This is one of the many blogs I have been promising myself I must write about, I hope this can be knowledge base for future Mnandi Drinkers upon which I can continue to add on and evolve this article.

The highlight of any of my visits to kzn is coming back with my Mnandi, it has a refreshing with a slightly sweeter taste and feels very much more authentic than the the Mageu number one that i drink here in Johannesburg that has a host of assorted preservatives and sweeteners . This amazing drink is available in 500ml and 1 litre.

So what is that makes me feel the way I do about Mnandi, to answer this question let me give you some background about Mageu.I started drinking Mnandi because of my sport when I was younger, as a form of carbo loading it is quick acting and gives your body an amazing boost of energy that no other energy drink can compare with, powerade or any other energy drink doesn't satisfy my energy need the way Mnandi does.

Perhaps instead of marketing it as a sip snack the way they do to get a broader appeal from younger people to buy into the product, they should consider re branding the way supplement companies have re branded to appeal more to sports people, I certainly think it has its benefits in many other areas of sport.
Its a cheap energy drink that has a nice screw off cap making it easy to drink directly from the carton. A litre of Amahewu is relatively cheap between R8-50 to R9-50, the same price as any other energy that is only 375ml to 500ml, this Maize drink is cheap and is nutritionally beneficial, what a good combination, if that doesn't convince to give it a try I don't know what will .Check this link to see read further about product information. http://www.mageu.co.za/products/prod1.htm



Mageu Information
Mageu (Sesotho language spelling), maHewu, amaRhewu (Zulu spelling) or amaHewu (Xhosa spelling) is a traditional South African non-alcoholic drink among many of the Sotho people and Nguni people made from fermented mealie pap. Home production is still widely practised, but the drink is also available at many supermarkets, being produced at factories. Its taste is derived predominantly from the lactic acid that is produced during fermentation, but commercial mageu is often flavoured, much in the way commercially available yoghurt is. Similar beverages are also made in other parts of Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mageu

I love the fact that they haven't changed the picture on the carton for as long as i can remember, it enriches my experience even more, because whenever I drink my Mnandi, i take each sip with a fondness that reminds me of days gone by.

Check these trailers out, its a horror comedy of a werewolf wreaking havoc amongst the Durban charous. The werewolf  that  looks like a "Big Human Dog/ Teddy bear" is mysteriously attacking and killing unsuspecting Durban charous,

The movie is produced by Quarter Beans Productions and directed by Masood boomgaard and follows the story about Brandon (Neville Pillay) who is a timid electronics store clerk whose life is turned upside down when a chance encounter with the mystical jadoo bean transforms him into a ferocious wolf-like creature from which no one is safe- let alone his cheating girlfriend (Avashnee Vandiar) and abusive boss (A.K Khan).

Brandon’s spontaneous transformations into the beast causes him to unleash bloody carnage across his town and it is up to his best friend, the over the top Kuben (Sanjeev Singh) and his childhood sweetheart Samantha (Kajal Maharaj) to find a cure to the jadoo bean’s curse and put an end to the havoc.


The acting is poor and the music in the trailer sounds absolutely ridiculous, the costume design of the characters with those terrible wigs are unbelievably atrocious but these typical charous are having fun and inspector Perumal, the dude on the toilet sounds really authentic albeit his poor character design and ugly head mask. As for Logie Naidoo's appearance in this movie, all I want to know is what possessed him? I'm looking forward to watching this movies as much as I did the broken promise and run for your life series, its a morbid curiosity.

How amazing is this, on Monday the17th of January 2011 a joint memorandum was signed by the Gauteng provincial department, The Johannesburg Road Agency, Dial Direct (the insurance company) and LeadSA to employ a special task force to deal with Johannesburg's ever increasing pothole problems.

To fix potholes, the Dial Direct Pothole Brigade will use an innovative Jetpatcher, which is a large articulated vehicle that carries aggregate and hot asphalt for patching up or repairing potholes. A high-tech machine mounted on the chassis of a truck, it uses a high pressure compressor to blow out debris and water from the pothole. The airflow cleans out fissures in the hole to ensure that complete waterproofing is achieved.

The process takes between two and 10 minutes and helps to avoid further damage to the road base. After being fixed, a 500mm by 500mm pothole that is 150mm deep can be driven over immediately.

REPORTING POTHOLES


Once a pothole has been reported to the brigade, a reference number, which can be used to track its repair status, will be sent to the person making the report. You will also have the opportunity to opt in for updates via SMS or email.

Reported potholes will be inspected and if the Dial Direct Pothole Brigade can repair it, it will be filled using the Jetpatcher. If the pothole is beyond the brigade’s scope of repair, the details will be sent on to either the JRA or the provincial department of roads and transport.

The power is now in our hands to fix potholes, by the following means, you can report them online at the following sites

www.potholebrigade.co.za/report.aspx
www. leadsa.co.za (this site just has a banner that is a link to the site above)

or by dialing *120*1551# from a cellphone and following the onscreen instructions, or via the mobile site, potholebrigade.mobi.

I think that is a step in the right direction and I plan on reporting every pothole I see in Johannesburg and monitoring the progress of my complaint.

Armed with my digital camera I will explore this new and exciting frontier of pothole spotting and become the ultimate spotter in Johannesburg, well at least in the East Rand.

For further reading, information sourced from
from http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6109&catid=88&Itemid=266

 The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,903 groups with 8,059,633 and counting members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, if you are in Johannesburg join the facebook group, simply search  "Freecycle Johannesburg" or if you are not in Johannesburg but in some other part of the world go here http://www.freecycle.org/ and just type in the area your from to find a freecycle group in you area.

Apart from giving and receiving free stuff you also get to meet a lot of interesting people and its particularly helpful if you have just recently moved into a new place and you need to furnish your home, you will be able to find everything from tv's, microwaves, lounge suites, fridges, computers etc.

So point your browser to http://www.freecycle.org/ and start sharing