The great thing about quota photos…

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…is that it’s just about impossible for anything to be misinterpreted or misconstrued. This in turn means that no-one gets offended, no names get called and no allegations are levelled. This in turn means that everyone is happy. And that is good.

I don’t usually play around with my photos on the computer “post processing”. As far as I’m concerned, once they’re taken, they’re taken: I don’t have the software, the time or the inclination to mess around with them. That’s something else to learn and I haven’t even learnt how to take photographs yet.

However, I just poked this one of Alex’s Winnie the Pooh sprinkler a bit and I quite like the results.
I think that this is one of those photographs that is best viewed large and you can do that here.

There now. That wasn’t so controversial, now was it?

Jan Moir on Stephen Gately – nearly right

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Incoming:

As a Brit why haven’t you written a post today about this Stephen Gately Death Column by Jan Moir in the Daily Mail and all the scandal it’s causing?

Well, OK… Jan Moir’s piece in the Daily Mail about the recent demise of Boyzone’s Stephen Gately was originally titled:

Why there was nothing ‘natural’ about Stephen Gately’s death

but has been recently and quietly retitled:

A strange, lonely and troubling death . . .

This sudden change of title may be in order to avoid the wrath of the Press Complaints Commission, whose website crashed, allegedly under the number of complaints she invoked, many of them encouraged by Stephen Fry on twitter (and here).

But those histrionics, aside…

I actually agreed with most of what Moir said.
It was just that her fundamentals were a little skew.

Gately died an unnatural death because he was “a gay celebrity”, not because he was “a gay”.

See MJ, see Keith Ledger, see… the rest of them.

EDIT: Even following the list of comments below, this is taking things too far.

Happier then…

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This is my daughter in a beer garden in January. See how she smiles.

This was not the case last night. My daughter has tonsilitis. She announced this to us by having a huge spiking fever at about three o’clock this morning and then, when we went to investigate the circumstances surrounding her crying, by copiously and accurately vomiting all over her mother.

Nice.

Still, it could have been worse. It could have been all over me.
In these situations, the most important thing is to get the child’s temperature down as quickly as possible. Thus, I got to sit in the shower with her on my lap (my daughter, not my wife, sadly) and spray us both with cold water. This is not what anyone wants to have done to them at three o’clock in the morning and little K-pu protested loudly, but that sums up what parenting is about. Vomit, cold water and misery.
Of course, there are high points as well, which – as you can see – apparently occur in beer gardens in January. That might have something to do with the beer though.

Sorry – I’m just feeling tired and cynical. Being a parent is great. Being in a cold shower for 30 minutes in the wee small hours of the morning and the mess it makes of the rest of your day- isn’t.

Choked

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I’m in shock. Mildly, anyway. I just got this in my email from a-ha’s official website:

With the current album ‘Foot of The Mountain’ enjoying both commercial success and critical acclaim, A-ha has decided to call it a day.

As a consequence, A-ha will not be releasing any further albums in the future.

The band would like to thank their fans and everyone who has contributed to their amazing journey, and say:
‘We’ve literally lived the ultimate boy’s adventure tale, through a longer, more rewarding career than anyone could hope for.
Doing this now will give us a chance to get more involved in other meaningful aspects of life, be it humanitarian work, politics, or whatever else – and of course through new constellations in the field of art and music. We are retiring as a band, not as individuals.
Change is always difficult and it is easy to get set in one’s ways. Now it is time to move on.’

Wow. We shared a quarter of a century together.
You were my first compact disc, you came to my school discos, you kept me sane on wet Lake District holidays.
You popped in while I was at University, you played at my wedding (on CD, because we couldn’t afford to fly you to Cape Town and still have the lamb on the menu) and at the birth of my child (as an mp3 file, for obvious reasons); a child that I then named after your lead singer. 
You are my most played band on iTunes. By a country mile.

And now you leave me for humanitarian work and politics? Politics??

Gutted.

Where are you going to stay?

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With almost all the teams now confirmed for next year’s FIFA World Cup, excitement is beginning to mount and people are suddenly realising the need to start making plans. Flights are getting booked up, rental car agencies are running short of rental cars and flag sales are up to their highest levels since before the world flag crisis of 2003.

Of course, your most immediate requirement as a visitor to South Africa is somewhere to stay. And if you’re looking for a decent place to rent, you’re obviously (obviously) going to head to SA’s premier property group: Pam Golding Properties.

PGP have a specialised 2010 rental department and they have released a portfolio of some of the Cape Town properties that they have on their books for next year’s tournament. In addition, if you’re in Cape Town, you can rent out your property. Just make sure it fits the bill.

These properties have been carefully selected for their outstanding locations and superlative features, all promise first class accommodation with all the added extras.

Check out that first one. Fresnaye. R30,000 per day. Per. Day.

pgp

Even with the Rand doing extraordinarily well at the moment, that’s still $4,000 or £2,500 per day. Don’t even ask how much that is if you plan to stay for the whole 31 days (although you can work it out using mental arithmetic or a simple calculator)*.
But if you are staying the whole month, then you might be able to get in a harvest from the private vineyard it boasts, make some wine and offset a bit of the cost.

Of course, you don’t have to spend all that money. Last time around in Germany 2006, loads of people camped out. But then, during Germany 2006, it was summer. Good luck with finding your tent after we get a traditional Cape cold front coming through.
Start looking halfway to Antarctica.

* If you arrive the day before the first match and leave the day after the final, that’ll be a cool R1,000,000 please.