FRIENDS

We moved to Port Elizabeth at the beginning of October 1984 and we only knew two couples living there, one was my predecessor and the other relatives of my wife.  I was lucky enough to have a few days off in order to move into our house, and on the day that the furniture removers arrived, we started unpacking.  Some of our possessions had been in storage for nearly eight months and we had difficulty in deciding where what should go and just at this stage a youngster pitched up and said:  "Oom, my mother says she is making tea and coffee, which would you prefer?"  A day or two later I was getting the garage in order when a woman on a bicycle passed the house, turned round and rode into the garage.  "I am Elsa and I live in number two at the end of the street, welcome to this community."  That same afternoon I was washing my car when somebody said to me:  "Good afternoon, I have heard that you are from Southwest Africa", and when I turned around I saw it was Jakes Jacobs, whom I had known in Windhoek and they lived in No. 13 (we were in No. 10) and within a few days we had three lots of firm friends!  We went to church and the service was held in the school hall and afterwards tea was served and the lady who had been playing the piano came up to us and said: "I see you are new here, I am Rinnie Marais, who are you?"  Port Elizabeth certainly lived up to its reputation as the 'The Friendly City!'

This is what we need most in this country: getting to know people you see often, not necessarily your next door neighbours, and being friendly towards them, it costs you nothing to smile and say "Have a good day!"

Oupa

MURPHY'S LAWS

Scratching around in all my papers and things, I came across a copy of Murphy's Laws and it is amazing how we are all subject to those laws! They are called "A guide to anticipating the hidden bugs", but then you must keep all of them in mind every time you want to do something, otherwise the hidden bugs strike!

I feel that I must give you a decent sample of Murphy's Laws, so here goes. The first law is very simple: "If anything can go wrong, it will". Can you fault it? The second and third are equally simple, namely "Nothing is as easy as it looks", and "Everything takes longer than you think", but, o so true!

My all-time favourite is the Eleventh Law: "Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first", and think about it as much as you like, you will eventually realize that it is impossible to circumvent this Law. If you decide it is tea time, you first have to switch on the kettle, but only after ascertaining that it contains enough water, otherwise you have to fill it. While the kettle is coming to the boil, you have to get a tea cup and saucer, a bag of tea and a tea pot which has to be warmed first, get the milk out of the fridge, find the sugar bowl (and you probably have to top it up!) pour the boiling water on the tea leaves, allow the tea to brew to the strength you like, pour the tea and after putting in sugar and milk (or putting in milk first!) you have to wait for the tea to cool down enough in order not to burn your tongue! So you see, even a simple thing like having a cup of tea is complicated and then you could also have the first law to contend with, sudden lack of power to the kettle, for instance!
Makes life complicated, but interesting!
Keep to the Laws!
Oupa