proudly south african

YOU ARE PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN WHEN:

You call a bathing suit a 'swimming costume'.

You call a traffic light a 'robot'.

You call an elevator a 'lift'.

You call a car's hood a 'bonnet'.

You call a car's trunk a 'boot'.

You call a pickup truck a 'bakkie'.

You call a Barbeque a 'Braai'.

The employees dance in front of the building to show how unhappy they are.

SABC TV advertises and shows highlights of the program you just finished watching.

You get cold easily. Anything below 16 degrees Celsius is Arctic weather.

You know what Rooibos Tea is, even if you've never had any.

You can sing your national anthem in four languages, and you have no idea what it means in any of them.

You know someone who knows someone who has met Nelson Mandela.

You go to braais regularly, where you eat boerewors and swim, sometimes simultaneously.

You produce a R100 note instead of your driver's licence when stopped by a traffic officer.

You can do your monthly shopping on the pavement.

You have to hire a security guard whenever you park your car.

When you are a victim of crime and say: 'At least I'm still alive'.

You know a taxi can move twice its certified number of people in one trip.

You travel 100's of kilometres to see snow.

You know the rules of Rugby better than any referee.

To get free electricity you have to pay a connection fee of R750.

More people vote in a local reality TV show than in a local election.

People have the most wonderful names: Christmas, Goodwill, Goodman, Pretty, Wednesday, Blessing, Brilliant, Gift, Precious, Innocence, Given, Patience, Portion, Coronation.

'Now now' or 'just now' can mean anything from a minute to a month.

You continue to wait after a traffic light has turned to green to make way for taxis travelling in the opposite direction.

Travelling at 120 km/h you're the slowest vehicle on the highway/freeway.

You're genuinely and pleasantly surprised whenever you find your car parked where you left it.

A bullet train is being introduced, but we can't fix potholes.

The last time you visited the coast you paid more in speeding fines and toll fees than you did for the entire holiday.

You paint your car's registration on the roof.

You have to take your own linen with you if you are admitted to a government hospital.

You have to prove that you don't need a loan to get one.

Prisoners go on strike.

You don't stop at a red traffic light in case somebody hijacks your car.

You consider it a good month if you only get mugged once.

Ruwandan refugees start leaving the country because the crime rate is too high.

You consider a high crime rate as normal.

You actually get these jokes (but they ARE true!) and pass them on to other friends from SA.

VIVA!!!!!

a lack of moblogging tools

oh would it, could it, be more difficult to blog "remotely"?! all i wish for is a simple tool to post a few thoughts from my htc tytn whilst on the go. this post is being typed into opera mini - at least it allows a web frontend to blogger, but no cutting or pasting. moblog has only published one of my posts so far, but otherwise gives me "an error has occurred". it even completely lost one of my posts, never to be seen again. cellspin & picoblogger i've downloaded but they require web setup with sites not designed for mobile use - what else was i going to do? wait till i was close to a computer so i could create an account from my pc so i can use my phone to blog? it makes no sense! oh i dream for the day when i can run windows live writer from my windows mobile 6 phone...

say aaaahhhh...

october has been a marathon medical month for me. it began with my first ever stay over in hospital and first experience of general anaesthesia, and ended with my first dental op under general anaesthesia. boy am i glad for medical aid.

while going under is quite intense it's a million times better than being present for your own dental op. believe me i've had to try banish the memories of a number of apisectomies, extractions, bone implants all under local, all whilst i was fully aware of the surgeon's every movement around my mouth.

of course this time was different. i had my wonderful and caring husband by my side most of the time. i was administered both general & local anaesthesia injections which lead to strange & disturbing dreams. the oxygen smelt of coconut. i woke up very groggy wanting only to go back to sleep, away from the bright lights, the feeling of complete dejection and aloneness, and the terrible pain in my throat from the intubation. thankfully i didn't spend too much time in the recovery room & was returned to my ward. my sweetheart was there to comfort my tears, give me cold juice for the throat & feed me. small things make a big difference.

i'm almost back to normal again with the swelling in my face concentrated on my top lip. i also have to get used to the plate & denture they fitted while i was under. while it covers the gaping hole in my front teeth (for which i am grateful) it also causes me to lisp and sound a lot like sean connery. when this is all over in a year or so i may giggle about it... up till then i'm going to concentrate on surviving the days of small embarrassments and mountains which would normally be molehills...