Author: 6000

Under pressure

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Life is full of questions, but I think amongst the biggest of them today is:

How have I managed so long in my life without a pressure washer?

The patio needed cleaning, and I looked at the hiring options for a pressure washer, but there were a couple of issues. Firstly, it was quite expensive, and secondly, it did far more than I needed.
Overkill. Money for nothing.

“Powerful enough to take the skin off an eland!”

boasted the blurb, but my eland is quite happy – and a whole lot less messy – with its skin on.

So when I saw that there was a reasonable, domestic-sized pressure washer on sale – to keep – for just over the price of two days hire, I thought I’d go for it.

What an amazing decision.

Blasting things clean; removing that layer of previously impenetrable dirt and renewing stuff: it’s such a deeply cathartic process. It’s a bit like when you pretend that the wood going onto the braai is the bones of your enemies [Is alles oraait byrie hys? – Ed.]. Quite literally a cleansing experience. And the patio is a whole different colour to what we saw when we bought (and lived in) the house. Not necessarily a nicer colour, but that’s not the pressure washer’s fault.

Anyway, can’t stop: so much more pressure washing to be done before tonight’s sacrificial braai.

And then there’s the car to wash…

OMG: Cannot! Wait!

Heart

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With all the cardiac problems going around, here’s some important advice.

This sort of thing takes a bit of practice. Go too fast, and you’ll leave your heart behind. Conversely, not fast enough, and your heart will inexplicably somehow get in front of you. Mmm.

You don’t want that.

Keep it inside your body as you walk. And hopefully as you do everything else, as well.

38 years

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This was released over 38 years ago. Yikes.

It’s still evocative and lovely.
It popped up on my timeline yesterday, and was just perfect for the moment, because I actually was a bit miserable then. Ironically, it cheered me up a bit.

Terrible lip-syncing, as was always the way with Top of the Pops. And Morrissey doing his level best to be cool, despite the vacuous, mainstream show on which he’s ended up.

Yet he still manages to look suitable chastised and dramatic as he hits that third verse:

You’ve been in the house too long, she said
And I, naturally fled.

Oh. And that quiff. Timeless.

Poo studies return – and they’ve got some worrying news

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Truth be told, Poo Studies never went away. It’s just that – thankfully – they haven’t had very much to tell us about recently.

It does look as though that has changed recently, though.

Poo Studies is the fun name for the SAMRC surveillance programme for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in more than 80 wastewater treatment plants across 6 provinces in South Africa. Basically, as the link above describes, we can accurately predict the future when it comes to local Covid-19 infections simply by looking for bits of the virus in the wastewater (sewage) in the vicinity. It gives us a 1 or 2 week heads up notice on any impending wave of Covid-19 infections, and therefore up to three weeks on increased hospital admissions.

But while our wastewater has been tested very regularly for quite a while now, there’s really been nothing to tell us about. Until now.

And if you think that Cape Town is a steep rise, wait until you see what they’ve been excreting in Worcester, just on the other side of the tunnel:

To me, that actually looks like someone dropped some virus into the thermocycler. I’m intrigued to see if that is actually a genuine result, although that little rise between 19/09 and 26/09 does do a bit of groundwork. If it is genuine, well, no-one is saying that we’re all going to die or anything, but it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Covid levels are rising again. This is, as we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, the MO of this viral infection. But that sort of increase is a bit concerning.

But what variant will this be? And how will it affect South Africa with its under-vaccinated, over-exposed population. My microbiology senses are tingling with mounting anticipation (and a teeny-tiny amount of dread).

Weirdly, still here

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I wasn’t supposed to make it through yesterday. None of us were.
A “high up biologist” told us so:

But here I am, cruising through October 11th, almost like “the toxins present in the mRNA poison covid vaccine” didn’t get activated. Or didn’t exist. Just like the high up biologist.

Weird.

Meanwhile, back in actual reality: Boosters save lives.