Lots of countries

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There Are 36 Countries Within 1,000km From Just Outside Prague.

So says this post entitled: There Are 36 Countries Within 1,000km From Just Outside Prague.

It’s a bit disappointing that they don’t explain exactly where just outside Prague, but by a little mouse work, I think we’re slightly to the north of the city. Maybe somewhere like Ceska Lipa or Jablonné v Podješt?dí – just south of the intersection of the Polish, Czech and German borders.

Interestingly, they don’t actually include Czechia in those 36, so I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations, and I make that 37.

I was wondering if you could add any more in there, but it’s a well constructed circle. Include Estonia, you’ll lose Albania and North Macedonia. And the UK and Norway are only hanging on by a pixel or two, so you can’t head any further south or east.

The post asks if there’s anywhere else in the world where you could get more countries inside a circle measuring 3 and a bit million square kilometres, but of course, there isn’t, because Europe is small (and Africa is far away).

Tag shoot

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We were out for dinner on Saturday evening. The Greek place near the local shopping mall. Parking was tight, so we parked up the street and walked down to the restaurant. And as we wandered past, there in the trendy looking building on the right was a giant canvas print of one of my photos. Looking past it, and peering into the now smudged windows (sorry) in the darkness, there were several (or more) more.

Always cool to see them on display.

And there was more photographic work to be done before yesterday’s festivities (literally) kicked off. Little Miss 6000 has been putting some more of her skills to work and has come up with a range of Xmas gift tags to sell to family and friends. And you could just tell people about them, but why not show them? And you could just show them, but why not lob in just a bit more effort and show them off properly?

So we raided the Xmas decorations box early, dragged out a lamp or two, and made a mini set in the bar.
And then we took a couple of photos.

The flyer went out to appropriate contacts yesterday, and sales are booming.
It’s called the 6000.co.za Photography Effect.

I dunno. I just made that up. But it was a bit of fun to play around for a half hour and get some atmospheric Xmas shots in the middle of the sunny day. And it kept my mind busy and off the pre-game nerves which I now know I never needed.

If it helps sell gift tags as well, then we’re golden.

THIS CITY IS OURS

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Actually, the Caps Lock was accidental, but I’m not about to remove it now.

The first Steel City Derby in almost 5 years ended in a United win and some wendy tears.

1-0, 3-0, 5-0… The scoreline doesn’t matter. All that anyone cares about is the result.

The result that went our way, because we were the better team. Because we are the better team.

This has been a good day. This will be a good evening. Tomorrow morning might not be quite so much fun, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Yes, another Black Label, please.

UPDATE: Now with added highlights for easy reference in the future.

Old grounds

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The Tim Traveller has been travelling again, this time looking for “Football’s Oldest Stadium”. And the way he has phrased that (as he notes early on in the video below) is very important.

This offering appealed to me even more than most of his stuff, given that it was about football, there were honorary mentions for Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane and Sandygate, and not least because of the repeated Channel Four Football Italia references throughout.

In case you don’t have time to watch (but please do find time), “Football’s Oldest Stadium” might well be the Arena Civica Gianni Brera in Milan, which was built for King Napoleon (yes, him. Watch the video.) and opened in 1807.

Whereas the oldest football stadium remains Sandygate.
And the oldest League football stadium remains Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane.

Sun stats

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Another lovely day here today and the forecast looks set for more lovely sunny days in the week ahead:

Those temperatures aren’t anything to email home about, but it’s nice enough and, as Mrs 6000 pointed out, it’s hardly summer, is it? Which it absolutely isn’t, no. That would only start on the 1st or the 21st of December, depending upon which system you’re using.

But we shouldn’t be complaining, especially when looking back over at the UK. This image has been doing the rounds over the last 24 hours, indicating the number of hours of sunshine around the UK, the Isle of Man and Ireland over the first 7 (seven) days of November.

Ouch. Eina. My fok. Goodness gracious.

Bearing in mind that London is sitting on an average of about 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight each day, they could have had over 65 hours of sunshine. They got 2.
The Isle of Man – averaging just over 9 hours of daylight last week – got not a single hour.

In seven whole days!

Aberdeen was the big (and rather unlikely) winner. 8¾ hours of daylight each day, and a whole 13 hours of sunshine in seven days. That’s 21% of their daylight as sunshine. Incredible. Their local Burns Unit must be bursting at the seams, just like it is in late January each year.

We made hay (not literally) while the sun shone today, with the Boy Wonder driving himself and his friends down to Agulhas for a long weekend, and LM 6000, having recovered from her singing last night, riding a horse over some big sticks, rather amazingly.

But now it’s time to sit back with a glass of local red, and catch up with the Youtube videos I haven’t had time to watch this week. I’ll be incredibly knowledgeable and a brilliant photographer in about an hour.

Just watch. Literally.