The Ant and the Grasshopper

An ant and grasshopper lived in the same field. During summer the ant works

all day and night bringing in supplies for the cold winter months ahead.

Meanwhile, the grasshopper hops and sings, eats grass all he wants and

Procreates prolifically.



Winter comes. It gets bitterly cold and the grass dies. The ant is well

supplied and lives comfortably - but the grasshopper has not prepared for

the winter and dies, leaving a whole horde of little grasshoppers without

food or shelter.

The moral of the story is that one should work hard to ensure your comfort

and well-being.



THE AFRICAN VERSION



The above applies but because it now happens in Africa, there are a few

complications.



The starving offspring of the grasshopper demanded to know why the ant

should be allowed to live comfortably while they have to endure such

terrible conditions.



A TV crew promptly arrives and broadcasts footage of the unfortunate

grasshoppers contrasting this footage with that of the ant in his snug

comfortable home.



The public in the neighbouring fields are stunned by what they see.



How can it be that the poor grasshoppers are suffering while the ant lives

in the lap of luxury?



In the blink of an eye the AGU (African Grasshoppers Union) is formed. They

charge the ant with "species bias" and claim that grasshoppers are the

victims of 30 million years of green oppression.



They stage a protest in front of the ant's house and trash the neighbourhood.

When interviewed by the TV crew they state that if their demands are not met

they will be forced into a life of crime and violance. Just to make their point, they

loot the TV crew's luggage and hijack their van.



The TRC (Take and Redistribute Commission) justifies their behaviour by

saying that this is the legacy of the ant's discrimination and oppression of

the grasshoppers for thousands of years.



They demand that the ant apologises to the grasshoppers and make amends for

all the other ants in history that have done the same thing to grasshoppers.



PAGAD (People Against Grasshoppers Abuse and Distress) states that they are

starting a holy war against ants.



The President appears on the 8 o'clock news guaranteeing aid for all

grasshoppers that have been denied the prosperity by those who have

benefited unfairly during the summer from the fare so richly provided by nature for all to enjoy.



THE GOVERNMENT drafts the EEGAD Act (Economic Equity for Greens and

Disadvantaged) retroactive to the beginning of the summer.



The ant is fined heavily for failing to employ a proportionate number of

green insects, and having nothing left to pay his income tax, his home is

confiscated by the government for redistribution.



The story ends as we see the grasshoppers finishing off the last of the

ant's food while living in their new government house (which just happens to

be the ant's old house) and the house also ends up crumbling around them due

to their laziness, lack of skill and general lack of inclination to maintain infrastructure.



The TV crew films the President standing before a group of wildly singing

and dancing grasshoppers, announcing that a new era of "equality" has dawned

on the field.



The ant, meantime, is not allowed to work because, historically, he has

benefited from the field. In his place, ten grasshoppers, who only work two

hours a day, stash half of what they actually harvest for resale on the quiet for personal gain.



When winter comes again and not enough food has been stored, they strike and

demand 150% wage increase so they can buy more food, which now has to be

imported.



The ant packs his things and migrates to another field, where he starts a

highly successful food company and again becomes a millionaire by selling

food to the grasshoppers in the field from where he came.

New Patio Slab

After being struck down for 2 weeks with Pnumonia and being able to do very little, I tested my health and chest this weekend when Sar's folks and I prepared and threw down a concrete slab to replace the bricks that were our patio. His was stage 1 of 3 for our backyard and went off really well as we knocked it off in 2 days. Saturday was spent preparing the area, I never realised how hard it was to dig up grass and level an area 3 inches deep!!! It was 2 days of hard work which resulted in the final sweep taking palce around 20.30 last evening. Here are some of the stage photo's:

Penguin Smashing Again

Ok our second penguin competition on the blog as a mid winter treat. This is for bragging rights and the title "Champion Seal Clubber 07" on this site so give it a crack-literally Click on this link http://henriluoma.net/pingu/ and see how far you can smash the penguin. We will run the comp over a week so get bashing and I will do a piece on the blog announcing the official placings on Friday. Once you have your distance leave your name, official distance and country you are from (comes in handy as we may have to handicap people from Alaska for having hands on experience at this) and a victory speech you want metioned on the blog in the comments section below this piece.

How to play: Click on the caveman, then click again when you want club the seal/penguin.

So get clubbing and good luck. This is open to all so get your mates involved to.

PS: While you are on the blog put your bloody pin on the guestmap

Competition

Try this and leave your scores in the comments section. My first run was 75.

http://hk.promo.yahoo.com/movie/superman/Stop_Press_Game/

Won't be long before we see the return of the seal clubbing competition on the blog!!

Too Long

Apologies, it has been too long since the last post-probably an indication of how busy we have been over the past 2 weeks though at the same time we have managed a little time at home with the mutt.

There has been a hell of a lot of socialising going on obviously along with some exercise as the new seasons of cricket and touch footy have kicked off. SO once again we are in the routine of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday being sports nights of various codes. Thank heavens only one of the evenings is an outdoor activity as it has been bleddy cold lately and not good for being outdoors trying to warm up for a game of rugby!!

The return the game to squash to Oz is always a good thing with Colin, Clayton and myself aiming at playing a few games over the next few weeks-chances it will be before the tri nations rugby games so we can play followed by having a braai and watching the rugby.

This past weekend we had an old friend from London stay at our place on Friday evening, Joe, it is always a fun evening with Joe around and this was no different. It went from general catch up stuff to darts to bbq to Poker and to cap off the evening Karen our neighbour pulled out the trivial pursuit (when last did you play that?). It was one hell of a festive evening and a good time was had by all.

The most relaxing part of the weekend was probably taking Bindii for a long walk to the dog park. She was walking in the river though the highlight for her was probably trying to kill a kite!! The poor young girl flying the kite had no idea what to do and all bindii could think of I am sure is that she had to catch the multi coloured bird flying just above her.