Flicking through some pics from this year, I found this.
I think I took this through the Canary Island Pine across the road.
Did I put it on the blog already?
I can’t see it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not here.
Well, if it is, it’s here twice now.
I’m going to take a bit of break from blogging for the next week or so. But obviously, you won’t know that unless you’ve read this, because I’m going to pre-write some posts. Maybe that’s already been happening for a while, but you didn’t notice.
Anyway…
There are three reasons for this break: firstly, that I actually just want a break. Coming up soon (and yes, of course there will be a post on this) is the completion of the [checks notes] 14th year of at least one post every day on this blog.
That’s at least 5,114 posts (but it’s actually loads more) and I feel like a break every now and again is well-deserved.
This is one of those times.
Secondly, talking of efforts to try and keep that run going, this time of year is just weird. Everything is out of sync and daily routines go out of the window. It’s surprisingly easy – even after all this time – to almost forget to blog. It’s almost happened at least several times.
And thirdly, we’ll be heading down to Agulhas at some point. Agulhas will be PACKED and the internet in Agulhas quite simply isn’t made for that many people to use at once. So getting online can be tricky. And you need to be online to blog.
I do hope that this logical reasoning has won you over. Although, if not, it doesn’t really matter, because I’m taking the break anyway. 🙂
Whatever your plans today. Wherever you are. Whatever you believe.
I hope you have a nice day.
I mean, I hope you have a nice day on all the other days as well.
It’s just that apparently for a lot of people, this one is a bit of a biggie.
I prewrote a post for today. I prewrote it at about lunchtime on Monday 22nd.
I… er… I won’t be continuing with that post now, because about an hour after I hit the SCHEDULE button, this sad news broke.
British singer Chris Rea, known for hits including the Yuletide classic ‘Driving Home For Christmas’, has died after a short illness… three days before Christmas.
British rock and blues singer-songwriter Chris Rea, known for songs including perennial Yuletide favourite ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ and the hit ‘The Road To Hell’, has died at the age of 74.
I thought that the spoof news article I’d linked to originally was actually rather funny. Having seen Chris Rea on a TV programmes and doing a few interviews, I think he’d have liked it too.
But wow. I’ve always said that I might miss something important or put my foot in it when scheduling posts while I’m away.
This was nearly a huge faux pas.
Good job I managed to spot it before it had got too far.
Yeah, I’m going to admit it. I’m a bit chilli sauced out, and so I’m cheating a bit with my SmokedOke chilli sauce advent calendar review. Two days still to go (I haven’t opened today’s yet), and we’ll surely get to them at some stage, but wow – I’m actually a bit overwhelmed.
Here’s what’s been opened since my last post (which was a few days after my first post):
No. I’m not sure why they are on a piano either. I just needed somewhere to ‘tog them on and the rest of the house seems to be in some sort of pre-Christmas chaos. Weird.
So: what news?
First off: nothing has topped the Cowboy Candy. This was the one, and it remains the one.
But that doesn’t mean that there have been other highlights. Reaper’s Breath was fairly terrifying. Grim Reaper was even more scary. And the Honey Chipotle was delicious. The Chilli Crunch was very nice, and the Piccalilli Relish was unusual and tangy, and begged for some cheese, ham and maybe a pork pie.
Less good: the chilli gherkins. I’m not sure that they were supposed to be fizzy. I gave them a go anyway – what’s the worst that could happen? Microbiologist readers don’t need to answer that.
But this has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. A lot of the sauces have been too strong for me, but I just use less and so even these sample vials are going to last for ages.
I can only imagine that we are going to finish with the showstopper: The Kraken, but honestly, it’s just been great trying some different stuff that I would never have dared buy in any sort of reasonable volume for retail.
If you have a chilli lover in your life, then you need to give this a go for them next year. It’s been great.