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Thursday, March 6, 2014

CAT, THE DRUG USED BY ALL GOOD WIVES OR JUST MINE?


My knowledge of drugs is still small in comparison to the people here in Johannesburg, Gauteng. I couldn't really tell you the difference between cocaine, tik / crystal meth or even crack and mind you I wouldn't want to. Drugs are not something that ever had any appeal to me and while others in my circles delved into it, I didn't see a need to alter any of my senses for however long. People will speak of peer pressure but that is a load of bullshit. As far as I'm concerned drug addicts / users are amongst the dumbest and most pathetic people on God's green earth. Having said all this you may wonder where I'm going with this so let me get straight to the point, my wife was hooked on a drug 'Kat' and she would use this drug in her parents home and with her 3 children in the house. Now I speak of kat but honestly she's admitted to using all kinds of other drugs also but I'm not going to focus on them right now but the one she's confessed to using more than most.



I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH TO ANYONE READING THIS BLOG POST, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS! THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE HURT BY THIS AND IT'S YOUR CHOICE, NO ONE ELSE IS TO BLAME NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCE. SEEK HELP IF YOU ARE A DRUG USER / ADDICT!

 

Here's a breakdown of this drug from detectadrug.co.za

ORIGIN
Kat or Cat commonly refers to two types of drugs.  Although similar, one is the leaf from the shrub catha edulis which contains Cathinone and is also called khat, quat, kat, gat and tchat.  The other is a synthetic powder which contains Methcathinone and also has the street names Jeff in  Russia and Cat in the USA.  The leaves have been chewed for centuries by the people of eastern and central Africa and parts of the Arabian peninsula. They are bought in bundles which one chews on for a few hours after which you get a speed-like buzz.  The active ingredient was isolated in the late 1970's as Cathinone and it was just a matter of time before a synthesised version was made. Kat powder has been on the dance scene in South Africa for a while, sometimes sold in capsules or pressed into tablets, but most often as powder which is snorted.
 
Cathinone is a natural occurring amphetamine and ephedrine-like substance. Methcathinone is a much more potent form.  Both are psychoactive stimulants and part of the emphetamine family of drugs.  Amphetamines work by triggering the release of dopamine molecules from their storage vesicles in the neurons in the brain. This causes them to flow out to the next neuron in massive quantities. They also block the re-uptake of dopamine but its  understoond that this is not the principle mechanism of its effects. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that regulates motor behaviour.
Methcathinone can be highly psychologically addictive, and can produce methamphetamine-like withdrawals, which is somewhat less in intensity than methamphetamine. It is highly unlikely for a methcathinone user to experience addiction on their first or even several subsequent administrations of the drug.
 
APPEARANCE
White or off-white powder.
 
STREET NAMES
Street slang for methcathinone may include terms such as Cat, Stroof, Katestroof, Jeff, Bathtub Speed, Wannabe-Speed, Kitty, Meth's Cat, Meth's Kitten or Marzipan (from smell during synthesis).
In Europe, methcathinone is primarily known as Ephedrone.
In Australia, methcathinone may be known as ketone or bk (beta ketone).
In South Africa it is primarily known as Stroof or occasionally Kat. Other local slang names include Cadillac Express, Wonder Star, Wild Cat, The C or Gaggers.
 
ROUTES OF ADMINISTRATION
Methcathinone is usually snorted, but can be smoked, injected, or taken orally.
 
EFFECTS
The effects of methcathinone usually last from four to six hours.
Cat users, like users of crystal and other stimulants, often stay on "runs" for days at a time, then sleep for a day or more before starting another binge.
 
PHYSICAL EFFECTS
Methcathinone hydrochloride increases spontaneous rodent locomotor activity, potentiates the release of dopamine from dopaminergic nerve terminals in the brain, and causes appetite suppression. Users can easily forget to consume fluids leading to increased thirst and dehydration. The effects of methcathinone are similar to those of methamphetamine, initially deemed to be less intense by the inexperienced user, and often more euphoric.
 
The effects have been compared to those of cocaine, since it commonly causes hypertension (elevated blood pressure) and tachycardia (elevated heart rate). Reported effects include:

  ·     Feelings of euphoria

  ·     Increased alertness

  ·     Dilated pupils

  ·     Rapid breathing

  ·     Increased heart rate

  ·     Inability to stop talking

  ·     Increased empathy and sense of communication

  ·     Both decreased and increased sexual function and desire

  ·     Loss of cognitive ability relating to the distinction of relative importance of matters (ie. one might spend days thinking that he or she is being productive but later realize that the activity and/or product was not even necessary)

  Injecting this substance has recently been associated with symptoms similar to those seen in patients with Parkinson's Disease.
Chronic high dosage use may result in acute mental confusion ranging from mild paranoia to psychosis.
 
WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS
Withdrawal symptoms include lethargy, depression, nightmares and tremors.
 
OVERDOSE
Overdose on these drugs can result in ‘amphetamine psychosis’, a recognised psychiatric condition. Deprived of sleep and over-stimulated, the user
may panic and become violent, manifesting magnified physical strength. They may feel they have bugs crawling under their skin, and suffer from other delusions and paranoia. Pupils will be enlarged, and heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature will all be increased. Teeth grinding and jaw clenching are common.
 
Again if you are a drug user / addict or know someone who is, please seek help immediately! Your life is worth more than that and the consequences are far worse than the few moments of disillusion the drugs bring. Get help NOW! I have included a few details below for South Africa, where one can get help with addiction but if you're from another country, Google for your nearest help centre / helpline.
 
 

Monday, March 3, 2014

THE SKYPE DEBACLE ... WHO'S THAT BEHIND YOU?!!

Today's story may fuel many a man's paranoia and I'm sure you've told yourself a million times in any relationship that it can't be like that even though that tiny voice inside you is screaming like a million banshees through every part of your being, soul and heart. Enjoy...

Now when the living situation between a husband and wife is a little different ( like so many other things in my seemingly complicated life ) you learn to use technology to your advantage. She lived in Johannesburg and I lived in Centurion, Pretoria. Things like Whatsapp, Facebook and the like become powerful tools of communication between loved ones living a "distance-challenged" relationship.

This story however encompasses the brilliant Skype program. Skype is an online program, to those of you that may not know, which allows you to amongst other things use your webcam to speak to different parties so that you see them in real-time and enjoy their company as though they were really in front of you. You see them and you hear them depending on your laptop / PC's capabilities.

Ok so the background story is complete, we used Skype to communicate with each other. Some nights we would talk to 3 or 4 am, chit-chatting about this and that and so on. Now one such night we were speaking. She was lying on her bed in her room and I was lying on the couch in my lounge. Now and again one of us would disappear to use the bathroom or to get a snack.

Skype is so accurate that you can literally hear things in the background as clearly as though it were happening right there by you. I'm sure if your volume was loud enough you could hear a whisper. Anyway so this night of chatting to "the love of my life", she tells me she's going to the kitchen to fetch a snack.

Now whether she knew or not, her laptop was facing her headboard, which had mirrors on the side. I'm inclined to believe that she forgot about this and as she put her laptop down I could still see what was going on in the room through reflection in these headboard mirrors.

It was then that I saw her walk past the mirror.... and then another larger figure behind her!!! I then called her. The phone rang and rang. About 5 - 10 minutes later she returned. I went quiet. By now I'm sure you can once again imagine the millions of questions lighting up the neurons in my mind and the fireworks of me questioning what I had just witnessed with my own eyes. Did I really see something or was it my imagination.

I then asked her the extremely pertinent question:

"Who was that behind you?"

She then said there was no one else there. I told her I had seen someone walk out of the room as she had, right behind her and again she denied it and said I was seeing things. My mind was literally scrambled. Had I really seen someone, I mean if someone loves you like they say and as much as you do then they wouldn't lie to you would they. especially one's own loving spouse, right?

I told her that I knew what I had seen and that she was lying to my face. I also said I didn't want to here excuses because someone was there! She then got extremely emotional and carried the laptop to her kitchen. All I saw was the laptop moving and then it was placed down. She sat in front of the laptop, in the front entrance of her parents kitchen and she pulled a very large knife, which she had just taken from the kitchen drawer and started threatening to kill herself because I didn't believe it.

She was crying hysterically and saying that she would swear on the Bible if she had to that no one else was in her room with her and she couldn't understand why I was being so hard on her and that I had trust issues because she really loved me and didn't know how to prove it to me except by hurting herself!

Of course I said whatever I could to stop her from hurting herself. This was the woman who had my heart and I really didn't want to see her come to harm especially if I knew I could stop it, what would you do? I begged and pleaded until she finally agreed to put the knife down. A few hours later, after talking and talking the whole situation was forgotten and we moved on ... or so she thought.

Hell, 2 whole years went by before the truth of that night came out and it went a little something like this.... Apparently her male friend, the one who was in the previous story at the Linden Police station, was in fact in the room with her and I did see him walking past as they exited the room so he could leave and go home. He was there because they were doing drugs in her room, in her parents house and with her 3 children around her!!!

