
Vic’s Agape Christian Centre was part of the furniture down in the old village for many years. He was a founder of the very popular Maranatha Church and was very active in the community. I asked him to write a religious column, titled Hallelujah, for our very first edition on November 15, 1985 and he kept it up for going on 28 years. We never once had to remind Vic: the column would arrive every week, neatly typed and always on time. Lately it became fortnightly, but it never lost his kind voice, sometimes stern, but always compassionate.
Once a dominee from the NGK church asked if he could share the space with Vic. So I asked him if he would mind and his reply was: “Of course. There are many pathways to heaven.”
Vic was always on one of those paths and we know that his journey is over.
Rest in peace, Vic.
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AAAHHH! I’ve been had! And so has Archie Parkhouse!
Last week Archie sent me this story of a cigar smoker who insured his cigars against fire and won a claim after he smoked them. I really should have checked it out before repeating it.
Reader Arthur Godbeer sent me the link to the site Snopes.com, which showed it to be a made-up story. It’s so simple, really. You go to the site Snopes.com and search for the subject matter. In this case, it came up as false and apparently has been circulating on the Internet since 1997. Oh well, another day, another sucker.
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The annual Medihelp/Dolphin Striders ultra road race event on Sunday was another great success. With 1249 finishers, entries were overall 19% up on last year.
It nearly all ended in disaster when a 70km/hour buster ripped through the area about 11am, blowing away the finish line and causing havoc at the finish on Ashton’s sportsfield. As huge dustclouds were blown across the Esenembe road where many competitors were still doing their thing, the temperature soared to 30ºC.
It was such a hot morning that the Courier watering table opposite Umhlali club was inundated by runners jostling and grabbing as many water sachets and cups of Coke as they could get.
One very small boy, handing out sachets alongside his club member mother, at one point looked up at me and said: “Some of the people take water without saying ‘thank you’. It’s not nice.”
How well brought up is that!
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I was out of town when Helen Zille visited, but I’m told the Louis Luyt Jnr told her in public that the local DA councillors were useless.
The top end of Shad Lane, where I live, is closed off where it meets Ocean Drive. Last Monday I saw yet another GP car drive up Shad, over the pavement and into Ocean Drive, in complete disregard for no-entry signs, pedestrians and traffic.
Straight away I sent an email to councillor Ann McDonnell asking that bollards be placed there as a matter of urgency. Imagine my surprise when the bollards were put in on Wednesday!
Send me some more useless councillors!
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Recently, I bought a cartridge for my printer. It came in a box mounted on a card and wrapped in plastic. When I took it apart, I found that the printer cartridge itself was actually quite small, but they made the packaging unnecessarily large to make it harder to steal and to make the customer feel better about the high price.
I pointed this out to my wife and mentioned how my weight gain over the years of our marriage should have the same effect: It made me seem more valuable and also made me harder for other women to steal.
She’s still laughing.