MyPE

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Dear Glen Webster – You should have accepted that offer of a hug from me!

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It was on Woman’s Day 2015 that the Longhair and I witnessed the rage issues that substance abuse can engender.

On that day the Apprentice Longhair was taking part in a 24-hour ergo marathon at the Old Grey to help raise funds for the NMMU Rowing team to attend the 2015 Boat Race in Port Alfred.

We popped out to see how they were progressing and if they had sufficient food for the night only to find that the restaurant was closed for supper. So off we rushed to buy burgers, boerewors and rolls with the aim of cooking these on the Old Grey deck fireplace.

Arriving back we noticed that there were musical instruments close to the fireplace area. The Longhair toddled off to see if she could find the owner of these instruments and, eventually found said person behind a table littered with empty liquor bottles – obviously in no condition to continue playing to a severely depleted audience. Said person was asked politely if we could make a fire and if we could help him move his instruments if he felt they may be in danger.

Permission was given with an airy unsteady wave of his hand and we proceeded to prepare the mountains of food for the rowers and to make a fire.

Just then the musician staggered out and grabbed his guitar saying that he didn’t want to risk it being burnt. With I smile I thanked him and made a joke about not mistaking it for kindling.

Around 20 minutes later this same ‘musician’ came back spewing vitriol and accusing the Longhair of muttering “under her breath” words like; “…and who would give a damn (farg) about his guitar anyway” at the time he had retrieved his instrument.

Naturally I sprung to her defence but the wall of abuse from this musician just escalated – of course he was joined by his drinking buddies who were smoking and drinking inside the premises – one of whom had a baby on her lap.

I admit – I am human – at one stage he accused the Longhair of deliberately trampling on his cables, I saw red and was quietly restrained by the old boy rowers from introducing Glen to my violent brick toting, face bashing, win a fight at all costs side.

The tirade of abuse kept on as Glen and his mates increased their levels of dangerous substances. To say that Glen did not do himself, Old Grey or his industry any favours is the understatement of the century. I honestly think that Glen has some major rage issues and offered him a hug to start him off on the road to recovery. What he then accused me of being (and himself of not) illustrated an additional nasty facet to his personality.

Needless to say we have not since returned to the Old Grey Club for a Fanta Brown or a meal.

As a firm believer in second chances I did not follow through on my threats to publicise and make known his apparent hatred of all woman and mankind giving him the chance to try and work through his anger issues and have kept my ear to the ground hoping that he would mend his ways.

I confess to a feeling of disquiet this past December when he played a private gig and openly defied the No Smoking rules of the establishment (despite being asked on more than one occasion to stop). He then proceeded to abuse his client by ordering Tequila upon Tequila on his clients tab.

And now we come to the ‘monkey’ accusation as highlighted in the Weekend Post on Saturday 16 January 2016:

He [Glen Webster] wrote: “Got home from my gig just after 12, lock gate, rush inside for a pee, come back to unload my gear, do so. The look for my wallet. Gone… thought I misplaced it only to find all my receipts lying all over the garden.

“In the space of a minute some f***er jumped my wall, sneaked into my passenger door and stole my F***ing wallet… I am so sick of… F**k you Zuma and your monkey followers.”

Webster edited our the reference to Zuma and monkeys after he was contacted for comment yesterday.

He told Weekend Post it was a simple misunderstanding.

“My apologies for the misunderstanding, the comment was meant to read ‘many’ followers. Unfortunately I did not proof read and got caught by predictive text,” he said.

The post on Webster’s Facebook page has since been completely deleted.

As you know I am a firm believer in second chances and, after reading this, picked up my phone (which also has predictive text) and tried to see if I could type variations of the word MANY in order for my phone to give me the predictive text MONKEY – I failed completely at this though. Maybe I will be successful at this if I hammer my body with mind altering substances and try again!

Let’s get this straight Glen – I am not calling you a liar for your story about many/monkey predictive text only that your phone may be a very special one – hang on to it, it may be as special as you, have a bug OR be worth a lot later on.

What I do find disturbing in this context (and a little bit in your defence) is the fact that people allow you to say “F**k you Zuma” and get away with it – I sincerely doubt that Mr Zuma would want to jump over your wall or even be able to.

The first step on the road to recovery is admitting that you have a problem and, like a true friend Glen and unlike your 2 800 odd Facebook ‘friends’, I am telling you that even I can see that you have rage issues. Find the root cause of them and begin that healing journey.

That offer of a hug still stands Mr Webster!

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.