Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I wouldn't normally post something like this but since its to do with a fellow Saffa and Durban local and since I have the means to help out I feel I need to. Donavan van Lill went missing from his home in Chippenham, Wiltshire which is west of London on 3 March. His wallet, passport, phone and car were not taken with him, and nobody has seen or heard from him since.

A FaceBook group has been launched with full info and more pictures of what Donavan looks like so please join the group as it could be you who spots him. The link for the group page is as follows: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=389933046608 please check the group for more information.

Although he might not live in London, Londoners are urged to please keep there eyes peeled since London is a likely hub of where anyone would go.

Here is an extract taken from the FaceBook Group,

"Donavan was last seen at home on Wednesday morning when his housemate went out to work. When Donavan didnt turn up for work people started to worry as it is very out of character for him. When his housemate returned he wasnt there, his phone and wallet and car was still at home. His laptop was open and on and logged on to FB (which is not like him either) so concerns was raised. The police are involved but treating it as low priority because there was no note left and he hasnt left with lots of alcohol or pills or anything. However, the police raised this to medium priority yesterday as this is so out of character for him and there have been no further clues. He has nothing on him except for what he had on.

The police have done searches on his bank account, laptop etc which didnt lead to any clues. The police has his laptop, phone, wallet, passports etc with them. They have also checked CCTV cameras at the train station with no result there.

We call on anyone that feel that they might have the smallest amount of info to call the police on 0845 4087000."

- Marky Mark

Durban and most of KZN experienced a massive violent electrical storm last week turning many urban areas into something short of the Camel Trophy…

If you were in Durban last Tuesday you may have noticed a little storm that was occuring outside, well if you didn't then I'm sure your little mutts must have due to all the thunder and lightning. Check out the pics sent to East Coast Radio by the general public. 

Essenwood Road

Florida Road

Umbilo Road

View over Moses Mabhida Stadium

View over Moses Mabhida Stadium – I wouldn't wanna be stuck at the viewing point on the stadium arch with that bolt of lightning hovering around.

Hopefully Robert Mugabe was in town enjoying the view from from the stadium arch at this moment

All I can say is that the weather in Durbs has just short of 5 weeks to sort its shit out before I get there, because I seriously need to get some colour on my pasty little white ass

[Thanks Little Day]

- Marky Mark

For every Saffa in London, the one thing you miss from back home is biltong… Now if you live in Wimbledon you can just about get it on every street corner, but for a price that is… but did you know, you can build a decent quality wooden biltong making machine for less than twenty bucks? not to mention actually making the biltong itself is alot easier than you think, trust me, I know…

Building a biltong box is actually quite simple, there are websites selling small professionally made plastic boxes, but to be quite honest, it only looks nice but still does the same job, but worst of all, they are charging people £150 for them which is a bit ridiculous. All you basically need is a box with two sections, one section at the bottom to house the light and the main section on top where the meat will dry to make biltong. 

The diagram below will give you the basic idea…

Now you can use cardboard however I wouldn't recommend it if you want to keep making biltong, and trust me, after your first batch, you're more than hooked, so rather take the time to build a sturdy wooden box that you can clean and it will last a long time.

The most important thing about this whole venture is to have a place to hang your biltong and then move dry air through it. The moving air dries the biltong!

The diagram shows a box with a divider that divides the box into two sections, A & B. Section A is high enough for a 100 Watt (or 60W) bulb to fit into. Section B is where you will hang the meat. Near the top of section B are wooden or steel rods (marked C) from where you will hang your meat.

There are holes (½-1 inch diameter) drilled along the sides of section A, in the divider, and in the roof of the box.

How It Works

The bulb heats the air in section A. As we all know from school, warm air rises. The air rises through the holes in the divider, through section B, and out the top. The air in section A that has risen out the top, is replaced by air being sucked in through the holes in the sides of section A. The blue arrows show the air flow.

