Rugby League is back. Not here in SA, where quite literally no-one thinks that it’s real, but in the UK and in Australia. I’d love to watch some from the UK, but we don’t get that here. But two or three NRL games a week is a very welcome addition to my sport-watching programme [Mrs 6000 groans]. And because of the time difference, it doesn’t get in the way of the footy!
The Harvey Norman replay returns!
See?
We’re 30 minutes into a game that I’m really not that bothered about, between two teams that I don’t even like, and I’m already questioning the ref’s poor decisions and I’m already fed up with James Tedesco’s whining. To be fair, he’s mainly whining about the ref’s poor decisions, but still…
And it’s only on in the background while I’m doing other stuff.
[goes and does other stuff in the kitchen at half time]
Still, it’s a nice escape from the other stuff that’s happening around the world.
Although if the ref keeps going with calls like he’s just started the second half on, there will be violence. And quite reasonably, too.
As the world slips ever closer to global warfare, with South Africa offering to be the mediator between the US/Israel and Iran – basically the equivalent of letting Pep Guardiola referee a Manchester City game – there’s very little to be happy about.
The countries involved in the conflict are trying their hardest to win the battle for hearts and minds with selective reporting, and the fake news sites are furiously peddling their wares. It’s hard to know what to believe. And it’s sometimes harder to accept the things that are (probably) true.
And so, as ever, we turn to humour.
This is (almost certainly) fake news, but it’s very well done:
Indeed. Frying pan and fire stuff.
More tomorrow, when I wake up to find out which new country has joined the fun.
If you walk down onto the beach at Suiderstrand and take a right turn, following the coastline along and into the Agulhas National Park, you’ll come across a large log on the beach, about 1½km towards the cottages out at Piet se Punt. Just next to the rocky outcrop know locally as “The Washing Machine”.
It is a big log, so big in fact, that you can see it from space (with a bit of zooming in on Google Maps).
It’s been there for as long as we’ve been going to Suiderstand, and that’s 17+ years. And now, thanks to a bit of research, I found out that it’s actually been there from about the turn of the century, after a Swiss-owned, Panamanian-registered, 24,732 dwt freighter, the MV Sanaga, sank off the south of Madagascar on October 11th 1999.
What? Give us the details, please.
With pleasure.
The MV Sanaga was built in 1979 and was carrying a cargo of logs (see where this is going?) and stainless steel from Durban to China. The logs were teak and mahogany from West Africa, each one about 10m long and each weighing around 20 tonnes.
The MV Sanaga got into trouble, began taking on water and issued a Mayday call. The crew of 26 Indian nationals abandoned ship and were picked up by a passing Japanese container vessel.
The freighter was subsequently presumed foundered. And it seems reasonable that it took the steel down with it, while the logs… well… floated.
But that posed its own problems. The Agulhas current dragged the logs southwards and westwards along the coast of South Africa, where they caused many issues. In January 2000, at Blue Horizon Bay, near PE (as was), a woman and her grandson, playing in the surf, were seriously injured when a wave brought one of the logs down on them:
Iloma Cilliers was helping her grandson, Mark-Anthony Mayhew, out of the water when a wave lifted the huge log on to them and crushed them into the sand. Cilliers’s husband, Lowie, dug them out and they were treated for serious injuries in the intensive care unit of a Port Elizabeth hospital.
While elsewhere on the Eastern Cape coast, a 10 year old boy was knocked unconscious by a log while swimming, and sadly drowned.
Reports had been received of at least two other children who had suffered head injuries from being hit by logs in the surf at another Port Elizabeth beach.
They also posed a huge danger to shipping all around the South coast of the country. Several logs washed up in False Bay: at Cape Point, Strandfontein, St James, Kalk Bay and Fishhoek.
And – as we now also know – further east, in Suiderstrand.
As they found out in Fishhoek, you need a large crane to be able to shift these logs. Which makes this seem a bit silly:
Johan Scheepers, a customs and excise official, said people should not remove the logs from the shore: anyone wanting to salvage material washed up on a beach has to obtain a salvage permit and pay 15 percent duty on the value of the object. The logs are believed to be worth thousands of rands each.
Not something you’re going to be able to quietly slip into your back pocket. And since The Suiderstrand Log is in a National Park, not something you’d be allowed to quietly slip into your back pocket anyway.
That weight, and hardwood being what it is (hard), despite the very best efforts of the South Atlantic Ocean, and although there has been a lot of weathering over the last 26 years, it’s clear that the Suiderstrand log isn’t going anywhere soon.
WANT MORE LOCAL HISTORY? Other stuff that has washed up on the Cape coast from shipwrecks: Rubber Bales.
That might mean something else if you were in the Middle East right now, but it’s very much the South and the West of the continent that I’m talking about here. At the moment, hidden away in our little corner of Africa – away from all the sirens and the smoke – seems to be a very good place to be.
Until later today, that is. Because we’re going to have both. But, once you’ve read this post, you’ll know that they’re really nothing to worry about and you can reassure your friends, family and colleagues.
First of all, the sirens. Koeberg Nuclear Power Station will be doing their annual full volume siren test between 10am and 12pm today. You’ll (hopefully) hear it if you’re in any one of the following areas:
Atlantis, Duynefontein, Melkbosstrand, Van Riebeeckstrand, Philadelphia, Bloubergstrand, Bloubergrandt, West Beach, Sunningdale, Parklands, Robben Island and the farms surrounding Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
There will be a public address message before the sirens, informing you that it’s a test, but just in case you miss that bit, I’m telling you that it’s a test, so you don’t need to panic.
And don’t panic if you see some smoke in the South later today. Weather permitting, there will be a controlled burn in the Westlake Nature Reserve at the junction of Ou Kaapse Weg and Steenberg Road.
I’ve seen another map with lots of fire hydrants marked on it, and I’m sure that the guys in charge of this know what they’re doing. So don’t stress when you see the smoke rising over Tokai (Constantia?). At least, not today.
More information here, but it’s mainly “keep your doors and windows closed” and “don’t put your washing out”. Sensible, if rather mundane, advice.
So there you go. Chill. Nothing to worry about today.
Unless, of course, you hear sirens in Tokai and see smoke over Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. That wouldn’t be good. Then you can panic.
Incoming from the whirring newsreel on my second monitor this morning, this:
What? Threatening the stability of the Middle East? That absolute paragon of stability throughout my lifetime? The shining example of security, solidity and steadiness for the global population? The role model for how neighbouring nations should get on with each other in perfect harmony?
You, Sonny Iran, have got an attitude. You’d better buck your ideas up – you’d better buck them up sharpish. Or you will be out that door. Capeesh?
How very dare you threaten the stability of the Middle East?
Whatever next?
Someone threatening the unblemished integrity of Donald Trump?
