Showing posts with label Durban. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Durban. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

FIGHT AT TOP GEAR FESTIVAL UPDATE


Hello again la tricks, many of you will have read my previous post regarding the fight at the Top Gear Festival, involving two Durban MMA Fighters.

2oceansvibe has the version of Lee Dyer, one of the fighters caught on tape. It is always important to get the full facts / versions before passing judgement or commenting on the behavior of others, so I suggest that you give it a read below. 


However, lets also remember that there are at least three versions of any story : his side, her side and the truth. (postmodernists will argue that there are many versions of the truth, but this is not the time for a philosophical debate...).


ANYWAY, here is what I think :

Yes the video does not show the entire fight. Yes we don't see the whole 'story'. BUT I still believe that at that moment where the chair was thrown, he should have walked away. The retaliation was delayed, and an (apparently) innocent person was hurt in the cross-fire (Is cross-fire appropriate? I don't know what the appropriate term for being caught in a chair-throwing-fight would be? Cross-chair? Mid-seat?).

I also don't actually think that there is any excuse for anyone who gets involved in a physical altercation like that, unless it is TRUE self-defense.

What do you think?

 Below is Dyer's version, which can be found at 2oceansvibe:

Yes, I’ve been in trouble before, but a simple reading of news reports shows that I was found not guilty [on the 2009 charges of assault]. I was targeted because I’m a professional fighter, and CCTV footage showed that steel chairs were actually thrown at us in that incident, not the other way around.

Trouble always seems to find me, but I never go out anywhere to fight.
At the Top Gear Festival I was walking with my wife, and Trevor [white vest, black cap] and his wife. The three gents you see lying on the floor in the video were walking towards us, and they were clearly drunk, I walked around them on the left, and my wife went to my right.

As we passed them, they turned and said, ‘I’d love to grab a piece of this arse!’, and they grabbed my wife’s buttocks. So I tried to throw my beer on one of them, but I was carrying a can so very little came out.

At that point one of the three guys squared up at me and threw a punch. I ducked his punch and turned, and as I turned someone else started hitting the guy. I did retaliate, to defend myself after that man took a swing at me. Then the whole scurry broke out, and my back was turned to the tent. There was such a scene I honestly don’t know who else got involved besides those three guys and myself.

I tried to pick a guy up, because he was lying in a foetal position. As I tried to pick him up, I ripped his shirt a bit. Then a man hit me on the head with a steel chair.
I turned around and he was just saying, ‘Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!’
If you watch that video again, you’ll see when I turn my face, the left side of face is covered in blood.

That man [in the blue shirt, to the right of the frame] hit me over the head with a chair after the fracas had ended.
That’s when I lost it, which is what you see on the video. Unfortunately that woman was standing there.

I did go off my head, and I did throw the chair. That man cracked me a solid shot over the head with that chair. But no one sees that on the video. What you see on the video is such a totally narrow view. You don’t see the drunk guys start it, you don’t see any of the actual fight, and you don’t see that guy, who wasn’t involved in the original fight as far as I can see, smack me with a bar stool once the fight was over while my back was turned.

I’m not the animal that people are saying I am.
I’ve got the cut on my head. I needed stitches in my head, but didn’t get any because I was locked up. I got arrested at the stadium right then and there.
I’ve laid a charge against him, but I don’t know who he is. If I find out who is, he’ll be charged with gross bodily harm.

Something a lot of people have said is that they hope those three guys who were lying on the floor are okay, and so on. They’re perfectly fine. When I was in the cell and the police were taking statements, a police officer informed me that the three guys were perfectly fine. They only have soft tissue injuries, and nothing else. I suffer worse injuries every day in sparring. And in fact, out of everyone I have the worst injuries. My head is badly cut, and my back is killing me.

They reason they look like that in the video is because of how drunk they were! If you’re that drunk, and you get in a fight, you’ll probably pass out.
I understand that people probably think Trevor looks terrifying because he has tattoos and weighs 118 kilograms, but he’s a lovely man. But is that your only reason for judging someone? I mean, how narrow minded are people?
Out I’m sorry about everything and happened, this is not what I go out and do.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

At Liberty Café (Windermere Rd, Durban)



Durban deserves something fantastical after the recent drama at the Top Gear Festival, and I have found it in the form of At Liberty Café in Windermere Rd.

This gorgeous little gem is nestled behind a very cool décor shop off Windermere in Durban.

Besides having the world's most amazing Red Cappucinos, At Liberty, is possibly the most relaxed space in Durban.

Try their homemade soup and beer-bread combo, under the warm winter-sun, with the strains of techno-swing in the background.

Or sit in one of the very cute side-booths, read your morning paper and sip one of DC's creamy cappucinos, with the words of John Lennon behind you.



Not only is the food and atmosphere rated ten-out-of-ten by your own Miss La Trick, but the owners, Jamie and Chris, are awesome company and delight in their patron's enthusiasm for their venture. Feel free to take your mom's group, business coffee meeting, book-club or significant other and spend the day!!

Not only that, but At Liberty is available for function hire, and I predict that it is soon to become Durban's most sought after wedding venue.

Top Gear Festival Drama (VIDEO) (UPDATED)

UPDATE : Have a look at my most recent post for the version of Lee Dyer, one of the men seen on the video.


The awesome Top Gear Festival, held this past weekend, was meant to be a weekend full of family fun. Durban was crowded and it was truly awesome to show off our stunning coastline and sunny weather.

However, there is always one bad apple (in the words of my granny). 2oceansvibe reported on a fight that occurred at the Festival after they got their hands on some footage. It didn't take long to recognize the protagonists, and soon enough more details, including names, were published.

Click on the link to read the details. I am not publishing them here because I cant verify the actual events of the day.


Without knowing the facts of who started what and who punched who first, I WILL say this, which applies to ANY such situation:

It doesn't matter who starts a fight like this. Unless you are actually protecting yourself against actual, imminent or immediate harm, I don't feel you can make the 'self defense' argument. Just be the bigger man and walk away.

My honest view is that there are many points in that video where these two could and should have walked away. But they didn't, and it resulted in a WOMAN being hit by a chair.

With the massive amount of violence against woman and children that we face in South Africa on a daily basis, it is beyond reprehensible that grown men of clear strength should behave in any way at all that results in harm to a woman.

I truly feel that a formal complaint should be made with the relevant professional bodies, so that a proper investigation can be made into the incident.

So la tricks, lets respect each other, and learn to walk away from stupid fights. Throwing a chair does not a man make.




Proudly South African...SA Model millionaire!


Candice Swanepoel, super-gorgeous, and apparently super-rich, has made it onto Forbes Top Ten Models List 2012.


The Forbes Top 10 models list are as follows:1. Gisele Bündchen ($45m)2. Kate Moss ($9.2m)3. Natalia Vodianova ($8.6m)4. Adriana Lima ($7.3m)5. Doutzen Kroes ($6.9m)6. Alessandra Ambrosio ($6.6m)7. Miranda Kerr ($4m) 8. Lara Stone ($3.8m) 9. Carolyn Murphy ($3.5m)10. Candice Swanepoel ($3.1m)

It is estimated that she made earnings of about R26 million rand for the year!! Not bad for a local girl spotted at a Durban Flea-Market!!

Now some of you out there may scoff and say that clearly having a pretty face is more important than Science and Maths, but let me say this : No one makes that amount of money without some business acumen!!

So from me, the great and all powerful cookie la trick, a GIANT well-done to our own home-grown honey!!!