Bad luck
Coolmac
Date:
01/08/2005
One of the joys of living in South Africa is the fact that, once in a while, you have to buy a whole bunch of new stuff courtesy of your insurance company. OK, so it's not so much a joy, as a right fucking pain in the arse. Anyway last week our bedroom burglar guards were kicked in by two thieves; thanks to the alarm system they bolted as quickly as they could, and only managed to take two leather jackets with them before the armed response arrived.
Oh yes, to those of you from more civilised countries, armed response! No we're not rich, pretty much anyone who owns a house in this country, also has an alarm system installed that connects to a control room somewhere. In the case of the incident last week, they were there in 6 minutes. Security companies are big business here. In fact the road up from us, which is ever so slightly well off (yet far from rich), has guards patrolling on bicycles 24/7.
Anyway, quickly following that was my ADSL reaching its 3 gig cap (yes, yes, only 3 gigs!), resulting in me being cut off from the site for the rest of the week. It is the 1st of a new month now, and so I have my Internet access back, my life is once again complete.
I ran across a nice online magazine today, Strange Horizons, that publishes science fiction writing and art weekly. Sorry, not science fiction, Speculative fiction. I have to say I've never heard the term before, but I like it. If, like me, you have never heard the term, here's what Strange Horizons has to say: “The term "speculative fiction" refers to what is more commonly known as "sci-fi," but which properly embraces science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, slipstream, and a host of sub-genres.”
Anyway, I read the story and the poem from the latest issue (August 1st, 2005). They both were excellent, intelligent and engrossing.
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