Author: 6000

8.7% up!

Posted on

The numbers are in, and Cape Towns dams are officially 79.2% full. That’s a whole 8.7% fuller than this time last week. And that’s a lot of water. I know you guys like numbers, so I’ll pop the increase right here:

78,145,227,000 litres

That’s almost 80 BILLION litres more water than we had last week. Enough to last us almost 100 days at our current usage (which will obviously spike as soon as it stops raining).
Delicious. Just look at the near exponential increase over the last couple of weeks:

This extra water came almost exclusively from the sky, and a quick look at the rainfall figures shows exactly why we are quite literally ahead of the curve.

It’s the 12th of June, and every single rainfall station is ahead of where it should be for this time. Wynberg has already had an incredible 132% of the average rainfall for the whole month. As I mentioned on Saturday, we recorded almost 10% of our annual rainfall in just 36 hours, and the figures from the City bear that out. (Incidentally, the Wynberg figures are almost exactly (like, to the mm) what my rudimentary apparatus recorded in the back garden, which is a good indication that my apparatus is actually pretty decent.) (I’ve been saying that about my apparatus for years, though.)

Plenty more rain is due as well, with another three cold fronts forecast in the next nine days. My surprisingly accurate weather app is saying another 85mm over that period (compared with the exceptional 140mm we had last week). And while we’ll never forget just how scary the Cape Town drought was back in 2018, I do feel that the local population are getting a little fed up of the cold and damp.

The dams are sitting at their highest June levels since 2014. We do still need more though, with Theewaterskloof – which accounts for more than half the City’s water supply – still only sitting at 77%.

But this is a good news story, and we should be happy.

Get the balance right

Posted on

Quite a few decisions are still to be made about the trip up North. And many of those decisions rest upon the quandary of balancing spending money and having fun. It seems pointless to spend a huge amount on flights and accommodation going overseas on a break and then have a crap time not doing stuff because you’re forever just watching the pennies. But then equally, it’s dangerous to overspend: something made far easier thanks to our weird government stance on Putin and Russia, and the scary amount of inflation in Europe.

And so we’ll do our best to have all our ducks lined up in advance, and then maybe adapt our decisions once we’re actually there on the ground and can see what things are really like.

One big decision is around the last Saturday of the trip, which was all organised in London, but now maybe a trip further North might be required. That would require sorting some accommodation, changing flights and making several (or more) train trips, none of which would likely be cheap, but then do you just choose to splash the cash and enjoy the experience on this one thing? I’m leaning towards a yes, but a final costing of that 24ish hour diversion might point me the other way.

Lots of calculations to do. Lots of decisions to make.
Must get the balance right.

Back to it with the positives

Posted on

Right. After the last couple of posts (here and here), which have clearly lacked volume and verbiage, time to write a real blog post again. And this, even though motivation and energy have been sadly lacking throughout today. Seriously, it’s been really hard just to get myself going at all today.

On days like this, it’s important to find the positives.
Small wins matter. And so here are a few:

The sun has been shining.

That’s a bit of a bonus, after a torrid last few days. I’m not turning this into another wet weather post, but we had almost 10% of our annual rainfall in 36 hours on and around Thursday. That’s a lot of water. Dam level report to follow on Monday.

Mrs 6000 is back.

From her intrepid expedition jolly to deepest darkest Africa a larney hotel in Vic Falls.
Because it was sunny this morning, she doesn’t believe that it’s rained all week here. Apparently, she is now an expert about falling water after her last few days on the Zambezi.

We’ve got about 10 days before she heads off to foreign climes again. But then, we won’t be far behind, because:

It’s just two and half week before we go away on holiday.

Wow. There a lot to fit in before then, but suddenly it’s just around the corner and that’s quite exciting.

National Lakes EPs released.

Johannesburg band The Black Hotels were a big favourite of mine, and then they went their separate ways. But singer John Boyd has joined forces with guitarist Lu de Pina to form National Lakes and they’ve just released not one, but TWO EPs: Lights and Movie Night. [Spotify]
Here’s A Secret For You is an early favourite. Let’s just say it’s all rather Black Hotelsy, and let’s also just emphasise that that is great.

Exam results look good – and a work-shadowing win.

The kids look like they have done really well in their mid-year exams. They put in a lot of hard work. I just gave them some good genes. Nurture and Nature in perfect symbiotic harmony.
Additionally, Little Miss 6000 went out work-shadowing yesterday and had an amazing time. She’s been absolutely bubbling about it ever since. And while it was just one day, first impressions matter, and this was a very good first impression.

Steak tonight, ahead of the UCL Final.

Not really feeling the Final vibe. Too one-sided.
It will take something very special to make it special, if you see what I mean.
The steak, though? What’s not to like?