Suddenly: Lions

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Look, we live in South Africa, and while at least some of the rest of the world [waves to the USA] think that wild animals roam the streets, it’s not quite like that. Well, not every day, at least.
Outside the cities, you certainly might come across ostriches on your drive, and if you’re near certain bodies of water at night, there’s always the chance of a notoriously unreflective hippo.

More likely is that you’ll hit one of the big buck though: and that Kudu a lot of damage to your car: a bull can weigh 300kg.

Sadly, it rarely ends well for the Kudu, either. But thankfully, these events are fairly uncommon in the greater scheme of things.

Even less common are encounters with lions.

Well, that is until recently. Because suddenly, there seems to be a lot of lion in the mainstream media.

Please note that if you’re reading this out loud for the benefit of someone else, you’ll need to clarify that I mean the big cat, not a lack of truthfulness. That wouldn’t be unusual at all.

Here are three very recent examples. Happily all up North, a long way from here.

There was a lion… ahem… lyin’… on the M18 between Pretoria and Centurion last night:

The original image was posted on X, and as the Citizen says:

A reverse image search on Google revealed similar photos of lions spotted in the Kruger National Park.

Well, yes. Similar, because that’s what lions look like, but actually not the same.
So was this claim genuine? No-one seems completely sure.
The truth is out there. And maybe there’s a lion as well.

More concrete evidence was provided by Skukuza Golf Course:

Guests at the Skukuza Golf Club, famously dubbed South Africa’s wildest golf course, recently witnessed an extraordinary scene when a group of predators converged on the final green to share an impala kill.
In a rare sighting that perfectly illustrates the untamed nature of the course, two lions, a crocodile, and a pack of hyenas took turns feasting on the kill just metres from the clubhouse.

And the video, although portrait and a bit blurry, is incredible:

The “You must have signed the indemnity form to pass this point” sign in the foreground is particularly amusing, given the range of dangerous carnivores tearing apart the unfortunate impala.

These magnificent beasts are supposedly apex predators, but they are no match for a Toyota Land Cruiser. This incident occurred in Kruger National Park, which you can drive through in your own vehicle (I recently found out that this is bewildering to foreigners). And you can get really, really close to the really wild animals. But when there is a good sighting, word spreads fast and it can get a bit busy.

Patience is key. Don’t be like this guy. Don’t get this close.

No damage done here apart from to the driver’s bank balance once the Rangers got a look at this video.

KNP spokesperson, Ike Phaahla, confirmed that the driver was fined.
“We dealt with him by tracing the number plate.”

Good plan. I would have started by looking for traces of lion fur on the front corner of every white Toyota in South Africa. But your way is probably better. I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.

“All we know is that he was trying to make a way at the sighting when he bumped the animal,” Phaahla explained. He added that while he was unsure of the amount the driver was fined, the maximum fine is R1,500.

A slap on the wrist for a bump up the arse.

We naturally crow about our amazing wildlife in SA, but I have no clue why there has been a sudden plethora of lion stories in the local press.
Still, it’s good that we take pride in sharing the stories about these big cats when we encounter them.

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.

Olympics

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It’s all over and some people are struggling a little.

Needs more punctuation, sure. But I feel her pain. It’s a bit weird to not have some sort of minority sport on in the background while you’re working. And we’ve got another 18 months before we can do that again, albeit with curling and speedskating.

And let no-one say that GB didn’t do its bit to help out:

They say that there is bad blood between the UK and their neighbours across the Channel, but we’ve clearly gone out of our way to assist by reenacting this year’s Gilets Jaunes protests in their hour fortnight of need. Although, it’s only August, so still plenty of time for a French uprising to finish the summer off.

And let no-one say that Yorkshire didn’t do its bit as well:

God’s Own Country chipping in with almost as many gold medals as all the other bits of GB put together. A small disclaimer that this version of the medal table was put together by the good folks at… er… BBC Yorkshire.

But I’m sure it’s accurate. And 14th leaves us ahead of some very big countries. And Ireland.

I’m guessing that this will be the last post here on the Olympics – at least for a while. Because I can’t help but think that the whole Raygun saga is far from over, and might still come back to bite someone (possibly me) in the arse.

Dinner (and what goes on around here)

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Or maybe: What goes on around here (and dinner)

There are a few new 6000 miles… readers in the house after the last couple of days, [deity] help them.

But anyway… Hi. Thanks for clicking through.

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been blogging each day (yes, all of them) for over 13½ years on here now – and not daily for a few years before that. There’s no particular theme here; just whatever takes my fancy on any given day from the news, my browsing, something I did, some photo I took or… whatever.

