lensblog

I’ve had an eventful weekend, that’s for sure.

Between heading back to my normal office after my last day on-site at ABSA and catching up on mail and office news, I met up with Rob, and my other good friends, Pieter, Tania and their daughter, Zania, at Fourways for supper. Supper turned into late night coffee and cakes at another restaurant when the first started hinting we should leave due to them wanting to close and later Rob and I went to go watch “National Treasure 2“.

NT:2 was good. In some ways better than the first, but in hindsight, my reservations about the first may be skewing that judgement.

Saturday, after playing catchup with the folks at home, I got dragged around Northgate by Tarryn, who initially only went there to get some Tupperware. Several hours later, we eventually emerged, Tarryn having bought a new handbag and some clothes. I picked up a ‘Men’s Health’ book on lifestyle change to combat the typical stresses, etc men fall victim too.

Later that evening, Rob and I went to Brightwater Commons and saw “Alien vs Predator 2” after a very decent meal at Scrooges. AvP:2 was… well… crap. Not bad enough to walk out of, but certainly not memorable. The first was infinitely more memorable.

And today, Rob had some more time to kill before flying back to Cape Town, so we went back to Brightwater Commons and paid a visit to AnimeWorX, where I took the plunge and replaced my Ghost in the Shell : Alias figure, that got broken a while back and secondly, indulged in a Mon-Sieur Bome : Fate/Stay Night – Saber figure.

The first was something I was fond of, not only because I own just about every GitS product short of the games, but because it was originally bought for me as a Christmas present by Rozz, and admittedly, I should have taken her advice back then and left it in it’s packaging. Which I intend to do with both new figures. For now at least, or until I have the means of displaying them out of harms way.

The second, is a series I quite enjoyed recently (many thanks to our resident otaku, John-san, for letting me watch it – may your broken ankle heal soon) and I was quite intrigued by the character of Saber, who turns out to be a female incarnation of King Arthur, known there as King Artoria. Again, my fascination with mythology kicked in…

While I don’t count myself as an otaku, I do enjoy my anime and manga, and if I find something that I like, I tend to collect everything I can from the product range.

So far, I’m looking to collect:

• Fate / Stay Night
• Eureka Seven
• Genshiken
• Hellsing
• Battle Angel Alita
• Robotech / Macross
• Last Exile
• Ergo Proxy

with many more to be added in time to come, I’m sure.

Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?

We live, supposedly, in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Yet hidden under all the trappings of a tourist haven, we seem to be trying to hide some very big homeland issues that need urgent attention.

The one on everyone’s minds at the moment, is our dear friend, Eskom.

We are at the mercy of a bunch of bureaucratic jerks who think that by getting snotty with the public about their consumption, it is going to make us understand why we’re stuck in traffic for 2 or more hours everyday, why we come home to a dark house, cannot prepare a warm meal, have a hot bath, etc.

You lot clearly do not understand the mob mentality of people that have reached a critical mass… Sanity flies out the window when you’ve been uncomfortable with something long enough to drive you to express your feelings either vocally or physically. All you need is enough people in the same state of mind and you have a mob. And mobs are never pretty…

And now they want to ration the electricity for home users. Right… So you’re going to make sure that people are not only miserable during work hours, but at home as well? Nice one, boys! I don’t care who you are… You could be black, white, coloured or indian… a lot of people are turning to old racist crutches and blaming the black staff… I’m beyond that! I’ll happily paint everyone with the same tar-brush at this point. You’re all a bunch of idiots! Well paid idiots!

To use a rather apt saying that I grew up with in my family… “Julle dink nie verder as wat julle neus is kort nie!”

This does not even begin to touch on the impact on business!

Oh, sure, some businesses are smiling, right about now… let’s see… companies that deal in gas appliances… diesel… generators… rechargeable lights. And because demand is so high, of course the prices have to follow suit. I hear from some places that generators have a 6-8 week waiting period for stock availability.

For the rest however, we’re stuck with UPS’s and their incessant beeping, diesel generators thrumming away in basements, guzzling thousands of Rands of fuel to keep businesses alive… and those are the lucky ones that planned for this sort of thing; the banks and other big corporates that cannot afford to be out of action because every minute lost means less money for them.

What about the SME’s that may have a few small PC’s (with or without UPS’s)… or corner shops and deli’s… butchers and bakers… what about waste from stock that goes off in fridges? Restaurants that cannot serve customers?

How about this as an alternative? You know those lovely big signboards we see all over the place? The neon signage on company buildings? The corporate towers that stay lit up like Christmas trees all night long?

How about asking them to switch off their lights after hours… you know, the last person out the door turn off the lights for their floor, etc? Turn off signboards after, say, 8- or 9pm. The same goes for corporate signage. And those pretty lamps and floodlights that you see in some company ‘gardens’ that light up the empty parking lots and sides of buildings.

I’ve spent the last month working in the Johannesburg CBD and thanks to Rozz’s late hours (definite busy bee award nominee!) and the fact that she’s been kind enough to cart me back and forth the last while, I’ve seen first hand the sheer amount of electricity wasted after ‘normal’ working hours. In fact, I remember seeing the same thing from my own time, working late in the Cape Town CBD (I was in the ABSA building there, sitting 23 floors up, you tend to have a pretty good view of the city).

And everyday, we hear new excuses… rain to affect power. This to affect power. That to affect power. And behind that, the smug voice of Eskom, not apologising, not discussing alternatives, not telling us that they’re looking for solutions… No, it’s “We are going to ration you and you will have to pay fines like a bad person for using more than your ration!”

Then we have our roads… which seem to becoming more and more like dirt roads lately.

Potholes, potholes everywhere and Oh my God, my car is going to sink!

Drive around and count the number of potholes you have to dodge between home and work, or your next stop in journey. Stop for a week. Then do it again. Hmmm, not only have they increased in number and in size, but nothing has been done to the existing ones, except maybe having some sand thrown into it to fill it temporarily, which the rain then promptly turns to mud and spreads out across the roads.

And my all time favourite pet hate, Telkom… where else can you sit on the phone, on hold for 45 minutes or more, listening to the worst hold music ever and not speak to a living person… and now they have a new option!

“Please, if you cannot wait to report your fault over the phone, feel free to report it online at our website…”

Gee, that’s nice, but maybe the reason I’m calling you is because my ADSL is not working and I can’t get online?!?

The more I see and hear these things, the more you hear in the news and in discussions between peers and colleagues, the more I wonder about the viability of staying here. I think, now, that my time left here in South Africa is limited. Time to begin working towards finding alternatives. Before it’s too late.