Photo by Kass Naidoo

The Proteas returned this evening (26/03/2011) from their campaign to win the the world cup which was brought to a close by the black caps (New Zealand). I was part of the small welcoming crowd that gathered at the international arrivals at OR Tambo this evening when their plane landed, there were many journalists seeking comments and opinions from the fans who eagerly awaited for more than an hour after their flight had landed to get a glimpse of their favourite South African players. Many of the people interviewed were visibly disappointed but refrained from negatively criticising the team or using the "C" word (Chokers that is).



The crowds welcomed the South African team with roaring applause and jubilation and I was fortunate to get a good place amongst the press photographers where I had the opportunity to shake all the players hands and personally welcome them back. The Team Hurriedly made their way through the crowd flanked by airport security and the SAPS. The players that arrived were Hashim Amla, Robin Peterson, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Corrie Van Zyl and a few other team personnel. The Team tried to remain upbeat on their arrival but looked as visibly disappointed as the Fans Felt. A few of the players interacted with the crowd signing autographs and taking photos with the fans.

As for myself, although I am disappointed at their performance I believe that New Zealand played brilliantly and were definatley the better team on the day, this South African team were an inexperienced world cup team and lacked the maturity of older players like Mark Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs who would have given the batting lining up more impetus.I think that Smith has the potential of being a great captain but the selectors haven't allowed players to settle properly in the team before this world cup, his retirement is premature.Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what happens next in South African cricket.

Hazel Bannock is the heir to the Bannock Oil Corp. While cruising in the Indian Ocean, Hazel's private yacht is hijacked by African pirates. Hazel is not on board at the time, but her nineteen year old daughter, Cayla, is kidnapped and held to ransom. The pirates demand a crippling twenty billion dollar ransom for her release.

Wilbur Smiths latest book "Those in Peril" was released on15th March 2011 countrywide, here are the comparative prices of this book released Nationwide all discounted from R240-00. Click on the name of the dealer to visit the site for further pricing information.

Dealer                  Price

CNA                          R219-95
Exclusive Books        R200-00
PNA                          R199-95

Kalahari.net                R179-95
Pick N Pay                 R149-95

Have you ever been involved in a road accident, it can be a very a harrowing experience, how do you manage this situation, your in the Fast lane on the highway at 7:30am in peak morning traffic who do you call?

Accidents are very prevelant during wet weather due to a number of factors. On Monday of this week, we experienced some wet weather in Johannesburg and all of the major routes leading toward the city were severely clogged due to accidents on the M1 and M2, traffic was severely backed up on the freeway and this caused many people to experiment with routes they have never tried during dry weather to get to their destinations quicker, I live a very short distance away from work generally taking about 15 minutes to get to my destination either way. On this particular morning however it took me 2hours to clear a distance of 17km, as a result of accidents on all roads including back roads leading to the city

Although you do your best to drive responsibly and defensively, it's still smart to know what to do just in case you end up in a collision. Crashes can be very scary, but it is important to remain calm and take stock of your emotions. After a crash, a person may feel a wide range of emotions — shock, guilt, fear, nervousness, or anger — all of which are normal. But take a few deep breaths or count to 10 to calm down. The calmer you are, the better prepared you will be to handle the situation. This is the time to take stock of the accident and try to make a judgment about whether it was a serious one.To help you take stock, I have prepared an  Accident Report document to help you out in the event of an accident. This Accident report will safeguard your interests and assist when claiming for the damage to your vehicle. The document collates the following information :

Click here to download your Accident Report

1. Personal details of other driver, Driver information with a Drivers Licence template,
2  Detailed Insurance information.
3. Vehicle information with a car licence template included in the document
4. How the accident took place
5. A detailed accident report page used in the the actual South African Accident report form

Download my Accident Report form now and distribute to friends and family, safeguard yourself, should you ever find yourself in the unfortunate circumstance of a road accident. Click here to download the Accident Report Form

interesting links

http://draw.accidentsketch.com/

17 calls, 33 lightning strikes on the same telephone cable, 21 call centre agents, R370-00 wasted on ISP and 1 month later, here I stand alone with this weight upon my heart, and it will not go away (sing in Kate Winslett voice).

If there is one certainty I have come to realise, it is that Telkom are proud to be rated Number 1 as worst service providers on www.hellopeter.com. Some of the complaints are hilarious like the guy complaining about being attacked by a panga wielding Telkom employee or the lady that got sworn by the Telkom agent who then insisted on an apology. My call centre episode in buffoonery goes something like this.

When you call Telkom you will be unhelpfully transferred through a variety of disinterested arse clowns in a  painstakingly enduring process that can test the patience of the most hardened monk. I was told that a cable was struck by lightning 33 times and sourcing the specific cable to resolve this issue happens over a period of time not to mention the time it will take to replace, all of this added up to 3 weeks to a month. The call centre consultant also took great pleasure in letting me know that I am not the only one with a fault on my line, there are many others before me in the queue, I will therefore have to wait two weeks in the queue before I start waiting for a month for my problem to be resolved as they have no control over what their technicians do in the field as their technicians are answerable to nobody, and the only means of communication they have with the field techs is a call forwarding system to an anonymous number.

