A long but fun day celebrating Mrs 6000’s birthday. There were gifts, there was a really good lunch, there was even a bit of time to chill out this afternoon.
Oh, and there was incredible wind, as well.
We – like the UK – are in for a rough day or two.
But now I’m knackered, so here’s a quota Rock Kestrel – a Rooivalk – from Agulhas last month.
Obliging little guy sat on an old telegraph pole very patiently for just as long as I needed to shoot him.
Thanks for that.
24.3°C at 10pm in the middle of winter?
The bergwind is up, and it’s deliciously warm. Sure, that’s the precursor of a cold front (and that’s coming in on Monday).
But in the meantime, it’s lovely and balmy outside, and I’m absolutely here for it.
Not me. I’ve been here all along.
Nope – it’s back to the Mother City for Little Miss 6000 and her classmates. Communication has been sporadic, but I know that it was a cold queue at the border crossing this morning:
To be fair, it wasn’t that much warmer down here last night.
They seem to have a great time though, and the photos of the scenery from the N7 aren’t half bad:
It will be great to have all the family back together. Red wine, roaring fire, good times… and – I would imagine – a very early night.
It has made me think that we need to head up that way again soon. Yes, further even than this.
Spotted on a local Facebook feed this morning:
What? No. That’s simply not right.
You know that I’m not the biggest fan of padel. But that’s neither here nor there in this instance.
Because I’m not really into squash either, but I do know enough about it to know that hitting the wall is very much part of the game there. It’s pretty much the entire way of playing the game.
Ask Google about padel and it says:
Padel is often described as a cross between tennis and squash. It’s played on a court similar to tennis but smaller and enclosed by walls, which are used as part of the game like in squash.
“Squash”, you say?
“Walls”? Hmm.
It’s hardly subtle stuff. The clues really are all there.
What makes this even funnier (for me, but then I’m still recovering from that meeting) is that ironically, Bredasdorp (where this padel tank is) is very much an Afrikaans speaking area (83.1% first language), and the Afrikaans word for squash is Muurbal, which literally translates as “wall ball”.
I actually only worked this out this a few years back when driving past the Bredasdorp Muurbalklub, and they’d cut the trees back.
See?
I’m just waiting for Miskey’s to open their 10-pin bowling business: “the only sport where rolling a ball is actually part of the plan!”. Although I’m sure that the Bredasdorp Rolbalklub (yes, seriously) would have something to say about that.
It’s time to check out some posts from the past…
Yes. Yes, I am.
This wasn’t planned, but quite by chance, it’s almost a year to the day since I waxed lyrical about the Checkers Xtra Savings Plus card in my post: Xtra Savings Plus.
It wasn’t an ad than, and it still isn’t an ad now.
I give Checkers R99 a month, they give me several benefits including free delivery on my Sixty60 shopping, extra personalised deals around the shop, and 10% off one shop a month. That discount can be up to R200, and it always is R200, because I carefully hold fire on the big (expensive) items that we need, and lump them all together in that one shop so I make sure that I get all the benefit of that R200.
I’m not daft, hey? Despite what they say.
Today, I did even better than usual:
That was on a shop totaling about R3,300 before discounts. That’s more than 30% off, and while it’s still a lot of money to spend (because life is f*****g expensive!), it’s also R986.66 better than it could have been.
I’m still telling you to sign up. It’s such a good deal: spend a bit to save a lot.
Absolutely:
Best mundane grocery shopping thing I’ve ever done.
Yes. The 6Music overseas listening thing, which started here, and continued all the way through to this much more recent post, which has been doing HUGE business for the blog. Zeitgeist.
Yes, you can still listen to 6Music outside the UK, but it’s a really crap experience. It’s via a page on a browser, there are frequent breaks and crashes, but there are no bells, no whistles, no rewinding, no listen back later options. It’s seriously basic. When it works.
But it does work. Mostly.
However, I’ve found that using a VPN is still the better way to listen. It’s a pain on my phone because it drains the battery quickly, it makes all my other browsing slower, and all my ads are…
NOTHING BEATS A JET2 HOLIDAY!!!
…on repeat.
But it does work SO much better than the straight link.
Want to give it a go? Here’s a mutually beneficial referral link to the VPN service I am using.
Admyt is still one of my very favourite local apps. Not least because I love the confusion, bewilderment and admiration on passers-by faces when the car park boom lifts for me as I drive up to it.
“Wow. He must be very special,” I hear imagine them whispering, and yeah…
And they are going from strength to strength, with several (or more) new locations being added all the time: Canal Walk (which has a Checkers), V&A Waterfront, Gardens Shopping Centre etc etc etc. It’s just a great system, and you can get some free parking by signing up on my link:
…when you get the app on Apple here, or Google here.
Ostensibly, there’s one more month of winter left down here. We’ve had quite a lot of rain already this time around, and after 10 crisp, cool, sunny days, yesterday was a whole 28oC. And then the next cold front hit us. So how are we staying warm at night?
Hungarian Goose Down, that’s how.
We’ve had that duvet for 13 months now and, well, it’s that “No Ragrets” image all over again. I cannot fault evolution when it comes to the down of the Hungarian Goose, or fault the goose-plucking (careful now) farmers plucking their geese. It is so deliciously light and warm, but without the rubbish bits of the goose, like the honking and the poo.
This one was another success story.
Let’s tie it all (well, some of it) together. I heard this song on 6Music while I was at the shops this morning, not buying a duvet. It’s fun, it’s mad, it’s… The Safety Dance.
Right. Let’s light the fire and prep for this incoming nastiness.
More tomorrow.