Day 447 – Level 3

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Alert level 3 for Wave 3.

50 people inside still seems like far too many (and that’s because it is far too many), and research has shown that a partial alcohol ban will have very limited effect on the numbers attending hospital and therefore won’t help much from that point of view. But again (and again and again and again), economically, we can’t survive a full lockdown and the government has to be seen to be doing something. Especially with this situation:

All the other big provinces are now joining the party (I think the Eastern Cape line is hiding behind the Limpopo one). And yes, the Northern Cape is doing its own thing, but if you follow that purple plot, you can see that the Northern Cape is a bit of a law unto itself anyway. I’m guessing (guessing) that this is because the population there is so small that any outbreak at a school or workplace – which would be considered fairly minor elsewhere – shows up even on a graph scaled like this one.

Looking at the previous two waves, the next two months are going to be fairly unpleasant for us all. the problem is (aside from the disastrous vaccine rollout trickleout) full on Covid fatigue. People are understandably fed up and no-one seems to be taking it seriously anymore. And yet the signs are all there that this third wave is going to be a horribly costly. Many of those who have dodged the Covid bullets so far, whether by good fortune or simply by not going to gunfights, are going to be affected. But stick your head up above the parapet and say that, and you get eye rolls and sneers.

I stick my head up and say it anyway. Don’t take unnecessary chances, do wear a mask, do avoid crowds and indoor gatherings. Let’s face it, it’s really not that hard to do: this isn’t rocket science – it’s just science science.

Stay home, stay safe.

Day 446 – Some photos

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(at last!)

Just a quick in-and-out (careful now) from me here today, because I have to play football half an hour and I’m n kilometres away from where I need to be to play football at that time.

But I did manage to edit some photos – mainly of birds – from the weekend: here they are.

Here’s a Little Egret having a bad hair day, just to get you in the mood.

I know that these are feathers (I did Biology for GCSE), but the term “bad feathers day” doesn’t really exist, and I’m trying to be whimsical.

Have a lovely evening. As mentioned, football for me, then the Ramaphosa announcement, then France v Germany, at least one of which should be an absolute humdinger. Two if we’re properly lucky.

Day 445 – In which I didn’t edit those images

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I know I said I would, I just didn’t get around to it, what with picking up a shirt in town and shopping and cooking and watching a bit of the Euro 2020 football.

I was slow to get up this morning (the kids are on holiday, so we’re all good), and it felt like I’d been hit by a train when I did drag myself out of bed. I might have overdosed somewhat on anti-histamines last night. We got absolutely chowed by mosquitoes over the weekend. Numbers like I haven’t seen since Mozambique 17 years ago. They were everywhere. I was trying to get a shot of the moon and Venus in conjunction, but gave up when I splatted about 50 of the little bastards off my legs in about a minute.
“How awful”, you might think, “but you do live in Africa”.
Well, yeah, but it’s MIDWINTER in Africa next week. There should not be mosquitoes out and about in Cape Agulhas a week before the shortest day. There shouldn’t be that many mosquitoes out and about in Cape Agulhas full stop.

I’m still knocking back Allergex as if there is no tomorrow, which, you know, if I knock back enough…

Anyway, tomorrow’s weather looks a bit crappy and there’s limited football on (although I am playing a match myself), so I’ll probably choose to tuck myself in front of a warm Lightroom, choose the best images from the weekend, and make them even better.

Right now, Spain v Sweden.

Day 444 – Cool weekend

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It’s been an excellent weekend, full of sunshine, exercise, photography and relaxation.

But after a thankfully uneventful journey home, Cape Town is properly chilly this evening.

The fire is going and I’ve switched the football on to see if that warms things up at all.

Tomorrow, I’ll get some editing done and share some pics, but until then it’s a cup of coffee and Austria vs North Macedonia (which is pretty toasty already).

Day 443 – Told you so

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Experience is everything.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now, and when I popped up this post yesterday, I absolutely had the intention to add something more, later in the evening. Because I was 99.9% sure that I would have chance to add something more later in the evening. That was my experience.

But I wasn’t 100% sure. So I put that placeholder post up, just in case. That was my experience being put into practice.

You’ll likely already have noticed that there was no second post. That’s because our usual slightly-less-than-3-hour drive down here took nearly 5 hours yesterday. A nasty fatal (not us) accident in Caledon didn’t help, but the bigger problem was the air intake pipe to the engine popping off just after the turn to Villiersdorp. Partially fixed with the assistance of a kind farmer and his Leatherman, and then a limping journey (through that traffic) (twice, because we’d just got through it when the intake blew again) to Caledon Toyota, whose staff were both wonderfully friendly and efficient (it being 2 minutes to closing time on a Friday evening), and also hugely apologetic that such a thing should ever have happened.

A quick fix (easy when you know how and you have the appropriate tools) and we were on our way again, although we took a phat dirt road-tastic detour to avoid having to see the body on the road again.

Got here, lit the fire, drank red wine (yes, really), braai’d and then hit the sack early.

Up today for some wandering on the beach with the camera: results to follow. Bit of work in the garden. Set up a new router. Maybe an afternoon nap now now.

Might pop out again for Golden Hour. Might not. The joys of a weekend off.