How To Make It

Now you can build the whole damn thing from scratch like a lot of people have done, or you can get a bit clever and make life a lot easier for yourself. I went over to B&Q and found a bedside cupboard that was on special for £11. It was a decent standard size and the nice thing about it was that it had a smooth beech effect, which at the end of the day is going to be alot easier to clean after each batch, than trying to clean bare wood that has soaked up alot of the juices that drip off the meat, so already its a good idea. The "cupboard" came flatpacked but only took about 10mins to assemble as you get all the screws etc to put it together, and just for the dolls, there's a nice little instruction sheet. Obviously I didn't build it with the draw at the top because that wouldn't be needed. The cupboard had an open front so all I did was cut a piece of wood (MDF) to size and fixed it to the front with a couple hinges to make the door. Next I drilled holes between the two compartments to let the airflow through and then holes at the top for the warm air to escape. I made some smaller holes near the top and slid some rods through to be used as hanging racks to hang the biltong from. In the bottom compartment I fitted two light fittings and kitted them with two 40W globes. Many people say you should use one 60W globe and many others so you should use one 100W globes, so I went in between with 2 x 40W. I used the bottom open back as the intake but closed this about half way with a small piece of plank so that the warm air would flow into the main compartment and not escape out the back…. and Voila! the whole thing took about an hour and a half to build and works like a bomb. There's a few little additions you can make such as sealing the holes off with some fine mesh to stop any bugs crawling in and chowing your biltong etc. I've done a few batches now and its taking me around 2-3 days per batch which is wicked.

Check out huge PharSide Fan, Ronan, he used this same technique to build his biltong box and he's "loving" it

He made a video for it

See guys, you don't need to be a farm boy to make it, people from the village can make it too haha

This is the party thats going on in my biltong box at this very moment…

Thats 2.4kgs raw, will be about 1.5kgs dry, perfect for a personal stash … oh yeah baby!

Check back next week and I may have a special guest showing you exactly how to make the biltong itself… so get cracking on your boxes my chinas

- Marky Mark

Yesterday marked 20 years since our main man Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison on 11th February 1990 after spending 27 years in prison… yip, 20 years ago already… its been that long… suddenly I feel rather old…

I remember that day in 1990 so vividly its frightening, I remember we were still living in the berg in our little village called Jagersrust which is about 25km's into the berg from Bergville. I was 10 years old and parking on the couch watching TV when both my Ballie and my ma came running into the lounge and changed the channel to TV1 without consulting me first… well as you guessed, I threw my toys, to which my ballie replied, "no we must put the news on because Nelson Mandela was being released". As you can imagine my response as would have been any white 10 year old leitjie's response "Well who the hell is Nelson Mandela?". I remember having to wait watching the TV for ages waiting for him to make his appearance until finally we watched Madiba make is walk to freedom. Little did I know that that man that I was watching there on our old 51cm National Panasonic TV without remote control capabilities, that I knew absolutely nothing about at the time, would later on in life become such a great influence and mentor in the way that I view the world and people in general.

Throughout the years Nelson Mandela has been such an interest to me, I have seen every movie ever made about him, the struggle and his time in prison. I have read countless articles about him spent endless hours watching anything I could find about him on the net and YouTube. A little while back I finally took the time to endure reading "Long Walk to Freedom" which believe me is a ridiculously long read, however I was glued to every page never wanting it to end, I was actually quite pissed off when the book came to an end, because I just wanted to know more. I think through all of this I have such a deep respect for him to the extent that I try to live my life and treat people in a manner that he did. I would seriously recommend that you take the time to read the book because once you are done you feel a sense of connection with him and experience the true sense of what he devoted his life to achieving. It will change your mindset on so many aspects about what you previously thought were wrong, and through common sense you will realise just how much of our upbringing was a mass of apartheid propaganda.

One of my greatest wishes would be to meet the man that I admire so much, unfortunately the closest I've ever been in his presence, was listening to him make his speech at his 90th Birthday Concert in Hyde Park almost two years ago. Sadly I think my dream will never come true due to him becoming quite frail and retreating from the public eye, but I still hope that by some stroke of luck I may still get to meet him somehow. I feel bad whenever I meet someone who has met him because I seem to instantly have 50 questions about what it was like to meet him, wanting to know each and every fine detail.

