Cool story

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I’m not usually one for dramatised versions of true stories on the internet, but (if you ignore the third paragraph), this one doesn’t go over the top, and is an interesting account of the Koeberg bombing, with just enough whimsical input to give it that personal touch.

Some good insight into the way that MK and ANC operative worked in the Apartheid state, without too much detail bogging things down, and the personal story of Wilkinson – who is as far from James Bond as you could possibly imagine – gives it a very human edge.

The link?

Oh yes, here you go:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/the-man-who-blew-up-a-nuclear-power-station-koeberg-south-africa

Definitely worth 5 (or more) minutes of your time.

Landmarkr

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Done your Wordle today?
Sorted the Daily Challenge on Geoguessr?
Connections?
Flagle? Tough one this morning, hey?
The NYT mini?
Worldle? Completed. (Spoiler: it was Nepal.)

Good. Now you can get on with your day and start… HANG ON A SECOND!

Here’s Landmarkr!

Super straightforward: 6 photo clues to a Landmark, City or Country. The clues get progressively easier, and you get a guess each time a picture is revealed. And there are some helpful hints along the way:

Lisbon, Portugal is not on the right continent.

which can really help to narrow it down (this is sarcasm).

Much like Wordle, the quicker you get it, the better person you are. But of course, you’ll need to tell your friends about it so that you can boast to them about your superior record.

And with a full archive of over 200 days available, free of charge, it’s also super addictive. This post has taken me three hours to write, because I just keep popping back “for one more go”.

100% record so far.

My first failure will hurt.

Still pretty, still pricey

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Cape Town doesn’t look its best today.

It looks like a scene from a disaster movie, with floods, broken trees, branches and damaged buildings everywhere.

We did get completely battered by yesterday’s storm.

But… give it a couple of weeks (ok, or maybe a month), and all that will be tidied up and forgotten about, and Cape Town will still be the most desirable city on the continent.

Which has its drawbacks:

But still, you’d rather be here than anywhere else.

That was a biggie

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Monumental weather today.
Over 100mm of rain, winds gusting to 120kph, just absolute carnage.

Biggest storm this century for the Mother City, allegedly.

I’m finding it hard to disagree.

Floods everywhere, trees down – one killing a motorist just around the corner from us – branches all over the place. It’s going to take a while to clear up.
School went ahead for us, but plenty didn’t. And everyone has the day off tomorrow…

…which seems weird, given that today was horrific and dangerous, and tomorrow is just going to be wholly unpleasant. But I doubt that many students will be complaining.

There was a 1½ hour period this morning where nothing could land at Cape Town airport:

Imagine leaving Johannesburg, and then – 4 hours later – ending up in… Johannesburg.

Heartbreakingly awful. Thoughts and prayers.

Locally, there is plenty of damage, with trees down all over the neighbourhood. With the polyphagous shot hole borer beetle epidemic having weakened many of the oak trees around the area, the winds were just too much for a lot of them, and the results are pretty devastating.

If the forecast is correct (and it’s been unerringly accurate today), then we’re just in for about 20mm of rain tomorrow, which is still a lot, unless you’ve had 110mm the previous day, in which case you feel like grabbing your swimsuit and then heading to the beach.

Hopefully, with less wind and less rain, there will be an opportunity to start the clear up: not least for me in our garden. Although, maybe I actually quite like our new rim-flow pool.

Tomorrow

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Today hasn’t been that bad.

But tomorrow looks rather ominous.

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued an Orange Level 8 weather warning for disruptive rainfall in the Western Cape.

Level 8 indicates “Severe” impact, and yes, Mother Nature is throwing everything at us all at once: big waves, big winds, and a lot of rain.

The Garden Route was hit by an Orange Level 8 last week, and… well…

It didn’t end well.

While many schools in the Winelands are closed tomorrow, ours in Cape Town go ahead unless we hear differently overnight.

We’re as ready as we can be. 

I have an umbrella.

Let’s see what happens.