Good mother, good daughter and good wife right? Everybody does this right? This is normal isn't it? Now the questions this raised is what her true relationship with this man was, this so-called firend because at every turn, there he was. It's now been 3 years since that night and I still can't tell you what the extent of her relationship with this man is / was.... your guess is as good as mine!

"Who was that behind you?"

Sunday, March 2, 2014

WHY MUST I PICK YOU UP AT THE POLICE STATION AGAIN?

 
JUNE 2011 - Hmmm... this story I can only tell to about the halfway point but I guarantee you that it is about as shocking and interesting as any story I have told and have to yet to tell. So here goes nothing and I honestly wish I were making this up or even embellishing this in the least but as the saying goes real-life is more often than not stranger than fiction.



I called my wife and told her I needed her help the next day. Just as a backstory, I was living in Centurion, Pretoria and she was living with her 3 kids from her first marriage at her parents house in Johannesburg. She told me she didn't have a problem meeting me at the BP garage in Bergbron and we agreed for 11am.

Next morning, being my day off from work also, I showered and left the house. At this point in time, I had a fairly new 320i BMW and driving was a total dream. So as I drove, music playing on the radio, I decided to give her a call and find out if things were still on schedule for our meeting and she said she was waiting for her friend Reza who would pick her up at her parents house and drop her off at our meeting point.

Now she lived about a 5 minute drive from the BP garage, so when I got there I parked the car and waited. It was 10:50am so I was still on time and a little early. The at 11:05am I called her again and she said they were about 2 minutes away.

Two minutes turned to 30 minutes! What the hell was going on now? Knowing that she lived 5 minutes away and having heard her tell me that that she was 2 minutes away I was a little more concerned. She to me they were stopped by police at a roadblock and she was talking to them.

Another half hour passed and I was getting upset. I've been stopped at roadblocks before but this was ridiculous and then my phone rang. I answered and a man spoke. It wasn't a voice of anyone I had heard before. He told me that my wife was at the Linden Police Station and that I should come there because she was in trouble.

Linden Police Station? Where the hell was that? Remember I'm not from Johannesburg so I wasn't aware of all these places. I Googled directions and called the police station for directions. I then started driving. My thoughts were becoming more and more erratic as I drove. After many phonecalls for directions and getting lost taking wrong turns, I finally made it to the Linden Police Station in Randburg.

I got out of the car and there I saw my wife. I greeted the 4 or 5 men that stood around her and asked if she was ok. She was. The one thing this woman was good at was talking, and she was talking and talking. It was at this point that one of the police officers told me what had happened. Finally some truth. What followed was yet again shocking an indicative of the type of people I had now let enter my life.

They first asked me:

"Is your wife on drugs or does she have a drug habit?" 

To which I answered that she had done it before but had told me she stopped. They then asked me how sure I was that she was off drugs and I told them I believe she really was. The rest of the story then came out. Apparently she and her friend, also her drug buddy, had taken a turn on the way to meeting me.

He had told her that he had to pay a guy he owed money to. She told me that she was 2 minutes away but clearly that was a lie. She was actually quite a distance away. What he said was money owed was actually him buying drugs from Nigerians in the Randburg area. Unfortunately for them both, this was part of a sting operation by the police and they were both taken by the cops.

It was then that they called me and the rest is history. The cops told me that if I could vouch for her they wouldn't arrest her since she wasn't seen buying the drugs but she however was in the car and that proves intent. I told them about myself and that she wasn't this drug user ( Which by the way looking back now, I couldn't have been more wrong in my entire life ).

At this point they brought out Reza, her friend in handcuffs. They then told me they give me permission to beat the, excuse my language, "shit" out of him. I was so speechless with what was happening that I could only look at him. My wife still talking and talking in the background. This was the most pathetic thing I had ever seen in my entire life. What's with drugs? I still don't get it but this is life I guess.

The police let her go and we both left. My head still reeling with all the crap I had just encountered, the lies I was told by my wife and her mouth still going on and on with no off switch. This was a world I had never in my entire life been exposed to or even these kinds of people but here I was. Seriously, as naive as I was, I had only seen these things in movies but because of the kind of woman I had married, this seemed to be the life I was now innocently sucked into. Yes I had a sheltered childhood perhaps but this was just so wrong.


I then picked up the phone and called her mother, telling her mother everything that had transpired. Her mother was shocked but thanked me for helping her daughter. Clearly her daughter was in trouble. Clearly her daughter had a problem and gullible old me believed every word I was told. I honestly didn't know that drug users / addicts could lie so much or what it took to love a drug addict / user. All I thought was this is my wife, why would she lied to me? Just another day in drugland!

