My weekend
It was cold, breezy and overcast in Durban this weekend, which was kind of appropriate given some of the events and activities of the weekend. Here’s the quick breakdown of the highlights and lowlights –
In shitty SA
My sister’s car was stolen in the early hours of Saturday morning. It was parked at her boyfriend’s Durban home, behind a padlocked and chained gate, in an area with a motion sensor alarm. The car itself had a gear lock and steering wheel lock. And still it was taken, without anyone being alerted…
It just goes to show there’s no point in having anything of value in South Africa. It makes you a target in a nation where respect for ownership and other people's property does not exist. And no matter what precautions you take – usually it involves turning your home into a barred prison, complete with barb wire-topped walls and electric fences – if a piece of human excrement wants what you have, they will get it.
So, for South Africans reading this (especially Durbanites), please keep a look out for a 1989 model, red Citi Golf Sport with licence plates NPN 45874. The vehicle’s most distinguishing feature is a transparent sticker on the back windscreen that reads “Maritzburg Varsity” in white text, and includes a cartoon elephant.
My poor-student sister is understandably devastated by the loss of her only means of transport.
If this wasn’t enough, my home was subjected to a 26 hour power cut that started around lunch time on Saturday, and lasted well into Sunday afternoon. A transformer blew somewhere in the Pinetown area, plunging our suburb into darkness for the majority of the weekend.
Loss of electricity is one thing, but now every time the lights go off unexpectedly you start to panic because you don’t know how long they could be out for – 3 hours, 10, 48? There have been stories where areas have been out for over 5 days…
So, yeah, count me officially over this country…
In the mall
The events of Saturday hit me hard on Sunday morning. All the frustrations and uncertainties bubbled over into tears. The bf tried to cheer me up by taking me out. So we headed to the Pav to watch The Dark Knight again (BTW, Two Face is definitely out of action for good at the end of the film!), try Coke Zero for the first time, and enjoy some DVD retail therapy at Look & Listen.
In the kitchen
We didn’t make it to the Good Food & Wine show on at the expo centre this weekend, but we did do a considerable amount of baking and cooking – banana loaf, mielie meal bread, and then some South American/Chilean cuisine: salsa, cheese empanadas and Chile’s national dish (you won’t believe this!), steak, egg and chips.
As you can see, our efforts turned out pretty well, matching the recipe book faithfully.
In shitty SA
My sister’s car was stolen in the early hours of Saturday morning. It was parked at her boyfriend’s Durban home, behind a padlocked and chained gate, in an area with a motion sensor alarm. The car itself had a gear lock and steering wheel lock. And still it was taken, without anyone being alerted…
It just goes to show there’s no point in having anything of value in South Africa. It makes you a target in a nation where respect for ownership and other people's property does not exist. And no matter what precautions you take – usually it involves turning your home into a barred prison, complete with barb wire-topped walls and electric fences – if a piece of human excrement wants what you have, they will get it.
So, for South Africans reading this (especially Durbanites), please keep a look out for a 1989 model, red Citi Golf Sport with licence plates NPN 45874. The vehicle’s most distinguishing feature is a transparent sticker on the back windscreen that reads “Maritzburg Varsity” in white text, and includes a cartoon elephant.
My poor-student sister is understandably devastated by the loss of her only means of transport.
If this wasn’t enough, my home was subjected to a 26 hour power cut that started around lunch time on Saturday, and lasted well into Sunday afternoon. A transformer blew somewhere in the Pinetown area, plunging our suburb into darkness for the majority of the weekend.
Loss of electricity is one thing, but now every time the lights go off unexpectedly you start to panic because you don’t know how long they could be out for – 3 hours, 10, 48? There have been stories where areas have been out for over 5 days…
So, yeah, count me officially over this country…
In the mall
The events of Saturday hit me hard on Sunday morning. All the frustrations and uncertainties bubbled over into tears. The bf tried to cheer me up by taking me out. So we headed to the Pav to watch The Dark Knight again (BTW, Two Face is definitely out of action for good at the end of the film!), try Coke Zero for the first time, and enjoy some DVD retail therapy at Look & Listen.
In the kitchen
We didn’t make it to the Good Food & Wine show on at the expo centre this weekend, but we did do a considerable amount of baking and cooking – banana loaf, mielie meal bread, and then some South American/Chilean cuisine: salsa, cheese empanadas and Chile’s national dish (you won’t believe this!), steak, egg and chips.
As you can see, our efforts turned out pretty well, matching the recipe book faithfully.
Comments
I hope they find your sisters car. Will keep an eye out.
It's actually very sad because for an old car it really ran beautifully and was well maintained. But because of its age all we can get for it from insurance is a measly R8000.
What a frustrating waste.