Category: this is south africa

A rather decent afternoon out

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We were lucky enough to get box tickets to see the Boks play the All Blacks. And we had a really great afternoon out. And what a view the box had. This was during the warmups.

The atmosphere, the gees, the actual match second half of the actual match, the winning try scored right underneath us. The excellent service and free-flowing drinks. A very cool day, all in all.

And with that winning try, South Africa won the Freedom Cup, and all but sealed the The Rugby Championship 2024.

And a lovely touch as we left the well-planned, well-executed event at the Stadium – nice work, City of Cape Town – the biggest national flag I’ve ever seen. (It’s generally not something that I keep a record of, but I can’t think of a time I’ve seen a bigger one.)

It’s certainly reignited my appetite for live sport, and for going along to the stadium again. I was there for the first and second ever events they held there, and several – or more – since, but it’s been a while.

Not so long again.

Still parenting

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Parenting continues. It just changes with time. With our daughter, we’re now at that age where almost everything is ok to do on her own, but sometimes there’s still a need (often mutual) to be present for backup and reassurance.

And so there are limits and negotiations and compromises. To be fair, the discussions are all very civil and understanding.

I’ve really matured.

More seriously, Obs on a sunny Saturday lunchtime is a good case in point. Probably completely cool and safe, but just that bit of lingering doubt. And so it was decided that we are hands off, but nearby.

And you think you’re overreacting until you wander down Lower Main Road and get approached by two dodgy types in as many minutes. And then you return to your car to find someone looking through the rear window for stuff to steal.

Lovely.

So while I’ve definitely had better Saturdays, I’m also very willing to be here. Just in case.

High hopes of being home for at least some of the football later, though.

Safe for a dip

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Spotted online. This:

This is really good news: it’s been a hot, sunny day, and I desperately need a dip. I had legitimate concerns about the safety of swimming here, given the local wildlife, but if they don’t swim here, well then I surely (and safely) can. Fantastic. What a result.

Punctuation is important, hey?

But while we joke, as mentioned here, these things can be a real danger. Not where I came from, and (mostly) not where I live right now, but definitely in this country.

I took this while I was up in Hoedspruit earlier in the year. And while I feel that this one (next to the water feature outside the packhouse office), was perhaps a little tongue in cheek, there were plenty of real life places with these real life dangers from which I chose to stay away.

And no. Just for outright clarity, that first paragraph below the top image was merely for artistic impression and comedic value. It’s finally sunny here, which is great, but it’s also absolutely bloody freezing.

It’s no wonder the wildlife all heads up north.

Two videos

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Opposite ends of the planet, but both mildly relevant to me.

First off, Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder. All of United’s press conferences used to be recorded, edited and shared. But this season – for the first time ever – they’re live streamed.

See if you can notice when Wilder realises this in the video below.

Press conference errors aside though, it’s so good to see this guy smiling again after last seasons travails.

And then, this:

The weather in Cape Town continues to be pretty bloody awful, and – had it been a bit better – I was going down to the glamourous Access Park today to explore their sports shoe shops. Thankfully, because it was so nasty out, I didn’t. (But then, I suppose, if it had been a bit better, then the big thing wouldn’t have fallen down.)

As anyone familiar with this delightful place will surely attest, it’s all rather shabby. But you would have thought that they could have used some decent metalwork in the big sign at the gate, at least.

On the plus side, after this nastiness is done with (feels like -4, WTF?!?):

Check out the rest of the week:

21o isn’t going to break any records, but I’m loving those big yellow balls. (Careful now.)

And we might (for the first time in a long while) have a Spring-like Spring Day.

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.