Category: the parenting bunny

He’s back

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An emotional return for the Boy Wonder at the airport after some horribly delayed flights, but he’s finally back home now. Yay!

Not the results that they would have liked, but many amazing experiences, new friends, the pyramids, different cultures, life lessons and plenty (or more) entente cordiale. And sometimes – always, in fact – once you think things through, those things are more important than the actual game. When they’re not, it can all get a little unpleasant. There was a bit of that on show as well, happily not from anyone from SA.

There’s a lot of downloading to do, tales to tell, and moments to relive. But first, there’s a homecoming braai to enjoy and a LOT of sleeping to catch up on.

Proud dad

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Sketchy internet, and I have dodgeball to watch, so let’s get this done quickly.

Nice day today, headed out to the Black Oystercatcher with Little Miss 6000 for one of their outstanding platter lunches, but did that whole game drive meander on the way through the Agulhas National Park:

…and ended up on beautiful Brandfontein beach en route as well:

Aside from the lunch and the company, the highlight was probably a family of ostriches – at least 8 juniors and their loving parents. Here’s dad and a couple of the little ‘uns.

Plenty more photos to sort out – maybe (probably?) even a re-edit of these ones – but I need to go and enjoy the sunshine right now. (And charge my devices before loadshedding.)

Away

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The Boy Wonder has arrived safely in Egypt, ready to represent his country and do battle with the best in the world. Although to be honest, he looks a bit knackered after a long day of travelling.

And I’m taking some time out for some daddy/daughter time in Cape Agulhas. So while daily posts will continue on here (obviously! duh!), they may be shorter and a bit more photoey* as I actively try to engage less with the frankly often terrible world outside our windows.

With a sales pitch like that, I wouldn’t really expect you to come back, but I’d still appreciate it if you did.

See you tomorrow, then. 😉

* “a picture is worth a thousand words”, after all…

Prefect end to the year

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Last day of Term 4.
Therefore the last day of the 2022 school year.
The ceremonial switching off of the 6am alarm on the phone.
Prizegiving, and a goodbye to the headteacher of 19 years.
Some great results, and that prefect announcement.
Celebrating with a family meal out tonight (while our home sits in darkness).
And why not, given that there’s lots to celebrate and there’s the 2000-2230 slot for the next couple of evenings, and then an “are you actually f_____g kidding me” 1800-2230 on Sunday?

At least we won’t be able to watch Carte Blanche.

Drone sunset

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I’ve sat in my car park many, many times this year. In all sorts of weather (but mainly wet):

And I was there again last night for the team’s final practice session before the World Cup.
Last week when I was up North, I wished that I had brought my drone along. The sunset was incredible, but I was surrounded by ugly buildings and tall trees, which didn’t make for any decent photography.

So this week, rather than miss out again, I did take my drone along. And predictably, the sunset was completely rubbish.

Initially…

I’d actually packed the drone away and was settling down in the back of the car to watch an episode of Only Connect when I spotted the first tinge of pink in the sky. And while I didn’t think it was going anywhere, I knew I’d be pissed off if it did and I missed it, so I unpacked and set up again and by the time I got flying… well…

First things first: this is a stacked image of 5 bracketed shots, given that the sky was BRIGHT and the mountain was DARK. I’ve already been accused of RBOSSery by someone on the family Whatsapp group (wow – et tu, Brute?), but in fact, it’s actually UN-RBOSSed:

Look at that! And that’s just because there was far too much going on in the sky for the teeny, tiny sensor on my aging drone to handle. So no, definitely no RBOSS or hypocrisy here*.

I think this image would have been better with a bit more Table Bay in the mid-ground, but I was just down the road from Blouberg (aka “Blow”berg), and the South Easter was pumping. I was getting wind warnings even just up at 30m, so I decided not to risk much above 50. A bit irritating, but there are some things that you just can’t control, and hey, I still have a drone this morning, so that’s nice.
Always look for the positives.

Because the World Cup is coming up, I’m not going to be in my car park for a while now, and when practices do start again, they will likely not be 4 or 5 times a week, so I think this was a really good way to sign off for a while.

* Add a bit of Whatsapp compression and I can maybe kind of see where he was coming from, but I’m still rather hurt.