We keep going

Posted on

Another win, and this one after we’d been really poor in the first half. And then we went and scored three goals. I don’t know what happened, but it looked like the same old, same old when we got to half time, and then someone put a firecracker under our collective arses in the second period.

Still, I’m not complaining. My only gripe is that the excitement and adrenaline prevented me from sleeping for quite a lot of the night. And that’s left me a bit broken today.

On the plus side, I’m off to emulate some of the heroics from last night by playing a bit of the old togger tonight, for the first time in ages.

As I type, it’s only 33C out there, so I’m sure it’ll be an extremely uncomfortable a fun and pleasant experience.

Another day, another car park

Posted on

Gone are the days of the twice weekly sojourns to the old car park in Milnerton.

But Tuesday afternoons bring me to a different car park at the moment.

We nearly died getting here. In slow motion, sure, but still. The Stanhope Road bridge in Claremont – IYKYK – was like the Wild West this afternoon, with four lanes of taxis, Checkers bikes and old women in Mercedes fighting it out to get into the one remaining lane over the bridge. The traffic lights weren’t even being treated as a suggestion by anyone.

Every man, woman and vehicle for him, her and them self.

Absolute chaos.

And this car park is somehow worse today in that there’s a water polo match going on just over there [points], and water polo is the most whistle-happy sport in the world.

Every. Three. Seconds.

Additionally, Vodacom is misbehaving. Not in an illicit corporate way (possibly, anyway), but in just not providing any decent service. And that’s making my time here rather fruitless and very frustrating.

Who even knows if this blog post will work? But I need to get it done now because it’s curry for dinner and Sheffield United for the win this evening.

Well, definitely the curry bit, at least.

Let’s pray to any available deity and hit the PUBLISH button. 

Buys Ballot’s law

Posted on

I honestly thought* when I saw this that it was how Trump “won” the election, but as probably all my readers already know, Buys Ballot’s law is:

the relation of wind direction with the horizontal pressure distribution named for the Dutch meteorologist C.H.D. (Christophorus Henricus Diedericus**) Buys Ballot, who first stated it in 1857.

It’s a rudimentary method of estimating the position of varying centres of local atmospheric pressure from the prevailing wind direction.

Obvs.

Basically, it works around the relationship that (theoretically) states that the angle between the wind and the pressure gradient is a right angle. That means that in the Northern Hemisphere a person who stands facing away from the wind has high pressure on the right and low pressure on the left; in the Southern Hemisphere, the reverse is true.

We’re in the Southern Hemisphere [checks quickly… yep], so that means that if I stand with my back to the wind, then the low pressure area will be on my left (to be more accurate, it’s actually just slightly forward of my left), and the high pressure area on my right.

But why would I need to know this? Well, I probably wouldn’t, because I’m not a seafarer, miles out in the oceans. And if I did need to know it, then I’d just look at the nearest computer and it would show me where everything was. But in 1857 and for a long time before and afterwards, that wasn’t an option, because the internet was still dial up and that meant that you had to be attached to a really long cable.

Not possible in the middle of the South Atlantic (I am reliably informed).

So this law allowed sailors to estimate where the storm centre was, and thus allowed them to try to avoid it. Of course, you might not have been able to avoid the storm completely, but you could avoid the most dangerous quadrant – that is, the section of the ocean in front of you where the chances of damage from the storm was highest (Northern Hemisphere – front right, Southern Hemisphere – front left).

Less damage in those days (and maybe still even these days) meant more chance of survival.

There are a lot of factors that can mess up the wind/pressure relationship – it doesn’t work near the Equator, for example. But we’re not [checks quickly… nope] near the Equator. And though technology has far outpaced Buys-Ballot and his work, his law obviously still holds true. We just do things differently now.

Next time it’s a bit windy, cancel a marathon give it a go, then impress your friends by comparing your estimates with your modern day synoptic chart.

.

* I didn’t, this was just for comedic value.
** Crazy name, crazy guy.

First home win

Posted on

It’s almost November. I shouldn’t be writing that title.

But it happened, despite the BBC’s best efforts to pretend that it didn’t:

O’Hare with the only goal, and I think that even this image – taken as he wheels away to celebrate – somehow sums up our season so far:

Everyone going in different directions, Japhet Tanganga slightly unfocussed.
The only bit that looks more positive are some happy faces in the crowd.

It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t have to be. No-one looks at the history books, sees the result and posthumously knocks off the points “because it wasn’t a classic”.

Onwards and upward then, quite literally, as we’re not bottom after this weekend.

So who are, you ask?

They are, obviously.

Yesterday, I discovered Derek Paravicini

Posted on

I mean, discovered for me. He was already very much about, like when the Khoikhoi when Jan came to the Cape and the Indigenous Americans when Chris went across the pond.

I just found out about him for the first time yesterday.

Who is Derek Paravicini?

Derek Paravicini is one of the most extraordinary pianists and musicians of his generation, yet he is blind and has severe learning difficulties and is on the autism spectrum.
Based in London, Derek performs regularly across the UK, and is also making a name for himself internationally having performed in venues across Europe and the United States.
Derek has a repertoire of tens of thousands of pieces — all learnt very rapidly, just by listening.

Beneath his quiet charm lies a fiery, creative musician, whose astonishing improvisations and dazzling technique have wowed audiences all over the world, with many millions of views on his YouTube channel and a much-revered TED talk, that has been translated into 26 languages.

I came across him on social media on this Facebook reel, and I was “reeled” in (rofl!) primarily because I love the song in question, the beautiful Avril 14th by Aphex Twin:

Derek – as you will see below – gets played about 30 seconds of this and then just absolutely nails his version of it. Even picking up on the tiny excerpt of the gentle repeating phrase which makes up a lot of the beginning of the song, but not so much in the bit he hears.

I know – I know! – I share a lot of videos on here and tell you that it’s worth your time and effort watching through to the end. But this one just blew me away.

It’s definitely well worth your time and effort watching through to the end. Obviously.

Derek’s website is here, with all his links to social media readily available. He’s also part of the Derek Paravicini Quartet (who knew?), which you can find more about here.