Author: 6000

Return of the Mac

Posted on

United’s 10th signing of the transfer window. Welcome back, James McAtee:

It’s a great signing, albeit just a loan: this guy is still very much in Man City’s plans for the future. And I love the Twitter video announcing his return. (B)eagle-eyed viewers will recognise bits of the A57 Snake Pass (Manchester to Sheffield, see?) at the beginning of the clip, and that celebration after that goal at Blackpool…

Being honest, it’s not a bad line-up for the Blades overall, in what we all know is going to be a very tough season. Sure, it’s not full of stellar 100 million megaplayers like ManU or Citeh or billion pound spending Chelsea(!), but it’s a decent squad.

And that being the case, I just don’t know why we couldn’t have got more of these deals done earlier? We clearly needed more players in our first three games, and we are not in a position – nor were we ever – in which we could afford to have a delayed start to the season.

And yet…

OK. So now, are we at full strength? Is that it?

Or do we have a late, late signing up our sleeves? Cut off is 11pm UK time.

Remember back then?

Posted on

It’s been a whirlwind of school stuff, dodgeball, trips around SA and general life over the last month and a half. But we shouldn’t forget that we were here:

…far from the hustle and bustle of everything just six weeks ago.

This is the Lady Isabella, The Laxey Wheel:

the largest surviving original working waterwheel in the world.

Built in 1854, 22.1m diameter, 3rpm.

You don’t really get much of an idea of scale until you look closely at the man in blue at about 5 o’clock.

I still have to go through a lot of photos from Ireland and the Isle of Man.
And Kruger.
And now Gqeherba.
And I still have to tidy up my Flickr.

But it’s been a whirlwind of school stuff, dodgeball, trips around SA and general life over the last month and a half.

I’ll get there.

One last day

Posted on

…of this springlike weather before the next cold front comes through and spoils things for the weekend.

This was from this morning, and although it’s yet to make landfall, things are definitely changing already.

Still a chance to head out to horseriding (not me), so we’ll do that before the rain comes in.

Also always a chance of sharing a Kruger pic.

Hard to believe that this was just 10 days ago.

We were reliving some of the (many) great moments last night over a post-match celebratory beer, and there was talk (or at least testing-the-water talk) of another trip.

The water seemed very welcoming.

Give it everything

Posted on

A late one this evening. Sorry if you’ve been waiting.

An incredibly hot, incredibly busy day. And then a football match.

0-4 down (don’t ask) going into half time, we never stopped believing. Eventual 6-4 winners.

I love this bunch of lads. What a team. We gave it everything.

My top speed was 24.6kph. On a 5-a-side pitch, nogal.
Maximum heart rate? 109%. Sorry doc.
More than 22,000 steps today. Many of them at quite a pace.

A great evening.
But now, I am completely finished, yesterday’s travails catching up with me on top of tonight’s efforts.

Goodnight, readers. I think I’m going to sleep really well.

Away again

Posted on

You join me aboard an Airlink flight this morning. I’m on a photo and video mission along the South coast today, which meant a 4am start.

Not great.

Looking out over the Western Cape at dawn is always a pleasure though, and it’s so good to see all the farmland dams in the Overberg glinting in the morning sunlight.

On a bigger scale, that’s Theewaterskloof dam in the middle of the shot through the mucky plane window. It’s very full.

Lovely.

The flight was rather delayed because of a baggage mislabelling issue (their excuse, not mine), so we’re already playing a bit of catch-up, and it’s going to be a long, busy day, but it’s all looking good – especially the weather for the outside shots.

Excellent.

Of course, this post won’t publish until we’re safely back down on solid ground again, so if you’re reading this, you can assume that my Embraer flight has gone rather better than Mr Prigozhin’s did last week. But then I didn’t unsuccessfully try to overthrow a despot a couple of months ago.

Safety first.