The people in my town.......wow.... what a meeting....

Was on my way to the hairdresser, just a quick trim to get the curlie whirlies out my face, off my ears and neck ........when my little eye spot something interesting and car does a handbrake wheelie and u-turn ( kid you not, I still can ,when needed) 

oh yes you might ask and now what ? 

Meet The Artists ................. we spent 1/2 hour  together , chatting , taking pics and having a laugh and I was late for my appointment, but lucky for me, Svetla just laughs and say , take a seat , have a glass of wine, will be with you now now, the South African way. 

At first my now brand new best friends,  were not too sure, worried a competitor would steal their design, but chatting established the trust...............

meet The Entrepreneur, Washington, behind it all. Washington , yes that is his name. My people tend to take some very grandiose names at times, borrowed from history or famous actors, though a lot is named Innocent, Patience, Prudence, Beauty, Lucky too. The names is so descriptive at times of where their parents were and what they were doing at the time. All has a second name too, a native name, Fenyang, conqueror; Kopano, united; Lerato ( my favourite, Love); Letshego,armament; Moswen, light in colour, there is so very many and they all mean something different to that parent at that special time of birth of their baby. 

I digress as usual when talking of my beloved adopted country



Washington is so clearly The Boss ....................every one hides until he now decides, I am okay, I have been accepted. 

Washington is originally from Zimbabwe."I have a work permit" and proceed to show me, I tell him not about permits, it is all about him and his friends and the work they do to support their family so far away in a country torn apart from war and internal distrust and corruption and following poverty. 

He now decides, I am his friend and I must meet his fellow artist, his mate, his friend across the road, who is working on a special project. Making a car design out of just wire. Wow!




Meet Lee, also from Zimbabwe, he says from Harare, while Washington is from Bulawayo, but really could be anywhere in between, as all are too scared to be too honest in front of a white Lady........... a mhlophe umfazi ............it is fine, I understand..........

 Just look at the intricate way he puts the wire together to literally weave the design. 

 

Then the fun begins, the man in the second photograph decides I am okay too, though not wanting to reveal his name wants in on it ...................... we are now posing and Umfazi must make 3 copies and maybe bring a cold drink too, we are very thirsty working in this hot sun and ask your friends, we need your support, they must come buy some stuff and we can fix the canvas from the painting you like an roll it to post overseas ( yeh , right, that is ,when we do not have yet another postal strike as now and I find all the post for the street in the bin at corner, okay okey dokey, yet another story for another day, I know)

  All going to try to fit in the wire car?

no no no, Washington is at the robot , eh is trying to sell us something, we are driving past in a BMW.

I totally crack up , am now laughing so much, can hardly hold the camera. 

Born actors my new friends'. 

 a long  time since I last had such a laugh in such wonderful company. 

Thank you my friends, Washington, Lee and selected unnamed. 

MY TOWN AND THE PEOPLE IN IT..........

My project came to a standstill as was busy busy and could not get out.

This weekend had a chance and I found this delightful character at our local flea market

He would not speak to me, but allowed me to shoot a picture when I put some coins in his bowl.

Good Morning ...........................

am feeling a bit sheepish this morning .....................hehe ...bah bah bah.......the story goes like this........................

 The man was away fishing and this sheep was home alone with no computer, yes, right, it was broken, seriously broken. Nothing happening, the tower comes up , the monitor is not working, nada, nix .............call the man, he tells me just to wiggle the power connection, there might be a twisted cord, also check the power is on.


 "is on" I reply cross, am I dumb or what, the tower is working the router is on, the printer is on. Fiddle with it, give up, call darling super IT son ............ verdict "motherboard is fucked' reason being all the power cuts and power surges we have had. Okay, we are insured, so wait for Monday, to go sort it out. 


The Man comes home, goes into office and switch computer on, calls me, "it is working" ......."how?" The Monitor has its own power supply and it was knocked out slightly when the staff cleaned the office on Friday............."oh dear............"

MY TOWN AND THE PEOPLE IN IT - MY NEW DAY BY DAY PROJECT

My new project. I will try one a day ..... I said try. Take a photo of anyone making a living in my town, an unusual way. Print it out, give it to him or her. Make a difference.

I started this on Facebook, due to the photograph of the beggar, remember him? 

Russell said, why don't you try find him , give him his photograph? 

I have not found him yet, I must report, but the local  newspaper has published his photograph as they found it of human interest *big smile*....................... with my luck, might get sued for royalties or something, for making me famous, yet again. LOL.

 I often have something published, sometimes they don't answer my mail even , though, suppose when I get too carried away ?

Day Number 1 — at Fairlands Jhb, South Africa.

 He was speechless when I gave him the photograph later.......but why , he asked?  I explained and he just beamed 

My new friend — at Fairlands Jhb, South Africa.
He is from Kenya originally, I simply love his paintings, covet the blue one for my bedroom, special price to me too, he says



Day Number 2- My new special friends friend, from Thabazimbi, he does reed screens and sells them at side of road too. — at Fairlands Jhb, South Africa.



My friendly petrol attendant had been watching me and wanted in on the action, so hence, meet Samuel.



right next to me at the petrol station were the local crime patrol, our SA Police, he wants to know what I am doing, so I tell him. He laughs "and me" ........... "sure Sir" .......... oh help what have I started?? — at Fairlands Jhb, South Africa.








Day Number 3 - 



wow, I am really having fun, meeting the people of my town, meet the Shoe Repair man,. He sits on the corner opposite our Kwik Spar.




