Category: in the news

The view from the gallery

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It’s dull, grey, cold and miserable out there today. Misty and drizzling all day. Seemingly impossible to warm up. We’ve all been taking turns at getting as close to the fireplace as we can.

And so a monochrome cartoon from the Gallery of Apocalyptic Arts seems somewhat appropriate:

Of course, Cape Town isn’t ugly and industrial and horrible. At least, it wasn’t yesterday – I can’t see very much of it today in the gloom. But as an allegory for the general state of the world at the moment, this is sadly rather accurate.

Truly horrible.

New funding

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Great news on funding for the Notting Hill Carnival.

A whole pound. I’m sure that will make all the difference with those “critical public safety concerns”.

Don’t spend it all at once.

It reminded me of the story when this guy missed his jugular vein by “just” 1m.

I don’t know if it was meant to be a centimetre or a millimetre, but either way, it’s clearly not much of a story if it’s a metre, given that that is pretty much the distance from your neck at which chainsaws routinely operate.

Just like I’m not sure if that’s actually a million pounds above, but it certainly would be a story if they’d saved the Notting Hill Carnival by finding £1 of extra funding.

Of course, there’s a bit of a more serious issue here: the continuing slide in standards of journalism.

But at least it makes for decent blog fodder.

6Music. It’s going, but also, it’s not.

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Here we go.

We knew this was coming. And we know that the replacement for BBC  Sounds is the BBC app, which won’t allow me (or anyone else outside the UK) to listen to 6Music.

And that’s still true.

But there is a link in this article which… (unless I’m missing something) allows you to listen to 6Music – just not on the BBC Sounds app.

So this was never about a rights problem with the music, then?

But hey, that’s absolutely fine by me. I will still be able to listen to 6Music here in SA, and that’s all that matters.

To me, at least.

I can’t test it just yet, because it links straight to the BBC Sounds app – which still works.

Until July 21st.

But… but… this is fine.

Isn’t it?

I have learned nothing

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The internet is back. It came back this morning, and it’s been here every since.

But I have learned nothing. I’m still leaving it late to drop a post in, even though the internet could disappear again at any moment.

And it might, because the weather locally has been quite… “exciting”.

The locals here are moaning about the state of the road out to the village, as if they are some special case that deserves to have their potholes filled and the municipality’s grader at their disposal immediately that there’s a bit of rain.

Especially the guy that EMPHASISES some of his WORDS in every message by using capitals somewhat RANDOMLY!!!

Honestly, it’s not that bad, especially when compared to the rest of the province.

[It was at this point that the internet connection completely disappeared – my deity, I’m such a muppet sometimes]

The cottage has been completely spring cleaned and we’re sitting in front of the fire and looking forward to some dinner.

And the internet is back so I’m uploading this RIGHT NOW!!!

Good idea

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Tonight’s plan for a beer and curry night seems to have been one of the better decisions I have made of late. At the time of writing, we’re 60mm deeper in water than we were this morning, and it’s dark and grey and stormy out there, with no signs of letting up any time soon.

It’s already added 87,704,000,000 litres to our dams in the last week.
No big issue with that – I might need to water my lawn in December.

Anyway, the good news is that with a beer expert…

I didn’t know what the word for this was, so I asked Google.

Beerologist, libationist, beer devotee, wert guru, beer maven, beer expert, hophead, pisspot, a tippler, a grog artist, a boozer, a beer buff, a slops surveyor, an ale addict, a hops handler, a quaffer, and the chairman of the brewed.

I was looking for a technical, official term, but I got given this. Unhelpful.

Anyway, as I was saying, the good news is that with a beer expert a pisspot coming over this evening, I have got some different beers in to taste – mostly local, but some from Germany, and one from Belgium – and I have cooked up two moerse curries: a lentil and butternut korma and a great-smelling, masala-style chicken dish. There’s naan, there’s achtar (mango, obvs) and there’s homemade raita with fresh mint plucked from the garden before things out there got scary.

We’ll light the fire up (spoiler – it’s already lit) and play pool, listen to the latest tunes from the hit parade, and enjoy some heartwarming food and company.

Tomorrow might be a little iffy, but let’s deal with that if and when we need to, because tonight promises to be a lot of fun.