Sunday, May 4, 2008

stuck in paradise with O Koek!

Well I'm stuck in paradise. Not intentionally. Actually I have to get back to the city to work tomorrow, but the weather's fouling up and as our mode of transport is a light aircraft, a single engine Cessna. We don't fly in dodgy weather! You see I'm married to an intrepid adventurer, a man who likes to fly everywhere all the time, when we aren't working. If it's not paragliding off some mountain, then its flying in the little plane somewhere. Generally the weather fits in with our busy schedule - another good thing about living in South Africa. Talking about South Africa, we've created our very own Internet sensation - Vernon Koerkemoer. This unusual looking fellow with a mallet for a hairdo is said to South Africa's answer to Chuck Norris. Over a two month period, he's gone from anonymity to world wide fame through www and is now featuring in advertising campaigns. You name the channel and he's been featured on it. He has thousands of registered fans and more than 250 000 hits to his website (in SA this is considered BIG). Under the headline O Koek! I'm reading in the Sunday Times (South Africa's most influential newspaper) that the joke is all on us and how this bodybuilder from Benoni (same place movie star Charlize Theron hails from) called Cassie Booyse's " life imitates art with uncanny precision." I agree with Rowan Philp's assessment of this simple man's rise to instant fame. For me it just confirms again the growing influence of the Internet on the daily lives of South Africans. Amidst political, economic and criminal turmoil (and of course load shedding) in our country, South Africans are taking shelter in the virtual world and in this case the Koek is the one whose laughing all the way to the bank. You can read the full story on www.thetimes.co.za or check out him in video: video.aol.com/.../3568496427 . Now I need to get back to the business of finding a way home.

4 comments:

Flicycle said...

Sorry Honey! 'spose I need to get my IF rating so I can fly us through the weather?
I am proud of you keep it up.

gisele wa said...

appreciate the interest and yes, it will help if we can get home soon...

Colin Daniels said...

Can't you take your family squabbles offline???

gisele wa said...

oooooooooooopssss