Air New Zealand is all set to run the world’s first matchmaking flight for lonely hearts. The airline has revealed that a plane with American passengers aboard will be invited to come to New Zealand in October to “get amongst it” with single kiwis.

“If your dating profile says you enjoy fine wine and long walks on the beach, then New Zealand is your perfect place for romance. Plus our down-to-earth, warm and wonderful people are an added bonus,” the NZPA quoted Steve Bayliss, Air NZ’s general manager for marketing, as saying.

“And let’s not forget the splendid Kiwi accent-what more could an American guy or girl looking for love ask for?” he added.

The specially-themed flight will leave Los Angeles for Auckland on October 13, ahead of the dual Hemisphere singles’ party of the year-the Great Matchmaking Ball at Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre-on October 15.

The Matchmaking Flight passengers will get to enjoy a pre-flight gate party at LA’s LAX airport.

They will also provided with themed food, drink, entertainment, and games throughout the flight.

Do you think we can try this in South Africa?

Source: blog.taragana.com

Sometime around the turn of this century, guys began buzzing over a proposed showdown between the two biggest icons in comic book history

This debate has drawn a lot of intrest and a website has been created for this debate.

Some comments include

#1: The batman would lose very badly against superman un less ,batman has a piece of kyptonite of planet kypton on hand to negate the powers of superman

#2: Batman would beat Superman every time! The greatest superpower is always intelligence. Batman has beaten Superman on every occasion where they’ve met as adversaries. Superman, from the Lords of Justice, took a serious beat-down from Batman

#3: Superman would totally win! Why? He would win because he can face any challenge or anyone at anytime! He has all the right powers a super hero need while Batman only has a few gadgets and can’t really “fly” at all he may have that hot car but Superman could definitely catch in one “whoosh” of his cape.

My call is that it will be the bat by a whisker. Both guys will be pretty knocked up but Lex will give the bat some kryptonite and that will be the final straw.

You can even vote on this site. Check it out. Superman VS Batman

Funky wine brand Versus and traditional, value-for-money Welmoed will be exhibiting at the upcoming Stellenbosch Wine Festival.

Join us at the Versus and Welmoed stand in Hall B at Paul Roos in Stellenbosch to taste some of our award-winning wines.

The Welmoed range maintains its proud winemaking tradition. The brand has built up a solid reputation both in South Africa and selected international markets. The range is led by varietal specifics, and placing quality ahead of price, these approachable wines combine a proud sense of history with Welmoed’s distinctive carefully crafted approach.

Versus wine brand will wow the younger audience with its uncomplicated, easy-drinking wines, and consumers are also afforded the opportunity to sample Versus new Naturally Sweet range.

The least competent criminals and IT-challenged fireman  are the main weird news stories of the week.

Least Competent Criminals

Questionable Judgments: Christopher Lister, 21, pleaded guilty to a home burglary in June in Leeds (England) Crown Court. He and two pals had attempted to steal a plasma TV in broad daylight last year, but witnesses easily identified Lister. He is 7 feet tall and lives only a few doors down from the crime scene.

Markeith Webb, who was wanted by police for a bank robbery in Easton, Pa., in June, left a string of indignant phone messages at a police station, angry that cops had released his photograph to the media. Just for that, he said, he would make sure they never caught him. He was captured six days later.

More Sci-Fi Movie Ideas

Researchers in Japan and Spain found recently that Argentine ants, normally highly aggressive and territorial, are actually one huge global colony with three expanding centers: a 3,700-mile-long stretch in Europe, a 560-mile strip in California, and a swath of Japan’s west coast. Researchers hypothesized the kinship because, when members from those groups were thrown together, they became docile. [

A June article in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases reported the worldwide reach of incidents of tapeworms that grow inside humans to nearly 40 feet in length. The most serious carrier, according to a Scientific American summary, is salmon sashimi. (Anthony Franz’s 2008 lawsuit against a Chicago sushi restaurant, for a 9-foot-long tapeworm, is still pending.)

Can’t Possibly Be True

Until Mayor Sharon McShurley changed the protocol this year, fire stations in Muncie, Ind., had been delivering reports to department headquarters downtown by dropping them off in fire engines. McShurley ordered the department to learn how to send reports by e-mail.

In June, the New York Police Department spent $99,000 on a typewriter repair contract, which will take on increasing importance since last year NYPD bought thousands of new typewriters, manual and electric, costing the city almost $1 million. The NYPD still is not even close to computerizing some of its daily-use forms, such as property and evidence reports.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

We’re having another Market Day wine sale at our Welmoed cellar door in Stellenbosch.