People have their opinions and they are quite entitled to there opinions, such as, he was labelled as a terrorist or its been 20 years and look at South Africa now, from an economic and political stand point, its an absolute mess, to which, you're probably quite right, I do believe that if Madiba's successors had even a fraction of his qualities, SA would be in quite a different situation now, but hopefully one day someone will come along searching for the same ideals as Madiba, I guess we'll just have to hope and wait. However you may want to think of what sort of state SA would have been in now if Mandela was never released, if apartheid was still in full force… well lets just say that you think its tough getting around the world on an SA passport now? Sanctions on SA would have sealed us off completely from the world, or we would be or already have been at war with the world, or civil war would have surely broken out be now with dire consequences.

However all in all, I would personally just like to wish Nelson Mandela a very happy getting released day!

All the best Madiba! You are the best!

Check the video below of his first press conference the day after he was released.

- Marky Mark

And so after an epic jaunt down the gauntlet we have a victorious winner who managed to gouge a few eyes out to claim two tickets to Invictus at the plush new HMVCurzon Cinema in Wimbledon in yesterday's giveaway!

Believe me I am grinning through clenched teeth when I say this, but…

Congratulations to Robyn Prowse taking 1st place! 

You may ask why I'm grinning through clenched teeth… well… let me tell you a funny little story… as luck would have it, it turns out that Robyn's father used to be my hard lined superintendent when I was locked away in boarding school at Linpark High School in Maritzburg… I should be charging Robyn a hefty amount for these tickets… payback time haha

And for 2nd place, well done to Angelique Jardine for winning two tickets to see "Mugabe and the White African" also at and courtesy of the HMVCurzon in Wimbledon.

Well done girls! Hope you enjoy it!

Okes, you need to get your shit together as you may have noticed that the case of Crème Soda was also won by a chick! 

Just incase you didn't know… the answer to the simple question was:

James Small played Wing in the World Cup Final

Laters!

- Marky Mark

I have a pair of tickets up for grabs for Invictus, soon to be showing at the new luxurious HMVCurzon Cinema in Wimbledon! 

The widely anticipated Rugby World Cup 1995 movie, Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar and Morgan Freeman as Nelson  Mandela, is soon to be released here in the UK on the 5th February and it shall be showing at the new state of the art HMVCurzon Cinema in Wimbledon.

The HMVCurzon gives going to the movies a whole new unique experience, with cutting edge BARCO digital projectors and a state of the art sound system designed by Munro Acoustics. One thing that I find pretty schweet which I'm sure many of you lot will too, is that their screens are fully licensed, so you can enjoy a drink and snacks during the movie from their very stylish bar which stocks a Berry Brothers Wine List and the best lagers around… plus free Wi-Fi just incase you want to check out what's happening on PharSide before you watch your movie of choice. Check out all this awesome new cinema experience has to offer at http://www.hmvcurzon.com, it looks phenomenal and I seriously doubt you'll have the usual distractions that you experience at any normal cinema whilst you're trying to enjoy your movie.

In order to win the pair of tickets to Invictus, you will need to make sure that you are a fan on the PharSide Fanpage on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pharside.co.uk as this only open to fans of PharSide. Secondly you will need to email me the correct answer to the following simple question to be inline to win….

What position did James Small play during the 1995 World Cup Final?

Here's a clue…. Google is your friend

Email your answers to informer@pharside.co.uk, subject header: Invictus Compo

But it doesn't stop there, I also have a 2nd prize of a pair of tickets to "Mugabe and the White African" showing this weekend at the HMVCurzon, which definately sounds very interesting.

MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN (12A)

Dir: Lucy Baley & Andrew Thompson, UK 2009, 90 mins.

A disquieting documentary following the experiences of Michael Campbell, a white farmer who…stood up to Robert Mugabe’s violent campaign of forced land reclamation. Refusing to back down in the face of intimidation, Campbell challenged Mugabe at the South African Development Community’s international court. Filmed covertly, this documentary provides a rare first-hand look at life under Mugabe’s dictatorship.

Please Note: The pair of tickets for Invictus are valid from Monday 8th February 2010.

