Bit short of time after a busy, busy day not buying a printer and then watching horseriding classes.
Back is improving, but not quite there yet and I am knackered.
So herewith a QP of the moon, because everyone loves the moon…
And a warning about not letting Computicket run British football ticketing.
Or any other sort of ticketing.
Of course it does.
I mean, we’ve all been there. Not Brussels (although lots of people have also been there).
Are there any more divisive “family” games than Monopoly? And yes, yes, I know that “The Landlord’s Game” as it used to be called, is supposed to be all about the evils of capitalism, and that the fury that regularly ensues from playing Monopoly kind of validates that viewpoint, but it’s entirely possible to fall out over a game of pool and that’s just about hitting balls into one another, so… well – you do the maths.
And anyway, amazingly, this samurai sword “fight” (more on the quote marks below) had nothing to do with the actual gameplay, and far more to do with the fact that the game was actually being played.
The incident began when a group of four people were playing a board game on the pavement in front of a house, disturbing the occupant, who came out in an attempt to move them away from his house.
After an argument ensued, the resident’s son came out to defend his father armed with a concealed samurai sword.
OK, so playing Monopoly on a pavement is a bit weird, but is there a law against playing Monopoly on a pavement? Well, maybe not, but given that this was a 5am on Sunday morning, there probably should be.
And was it actually a “fight”, because that suggests that there were pugilists and protagonists? And in this case, the sheath sheathing the sword got damaged and a couple of people got cut. That’s not supposed to be how you use a samurai sword. I’ve seen Youtube videos of samurai warriors and they chop things up properly. Not a little nick with an exposed blade.
But in an abject lesson of how not to deal with having an early morning kerfuffle involving your dad and some pavement Monopoly players, one of the little nicks with the exposed blade (they are awfully sharp) appears to have effectively located an artery within the sword-wielding son, landing him in intensive care.
And probably requiring some hosepipe action on the pavement. Humans can drain quickly.
Sadly, the story is rather lacking on the reasons behind why the game of Monopoly was taking place on a pavement a couple of hours before sunrise. Although, I’m presuming that because it was dark, a streetlight would have been involved.
And yes, a quick Streetview visit suggests that hypothesis might be a valid one.
Of course, that in itself spawns several more questions, which will also remain frustratingly unanswered.
Anyway, silver linings and all that: if you managed to get a lie-in this last weekend, you did better than at least six people in Belgium.
What are the chances of there being loadshedding over the next year or so?
Well, in this breakdown (no pun intended), Eskom (our state electricity provider) (occasionally, at least) details how much electricity we’re likely to need and how much they’re likely to be able to supply for the next 52 weeks
Green is good, i.e. Supply > Demand = no loadshedding expected.
Red is bad, i.e. Demand > Supply = there will be loadshedding.
Aaand…
Ah. Oh.
ACTUALLY QUITE RED.
To be honest, the red “worse case” blocks “only” stretch as far as Stage 2 (ish). That is, about 2000MW short. And without normalising or excusing the awful situation, I think that – right now – most South Africans would take that as being something of a win.
Especially as we’re sitting at Stage 4 this evening.
But of course there is no redder red than the red on this table. So actually the red means AT LEAST Stage 2, and could mean anything up to Stage 37 (or whatever). I think we need a purple and a burgundy and maybe even (terrifyingly) a black, so that we can really see what’s going on.
On the plus side, Week 13 next year looks brighter – quite literally – well, unless it’s not.
We should have our personal measures to mitigate this nonsense installed by the end of the month, all being well. Roll on that glorious day.
I mentioned a little while back [checks recent archives] here that I am heading back to Robben Island again this year to help out with the annual Year 6 Tour there.
But it was Facebook that reminded me of this absolute gem from the COPE political party.
President Lekota is Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota, the COPE leader (his nickname coming from his imposing presence on the football field), “Uncle Kathy” is Ahmed Kathrada, a struggle veteran, and I have no idea who Reuben Ireland is.
I actually had to check if COPE are still around, and they are. Just:
0.27% of the votes still gets you two parliamentary seats, hey? Wow.
