Rant of the Day: Have a Nice Day. (Not)

Dear Small-Minded Bigot driving a Mercedes,

You picked the wrong person, on the wrong day, lady.

I was more than comfortable driving just less than 130km/h on the Krugersdorp highway this morning. And yes, I was in the fast lane, because that’s the speed most of us do in the fast lane. It’s faster than the limit, but just slow enough to stay out of trouble. But you came along, pig-headed and self-righteous and had a cadenza that I wasn’t driving in the “slow” lane.

Imagine that. I don’t want to drive in the slow lane, getting stuck behind those who prefer to travel at 90km/h, so that idiots like you can go… ooooh, what, 140km/h??

So you veered around me on the left and made a scene about it. Oh I hope you’re regretting that now.

I let you get ahead a little. For a short while, let you bask in how “right” you were to put me in my place. But it gave me pinch of pleasure when just touching the accelerator of my modest Toyota brought me more than up to speed with you. Funny how it is when the tables turn… what, you don’t want to drive 200km/h???! WELL I DO, SO GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!!!

No you wouldn’t do that, and I’m not one to overtake on the left. That would be pig-headed.

See, you don’t know me, lady. You don’t know that I didn’t get any sleep last night. You don’t know my heart’s aches, the frustrations I’m facing, the demons I fight every day. You don’t know that I’m listening to my heaviest metal today to try calm me down. You don’t know that I’m a psychopath with a handgun beneath my seat and I’m waiting for someone like you to push me… Just. Too. Far.

I’m not a psychopath, but you don’t know that.

It gave me a much bigger pinch of pleasure that my route to work allowed me to follow you for a good long while. That I could follow you closely, imitating your every manoeuvre, all the while staying just close enough to glare at you in your review mirror. I was glad to see that at the four-way stop, you left a massive gap in front of you and that you accelerated for all your million-rand car was worth to get some space between us. I hope you were afraid. Oh I do hope so.

More than anything, I hope you will think twice before you are such a bully to someone else on the road, someone you don’t know.

You probably won’t change, but one can hope.

Ok. I’m over it.

You have a nice day now. 

My Parents = Awesomeness

My parents are cool. I'm talking ice-ice-baby cool.

The first time I realized this was when my Mom and Dad went to see BonJovi live - I must have been in my early teens. I was in awe, total awe, of how 'cool' they were. And darn proud too.


You see, I've always grown up in a home filled with music, and good music at that. It's one of the things I have always been grateful for, and I can credit my passionate love for music to the home that I was brought up in.


 My mom has always had her rock music belting it out, and then in the next moment, she'd be playing a tricky classical piece on the piano. The diversity of music in our home was always astounding. So the BonJovi thing shouldn't have been such a surprise, but at that moment, in my mind, my fogeys went from being "Oh my gosh, parents are lame" to being "Oh my gosh, my parents totally rock, they're friggin wicked, my mom is a rock-queen, they're my hero, oh I could just die from the awesomeness!"

Something like that. 

It occurred to me recently that after all these years things haven't changed much. Unlike so many older generations, my parents aren't stuck on The Carpenters or Meatloaf or even BonJovi- and I wouldn't fault them this, as they are all amazing bands. But my fogeys are still with the times. Ok, so they're not quite into Lil Wayne or Black Eyed Peas, but who, in their right mind, would be anyway?

You see, the other day, my Mom excitedly told me that she has bought an album by Christina Perri. Christina Perri is mostly known for her track "A Thousand Years", played on Twilight's latest album from the Breaking Dawn movie. It's no rock song, but it's modern... and it's on Breaking Dawn. How much more 'with-it' can you get?

My Mom. 

Likes a Vampire song.

From Breaking Dawn. 

Have I mentioned how cool my parents are?