Life in bullets

I was thinking that I should possibly do a “life in bullets” post, but then realised that is basically what my last few posts have been.

Not much has been happening around this neck of the woods lately….  Here goes anyway.

• On Saturday I ran a 10km race.  My slowest to date but at least I did it.
• Sunday was fantastic, Baby OL and I went down to the beachfront (see pic in post below).  It was an awesome day and the Winter Ocean Racing Series was on.  I just watched.  1km in freezing (16C) water was not going to happen.  We then went with my sister for breakfast and basically just hang out.  Loved it.
• Mr OL is away on business, but back tonight. 
• I am working a half day tomorrow and have taken Monday off so I have an extended long weekend (Tuesday is a public holiday in SA).  Yay.   Can’t wait – 4 days of leave. 
• I tried baking a cake – from scratch.  It was a disaster and landed in the bin.  I need to try again.  At least the icing was great – bowl licking great in fact.
• On my way home from work last night I saw a man drinking beer whilst driving in peak traffic.  SHOCKING!!!!!!!!  I took a photo – whilst stopped at the traffic lights.

And that is about it. 

Yes, that is a beer bottle...

Somewhere warm!

The private security firm we use, Atlas Security, sends out a weekly newsletter of crimes and incidents in Port Elizabeth that they have responded to. 

It is very detailed but depressing to read when you realise that these are only incidents that they have responded to.  It does not include other security firms or the police. 

Today however, when I read it I had to laugh.  Here is an extract of one of the crimes they responded to: 

“At 03h36 on Monday morning, an Outeniqua Street, Kamma Heights homeowner found a suspect sleeping in the back seat of his car that was parked in his yard.

The owner heard noises coming from his yard and found the 19-year-old boy sleeping on the seat, with their dog under his arm. The owner woke the suspect and questioned him. In the mean time, the owner’s wife phoned ATLAS to despatch a Response vehicle to their home.”

Yes, it is sad that the teenager that had to find somewhere to sleep, but did you notice who his sleeping partner was? 

So much for having a watchdog…. I can just picture them snuggled up together keeping warm.

Fired for Facebook status!

I am amazed by what some people write on their blogs and Facebook status.  Mr OL sent this link to me.  Not sure why……  For some reason he seems to think I spend too much time on line at work????  Don’t know where he gets that from……  

I was actually thinking about what people write on their blogs or Facebook status yesterday.  I came across a blog where this girl was constantly complaining about her boss.  I think every second post had something about him in it.  The thing is her name and the city she lived in was on her blog.  The company that she worked for was not, but it would not be that hard to find out where she worked. 

I am also amazed at the amount of people that write if they are going away on holiday or even for the weekend.  I am sure that it would not be that difficult (if you were that way inclined) to find out where they live.  What more do you need, you already know that their house is going to be empty for a specific period.  I know on Facebook it is only your “friends” that can see your status (or at least that is how mine is set up) but still – some of those “friends” I last saw at school and it is our 20 year reunion this year. 

I am very aware of what I write.  I know my full name is very easy to find out.  I know by Ironman pictures and the company I work for is not that difficult to figure out.  But I don’t slag them off.  I also don’t write if I am going away on holiday – or at least I don’t give the dates.  I usually only say what it was like when I return.   I might write that I am on leave from work, but not that I am going out of town.  (This is SA after all).

The stuff I write about work is not a secret – even my boss knows that I am not that busy.  Or at least she should – I am constantly asking for more work or more involvement.  They know I spend time online.  I give feedback about websites and ideas for the development for our online profile.  I put my internet surfing down as “research” cough, cough, splutter (ok so that might be slight, uhmmm, exaggeration) 

How careful are you about what you write?

On my soapbox

The lady that cleans our house came to work today in a total state.  She had totally lost her voice and when I asked her what was wrong, she just burst out crying and said she had lost her voice from crying.

 Last year some time her 16 year old nephew was murdered.  At the time although really upset she was glad at least that the murderers had been arrested.  I could not understand the full story, but somebody seemed to know who had done it, or witnessed the murder or something.  Anyway, the perpetrators had been arrested and were in jail and could not make bail, so that was where they stayed.

That was until Tuesday.  At the hearing the magistrate threw the case out of court because of insufficient evidence or something similar.  The family of the boy is now devastated, they feel that this people have literally gotten away with murder.

It just really infuriates me!  Hazel and her family are decent hard working people who do the best for their families and the courts have failed them.  And it just seems to happen so often.  Files are “lost’, cases thrown out and criminals are walking free.  No wonder the police don’t seem interested.  When they do put in the hard work it is to no avail anyway.

