Friday 5 August 2016

My Bra Worsie!

Gone way too soon................

I was inspired to remember those we lost along the way. Two of my best friends Elton and Worsie who both died 12 years ago left an unimaginable void for us to struggle with and move forward. I am sourcing pictures of Elton and once I get them I will do a seperate blog for him.                                                                                                                                                                               
 Worsie meet world, world meet Worise. He was my best friend through high school and we lived together for about 10 years. I have too many stories of our skurrelbaans together but most of them I cannot print for legal and moral reasons.             

I will say that you could not get a guy more generous with this time and money than him. He would help anyone in need and gave everything he had even clothes off his back without hesitation. The rest of us could not do this. He also partied himself bankrupt with no  for his money - I would try to take most of his pay check and hide it away so that everything is not spent on Friday night. Seriously we needed taxi money to get home from where ever we woke up. Sometimes we took long walks home. It was not funny after a while.
 
How we funded our Adventures: We both got paid well and we would party our salary into the ground. Our next source of money was our numerous bar and restaurant tabs at a few clubs & bars in the area. As soon as his was maxed out we would max out mine. Then we would hit Cash Loans. I would spend my R5500 (lots of money 20 years ago) and leave my debit card with them and they gave me another R1000. Once all these are tapped out we would walk to the bar with zero in pocket and rely on our good looks and reputation for everyone else to buy us drinks. In a blink of an eye we would have 10 -15 drinks in front of us especially at happy hour. We could party the entire weekend with no money to our name. We were Winners cause we just could not loose!!!! 

The picture above is where we landed up at Ratanga Junction and had a mad time. We drank through all our money and at the end of the day all the staff knew us by name and wanted to serve us. We were on our way to buy a TV and decided to blow all the TV money on shit as well including this fokken expensive picture with a eagle or something. Shit faced and on our last drink we realized we were penniless and had no way to go home. So once again our good looks and luck shone down on us and we ran into my cousin Elana who was having a day at the park. She happily drove us home.

 
The picture above I have no feedback on other to say we were not athletically inclined except if to run from the police or my mother. To his defence he is surrounded by beer cans and sitting down so don't be fooled. I am sure the soccer ball is just a prop.   

One of my favourite pics is this one above. Taken at Club Royale back in the day. Royale became our base from which we would plan our missions. We would all meet up and let the night take us from there. No matter what time we walked into the Club it was always a place where everyone knows your name. Still is.

Worsie has joined "Club 27" with the other royalty like Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse etc...... We know he is in good company and ripping the place apart where ever he is. Love you much brother. You are missed more and more.

If you have a story you about the Wors Man please add into the comments below. Thanks so much.

Tuesday 2 August 2016

Technology Sucks


VHS Master

My father once told me something so simple yet I live its reality everyday. He said: "Son, do you know what technology stands for?" I said no. He replied with: "It stands for speed"
Technology is constantly evolving to make our daily lives easier and our tasks faster and we see that with everything we do. He told me his company is working on a scanner which can add up your grocery bill by passing the entire cart full of groceries through it. This would be very much welcomed but I suppose if never got off the ground. He was a smart guy with tons of ideas and I regret never investing in any of it even though he gave brilliant sales pitches. I guess I just did not trust him enough. My bad!

Our kids will miss so many experiences we held deeply and that's the way it goes. I could mention a ton of stuff into my old age at which time my kids would stop listening. Its good to mention all of this but also more important to change with the times. Here is a simple example of an experience now extinct. With Netflix at your finger tips there is no need to get off you seat to rent that movie. You have thousands of titles to choose from and play them instantly. Now where is the fun in that? 
I could not find any pics of the actual store unfortunately.
 Its a pity that my kids will never know the true appreciation of movies. I am talking about mom promising to rent us movies for the weekend. This alone caused hysterical activity as we would be kickboxing and acting like ninjas in anticipation of the movies we favored. Mom then drove us to the video store preparing for a 2 hour practice in patience on her part and adventure on ours.Our usual spot was Dalvies Video in Athlone.


 The joy of running through the thousands of videos on the wall mixed with the devastation when after you found the one and then realize it was already taken out.....@#$%. Another hour to find another film. We grab three videos and hire an entire VHS machine for the night as ours chew up tapes like the Cookie Monster.Our we go with this massive machine is its huge protective cover and 3 VHS videos.


Yoor it was the best feeling ever coming home to set up all the wiring and spending an hour trying to get the video channel by twisting the knobs until your fingers bled. Its all worth it as tomorrow you gotta take all this back before they charge you a late fee!! Voetsak we paid big bucks for this so we wake up early the next morning to watch it again before we take it away. Gotta get your moneys worth.




 You could not lie and say the video store was closed because there was always a slot to return the movies through when they were closed. Oh the days back then. Golden!!