Dates: Thursday 30 July to Saturday 1 August 2009

Venue: Welmoed Cellar door. Here are the directions: Directions to Welmoed

The following wines will be on sale:

If you’d like more details regarding the sale, please contact Anri or Zoliswa at our cellar door on 021 881 8062

For many people, cheerfulness is directly proprotional to sunshine and winter means hibernation with a blanket, bad mood and chocolate.

But while the sun goes on vacay, you don’t have to be miserable. South Africa is pratically bursting with excellent comedy shows to cheer you up. All you need to do is put down the chocolate, take off the slippers and venture out to find one.

And we’ve even made it super easy for you thanks to our list of comedy shows and clubs that should not be missed. Now, put down the chocolate…

Cape Town:

Albert Hall, Woodstock is home to the “Jou Ma Se” Comedy Club. Kurt Schoonraad acts as MC and introduces both well-known and new comedians every Thursday. Expect some raunchy humour, purely South African lingo and an excellent night out. You could even be surprised by a celeb comedian or two popping in…

• Theatre on the Bay is once again hosting South Africa’s favourite comedian, Alan Committee. BIGGER! BETTER!! FASTER!!! is Alan’s 11th one man show and is running until the 1st of August.

• The Baxter Theatre is once again playing host to the Cape Town Comedy Festival, now sponsored by Nandos. Known as one of the top 5 comedy shows in the world, you can expect international and local acts that will have you rolling out of your seat.

• Kalk Bay Theatre offers a fabulous night out where you can laugh at other people’s expense. Improvision performs unscripted theatre in the form of theatre sports every Tuesday night. You can expect hysterical laughter, ridiculous situations… and to get involved yourself!

Johannesburg:

• Montecasino’s main theatre is going to filled with laughter from the 5th of August. If you missed Alan Committee in Cape Town, have no fear, he is bringing the legendary Defending the Caveman show to Jozi!

• Cool Runnings in Melville is a staple on the Jo’burg comedy circuit with Sunday being the regular comedy night. Don’t be surprised if you see an up and coming comedian just before they hit it big.

Call 011 482 4786 for more info.

• Carnival City offers daily doses of laughter for your comedy blues. Wednesdays see naughty hypnotist Alain D Woolf take the stage while Fridays and Saturdays showcase a variety of talent from Joe Parker to Chris Forrest.

Durban:

The Playhouse Opera Theatre presents the Queens of Comedy - television personalities Krijay Govender, Leeanda Reddy and Kaseran Pillay. Sharp-witted stand up comedic routines are inter-mixed with hilarious sketches on everything from marriage to funerals – offering you a new perspective on life.

• The Comedy Express in the Krakatoa Bar at Sibaya Casino hosts local comedians every Friday night. You night out of laughter can also include a little gambling at the casino – just don’t spend all your winter chocolate money all at once.

Call 031 580 5000  to book.

Bloemfontein:

• Bloemfontein City Hall is showcasing Max Kaan the hypnotist – for one night only. You may remember him from his SABC TV show Nowhereland with Max Kaan and now you can see him live on the 5th of August 2009.

Pretoria:

• SA State Theatre is showcasing the antics of some of South Africa’s heavyweights in the comedy world. TV personalities from Phat Joe join the cast of the film Bunny Chow to cheer you up and will soon have you feeling much better about winter.

Port Elizabeth:

• The Port Elizabeth Opera House is featuring a hysterical show brough to you by celebrated comedian Casper de Vries. For 4 nights only in September, Broedersancestors will explore our past and heritage in a way that only South Africans will understand – and will have you laughing along the way.

Source: gotravel24.com

Congratulations to Heidi van Wyk

Heidi is the lucky Facebook fan of the month and has won a Versus Wine Hamper.

Become a Facebook Fan of Versus Wines and stand a chance to win wine hampers: Versus Wines Facebook Page

The wrong leg amputated, a towel left in the chest after an operation and a brain op done with a hand drill. Sound like a movie? Unfortunately not.

But before you cancel your upcoming operation, keep in mind that the risk you run of something like this happening to you is fairly small.

Here are some spectacular medical blunders that have hit the headlines in the past few years.

Towel trouble. Bonnie Valle donated her body to science. A year after her death, her body was dissected by medical students, who found that a hand towel had been left behind her left lung during surgery for emphysema seven years before. She had complained of chest pains incessantly in the years before her death.

