From us here at Rugby-Talk.com,
Hope you have had a fabulous Festive Season and have had a very Merry Christmas! Happy New Year for 2017, may it bring wonderful rugby joy and may South African rugby improve dramatically… it has been a dreadful year in 2016, has’nt it!!
On a personal level, 2016 has been less than kind to me… been through a seperation and divorce, had 2 break-in’s, was wayyyy too busy building and developing properties, worked far too hard, was bitten by a violin spider and had to suffer through a dreadful South African rugby season.
But hey, it can only get better in 2017. As a result of my year, Rugby-Talk.com was on the back-burner much of the time, but after a good recuperative rest in December I have all sorts of plans for 2017 here at Rugby-Talk.com.
Made a SELFIE VIDEO for you guys, but DANG it is not easy to look good on a SELFIE VIDEO!
Here it is…
PS! Leave all your New Years Messages here and send all your Christmas gifts to me at Rugby-Talk Central!!
Regards,
Have a good one, folks… all of you!
All the best for the year ahead GBS, can’t watch the video now but will do so later.
@ BrumbiesBoy:
And to all at R-T too!!!
Happy New Year all.
Hope everyone has a fabulous 2017!
Even Toetie……
Thanks for the message Gbs. May 2017 be an awesome year for and the same for all the other good people out there. Here’s to lots of success for your teams especially if they are the Bulls, Boks, Warriors and Scotland
@ Bullscot:
Oh boy Gbs meant to say May 2017 be an awesome year for you… and I am stone cold sober promise
Farkit, going to Mozambique on the fly… very quickly arranged… leaving tonight at 03:00 and I will be in Moz for a week, coming back on Sunday 8 January 2017!!
Suppose I will be a bit scarse till then, although I will have International Roaming on my Cell!
Cheers!!
@ grootblousmile:
Go safely.
Trying to get on a flight tonight as well.
My sister doesn’t expect the old girl to hold on much longer.
@ Scrumdown:
Hi Scrumdown hope you have managed to get a flight. Safe travels, thinking of you and your family.
@ grootblousmile:
Lekker man Gbs enjoy it there, assume you are there for holiday and not work. Please contact again when you back.
@ Bullscot:Hi Bully
Yes flew out last night. In Coventry now.
Beautiful sunshine but frost on the car windows!
All the best.
Happy New Year Rugby Talkers……..
New year, new opportunities, new challenges, fun and friendship, sunny days and adventures.
Scrumdown, hope you mother is comfortable and in recovery.
GBS sounds like you have had a dire year. Hope 2017 is better.
12 @ Blue Bird:
Yeah, 2016 was NOT GOOD!!!
In Mozambique at the moment, sitting in the Lodge’s restaurant having breakfast, am already on the 3rd drink for the day and have already swum in the pool and in the sea!!
Tonight we braai Crayfish…. 14 bigggg ones… it is dirt cheap here (1 200 Meticas = R 300.00 for the 14 big Crayfish!!)
Happy and prosperous 2017 for you and yours too, hope it is a good one!
Tjorts!!
Fark, their Wi-Fi is kak here…. and I have better things to do… chat later!
grootblousmile wrote:
But here in England it is great!
grootblousmile wrote:
Geez but our country has some really screwed up regulations.
Flew out on New Years day, tried to buy some Forex at ORT, only to be told, “no FICA document, no Forex”. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!
Contacted my personal banker by e.mail yesterday to tell her I had to travel urgently, and that my cell’ does not work here so please change electronic banking protocols so that I can get OTP’s etc by e.mail. “OK” she says, “but will take 24 hrs, and please don’t use any of your cards. if you do they will all be immediately frozen because the system will suspect fraud because you did not tell us you were travelling at least 48 hours before you left.”
So in conclusion, if you have to travel out of SA in an emergency over a major public holiday, make sure you have enough Forex cash reserves, because you certainly will get stranded with fokol help from your bankers.
@ Scrumdown:
Hope you have got things sorted. Hope you have not felt too cold with all the frost about in the last few days, would be quite an adjustment from the warmth in SA.
@ Bullscot:
Hello Bully
Slowly getting things sorted out between running up & down to the hospital and trying to get some work done.
It has certainly been chilly after basking on the Natal South Coast for the previous 3 weeks but not too bad. People from the East Rand have hardy constitutions.
The old girl has been taken off all except pain medication, so just palliative care now and we wait for nature to take it’s course.
@ Scrumdown:
Ahh man sounds tough hope at least the pain medication is helping a bit. Make the most of those trips to see your mum.
@ Scrumdown:
Strength, not easy to watch a loved one in this situation.
