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Hi there, Spring has supposedly sprung in this neck of the woods but you could have fooled me! It's still chilly but it's getting warmer and most of the winter gear has been packed away. But, it's still home to us and we make the most of it. Thank God we don't wake up behind burglar bars and steel gates. We don't greet the morning with a diet of violence and mayhem and we don't check the obit column to see who has been killed. In that respect we are extremely lucky and I'm sure you agree with me. However, there is a force in Canada that matches all the horror of Africa. He is called Joshua, my seven-year-old grandson. This little bliksem leans to the right of Attila the Hun but he has our hearts all neatly wrapped up in his sticky little claws. The man's a nightmare! He has just discovered the magic of skipping rope so all he does right now is skip, skip, skip! He's driving me crazy because guess who has to watch him and count how many times he whips that bloody rope over his head? But he has another party trick that has me pulling out my grey hair. He takes yogurt to school and needs a spoon to eat it. So, religiously each morning, I put a spoon in for him and religiously each afternoon he comes home with the spoon -- all bent out of friggin shape! Don't ask me why he bends the spoons but we have a drawer full of crippled utensils! Uri Geller has nothing on this guy. We just survived a two day transit strike in Toronto but now face a 10 cent fare hike. More than 1.3 million people found themselves stuck for public transport. All buses and subways ground to a halt as drivers, ticket collectors and assorted transport workers pounded the pavement for 48 hours demanding more money from an already cash-strapped city. They earn a minimum of $21.00 an hour but they were pushing for a 3 percent increase. It was finally resolved after a lot of wheeling and dealing. Needless to say, half a million extra cars hit the roads and caused traffic jams of monumental proportions. Parking was at a premium and the sharks were out in a feeding frenzy. It's disgusting to see how some people take advantage of a situation like this. They gouged the public silly! Canadians, who are really like the Swiss, but without the army knife, are normally a placid lot but they were the moer-in! It is only at times like this that you hear them muttering the famous four letter word. It hit the fan with an almighty wallop. And talking about four letter words, I got an e-mail that had me screaming on the floor. I'm going to share it with you: Hey Colin, Why, I want to know, do you spell fuck with an asterisk on your website? And shit? They don't do so on TV or in the movies. Can you imagine Robert de Niro telling some jerk to f-asterisk-ck off? That would land him in deep sh-asterisk-t with his fans. Now stop p*ssing around and call a sp*de a fucking spade. If that offends certain of your readers what about words that offend me? Like "do you still l*ve me?" Will you still resp*ct me in the morning? Time to get up and go to w*rk etc etc Best wishes. Paddy. Meantime, we have lost the Great One, Wayne Gretzki. The hockey icon has quit the game and left a void in Canada that will never be filled. I saw grown men cry when he hung up his skates and announced that he was retiring from the game. The rest of my family are in great shape. My beloved wife still has the capacity of going from zero to witch in 1.4 sec but I love her for that. She's a great mother to the kids and an outstanding grandmother. But she spoils the little ones rotten. I have always held the philosophy that children should be put in boxes with airholes when they are born. At age 18, seal the airholes! She doesn't agree with me but what the hell.........! There was a big re-union of South Africans in Toronto on April 25 -- the SA Freedom Day. It was great to meet old friends and make new ones and pick up on the latest skinner. I'm hoping that these get-togethers can happen more often. It's a great way of bonding the community. Okay, that's it for now. Please keep in touch and don't forget to stay safe. We love and miss you. ColinD |