PegLegs and Me

I see symbolism in so many things around me. It’s not superstition because I’m not a superstitious person. There are so many things in nature that have significant meaning in general and also for me personally. I like to recognize the uniqueness in everything around me. Like the song in the old musical movie, The Sound of Music, said: “These are a few of my favorite things” … Speaking of The Sound of Music – when I turned thirteen (a century or two ago), my parents borrowed the church movie projector (a huge piece of equipment) and a big white screen, and set up a “movie theater” in our garage (Please note that, coming from a very religious background, going to a movie theatre was considered a sinful act). Anyway, they rented the film which was a huge reel of tape, which then rolled through the projector to another empty reel, until the whole tape had run its course and ended up on the opposite reel, at which time the movie was over. I’m only putting this description in for the young...

  Life is so desperately serious most of the time, but one has to see the humorous side of life and sometimes have a good laugh too. I mean, there is so much going on in the world today that it’s very difficult to keep track and have a knowledge of everything. Some issues are very serious and worth knowing about, but some are simply ridiculous. And please do not forget the conspiracy theorists. Some of their theories are very interesting and some are the truth, but many are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Now, if there are two topics of discussion that one tries to avoid at any gathering, it’s politics and religion, unless everyone is one the same page. Yeah, right.   Both religion and politics have one common goal: that is to acquire power over the people and use it to fulfil their aims. However, to achieve this objective, their methods are different. Religion mobilizes religious sensibilities of people in order to get their support; while politics uses intrigue, diplom...

Once, while talking to my beautiful wife about the origins of life, I commented that if the sperm that made me was the best and fastest swimmer, how fucked up would the other millions have been? Now there’s a scary thought! Sorry, that was my last swear word in this piece. Okay, continuing with my train of thought … So, here I am and here you are. We’re alive for now – you in your small corner and I in mine – but we are not the same and we were not in control of our beginnings. We had no control about being born, where we were born, our gender, the pigmentation of our skin, colour of our hair or eyes, tall or short, bright or dim. Nor did we have control over being born rich or poor, the tribe to which we belong, the language we speak, the continent on which we drew our first breath, our lineage or genealogy, or even the religion which we were born into. No control whatsoever. We are who we are and there’s very little, if anything, that we can do to change these things. The othe...

  During his time as a struggling young actor in Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest on a whim. Despite being the real Charlie Chaplin, he didn't win the contest. The judges, unaware of his identity, awarded him third place. Chaplin found the situation so amusing that he later remarked, "I was robbed!" I sometimes feel “robbed”, not because I didn’t win a contest, but because life has sped by and I feel I still have so much to give. I read this brilliant blog post called Find What You Love and Let it Kill You (link below) and thought it would be a good idea to share it. It starts like this: “We’re all going to die, all of us. What a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.” Mark Manson https://markmanson.net/find-what-you-love Finding what you love … Well, I’m going to be fifty-six this year (ugghh) and I’m still not sure...

I was thinking - a dangerous past time I know, but bear with me. When I was still an active mechanic working in my own workshop, we often had a customer who would want to save money on vehicle repairs, either due to lack of finances or because they thought vehicle maintenance wasn't that important. One way for them to save money was if they bought their own parts. Some vehicle parts can be exceptionally expensive, especially when they’re genuine manufacturer parts. Fortunately, most vehicles and trucks can be fitted with “aftermarket” parts which are just as good as the genuine parts. Sometimes these genuine parts are simply repackaged under a different brand. But then there are the really cheap-ass Chinese brands. So basically, you get what you pay for. Our workmanship always carried a guarantee and my personal stamp of approval. Yes, mistakes are sometimes made – we’re only human, not gods – but owning up to a mistake is part of building lasting customer relationships. Before d...

Waterkloof Wine Estate   Here’s a question for all the knowledgeable folks out there: What was the first miracle that Jesus performed? Did he give sight to the blind, heal the cripple, raise the dead? Nope. It was a very significant miracle; one which brought happiness to a beautiful event – He turned water into wine at a wedding celebration.   Now this is where the debating in religious circles begins - Was it alcoholic wine or plain grape juice? One of our favorite weekend activities, before our children immigrated, was wine tastings and pairings. Not only did we sample some of the most exquisite Western Cape wines, but the pristine surroundings and beautiful vineyards made this a most enjoyable social family gathering. And believe me when I say that we didn’t visit half of the wine estates. This was one of the motivations for starting my wine and gin bar. I wanted others to experience the same relaxed atmosphere in a casual, yet upmarket, setting. I absolutely loved wha...