Category: learning curve

SUN

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SUN – Stellenbosch University’s domain name.

Well, we went there today and we saw absolutely no SUN at all. In fact, it was cold, grey and wet. And maroon – everywhere.

But while the ubiquitous maroon is pretty ugly, you can’t blame the University for the weather. We had a good look around campus and sat in on a couple of interesting seminars as the various faculties took us through their offerings.

There’s another year before LM 6000 needs to apply, but it’s good to see what’s out there. And we weren’t the only ones: so many familiar faces, it was like a Southern Suburbs day out. We could have added some wine or brandy on the way home, but we chose to be good, and got back in time to watch a nice United away win.

That’s not it, though. UCT next weekend, and we’ll be heading to other institutions over the coming weeks to try and work out just what’s the best course in the best place.

Right now, it’s time for some of last night’s curry, in an effort to warm ourselves up. More rain tomorrow onto an already saturated Western Cape: the dam level figures should be worth a look on Monday.

Estonia’s coastline

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More stats for your next pub quiz.

Estonia’s coastline: It’s extremely long, given the area of the country.

Estonia is nowhere near as big as:
1) Romania
2) Poland
3) Iran
4) Namibia
5) Saudi Arabia or
6) Algeria

but because of its crinkly outline and many islands, it has a ridiculously large coastline.

Some of it freezes over, as well.

You could add South Africa to that list above, too. An area 27x that of Estonia, but a coastline just 74% the length of the Baltic state’s.

And South Africa has a lot of coastline. The whole of the bottom of a continent’s worth.
I’ve seen at least some of it.

It’s worth remembering that while none of those big countries above are surrounded by water, neither is Estonia, with borders with Russia and Latvia, and a long (not countable for these purposes) coastline along Lake Peipus.

What a stat.

Paris loos

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If there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing (and I’m assured that there are), then there must be almost that many public toilets in Paris.

Seriously:

There are 8.34 public toilets in every square kilometre of Paris.

And like a question about the titles of Alfred Hitchcock movies, this is bound to come up in a pub quiz near you at some point. So remember it.

France in general has a lot of public loos.

Why? Well, there are some good reasons:

French municipalities take a proactive, centralized approach to providing sanitation facilities, considering them essential street furniture and a human right for residents, elderly, and visitors.

And some… er… less good ones:

The proliferation of toilets, including automated toilets and older-style urinals, aims to combat the prevalent issue of public urination, especially in high-density areas.

Nice.

Still, everyone (in France) benefits from the number of local loos, so perhaps it doesn’t really matter why they’re there. Visitors to Paris are 70x times more likely to be able to find a public toilet than someone visiting Ljubljana.

Meanwhile:

As of April 2026, the City of Cape Town, in partnership with the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) and Streetscapes, operates a targeted public toilet initiative in the CBD, offering nine high-usage mobile toilets.

Nine! (not nine million).

Still far better than Slovenia, mind.

Moth

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I’m a big fan of our local supermarket, but this isn’t good:

Not the Futurelife, which is high in protein, high in 19 vitamins and minerals and high in Omega-3.

That’s good.

An aside:
Did you hear about the man who got hit by a truck carrying Omega-3 capsules?
He escaped with Super Fish Oil injuries.

But no. I’m talking about what’s on the box, not what’s in it.

Could that be a pantry moth, and if so, might we have discovered the source of our recent pantry moth problem? They’re proper little bastards, getting into all your dried foods, pastas, cereals and the like.

This Nuisance is known to reproduce at an alarming rate and cause thousands in damages. The Meal Moth or Pantry Moth frequents homes and described by Moth Control Cape Town Experts as being the number 1 Flying kitchen intruder. These Pantry Moths feed exclusively on grains, cereals and other human food matter.

See?

This is a second encounter with them. The first ended with us throwing a lot of food away. And so I’ve gone in with the big guns blazing this time around: all of the sprays, all of the swatting, even some pheromone traps to lure in the horny males.

And it seems to have worked. For the moment, at least.

But what’s the point in irradicating these destructive little shits of you’re going to be constantly replacing them with the food you brought in from your local retailer?

I’ve passed on the photos and information to the supermarket in question.
Hopefully, they can get this sorted.

But it’s worth just checking your cereal boxes and the like, so you don’t get infested as well.