Numbers

A few things I have seen recently.

The latest offering from Enid Blyton looks rather depressing:


And if you thought that the five link was a bit random, then how about this six?

Maybe spare yourself from the pictures in that article, by the way. Literally the most positive thing about the whole episode was this:

“We are also aware of the allegation that dog food was being used to produce the sausage. Contrary to footage circulating on social media, our EHPs found no evidence of dog food on the scene.” 

So it could quite clearly have been even wors.

I’m so sorry.


According to this page, 186,000 people arrived in Finland in November last year.
Brave souls, but what a welcome when you get there:

OK, so this was actually for a tech conference in 2016, but as the “best tourist slogan ever”, it absolutely still works.


Still awake? Not for long once you get into this article, I promise you.

Why? Because it’s 2,536 words about the nomenclature of the UK’s highways. And not actually that, but the highways that were incorrectly named.

Look out for The Maybole Disaster:

You could argue, of course, that it doesn’t matter; the old road through Maybole has a number, and few people will pay much attention to it no matter what it is. Call it B77, or B770, or B7700, or B7777 (all of which are available for use), and life will go on. Well, yes, of course it will.

But the point of the exercise was to move through traffic to the new bypass – to encourage it to follow a different path, where the road now divides, and take an unfamiliar route around the west of Maybole rather than the familiar way through the middle. The point was to make it clear that the A77 is now over here, and this road you used to go down is now something else.

Spoiler: They called it the B77, and ruined everything.

Or The Accidental Motorway:

Until it was downgraded to an A-road in the late 1990s, it held the fantastically grand number M41.
We’re talking about numbering mistakes, but M41 was quite a good fit: it was in motorway zone 4, and the number wasn’t used elsewhere, so was technically valid.
The mistake was that it was supposed to be called M14.

Fascinating.

Goodnight.

About today

I ducked out of football tonight after a weekend with an iffy viral thing. Nothing too bad – I just slept a lot. And while I’m feeling much better now, I tried a run this morning, and there’s not an awful lot of energy in the tank. Almost 30 seconds per km slower than usual, and the hills left me broken. So better to prudently withdraw, rather than try to push things too hard and give myself even more from which to recover.

I did get the opportunity to try out my new running jacket, though: this time in proper rain. Because it actually rained quite hard today. And it handled it perfectly. That Water Column Rating of 10 000 mm (I don’t know what this means) really worked well, and the Breathability: well, I know it says 10000 g/m²/24h (again, no idea how this works), but it genuinely felt so much more.

In other news, things are starting to end for the year. Exams are done (finally), piano lessons finished yesterday, art school today. The last singing lesson is on Thursday, and there are only 6 more days of school: mainly for exam paper handbacks, prizegivings, and general end of year celebrations.

We’re away for a few days at the end of next week: a place somewhere in the Swartland with a pool and a hottub and very little else, and I can’t wait. I’ll be working doubly hard in the run up to that little trip so that I can get some blog posts pre-written and ready to go, leaving my time free for relaxing and braai’ing. Some exercise wouldn’t go amiss, perhaps a spot of photography, and there might just be some olives and a wine farm or two on the cards as well, given the region’s outstanding reputation for Shiraz.

It would be rude not to.

But more on that nearer the time.

This evening: United at home to Oxford – one of my old stomping grounds. It’s going to be another late one, but I hope it’s another good one too.

Admyt hits Canal Walk – save LOADS!

It’s still one of the finds of recent times for me. It saved my son half an hour of queuing to pay for parking after the football last week. It means I don’t have to worry about whether a place takes cards for parking payments or if I have change or where I put my parking ticket or anything.

It’s live across SA at loads of locations, with more being added on a regular basis. Just like the behemoth mall that is Canal Walk. And because it’s launching there in Black Friday week, they’ve got a double deal on just for you. And you. OK, you as well.

Firstly, save R20 off your first (paid) parking by using my referral code when you sign up:

TRE162273

And then, once Admyt launches at Canal Walk on Thursday 28th, you can have free parking…

…for THREE DAYS there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the promo codes below:

  • Free parking on Fri, 29 November | Promo code: CWBF29
  • Free parking on Sat, 30 November | Promo code: CWBF30
  • Free parking on Sun, 1 December | Promo code: CWBF01

So that’s no ticket to lose, no change to have to find to pay, no queues to brave on the way out when you’re exhausted and just want to go home, and that swanky VIP feeling as you drive to the barrier and it opens to wave you straight through.

The first three are really handy; the last one is still just very cool.

Sign up on the interwebs here (not forgetting that referral code: TRE162273), and then get the app on Apple here, or Google here.

And talking of AI images…

(…as we were yesterday.)

I hadn’t really found a use for AI images until one of the neighbours messaged the local WhatsApp group and said that their bin had gone missing, and did anyone know where it might be.

And suddenly, I found a use for AI images.

I still haven’t actually found their bin, though.