Real quick

Posted on

This blog has been going for over 11 years with daily postings now. That’s both rather amazing and rather sad in almost equal amounts. And of course, there have been times when I have come very close to missing a deadline or forgetting to stick a post up. On other occasions, events have conspired against me, and I’ve either got lucky or made some scrambling plan to get a post out before time runs out on the day.

Things were going swimmingly today after a tourist trip to the Waterfront. Arriving home to expected loadshedding, I cooked dinner (gas hob, see?) and was waiting for the power to come back on when it promptly didn’t. And suddenly, you wonder if it’s going to be 10 minutes (it’s not) or 10 hours (I’ll let you know) before we have electricity again.

The UPS on the internet (our bit of it at least) won’t last that long, so I’m here to get a real quick post out… “just in case”.

This is that post.

For the record, the Waterfront was actually rather nice. Crowded, yes, but not hectic. Touristy, yes, but no more than you might expect (and I was with a tourist). Sunshine, beer and some fish & chips made for a lovely few hours out and about.

Hindsight

Posted on

Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to do a hike around the mountain yesterday with an ankle that doesn’t really want to play at the moment. It’s even more reluctant to be anything but grumpy today, but a couple of myprodol will surely calm it down a bit.

Still, the hike was fun and the views were amazing. Some nice plant life, too.
I would add a photo here, but I haven’t downloaded one yet. EDIT: Look – Cape Gorse!

We’re taking Granddad to meet the horses this afternoon, at the place where I regularly pen my Wednesday missives. To be honest, I’m probably not going to add anything more to this 24 hours late, but again, I never say never. And your chances of a photo being inserted above are pretty good.

My next band

Posted on

While I’ve always enjoyed music, I’ve never really felt the need to be in a band. Of course, there was Sparky And Co., winners of my Middle School Talent Show in 19[mumbles mumbles], but those halcyon days are now long gone.

However, if I do ever be in a band again, then it’s almost certainly going to be called this:

The Karoo Lark Complex began by playing open mic nights at a local pub in Oxford, before a battle of the bands slot on the Polytechnic radio station saw them getting snapped up by Gaz Coombes’ Hot Fruit record label. Sessions for Marc Riley (obviously) followed and then mild success (not enough to contemplate giving up the day jobs, though) with several thousand streams a month. Their highlight was likely a gig on the main stage at the Witney Community Fair.
Sadly, they split up after just three years, citing artistic differences.

That fairytale aside, can we note how the larks above are named for their visual characteristics, their locality or the guy who discovered them, apart from the two with the very different song types?
Honestly, how can you be a lark and be described – named, even! – as “monotonous”.

Talk about letting the side down.

Lamp

Posted on

Back home from a hot, humid Agulhas to a hot, humid Cape Town. Make sure all the wilted garden is given a quick refreshing bath and then straight into the pool or a beer, depending on one’s individual preference.

Before we left, we headed up the Agulhas Lighthouse for a look over the town and the Southernmost Point, except that the sea mist hid the latter from us. Thus, the most interesting thing to ‘tog was actually this lamp halfway up the tower.

Quite clearly recently unused (like we can anyway!), and in need of some TLC, but that matches the rest of the place at the moment, the 2013 refurbishment long since overcome by the efforts of the (very) local oceans.

More to follow, but it’s been a long day, so I’ll sign off for now and go and help with dinner.

The showbiz lifestyle of a top blogger, eh?

Relaxed

Posted on

It’s been a lazy day, (eventually) enjoying the fare at Earth in Struisbaai, before a quick swim at the beach and then home for some takeaway dessert. And I see nothing changing for the rest of the day. It’s hot, we have no plans other than a final braai before we head back to Cape Town tomorrow, and so I’m just going to end this here and maybe accidentally fall asleep on the bed.

“Oops.”