SKYPE RULES!!!

Hey everyone...

Skype rules...

Thought that everyone should know this. The delays are minimal and it
doesn't waste time with things like advertisements etc.

What is Skype? Skype is a Voice of IP program that allows you to chat
across the internet.

This is now finally legal in South Africa . Yay. Telkom (the worlds
most expensive telecommunications company) has finally decided to
allow us to make use of the technology.

Wow... now if only they would stop giving us montly quotas on our
internet usage, then keeping in contact with friends would be come
even more cost effective.

How is this relevant to any South African (or somebody who knows
somebody in South Africa).

Well... if you and the person you want to speak to both have Skype...
then when you are both online... you just use Skype to give them a
quick call. Like you would on a telephone.

But what if the person who you want to chat to knows nothing about
computers... thats ok... skype allows you to put in someones phone
number and calls directly to their phone at whatever the local rates
are in that country. That means that if you are in South Africa you
can make virtually free phone calls to family that are over seas.

check it out at www.skype.com

If you have a Telkom 384 Home ADSL line then your calls work out to
about 8c a minute.

Thats amazing... just a normal local call hear in South Africa is at
least 40c a minute.
An international call to the UK is a couple of Rands per minute.

It also allows you to send the files to each other and allows for
conference calls.

If you want to chat to me, my skype contact name is garethhenry.

Your english is like greek to me

Shucks... I was wondering how often I've used South African lingo without realising it.

There are some really good stories about how local words can get you into trouble when you're not at home. Two come to mind.

A buddy of mine's sister was in the UK. She was staying in a commune and the places geyser started giving problems. So one night at the table she said to the rest of the people living there, "we should really get rid of that old geyser". They were horified. She then realised that they thought she was refering to the landlord. She was actually refering to the "boiler".

Another friend arrived in america and needed a trolley for her bags. So she kept asking everyone where the trolleys for the bags were. She just got confused blank stairs. It turns out they thought is was wanting a tram just for her bags. This strangely enough is a total opposite use of two words that (as far as I know) the rest of the english speaking world use the other way around.

So remember that in America a trolley is a tram and a tram is a trolley. I hope that I'm remembering the two correct words that she got mixed up with. Oh well... if not I'm sure some nice friendly person from America will correct me soon enough.

If you got any similiar stories then please add them on as comments.

ooh... just remembered another really good one. Some friends of mine (from America) where in South Africa for a year. They decided to buy a second hand car from James, mutual friend. James goes on to explain to John that the cars hooter is not on the steering wheel but a seperate button next to the radio. John then looks very confused. James then presses the hooter and John realises that he was talking about "blowing the horn" and not a complementary stripper been supplied with the car.

Photos of my house (as promised)

This is my new place. This is where me and my two boets live. Boet is a South African slang term based on an afrikaans word that means brother.

Here we have the main house. The garden is very new. Basically there was nothing but dust and mangled bushes when we moved in. Thanks to much appreciated help of my Mom the avid gardener, it now looks pretty decent I think. THANKS MOM.

Here is the back yard where you can see the outside room which is been used as an office.



And here's a closer look at part of the new garden. The grass is starting to take nicely. It was quite a mission doing the garden. We first had to raise the level of the ground because it had eroded to below the water table. With all the rain during december and january it was quite a muddy aware trying to a) get in and out the house and b) trying to drive away.