Due to limited viewings, tickets for "Mugabe and the White African" are valid for the following dates and times,

• Saturday 6 February: 10.45am & 1.00pm
• Sunday 7 February: 1.00pm

Entries close at midnight on Tuesday 2nd February 2010

Winners will be announced on PharSide.co.uk on Wednesday 3rd February 2010

You can also book tickets for any movie being shown at the HMVCurzon at http://www.hmvcurzon.com/

The new HMVCurzon is situated on Wimbledon Broadway literally a few steps down from Wimbledon Station, for directions and map, please see http://www.hmvcurzon.com/

- Marky Mark

As many of you know, The Great PharSide Creme Soda Giveaway started a few weeks ago and all you needed to do to win was  be a member of the PharSide Fanpage on FaceBook as seen in this previous article.

Well after a tough competition of hair pulling, biting, bitch slapping, scratching, back stabbing and name calling at unimaginable heights, I would like to proudly announce the winner of The Great PharSide Creme Soda Giveaway part Uno, which is none other than….

Samantha Taylor from Wimbledon! WOOT! WOOT!

Here is the pic of Samantha smashing her way through furiously to number one spot and claiming an awesome victory!

WELL DONE SAMANTHA! your case of Green Ambulance's is on its way! Hope you've got one bottle blue top to compliment it with

BIG THANKS to everyone for their support in this, not everyone is a loser here, only the people that didn't win haha

No seriously, due to the awesome success and support that I've had with this "trial run" I reckon we do The Great PharSide Creme Soda Giveaway part Deux at the end of Feb, all in favour say Aye! Next time it could be you sipping on little green drops of heaven

- Marky Mark

Today many people such as myself waited in anticipation as to what Apple were going to announce at their conference in San Francisco. Was it going to be a new iPhone? Well we were hoping…

The last 15 months have been tough, and I say tough because 15 months ago I got a cellphone that was supposed to be hot shit and said to give the iPhone a run for its money, boasting a multitude of new features and awesomeness… well… I was wrong and very wrong I was because for the duration of my 18 month contract I have endured pain, suffering and quite often short spirts of absolute rage to the extent that I am quite surprised that this piece of shit that I own has not been thrown on the pavement with an awesome follow through swing and then subseqiently jumped on, crushing every single little component of its useless being. I can hear The Phreak chuckling away at me from over here, at my epic failure at choosing this Sony Ericsson X1 over an iPhone when I took out my contract. However to my utter delight for some reason I was on the O2 website the other day and noticed that if my monthly bill is over £50 a month which it always is, I can upgrade 3 months early…WOOT! WOOT! Well I can honestly say the rest of my day was awesome, because on the 4th February I can call up O2 and place an order for 1 x iPhone 3GS.

It wasn't soon after that that I realised there had been a lot of talk of rumours flying around the net about Apple releasing a new iPhone in June, known as an iPhone 4G which is said to be a major upgrade from even the 3GS and with Apple's announcement conference just days away, I thought I'd wait and see what was going to be revealed. Now the rumours are that the new iPhone would be kitted out with a 5 megapixel camera and 64GB storage space amongst other things which sound pretty great and possibly worth the grueling task of baring with this piece of shit that I currently own until then. 

So today came and the world sat on the edge of their seats closely watching what Steve Jobs was going to announce when out he comes with something we all kinda knew about anyway…. this…the iPad.

Basically what the iPad is, is a largely oversized iPhone (quite literally), about 10" across, better known as a tablet PC whereby everything is controlled by a touch screen, keyboard and all. Not something that is going to fit in your pocket, unless you are wearing dungarees ofcourse.This is something that the big players such as Microsoft and others have been trying to get off the ground for many many years now, but never really succeeded in breaking the market. To be honest I'm not too phased by it to say the least, and if it does actually break the market, I think that the only reason would be that its made by Apple and looks a bit more pimping than its predecessors. I wasn't even really that amazed by its spec to be honest… 1Ghz CPU and 64GB storage, perfect for media types and non-geeks. I'm like a racing car driver, I don't care what my car looks like, as long as its fast! And that was that… no talk of any new iPhone, pretty much to everyone's disappointment.

There is speculation that if they are going to release a new iPhone later on in the year then there would be another Apple announcement. Am I gonna gamble on that and it doesn't happen at all with me needlessly having to deal with my SE XShit for the extended period of time? no… I'll settle for a 3GS for now because no doubt will there be a new iPhone out by the time I'm due an upgrade.