Brain drain. An elderly man, who had developed bleeding on the left side of his brain underwent surgery at a Rhode Island hospital. However, the surgeon operated on the wrong side of his brain. The patient survived.

Mastectomy mistake. Linda McDougal (aged 46) underwent a double mastectomy in the US, only to find out after the operation that she did not have cancer. Her test results had been switched with those of another woman.

Hear, hear. In 1991, a patient in Iowa City, had an operation to his ear, because he suffered from vertigo. You guessed correctly – the wrong ear was operated on. He took the doctors to court.

HIV horror. Several Italian doctors from the Careggi hospital are in serious trouble after transplanting some organs belonging to a woman who was HIV-positive. It was only found out after the transplants that she had been infected.

Penny problem. A couple from Nevada took their young daughter to the doctor eight times before it was discovered that she had swallowed a penny. She had been consistently treated for respiratory infection. An X-ray finally revealed the source of the problem.

Wrong leg. Five people in the United Kingdom had the wrong leg amputated between the years 2003 and 2006, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Details are not available.

Deadly dose. A patient at the Brockton Hospital in the US, who suffered from depression, was prescribed the sedative Librium, instead of the anti-depressant lithium – at 60 times the normal dosage. The poor man died.

Drugs trial. Six healthy men recently took part in a drugs trial at Northwick Park Hospital in London. The men were given the anti-inflammatory drug, and soon after became ill. Several of them landed in the intensive care unit, suffering from organ failure. Two were said to be critically ill. They responded to treatment.

Drilling drama. And to end on a slightly more positive note, a Peruvian doctor used a drill from the hardware store and his own pair of pliers to do brain surgery on a man injured in a fight. There were no instruments at the hospital. The operation was successful.

Source: health24.com

Fire Claims

A former Australian state deputy premier revealed in June that the federal government had so far paid out 67,000 compensation claims regarding the February brush fires, though only 2,000 homes were damaged.

Cultural Diversity

The nomadic Vadi tribe, in the Indian state of Gujarat, continues to be adept at flouting the country’s 18-year-old ban on snake-charming. Historically, the Vadi have taught their children, beginning at age 2, to be at peace with cobras through affection and respect. According to a June dispatch in London’s Daily Telegraph, male children practice the iconic flute routines, and females provide hands-on care and feeding. The cobras are not de-fanged (which would be disrespectful), but each is fed an herbal solution that supposedly neutralizes the venom and is released back into the wild after a few months’ service

First class travel for prisoners

The normal way that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons transfers “low-risk” inmates between institutions is to buy them bus tickets and release them unescorted with an arrival deadline. In the last three years, reported the Las Vegas Sun in May, 90,000 inmates were transferred this way, and only about 180 absconded. Though supposedly carefully pre-screened for risk, one man still on the loose is Dwayne Fitzen, a gang-member/biker who was halfway through a 24-year sentence for cocaine-dealing. (Since the travelling inmates are never identified as prisoners, Greyhound is especially alarmed at the policy.)

Source: newsoftheweird.com

Pretty weird can be the formed if certain celebrities get hitched. Names like Megan Fox Hunt and Yoko Ono Bono are just few. Here are a few weird celebrity new names:

Can you add a few?

If Megan Fox married William Hunt she’d be Megan Fox Hunt

If Queen Latifa married Larry King she’d be Queen King If Bo Derek married Don Ho, she’d be Bo Ho

If Yoko Ono married Sonny Bono, she’d be Yoko Ono Bono.

If Toni Braxton married Michael Jackson she’d be Toni Braxton Jackson

If Dolly Parton married Salvador Dali, she’d be Dolly Dali.

If Ella Fitzgerald married Darth Vader, she’d be Ella Vader.

If Oprah Winfrey married Depak Chopra, she’d be Oprah Chopra.

If Cat Stevens married Snoop Doggy Dogg, he’d be Cat Doggy Dogg.

If Olivia Newton-John married Wayne Newton, then divorced him to marry Elton John, she’d be Olivia Newton-John Newton John.

If Sondra Locke married Elliott Ness, then divorced him to marry Herman Munster, she’d become Sondra Locke Ness Munster.

If Bea Arthur married Sting, she’d be Bea Sting.

If Whoopie Goldberg married Peter Cushing, she’d be Whoopie Cushing If Snoop Doggy Dogg married Winnie the Pooh, he’d be Snoop Doggy Dogg Pooh

Do you know of a few more funny potential celebrity married names?

