Overslept, because I stayed up too late. Funnily enough, I woke up at four - then slept till half seven. Mippies woke me up, carried on for quite a while until I got out of bed.
No sign of Smeagol last night. I did fill his bowl, though.
In the news today: Eishkom will raise their prices by a whopping 15%! Unbelievable! They should not be allowed to take more money from us, until they are able to keep up their end of the bargain! We're already paying for something for which nobody takes the least responsibility to deliver - if we have any losses resulting from their incompetence ... tough! We are NOT allowed to claim, sue or even speak up! Businesses must just deal with power outages - whatever cost or losses those incur: NOBODY is accountable! And those who are responsible, are exempt from all load shedding!
Add that to the increase in petrol prices, and you'll find that basic goods will soon be beyond the average household! I, already, can only afford butter, coffee and milk if it's on special. Real special, not the 'increase the price and call it a special' kind. Then add the on-going water restrictions - not just in Port Elizabeth, but here in Pretoria, as well - and people can't even grow food themselves, even if they have a garden! All options removed, we're herded like sheep into financial disaster ...
I'm very lucky to have borehole water at home, so the water restrictions don't apply to me. BUT: I am paying electricity to pump the water into the tank, and then again to our outlets.
To take my mind off this descent, I surfed through Wikipedia. Hm! I never knew that '99 Red balloons' only happened through Christiane F!
"In der Radioshow des bekannten Moderators Rodney Bingenheimer hatte sie eine Musikkassette mit dem Lied 99 Luftballons von Nena dabei. Als er das deutschsprachige Lied spielte, löste es eine hohe Nachfrage zahlreicher Hörer aus, woraufhin weitere Radiostationen anfingen, es ebenfalls zu spielen. So kam es in die amerikanischen Charts, bevor Nenas Plattenfirma Columbia Records überhaupt reagieren konnte.[1]"
This part doesn't appear in the English translation of the article, though. Roughly, it translates to:
"She had a tape of '99 Luftballons' from Nena with her, when she was interviewed by Rodney Bingenheimer. (In Los Angeles). When he played the German song, listeners asked about it, resulting in further radio stations playing it. That's how it reached the American Charts, even before Nena's record company 'Columbia Records; could react."
Who is Christiane F? Well, every German knows her!
Anyway, that was interesting!
I saw a voice message via FaceBook Messenger from a school friend, but, of course, at work I couldn't listen to it, as my work PC doesn't have speakers. I just listened to it now, and it's an invitation to attend the funeral of the school friend, who just passed away. Considering that only 50 people may attend a funeral, that is actually quite an honour - and very unexpected, as I'm not really close to any friends from school. Well, not particularly. I'm in touch with one friend - we call each other every now and then, but everyone else just via FaceBook. No actual contact.
High School wasn't a happy time of life for me.
Anyway, better have someone who is known by his family be there to support them. Especially, as - I believe - his mother is still alive! No parent should ever have to loose a child - no matter at what age!
At home, or rather: outside my garden, I see they've leveled the ground today. There was a big hole, where they had pulled out the tree ... now it's flat ground.
No sign of Smeagol, but his bowl was empty. I re-filled it ... I'm pretty sure it's him eating that food.
I carried on in the dog hut partition, made good progress, but I think tomorrow night I'll give the mower a try. See how far that gets me.
No comments:
Post a Comment