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Hot

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It’s hit a ridiculous 36 South African degrees in Cape Town this afternoon, and anyone with any sort of a brain has been sensibly hiding inside.

I’ve been out and about.

First of all grabbing another morning walk in Kirstenbosch, and then doing jobs and running errands: one of which included delivering some table grapes to an estate agency, and another of which included buying some boerie and spuds for dinner. Quick and easy in the air-fryer stuff.

It’s now been suggested to me that I should go outside (again) and light a fire – a hot fire – and cook the dinner over that instead. I mean, it’s not like I could get any hotter, right?

Right?

We might pop out for an ice cream before or after that.
We will be popping to the airport for more family goodbyes a bit later as well. [sad trombone]

Tomorrow promises to be a quieter, cooler day.
I mean… apart from that thing that’s going to happen…

What a day.

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Exhausted. I haven’t stopped today. A school run, some exercise (working off this grumpy knee), a mention from Chris Hawkins on 6Music, another school run, a long and very enjoyable (but my knee was adamant that it was very long) wander round the Waterfront, shopping, another school run, sort the dishwasher, another school run, driving practice to Rondebosch without consulting the cricket fixture list (argh!), a drive to Dodgeball, forgot the Dodgeball pump (not me), turn around and come home (me), another drive to Dodgeball, watch Dodgeball, drive home again, make dinner, eat dinner, help with physics homework, exercise the beagle around the block while looking for bits of my knee on the road, help with French homework, a few little jobs…

…write a blog post.

21,000+ steps have been and gone.

I am knackered.

Heading now for a warm football match and a glass of Roy.

Tomorrow promises to be equally busy, but surely that can’t happen, right?

Right?

Made it down

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Down in Agulhas for New Year, our plans having been delayed by a few days because of that thing with the beagle.

And it will be a weird New Year: no trip to Struisbaai beach this year for the first time in many years, because there will be no fireworks there. The fun sponges are reveling in delight that their darling cats and dogs will spared the ignominy of a whole 15 minutes of noise this whole year, whilst also lamenting that the local economy could do with a few more visitors. But there’s no Sea Shack, there’s no fairground and there’s no firework display. Shooting themselves in the foot, bit by bit.
This year, it still seems to be doing ok, but when you remove all the attractions and add in that wind, which has made the beach thoroughly unusable for the past week, well, who will be coming back this time next year?

Still, this year, it is doing ok. Sure, we arrived at lunchtime on New Years Eve, but everywhere is full and on one occasion, I had to wait behind two other cars at a stop street. This is very unusual. I had almost forgotten that it was holiday season: I go into something of an autopilot when I’m driving down here and the traffic really wasn’t bad at all until we got into Struisbaai.

And I’m very much struggling for cell connection. The cell towers are made for the other 50 weeks of the year, and with Gauteng (quite reasonably) emptying into the Western Cape, Vodacom just can’t keep up. This post marks the start of my 13th year of daily blogging (Eish!), but it’s going to be a struggle to upload it. It’s already been a struggle to even write it. And that with a fancy new laptop too. I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations and that means 4,384 consecutive days of blogging. Assuming you are reading this.

Happy New Year to you and yours and thanks for for your support. See you in 2024 (that’s tomorrow) for more fun and games.
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An emergency post

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There are internet problems in Agulhas. It’s always slow at this time of year, but right now, it’s not working at all.

So here’s a brief post to maintain that record of blogging every day since forever, just in case I can’t upload anything else (like the post I had written).

If you’re reading this, it worked.

Happy New Year!

Today is very busy…

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And it’s not been helped by the poor beagle hurting her leg.

Obviously, the 24hr emergency vet is heaving, given that it’s the only place open for veterinary treatment in the whole of the city.

So this is written from the waiting room floor. We’ve been here an hour already. They’re snowed under.

Would have hoped to have a more positive post today, but fingers crossed we’ll be out of here and happier soon.

Also, there’s just one annoying bloke here who thinks he needs to be attended to before anyone else. Trying all the tricks: he likes the receptionist’s tattoos, he’s chatting to (and delaying) all the vets who are coming out of the consulting rooms, he’s talking loudly on his phone about how long he’s been waiting.
It’s about 40 minutes less than us.

And now he’s wandering around muttering stuff under his breath.

Weird and irritating.

I’ll keep you all updated.

EDIT: Aaaaand… it’s a torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament: possibly done chasing a cat from the garden this morning. Surgery required once the vets are open and working again. A great start to the festive period and the New Year. Eish.