That Blog

Yes, that’s right!! That Blogger is back and hopefully here to stay! I know a few of you have commented on my absence, but the good news is that I am back and if my new corporate employer can tone down a little on the deranged work hours, I will be blogging a little more often that I have been!

So much has happened since I last wrote…not sure where to start….

I returned from a lengthy 4 months on the mud island and started work in Jozi…I am still in denial about the fact that I am not spending my week days in Cape Town, so like to think of this as a very temporary measure and if anyone asks where I live, I still answer Cape Town. I have to admit that this does get the occasional side wards glance from people who see me at work every day in the heart of Sandton…but so what. In my mind, my return to Cape Town is imminent…so why let anyone else think differently!

I will do my best to keep you updated on the exciting happenings and news from both cities for now!

Not that dissimilar to an Atlantic Seaboard sunset is it?

Those of you that have been following That Blogger on Twitter, will know that the time on the mud island continues…as does my fascination with the bizarre events reported in the spectacular piece of free news called the Metro. For those of you that aren’t familiar with this paper…The Metro is a newspaper that is given away each morning at every station in London and reports on a few important newsworth items, some pretty random things…but mostly hyped up, tabloid news.

The article on page 2 of today’s Metro caught my eye. You see, I was always lead to believe that the closer an article was to the cover of the paper (front or back), the more important it was. This is why I was a little perplexed at the content of this article and how it could possibly be deemed important in ANYONE’S life and why it should be on page 2.

This is the jist of the story…A mother and her daughter were taking their daily stroll somewhere in Shetland (I am assuming they were fighting their way through herds of little horses at the time) and a seagull flew overhead and dropped a live budgie on the mother’s head. Yes…a budgie…you know, those little pretty little blue/yellow/green birds that spinsters have?? See below for example

This is a budgie

 From her account of the incident, the woman was most alarmed…as I imagine most people who get a budgie dropped on their head might well be. Anyway, after the initial shock had passed, the 2 women managed to catch the little bird and it is now living with a friend of theirs who’s budgie recently ‘fell of it’s perch’…

The article then goes on to speculate where this stray budgie might have come from and how it got into the mouth of a seagull…including speculation that it travelled 14,500km from Australia (I assume not in the mouth of a seagull). At NO point is there even the remotest suggestion that the budgie might have escaped from a home or an aviary in the area…

Clearly, South African spinsters are not the only ones to own budgies…as demonstrated by the fact that they mentioned it had gone to a happy home in Shetland and I haven’t noticed Sky News having to cover that as a rare occurance…I guess the thought of a well travelled budgie is far more exciting from one that escaped from the clutches of Sylvester the Cat somewhere in an old age home, only to be snapped up by a seagull and then dropped on someone’s head…that is the stuff news headlines are made of. Earth shattering stuff isn’t it?

[Source: The Metro]

Well That Blog fans, after the long and sad farewells of last week…I encountered what can only be described as a bureaucratic nightmare of note that involved me having to re-apply for my visa and spend a week milling about Jozi waiting for visa app #2 to be approved. Lesson learnt…submit AS MUCH info as possible with a visa application. If there is even a glimmer of a doubt that you will ever return back to sunny SA, you won’t get that visa and that is a lesson I learnt the hard way. It seems that despite my Proudly South African beliefs, the authorities seemed to think that I was a likely candidate to hit the Mud Island, grow roots and start claiming benefits. Anyway, I have persuaded them otherwise and I set sail or should I say, take off tonight.

Anyway…in my abscence, I would like to ask a very big favour of you…please don’t forget the amazing atmosphere that has built up in this country over the last month of fantastic football. If you need any help remembering how the World Cup has inspired us…check out this great website www.keepflying.co.za 

I don’t want to hear stories of post-tournament depression and general sadness…we have accomplished SO much as a country in the last month and you can’t just let that be forgotten on 12 July. Keep those flags on your car/house/wall. Keep those wing mirror covers there and keep that spirit going!!

KEEP IT FLYING!!!