Today is one month, so I have waited the mandatory 2 weeks, and now I am two weeks into a month which means I have about two weeks left till the line is fixed. Welcome to Hellkom.

Open Letter to Tebatso Bahula from Total Exposure (organiser of event) and Bruce Whitfield - Money show Presenter on 702 between 6pm and 8pm

As I am big fan of both the Freakonomics books, I am really looking forward to the Red Carpet screening of Freakonomics along with the guest introductory note by Paul Theron on the 16^th March 2011, the movie is certainly a big event and I have promoted it to great extent amongst my work colleagues and friends.

I would however like you to consider the following, when the movie was released in the states last year, it did a simultaneous release on the internet and DVD At the time, Stephen Dubner warned that there was also going to be another “wrinkle” in how they released the movie in movie theatres Filmgoers can choose how much they wish to pay-anywhere in the range of $.01 to $100, with the completion of a short questionnaire.

http://www.magpictures.com/freakonomics/freaksurvey.html

The data collected anonymously at the time of purchase was analyzed by authors Dubner and Levitt to identify what factors and circumstances prompt movie-goers to pay more or less for their screening tickets. I think that Ster Kinkeor can partner with an auditing firm to analyse the data collected locally from our Ster-Kinekor theatres. 

In the spirit of the creative, incentives-based thinking behind Freakonomics, the pay-what-you-want screenings reference a popular experiment from the original book, in which authors Levitt and Dubner analyze how people interact with a weekly, pay-what-you-want bagel delivery service.

“The pay-what-you-want screening represents a fun and engaging way to illustrate the underlying premise of Freakonomics-the application of economics and incentives-based thinking to everyday situations to uncover surprising and sometimes controversial conclusions,” muses producer Chad Troutwine. “It seems only fitting, then, to engage Freakonomics audiences in their own local economic experiment, offering a chance to see the film in advance of its theatrical release while simultaneously bringing the concept of incentives thinking to life.”

In South Africa, movie ticket prices have escalated making it very difficult for the average man on the street to make it a regular family outing. If discounted loyalty programmes such as Vitality, Ster Kinekor Movie Club or Edgars Movie Club are considered, the price does come down significantly., I spend a lot of money on movies in a month and watch an average of 6 movies a month at the Ster-Kinekor Cinemas, Spending R100-00 at a time between my girlfriend and myself I spend on average R600-00 per month on movies at Ster-Kinekor. If I paid the full price of R40-00 per movie this would go up to R840-00per month

I definitely think “The pay what you want “ adds to the viewers experience, and through it we can get a more engaging idea of how South Africans respond to incentives, I for one would be willing to pay R15-00 to watch the movie. I base this fee not on what I think the value of the movie is, but what I think ticket prices should generally be in South Africa, this survey will also be able to generate an idea though public consensus as to how much people are willing to pay to watch movies if the incentive experiment is controlled and audited properly

Good idea or Bad Idea? 

Freak Links

http://freakonomicsbook.com/ 

Last Saturday we were again graced with the presence of another one of our armoured chitinous friends from the garden, I was hoping to have quiet morning and just listen to to the classics on 702, read my Saturday Star and have a nice breakfast, it wasn't to be so, there was a slight drizzle the night before and it seemed the little men in black monster crept in seeking some solace from the storm he experienced the night before.

As I sat at the table my eye caught the quick movement of a small red flash at the corner of the table, it was a prawn in its true glory, a cockroach on steriods, fully armoured, with long feelers they are relentlessly fast and have thick cockroach thighs making it capable to leap accross a room and over the tallest person in your house in a single bound and are most attracted to people who have brooms, they sip on insectsides like doom, target etc as if they are cocktails and because of all of this which I have encountered  from my previous experience, I have learned not to over react and cause a panic as this will only agitate him more and prompt him to splurt his disgusting brownish black vile from the bowls of his monstrous insect abdomen.

I removed myself from the table and quietly went for my camera, after taking several pictures of him  masquerading on my kitchen table as if he was a special effects creature from a cheap B grade movie, I  tasked my mother with the responsibilty of panicking and removing him from the kitchen and so she did in fine style. She jumped around like a frantic puppet, arms and legs flying all over the place as if she were dancing to a la cuka racha remix and grabbed the table cloth off the table and flung onto the veranda just outside the kitchen, my mothers reaction time was faster than a Bruce Lee one inch punch and before Mr. Arnold Roachnegger had time to react it was lights out for him, smacked 4 times with a broom. We have become more efficient with every encounter, we no longer jump on furniture or kitchen counters and our screams have toned down somewhat.

Till The next time we encounter a district 9 prawn.......

Read the next encounter here - The Prawns are Back in Town