bertusras

Yeah I did. I was looking for a shelving unit and found that they had excellent units, and even more excellent prices. Ended up buying way more stuff than only the shelf when I went. I was really so impressed. Everything was neatly organised, pricing was clear, the shop was light and bright, the aisles were big, the staff were helpful. Compared to Builders...

I had my first Leroy Merlin experience a few weeks ago and I was blown away. I really wish that they would open up a branch in Pretoria. I was also ogling the stack of wood when I was there.

I have a feeling that there's internal communication issues at Ducati as well. Gigi is a master, that is for sure, he has made huge steps forward with that bike, but if the engineers don't listen to the riders (and they never have, not even when Stoner was there) they're not going to solve their issues.

Yes, and no. Having gone through this whole exercise the past few months (I work for a property developer), it's not quite a simple as just looking at the value. Tshwane's last General Valuation was in 2016 (it's done every 4 years) when the property market was pretty high. Since then, REIT's have plummeted, vacancies have increased, rentals have come down significantly. Yet, the CoT decided to increase the values of our properties across the board, by between 20-40%. We immediately thought, jeeze, now we're in trouble and started gathering information to appeal the new valuations. Much later after having put all the facts together, we had found out that the multiplication factor to calculate the actual Rates & Taxes had also been reduced, which meant that the actual Rates & Taxes would stay more or less the same, or come down in some cases. Like I said previously, it has got nothing to do with the actual value of the property, and more to do with the income that the City is supposed to generate. If you believe that his valuation is too low, you are very welcome to submit an appeal to the City. Edit: Is your property valuation an accurate reflection of your perceived value? Edit 2: From the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act The value is not determined by the Council itself, but is rather contracted out to 3rd Parties:

Feedback from one of the local Facebook groups over the weekend said that it's still a no-go, do it at your own peril.

Council valuations are rarely anything to go by though. The city needs to make X amount per year from property taxes. There are Y amount of properties. Divide X by Y and apply some ratios, now you have a value. That's all that it is. Like splat said, the real value is what someone else is able and willing to pay. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's unfortunate that a dog got run over and that the cyclists raced away. We don't know the full story of what happened, and either side will most likely blame the other side. The situation across pretty much all spectrums at the moment is Us vs. Them. No matter what. The exact same issue is prevalent on Wolwespruit's facebook page for example, with dog walkers and trail runners on the cycle trails. I had a seriously close encounter several months back coming down a fast downhill bit with a blind bend, when all of a sudden the entire track was blocked by a family walking dogs. There are clear no-entry/wrong way signs at the bottom of the track, and the separation between trail running/dog walking tracks and cycling tracks are clear. Had I not veered off into the bushes and clattered into them instead, I'm 100% dead sure there would have been hell to pay about a cyclist smashing into dog walking family with no regard. It's just stupid, honestly.

I'll try and dig up an article from several months back of an interview with a senior HRC engineer. Honda are very lucky to have Marquez, because he was the only one capable of pushing the bike on the front end due to the lack of power (against the Ducati). When HRC finally brought the correct engine for the 2019 season, Marc started crashing less, because he didn't have to push the front as hard to make up time. Yes, to an extent the bike has been developed for MM, but that's also because he is the only one who is and was able to ride around its flaws. It's very much a similar situation to when Casey Stoner went to Ducati in 2007. He was able to push the bike beyond its limits, at the risk of frequently crashing. And let's face it, why would HRC change their entire design, if they keep on winning with Marquez? Yes, the fact that he's gone and binned it in the first race is a possible reason, but up to now, despite the fact that the other bikes are easier to ride, more adaptable to multiple riders, no-one has been able to stick it to Marquez. Why risk changing at the expense of becoming mediocre? It's like having offspring. You can be a fish and have a thousand babies in the hope that 10 will mature, or you can be a lion and have a single one, but you damn well make sure it survives. Edit: Found it https://www.crash.net/motogp/interview/930963/1/honda-marc-s-clever-he-understood-new-bike-immediately-exclusive That's the crux of the matter. Marc asked for more power from Honda, because it's free time. You don't expend a lot of energy or take big risks going down the straights, but they knew that other issues would pop up. The big thing is that they were able to reduce their risk on the front end by having "free speed" due to a punchier engine. Edit 2: This interview is also worth a read https://www.cycleworld.com/inside-mind-motogp-engineer-hrc-technical-manager-takeo-yokoyama/ And I'll try find one last one, but a lot of it comes down to HRC's engineering philosophy and how they rotate their engineers through the racing department. Edit 3: Here we go https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-news/behind-the-locked-doors-of-honda-racing-corporation/

Buyers remorse, I think.

Woah. Only two cars that weren't lapped???

With all the other guys stuffing around, I might put some money on Marc Marquez winning the 2020 championship for ****s'n'gigs.

I had the EXACT same thought. That was so close, omg. His face just said "this isn't worth it" to me.

I am super duper excited Wings might definitely be required on the big bikes!

Just, wow. Kudos. What a classy lad.

If you don't like it, don't use it.

Oh you're in for a good time!

Uh, not quite. Dorna dictates that teams MUST field another rider under certain conditions, whether the teams want to or not.

Has anyone gotten their refunds yet?

So shortsighted, unfortunately. At least now he knows he's human. The fact that coming off at 300kph at Mugello didn't already scare the **** out of him left me baffled.

I should have taken pics, but you can cross either side of the trench. You have to walk a bit as it's narrow and unstable, but it's totally passable. It's not too far from Bapsfontein, and you can actually see it on the Google Maps: https://www.google.co.za/maps/@-25.9673443,28.3764832,376m/data=!3m1!1e3

Wish I knew about it sooner! It will definitely become my go-to long route for the foreseeable future.

The Delmas road was eerily quiet on my outing this morning. Turns out a massive trench across the entire road was the cause of my bliss!

Did my return this afternoon, 4x more back in pocket than what the auto-assessment spat out.

Now that I've finalised my logbook and collected all my other tax docs, the E-Filing site is just non-responsive. Faaaantastic!

Yeah so mine only accounted my RA contributions, I still need to manually submit my logbook for my travel allowance, will make a huge difference to the refund. But I think for most people without any funny benefits it should be pretty close.