An easy opportunity to use a gif that was already in my media library

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Yesterday (well, just before midnight on the day before yesterday, if we’re being precise), the government issued an extension of sorts to the temporary amendment that it had previously made last month regarding the wearing of masks in public places.

This made a lot of those people very annoyed, but it was actually a good diversion for them to avoid talking about the USA exceeding 1,000,000 (one million) Covid deaths. And even that is a wild underestimation, according to many sources. Just like the flu, they said. But it’s really not.

Anyway, aside from the sleight of hand, the only other bit of good news for those people was that the press release about the extension seemed to suggest that students would no longer have to wear masks in schools. This didn’t make any sense – especially along the other guidelines that were in the same gazette – but since when has this (or any) government ever made any sense?

Anyway, that was the situation until the early afternoon, when someone at the Department of Health finally woke up and realised that there had been an error, and told the country that actually, students would have to wear masks in their classrooms after all.

Wow. The metaphorical cat was placed right among the allegorical pigeons with that announcement.

And lo, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But it was this hysterical tweet that stood out for me:

Because obviously, I immediately thought of this gif:

And though I have no idea what about the appearance of the individual who came out with those question above, my mind will now always associate them with Helen Lovejoy.

Look, the fact is that anyone can go to their local police station and lay a charge against the Department of Health if they wish. So why leave it for someone else, since you clearly feel so upset? Why wouldn’t you go and do it yourself if you think a crime has been committed? For that to go much further though, that Department needs to have broken some sort of law, which in this case would be… would be… er… “being a bit vague in a late night press release”?

Oh my. Proper Death Row, Throw Away The Key Stuff there.

In the meantime, masks remain for indoor spaces, schools or otherwise, and the numbers – probably affected by two public holidays and a long weekend and Covid fatigue, as mentioned here:

– continue to rise:

Ventilate, vaccinate, mask up, stay safe. And won’t somebody please think of the children?

Thanks.

Sunrise

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It was at 7:23 local time here this morning.

And in the words of Douglas Adams:

Several billion trillion tons of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon and managed to look small, cold and slightly damp.

A quote made for this image:

The early morning fog is already burning off, and we’re in for another sunny Autumnal day.

Have a good one, wherever you are.

First exams done

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It’s the first day of the iGCSE season and some Geography and Chemistry papers have been done and dusted today.

Not by me, of course. But following several (or more) weeks of hard revision, The Boy Wonder seems confident that his first day of “real exams” has gone well, despite a whole chunk of loadshedding during the latter. Of course, the results are only out at the end of August, but there is a bit of weight off his shoulders to have finally got going on the actual exams.

And it does seem like he’s made a decent start. Bring on English tomorrow, hopefully with electricity.

Nice work, my boy.

A quick review

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A couple of sentences about each of the places we visited on our whistle-stop visit to Franschhoek.

Where we stayed:
La Fontaine – 10/10. Just so good. Staff willing and ready to help, friendly people, amazing room, lovely breakfast, great location. Loved it.

Where we drank wine:
Rickety Bridge – 0/10. I know that the Wine Tram is a big deal from Franschhoek. We did it ourselves a few years back. But wineries must decide if that’s all they are going to rely on for their income. We arrived and were told that we couldn’t stay because the Tram was due and they had to keep all the free tables (and there were several) for it/them. We were told to sling our ‘hoek. Very poor, very disappointing.

So we went to La Bri – 9/10. It’s also on the tram route, but the welcome couldn’t have been warmer and the views couldn’t have been better.

Their Affinity blend was superb, and their Chardonnay was pretty good too. Mrs 6000 did the Chocolate and Wine pairing and was wowed by the cranberry choccies.

Autumnal colours…

And then to Haute Cabrière – 7/10. Commercial, busy, loud, but the bubbly was still everything that you would expect of the place. Some erm… “interesting” poetry on the walls of the bathrooms from the pen of the (allegedly) playboy son of the owner. Maybe for another blog post, another time.

In the evening, the first of our two visits to The Elephant and Barrel – 9/10. The place that does the R35 Chip Cone! A quick drink before dinner. See below for the rest of the review.

Dinner: French Connection Bistro – 6/10. Food pretty good, service generally ok, although the Maitre’D was a bit grumpy with us as we met friends as we arrived and [gasp] wanted to chat! But the place was just so loud and echoey. Lacked the bistro ambience that we were hoping for. So… back to the E&B for a couple more bevvies and some live music.

Look, this place was a bit rough and ready, but staff were super efficient, everyone was very friendly, and the drinks were very reasonably priced. Add in a bit of music from Llevado and we were on to a winner, before staggering home some time after midnight.

Next morning, after a lazy breakfast, we checked out and wandered around the town, finding some more cranberry chocolates in the back room of the Chocolatier, who supplies La Bri, and took a look around a couple of galleries…

…and the small market in front of the church.

All in all, a splendid visit with a lot of wine and a lot of laughter. And some great company (which I’ve known about for 17 years now).

Would definitely recommend a weekend away here.

It’s all gone a bit wrong

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I should have had more time today, but it just didn’t happen. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a good day: slept around the clock (again – such a post-Covid thing for me), went for a walk in the forest with the beagle and the family, sorted out some issues in the garden, had some family around for a birthday drink (not me) and then a nice evening braai in the autumnal warmth.

All good, but a day full of stuff that wasn’t blogging.

And so the photos and the stories from the weekend away will have to wait. But it was fun, even if our first experience of our visit was being asked to leave a wine farm – it’s not like there weren’t several (or more) to go and enjoy.

So maybe more on that tomorrow. Tonight feels like a sit down and watch some footy kind of evening.