Yay! I’m pain-free at last, four months after the knee replacement op that was supposed to be a doddle but turned out anything but.
Well, pain-free is a relative term. At my age, if you wake up in the morning and can’t feel any aches and pains, then you’re probably dead.
Thank the heavens for strong pain killers and my very able physio, Alison, for seeing me through the most excruciating pain since I last gave birth. No, wait, I haven’t given birth, but I’d prefer to.
The most alarming part of this whole drama has been how fast my leg muscles have wasted. Now I’m able to go to gym and rebuild them but I can see it’s going to be a long road. Just a word of caution to any readers who’re having operations – don’t try to rush the recovery! Naturally I did, idiot that I am, and a little walking too early landed me flat on my back, whereas cycling and swimming are perfectly manageable.
Slow and steady will get positive results.
It’s old news but I have to chuck in my two bits worth on the Rugby World Cup final. It was a brilliant game and a brilliant victory. But the English! Oh my, the scowling and tearing off silver medals was something to behold. Captain Owen Farrell didn’t have the grace to congratulate the Boks on their victory in the post-match interview and only managed to look like a spoiled brat. It was up to the former captain, Will Carling, to say the right things a week later.
You have to hand it to Japan for putting on a great show. The whole competition appeared to run like clockwork and the TV coverage provided great entertainment. It’s astonishing that South Africa has the nerve to try to bid for such world events. Imagine having the eyes of the world on us for a month and try to explain why the national carrier, SAA, is on strike, let alone bankrupt, the power failures and mind-boggling levels of corruption that are revealed every day.
The latest intrigue to pass over my desk is a long explanation from the Airports Company on an investigation into their recently-departed CEO. That’s the third ACSA boss (two locally) to leave under a cloud. Then there’s the story of the boss of the National Empowerment Fund, Philisiwe Mthethwa (wife of sports minister Nathi Mthethwa), who pays herself R6m a year – R2m more than the President – and so there’s no money left for the NGO to do its work. And it just goes on and on and on . . .
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The SAA trade union out of strike now is demanding an eight percent pay increase. Can a striking trade union ever find itself in a worse position than in negotiations with a bankrupt employer?
In the real world, what an employer would typically do in such a situation is to walk out and lock the doors behind him. However, in the case of SAA, the employer behaves as if it is still solvent because it’s probably hoping for yet another State bailout.
SAA pretends as if its service is indispensable, but in reality nobody is indispensable. If you want to know how much you’ll be missed when you are gone, put your hand in a bucket of water and then remove it. The hole that’s left will be how much you are missed.
The best thing the government could do would be to shut SAA down. Every day that it continues to operate, the risk it poses to ‘South Africa Inc’ is multiplied. By taking bold action, the government will send a strong message to other unions, such as those at Eskom, that it will not allow a gun to be put to its head.
Amidst the happiness over the steady downpours the North Coast has received in recent days is the sadness of the drowning of three children in swollen rivers near Darnall and Mandeni. It’s always the poor who suffer. If the money that is disappearing into some pockets was spent building bridges . . .
The weather has been crazy. I heard someone complaining about how often the weather forecasts have been wrong lately. For most of the year the weather clip clops along, cold fronts coming and going, and it all looks so predictable from the comfort of your armchair. But when local weather systems go wild and tornados tear up the countryside, I think the forecasting business must be about as peaceful as a DA congress. Frankly I’d rather have a storm warning that is wrong or early than no warning at all.
We have just returned from our annual visit to a reserve in the Sabie Sands, enjoying many happy hours watching nature at work. The predators were having a field day in the dry conditions, the lions as usual at the top of the pile. In the picture on this page, a pride of 18 lions – males, females and cubs down to about two months old – had finished feasting on a buffalo, even the cubs gnawing on a few spare ribs, and were walking down to the water hole for a drink in the evening when I got this shot.
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Scientists say the universe is made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. They forgot to mention morons.
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