Yellow warning

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There’s a yellow warning out for potential severe thunderstorms and heavy rain over Cape Town and parts of the Western Cape tonight, and I couldn’t be happier. Everything is dry and brown and so very DUSTY.

Not only do we need some rain to alleviate the drought that we’ve been suffering, we need some rain just to give the place a nice clean.

It’s not a huge warning for Cape Town, but they have gone with “High Likelihood”, which is great news. No-one wants floods and stuff; just enough to wash away all the grime. But it must happen, please.

However, we’re looking at a different picture down in Cape Agulhas, where they’re playing with “High Likelihood” and “Significant Impact”. And no-one has forgotten the horrific floods of September 2023 (that one when Juan was a bit of a twat). They could do with the rain, but no repeat of those scenes.

I’ve checked our gutters are clear (and so should you), and I’ll be lobbing some fertiliser on the garden before bed tonight: might as well make the most of the opportunity.

But right now, with the sun still beaming in the cloudless sky, I’m going to watch some footy before the weekend is – once again, all too quickly – over.

Upload

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Great news: TLC have decided to upload the new series of Mock The Week onto YouTube.

You can find it here.

Not so great news: You need to be in the UK to watch it.

Of course, there are many ways of being in the UK when you’re not actually in the UK, and so that’s not too much of a problem.

And I’ll also be using some of those techniques to enjoy the Winter Olympics over the next couple of weeks, given that our national broadcaster can’t afford it and the local Sports TV service has decided not to buy any rights either.

But that’s reasonable, because it’s only the cold places and the big countries that pay for that sort of thing, right?
Well, if I lived in Curacao or Afghanistan, I could watch.
Micronesia, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau are all broadcasting them, as are Yemen and South Sudan.

Cold. Big. Nope.

In fact, it seems like SA is just about the only place on the planet that is not showing any Olympics.

And so local residents will have to rely on the Olympics YouTube channel (not great) or digitally fly to some other place (like Yemen) to watch.

Which is absolutely ridiculous in 2026.

Quickie

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Bit rubbish today: Mrs 6000’s chest infection has caught me out. But a day of rest, and hopefully, I’ll be up and at everything again tomorrow.

Pub quiz last night was good. We didn’t win, but I think we had about an equal number of brilliant answers and really silly mistakes. Broco’s area and Kendrick Lamar, Banksy and female lobsters. It quite literally takes all sorts.

Can I stay awake for tonight’s footy? Probably not.
Would I want to anyway? Probably not.

Why don’t the City do more?

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People are always whining about the various levels of Government in this country. Actually, in any country. No-one is happy. We’ve said this on here before.

But alleged mis-management and poor prioritising aside, this City could do more if it didn’t have to stop occasionally to address shit like this:

Seriaas?

Yes… er… “Seriaas”:

City authorities are warning the public about spreading fake news regarding 500 green anacondas actively living and breeding in Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve after a news alert claimed its existence.

The news alert, which was shared widely on social media, made claims that more than 500 green anacondas were actively living and breeding in Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve. It further stated that the City of Cape Town had declared a state of emergency around the vlei and that access to the reserve was restricted.

A vlei is a lake, for my foreign readers. And a Zeekoe is a hippo. So “Zeekoevlei” means “Hippo Lake”. Of course, there are no hippos in Zeekoevlei, though. No, they live right next door in Rondevlei (“Round Lake”) and they occasionally wander into the suburbs.

What there also aren’t any of in Zeekoevlei (or Rondevlei) is Green Anacondas.

There aren’t even any Green Anacondas in South Africa.
There certainly aren’t 500 in a lake in the middle of the Cape Flats.

But as we’ve seen in other cases, people share first and (probably then don’t even) think later. Here, the consequences are less serious. No-one’s child is going to die of measles (or get eaten by a Green Anaconda, because there aren’t any of them). But the message remains the same. Because despite the authorities having to debunk what is – even to the untrained eye – complete bullshit, there will be people who believed it, and there will be people who will still believe it.

Meanwhile, Eddie Andrews, the City’s Deputy Mayco Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, a man who probably spends a good deal of his day just saying his job title, now has to waste even more precious and valuable time writing statements like the one on the link above, meaning less time for Spatial Planning and Environment duties. Statements which most people shouldn’t have to read, but which many people will not read – or will completely ignore – anyway.

There are no Green Anacondas in Zeekoevlei.

No-one should have to be telling you this.

Still got it?

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Sort of.

I’m old and creaky, and my chest has been a bit iffy this week, but I thought that I’d better give it a go and get back out and play some football for the first time this year.

Too many false starts and missed games, and damn: suddenly it’s February.

So I went out and I gave it a go, and it was hot and muggy and sweaty, and we lost.
Crap ref, but I’m not blaming him for the result. But he was crap.

Anyhow, it was good to get out there again.

Maximum heart rate of 172bpm, maximum speed of 24.7kph, 812 calories that I’ll never see again.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings on the World Of Pain™ scale, but whatever it is, I’m ready for it and it was worth it (T&Cs apply) for a good run around this evening.