Campbells

You MUST see Panic Mechanic

I had tears rolling down my face

He hits the topics on the head , it is sad but you gotta laugh at it.

That was one of the graet things in SA, folk used to laugh at ourselves and the strangeness of SA.

I think now folk are too stressed

Anyways

Cheers

Devonfamily

I know, i do miss all that and friendly people. Looking forward to moving to Aus - as I don't find people friendly here - not like in SA where you could stand and have a chat over the wall to your neighbours or have a braai together etc. You have to make a "appointment" here to visit a Brit and if you start chatting to them in the supermarket they look at you as if you are mad!

Campbells

We were there in Jan,

found them to be friendly

but that was the Scottish

Didn't make it south of the wall

We are in NZ and the Kiwis are a miz bunch

Serious lack of SOH, I think they are still sulking about the rugby

shiftdelete

hey, sorry to 'butt-in' but you won't find that in aus or nz.
We were spoilt that way in africa- good luck.

talbot

Loved it, thanx! Leon will have money stored in a tax free country somewhere and will be trekking soon no doubt.

I remember a clip from one of his films where a rookie cop was sitting on a quiet road looking for speeding and there were huge speakers of fast cars in the bushes so he could hear but not see them. God that was hilarious!!
Happy times!

Campbells

Ah ha ha ha

i rember that scene too

the one on Panic M where they set up the rodblock on the dirt road in the Freestate, man that was just classic

and the one where he is squatting on the golg course in PRETORIA

Ah ha ha

bridgetpretoria

Hi Martin
We live in IOM from South Africa.I was hijacked at gunpoint with both kids in the car, countless previous burglaries, muggings etc.We left our huge house, pool, court, 2 domestic servants,private schools, country club to do our own cleaning, ironing, laundry in peace.My eldest sons best mate was shot in their home and bled to death, my younger was at nursery school with Julian Lap who is now an orphan. Crime in South Africa doesn't happen to other people.The beauty of the place and the living standard can fool you-don't be!

bridgetpretoria

apologies, it seems the poor boys mother is still hanging on by a thread, though even if she lives heaven knows what the outcome will be.So either way he will likely be orphaned for all practical purposes. It breaks my heart to think of it, the same little redhead munchkin who often came to play with my boys.

Martin please believe that no amount of gloom and doom you see here can prepare you for the constant dread you will live with every day of your life, fearing for your own and your family's safety.It took me months to get over treating anyone who came near my car as suspect-break window, smash and grab.

After Robbie (from my last post) bled to death I was simply not prepared to bring my children up in a place where their classmates or parents were murdered! Most children growing up in the West have never personally met someone who has been murdered, in South Africa (and I don't think I'm just very unlucky) everyone personally knows someone who is now dead.

I urge you to get in touch with the Southern African Society IOM and get the reality, though we do have members who have left to go back to Cape Town etc, and every one of us has to go back regularly to see family and friends who haven't left-yet.

You are also in for a bigger culture shock than you perhaps realise. There is no state to support you in time of need what-so-ever.You pay for your own medical and dental cover, there is no pension, child support etc.You MUST pay for private schools as government ones are mostly too ghastly to contemplate.

Anything and everything WILL be stolen sooner rather than later. Your car, luggage,laptop, jewellery, phone, handbag, whatever-stolen where? EVERYWHERE. Home, work. school, shopping centre, airport-whatever. Private schools have video cameras to catch the kids stealing from each others bags.One child stole my sons cricket bat in front of me and when I took it up just shrugged as if he was a bit unlucky I happened to be there.

We had the house numbers on the gate, the gate motor, the plants, pots stolen more times than I can remember in a very upmarket culdesac guarded permanently at the top of the road.I only mention this to give you an idea of the relentless daily crime hassles you will face that even while small will raise your blood pressure and add to your cost of living.

Not to mention the breakins.We had 10 foot walls and electric fences but the gate motor was stolen or struck by lightening regularly and didn't work so you had to push it open and every time the lights are out no gate or electric fence either.

You will pay for everything yourself, private security, and insurance which is high for obvious reasons.Most drivers have neither a licence nor insurance.If you have a car accident with one of them you will not be compensated as the Road Accident fund is broke. Almost everyone and everything is dishonest, corrupt and incompetent.The municipality still owes me money which I finally just gave up trying to get back.

When I finally got my ancestral passport I asked why I had been given such a hard time and the response was "govt policy, if it come's from South Africa it's fraudulent"

The relentless tragedies, and daily aggravations of living there are simply not worth the weather.Oh and don't forget white boys are not the flavour of the month.

sunlady

Hi Bridget

I was at university with Marilyn.

I have been looking at our university photos and our wedding photos and still cannot quite believe what has happened.

That innocent people can be gunned down in this barbaric manner leaves me with no hope for the future of South Africa.

bridgetpretoria

Sorry, but it's over, the jungle has taken Africa back.
It was fabulous, and I love it, and I miss it desperately still, but if Martin is in any doubt he must simply google "farm murders in South Africa" for the most appalling atrocities to God fearing people you have ever seen.
I don't want to get old in the cold, so I might re-think, maybe France or Spain,but my kids at least are not going to die there (in a way I can't understand.)
Its a tragedy about the Laps, I only knew them as "the parents of..." but my brother who is a stockbroker and very "I'll switch out the lights" is really shocked, and for the first time a little rattled.
We were at Wits, and you?

Tegwyn

Yip, just look how South Africa's finest behave even when the patrons of clubs try comply with the police. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?s...0141838C838576 Just don't count on law enforcement to protect you. They would much rather stick it to you.

Tegwyn

Just don't get arrested. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_A...html:mad::mad:

Campbells

My God

That sounds like Mad Bob's bunch up north

Amazes me is that someone calling the police re a muder is likely to be told they have no one or no petrol

Let's see if this gets international exposure

Pugsy

Does anyone remember a bizarre story of about 9 years ago, when a young white man, age about 19 or 20 was in the Steers in Rosebank or Illovo or somewhere like that. He was a little drunk and ending up breaking the window, or door or something. Well the police arrested him, took him away and locked him up for nearly two weeks. No calls, no contact with family, nada. He was reported missing. His parents thought he'd been murdered! Eventually they just let him out?! Justice, huh?!

bridgetpretoria

oh panic second only to have someone I love murdered there, is having a teenager do something daft like that and getting arrested. I'm a lawyer, I've seen inside those cells, crowded .filthy, blood and worse stained, and if your cell mates didn't do you in outside they'll do it there at leisure.