The COPE website greets you with plenty of colour, and an ill-fitting banner image. And then, there are their four pillars (which actually appear to be eight pillars):
Promoting reposposibility is important. Some people just want to pose twice, but as a modern political party, you need to be able to pose, pose again and then repose. That reposposibility is what the electorate is looking out for. That, and being dependeable. Hugely important.
And… below that is this mystifying non-question:
I clicked Yes & No, because I was confused and I thought that it was actually just a thing for the recruitment department at the party to answer. Both take you to the same screen where there’s a form to fill in to join COPE. Then you email it directly to Shalati Nkhwashu. I can’t imagine that her inbox is very busy. Still as the old saying goes: “Empty inbox, great middle name”:
I’m looking forward to my visit to see Reuben. A very interesting guy.
It’s been a while since i did one of these and my Pocket is filling up again. So…
It’s Springtime! (in the UK) and time to switch to BST. But this isn’t the correct way to put your clocks forward:
And this might work, but is also very confusing:
Pro-tip: Use a whiteboard marker and you can simply use a damp cloth to change the clocks back again in October.
Good news for me on this change is that evening football matches now kick off at a more reasonable time and so I can watch them and still get enough sleep (see below).
However, that good news is tempered somewhat by the fact that their Spring means our Autumn. And the weather has been doing its bit to remind us of the changing seasons. We’re losing 2 minutes of daylight a day in Cape Town each day at the moment, and we crossed the 12 hours daylight/12 hours nighttime line yesterday.
I was reminded of this Soy, Ginger and Chili salmon recipe today. I must cook it again. Today is all about the big boneless gammon joint on the hob, though. The whole house smell of cloves and all-spice (coincidentally also the name of the giant robot formed when all the Spice Girls zigazig-arred together like the Power Rangers). Delicious.
The future is bright: Sheffield United win the Professional Development League (North) for the third season running.
A fact made even better when you look at the whole league table:
LOL – mind the gap!
A Long Read about Long Covid here.
tl;dect (didn’t even click through) – risk of developing LC drops after a secondary infection (UK 4.0% to 2.4%), but that’s still not zero!
and just for reference, 2.4% of the UK population is one and a half million people. That’s a lot of potential cases, and a huge burden on individuals, families and the health service.
Covid really is just like the common cold.
I was out on a run earlier this week and was thinking about how I couldn’t even manage a staircase in the aftermath of my acute Covid experience. Things are clearly much, much better now, although it took over a year to get back to normality. That said: three things I have noticed post-Covid: I need more sleep, my lung capacity still isn’t what it was before, and my memory (which use to be very good) really isn’t as good any more. Especially on people’s names. Other random nonsense (phone codes, capital cities, song titles/bands) – generally fine. Names (famous ones or personal acquaintances) – nope.
Weird.
Stop stacking rocks on beaches (and elsewhere), say SANParks.
…The problem is that people are increasingly building rock cairns to leave their mark or symbol of their presence in a natural setting or for posting on social media. Therefore, when engaging in this activity, it is important to be mindful of the potential negative impacts on the environment, wildlife and other people’s experiences.
Moving rocks and stacking them can disturb the natural habitat of tiny creatures. On the rocky shore, these organisms, such as crabs, molluscs, and algae, depend on their environment’s rocks and other structures for shelter and protection. By moving or stacking rocks, we may inadvertently destroy or disrupt their homes, harming their populations. Similarly, rock stacking can also have adverse terrestrial impacts on insects and moss in wilderness areas.
The article has a (terrible) picture of Agulhas National Park in it. So this is a local thing, close to my heart. And when the kids were younger, we did used to do this from time to time, albeit that our towers were built near the low tide mark, ready to be knocked down as the waves came in, and never for social media purposes.
Anyway. No more. Stoppit.
Lastly for today: a new way to filter flights on flightradar24. This is the update that everyone as crying out for. And it works. From being a very cool tool, its now also massively powerful. You can now get it to do whatever you want (and even more if you pay for a subscription). A lot of the features are in the free Beta version at the moment, but it seems to be stable and full rollout isn’t likely to be far away.