Category: from the blogroll

A couple of Micklethwaits

Posted on

I was drawn to Brian Micklethwait’s blog archives in search of this staircase (don’t ask) and while there, started reading and stumbled upon these photographs taken in Bethnel Green last February.

  

As I have mentioned before, I enjoy Brian’s photography. It’s unpretentious, often imaginative, sometimes cheeky, occasionally rather clever. And then explained or narrated in much the same style.

Brian’s photographs are also mostly urban. And while many may appreciate beauty only in photographs of lakes and fields and mountains and trees, having lived in cities all my life, there’s something comforting for me about seeing wires, tower blocks, and cranes; industry and infrastructure, hustle and bustle.

In other news:
I recognise that the blog has been a little photo-heavy of late, but since the election, things have all gone a little quiet. Almost as if people are waiting for something to happen. It hasn’t. Yet.
There’s really only been the rather unexpected utterly bizarre behaviour of Helen Zille having a pop at JZ and the completely expected utterly bizarre behaviour of the ANC Youth League having a pop at Helen Zille, both of which have been done to death on the news sites and blogs over here.

So I didn’t bother.

I have always attempted to maintain a decent standard of writing on this blog and, if I’m completely honest, I notice that my standards drop when I’m writing about a subject that doesn’t interest my or that I don’t believe in. Thus, if I don’t find something worth writing about, I don’t write about it. All of which made sense when I started that sentence.

But, hey. Don’t worry. This is South Africa. Nothing ever stays normal for long.

Red wine and web chat

Posted on

I have just spent a very pleasant afternoon with Ian MacDonald of SA The Good News, two bottles of rather decent red wine* and our respective families. Which, with the toddler to adult ratio of 3:4, kept us fairly busy chasing around the house and garden. And slightly overdoing the steaks as a result. Sorry about that. How very emboeressing.

What amazed me is that, although Ian and I strongly agree on certain things – principally optimistic realism instead of pessimism when looking at South Africa –  we do so despite coming from very different backgrounds and, it turns out, fundamentally different political standpoints as well. Which obviously just proves that all you need is brains (and – perhaps coincidentally – good looks) and the ability to look at things reasonably and objectively, and while you may be approaching things from different angles, the conclusion is the same.
I can’t speak for Ian, but this sort of discovery gives me further belief that my theories and thought processes are valid and sensible.
And that red wine is just great.

I had a bit of a pop at SA The Good News back in June last year, which earned me a mild rebuke from Ian. Today, fuelled by red wine and an obvious passion for his work, he outlined his mission to me once again; that SAGN is there to balance the ridiculous and sensational negativity presented by news sites like iol.co.za and news24.com. As Ian pointed out, while SA The Good News does have an obvious bias because of its agenda, at least it clearly states it from the title onwards. Which is more than you get from those news sites. 

Another interesting thing about our conversation was discussing the trolls we get on our respective sites. Several names that he came out with have certainly popped onto 6000 miles… now and again and been offensive, racist or – more often – offensive and racist.  Which, once again, made me wonder how many of them there actually are out there. The thousands that they claim, or six of them with a RSS reader and no life?

All in all, it was a great way of spending a Sunday afternoon. And now, blogging, listening to Placebo, AFI and Apoptygma Berzerk and reading (amongst others) Brian Micklethwait, who just came out with this gem:

…a friend from foreign parts is in town and we are, we have just decided, meeting up for a drink.  And I hold drink with all the effortless facility of a kitten holding a packed suitcase on its back.

Which reminds me why, having been up since 4:30 this morning and having consumed my fair share of damn good grape juice, I must now head to my bed via the kettle.  

* Warwick Estate Cabernet Sauvignon(1998, nogal) & Groot Constantia Merlot (2004)

What’s the problem?

Posted on

Oh, this one makes me proud to be English.

From here, via here.

A 29-STONE mum who feeds her eight-month old triplets with McDonald’s has insisted she is bringing the tots up in the “best way she can”.
Leanne Salt, 24, said she is “too busy” to properly feed daughters Deanna and Daisy and son Finlee.
So she lets them eat her takeaways and gives them Wotsits snacks and microwave meals.

(for my non UK visitors, 29 stone = 406 pounds or 184 kilos) 

I have to admit that once, in a fit of desperation, Alex was given 6 Chicken McNuggets from the Kenilworth drive-thru. It was as a result of poor paternal planning and I felt awful for ages afterwards, although with hindsight, that was probably because of the Quarterpounder with cheese that I had at the same time. And the cardboard fries.
Alex seemed to enjoy his reformed lumps of fried, mechanically-recovered chicken though, even if he didn’t really seem to know what to do with them. Well, he was only 6 weeks old at the time.

Of course, there’s no problem with the odd McDonald’s every now and again, even if they do their best to put parents off buying their inaccurately-named Happy Meals. But we certainly don’t go down the road of doing it every day. That would get in the way of his KFC addiction.

Leanne steers away from healthy foods in case it makes her tots anorexic. She said: “I don’t want them to think they have to watch what they eat. I’ll tell them big is beautiful.”

Yes readers, “big is beautiful” – I’ll let you decide on that one:

Picture from Closer magazine

When I see that sort of picture, aside from the immediately overwhelming thought that “big is beautiful” (obviously), I also find myself marvelling at the amazing strength of denim. Presumably, those are just over-the-counter jeans from the fat section of Matalan, and yet look what they’re holding within them.
Quite remarkable and a great advert for Vietnamese sweatshop workmanship.
Oh – and I wonder where the bikini-clad Carrie Fisher is, as well.

Swine flu can’t get to Coventry quickly enough.

Zebra & Giraffe – The Knife

Posted on

I have been listening to a lot of Zebra & Giraffe recently, possibly due to their fantastic performance at CokeZeroFest.

This is a great example of their New Order meets The Cure at a local pub and a young Depeche Mode drop in and join them both for a swift Red Bull or two before heading off their separate ways vibe.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqNy-RM1sWU]

It’s called The Knife. And it’s another surefire hit for Fleet of Worlds, whose musical tastes often seem dangerously close to mine.
He may want to see someone about that.

The Zebra & Giraffe album Collected Memories is available on iTunes and you can follow @Zebraandgiraffe on twitter. (Although it does seem to be mainly about stir-fries).

Good luck Pammie!

Posted on

While I’m not lazing in bed on Sunday, 6000 miles…regular and blogrollee, Ordinary Life (aka Pamie Jane), will be spending (she hopes) around 14½ hours swimming, cycling and running around and around the sleepy village of Port Elizabeth in the Ironman South Africa triathlon.

For those of you who are wondering, that’s:

  • 3.8km swim (through shark-infested waters, nogal!)
  • 180km bike ride, and then, just because you do,
  • a full (42.2km) marathon.

Nuts. Completely and utterly nuts.

If you want, you can track Pamie LIVE on the day via the ATHLETE TRACKER link on ironman.com.
Her race number is 875.

Good luck Pamie, from all of us at 6000 miles…

Note: regular readers will be aware of my dislike for large-scale athletic events which disrupt the daily lives of local residents. This event, however, is completely fine by me as it is some 750kms away in PE.