Away to Robben Island today, so here’s a QP of an SAAF Oryx helicopter that flew rather low over our roof the other evening.
Yeah, I know you were probably expecting rotor blades and wheels and camouflage (the staple ingredients of any helicopter), but it was dark out and this rather abstract image is what came of an 8 second shot (with a camera) at the roaring beast above us.
Watch out on Instagram for #ShotsFromTheRock
It does finally feel as if I am back to where I was pre-Covid. It’s taken a lot of patience and a lot of hard work – and it will continue to take a lot of hard work – but I do feel like I’ve crossed some sort of threshold.
My last three runs have all been inside 6:00/km, which is really as fast as I’ve ever managed to go anyway, and I’m not very close to dying like I was when I did that back in April. In hindsight, that was a fairly foolish effort, and I’m only half proud of what I achieved.
Run-wise, at least. Staying alive was a quite a coup.
Football is fun again, rather than impossible, and my legs ache because I’m exercising, rather than because they’re full of interleukins.
It’s only taken 15 months.
I mean, technically, it’s Volume II, because the “Back to…” serves as an indication that this has happened once previously already. But you get what I mean, right?
Right.
I’m heading back to Robben Island this week, assisting with a school trip and looking forward to the amazing experience of spending another couple of nights in the converted prison which serves as the base for the Learning Centre there.
Managing 40-odd 12-year-olds – many of whom haven’t been away from their families for more than a night (if that) before – for three days is always challenging, but it’s also hugely rewarding; and to be able to see “behind the scenes” and learn about the history and nature of the island from properly knowledgeable and passionate people is a real privilege.
I’ve said that before: here.
Longer-term readers (what’s wrong with you guys?) will remember my foggy run in 2020 and my chukka partridge a year later.
I wasn’t well last time around, so I’m looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with the lighthouse and the penguins on an early morning jog (me, not them).
More on that sort of thing in the post I have planned for tomorrow.
But for now, I’m looking forward to another three days of hard work, education and enjoyment.
Tomorrow is Market Day for my daughter. A multi-disciplinary project at school, incorporating Design & Technology, Maths, ICT, Art and not Geography. She and a partner are selling cookies and cake-pops, and so they’ve been hugely busy all day getting things ready.
The results look rather decent:
They’ve done all the planning, advertising, budgeting and preparation themselves, and all that is left to do now is take their wares and float to school, and reap the financial benefits (and then write an assignment, probably – there’s always an assignment, isn’t there?).
But that’s assuming that these goodies make it through the night. I’m the last one up this evening, and I actually rather fancy something sweet with my Spanish football. I’m not sure I could get through all of them without getting a lot of diabetes, though.
Actually, it’s going to be an interesting week at school. More on that tomorrow (he said, enigmatically).
[cliffhanger]
Exciting news yesterday, unsuccessful shopping this morning, high hopes for football this afternoon, looking forward to a party this evening.
Let’s regroup again tomorrow.