"Is your wife on drugs or does she have a drug habit?" 

Saturday, March 1, 2014

IT'S ONLY A PHOTO ... AND IT'S YOUR BROTHER, WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?



MAY 2011 - So one quiet Sunday afternoon, I'm relaxing on my couch in my lounge, watching TV and taking some necessary R&R from my job as a retail store manager. Stretched out and taking some time to myself I suddenly heard my phone make a sound. I carefully lifted the phone, pondering who would send me a message and desecrate my much needed peace and silence.

Feeling a bit hesitant, at the odd chance it may be a work issue, my heart skipped a beat. I saw it was a text message. Had my store been robbed? Did they need me to come in to work?  These were just a few of the many questions which now plagued me. I immediately sat up took a breath and then checked the message.

Lo and behold it was a "selfie" of my wife in her bra and underwear... confused, I asked what the pic was for? She replied saying she had taken the pic a while back and thought that I would like it. Something inside me didn't click too well or rather let me say something was truly amiss. Now my wife is pretty but that picture was not flattering in the least.

She was wearing a black underwear set of sorts and sitting on the carpet of her room where she stayed with her mother. Her one leg was raised and the other straight out. Problem is that she suffers from a skin disease and throw in some healthy cottage cheese ( cellulite ) and you kind of get an idea of what I'm talking about. Then I asked her the million dollar question:

"Who else did you send it to?"
 
To which she replied no one else. Again I felt that sinking feeling. She said she had taken the picture a while back but it was for me. Personally, I'm not into those kind of things so the whole episode was just a little puzzling to say the least. I saved the photo.
 
Months go past and I had totally forgotten about the photo, until one night when again I was relaxing at home and my phone rang. Now I don't know about you but sometimes when the phone rings do you get the feeling that the news is not good? Just sometimes in the very bottom pit of you stomach?
Well that was the feeling I got and then I answered it.
 
"Asalamu alaykum," the person greeted and then proceeded to ask the strangest question, " is she there? I need to speak to you alone!"
 
I walked out and heard a story that sickened me to my core. The kind that makes your skin crawl and your hair all over you body stand on end. The person on the other side was my mother. The tale she told was, well then at least, the worst things my ears had ever heard.
 
So my mom tells me that one of her acquaintances came to see her after calling multiple times and telling her it was an emergency and he had something he must share with her. He told then proceeded to tell her that he was at my youngest brother's house and they were sitting chatting.
 
Apparently my brother was boasting about how he had bested me and he finally had proof. Laughing he showed my mother's friend the exact same photo of my wife sitting on the carpet in her underwear etc. He then sent the picture to my mom's friends phone so he could see and laugh at this as well.
 
Then suddenly my mother asked me how long my wife's hair was because in the picture her was short and in her neck, to which I replied it was shoulder length now. My mom then told me that clearly the photo was taken a while back if her hair was longer now. I kept quiet, I remembered this picture clearly. She then told me that the picture was being sent amongst many men in my old hometown and my brother wasn't shy about showing and sending it to strangers.
 
We greeted and ended the call. My wife was inside the house. I took a deep breath and shook my head in disbelief as I looked upwards into the starry night. Is this really happening? What am I doing wrong? How do I keep screwing up my life with these kind of women? I took another deep breath and walked back into the house.
 
I looked at her as she sat with our 3 month old child and I asked her, who she sent that picture of her half naked to to which she kept quiet and then answered to no one. I asked her two more times and still got the same answer.
 
Then I told her my mother had seen the photo and the entire story. She then looked down and uttered the words:
 
"There's something I need to tell you"
 
 
A story I honestly wasn't prepared for unfolded. She had been chatting to my brother on Facebook and had, on his request to see her naked, sent the picture to him. She then continued saying that she and him were friends before we met, she was vulnerable and about 1000 more excuses. The only thing that stuck in my mind was, she was my wife when she had done this!
 
Imagine the embarrassment of this act, my mother told me, everybody from my hometown where I had grown up had seen this photo and worst of all she sent it to my brother! What's worse? I had never heard of anything like this before. How depraved does someone have to be to do this to their spouse? What the hell goes through someone's head when they do this? Is this normal behaviour? is she some sort of sociopath?
 
WHAT THE HELL?
 
. If I still had the photo then I would post it here for you to see, but unfortunately for me, I don't. Perhaps I could ask any guys who lives in Uitenhage for the photo.....
 
"Who else did you send it to?"