Category Archives: Thoughts

I have a problem with keeping my shoes polished.  Every day I look at them and think they could really use a shine but somehow I always manage to put it off.  This morning, while ironing a shirt, for some odd reason, I think I hit on the reason why.

Having been in the army, I learned how to keep shoes and boots gleaming and in tip-top condition.  Like many things they key to this is in having the right tools; and looking after them.  You need to have a stiff brush with densely grouped bristles for applying the polish, a softer less densely bristled one for shining, an old toothbrush for working polish into the seams and some kind of cloth for buffing to a shine.  Polish should be applied with one side of the application brush and then rubbed in well using the entire brush.  The polish should be given time to dry before shining and should be applied sparingly enough that the bristles of the shining brush remain clean and virtually free of polish.  Once a good shine has been reached with the brush, the cloth is used to buff the leather to a high shine.  Which polish to use is a personal choice and some swear that one brand is better than another.  I prefer to use Kiwi but Nugget or another brand works just as well in civvy life, where we’re not trying to satisfy a bad-tempered NCO, just look presentable.  Keeping your brushes and cloths clean and in good condition is important.  You want them to be as clean as possible so you don’t get polish everywhere when you clean your shoes and if the bristles are bent and splayed, or caked in polish, the brush needs replacing.

You’ll be wondering what any of this has to do with me avoiding polishing my shoes; in a word children.  I have two sons who like most children have little regard for caring for any tool; unless it is something they have bought themselves.  It doesn’t matter that I may have bought new brushes as recently as last week; you can be sure that when I go to use them, I will find them caked in polish and with the bristles bent.  Just taking them out of the bag they’re kept in is an invitation to get your hands covered in polish.  My realisation this morning was that I, being someone that takes pride in keeping my tools in good shape, can’t stand to handle the brushes, polish tin and cloth in the state that my sons leave them.  So I just put off polishing my shoes as long as I possibly can.  Clearly the answer is to buy myself a new polishing kit and keep it somewhere out of the clutches of my offspring, so that I can once again take pleasure in how easy it is to have shiny shoes when I have the right tools.

Technorati Tags: army, shoes, polish, cleaning, polishing, boots, children, parent

If you’re into travel stories then you must check out Neil’s and Lloyd’s Most Excellent Adventure, a travel diary of two South African friends attempting to cross South America in 100 days. Countries they have visited or will be visiting are Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras.  Today’s entry talks about their experience of tackling the infamous “Death Road”, which turns out to be less scary than its reputation suggests, on mountain bikes.

I needed to deposit a cheque and some coins that Mela has collected into my bank account so I went off to the Nedbank branch in Somerset Mall this morning.  After passing through the outer area and negotiating the security doors I reached the inner sanctum where the money is, only to find a long queue.  I wasn’t in a rush so I filled in a deposit slip and joined the queue.  It didn’t move for the first 5 minutes or so, as the customers at the counter obviously had many transactions to complete.  Other customers in the queue started to get restless and berated the staff on duty, demanding to know where the other two tellers were; only two of the four counters were manned.  The answer was that as it was Saturday they had the day off.

Having worked for Nedbank I know that the policy for branch staff is that they work every second Saturday so effectively the branch runs at half-strength on Saturday mornings.  I presume that the same is true for other banks but it makes absolutely no sense from the customer’s point of view.  Most of us work Monday to Friday and if there is not a bank branch very close to where we work it is a major undertaking that can consume an entire lunch time, just to pop in to the branch to do something.  I can be flexible with my hours so could go in late or leave a bit early to do my banking but as banking hours are only 09:15 to 15:30 this doesn’t work for me either.  So that leaves Saturday mornings when banks are only open for four hours in any case.  So everyone that works during the week comes to do their banking on Saturday, making it the busiest banking day and to have banks running on fewer staff on their busiest days makes no sense.  They need to look at an alternative way of giving their staff time off to rest and be with their families.

I just received an SMS message from Sports Illustrated magazine, saying that as I had enjoyed their swimwear edition so much (I subscribe to the swimwear edition mailing list) they were offering me a discounted subscription. I will not be taking them up on their offer. I wonder if they would be surprised to know that I only buy the swimwear edition each year, despite the fact that there are articles about sport in it.