Rod MacKenzie's Blog, page 14

The joy of queues, lessons of being a 'non-native'

Easily the longest queue of my life was getting that new driver's licence card in 2003 in Randburg (how may SA readers out there have stories about that long drama?). I was a mere nine hours in that queue, nothing compared to some. Yet all us South Africans endlessly joked, made friendships, exchanged phone numbers [...:]

The zol and the police helicopter

William was one of the hardest workers I knew. He simply loved working with his hands and believed it kept him young. He was always looking for extra work, was a sharp negotiator for the highest wage and I remember him cutting back the privet hedges of our home not long after Marion and I [...:]

Childhood murder

Based on a true story

Tom became fearful when his father picked him up from school, Boksburg High. He could tell straight away there was something wrong again with dad. It was often in the evenings that something was not right about his father: it could be seen in his father's face through the windshield of [...:]

Zapiro's mockery of Bafana Bafana not necessary

So Zapiro's latest published cartoon (a re-run from December 2009) presents Bafana Bafana as a pack of dwarves among the giants in the upcoming Fifa World Cup. In email conversations with friends (whose sports knowledge is way ahead of mine) they regard Zapiro's humiliating presentation of Bafana Bafana as spot on. Bafana Bafana is only [...:]

How not to get pick-pocketed

I have never been pick-pocketed. Sure, part of that could just be luck, given the reputation of countries I have lived in — South Africa, England and China — or those I have visited. But I do know I am very careful, wily in fact, about where I put my wallet.

But we all know many [...:]

We are banks' prisoners

On reading Charlene Smith's two recent blogs on her utter nightmares with Standard Bank while in Italy, I immediately remembered narrowly escaping a bank and travel incident when living in China that still has me shuddering with the possible consequences. Years ago my wife and I were about to go on holiday from Shanghai to [...:]

Who would you write or gossip about when they die?

We have had the Terre'Blanche and Lolly Jackson deaths so far this year. The press that followed proved that more is said about the person or personage after his death. Well I remember the "truths" about incest that emerged after novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell's death (brother to the perhaps more famous Gerald Durrell). It [...:]

Did Cape Argus reviewer Bianca Capazorio actually read Cracking China?

It is said that it is "not the done thing" for an author to engage with a reviewer of his book. Notice the passive structure of the previous sentence. There is no agency. Nobody knows who came up with that tradition. Anyway, my criticism of Capazorio's review is mostly with a glaring factual error, not [...:]

Greece may sell Corfu — what about SA selling Robben Island?

Greece is in financial crisis and Germany recently offered to buy the island of Corfu to help kick start the nation again. Now what if South Africa was in the same plight and was offered a purchase for her historical Robben Island? Just imagine the following South African personalities and others acting as brokers for [...:]

Why aren't women as comical as men?

Why aren't women as (deliberately) comical as men? This is how you tell this quick Joke about Women (definitely one of those that are all in the acting). Ask, "Why does a woman with PMT take so much longer to bath and get dressed in the morning?" Answer question by yelling at the top of [...:]