Smoking on the trains

Trains are supposed to be no smoking zones atleast that is what signs on the trains are telling us and also announcements that Metrorail keep making on their radio stations. Almost everybody if not everybody by now is aware that no smoking is not allowed on the trains, but believe me there are still people that smoke in the trains even today, what do you call this? stubborn, stupid, ignorant, I wish I had enough edjectives to explain what I think of these people, unfortunately my english 3rd language taught me of few of these.

Anywho I was still complaning about these people, you know its not like we don't smoke because we don't have cash to buy cigarrettes, we don't smoke because we do not like the smell and for other reasons so I don't understand why should people keep on smoking in public places. Trains are a public place it is a public transport for goodness sake so paleez stop smoking.

Metrorail service leaves a lot to be desired

I am one of Metrorail's customers, maybe that is not the right word because if I was a customer I wouldn't be treated like this, Rephrase that I am one of the people that always use Metrorail to and from work every day. I am very dissappointed at their so called new improved train timetables for Cape Town. According to what I heard {protecting my sources} this new timetable is supposed to come with improvements, more trains added, and transport as a whole being more convinient especially during peak hours. I will not try and talk on behalf of Western Cape people, or even Cape Town people but I will only comment about what I know and have experienced in my route to work from Bellville to Cape Town. For starters in the so called improved new timetable they have stopped the "Express" trains, some might not be familiar with this terminology yase trainini (if you are one of those - express trains are those that do not stop in all stations but stop in main stations only, some call it special). Anywho, I was still mourning about ii-trains. All trains that pass Parow station which is where I catch my train are all stations, and I've been told this happens all the time during winter so there must be a good reason that someone has to do such a thing, but I would also love to know what the reason is. As far as I can see it does not look like there are any added trains in that line especially in the morning. In the mornings we are all crambed into these courages [amakhareji] full, with lots of people standing in the passages, and these trains will stop in all the stations although there is no space for people to come in, if you have not been to a train hear it from me it is very uncomfortable to stand in the passage kulamakhareji ka-first class. Can Metrorail try something else a more working timetable please. Some people have cars but because they are responsible citizens they prefer to use public transport so that they do not contribute to the heavy traffic and air pollution which is caused by carbon emission from the cars.

While still on it, I really hate those blue and yellow trains that are used in the Simon's town route they are really not comfortable. They look very nice from outside but the minute you are inside they are bad. Hope they are not making more of these.

AIDS A reality

I am a bit down while writing this, but I will continue to write anyway because I want to express my feelings about this maybe I will feel better afterwards. Aids is a reality and people are dying left and right, in urban areas, townships, villages there is just no place to hide from this desease(sp). Sometimes when people talk about it at a disatance on radio, tv etc its not as serious as when you see people dying because of it in front of your eyes feeling helpless especially your own family members and close friends. Most people don't understand this until it hits their own families maybe what is painful is not that they have this uncurable diseases but the way it kills them is what really is painfull for me.

I have lost a close family member from this disease, she was really close to me we went to school together until tertiary that is how how close we were, she started being sick few years ago but became serious 2 years back, started loosing weight, became very sick, sometimes looked like she has lost her mind, couldn't move until to a stage where she couldn't talk move or even eat and you could only see bones and she passed away last year in March. This disease is very cruel... Not because it took her away from me but because of how it took her away from me.

Now I have 2 more family members 1 is also very close to me he is also dying because of this, He is now at a stage where the pain is written in his face, when you look at him your eyes become full of tears but you also want to be strong for him so that he can be strong.

I am not sure how am i supposed to handle this, society expects me to continue working like every thing is normal, wake up in the morning go to work and come back but inside my heart is in pieces because of this. This is becoming too much for me as an individual. On one hand I can't just leave my job and go and look after my dying family and friends because I have responsibilities and financila commitments.

Securities on strike

I must say thanks God there are blogs where we can express our feelings or practise our freedom of speech, oh did I say speech maybe freedom of writing (he,he,heeee..ee). Security guards are our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters even friends, but I must say I don't like how they handle themselves during their strikes. Everytime the security guards go on strike something always go wrong, either someone is killed or someone gets injured or assulted by these people or even worse they steal in shops. What's all this. To my little understanding about Unions and members, unions are supposed to take control of their members so that they do not go around vandalisisng people's properties or assulting fellow securities on duty.

If Unions can't control their members I guess there is no reason for them to go on strike because we do not want a situation where if the guards are on strike it means we can't go to town because we might be assaulted. Next time if securities get out of control or even members of any union get out of control during a planned march or boycott the union must be fined so that the members can pay.

This is really not a good Public Relations for our country.

A friend of mine

I have a strange friend of mine and her name is ...., she is very strange in many ways but what happened y'sterday made me think u know what this gal is really strange. She was invloved in an accident and indeed she informed us and we supported her in many ways, although she is a bit far locationwise from most of her friends. When I thought Ok this was over y'sterday she sent us an email that she was going to be operated because she had head injuries, mind you she sent this email in the sfternoon, and the surgery was supposed to take place in that same afternoon, now my next question was when was she made aware of this? why did she keep it to herself? because its very serious and for sure she needed support, still all my questions do not have answers. Called some few friends of ours yesterday hoping they knew something about this but to my surprise none of them knew this.

I really don't understand this gal..... but I love her none the less, first she doesn't tell us her birthday because apparently it means nothing to her....quiet wierd neh......thought so too