QOTD 24th July 2018

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Quote of the Day. It’s from Paul Mashatile:

Member of the Executive Council for Human Settlements and Co-operative Governance in the Gauteng Legislature, as well as provincial chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng province and ANC Treasurer General.

He’s reported to have said:

“The ANC can’t be seen as a corrupt organisation because it is not and was never a corrupt organisation. It’s people who join the ANC that get involved in corrupt activities.”

So there it is. It’s not the ANC that’s corrupt, it’s the ANC that’s corrupt.

Got it. Thanks, Paul.

Belated Take On Me News

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Not sure how this one passed me by. But it has passed me by no more.

We’re off to Geelong, Victoria, Australia, and in particular to the Corio neighbourhood in which Alex Boros lives… well, lived…

Alex Boros might not live there anymore because he was jailed at the end of last year. “For what?” I hear you ask.

[waits expectantly…]

Thank you.

For this:

No adverbs necessary.

Hero.

Obviously, this is erroneous reportage: you can’t play the a-ha hit Take On Me too loudly. There is no upper limit to the volume for that particular track. Windows must rattle.

Filthy language aside, I think it’s pretty impressive that Mr Boros is on first name terms with the council official whose unfortunate task it is to come and ask him to turn it down a bit.

He’s wearing those sunglasses “because the bright light would trigger his migraines”, which is very much in the same vein as his insistence that he was playing his music so loudly simply “to block out his crippling back pain”.

Unsurprisingly, this cut no ice with the court:

Ouch.

Still, I bet his neighbours are glad that he’ll be gone, for a day or two.

Some more France photos

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I’ve gone through more photos from our trip, selected some, edited them and posted them onto Flickr.

The latest batch is here, and they’ve joined the previous stuff in this album.

This latest lot details the final couple of days on the Canal du Nivernais and River Yonne, from Bailly to Migennes via the prettiness of Auxerre.

This night time view of the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne d’Auxerre taken from the historic footbridge didn’t come out quite as I expected. For me, there’s a bit too much soft light on the building, but its position against the night sky together with its dark roof gives it an ethereal, otherworldly feel, so I’m happy enough.

Still lots of holiday photos to get through.

I can just sense your delight. Even from 6000 miles… away.

Cape Town Lunar Eclipse – touch and go

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There’s a Lunar Eclipse – a BLOOD MOON! eclipse, nogal [audience gasps] – later this week: the longest lunar eclipse THIS CENTURY! [audience gasps again] (so far, anyway) and Cape Town is one of the best places to see it from.

If the weather plays ball, that is.

I was aware of this and had set a reminder on my calendar some time ago (for Wednesday: 54 hours apparently being my warning period of choice), but that was preempted by an email from my Dad. He’ll also be able to see the eclipse from the UK, but he’ll have a shorter window in which to view it because of the time of the moonrise and he’ll also face some daylight issues: it’s still light at 21:21 there, which is the time of the maximum eclipse.

But back to South Africa… Here’s what you need to know about Friday night’s happenings for Cape Town:

So basically, if you’re here in the Mother City, you need to be somewhere with a fairly clear sight of the sky to the east. Go elevated: think Rhodes Mem, Rustenberg Pavillion, anywhere looking across the Cape Flats towards the mountains of the Winelands for your photographic delectation.

The weather is looking a little iffy though. Touch and go.

Google says cloud.
Flowx says not.
Windguru says maybe.

Borderline.

The moon is all of 385,000km from earth. It would be frustrating if clouds just 1km from earth blocked our view of this phenomenon. But it’s five days away – so let’s just cross our fingers and keep an eye on developments.

I’ll post an update here later in the week.

No quota photo

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Yes, I have had a lovely weekend. Thank you for asking.

France, the UK, the Isle of Man – they were all amazing. But I can’t tell you how happy I was to get back to the cottage in Agulhas and just… be there.

The weather was ridiculously good and there was nothing pending, which meant late mornings, chilled days and plenty (or more) Castle Milk Stout.

Perfection.

There was also time for a bit of photography, and I’ve got a couple of nice ones. I’ve been playing with my new variable ND filter today – with mixed results, it’s a learning curve, ok? – but I don’t really want to mess up the holiday photos on Flickr, so I’m determined to get those sorted before sharing anything for the weekend.

So tonight is words rather than pictures. On the blog at least.
In “real life”, it’s more Milk Stout and an early night: the kids are back to school tomorrow and I’ve just seen what time the alarm is set for.

Eish.