Alright, it’s been a long time so I might be a little rusty but here we go. When I bought this silly thing in September last year, Lauren tried with a business relationship she had going to get me sponsorship for the domain. It supposedly worked for her and friends of hors, paying $20 US a month to display two little text links (look right if they haven’t already been removed from my site). I liked the idea (who doesn’t like a little cash flow?) so after my rank went up, I started earning – although the company agreed to only pay me $10 a month. The November payment came through but until yesterday I had recieved nothing more. This bewildered e, but I had faith in the supposed legitimate company and in thier promise to keep payments. However, yesterday I cracked and emailed them, asking if payment could be made and an explanation provided as to why there was such a delay. I got an email this morning as I got to work telling me that they were sorry for the unheralded suspension, and that they would pay out the balance, but not renew our deal, cancelling the agreement we had going. hat the fuck? WHAT GIVES?

Anyway I know theres probably a half decent explanation for it all, even if the company involved didn’t have the decency to explain to me what was up. If anyone wants to go in to bat for me, it would be appreciated, considering so many of you guys have an identical (if not more lucrative) deal with the same kiniving bastards. Hah I suppose with that statement I completely screwed any chance of ever seeing another penny from them again. Oh well… fuck ‘em – all I wanted was an explanation.

Pete

3 comments

Hey guys,

We don’t have any photos of the car yet – although it’s had enough of our attention: We’ve flushed the radiator umpteen times, with water, cleaner, water, water and then filled it with an
antifreeze/antiboil liquid. Also had to replace a muffler clip that snapped when davo took a speedhump a tad fast . Now we have another problem. It doesn’t affect the safety of the car, just our speed at getting it out of the garage. When the engine is cold, after 12+ hours of inactivity, the bloody thing won’t start unless we give it a bit of a push first. The battery is fine, as the thing is making those turning over sounds, it’s just the engine
doesn’t fire. Does anyone know if this could this be the spark plugs or the fuel pump? What else? Anyway we have 2 months guarantee from the dealer, so it’s no biggie, just a little annoying if we need to get going in a hurry.

In other news, we went over to Camps Bay on Sunday – a suburb on the beach on the west coast of Cape Town (just at the foot of Lion’s Head). We decided it was time to witness a sunset, so drove down there before kicking on to a lookout up Lion’s Head and eventually get into home at about 11. Dave took photos, but I pahooed them, claiming they’d “never turn out on a digi cam”. He really showed me up when he emailed them to me today. I’ll show you the nicest one tomorrow, when I can upload.

Until then,

Pete

It so sucks to be you guys.

Why? Oh I’ll tell you why. Why indeed.

I am now the owner (or half-owner) of a car. That’s right, my life now has worth. I am a proper motorist.

It is so hideously cool. It’s a light blue Opel Kadett, probablly circa 1989. 1.4L V4 an it purrs like a lion. Seriously – the muffler is loose and rattles, but it doesn’t matter because it adds to the niceness of the car as a whole. Anyhoo go find piccies of my baby and someone provide a link for others, because you really will fall off your chair in shock and envy, but i don’t have the time or bandwidth to search this shit.

The best thing? Even with an auto licence I can drive in SA AND i get 0.06% Alcohol… thats a whole drink more than anyone in aus, and considering its t-total for p’s, I get a great deal here!

Anyway catchya round – I have pubs to crawl.

Pete

Hey guys,

Still hanging in here! Three weeks in cape town and still no
stabbings! That must be some kind of record! That said however,
dave and I were walking back from the local a couple of nights ago
and there was a congregation of people outside peering at police
entering a flat across the road. Apparently there was a gunshot –
it’s still difficult adjusting to the culture of locking and securing
everything and being so aware all the time. I’m starting to really
appreciate what a fully awesome country Australia is.

I’ve had one single major aim for these past few weeks. Well two:
Stay alive, and find a car. It seems distances here are almost as
large as in Oz, and considering public transport and walking around
is so dangerous, almost everyone has a car and as such it has and
will continue to become a basic neccessity. We’ve been hunting
around, and have seen a lot of awesome potentials, however
getting money out of Australia and into South Africa in such large
sums is proving difficult to say the least. I tried hunting around a
couple of banks on Saturday but need more documentation to open
an account, and they wouldn’t at the other. There’s one particular
car that strikes my fancy, both for price and safety – An opal club
which is the british equivalent of the Holden Astra (owned by GM).
It’s in excellent condition – the engine is clean, the odometer is
only at 150,000, the tire tread is good, shocks are new, there are
headrests and it’s an attractive price (20,000 rand with a 16,000
guaranteed buy back). It’s a little dearer than a private deal would
be, but with a dealer there are means for remends and the buyback
option is looking very sweet! 20K is about $4,000 in Aus, which is
friggin expensive for a car, but SA is a small market and the rand is
weak, so these things tend to cost a lot. Alcohol, food and petrol
are all a lot cheaper though, so it kinda evens out.

Anyway must run, I’ve got students to abuse/supervise.

Pete

I got lazy. Bite me.

This weekend should be fun. Two briaa/pissups in 24 hours! Plus the wonder of half price booze and Cape Town just happening to be on my doorstep. COME ON DOWN!

Pete

Yay I can blog big time now! Stay tuned….. in about 24 hours the first PETEMAILblog will be delivered for your viewing pleasure. Now I have no real excuse not to blog, apart from time constraints. Today was my first day of teaching and byjesus it was busy….. Anyhoo gotta scoot – been invited to see LOTR in South Africa, and what self respecting g33k would turn down such an offer?

Pete