The 12th's hat-trick

Sunday the 12th of March, 2006, was memorable for many people for different reasons. It was a day of glory and defeat, joy and sorrow, pride and tragedy. It was a day of personal milestones and a day where the road ended for some.

On the 12th, Nikki and I celebrated our third anniversary of dating each other. Although we were very far apart and both home locked for the majority of the day, we had concocted a story and romantic fable of how we would have spent the day, given the luxury of each other's company and being care-free. Thanx babe, I enjoyed it and I miss you a lot!!

Certain milestones, however, pale when compared to others, al be it in different contexts. I was out in the yard (if you can call it that) latish in the afternoon when I heard tremendous cheering and shouting. A game, I thought, and the fefizulu made me think it must have been a soccer game. Rugby, at least, seeing as how the Super 14 (?) is still on. But, oh, how ignorant I was! Later when my mom phoned me, she shared with me the news, knowing there isn't a TV in the flat. The news stunned me completely and I am unable to put what I felt into words, because in a couple of minutes I went through all the emotions every South African watching the cricket had experience over a period of several hours.

Right about here it's gets difficult to explain. If you know the game of cricket and follow international events concerning it, you probably already know. If you don't know cricket and the stand of things, I not going to explain it. But, anyway, here's what happened:

South Africa played the “best (limited overs) game in history” against arch rivals Australia.

And won.

Gloriously.

Things looked grim right from the start as Australia obliterated our bowlers. Boundaries poured like driving rain and by the end of their innings they were confident and smug as hell (I think Australians are worse than Americans – like Americans, they believe they are better than everyone else, but unlike Americans, they are actually aware of everyone else and occasionally go to them and then tell them they are superior), having an record highest score for a single 50 overs innings: 434. When the South Africans had to take to the bat, they had to cross Mount Everest with a moped. In two and a half hours.

South Africans are very pessimistic sport supporters. If a South African team makes a mistake near the start or at the middle of the game, the whole game is written off as “lost”. But, a South African team can fight back hard and the cricket team did so despite early losses of wickets. We were chasing a score of 435: that is more than eight runs per over (that is, we had to score 1.45 runs for every ball “thrown” from the start of the game). As the number of overs reached 50, the suspense grew exponentially, because, above all reasonable expectations, South Africa closed the gap. One over left with one wicket in hand and six runs needed turned into two balls left, no wickets in hand and the scores tied.

South Africa is considered as “chokers” in the international cricket community, because seven years ago, in the Cricket World Cup semi-final, we faced Australia and, against severe odds, we tied the score in an epic game. Then, we choked. A run out ended the game, and although it was a tie, we lost due to other reasons. It was epic and I shall never forget it, even though we lost.

Sunday we didn't choked. Boucher hit a four to win the match – with one ball left! The country erupted. Not only did we win against all odds, but the best ranked cricketing nation in the world failed to defend the highest score ever made; against us. “434? Is that all you can do??”

The greatest game in history. And I missed it. I was asleep when Kennedy was shot. I was painting the back porch when the moon landing occurred. History was made several times over in one day as records crumbled and a team was redeemed a million times over for every mistake and transgression ever made. I doubt if a game like that will ever be played in my lifetime again.

The following day I tried to make up by buying newspapers and drooling over the result on-line. Maybe I can find a series of tapes with the match on – it'll be worth it!

But that was not the most significant event of the day. While a nation celebrated, a family grieved. My brother's wife's grandfather died on Sunday. Even though I only met him a few times, it is very weird to think that he is gone. I think he was the type of grandfather a naïve child could easily think of as being there forever. I know his family will mourn him for a long time. My condolences, and I wish I could have known him better.

Too Late?

This might be the first post people have seen in a long time. If all goes well, I would have fixed the problem with the index page and people would be able to navigate here, as opposed to have telepathically know which address would have brought them here directly.

Two, three, maybe more weeks. That's how late this post is. No, it's not a summary of going ons (it's been work, mostly :-P ). Rather, it's been a topic that has been affecting may people severely. A few weeks ago, the Cape started suffering from massive power-outages as repair began/continued/whatever on our only nuclear power plant. You might have heard about it, along with lavishly romantic stories about Al-Qaeda sabotage etc. Fact is some poor dolt left a bolt in there after repairs at the end of last year and since then its just not been purring like it use to. The power company went on a massive search to find "a new part". The problem is that there aren't that many nuclear power plant spare parts out there, and those that are are kept closely by their owners for in case some poor dolt leaves a bolt in one of the reactors after maintenance work... My cousin had suggested they try Ebay, but I thought they should have just picked up the latest copy of the Hacker's Black Book. Well, whatever they did, in the end, they found a new part, replaced it and now things seem to be better. Now, there hasn't been a whole lot of concrete news and hard facts that came the public's way; most are wild rumours and heresy. But a little birdie whispered that on the ninth, today, the fixed reactor's license expires and it is required to shut down for inspection before a new one is issued. Long story, blah blah blah. Not many hard facts, except for one: the whole black-out story isn't over yet by a long shot.

Meanwhile Joe Public has been suffering, living by candle and (if you were lucky enough to get some) gas light. Many people have bought home generators and yes, I did foresee the demand and would have made a KILLING if I had the capital to invest in generators five months ago. Joe Economy is suffering with the loss of "billions", but that is far removed from me. I just get angry when the power goes off when my PC is still on, because that is going to screw it up one day. I've considered buying a UPS, but even if I can find one, I don't really have the money to spend. Of course, not even the mighty University of Stellenbosch is immune: when the blackouts were at their worst, I had a very chill course, because I can do basically no practical work (though not even a blackout can stop the Department of Applied Mathematics, tun-tun-duh!).
If blame was tangible, the whole Cape would have been covered in brown and smelly goo. Most people blame the power company. The ruling political party blamed the opposition of sabotage the day before the local municipal elections and I read today a columnist blaming hippies, right wing boers and terrorists, respectively (thankfully he at least was joking). I don't blame so much in this case. Maybe the tree huggers (a little) for hampering the building of new nuclear power plants, but I guess we were probably destined for this anyway. I also don't feel bad or self-pity because our little third world country is struggling so with electricity: I happen to know of the blackouts in New York and Italy just a few years ago. And there were some in Britain and Scandinavia as well, or so I hear. So, maybe this is just our right of passage. Rather have the infrastructure collapse now so it can all be rebuilt, fresh and shiny for 2010.

It's not like I'm not use to blackouts. They're not uncommon, but I have a few memories of having to do without electricity. It really is a unique experience. Here at Stellenbosch things are a little different. When the electricity goes out, some people use it as a reason to have a party. And, of course, when the power comes back on, you need to celebrate it...

If you live in a posh first world country and have never really had a blackout, I think you've kind of missed out. I don't know why, but I do. And it's not like you can simulate it: you can't turn off the mains or anything like that, because you need to know you are completely out of control. The world changes when there isn't two dozen electrical appliances beeping and humming all throughout the house. It becomes empty and very quiet.