Tell me why…

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…I’m not particularly looking forward to this coming Monday.

With apologies to the Boomtown Rats.

One of the best bits about this blog (ok, ok: possibly the only good bit if you want to be like that) is the fact that I don’t have to stick to any one given topic. This isn’t a blog about music or football or politics. It’s a blog about whatever takes my fancy that particular day.

But I have been talking quite a lot about the weather recently.

That’s completely reasonable though, because the Cape Town weather has been bloody weird over the last few months. And after a week of horrific humidity, gloomy skies and even *gasp* occasional rain, next Monday looks… well…

…”warm”.

Ironically, this isn’t actually very unusual for February. We will have a few days each year here that get up towards 40oC and are generally rather uncomfortable. More surprising is the fact that this will be the first one of the year.

That said, even if we’re used to it, it would probably be wise to take things a bit easy that day and to drink plenty of water. Also, find and hug an air conditioner.

I’m full of great advice.

Ice Road news

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Great news for anyone wanting to travel between the Estonian islands of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa, but who hasn’t been able to get a ferry because of all the sea ice in the… er… sea.

The authorities have opened a 17km ice road between the islands – specifically between Tärkma on Hiiumaa and Triigi on Saaremaa – over the frozen sea.

This is pretty cool (no pun intended), as it’s an official ice road, sanctioned by the government and maintained by a private contractor. You can even check on the current status of the ice road on this website.

The really good news about this official ice road is that it’s safe, simply because it’s sanctioned and maintained. But Estonians are a wild bunch, and so authorities have had to warn against individuals using several unofficial ice roads (no sanction, no maintenance; no Pirlo, no party).
That does come with some risks:

“The concern is really about this uncontrolled situation. The risk is high. Right now, one might think the danger is not great since the weather is so cold. Because right now the road is unclear and not everyone knows exactly where to go. You definitely have to monitor the road. There is just one spot where there’s a crack with water, but otherwise it’s totally passable.”

Oh, just the one spot where the freezing, dark, salty water of doom is creeping through?
That’s perfectly ok then.

The list of rules for the official ice road is long, involving weight limits, visibility constraints, distance between vehicles and banning overtaking. Also:

Seat belts must be unfastened, and vehicle doors should remain easily openable.

But why? Oh, wait.

Oh.

Right.

But it’s not like they haven’t thought this stuff through. How about this for a directive:

The recommended speed is up to 25 km/h or between 40–70 km/h (speeds between 25–40 km/h may generate a resonance wave that could damage the ice).

I wonder how they found that out?

I think that it’s unlikely that ice roads will ever be a thing here in SA. Mainly because of the weather, but then where would we go to anyway? Robben Island? That’s really about it for local offshore land around here. But it’s probably just as well, given our dodgy driving reputation.

Honestly though, this Estonian version sounds like something that you should experience at least once in your life. Or just do an unofficial one and make it the last thing you do in your life.

Done (a sad rant)

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Forgive me. Bit of a moan incoming.

When April comes around this year, it’ll mean that for 20 of the last 24 months, we’ll have had building work happening on our doorstep. Not literally our doorstep, obviously. Our actual doorstep is perfectly functional, but rather small and ordinary. 20 months of building work on that would be both excessive and completely unnecessary.

But much of life over the last two years Chez 6000 has been accompanied by the sound of drilling, banging and angle grinding from the house next door and the house just across the road.

And I’m actually done with it now.

Just tired of it. Weary. Fed up. All the appropriate synonyms.

I know that building work has to be done sometimes, and I know that it is often, by nature, rather noisy. I’ve just had enough of it constantly being noisy around me.

And let’s not just leave it at the noise, because while that is very, very irritating, it’s far from the only issue which local building work brings with it. Driving is near impossible, the road is a veritable vehicular assault course of poorly parked bakkies. The tea breaks and lunchtimes spent on the grass verges generate a highly annoying amount of litter. Annoying because it’s sheer laziness, given that the builders have to walk right past a bin on the driveway on their way back into work.

And then there’s the petty crime. What used to be a very safe neighbourhood just isn’t at the moment. You need to double check all your gates, doors and windows. Repeatedly.
Anything metal will disappear from the outside of your property. Your recycling bags will be opened and ransacked and then left for the South Easter to do its job spreading stuff all over the driveway and road.

One neighbour remarked:

With so many builders around, petty crime is bound to happen.

Which might be true, but is also an pretty crap way of shrugging your shoulders and just accepting it.

Well, not on my watch, you bastards. Try me*.

But is the end in sight?

Possibly. I mean, they’ll run out of stuff to build in the end, won’t they? But I can’t see anything slowing down or finishing up in the next few months. And as I might have alluded to above, I’m really rather pissed off with the whole situation already.

.

* …again, because you’ve already nicked the letterbox off our front wall.

I could live here

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It’s Denmark, which is the most boring of the Scandinavian countries I have been to (n=3), but still – look at this:

This bar will give you a free beer between 12 and 1pm.

There’s no catch, no obligation to buy another beer or any food or any other product. You just turn up and ask for your free beer, please. And then you can leave, although I’d advise you to drink the thing once you’ve ordered it, obviously.

The only T&C here is that you are only allowed one per customer per day, and that seems a bit tight perfectly reasonable.

As a loss leader for the bar, one presumes that it must work, otherwise they wouldn’t be running it. And – according to the guy who shared this – it’s not a limited promotion either. This has been going on since New Year already, and shows no sign of stopping.

I’ve seen beer offers before, but they’ve always come with the inevitable hidden catch. There isn’t one here. And for reference, a bar-bought 500ml Tuborg costs about 60DKK in Denmark, which is a terrifying R127, so this is a pretty sweet deal.

Sadly, the price of flights alone make this one a bit of a non-starter for us here in Cape Town, but if any of the local pubs are reading this and thinking that something along these lines might be worth a bit of a trial run… well… let me know and I’ll see you at noon tomorrow.

Yellow warning

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There’s a yellow warning out for potential severe thunderstorms and heavy rain over Cape Town and parts of the Western Cape tonight, and I couldn’t be happier. Everything is dry and brown and so very DUSTY.

Not only do we need some rain to alleviate the drought that we’ve been suffering, we need some rain just to give the place a nice clean.

It’s not a huge warning for Cape Town, but they have gone with “High Likelihood”, which is great news. No-one wants floods and stuff; just enough to wash away all the grime. But it must happen, please.

However, we’re looking at a different picture down in Cape Agulhas, where they’re playing with “High Likelihood” and “Significant Impact”. And no-one has forgotten the horrific floods of September 2023 (that one when Juan was a bit of a twat). They could do with the rain, but no repeat of those scenes.

I’ve checked our gutters are clear (and so should you), and I’ll be lobbing some fertiliser on the garden before bed tonight: might as well make the most of the opportunity.

But right now, with the sun still beaming in the cloudless sky, I’m going to watch some footy before the weekend is – once again, all too quickly – over.