Was it something i said?

[PINJOHN]

This was a story i shared with Steve on Skype some weeks ago.
earlier in the year my eldest daughter Joanne exchanged university's and left Liverpool to study in Durban,South Africa.
While there she was on the look out for a present for her old dad, something snakey she had decided, but she met with little luck as she was at that point unaware of the terror with which the average African views snakes, but not to be outdone she persisted with her search and eventually met with success, [photo below]
being a fairly accurate representative of the female persuasion my daughter shows little patience in life, so she decided to fined out how much it would cost to post it home, rather than wait to bring it with her on her home coming, she duly bundled it in her bag and set off for the post office, she tells me that the local post office was a place of much business so was consequently always very busy, with usually four long lines of queuing people, after waiting her turn she gets to the counter and says to the fellow behind the counter I would like to send this to England please could you tell me how much, while talking she was struggling to extract the wooden snake from her bag and at last succeeded the the huge African guy behind the counter momentarily froze, his eyes went the largest she had ever seen on a human being, and he screamed out something in zulu at which point the post office turned into an African version of bedlam,total chaos, each queue disintegrating as they attempted to put as much distance between them selves and the lethal venomous monster that the crazy white woman had pulled from her bag, people elbowing each other, shoving the weaker and slower out of the way, some of them reaching speeds that would have done credit to Carl Lewis, doors blocked as they all tried to push through at the same time, all this while every occupant was screaming at the top of whats possible within the limits of the human voice,....within what seemed seconds she was the only living person in the place, standing stunned and aghast at the devastation she had brought about, she was frozen to the spot terrified as to what would happen to her because of her actions, after what seemed ages a black face appeared around the door smiled and said something to her which she did not catch, after a few more seconds he hesitantly came towards her still smiling and talking fast in Zulu which then swapped to English good joke very good joke he beamed and shouted again in zulu something to the people outside at which point they all came streaming back in but instead of being angry
and aggressive with her every body seemed to be in carnival mood laughing and crowding about to see the crazy lady and her wooden snake but even though it was now known to be a toy snake not one person would actually touch it, throughout her stay from that day on she was hailed and greeted when she was out and about and she fell in love with the Zulu people whom she insists are the nicest people in the world, it is her intention to live and teach in south Africa when she attains her degree later this year

[Light of Dae]

AAAAhhh hahahahaha That's awesome!

[EasternGirl]

Too funny...You tell a great story John. I could totally picture the scene in my head while you were telling it! Lol...

[RedSidedSPR]

Tomato.

[mikem]

such a great story! thatwould have been something to see, haha!

[katach]

That's great! Thank you for sharing.

[indigoman]

Loved that story, thanks for shareing.

[PINJOHN]

Further to my story above about my daughter Joanne in south Africa. while there she met and fell for a south African guy who's name is Rudi
Rudi came across to the UK over Xmas to see Jo and to meet the rest of us and a good time was had by all....however since that time he has been attempting to undermine my trip to the states next year, making offers like the one below,my resolve remains un dented but i am sure you would agree this is a mouthwatering prospect for any of us snake/ reptile nuts.

Hi John

i hope you're well. just wanted to let you know that you guys and always at the front of my minds and i miss all of you immensely. so much so that I've been trying to find reason for you to come to South Africa and after some proper research, I think I might just have found something to entice you

I've just got off the phone with the owner of this brilliant crocodile and snake park which is about 25 minutes from where i live. I told him about an avid British herpetologist with a wicked sense of humour whose love for reptiles is only rivalled by his massive passion for comics! His response was, "so you're telling me there's a bigger nerd in the world than me !?! Well, I'd love to meet him! ".

He said he'd have no problem meeting you and giving you a tour of his park and may even let you milk a cobra or 2,let alone feed the crocs and handle the snakes... all depending on your insurance policies and you signing an indemnity

.

i will be meeting him next week to take a tour myself and will get his details so that you 2 can chat on e-mail, etc.

below is a brief description of his park.

So John... start talking to the travel agents!!! speak to you soon.

sincerely
Rudi

[EasternGirl]

Sounds like a great guy John...

[Spankenstyne]

Sounds like a creative way to get rid of a father-in-law j/k.

Great story and what a great guy. Seems like a no-brainer to me, the States can wait for such an opportunity.