Ok, I’ll get off my little soapbox now…  I just feel really bad for this family, it is hard to see somebody so upset and know there is nothing you can do to make them feel better!

A Dog – cat Burglar

Daisy has discovered a new trick.  She had figured out how to “break” into our house.  We came home from work yesterday and there she was INSIDE!  When she figures out how to turn off the Burglar Alarm we will be in real trouble.

 

I know they say Border Collies are clever but this is ridiculous.  

Daisy

 

 

 

She had obviously seen the cats climbing in through the window and figured if they could do it so could she…

Value of a life!

In the trial of the people accused of killing Lucky Dube it has come out that they said he was shot because they thought he was a Nigerian.  They did not recognize him.

 

SO WHAT!  They are accused of murder, whether they murdered a Nigerian or whether they murdered Lucky Dube the result is still the same.  Somebody is dead.  They killed a person.

 

Did they think that is was ok to kill him if he was a Nigerian – is this their defense?  They are not denying shooting him; just that it was case of mistaken identity!

 

It makes me mad that there is so little value on a life!

I need a new route

This morning on my program was a 45 min run with strides every 5 minutes.  It was going ok when at about the 20 minute mark I saw this rather unsavorily looking character cross the road in front of me carrying what looked to be something electrical.  Now, he really should not have been carrying something electrical.  In fact he was rather out of place in this neighbourhood, although it is rubbish day and there are a lot of people that come and scratch through the black bags.  He crossed the road and sat down with another equally dodgy looking guy and they started fiddling with what ever it was, trying to obscure my view with his body.  I carried on running and as I ran past I tried to see what they had – you know in that way where you are trying to look but don’t want it to appear to obvious.  I mean it was just little old me and my small can of pepper spray!  It looked to me as if they had a laptop!  In fact I could have sworn they had a laptop.  Drat, now what do I do.  I am most definitely not going to go and have a look, or ask them what they had.  I did not have my phone with me and I was about 25 minutes away from home.  I carried on running.  About 200 meters down the road another runner ran past me so I asked him if he had seen what the guys had.  He said he was in “the zone” and did not even see two guys.  Hmmm, ok!  Just at that moment I saw a man pulling his car out his drive, so I ran over and told him that I thought there were two guys up the road with a lap top and could he maybe have a look or call his security company.  I carried on running. 

 

I looked back and saw that he had pulled over, and then turned his car around and went back to his house.  I did not see what happened after that as I turned a corner, but am assuming that if it was nothing he would just have carried on driving to work and not have gone back to his house??  It did make me rather nervous for the rest of my run.  What happens they knew it was me that told on them?  Would they remember what I looked like?  I took the safety latch off my pepperspray and my speed picked up quite a bit after that. 

 

I think I will be avoiding that road for a while?

 

 

I went on my own

So no news on the bike.  I am still holding thumbs.

 

This morning though I went for a cycle – on my own. This was a first as I am always too nervous to go out on my own.  But it was fine.  No punctures, falls or nervous breakdowns of any kind.  There was a lot of praying though.

 

I did think as I was riding that it was probably only runners, riders, robbers or rapists that were out at that time of day. Cheery thoughts I know.  And I don’t think my little bottle of pepper spray is really going to cut it if somebody decides they need to take my bike.

 

But after my initial thoughts of doom I put my head down and peddled.  I actually enjoyed it, even in the drizzle that decided to come down.  I think it will be easier now to go out on my own.  The first time is probably always the worst?

False sense of security

Every day there are stories in our papers about crime.  Most of the time you read it, think it is shocking and then go onto the next story, but sometimes there is a story that you read that really hits close to home.

 

Yesterday on the front page of our local paper was one of those stories.  This woman was running in a relay race (each leg 10km) when she was attacked, stabbed 3 times and robbed off her running shoes and watch!  In the middle of the RACE, with people close by!  Did I mention while running the RACE!!!!!  The audacity and cheek!  It was not as if the race was at night, it was not as if she was the only one around for miles, she had just been handed the baton about 800m back!

 

I suppose the reason this has hit close to home is because you seem to think you are some how safer while racing.  No of course she would not have run along that road on her own, but you kind of feel protected in an organized event.  You feel safer when there are people around!  We live in one of the safer cities in South Africa, but when you hear of things like this you wonder?

 

It is very sad when stuff like this happens (or any attacks), it is sad when the last question your husband or boyfriend asks you when you go out running or cycling is if you have your pepper spray with you, it is very sad when pepper spray is a “great” birthday gift!  But what good would the pepper spray actually do, are we just lulling ourselves into a false sense of security.  I mean the story about crime in the local paper today – 3 security guards attacked and seriously injured!