I don't get it...

A couple of things this week has just gotten me absolutely confounded, and I don't mind admitting, I don't get it.  Maybe I'm too intelligent to get it?  Maybe it's just for the dumb masses?  Or are they smarter than me, and I'm the dumb one?  Either way, I have had to Google both in order to figure out why...

The first is the "My Family" stickers that you see all over cars everywhere now.  You know the ones:

Every time I'm on the roads, and I see these stickers on a car, I wonder to myself, why?  What is the purpose of these stickers?  Is it in case of an accident, so the emergency workers know how many people should be in the car?  Eventually I made a concerted effort to remember to look it up once I was at a computer, and faithful Google showed me that it was JUST BECAUSE IT'S PRETTY.

I don't get it.  I honestly do not get it.  Why on earth would one spend money on stickers that indicate your family (and believe it or not, these stickers now include grandads, grandmas, and PETS), when the cost of food and petrol is so high?  Why on earth would one spend money on stickers that indicate your family when it is SO dangerous to let ANY stranger know ANYTHING about you?  The thoughts about the usefulness of these stickers (i.e. letting an emergency worker know how many people to care for), are obviously way above the intelligence of those who actually buy (and sell) these stickers.  No, wait, I can't say that for the sellers - they are geniuses!  I mean, c'mon.  Make pretty pictures, somehow pursuade Joe Public that they NEED them, and voila!  Instant millionaire.

The other item I just don't get either, are these "Keep Calm And..."  pictures, bookcovers, you name it.  You know the ones?

So, basically, somebody has taken the "Keep Calm and" phrase and added their own nonsense behind it (and this includes Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake)... and somehow made a fortune off this.  I mean, they have a "Best Sellers" section on their web site.  AND the pictures AREN'T EVEN PRETTY! They sell these unframed or framed as well.  I actually had to Google this as well, because I've seen a number of items with this phrase on it (and the trademark crown at the top).

Great.  Now my mind has decided to wonder what the crown means...  Damnit.  It's probably something totally obscure and meaningless as well.

Eagle Encounters - Sat, 15th Sep 2012

On Saturday, my dad, his friend Belinda, myself, Squirrel, Damian, Cobus, Sue and Vanya went to Eagle Encounters at Spier.  This is a sanctuary for birds of prey.  They take in birds of prey from all over - one of the owls they had there had been found bound in cellotape, being kicked around like a soccer ball by a bunch of boys.  When they removed the cellotape, the owl lost all his feathers, and it took about a year to get the feathers to grow back properly.  Some eagles had landed up in this sanctuary because they had been discovered being smuggled for the black market...  The stories are heart-breaking, but I am so glad the birds have a good place to go to.

The weather was amazing - in the twenties, clear and calm. We all got a bit sunburned, but it's good to finally get rid of winter's pallor.

As you walked in, there were four owls that you could pet:

 

Damian with the Black Eagle, Leo

Squirrel with the Black Eagle, Leo

Cobus with the Black Eagle, Leo

Me with the Black Eagle, Leo

Leo's wingspan - up to 1.5 meters!

Belinda with an owl

Cobus with an owl

My dad with an owl

Damian with an owl

The owls did not stay on my glove, but for some reason decided my head was a better perch!

This vulture was too strange!  He stuck his head under the fence, and just sat there for hours.

Dad, Sue and I

My family

If you want to see more pictures, please let me know and I'll add you to the Dropbox folder.

Mamre - Friday, 14 September 2012

Damian's school let out early on Friday, due to them practising for their Speech and Drama evening, so we picked him up and went straight from there to Mamre, which is past Atlantis on the west coast.  Apparently there was a flower show there, but we didn't see a single flower!  The drive was fun though, the weather was awesome, and it was really nice just to get out as a family.

We landed up in this small town in the middle of nowhere, with a small flea-market, which was the entire show!  There were maybe 10 stalls in total.  We got something to eat (you can't go to a flea-market without eating boerewors rolls), and then we got way-laid by the locals to go on their donkey cart.  That was fun.

I will post images of the cart ride later.