A lovely evening yesterday. Not the most exciting of cup ties. Not the giant-killing that the press were hoping for us to be involved in this season, but just a quietly assured performance, despite injuries and illness.
And this guy, working his magic and dancing through a helpless Tottenham defence.
A lovely confidence boost and a reminder of what we can do to a big club by applying ourselves: te passion, a lot of hard work and some properly vocal support.
To this old icon:
Completed on December 15th 1848 – at a cost of £15,871 – sure.
But first lit on this day in 1849. And that’s what counts for lighthouse birthdays.
The light, a 4-wick Argand burner, was lit on March 1st 1849. It was filled with rendered fat obtained from indigenous fat-tailed sheep, and produced a stationary white light of 4,500 candlepower.
The current light is ever so slightly more powerful than that, at 7,500,000 candlepower, flashes every 5 seconds and has a range of 30 nautical miles (56 km; 35 miles). Interestingly, it doesn’t rely on Eskom for illumination, but on occasion, it has stopped turning because of power outages.
Old school stuff. Pedal faster.
Or… Feeling Horny? Or… ok. Let’s not.
Superduper 4k (and beyond) ascent of the Matterhorn in Switzerland via the Hörnli Ridge.
Oh – and in just a few seconds – thanks to a being a FPV drone.
Beautiful footage, with amazing views and crystal clear clarity:
FPV drone flight up the Matterhorn’s epic Hornli ridge. I’ve wanted to try this flight for a while and finally went for it during my month in Switzerland this winter (2022). I flew an Iflight Chimera 7 with DJI air unit and crossfire. The video was shot on a GoPro Hero 10 in 5K 30 and stabilized in Realsteadygo.
I only brought 1500mah batteries so the only way to assure that I reached the summit was to get closer. I decided to leave my skis at the top of the lift and hike the rest of the way to the Hörnli Hut with crampons and ice axe as the path was covered in snow and ice. I launched the drone from the Hörnli Hut and I was able to fly the remaining 4000ft (1,200m) vertical and 1 mile (1.6km) distance to the summit and surf down the ridgeline. It was extremely windy and the wind just got stronger as I neared the summit but the chimera 7 performed very well.
It’s nothing short of incredible what even basic consumer drones are capable of. It still feels like we’re in the future when it comes to some of the stuff that is available off the shelf right now. Of course, you still need an iconic mountain to get the full effect, but…
Please also note the handy AirB&B at 2:03 on the way down. “Rare Find” “Superhost” etc etc.
Firstly, go and play Puzzgrid. It’s like the wall on Only Connect, but online.
And if you want a 4-star difficulty challenge to begin with, try this one that I made earlier. I’m planning on making a few more (because mainly they’re stored in my head at the moment, and quite honestly, I need the space.)
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Next up, remember this quote?
Well, my rule of thumb is going to be a bit broken if this happens…
Wait… Watt*?!?
But that would mean 32 hours… and there are only 24…
Wow. Who would have thought that the straw that finally broke the network’s back was simply running out of enough hours to shed in a day?
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Then: Was Eyjafjallajökull the final volcano?
Year 9 iGCSE Geography dictates that one must do a class presentation on a volcanic event. And additionally, that one must build a model of said volcano to demonstrate your knowledge thereof.
I helped transport a model of Eyjafjallajökull (remember him?) into the school today, and was asked by the principal, who we saw along the way, if this was the final volcano project for our family.
I hadn’t really thought about it. But just maybe it was.
Volcano models are a rite of passage throughout your school years. You can learn more, and more, and more about them, depending on how far you want to go. You can do loads of geography, sociology, history, English, art and science about them. And yes, you can build models, from the super simple, through the vinegar and bicarb stage, and onto geographically and morphologically accurate representations, including glaciers, treelines, and – somewhat inexplicably in this case – a café.
And we’ve done them all. Twice over.
In total, our kids have over 24 years at that school.
And yes, this might well have been our family’s final volcano project. That’s actually rather sad.
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Also: Qatar Airways unilaterally cancelled several of our flights this morning without any explanation. And then emailed me and asked me to “Acknowledge the changes” or “Request a refund”. I think I’m going to have to click both buttons there, aren’t I? I don’t think it’s quite enough for me to choose between the two, given how much COLD HARD CASH has gone into buying the tickets, and the CONTINUING NEED to be in certain places at certain times – with accommodation and car hire and connecting flights already booked. Because of many reasons (but mainly because of emigrating nearly 20 years ago), I have done a lot of international flying. This is the first time that I have used Qatar Airways. And this really is the first problem I’ve ever had.
Sadly, we’re kind of tied in with them now, so we need to rearrange another lot of flights with them, and hope that these ones actually exist when we try to fly on them.
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And finally – in the style of Trevor MacDonald – this:
I mean, if even he is saying it, then it must be true, right?
Full marks for whoever cropped this meme (it wasn’t me) so that we were spared a sight of the offensive (and sinful) footwear.
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* so many apologies for this
I might have been a bit down on Cape Town and SA in my last couple of posts. (They’re here and here.) Potentially justifiably so, but it would be wrong not to balance things up a bit.
Because this weekend, Cape Town hosted the inaugural Cape Town e-prix, hosted the ICC Women’s T20World Cup Final, hosted The Ocean Race in yachting,
EDIT: And the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s Championship
…and had several (or more) cruise ships visiting:
That’s quite literally billions and billions of Rands into going into local businesses. And when all else seems to be against them, that’s got to be a very good thing.
So we continue to exist, survive and even thrive in our little south-western bubble. It’s not all doom and gloom out there, no matter what you might have read.
pic via twitter