Do you do the metro-sexual hug?

Has anybody else noticed this happening in South Africa?

Guys who would die if thought gay, clenching a friend to one shoulder and making a quick tap to their back.



Sweet.

Are you a smalltown boy?

Ever listen to a song often and suddenly listen to the lyrics and realise what it is about?

The Bronski Beat was a bit of a one-hit-wonder with "Smalltown Boy." It was more famous for Jimmy Somerville who sang in a range including a distinctive falsetto and went on to the Communards.

Smalltown Boy is one of my favorite eighties songs. It strikes me that the lyrics talk to some of my past and perhaps many bloggers out there.

You leave in the morning
With everything you own
In a little black case
Alone on a platform
The wind and the rain
On a sad and lonely face

Mother will never understand
Why you had to leave
But the answers you seek
Will never be found at home
The love that you need
Will never be found at home

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

Pushed around and kicked around
Always a lonely boy
You were the one
That they’d talk about around town
As they put you down

And as hard as they would try
They’d hurt to make you cry
But you never cried to them
Just to your soul
No you never cried to them
Just to your soul

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

Cry , boy, cry...

You leave in the morning
With everything you own
In a little black case
Alone on a platform
The wind and the rain
On a sad and lonely face

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

One of the greatest acts of SA sporting patriotism ever?

Roland Schoeman has turned down Quatar's R20m offer to swim for them at the next Olympics.

In my previous post I mentioned that I would fully understand his decision if he had accepted the offer.

His statement makes him the hero of legendary proportions:

Schoeman pledges loyalty to SA 05/12/2005 12:19 - (SA) From News24.com Johannesburg - Swimming sensation Roland Schoeman has rejected a multi-million dollar offer from the Gulf state of Qatar and opted to continue swimming for South Africa. "After serious and thorough consideration I have decided to stand by my initial decision not to swim for Qatar. "I have given instructions that the negotiations following the second approach from Qatar to swim for them should not be pursued any further," said Schoeman through a statement read by Swimming South Africa (SSA) president Jace Naidoo in Johannesburg on Monday. Qatar, known for offering athletes lucrative packages to become adopted citizens, had approached Schoeman earlier this year but the Pretoria swimmer declined. Last month Qatar made another offer which would have certainly inflated Schoeman's bank account and there were fears from SSA that Schoeman would take the offer considering how Schoeman has been in the past about the lack of financial reward in the sport. Schoeman made it clear, though, that no amount of money would make him change his nationality and that taking the Qatar offer would have been a short term gain. "The stability and democracy we (South Africa) have attained thus far has not been founded on pursuing short term gains. "It has been based on a willingness to seek long term solutions to promote the well being of all the people of South Africa. I believe that this should be true for me as well. "While I am significantly poorer today than I could have been, I feel tremendously blessed that it is Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika that will be played if I win a gold medal," Schoeman's statement read. Naidoo praised Schoeman for his patriotism also giving an indication that Schoeman could possibly be the man to lead the South African swimming contingent to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia next year. "Throughout this entire saga, Roland has acted in forthright and honest manner and with integrity towards Swimming South Africa. For this he must be commended. "We now look forward to building on the recent success of Athens 2004 and the World Championships this year and preparing for Commonwealth Games," Naidoo said.

Truly inspirational.

Update:

Why I said ‘no’ to millions from Qatar - I’m just a proud South African, writes ROLAND SCHOEMAN of his decision to reject a deal to swim for the oil-rich Arab state. It would have meant big money — but he wants to go on swimming for SA

Is it the turn of the nice guys?

Triumph: Jim Furyk poses with his trophy after winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City. Picture: AFP

I'm a nice guy. This can be a problem.

For example girls say they "just want a nice guy." Meanwhile, many girls just want to tame a bad boy.

So I love it when nice guys win. And I loved it when Jim Furyk won at the Nedbank Golf Challenge yesterday. Furyk became known as Gentleman Jim after he disqualified himself here in 2001 for what seemed something very trivial, cleaning and placing his ball twice (allowed on the US PGA Tour) in the same spot instead of just once (the rule on the European Tour and here in 2001).

The infringement didn't give him any advantage to speak of, and he only realised his mistake once he had signed his card. Instead of a penalty he had to be disqualified. “Rules are rules,” he said at the time. Unlike most, Furyk did not pack his bags and leave but instead played on as a marker in the tournament to ensure that his fellow-competitors would not be compromised by his absence.

Photo: SuperSport

I made an oft-travelled pilgrimage to Sun City on Sunday to follow the golf. I had picked Furyk as my man to win on Friday, and after following the early pairing of Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia for the first nine holes and a quick lunch, I then fell back to follow the Furyk and Donald two-ball. It certainly was up-and-down with Furyk bogeying twice - no more down than when he bogeyed the 18th - a putt that would have given him an outright victory. By this time I had retired to the public hospitality tent. The 18th green was packed, and I was exceptionally out of it after the heat of the day.

