You know you're South African if...

Taken from Facebook.com (Vorlage fuer den recht billigen Abklatsch STUDIVZ.net):

1) you can sing your national anthem in four languages, and you have no idea what it means in any of them. Same goes for "Shosholoza".
2) you call a traffic light a "robot", a pickup a "bakkie" and everything remotely fun/enjoyable/tasty as "lekker"
3) your employees dance in front of the building to show how unhappy they are
4) you get cold easily. Anything below 16 degrees Celsius is Arctic weather
5) you know what Rooibos Tea is.
6) you know someone who knows someone who has met Nelson Mandela
7) you go to "braais" not barbeques.
8) you know that there's nothing to do in the Free State
9) you can do your monthly shopping on the pavement
10) you consider hijacking cars as a profession
11) you reckon that the petrol in your tank may be worth more than your car
12) People have the most wonderful names: Christmas, Goodwill, Pretty, Wednesday, Blessing, Brilliant, Gift, Precious, Innocence and Given
13) "Now now" can mean anything from a minute to a month
14) you continue to wait after a traffic light has turned to green to make way for taxis travelling in the opposite direction
15) your travelling at 120 km/h and you're the slowest vehicle on the highway
16) you know that a bullet train is being introduced, yet we can't fix potholes
17) you know that you have to take your own linen with you if you are admitted to a government hospital
18) you have to prove that you don't need a loan to get one
19) you know that prisoners go on strike
20) you consider it a good month if you only get mugged once
21) you take lunch with you when go to the Post Office/Bank/Municipality
22) you love biltong and droëwors.
23) you pay with Bucks, not Rands
24) you don't worry if you don't have a drivers license or registration disc, as long as you have a hundred bucks.
25) you consider a bakkie being a vehicle, not a bowl...
26) you can never find the street your looking for, because the street sign is always missing or unreadable.
27) Cricket and/or Rugby is all the sport you need.
28) you perfectly understand the term "Bring a chop, dop en n pop"
29) the word "Eish" makes you worry horrifically, the word "Sharp" makes you worry somewhat less..
30) the police advise you not to stop if they wave you down in the middle of the night, but rather speed past them and drive to your nearest police station.
31) you continuously vote until the right party wins.
32) your insurance is higher than the repayments on your car.
33) you start joking about the crime rate.
34) Christmas is about watermelon, beach holidays and swimming. Even though we hand out Christmas cards with snowmen on them.
35) Aussies are usually considered nice people until we play them in cricket/rugby, after which they turn into the scum of the earth
36) You know and use the term 'die ref is blind'.
37) You have no idea how to calculate miles, gallons, yards or pints. Or the Farenheit scale.
38) You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from South Africa

Vodacom Country Challenge - 10k run

Last Sunday Kevin and I joined quite a few hobby runners (and professional ones) on the Vodacom Country Challenge, a racing event around the Vodacom Campus in Midrand. It consist of a 10k track, 21k track as well as a 5k fun run, we opted for the 10k one. It turned out to be quite tough due to the very hilly profile (and the fact it took place on a sunday morning at 8am! the picture was taken at about 7.45am), not comparable to the flat one I did in London or the good old "norddeutsche flachland", but lots of fun nevertheless.

We are already looking for the next one...

long time no blog...

...but there has not been much happening in July. Except a petrol strike maybe where 10% of all petrol station ran dry (including the one opposite my complex), but that was resolved in about a week.

Otherwise just work work work....

My RunX

It took a while, but here it is, my new car:

From RunX

It is a silver Toyota RunX 1.6i Sport.

I have been driving it for 2 weeks now and after numerous complaints I finally managed to get the pictures online:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bschoderer/RunX

In the end a practical decision, but I am very happy with it as it has been running smoothly for 1500 km being a very nice drive.

Schnee in Johannesburg...

...und die Welt steht Kopf. Gibts hier ja sonst nicht. Als ich Dienstag auf der Arbeit erscheine, fragt mich jeder Zweite, ob ich mich wie zu Hause fuehle. Thelo klingelt mich um 6.00 Uhr wach, da es bei ihr schneit... Dabei hab ich den Schnee selber gar nicht gesehen. Naja, zum Glueck hab ich das Foto oben von einem Kollegen bekommen.

Der Winter hier insgesamt ist (fuer mich) sehr angenehm. Nicht allzu kalt (bis auf Ausnahmetage) und es scheint so gut wie immer die Sonne, so gut wie kein Regen. Fuer mich persoenlich sehr viel netter als der deutsche Winter.

Playin' Poker

From Poker at Alan...

Last Friday, for the second time, I played Poker with Kevin (my colleague from work), Vinnie (Kevin's brother), Paschal and Alan. After Kevin's place in Randburg last time this week Alan, his wife Nola, two dogs and a cat hosted us in Edenvale.

With the guys it is the first time I am playing for money, little amounts though and it is always good fun. After having picked up the essential English Poker language vocabulary ("Bitches are wild)" as well as Poker Games Omaha and Five Cards i already look forward to the next session. Due to some luck I even managed to go home with a bit of money (about 150 bucks). However, Big winner was Kevin:

From Poker at Alan...

For all the pics click HERE.

Lesson of 2 sessions: Having your better half around while playing poker has a negative impact on the amount of money you are taking home ;o)

See you next time guys!

Meet my Housemate 2

I mentioned it before, since the End of April I have a new housemate. When Agrineth moved out, Senti moved in:



She is the left one on the picture next to her sister Mamokete, who also works in Vodacom, on our sofa. Her full name is Sentebaleng.

Luckily we are getting along well, chatting about this and that in the evenings. I know now what "America's next Topmodel" (presented by Tyra banks) is and maybe I am able to pick up some Zulu and Xhosa in exchange for some German...