I swear by ice because, really, when is a drink not made better by being colder. And if you were going to say coffee or cappuccinos, sorry friend but Tim Horton’s has made those better too by adding ice.

Everyone should use ice and I think I can make a pretty convincing argument that anyone who doesn’t use ice on a regular basis is lazy. Yep, I used the L-word. If you don’t use ice then you are most likely a pretty lazy person. I won’t say useless because perhaps you are still contributing something to society with your iceless ways but I can bet that in a pinch you’d be hard-pressed to tell me what that was.

See, ice is great but it requires work as well and those lacking in dedication or a strong Protestant work ethic are least likely to find value in frozen water. These people are wrong and, like I said, simply lazy. Ice, by definition, is frozen and so some regular ice cube tray maintenance is required. You need to fill up that tray, you need to freeze it, and when you use all the ice in the tray, you need to replenish it. I find that for half-hearted ice users—the borderline lazy—the last step is the most difficult but I’d prefer frozen water to frozen air, thank you very much, so don’t put that tray back empty.

So ice requires work which is an immediate turn-off for the lazies among us. Ice is also a work out. Studies have shown that the body is actually forced to do work when drinking colder beverages. Through some process known only to scientists, and certainly not to me, the body has to actually heat up cold beverages in order to process them. So the consumption of cold drinks, cooled via ice, is actually a lot like exercise. What an easy way to shed those pounds! Another reason, of course, that those who do not understand or utilize ice on a regular basis are most likely exercise-hating lazy slugs. I rest my case.

Truly then, unless you hate doing work—in which case you are contributing nothing to society—or hate exercising—in which case you are a lazy bag of bones—then you have no excuse to not love ice. Ice is simply great.

This article begins a new series recounting my trip to South Africa in 2008. I travelled there, then, to visit Maria, my wife, as she worked with a small orphanage-type organization in rural Durban. We were dating back then. With the World Cup and all that I thought this would be an excellent time to give a little peek into my, and our, time on the African continent. Enjoy.

Just getting there was a pretty intense experience. Since flights out were about $600 cheaper flying out of the States than out of Canada, I bummed a ride off my parents to the airport in Buffalo, New York. It wasn’t a early morning flight, but I had been up late the night before, scrambling to copy DVDs and CDs to add to a collection I had been creating for Maria, and to do some last minute packing. I didn’t get much sleep, so even an early afternoon flight out, after the long drive from my parent’s house in Newmarket, I was already beat by the time I got to the airport.

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I’ll surely be hung for this but allow me to outline why I think the Oranje will take it all the way to the end of this year’s FIFA World Cup.

Heading into the tournament the Netherlands were ranked #4 in the world of international soccer. Ahead of them? Brazil, Spain and Portugal (in that order). How have these teams, ranked better than the Netherlands, performed?

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Well, if the bad guys deserve some bad press then certainly the good guys deserve some good press, too. This Adventure in Customer Service is a good adventure. The tale of a company that’s clearly doing things right and that’s something we can all appreciate.

With some of the windfall from our October wedding, Maria and I brought a dish rack from simplehuman. This brand, which I haven’t really heard of before, seemed to be pretty prolific in many of the houseware chains that we visited. All of their products whether it was trash cans (which we also bought), storage units, kitchen tools or, in our case, dish racks, were priced fairly steeply but we figured that the mantra you get what you pay for might be true. So we bought a dish rack, an expensive one, and we were pretty satisfied with our purchase. At our house the job of doing the dishes is mine—Maria does the laundry—and this dish rack had everything I could’ve ever wanted. It was spacious, sturdy, fit dishes and cups of all sizes perfectly and even had a place to hang two extra glasses off the side and a slot designated for cutting boards or baking sheets. This dish rack was amazing.

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I switched from primarily using an electric razor to a manual one a few years ago after finding that my face was constantly irritating—and shaving was no fun. I guess I have sort of sensitive skin and dry running an electric razor over it was an unpleasant experience bordering on painful, at times. So I switched to manual and with the shaving cream and all that it became a pretty enjoyable experience to shave a couple times a week. But there was still something left to be desired.

I got a Badger Hair Shaving Brush and a bowl of shaving soap for Christmas last year and this, for me, has truly capped off the whole shaving experience.

