An excellent Flickr account to visit

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No. It’s not mine. Incoming from the etv guy:

Have you seen this?

And a link to a photo on HiltonT’s photostream. For the record, this was the photo in question, and no, I hadn’t seen it:

kalbay05Apparently, it’s a regatta at Kalk Bay in 1905. It’s interesting for a number of reasons: the transport, the clothing, the frankly disappointing lack of any sort of water craft for a regatta, the additional lack of any breakwater wall or railway, and that business on the building at the back: Kalk Bay Fish and Land Co. Ltd.

– Let’s start a business in Kalk Bay.
– OK, sounds like a good plan. What sort of business?
– Hmm… Fish?
– Excellent. But…
– But what?
– Well, don’t you think that’s a bit niche?
– Ja, good point. We need something more diverse.
– How about… How about Fish… and Land?
– Brilliant. But what are we going to call it?
– No idea, mate. Maybe let’s just leave it, hey.

But of course, they didn’t. And thus the Kalk Bay Fish and Land Co Ltd was born.
That’s exactly how it all happened.

Probably.

Anyway, I digress. Often. The real reason that this post is happening to to advise you about the rest of HiltonT’s Flickr account. There’s quite a lot of history, quite a lot of South Africa, quite a lot of photographs of documents, some local (pre-1994) football and other… stuff.

If you’re in the right frame of mind, you could get lost in there for literally hours.

Go, do it. (And then, when you’re done, there’s this one as well.)

N.B. The Kalk Bay Fish and Land Company Limited should not be confused with the Kalk Bay Land and Sea Company (which is obviously a completely different enterprise), which went on to become Irvin and Johnson (I&J) Fisheries.

Thanks Adam

Beagles love carrots

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Of course they do. Anything with big ears loves carrots: rabbits (infamously), elephants, other… stuff with big ears.

Here’s a video of a beagle pup “mesmerized by flying carrots”:

That “mesmerized by flying carrots” quote comes from this Mashable page which features the video, and also gives us this fantastic line:

Carrots dangling from the sky (or, in this case, the ceiling fan) is more than most of us can even dream of.

Personally, I’m capable of dreaming of far more than dangling carrots, but if that’s absolutely as far as your imagination can run, Tricia Gilbride, then I’m sure Freud would have some fairly concise explanation for you.

That said, at around 24 seconds in, it does appear that for Maymo the beagle (for it is he), all his Christmases have come both early and simultaneously. LOOK AT THAT JOY! JUST LOOK AT IT!

This is just one of the plethora of beagle-related videos, cartoons and photographs which I have been sent since I mentioned that we were getting a beagle. I’m so grateful for every single one. Really, I am. Thank you. In fact, yesterday’s “nice” seal video was actually another – along with the description:

This seal looks a bit like a sea beagle. Hang on – that’s, like, the best contraction ever!
SEA beagLe = SEAL!
LOL.

LOL indeed. Copiously.

A nice video

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Because I’ve been busy with many other things, and South Africa has been busy with talking about e-tolls, I haven’t got round to blogging until now. And even now, I don’t have a huge amount of time to blog.

So have a nice video:

Here’s the blurb:

Just off the north coast of Cornwall, I’m filming a swarm of blue jellyfish when a grey seal comes to play. The water’s clear and calm so neither of us are as worried as we would usually be. He seems quite playful but not threatening in any way, just mouthing at my fins a bit. As I stroked him he put his fin around my arm (29 seconds in) and held on while he investigated my mask (or admired his reflection maybe!)

It’s nice that people in the UK can enjoy this sort of interaction with their local seals (although teeth! at 1:03). Here in SA, they seem mainly to try to kill them with bullets and plastic.

Indicate when turning

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A new addition to the signposts on the approach to the Kildare Rd mini traffic circle (traffic mini circle?) in Newlands instructs drivers that it would probably help those around them if they “indicate when turning”.

wpid-dsc_00072.jpg.jpeg

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “But… but I do indicate when I’m turning. I mean… that’s what you do… that’s what they’re there for, isn’t it?”, and you’re right and that’s because you are a sensible driver who is probably not living in South Africa, where mind-reading on the roads is less of a staged fraud and more of a necessity.

But then, the drivers who weren’t going to indicate when turning still won’t indicate when turning, because they don’t look at signs at the side of the road. The only people who look at signs at the side of the road are drivers who were going to indicate when turning anyway.

