Category: break from the blog

Here we go

Posted on

Right. Holiday mode is very much beginning here, and so those pre-written posts are going to be taking over this blog for the next few weeks, each dropping at 0800 CAT. There are some absolute gems, so you might not even notice, and I will almost certainly augment the offerings on here from time to time while we are away.

Look out for photographic updates on Instagram, and don’t forget that (since Space Karen killed the twitter API) Facebook is now the best place to go* for regular 6000.co.za updates.

Simply hit the LIKE button (Facebook doesn’t know you’re lying) and get notified of new posts as soon as they are published.

Or, you know, just come here each day. That’s always an option.

* how low have we sunk, that this is even a phrase I am using?

Writing in advance

Posted on

We’re about three weeks from heading off to Northern climes, and so my thoughts are turning towards pre-writing posts for our time away, so that if I don’t have time or inclination (or I’m not able) to blog while I’m away, then there’s still something for you to read on 6000 miles… each day.

And if I do get a post done on any given day while I’m away, well, then you get double the disappointment excitement.

Basically, that means writing a couple of posts each day until we leave, publishing one and scheduling the other. I’m usually pretty good at doing that, but I do always have to add the proviso that because these posts are written in advance, and this is a blog at the cutting edge of current affairs, then the subject matter that they cover might have somehow changed: Putin might have dropped the nuclear bomb, Sheffield United might have signed Haaland, Eskom might have sorted the loadshedding problem once and for all.

Sadly, those are most likely in order of probability.

Anyway, on a happier note, if I don’t mess up by writing about something that then immediately becomes dated, you probably won’t even notice the difference each time you access your favourite daily blog.

Or this one.

Coming (going) soon

Posted on

Just a quick admin style post to inform you that the beaglesitter is booked, and we’re going away for a few days from next weekend. Thus, I have my blogging work cut out pre-writing extra posts this week to cover those days, just in case there’s no time, wifi or will available to actually get stuff done while we’re away: it is meant to be a holiday, after all.

I’ve done this before on several occasions and it’s worked just fine. If there are things to share, and I can and want to share them, then I’ll simply add some “live” posts in.

You probably won’t even notice the difference. Seamless.

Unless, of course… something big happens in the news that I didn’t know was going to happen, and then I blog about it – ostensibly after it’s actually happened – but actually the post was written before it took place, and therefore fails to reference it. Or worse still, appears to make some callous or inappropriate reference to it. I used to joke that such an event might be a nuclear attack or some such. But right now, that doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched, so I’ll probably avoid that subject. After all, few have forgotten the infamous “Safest Road Tunnels Next to Rivers in Europe’s Capital Cities” post, prewritten to cover our late August trip to the Karoo in 1997.

Awkward times.

More details of the trip coming soon, and I’ll obviously remind you nearer the time to get my instagram locked and loaded on your device of choice, because sharing photos for likes and attention us to look back on in the future will surely be a huge part of our short family break.

In the meantime, the usual dross and mediocrity laughs and merriment continue unabated in the run-up to our road trip.

Stay tuned!

End of the century

Posted on

(The one from 1919-2019, anyway…)

It’s been an interesting year, but it’s nearly done now.

There were plenty of highs, several (or more) lows, and quite a lot of average kinda stuff, as you might expect. But all being well (as this post was written over a week ago), we’ve made it this far – 364/365ths or 99.73% of the way through. And 2020 beckons. A fresh start, a new opportunity, but still with the same old arseholes who helped make the last few years so miserable. (You can choose your own arseholes here.)

Happy days.

A watery autumnal sunset, punctuated by Swift Terns and anticrepuscular rays seems appropriate. Not one of my best 12, but it fits quite nicely here, and reminds me what I need to improve upon in 2020. Aiming the camera 10° further upwards would have helped here.

Passport pics

Posted on

I like this. Passport photographs by photographer Max Siedentopf.

Those boring, officious, unsmiling pictures we all have to have. Full of rules, regulations and mundanity. Until Max got involved, that is:

Because the face in the little travel document doesn’t always have to tell you what’s going on out of frame.

A really novel idea and a properly creative extension of something we see everyday into a cool project.