{"id":64,"date":"2007-05-09T00:07:21","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T22:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/wordpress\/?p=64"},"modified":"2007-05-09T00:07:21","modified_gmt":"2007-05-08T22:07:21","slug":"of-carving-knives-and-guavas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/?p=64","title":{"rendered":"Of carving knives and guavas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting with my 3-year old son in the kitchen, I heard some rustling outside, by the front garden. Living in Obs, where the houses are all quite close together, I assumed it was from a neighbour’s house, and didn’t pay much attention.<\/p>\n

Then the sound got closer. I got up to take a look and saw someone in the garden. Since we have a fairly high wall, and a locked gate, this wasn’t welcome.<\/p>\n

I closed the door, shouting to Anique to call the police and for Dorje to go to her.<\/p>\n

I tend to have a bit of a berserker<\/a> streak in me. So, instead of doing the smart thing and staying indoors, I grabbed my tai chi sword, and a carving knife from the kitchen, and went charging outside.<\/p>\n

Since I’ve always thought the front wall was fairly tricky to scale, seeing a one-legged child on crutches, about 14, calmly eating guavas from the tree was a bit disconcerting.<\/p>\n

We talked a bit, he told me about the train accident that caused him to lose his leg, and said he’d ask for the guavas next time! Then I let him go. I was amazed to see him hop over the wall (admittedly it’s much easier from the raised inside) as if it was a can in the road.<\/p>\n

The armed response finally arrived – apparently he’s well-known in the area, and not afraid to indulge in a little petty theft. I’m sure I would too in his situation.<\/p>\n

Related posts:<\/p>\n