"Car Guards" & Beggars

I have a secret pet peeve!

My pet peeve are unofficial “car guards” and beggars!  It’s not much of a secret to those who are friends with me on FB, as they’ve all seen my recent posts.  We’ve had hassles around my workplace with drunk behaviour, fighting (two car guards were literally trying to take shots at each other right behind a car trying to get out of the parking bay!!), begging and public urination. 

The minute I see them, I get angry inside.  I can’t help it.  (Not normal anger more like psycho-killer anger!).  My aim is to avoid and ignore.  I always try to run to my car and drive away without them getting to me first.  I’m almost 90% sure I’m not the only one here!  Admit it, people? We’ve all done the park ‘n dash! Innocently we walk on the sidewalk and the minute you get close to your car, you do a 90-degree turn towards the car, jump in and drive away while listening to & ignoring the “hello madam, madam, hello madam…madam…..ma’daaaaaam”).  I. Know. You’ve. Done. It. Too!

In a couple of instances I’ve had to tell myself just to drive away because if I didn’t, I would have gotten out and bitch-slapped someone or possibly even driven over someone.  I’ll give you a couple of examples:

1. One fateful day I was too slow in getting to my car and as I opened my door there was a guy standing right next to me.  I didn’t have money on me and I tried to pull out.  He purposefully stood in front of my car in such a way that I couldn’t get out the parking.  I simply kept inching my car forward in such a way as not to hurt him and I was able to successfully pull out into traffic.  Just before I pulled off he turned to me and shouted “F*ck you!”;
2.  At another time, a similar thing happened and this time the “car guard” pounded on my car as I drove away.

Now these guys didn’t have any green vest on at the time, so how do I know they’re not just pocketing the money to support their drinking habit?

In another case, a homeless beggar was trying to pilfour money from some people and when they said “no” he replied with a: “your p0*s!”.  WOW!  In this case the driver did reverse into him (I wasn’t the driver, unfortunately).  It was a  soft bump too but just enough to make him realise he can’t go around cursing at people because they refuse to give him money.

I’m sorry but far too many people in this country are standing with their hands out asking for money.  Whether they are pretending to be car guards or if they are simply begging.  What I can’t stand is that they continue to harass you even if you’ve said: “no, sorry” or “no, thank you” a million times.  I hate it when people get up in my personal space.  I hate it when people don’t listen to me the first time and continue to beg.  I hate the fact that everyone has this “expectation” or “attitude of entitlement”.

So that’s my rant for today.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be cured of my problem, but hopefully one day I’ll successfully be able to completely ignore them the way they ignore my “no, thank you’s” so effectively. 

True Blood vs No Blood

A few years back, there was a news article about Doctors at a Pretoria Hospital that had obtained a court order to give a baby a blood transfusion.  After the transfusion, it was noted that the baby was not doing any better than it was before the transfusion.  The parents were very against this treatment and repeatedly refused the transfusion.  The reasons for refusal of this transfusion were based on religious beliefs. It was upsetting to hear the way it was brought across in the media, as though the parents were callously prepared to let their child die.  Putting religion aside, legally, is it not up to a person, or their guardian to allow or refuse medical treatment despite the consequences?  Besides, there are countless other methods, which do not involve blood or its fractions, which would have had just as much chance of saving the child’s life.  Refer to the following site to see methods used and benefits of bloodless surgery: http://bloodlesssurgery.org/

Without setting off a debate regarding abortion, it occurred to me that there was a hint of hypocrisy in all this. (Does anyone have a tin opener? I’m having a bit of trouble opening up this can of worms!) In the earlier stages of pregnancy, a mother has the legal right to actively terminate a living organism without anyone second-guessing her.  This happens countless times, everyday.  I realise that, medically, there is some debate as to when a foetus is actually considered a living organism.  On the other hand, there are many who believe that life starts at conception.

Back to my initial gripe and also considering my own feelings on blood transfusions, it just makes me sad that parents who are trying to do the right thing (despite being faced with an horrendously difficult decision) are put in the limelight like they were and have their decision overruled by a doctor, who cannot even start to understand the reasoning behind the path chosen.

What's with Hollywood and Divorce?

I wrote this when Brangelina were still a new-ish item...

I’ve been hesitant to give comment regarding the whole “Brangelina” saga because I feel that the media is already saturated with stories, malicious rumours and straightforward senseless gossip regarding the above.  However, I’m getting tired of holding my tongue.  I really wish that I could buy ONE issue of any leading magazine without a story which features either Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston/Vince Vaughn.  The media has made SUCH hype about the divorce of Brad and Jen and the subsequent relationship between Brad and Angie.  My exact sentiments are: “Who cares?!?!”.  Last time I checked, even marriages in the “real world” failed.  Every year.  Everyday.  Spouses cheat on each other.  Feelings get hurt.  Divorces ensue.  Families and people are devastated.  I feel that there comes a point when enough is enough and I don’t know about you, but I reached that point pretty quickly after the stories started coming out.

It seems that in “Tinseltown”, marriage is used more as a publicity stunt than for ‘deep, meaningful, lets-grow-old-together, his-and-her-towels L…O…V…E’.  Just to drop a few names of people who were married and divorced within a few months (if not hours) are: Renee Zellwiger and Kenny Chesney (all girls secretly want to marry country-western singers), Britney Spears and Jason Alexander, and countless others I’m sure.

What’s with Hollywood?  Do people check in their ability to commit at the door when they enter the world of stardom & fame?  Or is it just because their lives are under constant scrutiny by the paparazzi that we seem to notice their inability to commit more?

All I know is that if you ever plan on having a successful marriage, Tinseltown is NOT the place for you!!

Outty...

Eye Candy

Recently, I started pondering when last I’ve seen a face in a flick that’s really “done it” for me. The same face kept popping into my head. This face was the unmistakable, rugged face of Dukes of Hazzard (and Jackass) star, Johnny Knoxville. Yum! Then it occurred to me that just because I thought he was major eye candy, many other women might think he looks like Texas white trash. 

Then it brought me to his co-actor, Sean William Scott. The ever-quirky actor has somehow caught my interest. His roles in Final Destination, Evolution (“ka-kaw, ka-kaw”), the Rundown (where he introduced us to thunder and lightening) and American Pie I, II and III left me pondering whether this guy has all his sandwiches in one picnic basket. Yet, somehow, he still tickles my fancy.

This brings me to Ryan Phillippe. Most of his pics make him look like a perpetually pouting, girly-boy. But when he gets the whole rugged and manly (in my opinion) look right, he’s quite tasty.

Granted, my tastes might be worlds apart from most normal females in their early thirties, but I just thought it’d be interesting to gauge them against the tastes of my fellow sistas out there.

Outty…