The four-way play-off was about as riveting as you get in golf. I was over the moon for Furyk when he chipped in to win. A victory for nice guys and gentleman.


The eighth green at the Gary Player country club - rated by Ernie Els as one of the finest holes in golf

New headlines:

Furyk holds nerve to win
'Gentleman Jim' finally wins at Sun City
Furyk wins dramatic playoff
‘Gentleman Jim’ gets his reward
Furyk has "good reason" to return

Watch the video of Jim Furyk's final round - and the swing commentator David Ferherty once likened to "an octopus falling out of a tree" - click play to begin streaming (video courtesy of the Nedbank Golf Challenge website):



Postscript: IITQ must have been in many TV shots on Sunday. He was right there next to Furyk during the drama of the 14th when Gentleman Jim's ball got buried in the bush. Did you see him?

Is that your nose growing Mr Zuma?

So apparently Mr Zuma has admitted he had sex with the woman claiming she was raped - but it was consensual.

Is he serious? He claims they were involved in an ongoing sexual relationship.

The woman claiming rape is a know HIV+ anti-aids activist. This woman sent her underwear in for semen tests. Which presumably means there was unprotected sex.

Mr Zuma, do you expect us to believe that you regularly had unprotected sex with a person known to be HIV positive? It seems far more likely that you lost control...

Would you take a public servant hostage?

I'm not sure I'd have the guts to, but I certainly understand this guy.

Imagine being poor. You fight your way to getting your matric (school-leaver's exam). Probably studying by candlelight, going to the library because you can't afford books. Studying in your third language. You look forward to getting a job. Repaying your parent's pride and hard work at scraping together money to get you through school.

And then you apply for your identification document. Again getting tour little money together to pay for ID photos. You queue for five hours at a home affairs office. You wait and months later, you get the document - and it has your name spelt wrong.

In the mean time, you have a job offer, but you cannot be hired because you have no proof of identification.

You reappply for identification - and wait two years. Often queuing at the home affairs office - again for over five hours at a time. Each time to be told your ID is not ready.

Is it any wonder this guy snapped, taking a home affairs manager hostage with a toy gun?

I hope a judge dismisses this and lets the guy go. Under South Africa's Public Finance and Management Act, civil servants can be held personally accountable for poor management. Maybe it is time somebody did lay a charge against the minister of home affairs.

Do you love pandas?

Thanks to the cute good looks, pandas might very well avoid extinction.

Tai Shan made his media debut at the National Zoo in Washington DC today.

If you're South African, let's have a wide chorus of "Agh shame!"

Tai Shan on the 2nd of August.



Tai Shan on the 10th of November.



And now, live on IITQ cam! (courtesy of the panda cam at the National Zoo of course - 15m limit, subject to cam not being overloaded). Click play to begin live streaming.

Cross?

This makes my blood boil.

I was in Cape Town the day another heist like this happened, standing in my parents' garden. We heard the shots and ensuing chaos as the drama unfolded just over a kilometer away.

I was so impressed at the police work that had apparently traced the men from a cell phone dropped at the scene.

It seems that the police and prosecutors involved in this case were less competent.

Now these guys will doubtlessly kill again.

Does Jo'burg have a visionary?

The 100-year-old oak tree in Greenhill Road

I've spent a lot of time in New York. When visiting Manhattan, it is impossible not to be impressed by Central Park. The incredible vision required to set aside a park of this scale on an island desperate for space has to be admired.

In Johannesburg, our "Central Park" is perhaps the trees that shade our city. Six million trees make Johannesburg the largest man-made urban forest in the world.

I've gathered the following quotes from the rather excellent Johannesburg website from an article detailing the history of Johannesburg's trees.

Before gold was discovered in the area in 1886, there were several farmers on the Witwatersrand. These early farmers brought seeds from the Cape and planted acorn, oak and walnut trees. The Bezuidenhout family, among the first white settlers in the area, built their farmhouse in 1863 on the farm Doornfontein. They planted fruit trees in Judith's Paarl and Cyrildene, east of the city centre, but they no longer exist. On the other side of town was the farm Braamfontein, owned by the Geldenhuys family. Louw Geldenhuys built his farmhouse against the Melville Koppies ridge, and his wife, Emmarentia, planted an oak tree and five palm trees in front of the house. These trees still exist, as does the house, gracing the suburb in an old-world splendour. When the suburb of Emmarentia was laid out in 1937 the town planners wanted to cut down the oak tree as it was in the path of the road being laid out. But Emmarentia put her foot down - the oak was to stay. The tree is now on the pavement, the road kinking around it slightly. By 1904 a parks department had been established, and by that time the city had four major parks: Joubert Park (17.5 acres), End Street Park in Doornfontein (4.5 acres), Oval Park in Parktown (3.5 acres) and Jeppe Park (2.5 acres). By 1934 the number of parks had increased to 67, and there was an active tree-planting policy by the council, with 8 000 trees being planted each year. Over a million trees were planted in the present-day Zoo Lake and the Johannesburg Zoo areas, in what was called Sachsenwald (later Anglicised to Saxonwold and now a suburb of Johannesburg), an area of 1 300 acres. They were blue and red gum trees, quick-growing and ideal for use as mine props. Oaks, pines and wattles were also planted. Picnic spots with benches were created in the forest, and it became a favourite picnic and riding area for Randlords and their families in nearby Parktown. Remnants of the forest can still be seen in the zoo and in the parkland around Zoo Lake. Suburbs in the area reflect this history in their names: Forest Town, Parkview and Parktown. Tree entrepreneur William Nelson, according to Smith, had nurseries in Turffontein, where "by 1896 he grew some 30 million trees, shrubs and plants for general distribution". His business was known as Nelsonia Nurseries. He apparently planted "66 miles (106km) of trees along the streets of the newly established suburb of Kensington". The task took six months to complete. She says it's believed to be the first time street trees were planted in South Africa on such a large scale.

