A note to self…
On our recent Agulhas trip, we did a quick drive through of the pretty, historic village of Elim, but didn’t have enough time to make a stop.
Still, there was enough there to tempt us into a return visit, so next time…
Next time
More motivation
A while ago, I did a post on the folly of (some) motivational quotes. But since then, I’ve found a couple of motivational things that I actually rather agree with. Or at least some that I appreciate.
Because they are aimed at the right sort of place.
Firstly, this Norwegian response:
“Things could definitely be going better, but actually, I’m just about coping” seems to be a vaguely positive but also realistic way of trying to be optimistic, but equally not pretending that you’re in some sort of utopia.
In fact, given the way the world is at the moment, the only minor addition I’d make is a “yet” at the end of it.
But then, if all you want to do is achieve then there’s this approach:
For me, this is like doing a job, then adding it to your to-do list, just so that you can retrospectively cross it off. The list remains just as long as it was. Or maybe it’s more like just crossing off one of the existing list items without doing it. Either way, the sense of achievement stands proud.
I’m off to put both these ideas into practice.
Angry birds
A clickbait-laden headline led me to a paywalled article from the M&G this morning:
More like… budgie constraints, amirite?
But hard luck, M&G, because I got all the information I required from your first (free) paragraph. Ha!
We know that there is no money available to help control or eradicate these pests, because
a) there’s no money available for anything, and
b) the entire department budget went on “don’t do this” signs in Struisbaai.
On the actual birds, we don’t see much of any of them in Cape Town (yet). Allegedly, there are Indian House Crow colonies here, but they are nowhere near as widespread as in Durban and KZN. There are more mallards in Bakewell than in Kaapstad, and the Mynas and Parakeets haven’t really got this far either.
It’s a bit concerning to see the parakeets described as “popular” above. Sure, they’re nice to look at, but they are still nasty invasives, destroying the habitats of our indigenous wildlife. This is the same thing that squirrels do, and it’s why I will happily take a catapult to any I see around our garden.
These parakeets are a problem worldwide. But who is responsible?
That said, while these may all be terrible invasive avian species to have around, they’re still not annoying as some of our homegrown birds: the Egyptian Goose (not really from Egypt, not really a goose) and the F*****g Guineafowl being the worst birds ever to exist.
I’m less willing to take a catty to either of these two, because sadly, they do actually belong here, but I will (and have) happily taken the drone out of an evening to dislodge them from a prospective roosting spot within earshot of my bedroom.
ESP Screenshot
The go to app for all your loadshedding info has to be Eskom se poe… Eskom se PUSH, which will inform you exactly when your next slots of misery are due. Super useful, free (but therefore full of ads), and… well… it just works. There are, however, a couple of unnecessary embellishments, like their social media community chat thing, for example. This was probably added because everything needs to somehow be a social media community chat thing these days. That’s what the world seems to think, at least.
The trouble is that their social media community chat thing is not very well monitored, and this is South Africa, which makes it a hot bed of fake gnus…
…and often (not even) thinly veiled racism.
I don’t subscribe to the social media community chat thing because of these reasons, and because it’s actually of very little use, even when the comments aren’t lies or discrimination, but I still get a little snapshot each time I log on, presumably to try to encourage (?!?) me to get involved.
Stuff like this from “Bishop”:
Not a very ecclesiastical thing to say, Your Grace.
This was 17 hours ago, which means that Bishop has had at least three power cuts since it was written. One can only imagine the state of his diocese, given the promised loose stools which will presumably have repeatedly prevailed.
Eww. Messy. (And I don’t mean the overrated footy one.)
There is a serious side to this (other than the awful stuff that gets shared on their social media community chat thing), being that the reaction of the Bishop here is a snapshot all of us in SA right now: desperate, angry, overwhelmed, worried… and about to loose our shiit.
And while there is absolutely every justification for feeling this way, it achieves nothing at all, save for working us each towards an earlier grave. Sad.
He’s back
An emotional return for the Boy Wonder at the airport after some horribly delayed flights, but he’s finally back home now. Yay!
Not the results that they would have liked, but many amazing experiences, new friends, the pyramids, different cultures, life lessons and plenty (or more) entente cordiale. And sometimes – always, in fact – once you think things through, those things are more important than the actual game. When they’re not, it can all get a little unpleasant. There was a bit of that on show as well, happily not from anyone from SA.
There’s a lot of downloading to do, tales to tell, and moments to relive. But first, there’s a homecoming braai to enjoy and a LOT of sleeping to catch up on.