Drinking and Driving

A couple of weekends ago during a routine roadblock, traffic officers tested the alcohol levels of 85 drivers, and arrested 39 of these for being over the legal limit – see the article here.

While I realise that the legal alcohol limit is very low, and perhaps many of these 39 unfortunate folk could have been just slightly over, I also know from experience that many of the people I know regularly exceed the legal limit by a fair to good amount. Often these people seem able to drive perfectly well, but the reality is that their reaction speed is significantly decreased.

In the past few years I’ve seen and heard of far too many motor vehicle accidents in which people have been hurt or even killed. At these times I guess the reality of it all hits home and it’s easy for me to imagine the impact that an event like this has on someone’s life. Not just personal injury and loss, and the injury and loss to other people – there’s also the law to contend with, trials in court, possible imprisonment, job loss, and so on. I guess the list of things that could happen spirals into an entirely different life to the one I lead today.

Guys, make sure that if you drink too much you have a designated driver. And, if you don’t have one, keep the number of a taxi service on your cell phone (under a name that you’ll remember at the time, like “Beer” for instance ).

If you’re in Cape Town, you can keep the Rikkis Cabs number on your phone – 0861 745 547. They have cheaper inner city share-ride options, and more expensive options that’ll take you anywhere in the Cape Peninsula. Check out their website before the time and familiarise yourself with their prices. If you’re a habitual party-person then consider signing up with a company like Good Fellas that will drive you home in your own car.

Vehicle Licence

Each year around this time I receive a kind letter in the mail (as do many of you, I’m guessing), requesting me to present myself at the traffic department to pay for and collect my new vehicle licence disc. This year I got smart and handed the paperwork and cash over to my company’s “Yell4Yellow” staff who stood in the queue for me and returned later that day, disc in hand. It was the best experience ever.

Yes, I realise that although I mentioned a “licence disc”, this paper doesn’t look quite like a disc. I’ve in fact neatly cut out the disc from the bottom left corner of this sheet and attached it to the lower left corner of my car’s windshield. From my quick Google image search it would seem as though the UK has a similar system.

Please leave a comment and let us know if your country uses licence discs?

Oh, the red scrawl in the background is the makings of a blueprint for software that a colleague and I were designing. Isn’t it lovely that my job allows me to draw pictures?

Umshini wakho campaign posters

The posters you can see on the wall here, designed by advertising agency Young and Rubicam, are a clever twist on this piece of South African culture. They read “Awuleth’umshini wakho”, which means “Bring me your machine gun”. The posters were put up in February as part of a campaign to persuade citizens to hand in their unlicensed firearms. I have no idea whether they’ve been effective or not, but they’re certainly eye-catching.

You can read more about the campaign and see a photo of the full poster on Marklives!com.

Mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher - Galileo Galilei

I learned a fascinating thing about wine-making in South Africa recently.

Winemakers press the same grapes several times. The first pressing gives the best quality wine, and the last the worst quality (much the same as “extra virgin” and “virgin” olive oil). The interesting thing that the winemaker I spoke with said was that by law he is not allowed to throw any wine away – all wine produced has to be sold.

My first thought was one of admiration for the law-makers, as I figured they must really appreciate the value of a good bottle of wine. This naivety was quickly dashed though, as the winemaker elaborated, explaining that it’s not for any environmental or other good reason, but because the government wants as much tax money as possible.

A wry smile what all I got when, in an effort to save us all from bad wine, I asked why the last pressing of poor wine wasn’t simply skipped. From his response I gathered that plenty of very juicy grape skins are disposed of each year.

No-stopping sign

In the background of this photo you can see the arches of the Provincial Legislature Building, which houses the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. The building is located in Wale Street, more or less opposite Mandela Rhodes Place.

If you see a sign like the one in the foreground, it means that you cannot stop your vehicle at the side of the road – even if it’s just to pick someone up or drop someone off. This particular sign is a temporary one (they were doing some work at the side of the road and presumably didn’t want anyone stopping while they were busy), but the markings on a permanently mounted No Stopping sign would be identical.

Police officers

I can’t understand how people justify tossing cigarette butts from their car window. Fairly frequently I’ll be stopped behind someone at a traffic light, or driving behind a car on the highway and I’ll see a burning cigarette butt being tossed from the window.

People who do this make me angry because it’s well known that Cape Town is susceptible to bush fires that take over large fields, stretches alongside highways and huge parts of Table Mountain, leading to people and animals dying, property being destroyed and an assortment of other incidents, from vehicle accidents to theft. It seems as though people don’t think carefully enough about the consequences of their actions until it’s too late.

If you see someone tossing a cigarette butt from their window, give the 24-hour Emergency Control Centre a call on 021 424 7715. You’ll be asked for your name and contact number as well as the description and registration number of the vehicle involved so that the case can be investigated.