Pretoria Restaurant restores faith

We moved to the Pretoria area eighteen months ago and since then have been on a vain search for a restaurant that not only serves good food but also provides a good service where the staff are up to date on what is on the menu, what ingredients the different dishes contain and the service is good and prompt.
Coming from Johannesburg we are used to good service where the dishes are served in the correct order and the food is hot. Here in Pretoria we have had the main course served before the starter, the food served cold after a long wait - probably because the waiter forget to collect it when it was ready, and a total show of indifference when we have complained about the service. At some restaurants we have been served the wrong food and when queried, the waiters have been unable to remember what we did order.
Even in the quick service fast food chain restaurants where one knows roughly what will be on their plate we have been given the incorrect burger i.e. beef instead of chicken. We were beginning to think that perhaps the one hour drive to Johannesburg was worth time and petrol simply for a well presented meal that delivered all that was promised on the menu and was served by staff that know what is going on and expected by patrons of their restaurant.
Yesterday we decided to go to the Menlyn Shopping Centre in a last vain attempt to find somewhere we could eat out and actually enjoy a meal.
The centre was astir with the anticipation of the Super 14 final match and all the eating places were busy and so we wondered around looking at menus and for what looked like somewhere nice to sit quietly and enjoy lunch. As we approached "Cappuccinos Cafe and Pizzeria", a polite well spoken young lady asked if we would like a table. Good first impressions always count and so we followed the waiter she had called to a table and were seated comfortably, handed the menus and asked what we would like to drink.
Drinks ordered we settled down to have a good look at the menu and were delighted to see that it gave descriptions of what the dishes contained and that there was a good variety to choose from.
Our order arrived in good time, was well presented, the plates and the food were hot and on tasting all on our plates we were both able to pronounce to the waiter that we were very happy with what we had ordered and lunch was in fact very good. As we were busy eating a young male staff member approached us to ensure that we happy with meal and service, we could only give him a positive reply about everything.
We will definitely go to Cappuccinos again and look forward to feeling happy to take friends and family there on special occasions.
As a final afterthought - the prices were reasonable and the servings large - but when one is happy with the service and the taste then these perhaps are irrelevant.

The road to Natal

We had to go to Natal on a business trip last week with a detour to Hattingspruit, a small village near Dundee on the way. We left Pretoria just after four in the morning and drove under a very beautiful starry winter sky, until we hit coal country. It was as if we were driving through a steam train tunnel, the air was thick and heavy with coal dust and visibility practically nothing. If the smog/fog was not enough the road was worse than the usual potholed disasters that we seem to find whenever we make a trip to anywhere, even the local supermarket.
As we were getting close to sunrise time we kept looking out for the glimmer of light in the east that declares the beginning of another new day. Fat chance, the smog was too thick and heavy for us to do anything but carry on driving in the hope that sooner or later we would get ourselves out of and off this man made road to hell.

Finally, after dodging trucks and numerous waits at road construction sites where there was only traffic going one way at a time we started seeing the first promises of light and life away from this Dante's hell of coal dust and pollution.
Yes, there still was a Sun, and as we went in and out of patches of despair and into what seemed to be a landscape of half dead trees and grass trying to survive in an atmosphere of foul air and dirty, smelling water holes we wondered what the God's were thinking about man's efforts to clean up the Earthly environment. Not very much I would imagine!

We finally made it to Hattingspruit, only one hour late, did what had to be done there and continued on our way to the coast. Wherever there was a sign of habitation, be it a small hut on a hill or a town or city we seemed to see signs of pollution, some just tiny wisps of smoke others great factories bellowing out their waste to the world.
Do these huge almost archaic looking monsters, that sit almost as if stalking us, ever get checked by any government officials as to what they are befouling our air with and why are they still doing it anyway? Or it it the usual South African attitude of well it is only a small percentage of the worlds pollution so why does it matter, speak to the big boy polluters in other countries first.
South Africans seem to be rather fond of complaining about things, but seem less willing to get off their seats, rumps or whatever they happen to sit on and get things done. We really are a rather lazy nation.
A short stop for body comforts and food and drink and back on the road for the final downhill drive to Durban and the coast. How great it was to see the sea, and to walk along the beach at Scottburgh with the waves lapping up to our bare feet.
Life is really so good but with a bit more effort from everyone it could be so much better.

Animal behavior versus human

The human factor!

What is it about humans that we seem to make a huge mess no matter what we are doing? Are we so absorbed in being technically inclined that we are forgetting the mundane things like picking up after ourselves or are we perhaps getting a bit to egotistical in thinking that we are to good to clean up our own mess or anybody else's for that matter.

The animal factor

Even animals are trying to make a difference these days!!

Election day, 22 April 2009, South Africa, let's pull those rotten teeth out!!

