A bit of a moan

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It hasn’t rained much in Cape Town over the last few weeks. Maybe even the last few months.

And there is a bit of “Day Zero” talk entering the chat, although to be fair, we’re a long way from that sort of scenario at the moment (but you never say never).

In fact, looking back, I can only really remember a few hours of rain over the last few months. Two of those hours were last Tuesday night, when we tried to watch the cricket. It didn’t rain all day – just for the few hours when we actually needed it to be dry, so that they could play cricket. And once the cricket (such as it was) was over (no pun intended), it stopped raining and was all hot and dry again.

And the other few hours are… well… now. Again, it’s been a scorcher of a day, but then this evening, it began to rain. Why? Well, that would be because our daughter went to an outdoor concert.

Not this morning (dry), not this afternoon (hot and dry), just this evening. And, much like the evening of the cricket, it looks like the rain will stop pretty much as the concert ends.

There will be no rain tomorrow evening, when there also won’t be a concert.

Perfect.

I once had an idea involving an iceberg, which would have solved Cape Town’s water issues forever.

I did a fair amount of maths and stuff for that, but actually, why bother with dragging a chunk of Antarctica all the way to South Africa and then filling the Franschhoek Valley with ice when I can clearly just make it rain by spending money on weather-sensitive evening activities?

If you need some rain, I’ll just buy expensive tickets for a theatre thing or some tennis (ok, not tennis), and we can all enjoy the precipitation and petrichor as the evening is ruined, the money wasted, but the dams filled up.

IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING – and I don’t blame you for wanting to ask – no, I can’t see any more events in our diary which will be ruined by rainfall, just yet. So you’re free to go about your business safe in the knowledge that it’s not going to rain on your parade.

Only mine.

But of course, I’ll keep you informed.

Tribute album

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When you’re a bit knackered and don’t have much time to blog, it used to be the case that you chucked up a Quota Photo.

But if there was a quote video, and it was a Bernard Manning sings The Smiths quote video, you’d surely use that instead, right?

Right.

Amazing.

And I love the way that the tracks listed are separated by a string of *****s. Which was probably just Bernard swearing as usual.

This was a skit from The Jonathan Ross Show in 1992, and the album – sadly – never actually existed.

Wargames

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I mentioned yesterday how hot it had been. It was also weirdly hot and massively foggy throughout last night as well. I know this because I was awake for most of the night and consequently, I am completely broken today.

Still. A quick wander along Muizenberg beach seemed like a good idea and we got to see the delightful sight of the IRIS Shahid Mahdavi (and friends) in False Bay for the laughably titled Will for Peace 2026 Naval Exercise.
Russia (still bombing Ukrainian civilians most nights), China (always a leading exponent of exemplary human rights), Iran (which has killed more than 500 of its own citizens this week) and South Africa playing with ships and guns.

Lovely.

Not that I am saying that any other foreign nation is any better. What I am saying is that there’s no real need for us to have naval exercises with anyone at all. No-one is coming down here to attack us. We’re far too far away and far too unimportant. Literally no-one cares.

But here we are inviting some shitty nations around to play anyway.

“You are not responsible for what your friends do, but you will be judged by the company you keep.”

And I think that anyone with an ounce of critical thinking could agree that our friends out in False Bay are not the greatest company to keep.

Nice walk, though.

Now all I have to do is stay awake and be sparkling company (as always) for our evening guests, before sleeping – possibly forever – this evening.

Bring it on.

Hot

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Everyone has their limits when it comes to heat. I never really thought about this before I moved to SA (because I never had to), but I’ve worked out that mine is about 34oC. Anything up to that, I’m fine – or at least, I can manage. Anything beyond that, I’m in immediate trouble; trouble which will vary from just “not very pleasant”, through to “actual death” on the three or four days each year when it approaches 40oC in Cape Town.

Today was below my threshold (just), but OMG. I struggled. And it took a while to work out why, but then I had a quick look, and, well…

Yeah. That would be it.

Honestly, what is this? We’re not in Durban here.

Great for the washing powder industry, I guess. Not so nice for those of use that were having to change clothes every couple of hours.

Bit melty.

Much time was gratefully spent in the pool (mainly because you can’t see the football from there), but while it’s a bit cooler this evening, I’m not really looking forward to just how warm our bedroom is going to be later on.

Tomorrow looks cooler – which will be nice – but my weather apps don’t show humidity, so I’m not really sure what to expect.

Kill the heat with cold beer. Always the best way forward.

Winning horse

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The Real Prince won the big race today at Kenilworth.

I was close enough to him to get sprayed while they were hosing him down.

No big issue, given just how hot it was out there today.

I’m not an expert on horses, but this guy seemed pretty happy.

And why not, given that he had just earned a cool R1,781,256 for his jog around the track.

Nice work.