Category: 6000 recommends

Day 344 – Wise move

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The new house continues to be made better (IMHO, at least) bit by bit.
Fridge plumbed in yesterday. Electrics and plumbing being sorted on Monday. Pool on Tuesday.

But better costs money and so whenever you can save a bit, you do your best to save a bit.
Sometimes you have to spend a bit to save a bit (more) and that’s exactly what I did today, by getting a Geyserwise installed.

Here’s their website.

We had one of these at our last place and it paid for itself inside 6 weeks.

A quick explanation. Your geyser is your water heater and generally in South African houses, it’s in your loft and it’s on 24/7. This is great for when you want a quick shower at unusual o’clock, but it does cost an awful lot to repeatedly heat a couple of hundred litres of water that you’re probably never going to use.

Sure, you have a thermostat on the geyser, but that’s often very awkward to get to if you want to change it, and sure you can put a timer on your electrical distribution board, but that’s often very awkward to get to if you want to change it.

Geyserwise is simply both those things on a handy digital panel tucked in a cupboard on the landing. So our water is now heated for 2 hours each day instead of 24, and to 55ºC instead of 75. And if we ever need to change those times, that temperature, or simply override it because the beagle has rolled in some more mud and we need a quick blast of hot water for an unplanned bath, it’s a simple press of a button.

Absolute no-brainer.

Our Geyserwise was installed by Kozanai from Mudi Plumbing Services: 078 999 1893. He was quick, friendly and efficient. Thoroughly recommended.

R1550 all done. We’ll have recouped that and be saving money before the end of April.

Day 327 – Boxes upon boxes

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It’s been a very busy day, but we are surprisingly close to finishing our unpacking.

Another 15 or 20 boxes were unpacked today, and many are already on their way to being reused at another unconnected move nearby.

The kitchen cupboards have now been allocated and I’ve almost remembered where the mugs are for my morning coffee.

I unpacked my clothes and I can’t wait to get rid of some to a good cause in the very near future.

A nice man called Simon came round and got our weird (but hugely effective) internet setup set up.

A nice man called Ben came round and got rid of several (or more) European Paper Wasp nests from around the house and garden.

I’d recommend both of them for those sort of specific tasks.
(Simon does CCTV as well; Ben does bees as well.)

The beagle got closer to sleeping through in the kitchen (her usual chosen bedtime spot) last night and only woke me up [weep] three times. I are a bit broken.

High hopes for a full night tonight.

My study is still peach. So very peach.

Day 303 – Goodbye productivity (part 2)

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I first tried Geoguessr back in 2013, but I’ve decided to give it another go now.

Here it is: Geoguessr

Yes, things have changed and you have to pay for it (due to Google charging Geoguessr for using their API, apparently), but it’s still good value with a free trial option and a month to month membership plan.

And in turn, they’ve added some extra games and options, including a Battle Royale, in which you compete against 9 other players from all over the world to see who can identify a country simply from a single Google StreetView shot.

It’s good, harmless, educational fun. And you get to see ice cream tricycles like this one, close to the border in Bangladesh*.

Yeah – you’re not going to miss his arrival, are you?

I now know much more about road markings, signage, internet suffixes, latitude-specific flora, international dialling codes and vehicle number-plates than I have have before (or ever will ever need to again).

And I still mix up Canada and Finland. Always.

 

 

* This is a bit of a bittersweet one for me, as I guessed that it was in India. 20 damn km out. Grr.

Day 175 – Cape Town DSTV and Security suggestions

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This is not a sponsored post.

Decent service and – sadly, sometimes – decent workmanship can be tough to find in Cape Town. And there is nothing worse than having to guess at what service provider you should invite into your home to get a job done safely and properly.

Personal recommendations are the way to go, then. And I have got a couple of them for you if you’re in Cape Town (or if you want to get in touch and try to negotiate overseas rates, I guess).

For your DSTV needs: go to Skye TV – 0217016868. They’re based in Tokai. They’re fast, friendly, efficient, no fuss, and have reasonable rates. What’s not to like?

And for your security needs: AZTech Security – 0618425276 or [email protected] – they’re basically the same as Skye, but for your alarm. And they work from Muizenberg.

Both these companies have done some great work for us and I would thoroughly recommend them.

Day 73 – Trap’t

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A last minute postponement of the quiz last night left the evening open for activities, and so we headed (virtually) across the Big Pond to Stamford, Connecticut and, as a family, tackled the Project GOD Particle online escape room from Trap’t.

Lots of fun. 10/10 would recommend.

For $11.14 (it’s a tax thing), four of us played for about 2 hours: solving puzzles and getting codes using search engines, google translate, instagram, examining security camera footage, listening to soundbites about Lucky Dube(!) and even making a short phone call to the USA!
At R188, it’s a lot cheaper than even local equivalents, and everything was well-organised, cleverly devised and worked perfectly. There’s even support, should you require it (and yes, we needed a little hint on just one bit).

And we finished it. Look:

Did you read that? Yes: THEY NEED MORE AGENTS LIKE US!

It was an evening well-spent and you should give it a go. I’m even dropping it into the 6000 recommends category, and you know I don’t do that sort of thing lightly.