Not drinking, but it always makes sense to be prepared

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I’m trying to cut back on fun unhealthier things in life at the moment as the long road to post-Covid fitness continues. One of those things is beer, because it’s hard enough work to get the calories, inches and kilos off without the additional challenge of beer exacerbating those numbers.

But I might want to go back to beer (after all, who wouldn’t?) at any given time, and so I’ll just remind you all of this post. Because nothing in this world comes for free and increasingly, lots of stuff in this world costs a lot more than it used to:

So please forgive me for earning a bit of pocket money when I can.

Early days, but…

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A bit of a heads up: the weather from Sunday evening in and around Cape Town is looking decidedly wintery.

Properly nasty stuff, and a far cry from today’s balmy bergwind-assisted 28C.

I’ve stocked up with half a ton of fire and braai wood, not just because we might want to pollute the atmosphere keep warm next week, but also so that the skink in the woodpile has a bit more shelter when the storm does hit. Got to think of the nature, right?

This one (the storm, not the skink) seems not just to be the biggest one of the year so far, but will also feature a series of cold fronts one after the other, prompting worries that any damage early on could be compounded and exacerbated by the following few days.

It’s still all at least five days away though, so nothing is set in stone just yet. But it might be worth clearing out your gutters and sheltering your skink just so you’re all prepared.

This morning’s walk

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Still getting out and getting exercise when I can in the autumn sunshine ahead of the frankly terrifying weather forecast this weekend.

The calf is improving, but walking feels much better than running at the moment. And yes, Cape Town has provided some amazing backdrops over the last few days, both in the morning and the evening.

This one is a quick and dirty unedited phone shot from this morning’s 4km wander around Bishopscourt and Claremont. Just because… well… just look at it.

Remember this? You wouldn’t do it now.

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Yesterday evening, I was randomly reminded of this post from December 2019: just BTV in South Africa (officially, anyway).

It was a truly odd thing to read back then (as I think I ably explained at the time), but since other world events [gestures wildly around] since that day, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. Because:

“When was the last time you touched a monkey?”

was a really creepy and wholly off-putting chat-up line 2½ years ago. Now, it sounds like more of a basic risk assessment. And weirdly, because of that, also a great deal more reasonable question to ask.

In context, of course.

So it’s not that I’m suggesting you approach anyone anywhere and question them about their recent history regarding simian contact, but if the topic of monkeys was to come up in an otherwise normal conversation, then just checking out how recently they had touched a monkey could assist you in making some smart decisions about a) whether the conversation should continue further, and b) if so, at what sort of distance.

So yes, there are probably more potential positives – one – to this question now than there were back in December 2019, but I would definitely still refrain from even considering this as any sort of ice breaker in a social setting.