Nice to see Newcastle just beat Bath. Newcastle played a nice recycling accurate offloading game especially what I saw in the last quarter. Final score Newcastle 24/22 Bath Newcastle came back from being well behind and scored the winning converted try with about 3 minutes to go.
The win puts Newcastle up to 6th on the log. Bath got the losing bonus point but stay in 4th position behind Wasps Saracens and Exeter.
Saracens host Exeter Chiefs tomorrow, 2nd against 3rd should be a good game GO SARRIES!
Leaders Wasps host Leicester in Coventry on Sunday in the last game of this round of Aviva Premiership.
@ Scrumdown:
Our thoughts are with you Scrum.
These times are tough on people. Very tough.
Even when you have time to accept what is happening. Knowing what is inevitable. It’s still hard.
It’s the price of love.
cane.
@ grootblousmile:
And to you Groot.
I know 2017 will be a better year for you. It has to be Right. 😀
Many thanks to You and Bullyscott for keeping us all up to date on happenings in the Rugby World.
Back in SA after a wonderful week in Mozambique.
Weather there was great… freegin hot but great!
Got through border control with no problems, despite the fact that we hauled quite a bit of Frozen fish from our deep sea fishing trip, all filletted… (Cuta [which is King Macerel], Yellowfin Tuna and Kawa).
Border Control is a total farce, if you wanted you could bring anything in or out… there is obvious massive corruption… you just employ a “Runner” there at the Moz side of the border, going out or in – they stamp passports and you are basically guaranteed not to be searched or scrutinized whatsoever!!! When we came out we did not even see a Mozambican immigration official at all, the Runner basically took our 8 passports and had them stamped without us present (with us sitting in the vehicle waiting)… 5 minutes later we were on our way with our officially stamped passports and our vehicle slips – no queues…
Laughable, really!!
We braaied some of the Cuta, Tuna and Kawa the 2 nights before our departure, was wonderful to have to of the fish we had caught ourselves.
On the way back from Zavora Lodge, on the tar road towards Xai-Xai (we left Zavora at 0:50 Friday night / Saturday morning), we really kept to the speed limits – they quickly go from 100km/h to 80 to 60 through the many little roadside hovels… and despite the fact that we kept nicely inside the speed limits we were stopped by Mozambican Traffic Police, who insisted we were over the speed limit.
This was the furtherest thing from the truth (we were in 2 vehicles), the driver of the vehicle in front was told they were doing 78km/h in a 60 zone and I was told I was doing 69km/h in the 60 zone. Can’t be, because I would have fallen further and further behind the vehicle in front, which did not happen. Anyway we suspect they had 2 older readings on the camera with which they were stopping all SA vehicles to make extra money.
The fine for the front vehicle was 2 000 Meticas and my fine was 1 000 Meticas, which basically equals R 400.00 and R 200.00 respectively.
No way to argue with the Traffic Police and no way you want to get detained in Mozambique, so we pleaded a bit and the one policeman said we coud bribe them with a Christmas Bonus of R 200.00 for the front vehicle and R 100.00 for the vehicle I was driving. At this stage they had my driver’s licence and Johan’s driver’s licence in hand… so we just paid the freegin bonusses to get our driver’s licences back and we were on our way again… made it safely out no problem.
Mozambique is beautiful, amazingly so, but the population is dirt-dirt poor and live a very, very basic existance, surviving off the tourist seasons, so it is easy to comprehend that from about this week onwards, they will once again be living hand to mouth off scraps from the sea, coconuts, nuts ect…
There is no bird life, no wildlife, no monkeys or babboons, I supect that everything with a heartbeat has already been hunted out and eaten.
Apparently, there was an average of 35% less occupancy rate at the tourist destinations in Mozambique in 2016, so believe me when I say that the Moz economy feels it hard, harder than us South Africans feel the economic bite inside South Africa.
Mozambique is deepest darkest Africa, people, but the population is friendly!
Petrol (imported from South Africa) is more than R 4.00 per liter cheaper than in SA, can you believe it!!
Anyway, I am not having a gripe or a dig at Mozambique, it is just the way it is. I would go to Mozambique again in a heartbeat, but a little wizer next time round.
26 @ cane:
All the best Cane!!
18 @ Scrumdown:
Phweeeew, strenght Mr Kempies, you are in my thouhts!
29 @ grootblousmile:
Thanks GBS.
She passed away earlier this afternoon.
I am now even more in favour of euthanasia.
To leave someone without food and water so that their bodies EVENTUALLY shut down and die is surely one of the cruellest forms of “care” that could be dreamed up.
If we did that to our pets we would be prosecuted.
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