“I ain't got no money, I ain't got no car to take you on a date, I can't even buy you flowers, But together we could be the perfect soulmates, Talk to me girl” – Timberland (the way I are)

Absolutely no relevance to this weeks email, I guess its just my new song, I’m humming along to. Trust all is well with you all.

iYo, I nearly died…talk about a maaajor exaggeration! But it must have been a scary situation for my mate and our other mate’s bro. So on Friday a friend of mine invites me to tag along to the screening of this new Thabo Mbeki documentary that’s causing a bit of a stir. I duly accept the invitation. The screening was only to start at 8 in Newtown, so we decided to hook up for a drink in Sandton. It was time to leave and my mate tells me we have to go and pick up another mate before we go. I was having a ripper time, nothing exciting, just bouncing all over the place speaking a truck load of shaite to some mates here and there. So I decided to opt out of the screening and wait for it on SABC.

On Saturday I see a missed call from him so I call him back and he tells me, bra, let me tell you about my Friday evening. So I am all excited thinking go on…, so he tells me his story. After I left you, I went to pick up our other mate, I pressed the door bell. Whilst waiting in the driveway I saw her brothers VR6 in the driveway, but shoo something just don’t seem right here. I saw a couple of guys around him and thought something is definitely not right here, so I decided to reverse, next thing I see a guy running towards me, he jumps onto the wall and asks me to stop the car and take out the keys. Ordinarily I wouldn’t, but having a big gun waved in your face changes things a little bit. Fortunately these guys were pretty professional and they went about their way took my mate’s brother’s car and sped off. Fortunately the car was recovered abandoned in 20 min. It could all have gone pear shaped... but fortunately it didn’t.

Then yesterday, I hear a friend of mine’s elderly dad got hijacked yesterday and he was unfortunately roughed up a little bit. Fortunately he is alright, in a bit of shock but alright. This shaite is getting closer hey. Anyway a few years ago I was fortunate enough to attend and advanced driving course as well as an anti hijack course and just thought I should share some of the things that we were taught there…that I can recall.

1) Prevention is definitely the best cure, always be aware when you drive into your driveway, don’t go into the driveway and press the remote, because you can easily be blocked off (car behind you, gate infront of you). Instead stay on the road press the remote button, always looking around you once the gate is opened and you feel safe do you proceed
2) Try and take different routes home
3) DON’T TRY AND BE A HERO, more often than not these hijackers are just as nervous as you are
4) If you are ever in the unfortunate situation of being in a hijacking, co-operate.
5) Don’t look the hijacker in the eye, because they will firstly feel that u r threatening and secondly they will think that you want to identify them
6) Try as best as you can to remain calm
7) DON’T MOVE SUDDENLY…EVER
8) Always show your hands in front of you
9) Ask before you remove your seatbelt and do it slowly. I think they said you should use your right hand to slowly reach over to unclip your seatbelt always staying calm and looking infront of you
10)Hands always in front of you
11)Always ask before you move
12)Should it happen that you have a child with you in the car, demand in a non threatening way that you want to take your child, more often than not they will let you take him/her, because apparently cases involving children receive higher priority.
13)If you have a gun in close proximity, forget about it, its so much quicker to pull a trigger than to reach over pull it out, take off the safety, get it loaded and then shoot…forget about it!
14)At the end of the day it’s only a car, its not worth your life!

I hope I managed to capture most of the important points. It’s so sad where we’ve come to but I guess call me an eternal optimist…we shall overcome! If any of you have been to a similar course and have anything to add or have noticed that some of my points may be incorrect, please drop me a line

In the meantime, just be aware!

Birthdays
22nd Michelle
24th Vusi, Francis
26th Gina, Karabo T
27th Mike R, Courtney, Sayeda
28th Tshepo, Tanya Annor

“The power you need exists in the noble blood in your veins”

Maximum respect and be safe

Y

“que sera sera”