Good Day "36"

Well, I got it all done, and my nieghobrs in the corner house have no lights on and if you don't think that doesn't make things look spooky.

It looks like everyone else left also to go out to eat or to someone else's house...I wrapped my stiarway up in orange minilights, bought an new porch rug mat with rubber backside in case it was raining and we hooked up all the lights...so people woudl have an good lighted way to the door. We haven't had to many trick or treaters here since our little kids grew up. I am hoping my grandkids will stop by...I bought two new "UNO" card decks to play with them and for the winner...an "travel" version of the game... plus they get $3 each and some candy if they'd like it.... It will treat them at McDonalds on the way home if need be. But gosh..it's as black.... as black coal outside right now.... Unusual for an city street. I go for now and talk later on maybe. I went shopping to the Goodwill today to buy any last minute Holloween articles...and they had ALL kinds of nice things there fro Chirstmas...I spent nearly $100 on mostly Christmas stuff. I'm taking it over to my sister and I thought she could share some of it with her lady friends and Mary this season. Last year I took Mary and her out to lunch here at the Olive Garden Restrurant. That was an nice outting for me. For an mere $4.99  she's gonna get an wall hanging of Santa holding up the letters..Happy Holidays.Because about the only other thing she puts up is an small tree. But I got her all kinds of metal cans to fill stuff with also and give for gifts...one is an really cute three tiered snowman. Then I found an huge book..."Christmas in America" that tells her all the good news the Holiday holds also and what people do during the season..like it shows little kids ice skating. It's like bringing it into your home. Opps, they have started arriving..I best go for now.

Peggy are you sure it said SZ not ZA?  ZA stands for Zuid Afrika (Afrikaans for South Africa and is used a lot i.e. in UK the end of an internet address is .co.uk  here it is .co.za!)  If I put SA people think I am in South Australia, lol!

I live about another 40kms outside Pretoria towards the East!

At the moment the weather is still and quiet, so I am holding thumbs that it continues!  Another overcast and cool windy day - most unusual!

Hope all POE members are well and keeping warm and out of the rotten weather predicted for parts of England!

Hi all and especially Peggy. I see Cathy already corrected you on the "ZA" Yeah ZA is official for SA. They also refer, internationally, to out currency as "ZAR" for Zuid Afrikaanse Rand or South African Rand. In much the same way as Pounds Sterling are refered to as GBP. What i mean by a "lock-up-and-go" is a cottage in a secure complex. In SA housing complexes (in UK it would housing estate I guess) are small-ish communities surrounded by security fences and equipped with remote controlled sliding gates. Some even have security guards on patrol. If one lives in such a complex one can simply lock up the house and go away knowing that it is safe and is unlikely to be burgled whilst one is away. Most of them do not allow pets either so there is nothing to worry about whislt one is away as long as a neighbour is prepared to collect any post which arrives.

These places are very popular and have proliferated in the past 20 years because of the high levels of crime in this country. No matter where one lives it is necessary to have security such as fences or walls with razor wire on top or electrified fences, remote controlled gates, security gates on the house doors and bars on the windows. My current house has motion sensors outside, barred windows (the ones in the bedrooms are locked but openable to provide escape in the event of a fire) and even the main bedroom door has a security gate on it so that the room forms a "safe room". We also have a system of armed response so that in the event of an attempted or sucessful entry one can press a panic button or speed-dial a number on a mobile in order to summon armed reaction officers. Even though I live 600 yards from the police station I still prefer to have armed response because they will be here more quickly and will be more effective when they arrive .Another thing which is all to common is the  hijacking of cars so we are careful about stopping, even for red lights or stop signs at night if there aren't a lot of people around.

I hope that gives you a better understanding of this country. Its not to say that we perpetually live in fear but caution is the order of the day. My younger son has been held up twice at gunpoint and been robbed of his car. On the one occasion they made him remove his shoes and socks and all his clothing except for his underpants. If you are interested in the frequent way in which farmers are attacked and brutalised go to www.lulu.com and buy a book called "Vengeance" (written by moi); it will give you an understanding of how farmers are at risk.

Sorry to hog the thread but I just thought you all may be interested in how we live here. LOL! I am going to rival Shirley soon with the length of my posts.

Cheers all.