I didn’t know what kind of difference it would make from using my fingers to rub shaving cream around on my face versus using a brush but, let me tell you, the difference is worth the switch. There’s just such a pleasant feeling of having a warm gentle brush lathering on the shaving soap versus your boring old fingers. Not to mention the brush helps to open up pores on your face to make for a better and closer shave—and it shows. Using the brush, I get a much more comfortable and enjoyable shave, plus a closer shave and I find that with the brush there’s much more control over how much shaving cream I use and where it goes.

And there’s something to be said for shaving soap, too. The kind that I’ve been using since December is very natural and seems to last a really long time. It’s enjoyable even just to lather up the soap in the bowl. It all feels so much more natural and organic versus something that comes shooting out of a cold can.

If you’re on the fence, just try it. Now that I’ve tried it, shaving with a badger hair brush is definitely something that I swear by.

So the World Cup is a mere 9 days 10 hours and 44 minutes away and I am a little bit excited.

Last World Cup I was stuck cheering for England’s half-baked football team because of my cursed heritage, but this year things are different. This year I’m married to a Dutch girl. So the tables are turned, and I’m cheering for the Oranje this time around and it’s going to be a much better World Cup.

But here’s my dilemma. You see, last World Cup I desired more than anything to buy an England team jersey. One of the official FIFA jerseys that the players wear because, if you’re honest with yourself, you will see that these shirts are things of beauty. Really, they are—they’re very nicely designed and put together. Well this time around, that desire is similarly strong but directed at my new and forever team: the Netherlands national football team.

So I bought a Netherlands jersey and it cost me and arm and a leg but I swore I’d use my birthday money to pay for it—just have to wait until October to pay off that debt. But, hey, it’s the World Cup. Anything is possible. My dilemma though, the one which I referred to earlier, is one of practicality. If you’re unfamiliar with the sport of soccer football then you might not know that the Dutch national colour is bright stinkin’ orange. It’s an awesome colour and looks wicked cool on the field, but is it a practical colour to own? My beautiful wife, for example, despite being Dutch hates it and may or may not go out in public with me while I’m wearing the jersey. She is a traitor to her homeland but that’s besides the point.

The thing is, I can buy the Dutch Away jersey which is white with stripes the colours of the Dutch flag but it’s hardly the same thing. I mean, it’s still a Dutch jersey and it’s much more practically coloured for more regular daily use and wearability but it isn’t the Oranje! Is it?

Dear Blogosphere, please weigh in with your advice. Is my homeland-hating wife right and the orange is just too much, a waste of my hardly-earned future money? Or is it silly to buy a Dutch jersey that isn’t in their traditional, well-known and well-loved bright orange? Help me, dear readers, you’re my only hope.

It’s like a little tea pot that you fill up with a saline solution and stick in your nose. This, my friends, is the neti pot.

If you’ve never heard of it before then you must not watch Oprah. For the record, I don’t watch Oprah, but heard about this wonderful instrument from someone that does. The neti pot is something that I absolutely swear by for relief from allergies and nasal congestion.

It works by adding a bit of salt and some warm water, tilting your head, and pouring the solution into one nostril. The result is the water flowing through your nasal cavity and out the other nostril. Then you switch nostrils and repeat. The whole process flushes out lots of stuff from your nose and clears you right up. In allergy season, the neti pot helps to flush out allergens before they have a chance to build up and disrupt your otherwise peaceful existence.

I swear by the neti pot because it works, but it takes a lot of work. During the winter months I use the neti pot at least once a day. I find this helps fight off colds. If I get a cold, I’ll use it twice a day or more because it’s great at flushing out congestion. Sounds awesome, eh? During allergy season I use the neti pot twice a day, in the morning and at night, and the results have been incredible. While in University, I used to get allergy shots because my allergies were pretty bad. Since I started using the neti pot—for the past two summers—I haven’t got shots and haven’t had a lot of problems with my allergies either. The neti pot flushes everything out.

I know it’s weird and kind of gross, but it’s something that I swear by. The neti pot works as long as you’re willing to commit to it; it’s not a one-off solution you have to stick with it. If you do get a neti pot there are a slew of helpful videos on YouTube to guide you through the process. You could also take a look at them if you’re curious to see what kind of weirdos use this thing.