Category: learning curve

Age old problem solved

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It happens to us all from time to time, but it really is frightfully embarrassing when you forget your butler’s name.

Er… when one forgets one’s butler’s name, of course.

Anyway, perennial favourite here on 6000 miles…, Alasdair Beckett-King, has come up with the perfect solution, ensuring that you never have to worry about facing that sort of ignominy again.

As he says, anywhere between Wrexham and Manchester will do. And here’s a map to help you out, should you be a bit vague on the stations in that area:

But does it work?

Let’s give it a try.

I say, Cuddington. Could you ensure that dinner is served no earlier than 6 o’clock this evening? I wish to watch the entirety of the Bournemouth versus Newcastle United football match and I do not wish to have concerns over missing Mrs Otterpool’s soup course.

Very good, Sir.

Thank you, Cuddington.

Clearly, yes, it does.

New feature

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Generally, when I want to insert an image into a blog post on here, I have a few options. Upload it from my phone, upload it from my laptop, share it from a URL or select it from my media library. That last one assumes that I’ve already uploaded it into the library the first place, of course.

But now there’s a new option:

Do I need this? Probably not, but:

It’s starting to feel a little like AI everything, everywhere, all at once.

And yep, it’s there and it’s free, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Here’s what I asked it to do:

Imagine the most South African image you can. Lots of different African wildlife wearing Green and gold shirts. They are at a braai at sunset time. Table Mountain is in the background.

And here’s what it gave me:

I’m actually quite impressed. Yes, there are tigers. Yes, there’s a huge Eland/Kudu/Alien beast on the left, and a terrifying “thing” next to the central tiger, and the lion’s legs on the right don’t join up with the rest of the lion, but otherwise… not bad.

Is this now my image, or does it belong to WordPress? Or some third-party AI provider?

I doubt that anyone will want to steal it, anyway.

I can make two of these images, apparently. I’m still not quite sure if it’s two per post, two per day, two per month or two: ever. I’m also not sure what I will ever use it for.

But you’ve got to have a bit of AI in your stuff these days – it’s the rules – and here’s mine.

Like a kipper

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What a morning. The sun was out. The solar was PUMPING. Really breezy, but it felt… Summery.

But this afternoon, I’ve been done up like a kipper.

It’s riding Friday (not me), and after the incredibly warm, sunny – but really windy weather over our side of the mountain – I asked the riding instructor what the weather was like over on the her side.

It’s lovely out. Slight warm breeze.

Shorts will be comfortable, I reckon.

And so I went with it.

Yeah. But Cape Town doesn’t play.

Four seasons in one day is nothing. Because I genuinely believe that the instructor was telling the truth – we’ve all been so desperate for some sunshine – but in the 20 minutes that it took to get over here…

THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

The wind has picked up, the cloud has rolled in, the sun has gone.

I’m sheltering behind the henhouse (not a euphemism), but it’s still rather chilly. Especially around the leg areas. I mean, I’ll definitely survive, but – for the record – shorts were not comfortable.

I’ve been done up like a kipper.

Who knew? (Whale spotting edition)

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Big news from EWN this week:

Yep. Same as every year:

Southern Right Whales have come to visit Cape Town shores to give birth or to find a mate – this is done every year between June and December. 

But while these are indeed magnificent creatures to see, and while they are here each and every year, some locals might not know where to look. It’s ok. EWN has got you covered, with a list of places that you can spot a whale “in Cape Town”. They’ve listed 22 different places that you can see whales.

From Doringbaai up the West Cooat (marked in red, top left) through to Nature’s Valley on the Garden Route (blue, bottom right).

Eagle-eyed readers (who will also be best at spotting whales) might notice that that’s basically the entire coastline of the Western Cape. And anyone clicking through on that link above will see that, yes, all of the 22 locations on the list are located on the coast.

So it seems to me that if you want to see whales… you probably just need to go anywhere in the Western Cape and look out to sea.

Who knew?

It’s actually rather unhelpful that they don’t also mention that you should probably do it during the day to increase your spotting success rate. Or to use binoculars to make the whales look closer.

Puzzled

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We’ve been through the whole fracking, renewable power, and oil exploration arguments on here several times, as and when they have popped up in the local news.

But in case you don’t have time to read all of those, then just click through on that third link. And if you can’t even manage that, then here’s a very quick synopsis of my position:

I know we need to move away from fossil fuels, but I’m also very aware that that transition simply isn’t possible overnight: especially in a country where there is next to no money (because of reasons), and keeping the lights on using fossil fuels is difficult enough anyway.
I’m also well aware that each and every one of us uses oil-based products every single day of our lives, and that’s not going away any time soon, either. And that oil has to come from somewhere.
So it does feel all a bit much when people protest about oil exploration or whatever, simply because it’s happening near our shores.

Sure, let’s try to make things better, but let’s be realistic as well.

And then I saw a guy in our neighbourhood with one of these stickers in the back window of his car:

So clever. Can you guess what he’s annoyed about, and who he blames for it? Yes. Me too.

And I was puzzled.

Because the thing is, the back window in question is on a (very well looked after) older model Toyota Land Cruiser. And I’m not an expert, but I’m fairly sure that it’s one weighing about 2.5 tonnes, and with the 4.5 litre V8 diesel engine.

Now, I have no problem with anyone owning whatever vehicle they want; but being a rebellious, anti-Shell activist, while driving around in that particular monster, does seem… well… just a little bit hypocritical.

It’s very much like the lady near our old place who objected to a new cellphone mast in the area in an email with the footnote “sent from my iPhone”.

Of course, Mr Land Cruiser will choose not to fill up at our local Shell stations, but rather one of the much cleaner oil companies like CalTex, Engen (Mobil) or BP, who obviously don’t pump the stuff out of the ground, instead manufacturing it from fairy dust, daisy petals, biodegradable glitter, and the sound of childrens’ laughter.

They walk drive massive dirty cars among us.