It’s Sunday and you might have nothing on.
Like plans for the day, I mean.
Although… each to their own.
Here’s a half hour watch from the Matt Gray Is Trying series on Youtube, in which Matt Gray tries being on a Mountain Rescue team.
This fits in well with this post from a couple of weeks ago and demonstrates – again – just how essential, how well-organised and how poorly funded these organisations are.
Nice easy watch, loads of information, some decent humour, and an interesting end…
It’s been a while, so we’re heading away for quick break before some stuff which is happening back here in Cape Town.
A foolishly early flight has been booked, because we’ve got some driving to do at the far end, and so by the time you’re reading this, we’ll hopefully be thinking about landing and heading even further away from this corner of Africa.
We’re hoping to see some wildlife, so keep an eye on the old ‘Gram and live vicariously through us for the next few days.
Let’s go!
We’re off on a bit of an adventure tomorrow, and I’m hopeful that it’ll be better than this offering that I spotted on Geoguessr last week:
I’m sorry… kick a what now? It’s not that I don’t want to keep my high standard of footballing skills up while I’m away. It’s more just that I’d like to do it with a ball rather than… well…
Yeah.
To be fair (and perhaps surprisingly), the place doesn’t actually look too sh1t. River rafting, canoeing, tubing and cycling in a state park in Illinois. The clientele look a bit annoying though, and in fact there is a guy on the right hand side of their frontpage image apparently praying that he was literally anywhere else.
More seriously, a bit of research suggests that there are Kickapoos all over America, the name coming from a migratory Native American tribe.
It’s still not a great command in English.
I mentioned here that padel is a bit of an elitist sport in South Africa.
Well, just look:
Apparently it’s also a bit of an elitist sport in the UK, as well.
According to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), there are currently around 800 padel courts in Britain, but over 400,000 players.
Research by Ray Algar, an expert on the economics of sport and exercise, shows that the average off-peak court hire in the UK is about £30, but peak time prices can reach £80 at some venues.
Thirty quid isn’t far off what a court costs in SA, and while the cost of living here is much lower (meaning that in real terms, padel is more expensive here than there), eighty pounds (basically R2000) an hour is completely ridiculous.
The rise of the racquet sport – usually played in doubles on an enclosed court where balls can be played off the walls – has been helped by influencers and celebrity players such as Stormzy.
I think that Stormzy was the guy who got a lot of the middle-class, white South Africans into padel as well. It’s a perhaps surprising crossover between tax advisory services and accountancy during the day, and then banging out freestyle rhymes over classic grime beats in the evening while playing shit tennis in a fish tank, but it does happen.
The plan in the UK is to open more courts:
As the organisation that looks after padel in the UK, the LTA has launched a new five-year strategy that aims to work with local authorities to build more courts.
See? And the aim here is getting a more diverse cohort involved in the sport. But this has never really worked with polo, and I can’t see it happening with padel in the near future, either.
There are far better options: You can book a 5-a-side court for less than a padel court here, you can spread the cost ten ways instead of four, and all you need is a R200 football instead of four plastic bats whose costs stretch into five figures.
You might not get the inter-game spreadsheet banter that you crave, but it’s still a decent workout.
It’s fine. Padel won’t be around forever, and then it’s only a matter of time until the next elitist fad comes around. And whatever that might be will eventually be “ruined” by letting “common people” have a go at it as well. So I guess the padelers should enjoy it while they can.
Hugely busy day today. Literally one thing after another, and then some other things interspersed within those things.
Hectic, bru.
One of the things I really did have to get done was a visit to the Home Affairs Department, and as anyone in SA will tell you, that can take a whole day in itself.
Thankfully though, as I arrived, I was surprised to see that the place was just about empty, and I got my hopes up. This could be good!
And then I realised that I’d brought a horse with me.
Damn.
Rookie error. I’d left my cutlery. gun, cigarettes, camera, flip phone and wine at home…
…but I had brought a horse with me.
And you can hide a phone or some fags. A horse, though..? Not so much.
Even as I approached the desk, I could see the clerk looking over my shoulder at the horse. He shook his head (the clerk, not the horse), and I knew that this was going to be the end of my Home Affairs visit for the day.
Game over.
Look. it’s fair enough. I shouldn’t have brought a horse along. The signs do make it very clear that they’re not allowed.
Looks like I’ll be heading back there tomorrow.
Without a horse, obviously.