Great News...

[vanjast]

My eldest has passed his Flying Medical with ..errr.. 'flying colours'  :green2
His life career really starts now!
:U

[baltoro]

So, he really does wamt to be a commercial pilot ???

[vanjast]

Actually we're aiming for RAF, but we'll see if he can wrt citizenship.
Otherwise he'll go CPL, unless there are other (legal) institutions willing to take him on  :wink

[baltoro]

RAF ???
...As in, Royal Air Force ???
So, your sons have dual citizenship ???
That is so cool,...I wish I had dual citizenship,...

[dedndave]

i think Zanzibar is still protected by the UK
if we (yanks) were to hear Van's accent, we probably couldn't tell him from a Brit   :P

[vanjast]

My accent is definitely not Brit, but I grew up in the 'Last British Outpost of the Empire - Durban'  :bg
Durbanites are regularly teased about this.. but that is fine. My mother-in-law is from Ireland and grew up in England,
and the kids pick up off her accent - We're often mistaken for 'buitelanders' (outsiders/foreigners) but the locals are very shocked when we start talking all their languages.

Yup, one has to be carefull about what assumptions one makes about people.
:U

[hutch--]

RE: The Afrikaan invasion of Sydney's North Shore, I wasw chasing up some technical data on a joinery product I needed, rang the Sydney distributor and got a guy on the phone that sounded like Pic Botha. I more or less understood him but for the following technical data I rang the manufacturer in Melbourne and ended up with a lady that I could actually undertand.  :bg

[daydreamer]

My accent is definitely not Brit, but I grew up in the 'Last British Outpost of the Empire - Durban'  :bg
Durbanites are regularly teased about this.. but that is fine. My mother-in-law is from Ireland and grew up in England,
and the kids pick up off her accent - We're often mistaken for 'buitelanders' (outsiders/foreigners) but the locals are very shocked when we start talking all their languages.

Yup, one has to be carefull about what assumptions one makes about people.
:U

I been to Durban, too bad I didnt knew that you lived there, otherwise we could drink some beer together
well I been all over South Africa

[dedndave]

...I rang the manufacturer in Melbourne and ended up with a lady that I could actually undertand

:lol
i feel that way with my own wife, sometimes
normally, it's a lovely Brit accent
but she is a "Brummy" (from Birmingham) and can go off the deep end if she wants to
i can just use the excuse "I didn't understand what you said, Hun"   :bg

if you want to hear some real garbage, watch the "pikeys" in the movie "Snatch"
they got Brad Pitt to play - it sounds like his native tongue, perhaps - lol

[vanjast]

I been to Durban, too bad I didnt knew that you lived there, otherwise we could drink some beer together
well I been all over South Africa

I'm now living in Cape Town. Forced conscription and it was a choice of running around in Angola, being shot at and shooting anything that moved, OR surfing in Cape Town with the SAAF. So 33 years ago I ended up here, met my hot wife, and stayed. Would like to stay, but unless the political (Gov) changes, I fear for the future... so would prefer to move.
:8)

But if anyone here pops around to Cape Town.. give me a call/pm  :wink

[vanjast]

I more or less understood him but for the following technical data I rang the manufacturer in Melbourne and ended up with a lady that I could actually undertand.  :bg

I think maybe we talk too fast, and an afrikaaner talking fast is very hard to understand. It might be that his english is so bad that he cannot understand himself.
When a raw afrikaner translates to english they will place their verbs at the end/middle of the sentence - this is a direct translation from afrikaans to english.

As an example:
English: "I threw a stone at you"
Afrikaans translation: "I did throw you with a stone" - which will have you thinking - Hells this guy is really strong  :eek  :bg

Afrikaners and the Black languages sound very aggressive when spoken in english... this is because their languages are not as diverse/descriptive (although the swear words are brilliant) as english.
Another example - When asking for something both Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa have a translation that is "I want", which sounds rude and aggressive to an english speaker, when it's really just limited translation.
:8)

I think to understand an afrikaner, one has to listen to the tone on how they say things. It helps decifer the code  :wink

[jj2007]

Would like to stay, but unless the political (Gov) changes, I fear for the future... so would prefer to move.

So which of the last ten PM's were acceptable to you? Just curious...

[vanjast]

None of them, their political parties are all regimes and 'non-democratic', and racist  :wink (Don't be persuaded by the 'shop window that is displayed')
If anything I'm really dissapointed with Nelson Mandela as he had the influence to stop the 'rot' during Mbeki's time and he said nothing.
Maybe that's politics but the end results of their missmanagement/corruption is detrimental to all.

For me, Bishop Desmond Tutu scores more points than all of them put together.. but recently he's also going a bit senile. :bg