Nicisms

I have just had my Discovery Health and Planet Fitness gym contract revoked. Why? Because according to them I did not attend gym the required number of times in 2008. That number currently sits at 24 times per year or twice a month. Not impossible by any means.

Because I am on Discovery and make use of their Vitality benefit (which I pay a monthly fee for) I qualify for a great deal at the gym. For about R800 I can sign up to either Virgin Active or Planet Fitness forever. Yes, R800 is a once off fee with no monthly cost if you stick to one gym. Forever. The condition is that you attend gym the required 24 timer per year.

Planet Fitness in Rivonia has a bit of a problem on their hands and have had this as a recurring problem for the whole of 2008. They do not have a sign-in system that consistently works. Which means that for much of 2008 members at Planet Fitness in Rivonia had to sign in manually. This relies on a Planet Fitness employee to enter the CORRECT membership number in to their system and to provide you with a slip (which you now need to carry around with you for the extent of your training session). It is your responsibility to make sure that the employee signs you in correctly, provides you with a slip, doesn’t lie to you that they’ve done it, remember to do or insist that they have done it.

Forgive me for being lazy but this, in fact, is not my job. I pay Discovery every month so that all I have to do is attend gym. And I am not the only one. I know of at least 5 other members of Planet Fitness Rivonia who have all received letters of notification that they have not attended gym enough and their contracts have been suspended.

Last year I attended well over 24 sessions at Planet Fitness Rivonia. But there is no way for me to prove every single one of the times I was there. I can, however, prove one instance. To gain points on Vitality and up your status you can do various tasks set out by Discovery Health. One is a fitness assessment. I did my Fitness assessment at Planet Fitness in Rivonia, which means that I was actually in the gym on the 21st of October but that date does not register on my Planet Fitness Workout dates (I Worked out after my assessment).

Here’s the proof from my Discovery Vitality profile online:

This basically means that in spite of signing in to gym, on their computer system, according to their database I wasn’t present to attend gym, but attended gym that day to do a fitness assessment. Therefore I was one short in spite of not being one short and lost my gym contract.

In a nutshell, thanks to Planet Fitness Rivonia I have lost my gym contract. Oh the irony. I am blogging about this because I have been waiting for 4 days for Discovery to call me back with a response.

I was sent a press release about this fantastic new artist breaking in to the market locally. Rattex (seriously?) is his name. I am always very open to promoting new music in South Africa so I decided to give the music video a watch:

The above is precisely what is eating away at the soul of the music culture in South Africa and providing our youth with the misconception of what it is to be famous, young, successful and funky. This is a discussion that I have been having for years and years, since I was in a band back at university. We tried very hard to be local, have flavour and maintain bits of our heritage or at least we thought, as much as we could. It’s tough though and I will give muso’s that much, it’s tough to be local.

But is it really that tough? Is it so tough to be local that you mimic American artists down to the background colour of your music video, your caps, baggy shoddy denims and “bling”. Why are our young rappers trying so hard to be American? Everyone hates America and the only person who could change that perception is Kenyan? African is cool, can’t they see that?

And what’s more is that Rattex claims to be proudly South African:

Rattex is now at the forefront of the new school of proudly South African rappers who understand that Hip Hop, more than any other musical art form, is about addressing important issues and representing where you’re from. It is therefore not suprising that Rattex is one of the pioneers of the ‘Spaza’ movement, where lyrics are performed in a combination of isiXhosa, English and Cape Flats slang.

Rattex has always been a true Cape Flats soldier, representing Khaltsha (Khayelitsha) wherever he performs. His music has also been on heavy rotation on community and campus radio stations (such as Zibonele, Bush Radio and UCT Radio) across Cape Town and the Cape Flats. Noteable performances include the Fire on the Mountain festival, Drudge Dialect II, the Hype Magazine Live Session and the Planetary Assault launch party. Rattex has also performed on Channel O’s number 1 rated show, Mzanzi Ridez. Most recently, Rattex supported legendary Brooklyn-born super lyricist Wordsworth on his tour to South Africa.

Read the full bio at his website. What goes through the head of an artist who claims to be from the flats, to embrace South Africanism and then puts on a music video feature his hommies, big cars, bling, scantily clad women and a distinctly western flair to it.

I am sorry but I cannot believe that any artist who produces this sort of tripe can claim to be proudly South African.

Have a look at a couple of “big rappers” in the following music videos from the States:

Spot the difference. Just like his name, I think that Rattex and this Americanised-afro-wanna-be culture confusion is poising poisoning the music and culture in South Africa.

I absolutely love listening to DJ Fresh and his team on the afternoon drive on 5fm. I heard about the following complaint against the Fresh Drive on 5fm and I had to head over to Hellopeter and get the full story:

I always listen to 5fm when getting ready. On Wednesday 7 January 2009 I heard an advert to call in NOW to win tickets to Mafikizolo performing at Emperors Palace. I LOVE the group so called in immediately. I got through and spoke to the morning show (Koula and team) they said no- I should call the fresh drive it is their promotion.

