Keep it simple

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Fine advice from the US National Park Service:

We have a lot of SA National Park in and around Cape Town. That’s a real privilege, but it’s also not all it’s cracked up to be. Go to a popular spot at peak time and you might as well be in the city. But take the above advice and go to a less crowded spot (or a crowded spot at a less crowded time) anywhere in the Table Mountain National Park, and you’re (potentially) asking for trouble.

e.g.

We’re all advised on websites and on the trails themselves to make sure that we’re not alone, but much like the Eskom situation, there shouldn’t have to be normalisation, acceptance and victim blaming with this sort of thing. More should be being done to prevent these problems from happening, rather than (just) us having to change our behaviour because the authorities can’t guarantee our safety and/or electricity supply.

For balance, can I also point out that this is an urban park problem. The chances of you being mugged in – for example – the Agulhas National Park, are pretty much zero, no matter how alone you are.
But on the down side: no big, flat mountain.

More to come

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Ugh. I does sometimes feel like this blog is just a means for me to moan. But taking a step back, and looking at the several (or more) years that I’ve been writing on here, I also feel that it’s reasonable for it to reflect my state of mind at any given time. Sometimes, that state of mind is influenced by personal stuff (no, the kitchen still isn’t finished and they’ve also managed to not connect the sink up correctly, so they’ve destroyed some cupboards as well), sometimes by life in general. Probably most often both, with some delicious interplay between the two.

But the last couple of months have been… bad.

Are things going to get any better? Well, hopefully, yes. But perhaps not just yet.

We have a few things to deal with before that:

It’s a lot.

The light at the end of the tunnel?
I want to believe it’s there, but I just can’t see it at the moment.

Goodbye Motty

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Sad news this morning that John Motson – the original football commentator in Britain – has died.

He commentated on almost 2,500 games, including 10 World Cups and 29 FA Cup Finals. But I remember him for the smaller games too. He was just ubiquitous.

Here he is at Wycombe Wanderers in 1990 in the image that made his trademark sheepskin coat… well… a trademark.

He was the voice of football for my generation. A class apart: especially when compared to today’s egotistical pundits and commentators.

EDIT: A lovely Guardian piece on some of his best moments.

Lent

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I don’t think I’m going to shock anyone when I say that sometimes, non-religious people piggyback on the porcine derriere of religious rituals and festivals. Living in a country where the main religion is Christianity, I can easily document several examples: just look at Christmas (gifts), Easter (eggs) and The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (wait… what?!?).

Anyway, one more of those example would be Lent, whereby Christians observe 40 days of sacrifice to recognise the period which the Gospels record that Jesus spent fasting at the start of his ministry. Amateurs and non-believers usually use it as an opportunity to restart their failed New Year diet before comprehensively refailing it again at Easter (eggs).

This year – ok, especially this year – this meme from the popular Star Trek series seems just very apt:

The sun is shining, and the birds are singing outside. But I can only hear them because there’s no other sound because the power is off again. And one day, it probably won’t come back on.
And so, one plans an escape, but honestly, Where Are We Going?

Bed. I think that’s the answer. I’m going to bed. Wake me up in 40 days.

Struggle

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No. Not us with our [checks notes] 11½ hours without power today.

Although…

No. The Lathums’ new one: Struggle.

A heartfelt, personal tale of loss, with a video following the young Alex Moore growing up in his bedroom. It’s great stuff.

Arguably, the acoustic version is even better.

The new album From Nothing To A Little Bit More is out on March 3rd. I’m excited.