Vernon Koekemoer.

On a few odd occasions I have ended up bonding with the people I have written about. One such character is a guy from Boksburg whose real name I have promised not to divulge. He does, however, have a very public persona - he is the man, the legend: Vernon Koekemoer.
Vernon fever first took off in March last year after a photo of him taken at an outdoor rave began doing the e-mail rounds. Then somebody gave him a name, people started getting creative with the pic and the persona and then - bam! - he was an internet phenomenon. So I wrote about him. Stacks of people mailed me with information about who he was, the latest Vern sightings and the newest Vernpics. And then he contacted me himself and so we became buds.
He is an awesomely lekker guy. He lives in Boksburg, builds armoured cars for a living (I kid you not!!), works out at Benoni Virgin Active (a LOT!), has a girlfriend he says is "beautiful like Patricia Lewis" and they have matching tans.
We've kept in touch and catch up with each other from time to time. This morning he mailed me to say hi and send me a recent pic of him and his cherry at the SAFTA awards last Saturday.
Hmmmm. Very Vernon, I thought. Especially those spectacular boots - almost weapons of mass destruction. But definitely a change from the Buffalos he is famous for.
Then he sent me a second image and I saw that the black jersey was actually low cut. And that gold chain.
I have no words...