OMG - A brothel in the neighbourhood!!

We used to live in a nice neighbourhood until that couple sold their house!! The new neighbours were considered dodgy for us locals because they were never at home at night. When asked if they were running a business from a residential house (sacrilege) and not living there at night we complained. The girls arrived at eight and left at five in super secretarial outfits and insisted they did the night shift at the casino. They were arriving home at eight and leaving for work at five!! A steady stream of cars visited during the day. All male drivers!! Exhausting actually working night shift and having friends visit all day!!

Well us busy body neighbours got together saying we didn’t like the constant supply of male visitors. The owner insisted he had no idea what the tenants were doing and the tenants were asked to leave. And then the new neighbours moved in. Reminds me of that delightful book my son had called “New neighbours – pass it on”. Quiet shy Thai neighbours. No one noticed the daily visitors and even less so the constant comings and goings at all hours late at night and early mornings until someone said something and then we all looked again!!

The ADT guards reported a constant citing of cars during the day that drive up and down so they know where to come late at night or they simple duck in there and then. We do not live in a through road area so it’s very easy to spot the visitors! At night plenty cars drive in and out, they hang around the pavements outside and the local pimp is forever running down to the traffic lights to wave the cars on up the road. You cannot miss the house actually. It’s like the red light district hiding behind one lone thick red drape. At night with the light shining inside an eerie red shadow shines out showing every one that this is the house!! Like a light house actually! The difference being the one is warning you of the dangers on the rocks below and this one, if you’re into that sort of thing is beckoning you in!!! Night and day the curtains are drawn shut – looking after those lily white skins by day I suppose and creating the red glow by night.

Dead give away is the washing line – yes you guessed it; its 80% red. Red bras, red panties, red blankets and red sheets and who told you ladies out there it was black we we’re supposed to wear!!

We can’t profess to be the Heidi Fleiss of America as she knew her customers personally. All we have are faceless, nameless, pleasure seeker’s number plates from the cars. ZN, NC, NKR, NJ and even GP. 2 digit, 3 digit, 4 digit and 6 digit number plates on Mercedes, BMW’s and old VW’s. The personalised ones are a dead giveaway but hey not much we can do with that ever growing list. We’ve given that to the police, the lawyers and even carte blanche.

Tow trucks, taxies, tiling companies and even a tour company have visited our area - There is a down side to advertising your business on your cars! Maybe they were being rewarded for hard work during business hours or just using company time and petrol for their own pleasures. The funniest are those studs late at night turned on by exploits that I can only imagine who rev their cars up on departure and you can hear that sound forever until it fades into the dead of night!

Thursday nights is different to the rest. Lots more laughter and lots more noise. We wonder if in that world that we only understand by the documentaries or movies we might have watched whether they have a happy hour at midnight or a buy one, get one free special. Maybe its night off and the girls and pimps share drinks and stories…..

Hey guys, what you do and when you do it is your prerogative. It’s where you do it that we, on our road, have a problem with. Would you like your woman and children to be living right there? Probably not which is why you visit our neighbourhood. So if you’re visiting other areas for your ‘pleasures by the body’ please move it from that neighbourhood into yours and remember we are all watching you, your number plates are traceable and you're not welcome anymore!!!.

Sunday nights Soccer world cup Final - A different view

I have a different view to Sunday nights final. Not that I know much about soccer. I was wearing the soccer Friday shirts for 10 weeks before the SWC began. I ran out onto the streets at midday on that Wednesday to show my support. I went to 2 matches in Durban supporting the team outwardly from the colour schemes I could find in my cupboard and spent much time in Florida Road and the beachfront enjoying the fans and taking pictures that captured the fun before the matches. But let’s get back to soccer and the game.

Would I avidly watch all these players playing for the different leagues in Europe or elsewhere on Super Sport– highly unlikely? I mean most these soccer players spend there time falling to the ground with tears in their eyes holding their ankles and shins and surreptitiously glancing up to see whether the ref had noticed their amazing fall and pain (that never lasts too long – unbelievable how they jump up and limp for 2 steps and then its back to running round that field waiting for their next moment.) In the meantime they have caused a yellow card to the player from the opposing team and they are really proud of that. I mean let’s be honest here. 2 grown men running for a ball. One will reach that ball a split second before the other. The first man will connect with that ball and the 2nd man will connect with whatever is there now in place of that ball. 9 times out of ten it will be the ankle or some body part that’s still lingering after the action. Have any of you tried to stop an action already in motion when going hammer and thongs to get there first. It is difficult, I would think!