Source: ebraumsworld.com

South African vintners in the Stellenbosch area, which primarily produce Pinotage, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic. It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as

PINO MORE

Indulge in delectable gourmet treats that will tantalise your senses at the new Gourmet Lane at the Stellenbosch Wine Festival, which takes place from 30 July to 2 August at the Paul Roos Centre.

Top restaurants in the Winelands area will be serving their best dishes for festival goers to enjoy,   Tuck into signature dishes paired with local wines of favourite Stellenbosch eateries – 96 Winery Road, Overture, Terroir, Volkskombuis, Joostenberg Bistro and the Barouche Restaurant (Blaauwklippen). Each Gourmet Lane restaurant will team up with a local wine estate to create a truly wonderful food and wine pairing experience. The gourmet treats will be available at R30 to R40 per dish including a glass of wine.

Over the years, Stellenbosch has become a true gourmet destination attracting food and wine lovers from all over the world with no less than three local restaurants making the country’s Top 10 Eat Out 2009 poll.

Festival goers can also visit the Clover Demonstration Kitchen where chefs will be cooking up a storm with fun themes such as Get your Game on, Magical Mushrooms, The ultimate tasting menu and Kids with Clover. Raffle tickets will be sold at each demonstration, giving you the chance of winning a wonderful Clover hamper. Funds raised from the ticket sales will be donated to the Clover Mama Afrika Project.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival is a popular destination for both local and international visitors and has become a winelands tradition during the winter months. This year, festival goers can enjoy a selection of over 500 wines and gourmet delights from 170 exhibitors all under one roof.

Source: wine.co.za

What’s not to like about Japan? What’s not to like about the fascinating countries of China, Thailand and South Korea? Not only do these places offer some of the best eats, treats and cultural delights on the globe, but they’ve devoted centuries to the ancient art of KICKING ASS WITHOUT WEAPONS.

Another interesting thing about the Far East is that many people do not speak much English. But with English being the international language of commerce and all, they have to try anyway. Hence we have Engrish, the colourful language you get when dodgy translation and signage collide.

Source: speakerbox.co.za

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival, which takes place from 30 July to 2 August at the Paul Roos Centre, is eager to give something back to the community by aiding welfare organisations in the area.   Stellenbosch Child Welfare, Stellenbosch Animal Welfare and the Clover Mama Afrika project will each receive funds raised at the festival from concerts and demonstrations.

The preceding Wine Week kicks off on 24 July with a Concert-in-the-Cellar, where Lize Beekman, renowned musician and songwriter will entertain the crowd at Delheim Wine Estate. The gourmet evening starts at 19h00 and includes a delicious meal, exceptional wines and great entertainment at only R280 per person. Funds raised from ticket sales will go to the Stellenbosch Child Welfare.

Animal lovers can support the Stellenbosch Animal Welfare Dinner, which takes place on Friday, 24 July, at Clos Malverne Wine Estate. The evening, hosted by Middelvlei, Stellekaya and Clos Malverne, includes an unforgettable three-course dinner, a wine auction and live music at only R200 per person – all for a good cause.

The Clover Demonstration Kitchen is getting their pans dirty for the Clover Mama Afrika project by selling raffle tickets, which give festival goers a chance to win a Clover hamper at each demonstration. Last year, the Clover Mama Afrika project managed to raise R33,000 which made the building of a bakery possible. With exciting themes such as Kaas is Baas, Magical Mushrooms, Hot-Love-In-Here and Clover with Kids, the Clover Demonstration Kitchen is definitely one stop not to be missed.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival will display a special selection of over 500 wines and gourmet delights from 170 top exhibitors all under one roof. It comes as no surprise that the festival also provides charitable organisations with a platform to create more awareness for their cause and projects. This year, the Anna Foundation that assists disadvantaged schools and communities, and Charity Wines, who raise funds for charities relating to Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, will each showcase their organisations.

The Pebbles Project that is focused on enriching the lives of children with special educational needs, will run the Kiddies Care Service, available on Saturday and Sunday at the festival. They will also be organising a toy-drive on these two days and are appealing to kids to bring along a new toy to be donated to a crèche, which will help other children to learn communication skills, hand-eye coordination, numeric skills and assist in their creative development.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival is a popular destination for both local and international visitors and has become an ongoing tradition during the winter months in Stellenbosch.

For more info visit: wine.co.za

The following graphs were a result of scientific studies …ye right…

Here are a few really funny signposts.

Source: gotravel24.com