to put a damper on the day. I don't know when midlife crisis sets in but I have a suspicion I am going to enjoy it. My birthday went as follows:
06:00 - Wake up, I know there is something I am meant to remember about today. Oh, yes, it's my birthday.
07:00 - 08:00 - Breakfast with assorted bedraggled characters.
0:80 - 08:30 - Drive down to harbour.
08:30 - 10:30 - Pull yacht out of the water and pack it up.
10:30 - 11:00 - Drive back to parents in law.
11:00 - 11:30 - Shower, pack and pile into the car to a chorus of "What's roland doing", "What's roland doing". Gnnnshhh, it's going to be a long drive and not only in hours.
11:30 - 17:30 - Drive back to Joburg with the same lemmings we had to contend with on the way down. Another lousy drive. Narrowly avoided an accident when the traffic concertina'd and the ABS came in for some heavy duty action. Pretty impressive actually.
17:30 - 18:00 - Shower and get ready for fathers birthday party.
18:00 - 18:30 - Drive to parents picking up food and presents on the way.
18:30 - 21:30 - Supper, lots of loud arguing, teasing and generally good natured banter. BIL took advantage of the 4 glasses of wine I consumed on an empty stomach to attack. Defense didn't hold out too well but I live to fight another day.
21:30 - 22:00 - Home at last, thank god.

End Of Weekend.

P.S. I have two words to describe children. "Adult Entertainment"

The Weekend that wasn't

I has taken me 4 days of working to recover from last weekend. But I'm back now so here's what happened.

Friday night didn't start out too badly, nothing on so I watched V for Vendetta with Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. Actually I mainly watched Natalie Portman since there wasn't a helluva lot of Hugo Weaving visible. Thoroughly enjoyed it and went to bed after getting my bicycle ready for Saturday.

Saturday dawned, actually it cracked, at 04:45 which is the time I needed to get up in order to be on the bike by 05:30 to meet Jason at 06:00 at Cycle Lab. Did an 81km ride with Jason at just short of 26km per hour which is not too bad for us. Felt like Sh!t the whole way and my mood was not improved by the taxi overtaking me on my left by driving on the pavement. Very disconcerting having someone overtake you on your left hand side. Since we started ahead of the A group from Cycle Lab it took them a couple of kays before they came cruising past. They weren't actually going much faster than us in reality but it was just that little bit too much to comfortably hang in with.

Coming up with a new (maybe to me only) theory on exercise which has three axis, love of eating, love of exercise and the negative axis, hate of being overweight. So if you disike exercise and hate being overweight, there goes eating. This is normally called a diet, the process of getting thin and very grumpy. If you love eating and hate being overweight, better you get used to exercise and lots of it because you are gonna need it. I'm ignoring the 'love being overweight' crowd because they get what everyone really wants, no exercise and eat what you want. Of course they also get stares, self loathing and fat but then that's their choice.

I'm trying something down the middle, some exercise so I can pig out occasionally since I can't do anything about the other axis. I just plain do not like being overweight and unlike the old days, these days it is way too easy to just put a few on.

After the ride, straight into shopping mode. Food from Fruits 'n Roots, fetch chainsaw, fetch fixed bedside lamps, buy new toaster and fridge from Davenports, try on new running shoes, buy new sunglasses and have lunch at Sandton City. I think that is enough shopping for a while. Back home, change into Mr Fixit mode and hack down tree just outside of our boundays which is slowly damaging our fence, this is one job I REALLY don't want to do fulltime. It is rather difficult and things don't always work out as planned. Droped one of the branches onto the electric fence so I have to fix this as well. Dropped another on Caron but she is beyond repair. Electric fence doesn't turn off too well so I kept getting mild electric shocks as I'm repairing it. Off to the sisters-in-law to 'adjust curtain rails'. Finish the first curtain rail at 19:00 and retire home a beaten man. Watched TV again, twice in a row. I must have been finished.

Sunday morning 03:50, up again to go to work for the bimonthly change control. Kobus arrives with his whole family in tow. That is mighty peculiar and he "doesn't want to talk about it" so there is obviously something going on. Turns out the wife doesn't want to be left at home alone in case she gets burgled because some neighbours a couple of months ago were burgled. As if the miscreants watch and wait for Kobus to go out and then take this as a signal to start burgling somewhere. No wonder he didn't want to talk about it.

Home at 07:30 and don Mr Fixit clothes again. Finish the other pelmet at the sisters-in-law (yes, there are actually two of them ... in the same house ... with all their children ... chaos and anarchy reign there), home for lunch before a 35km ride with Tim and Graeme, the slackers. Home from there just in time for a family and friends get together. Eight adults and seven children shredding up our normally peaceful existence. Once again, the token vegetarian did all the braaing. Not too bad a job of it if I say so myself although I was sorely tempted to overdo it just a tad. Like charcoal it.

Tim tried to make an argument that since more women are suffering from stress these days due to work that the Womens Lib movement was ultimately a 'bad' idea. Like Womens Lib set out to increase the stress levels and hence diminish womens' health on purpose. Methinks he just feels threatened by women who are independent and can think for themselves.

Finished up, packed the dishwasher and retired hurt for the evening. Thank goodness I only had work on Monday and not another Sunday.

To blog or not to blog ...

... that is the question. Since you are reading this, the answer is obviously yes. The next thing to decide was whether to do it anonymously or not and there are benefits to both. If I was to blog anonymously then I could say exactly what I thought and there wouldn't be any repercussions but then I would have to be really careful not to let something out that would identify myself. If I blog as myself, I can't always say exactly what I might like to, particularly when it comes to friends and family, but then I don't have to be careful who knows what. Since I find it near impossible to keep a secret I decided to just blog as myself and see how it goes. I don't know if anyone will actually read this blog but if anyone does hopefully it will bring some enjoyment.

P.S Notwithstanding the above, some places and names and dates might have to be changed to protect the innocent or in most cases, the not so innocent.