So Sunday nights final! The Netherlands team played hard soccer. They had to stop the Spanish possession play! We all knew, even if we did not follow much soccer before this SWC that the Spanish players were brilliant on possession and speed. The Netherlands team had to put a stop to Spanish possession. They had to go for the ball and yes they missed many times and their connection came late. Do you sit back and watch the other team play or do you try as hard as you can to get the ball. This is soccer after all and when 2 people run for a ball, one will invariably win the race. The Spanish were good at winning that race but that was not what they were only good at. They won first prize for their acting tactics and falling over onto the floor. As someone said; soccer ref should also hold a pink card, I don’t need to explain what that is for!

Heitinga got a red card for putting his hand on Iniesta’s shoulder. What did Puyol get for putting his arm round Robbin’s waste!! The difference here is Iniesta fell forward after 2 steps and Robbin did not play act the fall! As far as I’m concerned Iniesta deserved the pink card! It is not because the Netherlands played good hard football that will have me looking at Rugby and the Tour De France cycling and other sport on Super Sport but the likes of the Spanish team who should have all been dished out with Pink Cards!!! The fact that I had an Orange outfit in my cupboard and an Orange hat might mean that I am a little biaised!!
To see more fan pics from Durban go to http://welcomewozani.com/

Family connections

I have been away from genealogy for a while. Life took over and months passed by. I happened to be looking at Rootsweb genealogy name searches and I stumbled accross a family connection to a few generations back and have added names and photographs to my tree. Its amazing what networking can do. For those of you unfamiliar with rootsweb; its a wonderful place to find info from those searching for the same names and places that you are. It is free and just needs for you to create a logon and password but even without that you can find and access information. I always type the following in my search browser;
Rootsweb South Africa Scott
Rootsweb Barkly East Births
Rootsweb Stornoway Maclennan
Its amazing what this simple entry brings up!

Archive News

The National Archives news and events is not very active lately with no news been written in 2009. It does have a new article requesting articles for publication in its quarterly publication the “Archives News”

The “Archives News” is a quarterly internal publication of the Outreach and Publications Section with articles focusing on subjects about heritage, archival topics and different reports from various individuals and institutions about projects on heritage and archival matters. After publication it is distributed to all the Provincial Archives; Libraries, Schools, Genealogical Societies etc.

It is asking that articles of interest be forwarded to the editor by emailing thabang.khanye@dac.gov.za or lucas.thulare@dac.gov.za.

Hopefully this section will become more active in the future

Geni.com

I thought Geni was absolutely amazing untill I cancelled my geni account by mistake. I was in fact trying to cancel Geni Pro and cancelled the normal account while they still had me signed on to Geni pro which still meant being debited every month with no Geni Access!!!

I started my tree on Geni. I had loaded personally over 900 people and the extra 80 loaded by other members I had invited. I had done a few months of Geni Pro but could not see a real benefit as most the tree matches were way out so I decided to cancel Geni Pro. I did'nt follow the close geni Pro account details correctly and ended up cancelling my Geni Account. There was no note to say are you sure as you are a geni pro member etc...

What you should know:
When you cancel your Geni.com account you are only cancelling your right to sign on. You loose your login and password details. You are not deleting your tree, they give it to someone else. Geni does not ask who would you like to act as guardian for your tree. They just hand your tree to another family member and Geni automatically gives them the managerial rights of your tree. When You tell them you have made a mistake the do not just reverse the situation. You have to be invited back onto your own tree by someone else! They will also keep deducting Geni Pro monthly cost from your account and you would have no access to it.

I do still use Geni. I will cancel Geni Pro. I have in fact started my own dedicated web site that I can invite others to join and they can add family members. AT least that way I am in control!!

Archives in South Africa

Searching the archives in South Africa is an easy process
go to http://www.national.archives.gov.za/
go to National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System NAAIRS
Click on Search
If you are not sure where in South Africa to look
click the RSA for all provinces
Type in one word per line e.g
James in first block search words
Scott underneath
Add dates to narrow down the search
1885 to 1895
It will tell you it has found so many documents and then click result summary
Double click the line of the one you think you are looking for.
It will look like this;
DEPOT KAB
SOURCE MOOC
TYPE LEER
VOLUME_NO 6/9/282
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 1396
PART 1 DESCRIPTION SCOTT, JAMES. DEATH NOTICE.
STARTING 18900000
ENDING 18900000

KAB stands for Cape Archives and up to 20 pages can be ordered from the actual archives for about R20 a little more than $2
You can order the death notice through your local LDS centre if death before 1950

Death Notices in South Africa

A Death notice in South Africa is an extremely valuable source of information. The following information can be found in a death notice. Any of the below information and not necessarily all of it.
Persons full name
Where born
Parents names
Where born
Names of Spouse or spouses
Date of Spouse death if predeceased
Children's names
Married names if applicable
Where they were at time of death
How they died
Rare but possible, grandchildren names
The death notice can be searched via the archives NAAIRS and ordered; hard copies or email
They can also be ordered from the local LDS centres (Mormon Church) if before 1950