Category: the parenting bunny

Too much

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Yesterday was a busy day and I did a lot of standing and a lot of driving. Not usually a big deal, but my ankle was not too happy with the whole situation and is painfully protesting today. And so the plan is to chill out a little more today: bit of ice on the leg, get a few jobs done around the house, braai some sausages for dinner, watch a bit of football and maybe even grab a nap during some of the 7½ hours of power cuts we get to enjoy endure.

Last week of school for the kids coming up, then it’s Egypt for one of them and several (or more) weeks of holiday for the other.

Where did 2022 go?

“Good luck to the west”

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This one‘s a bit of a stretch. And from a usually fairly reasonable and reliable source.

So much so, that I’m wondering if it’s actually sarcasm. But…

“Good luck to the west”?
Based on this? OK, Boomer.

If you ask a 8-12 year old what they want to be when they grow up, and you give them just five possible answers of which only one is a “real” job (and they can only choose up to three), then of course you’re going to get fanciful results. So I’m not going to spend too much time on this, because I think it does kind of speak for itself.

That said, how weird that Chinese kids don’t really want to be Youtubers, in a country where Youtube is blocked, and free speech isn’t exactly encouraged. And how weird that American and UK kids don’t want to be astronauts: one of very few professions that would potentially bring them into closer contact with Elon Musk. [/s]

And what’s the issue with 25% of western kids wanting to become teachers? It’s an honourable and worthwhile career, but we simply don’t require that many teachers. Something like 10% would surely more than cover our needs. By the same token, 11% of people aren’t astronauts. I’m sure that the number of astronauts will inevitably increase in the future, but we’re not going to need one of nine people to be an astronaut. That would mean a billion astronauts by 2035. Ridiculous.

And yes, I know that’s a silly extrapolation because this is a silly survey, but it wasn’t me that started with the serious analysis here.

Still, if we’re really taking this as a meaningful questionnaire and a genuine thing to be concerned about, then maybe we should have a look at the results in another way. That being that there were 108% of choices by American children, 105% by UK kids, and an incredible 210% by the Chinese. That, to me, points to a wishy-washy lack of decisiveness; a trait which surely has far greater implications for the future downfall of their society, as they repeated dawdle over making important decisions (just before more than half their population chooses to go into space).

In which case: Good luck to the Chinese.

Busy day reimagined

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Apparently, there’s a Level 1 wind warning out for the Western Cape today:

A Yellow Level 1 warning: Damaging winds which may result in localized problems for high-sided vehicles on routes prone to strong cross winds (especially in the N1), exposed high level roads/bridges and risk of localized runways fires are expected over the southern parts of the Northern Cape as well as the central and northern parts of the Western Cape.

See?

It’s not been that bad, but there are a few branches down here and there, an over-confidently placed shoe ended up in the swimming pool, and there has been quite a lot of ear flappery of the beagle variety.

The weather is unhelpful, as half the family is off to an outdoor concert this evening (the wind looks likely to moderate by sunset), and another quarter has outdoor dodgeball training. But before that, one of the quarters which is going to the concert has an outdoor horseriding session in a dusty arena. It’s going to be hectic.
Me? I’m the final quarter and I’m just the taxi service for all these things. And that’s going to involve dashing from Hout Bay to Wynberg to Kirstenbosch to Pinelands (all the exciting places covered then) with minimal time in between.

Except…

Within a couple of moments of one another, the riding and the dodgeball were both cancelled. The former because it was “nasty” in Hout Bay (their words, not mine), and I’m not sure what the weather had to do with it, anyway; and the latter because of the risk of injury from “balls flying out of control and in different directions”. Just sounds like a good night out on Somerset Road to me.

Careful now.

And so, with the concert unlikely to be pulled (international artist, don’t you know?), the fun can continue, and the afternoon has got a little bit easier to navigate through, albeit at the expense of some equestrian entertainment and some important training.

2 days left to enter the raffle at the time of writing: click the link and buy a ticket or ten, PLEEEEASE!

So… looks like a bit of Germany v Japan in my comfy chair for me, rather than trips to Hout Bay and Pinelands.

What a pity.

It’s been a day

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I am not a fan of shopping, but I had to do some shopping this morning. Thankfully, I managed to get through the ordeal with minimal fuss, but I’m sure that if there was anyone observing (I doubt that there was), then there was no doubting the displeasure with which I did so.

Anyway, that’s done for another few months.

And once the Boy Wonder is back from his evening activities in about an hour (via Uber Dad), I shall be heading the bed asap. I am knackered. A combination of exercise, age, shopping and just… stuff.

Still, at least I’m still very much alive, apparently unlike Afrikaans.

That latter comment prompting Afrikaans speakers all over… er… South Africa to roll out the #1vandie44 hashtag. (No idea what it means: I’m not one of the 44.)
I love everyone commenting on the language in that piece though, basically saying that yes, Afrikaans pretty much still alive, and then reminding us that (bad thing) it was the language of oppression during Apartheid and (good thing?) it’s really useful for insulting people.

A fairly simplistic binary view of things, but for me (and millions of others), the former probably just about outweighs the latter.

Uber

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Lots and lots (and lots) of ferrying people around today. I’d have made a fortune if I’d registered as some sort of metered taxi or e-hailing service.

Sadly though, I didn’t do that, and so it’s just been a lot of financially unrewarding running around: schools, taxi ranks, hospitals, more schools, stables, and – inevitably – Dodgeball training.

If they don’t win this World Cup, it won’t be through lack of effort.

So, in the absence of anything more substantial, here’s an image of the lighthouse at Cape St. Blaize. Just because.

13 metres shorter and 15 years younger than the iconic Cape Agulhas lighthouse, climbing to the top of this one was one of my highlights of our recent trip to the Mossel Bay area.