Read the full article, together with the one detailing the census performed to arrive at the figure of six million.

Now you might be wondering where this is heading - what's the question?

Well I believe Johannesburg's heritage is under threat. Recently a billboard company cut down 68 trees to allow better sighting of their advertisements. This made the news and the resultant cost borne by the city to replace the trees (R700 for a sapling - the original mature trees would have been worth over R9000).

This weekend I drove to the World of Golf - a fantastic golf practice facility for driving, putting, chipping and putting, etc. The road linking Woodmead Drive with the K101 leads to the World of Golf entrance. It was an avenue lined on both sides for over a kilometer with tall pine trees - probably each about 15 to 20 meters high. Pine trees are a disputed asset in South Africa. They are thirsty aliens in a dry land. But these lined an otherwise dry unoccupied area and survive on Johannesburg's abundant summer rains. They are now almost all gone to make way for an office development - Woodmead North. The office development is on land situated behind where the pines lined the road. The trees would have provided a feature to its entrance.

This is a happening that it being repeated through Johannesburg as urban densification takes place. Densification is in fact a strategy promoted by Johannesburg's local government to deal with the new Sandton CBD's effect on transport systems and access by poorer communities. Take a drive through possibly South Africa's richest suburb, Sandhurst. It is made up of estates that border the Sandton CBD. It is a magnificent area and populated by beautiful trees. A key landmark is the estate bordering Sandton Drive - a veritable forest. It is now being developed by Investec with high density housing. The rest of Sandhurst is rapidly being subdivided as landowners scramble to make the most of a buoyant property market.

This destruction of beauty is not unique to Johannesburg. I often run on the mountain in Cape Town and all along the borders of Newlands Forest, suburbs are creeping ever higher - most notably on the eastern boundary shared with Kirstenbosch. New houses cling to the slopes at heights that take a good half an hour to reach on foot.

South Africa's cities need some visionaries who put a foot down against the destruction of natural beauty. Frankly, they need a few people like the William Nelson mentioned above.

Which is the best restaurant in South Africa?

95 Keerom City Bowl, Cape Town 9th Avenue Bistro Greyville Durban Auberge Michel Sandton, Johannesburg Bosman's Paarl Ginja Cape Town La Colombe Constantia, Cape Town Lynton Hall Pennington, KwaZulu-Natal Reuben's Franschhoek Terroir Stellenbosch Yum (Greenside) Greenside, Johannesburg The Eat Out Johnnie Walker restaurant awards for 2005 are out. And Yum of Greenside, Johannesburg is tops again. Yum is certainly one of my favourites. But I have many. Recent experience highlights a fantastic meal I had at Georges on 4th, Parkhurst, Johannesburg, two weeks ago. Their grilled vegetables and gnocchi rates as one of the finest pastas I have ever had. Speaking of pastas, Assagi of Illovo, Johannesburg is my favourite Italian restaurant and rated as such by many Jo'burg-based Italians. The Giovannis on Rivonia Road Sandton is pretty good too, and makes a great pizza. Yindees of Cape Town is my favorite Thai restaurant - just awesome.

Wierdly, Le Quartier Francais of Franshoek did not appear to make the top 10. This after it was recently declared one of the world's top 50 restaurants by the UK-based Restaurant Magazine.

Aubergine and Lemongrass Hillcrest, Durban The Bell Pepper Kensington, Johannesburg Chefs in Motion Lonehill, Johannesburg Cynthia's Pretoria The Grill Club Pretoria La Pentola Riviera, Pretoria Madame Zingara Cape Town Moyo Johannesburg Pachas Hazelwood, Pretoria Ritrovo Ristorante Waterkloof Heights, Pretoria Singing Fig Norwood Gardens, Johannesburg Smoke Cafe & Grill Lounge Groenkloof, Pretoria Soi Melville, Johannesburg Yamato Illovo, Johannesburg Yum (Greenside) Greenside, Johannesburg Which is your favourite restaurant? If I get enough responses, I'll create a poll of results. The Eat Out peoples' choice list is shown to the right.