It’s a mixed bag.

If you’re expecting a post like yesterday’s each and every day, you might be a little disappointed, but those do come around occasionally, when the need and the time arise.

But like I said, it’s a mixed bag. And tonight, we made burgers and my daughter went all foodie photographer on us, so that’s what you’re getting here:

Super tasty, and almost certainly more nutritious than what I had planned having spotted this earlier:

Although on the downside, also quite a lot more prep time and washing up.

Look, it’s not exactly subtle stuff from the Olive Marketing Board there, but damn, it almost worked. Reading through, I found myself very tempted, but also concerned about the guilt and the potential consequences of eating 30 to 40 olives directly out of the jar with my fingers. Thankfully, that last line:

you will certainly not regret eating 30 to 40 olives

really put my mind at ease, and it was only when the rest of the family reminded my that I was long grown out of my heathen student days that we went for the burger option instead.

It was very nice. But there’s still a bit of me that thinks that maybe I’ve missed out on something.
Like 30 to 40 olives.

Maybe tomorrow.

This B-girl Raygun “protest” theory is clearly nonsense.

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Earlier, someone linked to a huge – s t r e t c h – by local “expert on everything”, Graeme Codrington, in which he explains why Australian “B-girl” RayGun’s atrocious performance at the Olympics was actually just a protest about the “sport” being included in the Games. Here are some highlights (of his theory – there were no highlights in the actual performance).
Please ignore the smugness if you can.

How likely do you think it is that Australia selected a completely useless competitor for the Olympics? Not likely, right? Should this have alerted you to a bigger story, and to do a touch of research before posting? I think it should have.

A quick search will uncover that her name is Prof Rachael Gunn, and she’s a university professor, with a focus on breakdancing, gender and politics. She’s also a really well established breakdancer and has represented Australia at World championships for many years, to much acclaim. Did this give you pause for thought? It should have.

Slightly more research will uncover that she’s recently written an academic journal article entitled “The Australian Breaking scene and the Olympic Games: The possibilities and politics of sportification”. The theme of this paper is a concern that if breakdancing is institutionalised via the Olympics it is likely to lose its very essence. Her argument is that if the sport is forced to adhere to a strict code that gives points for certain elements and is centrally controlled by a body not strongly linked to the sport (like the IOC) it will stop being the sport she loves. Does that information give you pause for thought? It should.

Let’s pause for thought, as instructed. Here’s that paper, written two years ago.

And here’s how Graeme sees her performance:

The most likely story here is that her dance at the Olympics was a supreme expression of what she believes is the essence of her art form: an anti-institutional dance of rebellion and defiance. Could it have been a throw down. A challenge. The judges gave her a zero – and by doing that she was the winner of a dance that is a form of protest.

STREEEEEETCH! But then of course:

I know I am a full-time researcher so this type of info is maybe easier for me to track down, but we should all make some effort.

Eww.

Anyway, I made some effort and I found out that if this was indeed a protest, then it’s a long held gripe that she has. Indeed, RayGun seems to protest in many of her routines, given her Instagram videos.
Here she is… er… protesting in Cyprus, Sydney and the UK with form and style that seem to pretty much match exactly what she did in Paris this week.

Here she is last year, talking about how they’ve had to work hard in Oz to get athletes to the Olympics:

For many traditional Olympic sports, there is a clear pathway for athletes to qualify. For the Australian breaking community, the past three years have been a scramble to get everything in place for the road to Paris. A qualifying event in the Oceania region later this year has yet to be locked in.

“The last three years has been really fast putting all that [infrastructure] in place,” Gunn said.

“It’s been really intense, we’ve had to build a lot, and on top of training and on top of reimagining ourselves as Olympians, [it’s] been really fast-paced the last couple of years. But we are ready, we’re going to get there, and we just need the support now from the Australian public.”

Which is a bit weird, given how much Graeme says she hates the idea.

And here she is extolling the virtues of Breaking being in the Olympics, a whole three weeks ago:

Breaking provides an opportunity to explore the “faster, higher, stronger” ethos of the Olympics in new ways. It shows us that we truly don’t know every point on which the body can spin or launch its weight, the different shapes it can make, or all the ways it can move.

And finally, here’s an interview with her after her disguised protest, in which she disguises it still further…

…by not saying it was a protest at all.

After her performance, the 36-year-old Macquarie University lecturer explained she wanted to leave a creative mark.
All my moves are original. I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?

It is Genius!

Listen, I know I’m not a full-time researcher, but this type of info was very easy for me to track down, so maybe Graeme should make some effort.

Jeez. The lengths some people will go to to get some attention.

Also, please share this post. Thanks.