A silly poem

Ever been stuck in a regional airport?

In a foreign country?

With no WiFi?

For four hours?

My poor wife has. Although, maybe she hasn’t, because there’s no WiFi and I can’t get in touch with her.

I was doing some work earlier, and was thinking about her plight. And in my head, I wrote a silly poem.

And in lieu of anything better to pop on here today, why not this?


FOUR HOURS IN BODRUM AIRPORT

I’ve got…

Four hours in Bodrum Airport and I don’t know what to do.
We don’t fly out til 6 o’clock but they picked us up at 2.
There’s nothing here for entertainment or to help us pass the time.
Except tourist tat and coffee, and appalling Turkish wine.

So it’s…

Three hours in Bodrum Airport and I’m really rather bored.
The last few nights are catching up on me and leaving me quite floored.
Perhaps I’ll gently close my eyes and have a nice, quick nap.
Because just sitting here and waiting is such a load of crap.

But there’s still…

Two hours in Bodrum Airport and it’s not getting any better.
If I’d known I would have brought some wool: I could have knitted a whole sweater.
It’s not glamorous or exciting, it’s actually rather dull.
And honestly, I just can’t wait until we  leave and fly to Istanbul.

So thank God there’s only…

One more hour in Bodrum Airport and they’re about to call our flight.
I’ve been stuck here all bloody afternoon: I won’t be staying the night.
I could have been drinking cocktails or sitting on the beach.
Or working on the wording of next year’s Rose Bowl acceptance speech.

At last…

So goodbye, Bodrum Airport. Thanks for putting up with me.
We’re finally leaving your runway at precisely 6:03.
Your little town is super: the beach, the sea, the grub.
But you really could do better with your major transport hub.


Disclaimer: I’ve never been to Bodrum Airport. It might be lovely.

Bripe

I saw this on an internet video today. It’s a Bripe.

Where does that name come from? Well, it’s a portmanteau: from coffee BRew pIPE.

A small copper vessel with a filter, into which you put ground coffee and water, heat it up, and then drink the BRew through the pIPE.

That’s quite cool.

It’s not rocket science, but then it wouldn’t be any good if it were, because you’re making coffee, not launching satellites. And to be honest, the simplicity is surely part of the charm.
I mean, how good must this be for hikes? A quick and easy, delicious fresh cuppa which you can drink while you’re on the move.

I was actually rather tempted, but it does turn out that there is one slight drawback:

the price.

Because there’s nothing here that’s tremedously complicated:

From the top: thermometer, filter, boob (apparently, that’s a stand for the vessel), a mini blowtorch and the actual Bripe.

So picture my face when I saw that it was going for over R2,700.
Two thousand, seven hundred Suid Afrikaanse Ronts. Completely ridiculous.

And then, re-picture my face when I saw that it wasn’t Rands – IT WAS DOLLARS.

$2,709.00!!

That’s just over R48,000.

What The Actual…

Who exactly is buying this? Not here (because it’s no-one), but over there or anywhere else. Who?

The world’s gone mad.

UPDATE: OMG! It’s gone up!

Where am I supposed to find that extra $7?!?!

TT Time

It’s the Isle of Man TT Races fortnight. Practice and qualifying this week, actual races next week.

And as usual, the weather hasn’t really been playing ball so far, so there have been a few delays and a few tweaks to the running order. As ever, they do as much as they can for rider safety, and so the pre-startline announcements as to which bits of the track might be a bit slippery are hugely important.

Although, the effectiveness of those announcements does depend on you knowing which bits of the track are called what. And if you’re a new rider… well…

Bit awkward when you’re about to chuck yourself around the course at an average anything up to 136mph (220kph).

I’m not really into the racing, but I am into the Isle of Man, and so when the highlights shows make it through to DSTV, I’m always happy to see the island, the scenery, the people and yes: some of the ridiculous displays of testicular fortitude out along the 37¾ mile circuit.

If you can’t wait that long (it’s only next week, but hey) or if you’ve never heard of the TT before, then I would strongly encourage you to go and check out one (or more) of the daily round up videos of all the action on the Official Isle Of Man TT Races channel on Youtube. Expert commentary, honest opinion, superb production.

Know the difference

Your daily reminder that similar sounding words don’t necessarily have similar meanings.

e.g.
Hypocrisy
the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is actually the case.

Hippocracy
a society governed by horses.

I always get these two mixed up.
Curse those Greek to Latin to Middle English etymologies.