The much awaited 22 April has finally arrived and as I sit here drinking copious cups of strong delicious coffee I am wondering who and what will end up as our president. South Africa seems to be on a downward spiral of corruption and decay and it puts my mind to visits to the dentist when I have had a sleepless night due to aches and pains in my mouth, usually caused by too many sweets and not enough flossing and cleaning after the gorging.
I seriously think that our hardworking and very caring leaders should perhaps leave the sweets of their political life behind them and concentrate rather on the removal of all the decay that they have managed to create since they took control of the dentists drills. The country needs a political type of flossing going up and down between the chairs in parliament and flossing out all that is of no use and is dragging us further down into the political gutter that seems to be Africa today.
The good can only come forward when the bad is removed and although in nature we cannot grow a third set of teeth at least in the political circus we are able to voice our opinions on an election day and hope that enough of us will have the courage to put our trust in new leaders. Past actions always being the guide to what future actions are likely to be, I think not that the current political leaders here are ever likely to change their leopard spots.

Political dung heaps

The South African elections are only sixteen sleeps away and as I sit whenever possible listening to debates and discussions from and by the different parties I am fast becoming aware of only one thing, and, that one thing being, that all politicians are very adept liars. As I sit listening to the political jargon falling sweetly from their treacherous lips I wonder what sort of upbringing they had. My parents punished me if I dared to lie.
I was taught not to lie, not to make promises that I had no intention of ever keeping, to respect others beliefs and views, to be polite and to never expect others to follow my advice without first proving in some way or other that my advice might just be worth taking. I was brought up not to try and bully people into my ways of thinking and behaving and to have enough pride in myself to be myself.
All I am seeing at the moment is whites trying to behave as blacks, blacks trying to behave as whites, the Indians and coloureds swinging from one side to another as they are easily influenced by the colour of the crowd in front of them. How can any of them expect us to respect them when they cannot even openly admit to their colour, which for their information, is the easiest thing to see in any of them.
I am a white, English speaking, South African citizen who is not feeling very proud of the country's would be leaders as they slither and slide their way around the political circus (arenas being used for more serious and truthful things such as cheer leading), as they try to convince us of their noble minded plans for our future. Plans where they will always be the ones with the large houses and bank balances. These farinaceous parasitic abusers of their country men should be forced to live in the sordid squalor of any of our now quite famous squatter camps so that they may learn how so many of their fellows humans survive.
Several years ago I sat in a waiting room with several elderly black men and woman and I have never forgotten what one of the dignified old gentlemen said to the group, "Nelson Mandela has forgotten the old people, he does not care about us", every one of the elderly folk in that room that day agreed with this statement. I ask has anything improved for the elderly?
I would also like answers to such questions as: Why is our education system getting worse? Why are our hospitals and medical services getting worse? Why are our roads in such a state? Why are South Africa citizens so angry? Why is racism getting to a critical state? Why is our police force so corrupt? What is our government doing to solve the unemployment? Why does nothing in this country seem to work as it used to?
Stop blaming apartheid, it is long gone, face up to the music of the tunes you have created since those days. If you want South Africa to be considered as a First World country then it needs to be run by trustworthy leaders not by those who are voted in because of tribal links or threats.
Democracy is all very well, but when voting is done according to a name or group then we need to realise that democratic rights are been given not only to the educated but also the uneducated and until we can truly educate our population as to the whys' and wherefores' of what happens at the political dining table , then it will always be the poor masses that will be thrown the dry dog bones that are no longer needed by their false prophet leaders.

It is time for South African politicians to stop sitting on their walls and to get into the pond of ordinary people and to start doing what is best for all - no matter what their colour or creed may be.

Honesty in the end is truly the best policy.

Child abuse, child maintenance, when does a child actually start winning.

Why are child maintenance court battles such long drawn out affairs? Why do all the parties concerned have to go back and forth, often from one city to another with flights and time off work, both rather costly these days, to be told by the magistrate that this or that is needed and to come back in one month, or two months, or whatever time to carry on the case?
Why is there not one magistrate allocated to the case instead of whoever happens to be on duty the day of the court appearance? Most of all why are travel expenses paid to the party who is being challenged for not paying the child maintenance while the other party often has to hire a lawyer to state their case as the courts are not helping them at all.
How often do we hear that the dribs and drabs that have been paid over for maintenance have in fact had to go to pay lawyers fees, and we all know that the lawyers will always say you owe it to the child/children to get the maintenance for them.
In my ultimate and very learned wisdom I suggest to the courts that a date be set for the court hearing and each party is to be instructed to bring their latest bank statements (the usual 3 months) , proof of DNA testing if required, and any other relevant information the courts might need such as general monthly expenses, how many children are involved etc. etc.
Then all parties concerned to sit down and discuss and make decisions there and then as to how the maintenance should be paid and who is responsible for paying for what.
Any breach of the agreement and the guilty party should be locked up. Is not providing for ones child a form of child abuse?
Instead the whole rigmarole is dragged out often over years, the children go without, everyone's time is wasted and as so often is the case it is the innocent who are made to suffer.
If we do not speak up and out about cases such as these nothing is going to change. Come on let's all start showing what is happening to these children and take their fights to the very public forum of the internet.

Kenyan Community Initiative Support: Fighting Malaria

Kenyan Community Initiative Support: Fighting Malaria