Conflicting evidence

What do you do when you have two pieces of evidence that cannot possibly both be true?
What if the one source says "Danger! Rectify now!" and the other says "Nah. Relax. Everything in fine. Moenie panic nee"?

Which do you believe? Which do you act on?
What if the fuel light in your vehicle is shining brightly and the fuel gauge shows a little over a quarter tank?

Step one - assume that the good people who serviced the vehicle broke something while working on it last week. This is obvious. Someone must be blamed to justify everything wrong or confusing in life.
Step two - to fill up or to keep driving?

This morning, as I walked to the fuel station from my now stationary vehicle, I had the time to ponder this question. Was it the optimism of "tank half full"?
Living in Zimbabwe, however much we winge,our survival has dependent on blindly trusting either that things are good, or that things will get better. I generally land on the former. Sure, life is not perfect, but it's fine. I mean, so what if there has been no water supply to my house since about July last year? Life is good! Godfrey gets water from the borehole down the road (when there is power for the pump!). I can shower at work or at the theatre. It's OK, really it is.
So did I therefore say "Hey, the fuel light is on. No problem. I'll be fine. Life is good"?

I don't think so.
On reflection, I think that I am driven not so much by optimism, but by selfishness. It is nicer if there is fuel in the tank, so I assume that this is so.
In the rest of life, there are warning indicators to tell me when to stop and when to proceed. But I choose to believe the voice in my head that says "You aren't hurting anyone, and no-one will find out so long as you are careful". This is the "nice" indicator. This path pretends to offer the most fun. The voice that says "Be ye holy even as I am Holy" is such a killjoy!
And it's not just my fuel tank status that brings me to a spluttering halt.

Will this experience change my life?
Of course!
As least as long as it's enjoyable to be changed.

20 minute interval and citizen journalism

Twenty minutes is too short.
I tried to blog the first half of the evening during the interval.
But ran out of time.
And afterwards...
Well, by the time I got home this morning, no, that was not the time for blogging.

But, in summary, a stunning evening.
Two excellent plays (not nearly as "dated" as some had feared) providing more than enough food for thought, however much thought one thought one might like to think
Two great casts doing fine things to them.
And then an evening of wonderful craic with amazing people who I am honoured to call friends.

Tired now
And the weekend is still a'comin in!

Happy birthday Tracey Garrard!  A day later, and many years younger than REPS, but also a very important part of our lives.

Links to REPS 80th

The Repertory Players turns 80 (H-Metro - 6 January) 
80th anniversary of The Repertory Players (Zimbabwe Lifestyle - 16 January) 
The Reperatory Players Celebrate 80th Anniversary (Herald -15 February)  
Chairman's Letter - 17 February (Zimbabwe Lifestyle - 17 February , ZimboJam - 17 February,  newzimsituation.com (link dodgy) )  
REPS @ 80 (ZimLemming - 17 February)
Reps turns 80, present plays that launched them in 1931 (The Standard - 26 February)

If you stumble upon any other relevant links I have missed, please let me know and I'll add them in.

REPS @ 80

80 years! Quite an achievement!

It was in 17 February 1931 that the Repertory Players staged their first production. As part of the celebrations, the two plays from that far off night are being presented tonight at a Gala Evening.

They are "Fame and the Poet" (Lord Dunsany) and "Magic" (G K Chesterton).

So it's black tie and party frock this evening.

And I expect more to write about afterwards.
But for now...

Happy Birthday, REPS!

Swanny rules!

So I was on the CricInfo site looking for stuff about the upcoming World Cup.
Some interesting stuff, including an elegant description of yesterday's AUS-RSA game where the "Australia bowlers were dealt a heavy snotklap (slap in the face) as South Africa chalked up a seven-wicket win"
Snotklap.  Good use of vernacular!

Then I spotted the article about the end of Graeme Swann's drunk driving charge.
Leaving aside any discussion of drink-driving (a generally bad idea) or the pedantry of legal process (a generally bad idea), I was struck by some of the humour of the incident.

Swann, ... was stopped near his home in West Bridgford shortly after 3.00am on April 2 last year, as he drove a white Porsche Cayenne towards a local supermarket, having arrived home to find his cat trapped under the floorboards.

Sorry? Read that again?
He had had four or five glasses of wine for his birthday, and it's 3am on 2 April.
Does that make his birthday....  No really?  Swanny?  1 April?  I might have guessed.
Any follower of Graeme on Twitter knows he is an arch-nutter.  Seriously - This is a twitter feed well worth following if you can even spell "English cricket".

But wait!  There's more!
He "arrived home to find his cat trapped under the floorboards"!
Like, how did...?  O never mind.  Put it down to a family likeness.

And to think that Graeme is currently home "on paternity leave".
Seriously, he's been allowed to breed?  Who dropped this catch?

But all the best wishes to the Swanns - both parents and baby.
And all the best for the World Cup (except vs Zimbabwe!)
And get yourself a chauffeur!


[For complete accuracy, Wikipedia tells me that Swanny was in fact born on 24 March 1979, not 1 April as I inferred. Such a pity to let the truth get in the way of a good story. And he's not even a "Born Free"!" ]

Valentines @ Pizza Inn

OK, so I'm a little cynical about 14 February generally.

But tonight I am waiting for two downloads and have popped out for a pizza.

Most tables at Pizza Inn tonight are either one man, one woman, or two men, two women (safety in numbers!). More than usual to my biased eye. And they are all looking uncomfortable.

A middle aged couple arrived - him in a neat grey suit with red shirt and tie, her with a pink suit over a red blouse. Put the kids to bed, dress up smart, and go out.... to Pizza Inn in a Food Court.

Zimbabwean romance is not dead.
Not quite.

(For Google's benefit, the one download is a backup of www.kingdompeoplechurch.org. The other is some CISCO software for one of my team.)