 His name is Clive and he is from Zimbabwe , originally. Every second Sunday he also has a stand at the local flea market, he tells me . He makes shoes too. Look the sandla he made. Looked at my flat pumps and reckoned I needed new ones, showed me some lovely soft leather, he can die and make me a nice pair for R 350.00........but for you, he says , only R 300.00. *BIG SMILE*





My New Project - Day 4


My friendly carguard. I just adore him. He always has a smile, he watches my car, he helps with the groceries and he waves when he sees me " hello, my friend" .......... I seldom have cash on me, when I do , I tip him, sometimes I buy him a loaf of bread or some miliemeel. He fulfils an important role, does a good job and should be recognised for it, so many people tend to ignore the car guards, regarding them as a nuisance. Face it without them, the car might not be there when they come back. So I have made friends in every car park, at every centre and make a point of parking at the same place when I go shopping, so they get to know me.






My New Project Day 5 - Russell, my ever supporting man and greatest fan, took me to a corner where he had seen someone interesting




Meet Steve, he is from Zimbabwe originally. Wanted to know if daughter dear Michelle Murch, might have a job for him. He is homesick. After explaining project, he was more than happy to pose with the tools of his trade.

He earns a living with plastering, painting and other handy-jobs. Also the proud owner of 2 chainsaws, but only does felling of small trees and trimming branches as don't have a big ladder and no insurance, so too dangerous.

My New Project Day 6 ( I think?)

I must try to make an album just to add in, as one contact kindly suggested and also had a request to copy it to Blogspot. :-) Thank you for the encouragement, friends.


Not much happening, some vendors refused me point blank, they are scared of repercussions, suppose they are illegally here or not allowed to trade, I do not know. The broom and feather duster man, went white when he saw my camera and the lady selling table cloths, says she will get in trouble if in the newspaper. She hangs the goods over the fence into the post box's, I am not allowed to say where ..............





Instead please meet 3 ladies, with whom I have regular dealings in my daily life

Mumsa - my friendly post office lady, who expertly advices me how to best post my overseas parcels, safely and cost effective. She always has a friendly smile and a hello, how are you?




Victoria - she likes the wares she sells, lipsticks, powders, nail polish and other cosmetics. I needed a clear polish only, she was disappointed and tried in vain to persuade me to get a red lipstick instead of my normal beige/neutral. 



Beate- she works in reception at my GP and had my script ready, so I don't have to bother my very busy lovely Doctor with my not important aches and pains. 

Docs are for ill people and while I might at times seem a bit crazy, doubt she could help me anyway. LOL





See you all again tomorrow, for more stuff from my town

What a lucky little fish am I ..........................

Wednesday I had to go to SARS, South African Revenue Service, the Tax man, the dreaded one, who for some reason found  me, due to a pension pay out , a small one, very small, as policy had lapsed, but they found me and now they reckoned, that I had not done a tax return since 2006! Duh ……… I know that, I don’t earn enough to fill out a return as per the directive they send out in 2008, last communication I have had from them. Noooooooooo, the penalties for not filling out my 2009 and 2011 was R250.00 each! Whaaaaaaat??  I received this strange communication from them, just before Christmas and phoned the main office, queering it …………… a very helpful lady tells me, that as I received an extra income in 2011, R32 00.00 pay out , juuuubiiiiduuuh, gone in 2 days on paying bills, so that darling man did not have to marry a woman with debts LOL ………….. she offered to post a directive to me. With Christmas and my ill friend and other dramas, I totally forgot all about it. Until I did my yearly spring clean here in January, oooooooooops, better get this over and done with, have a feeling, it will not just disappear by itself.

Asked our accountant what I would need to take with and clever lady that she is, advised me to get a tax directive from my medical aid and look for any medical related accounts I might have had to settle myself due to shortfalls from my scheme. Gosh, I keep these things? Of course, I file everything ………………..*chuckle*……in the bottom of a drawer, where it lies for 5 years until shucked out, no punching and clever labeling for me, stopped that years ago, when the kids came of age and their father stopped paying maintenance, after all, what would I ever need it for? Well at least I had a hefty file to take with me and realized that that specific year, I had myself paid out over R 11 000.00

So that explains some of the money from the pension, not being around for long, an overdue credit card and a mechanics bill on Kenneth’s car, explains the missing moneys of the rest *sniff*

Now I digress ….hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to SARS we go …. To my surprise the offices had been revamped since last I went there, so what a pleasure. State of the arts, computer systems, number waiting and dedicated official related to your specific query. Got a lovely lady who sweetly explained all to me, captured all my papers and then my phone goes ding dong, which I ignored, it is rude to answer a phone or look at messages when speaking to someone. …………. She says, look at your message please, I told her, it is rude, so she laughs, it is from me “ Dear Mrs Taylor, thank you for submitting your SARS 2011 return. Your balance is – R 2193.00 . ??? what??? That is what we owe you, she answers, you had overpaid, due to your medical expenses. Happy dance is now in order, right? The darling then tells me to get all my papers in order for 2009,2010 and 2012 and come see her again in the morning, as she is sure, I must have overpaid on those too. For real? Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

True as Bob ….. next day I was back with everything after a frantic search in earlier mentioned drawers and a phone call to the medical aid for a copy of a tax directive.

My phone kept binging ………………. God answers prayers in mysterious ways and sometimes even use the tax man to answer them.