Two very good reasons to pop the champagne

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the universe seems to be in harmony. Well, from that intro it’s pretty obvious that I am in an exceptionally good frame of mind. No, I didn’t win the lottery, neither did I inherit a fortune.

I do, however, have two very good reasons to pop the champagne and sing in the rain – you see, first we were burgled and, then, we suffered a seriously blocked drain. Let me explain.

Over the Easter weekend, my wife’s coffee shop was burgled. A lone culprit, visible on the CCTV footage, forced open a door and made off with her sound equipment. He is obviously quite adept at this, as it all happened faster than anyone can say “stop that thief”.

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We discovered the burglary on Saturday morning and duly called the police. A sergeant and two constables promptly arrived to take our statements. Within a few hours we received an SMS notification containing the case number.

The next day, a forensic team arrived and took fingerprints. On Tuesday, the sergeant investigating the case visited the shop and took copies of the CCTV footage. On Thursday, the sergeant informed me that they had arrested a suspect. His first court appearance was on the Friday.

Turns out the culprit has a previous conviction and has been linked with other business burglaries in the area. He has admitted guilt and negotiated a plea bargain. He should be sentenced accordingly within a few weeks. I must admit, I did not expect this positive outcome.

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Then, the blocked drain. You know when you flush your toilet and instead of the contents going down, it pushes up, and up and up… and you start screaming “oh shhhhhh*t.” Well, that happened on Sunday morning at the coffee shop. I immediately reported it to the municipality. Within 30 minutes a team arrived and solved the problem. And that on a Sunday.

These two incidents have given me new hope and encouragement. With so much going wrong in the country, it is heart-warming to know that there are still cops and municipal workers doing their utmost.

Sometimes, the smallest things make a world of difference.

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