Category: learning curve

Wet run?

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Full disclosure: I’m writing this yesterday. Otherwise I’d already know the outcome of this situation, see?

The story goes that I was given a rather nice, rather smart waterproof running jacket for my birthday. My birthday was a little while ago, but what with one thing and another, it’s taken a while to source the perfect jacket. After a few false starts, it arrived this week, and it is, as you will have deduced by the previous sentence, perfect.

Sadly, so is the weather, meaning that a run in a waterproof running jacket is sheer folly, given that there is no water to be proofed from.

But now here comes the good and the bad news.

A rogue October cold front heading into Cape Town today (tomorrow as I am writing this), is bringing with it several (or more) millimetres of water, in the form of rain. And this provides an ideal opportunity to test out the jacket. I was absolutely ready to go on a literal test run until last night (well, the night before last as you’re reading this) at about 10pm, when my left knee made at least some degree of contact with the corner of a rental trailer. The only real detail you knee-d to know about this encounter was that it was a genuinely unfair contest, with the few hundred kilos of steel trailer seemingly almost completely unharmed, and my outraged kneecap almost immediately pumping out an egg-sized haematoma in response. Was it my bad knee?, I hear you ask. Yes, of course it was.

Ice and rest and painkillers probably helped, and it’s just a bit stiff and sore. But while I managed a gentle gym workout yesterday (today as I am writing this), it does feel like any sort of impact work might be a bit much for the next few days.

And that’s sad, because the rain is very much just visiting for today and a bit of tomorrow, and I really want to test this jacket.

Watch this space. And avoid banging your joints on big chunks of metal.

Sound advice.

Cross

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More map trivia to ensure that you have the best chance of winning your next pub quiz.
We came third in one last night. Should have listened to ourselves on all the correct answers we changed.

We’ll learn.

And now, so will you. Behold:

Couple of issues with this one. The use of Istanbul does at least mean it’s in Europe, but it’s certainly not a capital city. And why is Copenhagen hiding behind a “not disclosed” tag?

That’s very suspicious.

Here in Africa, we measure these sort of things in actual zebras, because they’re all over the place down here. And they’re really good at getting in the way of cars.

Paris: 119 times more zebra crossings per square kilometre than Chisinau. Which explains a lot about why pedestrians in Chisinau keep getting knocked moldova.

I’m so sorry.

Where is Yeniköy?

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It’s everywhere.

Here’s a map of the most popular places names for countries across Europe:

And it makes for some interesting* reading.

In the UK, it’s Sutton. Sutton means “One from the Southern Homestead”, and aside from the main Sutton just south of London, there are 12 others. But a total of 13 is nothing.

Numbers
43 Steinbachs in Germany.
97 Ivanivkas in Ukraine.
101 Oktyabrsklys in Russia (it means October).
And an incredible 155 Yeniköys in Turkiye.
Good luck with finding the right one on Google Maps. Or indeed, any map.

New Villages
Yeniköy translates as “New Village”, and a quick scoot across Eastern Europe will reveal that everything there seems to be a “New Village”. It’s the most popular place name in 8 other countries as well as Turkiye:
Novo Selo (HR), Satu Nou (RO), Nova Ves (CZ), Nowa Vies (PL), Nova Selo (BiH), Nova Selle (RKS), Novo Selo (SRB) and Neo Chori (GR)

Honourable mentions:
– 5 Castletowns in Ireland (1 in the Isle of Man, too). Literally a town with a castle in each case. No imagination whatsoever.
– 2 places called Nes in the Faroe Islands. They’re about as big as a postage stamp! How do you manage to get 2 places with the same name somewhere that small? Why risk any confusion? It’s no wonder there are so many missed dates there:

She said she’d meet me in the pub in Nes at 7pm.
But she never turned up.

– Loads of mountain-based stuff: 3 Monts in Belgium, 4 Bergs in Sweden, 3 Szolohegys in Hungary.
– 8 Nogueiras in Portugal. All in the far north, because it means “Walnut Tree” and that’s where the walnut trees grow. AND… Orahovo (x3) is the most popular place name in Montenegro. It also means “Walnut Tree” and check out the latitudes of those two places.

You couldn’t make it up. And I didn’t.
– Loads of Saints in Spain, France, Cyprus and Italy. Catholics, ne?
– 3 Erpeldanges in Luxembourg. No idea what it means, but it’s a lovely word, almost certainly made up by Roald Dahl.

I’m now ready for whenever this info comes up in a quiz, but sadly, I also have this very strange feeling that it almost certainly won’t.

* T&Cs apply

Helpful

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Dumped on a narrow country lane in the Daily Challenge on Geoguessr today.

First thought was maybe Wales?

Then I turned the camera around, and… hang on…

Well, that looks very much like the Lady Isabella – the largest working waterwheel in the world – which would make it just over the other side of the valley from here:

Very helpful.

And 5,000 useful points in the bank before heading off towards Indonesia and Colombia.

Niche UK Geography Fun

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Incoming from The Guru:

this link

It’s a multiple guess choice geography game using satellite imagery of the UK and dividing the areas up into smaller and smaller (and therefore more and more challenging) areas. These are based around the administrative structure of the UK, but thankfully, you don’t have to be an expert on that system to play.

I can vouch for those descriptions of the difficulty of the game. After 10 questions on each, I had scored 100%, 80%, 80% and 60% (eek) respectively. And that was with a fair amount of good luck on top of some educated guesses – a couple of football stadiums were of great assistance.
And with 317 local authorities, 650 constituencies and 8694 electoral wards (I have no idea how many “built-up areas” there are), you’re going to need all the help you can get.

It’s hard, it’s fun, and it’s rather addictive.

It’s also a bit buggy, which can be frustrating, but you could always demand a full refund if you’re not satisfied. (Yes, it’s free. That’s the joke, see?)