That’s what I did and I actually got through again. Spoke to Fresh and said i’m calling regarding the Mafikizolo tickets. They commented that it was yesterday’s promotion. I told them my whole story and said it is false advertising. (which it is)

Fresh was very nice and said I should hold the line they will get me tickets. I spoke to Catherine- she took my details and said she’ll call me back. She did on the day and said she can’t get hold of the promoter but will call me the following day.

I never received a phone call from them again.

I was really looking forward to my first highlight for 2009 and I’m really dissapointed in the Fresh drive. It seems they only want to sound cool on air and don’t follow up on on air promises.

The user on Hellopeter is alidek, she (I think) is a very sorry case. If all you have to do in your day is bitch and moan about calling in a day late for a FREE giveaway, receive personal contact from the on air DJ and members of his team and then still moan after they try and can’t help repair your tardy entry to a competition then I am sorry but you need to catch a bloody wake up.

Apparently Fresh was notified of the “problem”. What this lovely lady decided to omit from her complaint was that Katherine – part of the Fresh Drive team – promised to send the lady CDs to make up for her disappointment. When Fresh found out about this woman’s pettiness, he decided to revoke her CD pleasantries from the team and publicly told her off. Good on you Fresh.

Kenya is an extremely interesting culture and one that I hope to return to very soon (see Kelele).

I was very specific with my intentions for a December holiday after an absolutely manic 2008. I wanted it to be calm, relaxed, non-technologically based and quiet. I wanted to read, to wander around a beach if I felt like it, to eat great food, meet great people and generally forget everything.

We could not have picked a better venue for this and as you can tell by the title of this post I did not watch TV, use a laptop or eat meat (purely by coincidence) for the entire trip. Not too shabby if you ask me.

The people are friendly, exceptionally friendly and to be honest by the end of the 12 days I wanted someone to swear at me actually. Friendliness is one thing, being over-friendly is an entirely different experience. The locals on the island of Lamu know where their bread is buttered and that is tourists. To be more precise, obnoxious British and American tourists. But more on that lot a bit further on.

We were taken for a ride or two, spent a bit too much on Dow rides (the local means of transport), paid a bit too much for a meal here or there and definitely got absolutely screwed over by the colonial capital of the island, Peponi Hotel. Peponi is owned by a drunk, presumptous, wealthy Brit who clearly couldn’t give a crap about anything other then where his next drink was coming from. It’s a pity really because his wife seems to work incredibly hard, the managerial staff, waiters and barstaff also worked themselves silly, not the owner. He remained relatively drink the entire time. Thankfully I didn’t have the misfortune of staying in the hotel, we visited occasionally for a drink and for new years eve – mistake.

The first six or so nights we spent at a quaint little B’n'B in Shella (the “Europe” of Lamu as the locals say) called Sea breeze. The staff there were helpful, pleasant, friendly and I would most definitely suggest checking them out if you are heading to Lamu. It’s very basic in the setup, a bed, a shower/bathroom/toilet area and a cupboard. That’s it and that’s more than you need.

A few things I learned on the trip:

1. Don’t take closed shoes.
2. Take two pairs of boardshorts.
3. ONLY take t-shirts.
4. Take insect repellent, buy it, steal it, just have it.
5. Don’t take anything a local says as the truth. Get a second opinion.
6. Bargain prices down.
7. If you feel like you have found a deal, take it.
8. Experience the local culture.

Number 8 on the above list was somewhat harder to achieve specifically because you are actually living the daily lives of the locals anyways on Lamu. They kept saying that Lamu is a 365 holiday. Which it appears to be. But in order to achieve the real authentic feel of the island we took guided tours of the “slums” of Lamu, we stayed in a self-catering unit for the final 5 nights which pushed us to go to fishmarkets, fishermen, vegetable markets and more to ensure that we were well equipped for our stay. That was one of the highlights for me. Seeing the fresh fish, cooking with fresh produce and co-existing as much as two relatively white tourists can do in the space of a two week holiday.

I truly hate going to a place and feeling like a real life tourist. I love experiencing culture for culture in the true sense of the word. If this is what you are after and have a good way with people then Lamu is most definitely the place for you.

Here are some photos and videos of the trip:

I just received the Bizcom newsletter. In it there was a very interesting salary survery. I downloaded it, opened it up and scrolled slowly down to the online survey results.

Here they are – click to enlarge.

So where to you stack up? Where do you fit in? You can download the full document by clicking here.

It’s interesting for me to note that the “heavyweight” jobs aren’t even surveyed for anything less than 5 years experience. I completely agree with this method of sorting as I think there are too many overpaid, under-delivering “guru’s” in the online market.