A problem shared

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In great news for the shareholders of Grundheimer Schnauzerbeagle (Pty) Ltd and all the other pharmaceutical companies out there, I have infected my wife with my lurgy.

As the first signs of my recovery shone brightly like a light at the end of a two day long tunnel this afternoon, Mrs 6000 came home from a tough day at the office (and beyond) with a look that suggested germs, disease and – almost certainly – infection, had taken hold.

My insistence that I was merely testing the theories of Lister, Pasteur, Koch et al. (and al‘s theory was particularly good) don’t seem to have impressed her much. I may be in trouble here.

Still, it was just yesterday that she was telling me how good it was that I was ill this week, “getting it out of the way” before we head off on holiday next week.

Maybe if I tell her how fortunate she is to be feeling so rough right now, it’ll make her feel better.

Yeah. I think I’ll go do that now.

Quota crystal ball photo

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Having given the crystal ball an outing in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire last month, it seemed only natural to give it a go in Newlands Forest this morning.
No, I’m not quite sure on my thinking there either.

Anyway, here you go:

It was a wonderfully clear day, and – perhaps predictably for a forest – our view was only obscured by trees. Occasionally, we escaped these arboreal obstructions and this was taken at one of those times. Readers willing to go the extra mile will be able to zoom in and see Cape Hangklip in the magical glassy globe, and that’s some 60kms south east of where we were.

More photos of the day can be seen on Flickr.

Fire Sunset

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A large veldfire in Rondevlei Nature Reserve this evening made for a superb sunset over Cape Town.

In this hastily-snapped phone pic from our bedroom window, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the fire itself. But no. That smoke is coming in from the left of shot, and all the orange you see is setting sun.

We left the firefighters to their valuable work and headed off for a very decent meal at The Avenue, which, once again, comprehensively failed to disappoint.

Tyre ski jump

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You, like me, have often wondered which sort of tyre would fly furthest when sent down a (snow-free) ski slope. I know this, because a recent study on the causes of insomnia indicated that wondering about which sort of tyre would fly furthest when sent down a (snow-free) ski slope was given as a factor by almost 100% of respondents (n=1).

Don’t worry: you can sleep easy tonight: we’ve got you covered.

The six tyres you wanted to see tested are tested right here, and they’re each travelling at some considerable speed (like 140kph) when they reach the bottom end of the slope.

Yep, whether it’s the 11kg, low profile sports car tyre or the 225kg rubber from a monster truck, you’re going to know what sort of tyre flies furthest when sent down a (snow-free) ski slope, simply by watching this video.

And you also get to see what happens to the tyre once it has done its jump. Because stopping a tyre with that sort of mass, velocity (and therefore momentum) might prove to be quite a task.

So, so good.