Category: sport

Day 446 – Some photos

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(at last!)

Just a quick in-and-out (careful now) from me here today, because I have to play football half an hour and I’m n kilometres away from where I need to be to play football at that time.

But I did manage to edit some photos – mainly of birds – from the weekend: here they are.

Here’s a Little Egret having a bad hair day, just to get you in the mood.

I know that these are feathers (I did Biology for GCSE), but the term “bad feathers day” doesn’t really exist, and I’m trying to be whimsical.

Have a lovely evening. As mentioned, football for me, then the Ramaphosa announcement, then France v Germany, at least one of which should be an absolute humdinger. Two if we’re properly lucky.

Day 445 – In which I didn’t edit those images

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I know I said I would, I just didn’t get around to it, what with picking up a shirt in town and shopping and cooking and watching a bit of the Euro 2020 football.

I was slow to get up this morning (the kids are on holiday, so we’re all good), and it felt like I’d been hit by a train when I did drag myself out of bed. I might have overdosed somewhat on anti-histamines last night. We got absolutely chowed by mosquitoes over the weekend. Numbers like I haven’t seen since Mozambique 17 years ago. They were everywhere. I was trying to get a shot of the moon and Venus in conjunction, but gave up when I splatted about 50 of the little bastards off my legs in about a minute.
“How awful”, you might think, “but you do live in Africa”.
Well, yeah, but it’s MIDWINTER in Africa next week. There should not be mosquitoes out and about in Cape Agulhas a week before the shortest day. There shouldn’t be that many mosquitoes out and about in Cape Agulhas full stop.

I’m still knocking back Allergex as if there is no tomorrow, which, you know, if I knock back enough…

Anyway, tomorrow’s weather looks a bit crappy and there’s limited football on (although I am playing a match myself), so I’ll probably choose to tuck myself in front of a warm Lightroom, choose the best images from the weekend, and make them even better.

Right now, Spain v Sweden.

Day 444 – Cool weekend

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It’s been an excellent weekend, full of sunshine, exercise, photography and relaxation.

But after a thankfully uneventful journey home, Cape Town is properly chilly this evening.

The fire is going and I’ve switched the football on to see if that warms things up at all.

Tomorrow, I’ll get some editing done and share some pics, but until then it’s a cup of coffee and Austria vs North Macedonia (which is pretty toasty already).

Day 427, part 2 – Welcome, Slaviša

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Sheffield United’s new manager is Slaviša Jokanovic. (The c has an accent, but WordPress can’t cope with that. Bit racist.)

The 53 year old was born in Novi Sad in (then Yugoslavia, now) Serbia and… actually, the club have provided a handy infographic, so let’s let that do the talking.

Image

Both Watford and Fulham fans seem to think he’s the business, so it looks like promotion next season is basically a given*.

This guy was our number one target and, given the situation, I think the right man for the job. It’s a real positive step forward and great news that we’ve managed to get him in, and get him in early. Hashtag A New Beginning.

* i’m joking, obviously.

Day 423 – End of the season

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Yep. The end of another weird, horrible, broken football season. And we all know that it didn’t go well.
More defeats than in any other campaign in our illustrious 132 year history, relegated long before today’s well-deserved victory over lowly, lucky Burnley. It’s interesting (and promising) to note that we put in a great performance and a decent win today in front of an actual crowd. That lockdown restriction has hurt us more than most.

But, with such a terrible start to the season, there was some weird degree of acceptance early on (this post was a huge hit with United fans), and suddenly, even the small positives became highlights and moments to remember. Like that first win over Newcastle, the hard-fought victory over Aston Villa, and – of course – the absolutely incredible, near unbelievable 2-1 away at Old Trafford.

I was quite emotional that evening. And it was a big win: the first ever Premier League win by a Yorkshire club at Old Trafford. At the 36th attempt, nogal. And ManU went on to put 9 past Southampton there the following week.

Oh yes, and the little fact that we weren’t the only Sheffield team to get relegated this season. Shame.

Much of the time, we didn’t play badly. Stuff just didn’t click: we lost just by a single goal on an incredible 17 occasions. But the Premier League is an unforgiving place, and so the Blades drop to the Championship, which means that I won’t get to watch them anywhere near as much next season. And that’s sad. But hopefully, the fans will be back at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane, and that will be the catalyst to get us straight back up.

Come fill me again…