Run

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After a fairly appalling night’s sleep, during which my little luxury memory foam pillow seemed to have forgotten all that my head had taught it, the Boy Wonder and I went for a bit of a run, ahead of a thing we have planned.

More on that real soon now.

We probably should have set off a little earlier though. It was FLIPPING ROASTING when we were finishing up. But a nice little 12km and we’re well on course for our planned event.

On a slightly more disappointing note, I imagine that tomorrow morning will bring a world of pain.

But before that seemingly inevitable horror: a quick lunch in Struisbaai, a gentle wander on the beach with the dog, an essential afternoon nap and an evening braai.

It’s all good.

Saved

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I was planning to write a blog post when we got down to Agulhas this evening.

But then, when getting some wood ready for the braai, we found a Striped Field Mouse nest in the wood pile.

The rescue mission started immediately.

We managed to save 4 tiny babies (body length about 2.5cm) and their parent (single, bigger). The nest has been relocated, the woodpile is clear and mice are safe again.

And I’ve done my blog post.

Hello Sweet World

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Gangs of Ballet. Now there’s a blast from the past.
And this particular track would surely be considered to be a South African classic.
Am I allowed to say that? Can I be a judge of what makes that list?

Gangs of Ballet were a three-piece from Durban and also had that other big hit (here). I think they were a bit ahead of their time. Hello Sweet World would be on every Netflix hospital drama series if it were released these days. As the angry bit kicks in just after the 2 minute mark, you can almost see the tearful, distressed female doctor storming out of the ER into the wet streets of downtown Chicago after her night shift, during which she saved twelve lives and broke up with her handsome surgeon boyfriend.

And yet – as far as I am aware – they never really made it beyond these shores. See also The Parlotones, Zebra & Giraffe and Ashtray Electric (and maybe Isochronous, as well). There’s some properly good South African indie rock there (and The Parlotones), which you really feel could have gone a lot further if it had just managed one big break.

Clearly, as you can see from the links above, I tried my best.

That a-ha Article

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First of all, please let me say a big thank you to all the 6000 miles… readers who took the time to send me that BBC article about a-ha’s role in popularising electric vehicles in Norway. It’s this sort of reader engagement that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, and I really am very grateful.

I’m also clearly sending out some very specific vibes on here though, because I received links to this article no fewer than eleven times, on three different platforms, and from four different continents, all within a couple of hours of it being published.

Amazing.

Had I heard this story before? Well, yes, but only recently: in this thread on twitter early last year.

And yes, seemingly because of the efforts of Morten et al., it seems that Norway – who made all their money from invading Scotland in the 9th Century dirty oil – are now well ahead of the curve when it comes to electric cars:

In the first half of 2022, 78% of new car sales in Norway were pure electric.
The country intends to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2025 which is five years ahead of the UK.

and:

Add to that the fact that almost 99% of Norway’s electricity comes from renewable sources (and that climate change will make it wetter and windier there, ironically meaning more opportunities for hydroelectric and wind power), and it’s actually a very green picture for a nation which exported 114million cubic metres of oil in 2022 (and will increase that by 15% next year).

Merely moving climate change elsewhere won’t help anyone. Except apparently, as noted above, Norway.

But I suppose that I’m being a little cynical. This isn’t really greenwashing: Norway is actually giving other nations a great example to follow when it comes to electric vehicles.

And it was all thanks to a-ha.

[Did you manage to get the “The Sun Always Shines On EV” pun in? – Ed.]

Summer daze and that virus…

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It’s been a good start to the day. It does seem that we’re almost done with spring (aside from the pummeling SouthEaster), and summer has moved in already. Thus, I’m sitting outside listening to the radio, catching up on a few emails, paying a few bills and writing a blog post. The garden is full of flowers, and the lawn needs a water. The beagle, having been bathed this morning – much to its displeasure – is on patrol, snorfing around and chasing butterflies.

It’s an idyllic picture. So let’s ruin everything with a handbrake turn.

Looking back at that link above, I’m reminded that this time last year, we were approaching 600 days of Covid lockdown. Believe it or not, there’s still quite a bit of Covid about, although no-one is testing anymore, because of the time and the effort and the money involved – and why spend all that stuff when no-one seems to care? – so we can’t be sure exactly how much.

And so much for this being “jUsT lIkE tHe CoMmOn CoLd”, with this huge overhang of cardiovascular deaths and Long Covid (which is also vastly underreported).

This is just the easily measured tip of the iceberg…

As I mentioned here, I think that thankfully, I’m finally over my issues [touches wood]. But I recently heard from a acquaintance who is anything but. Shortness of breath, palpitations, tachycardia, cognitive issues, that fatigue, and many other issues: just a general loss in quality of life. Ugh. Horrible. In her case, it’s so bad that she’s been admitted to a local pulmonology ward, which is half full of chronic Long Covid cases.
I guess that they’re only based there because it stemmed from a respiratory disease: these are very clearly multi-disciplinary cases.

I realise that it’s hip and cool to poke fun at Covid; to suggest that it wasn’t [note the incorrect use of the past tense] that bad, to weirdly tell people that it was all a “new world order” plan to keep us all under control, (incredible to see how governments were so ready and willing to work together on this one issue when they clearly can’t agree on fuck all else, before or since), to downplay it completely because you didn’t get sick (yet).

If you’re the person making those sort of points, you’re clearly ignorant, uninformed and actually rather callous.

We’re nowhere near done with Covid yet. And yet you can’t get a booster jab in Cape Town for love, nor money. Not that the booster on offer will help much – we need the new bivalent jab over here as soon as possible.

For those who insist that Covid will become just another seasonal viral infection, well, I actually agree with you. I just have two questions: When will that happen, and what cost will it bring – in both acute and chronic caseloads?

Until we have the answers to those questions, we really shouldn’t be dropping our guard – as individuals or as a society – because there’s a good chance that we’re going to end up regretting it at some point.