Andrew Trench notes from the revolution

Classroom battlegrounds

What's going on in our schools? We've got schools installing cameras to monitor kids, metal detectors at the front gates and now at Greenpoint High  in East London they are considering body searches! I can't say I blame them, not after the recent incidents there where a pupil allegedly attacked a pregnant teacher with a knife.

But all these developments send cold shivers down my spine when I try to imagine what schools will be like in 10 years or so when my daughter goes to high school. Will pupils be manacled and attached to their desks? Will there be armed guards patrolling the corridors of learning?

When I was at school such things were pretty much unheard of. The worst you would come across would be a bunch of guys bust for smoking a joint or a couple of fags behind the toilets.  Now we have kids getting drunk at school, entire classrooms of girls pregnant, police conducting classroom raids and so on.

What's going on here? Are our children turning feral or is something else at play?

A Dros disaster

In my neck of the woods in Gonubie the eating out options are a little thin so it’s big news when a new eatery opens up.
So there was some anticipation when a Dros opened up in the new mall development up on the Gullsway intersection. I usually avoid franchise restaurants like the plague but figured that we should try out the new Dros as having something local, predictable - and kiddy friendly - would make a welcome change.
I even removed from my mind an earlier horrendous Dros experience I had about 10 years ago and agreed to give it a second chance.
So we packed up out appetites and our toddler and headed off to Dros on Saturday night.
The decor is nice if you like to pretend that you are sitting in a wine cellar – and that, I’m afraid, is all that I can say that is polite about this place.
I would class our experience a culinary disaster had any food actually reached our lips.
Our sorry saga began with the wine list.
I made some five selections of wine none of which were in stock. It's not as if the wine list is particularly extensive and it's not particularly interesting either. You get a better selection of wine at your local Crazy J's.

The restaurant has only been open for a little more than a week so either they have been selling wine like water or didn’t manage their stock properly for the opening.
When our well-meaning, but clueless, waitress arrived with a bottle that could be found it was so warm it tasted as if it had been stored under the pizza oven.
Oh, and I had to open the bottle for her because she did not know how to use the corkscrew.
Forget about ordering a fruit juice for your child because apparently they don’t stock any. Healthy creme soda for the little bean then!
If you plan to have a beer sip it slowly through a straw because the next one will be a long time coming.
Eventually we were able to order. It took about 10 minutes for the order to be understood and fumbled over and tediously written into the waitress’s order book with many references to the menu to check on spelling and so on.

Finally – about an hour after we first arrived – our order was dispatched to the kitchen. And then we waited... and waited... and waited.
In the meanwhile, a colleague and his partner arrived and sat behind us.
We warned them to get out while the going was good. They left after waiting 15 minutes to lay their hands on a wine list.
After three quarters of an hour we had had enough and left without a meal at all.
By that time my daughter was about to faint from hunger along with the rest of us so we dashed across the parking lot where the good Colonel saved us with some deep-fried chicken.
I have to wonder about the Dros. The folk behind it have clearly poured millions into the decor and fittings but they appear to have forgotten to train their staff. Funnily enough it's the service that counts in the end, guys.

Don’t go to the Dros in Gonubie – ever.

Only in Slummies

I have to post this. I was in Vincent Park Woolies earlier (it's my day off, don't worry ) and found myself having a sneezing fit. In an instant I was flooded with "bless you's"  by total strangers all around me. Not one or two people mind you but a whole bunch.

You gotta love Slummies!

A travesty

The release and discharge of the 20 men suspected of being part of cash heist gang and who were arrested a year ago in a Fort Jackson warehouse surrounded with guns and other criminal goodies is a travesty of justice.

That the state cannot prepare a solid case ready for trial in year makes a mockery of our legal system. With instances like this it's no wonder that citizens lose confidence in the rule of law.

A proper inquiry into the conduct of the investigating officer and prosecution team is required.

The case against 20 men suspected of being part of a sophisticated cash-heist gang has been struck off the roll in the Mdantsane Regional Court.
After repeated delays by state investigators and prosecutors, Magistrate Jannie van der Vyver said he had “no choice” but to withdraw the matter against the suspects on Monday.

Each was facing 10 charges, including conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit robbery at West Bank Coin Security almost a year ago.