- Marky Mark

Just cause you're all so frickin awesome, I've decided to give away an entire case of Sparletta Creme Soda to one lucky bugger! And that lucky bugger may just be you so check it out…

Every Saffa in London knows the true value of a green ambulance, those little green drops of heaven aren't something you can get out of the fridge at any petrol station when you're putting petrol in like in SA, noooo, you have to get them from South African shops and sometimes at specific off-licenses that might stock a few South African products. In other words, when you have it, you savour it and enjoy it in its full capacity. So for my peoples in London I'm gonna show some appreciation for the support and giveaway a case of Creme Soda, yes 24 cans of pure saffa bliss

The way it is going to work is quite simple and thanks to FaceBook its going to be even simpler.

All you need to do is make sure you are a fan of PharSide.co.uk on FaceBook. As you can see in the fan box below, this shows a number of members at random every time you visit this page. So on the 31 January, whoever is the first person displayed in the top left corner of the fan box when I bring up the page, gets the case. Its that simple. Kinda like a mini lotto but it doesn't cost you anything. So share this with your mates and tjoon them to go halvies with you if they win

So make sure you're a fan to be able to be a part of the fun and on the 31st January I just might be contacting you to tell you you've just won yourself a case of Creme Soda. Just add a one bottle blue top and you've got yourself a cane train haha

On the 31st January the winner will be announced and a screenshot posted showing the result.

For the time being this is only open to fans in London as your case of Creme Soda will be delivered to you. Unfortunately it doesn't seem as simple a task to arrange in SA.

- Marky Mark

It seems Pamela Anderson being in close proximity to me, didn’t go down quietly at all, noooo…

It appears yours truly made an appearance in a number of major publications worldwide.

Here’s a little round up of where I featured

2OceansVibe.com – Now this is something that I didn’t see coming, in fact I read the entire snippet without twigging on that this was myself that I was reading about for a few seconds. I am still in awe that Seth Rotherham had taken the time to punch in a few words down for moi… the one thing that springs to mind is the “We’re not worthy” scene from Wayne’s World… After all, Seth was the final bit of inspiration that caused PharSide to be what it is today, so I’m pretty chuffed about that Cheers Seth

SA Promo Magazine – If you had a look on Page 41 of the latest copy of SA Promo Magazine which is one of the biggest publications for South African’s outside of South Africa, you may have noticed a nice little article along with the photo of Pammy and Viv enjoying their moment with me. Again that “We’re not worthy” scene from Wayne’s World replays in my head. Massive Thanks to Sue and JC at SA Promo for the mention. At this rate I’m soon going to be able to pull a Paris Hilton and start charging clubs ridiculous amounts of money to have me make an appearance If you didn’t manage to get hold of a hard copy of SA Promo, check the online version here, also check out the wicked new site design

Daily Mail – Would you believe it the paps even got a photo of me which landed up in one of the UK’s biggest news papers. He was lucky enough to get Pammy and Viv in the pic aswell, he must have got alot for a triple whammy pic like this Thanks Daily Mail

- Marky Mark

And so 2009 has come and gone, 2010 has kicked in and looking extremely positive already.

Firstly I hope you all had a wicked new years, and secondly apologies for the lack of posts recently. Unfortunately it would seem that the silly season's constant partying antics cloud the writing skills somewhat along with moving house and getting back, stuck into the full time job have also kept me away my laptop.

2010 has already started to get very exciting and is no doubt looking to be a year of alot going on. Already I've moved back to the "Passion Palace" due to the studio flat becoming a little cramped for myself and The Jen, so we've got a bigger boat for ourselves, plus more exciting plans in the pipeline so you'll just have to wait and see. It seriously looks like its gonna be a biggie!

Here's wishing you the very best for the year ahead and may you wildest dreams come true haha

- Marky Mark

Just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

This is the 100th post or centenary post if you may on PharSide since it became a full blown blog, and I just want to thank you all once again for the outstanding support! Nothing makes me happier than bumping into people when I'm out with them saying they love what do! Its unreal and it really keeps the motivational juices flowing like you wont believe!

So here's hoping you have an awesome Christmas and hope you get super spoilt by Christmas Father enjoyed with family and friends!

Have an awesome day!

