a Night out in Ealing

Last night was Stacey's last night in our house and as housemates thought it was only fitting to all go for a drink at one of our local pub, Ashby's. Needless to say, as it was a Wednesday night, everybody was watching football. Liverpool vs Wolverhampton Wanderers to be exact. Score 0-1! Great result.

Stacey, Malcolm and I am from South Africa, Laura is British and Vanessa and Rochelle from New Zealand. Needlass to say(as in many conversations) we were asked what it is like in our home countries. Especially coming from a country where the pizza gets delivered to your house quicker than the policevan arriving.

What do you say? Yeah, it is sunny, cheap(compared to what you pay for certain items in Europe), beautiful surroundings, large beaches, stunning girls. I mean if you see a good looking girl in London, be sure that she is most definately not English. In South Africa you have Nelson Mandela, the Kruger National Park, Table Mountain, the Big Five, top quality wine etc etc. The recent 2010 Fifa Football World Cup was successfully held and people all over the world praised the country for being able to host such a remarkable tournamant.

But! Why do South Africans come to the UK? Why would you come to a country where it is cold, gets dark at 16:00 in the afternoon and where there are more Asians than on the continent? Simply? Freedom. Freedom to travel. Freedom to feel safe. Freedom to live. Freedom not to look over your shoulder.

There is still many many issues I can raise about this. But I must admit that it took me by surprise that someone mentioned last night that they see South Africa going the same route as Zimbabwe in the future. Is things really that bad? Corruption..murder..highjackings..rape..robberies..racism..

Time will tell.

When the postal code change, so does your friends!

Yesterday, the heading of this post was also my Facebook status. Most of the time with a controversial statement like that, you tend to get a response that you are not comfortable with or just dislike. The interesting aspect of the response was that only one person has ever lived abroad(actually, him and his family still lives abroad!) and I felt that his comments was factually correct. How can you respond to a statement if you have no knowledge or experience about the topic?

In general, people used to raise their opinion based on articles they read! It is like me saying I dislike red wine. Why, cause I read in an article that it gives you heartburn. What a silly thing to say! Or, I don't like the United Kingdom even though I have never been to the country. I see in the newspaper and on tv that it is really cold, therefor I will not go and experience for myself.

I find these opinionated people irritating to say the least! Stick to what you know or what you are good at. Give your opinion if you have previous experience. Otherwise, SHUT UP!

P

Welcome



A cold Sunday afternoon at the Wembley Stadium, London.



Today, 26 December 2010 is the start off a Plonker in London, proudly brought to you by Paul 'Vaatjie' Steenkamp. I will upload daily events and thoughts as seen and experienced by me. I hope that you will enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing this.

This is purely my own opinions and views!(Just thought I need to mention this as every Tom, Dick and Harry can be sewed these days) I try not to offend anybody as I believe in the freedom of speech and act. You are welcome to leave a comment at the end of each post!

Cheers

Paul