Category: this is south africa

Draft Night 2024

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You may remember other draft night posts here, here, here and here.

And this year was a rather low key affair, given that 40% of the participants were on other continents (in 4 different time zones and with a total time difference spanning 19 whole Chilean hours), and 33% of the remaining participants were out of town. Add in some late working and a dental appointment straight from Hades itself, and suddenly, we were – quite literally – all over the place.

Still, the joint magic of football and technology pulled us all together in some shape and form, and it was 2 hours of good fun: a degree of silliness, some catching up, and equal amounts of ridicule and admiration of each other’s choices.

We’re playing Fantrax again this year, and – should you be interested – you can have a look at the selections that were made here. Do let me know who’s going to win the league, please.

After an uncomfortable night (the dentist one was me, see?), this morning started early with pool issues. One of the pipes on the cleaner had broken, and thus, I had to plunge – elbow-deep, nogal* – into the icy waters. I’m the only one that ever does these jobs. There was some posh chick floating around on an old door, but she said that there wasn’t room for both of us on there, and so I had to manage by myself.

It’s now mid-afternoon and I’m still shivering.

And, in an infrastructure maintenance follow-up, the solar people came to fix the solar. Nothing major, although it could have been. Just some loose bits after those winds on the weekend. The guys brought down a chunky bracket – 750g of premium aluminium – which had been twisted like the rules when a Big 6 club is playing. That’s been replaced now, and another couple of them added for good measure, but it does seem like we got away with one during the storms.

This afternoon: horseriding (not me), and this evening, football (me). Both of which events which have no occurred in quite a while, mainly (if not entirely) due to various reasons.

A busy day. Hence this blog post going out now.

* thankfully starting at my hand.

Breeze

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Could this be the last “proper” cold front to come through this winter?
It’s definitely on its way, with the skies looking threatening, and the wind on the rise.

My feeling is no. There’s still plenty of time for a couple more Cape storms to round off a very wet and cold wintertime here.

So, some sort of hat is probably in order.

That said, after this one and its hangers on, there does appear to be a bit of a window of distinctly springlike weather in the medium-term forecast.

Let’s not count our chickens.

Actually, chicken counting might be a good idea before the worst of the weather comes in tonight. There’s a real danger that your chickens might get blown away by a wind which is expected to gust well into the 90s. That’s kph, not the best decade for music.

50 knots. 58 Swedish miles per hour. Hectic, bru. Those numbers fall squarely into the Force 10 Storm on the Beaufort Scale, which I’m told is the goto scale for all things wind-related. So yes, count your chickens and make sure you tape down your beagle’s ears firmly to prevent excessive flappery.

So yeah, another few days of cold, wet misery to get through before we can even think about getting rid of these “hospital tans” and enjoying the sunshine.

Good luck.

Xtra Savings Plus

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First off: this isn’t an ad. I tell you when I do ads.
Second off: this is a rather dull post, but I figured that it might benefit some local (SA) people, and I’m all about helping out where I can.

I signed up for the Checkers Xtra Savings Plus programme a couple of months ago. It costs R99 per month, and my first month was free. You’re not paying for nothing, obviously. There are a few benefits:

Look at the first one – essentially – R35 off every time you’re too lazy to shop. It’s a 10.6km round trip to our local store, so you’re looking at about R24 of diesel to get there and back. I’m not adding that onto the waived delivery fee, but it’s nice not to have to go out in the rain (and yes, I do tip my drivers, whether I’m paying or not).
That’s nice, but then that middle one is worth R200 alone, so if you already shop at Checkers (we do), then it’s already a no-brainer.
And then those double personalised offers: they add up. Sure, they get your shopping data (oh no!), but then you get money off the stuff you actually want, rather than a kettle, some baby food or a frisbee.

There was a little issue with my Checkers card today when I went to use my 10% extra in-store. Nothing major, sorted quickly, but what it did do was mean that everyone (cashier, lady behind me in the queue, store manager) all watched as R568.65 got taken off my bill.
R2600 to R2030 just like that. All because of my R99 per month spend.

I left once I’d paid, but I think the LBMITQ signed up on the spot. Why wouldn’t you?

And overall this month, I’ve saved R836. Take off the R99 fee and do some rudimentary maths, and I make that R737. What’s not to like?

Times are pretty tough here in SA at the moment, and I recognise that we’re lucky to be able to speculate to accumulate. But if you think that this could save you and your household some cash, well, I’m here as a neutral, unbiased, impartial, non-partisan (although somewhat tautological) individual to tell you that it does actually work.

Go for it.

Bit weird

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A little rain overnight, sure, but suddenly… SUNSHINE!
And lo, literally all of the Cape Town people went out for breakfast because it was ACTUALLY NICE!

We are also Cape Town people, but we went for a wander in the Green Belt first, meaning that our breakfast was a bit more brunchie. But it was still very good.

Home, and with the weather still being weirdly pleasant, I got a couple of jobs done in the garden, including the very satisfying pressure washing the slimy paving stones by the gym. No more ice skating while trying to avoid the rain on my way over there now.
Which made for half my workout most days, but still…

The rest of the afternoon is set up for some Chesterfield v Sheffield United friendly action. 4 key players left out. Just resting them, or are we going to sell them just before the start of the season?

Again.
Again again.

This time last year, we were actually at the game. No such luck this time around, but R141 buys a link for 90 minutes in front of the TV.

And since it’s clouded over, why not?