Here's a little something for you guys and girls… enjoy

- Marky Mark

If you've ever wondered just why celebs hate the paparazzi so much, well here's a little taster… this is Pamela Anderson leaving Studio Valbonne in London where she made an appearance on Saturday 19th December 2009…

Absolute vultures, down there with the Parking Ticket Wardens

- Marky Mark

FaceBook is going wild at the moment with Saffas in London updating their statuses announcing the first bit of snow starting to fall this Christmas

Will we have a white Christmas this year?… I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The Jen has just informed me that its a mild 30 degrees in Durban while they enjoy their public holiday… nice

Good for some like Mr. Melly, Snow today, tan on Saturday… the lucky bugger is getting on a plane to SA soon.

The pic below was taken a few mins ago from my office window in Canary Wharf 
not much but if it carries on into this evening we may see an inch or two

- Marky Mark

Over the past few weeks theres been alot of talk about the FaceBook Group, 'RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1!' that seems to have ruffled X-Factor's Simon Cowell's feathers a bit. The time has come to see if this campaign is going to work.. and so far, it is… take a look

The group was created a few weeks ago by Tracy and Jon Morter who like many, seem to be a little bit more than fed up with the winner of the X-Factor sailing through to the UK Christmas number 1 slot, which it pretty much has done for the past few years. The last non X-Factor Christmas number 1 was back in 2004 where the Band Aid 20 released "Let Them Know It's Christmas" ever since then its been X-Factor winners such as Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke respectively, and since this evenings X-Factor final won by Joe McElderry, many would already expect that the Christmas Number 1 spot is going to go to the X-Factor winner with his, as many would put it, "Glorified Karoke Cover", The Climb originally recently released by Miley Cirus. It's not surprising that many people are getting just a little hacked off that each year the X-Factor is timed to end on the Sunday of the Christmas Number 1 chart run up which has blatantly turned the whole thing into a manufactured money making racket blocking the way of more respected artists, which is basically the reason for the Facebook Group.

The group now has over 700 000 members and urges its members to purchase Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name which was released back in 1992, from a list of download sites such as iTunes for around £1 from December 13th. If you listen the lyrics of the song you'll probably realise why they chose it to be the front runner.

Its actually not the first time this has happened, last year Alexandra Burke released "Hallelujah" originally written by Leonard Cohen, however the masses responded by purchasing copies of the late Jeff Buckley's version of the song, which in my opinion is even better than Leonard Cohen's. Its actually one of my all time favorites. In the end Alexandra Burke hit Number 1 and Jeff Buckley sat at number 2 marking a first in chart history that the same song has claimed the top two spots similtaneously.

Simon Cowell recently commented on the Facebook group as it being a direct attack at himself however if that was the case, then I think they wouldn't be using the "X-Factor" but rather Simon Cowell's name specifically in their campaign.

I've got nothing against X-Factor, its pretty cool that people get the oppitunity to display their talents and make something of themselves, but what I don't agree with is that they never seem to have hits of their own (mind you Leona Lewis' cover of Snow Patrol's Run was very rare awesomeness and I don't care what anyone says about it) and the timing just before Christmas is blatant exploitation but good luck to the dude, I just hope he realises he is basically a music industry pop exploit at the moment, time will tell if he lasts in the long run.

Now check this out, as of 12am this morning, I've just taken a look at the iTunes Top 10… and would you believe it… people aren't wasting time, take a look for yourself…

Apparently within minutes, Killing in the Name sky rocketed to Number 1 before Joe McElderry could even make a dent on the charts with his teeny bopper cover.

Lets wait and see if it holds out against X-Factor, its gonna be an interesting couple of weeks. I've always been a huge RATM fan so I hope it does, although it is kinda for the wrong reasons as one thing I don't think was really thought through correctly, is that Rage Against The Machine are signed to Epic which is a subsidary of Sony BMG, so either way Simon Cowell's pockets are going to get full. I think if they wanted to do something like this, I reckon they should have got some dude and his guitar who is completely unknown, to take the honours.

I would really like to hear what Zack De La Rocha; Tom Morello and the boys have to say about it although I haven't found anything so far.

If you're keen on joining the fun, join the group at  http://bit.ly/inthename and get all the details you need to purchase the single and if you like donate a buck to charity which is a pretty cool thing to do

- Marky Mark