And so, yes: the “indicate when turning” may seem a little unnecessary to you, but I have a feeling that it’s about to be joined by something even more spectacular. And that’s because sometimes a single sign simply isn’t enough.
And there’s precedent for this just down the road in the Access Park Shopping Complex:

Kenilworth - Google Maps - Google Chrome 2015-05-19 025651 PM.bmp

Yes, please enjoy this screenshot from Google Maps, containing what is still one of the most bizarre traffic signs I have seen in South Africa anywhere. For those of you with utterly appalling eyesight, just under the big red NO ENTRY sign (and just above the words “NO” and “ENTRY” painted 2m high on the road) are the words:

PLEASE OBEY THIS TRAFFIC SIGN

Who is this aimed at, exactly? Most people will not even have considered not obeying the traffic sign in the first place (although maybe now you’ve sown the seeds of mischief). And if the people who weren’t going to obey the traffic sign in the first place weren’t going to obey the traffic sign in the first place, what makes you think they’re going to obey the writing underneath it asking them to obey it? I’m not sure where the logic comes in “Let’s ask them to do as it says, and then they’ll do as it says.”
Or are you expecting some sort of selective disobedience? Has some sort of psychological assessment of the average wrong-way-up-a-one-way-street driver been done? And if so, was this really deduced to be the best policy to halt their errant behaviour?

And you’re asking them nicely too – none of that straightforward “do this” of the “indicate when turning” signage. Manners maketh the man and they apparently maketh the more polite and therefore better adhered to road signage as well.

Personally, I can’t believe it works, but assuming it does, there’s still plenty of room just underneath the “indicate when turning” sign for another, stating: “we’d really appreciate it if you took notice of this request, please”.

And then, when leaving the traffic circle, a “thanks a lot” wouldn’t go amiss either.

Short

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A quick post about our current predicaments:

There’s not enough electricity to go around. This is actually very old news, although South Africans continue to complain about it while doing nothing to save the damn stuff when they have it. It’s clear that generally, despite their lack of action to combat the problem, people are very unhappy about it.

The alternative, of course, is gas. We don’t have it plumbed to our houses here in SA like some other countries I’ve lived in, so it comes in big bottles. Well, it would if there wasn’t a shortage of it:

Dear Customers,
As you may have heard through the media, LP gas is currently in short supply in South Africa as a result of planned maintenance on a few of the major refineries in the country.
Please take the time to read the attached letter regarding the LP gas supply issues we are currently experiencing.

I’ll spare you the attached letter, which basically says there’s a shortage of gas, resulting in “unavoidable price increases”. Supply and demand etc etc. People are not going to be happy.

Anecdotally (hey, it works for Prof Tim), there’s also a shortage of diesel in Cape Town. My car doesn’t run on diesel. Mrs 6000’s car does run on diesel – when she can find some to put in it. Same with lorries delivering food and goods all over the country. Less diesel, higher demand, higher prices (although they are somewhat regulated in SA) = unhappy people.

And now, arguably the most serious of all, we have a shortage of water. Figures due to be released this morning will almost certainly indicate that the reservoirs supplying Cape Town are now less than half full. That’s not good, but ironically, it’s less than half the problem as well. The bigger issue is that it’s also not raining on the local farms:

A drought that has probably reduced South Africa’s corn crop for 2015 to the smallest in eight years is also putting at least half the country’s wheat harvest at risk, the largest grain farmers’ lobby said.
Farms in the Western Cape have had little or no rain since the start of the planting season in April and need showers before the end of May, Andries Theron, vice chairman of Grain SA, told reporters Thursday at an agricultural show in Bothaville.

The province, whose wheat fields are rain-fed, produces about 50% of the nation’s harvest of the cereal, data from the Grain Information Service show.
“We started planting in dry soil,” he said. “Usually, our rainy season would start in the middle of April, but it didn’t. We’ve got a hectic season on hand.”

And then this, from Agri Wes-Cape’s CEO Carl Opperman:

“This has been the driest summer the province has seen in many years. Rains that should have already fallen are desperately needed, especially by grain farmers.
“It’s a dry circle that we’ve got at the moment. We will be managing it, so we’re expecting rain in the future. It’s most probably going to be what we call ‘a dry winter'”.

Come now, Carl – drop the technical terminology, can’t you? You’re unnecessarily baffling us with bullshit there. Is there really no language you could have used so that us laypersons could understand?

Looking at the forecast for the coming week, our local grain farmers are going to remain disappointed.

And so… guess what? Less grain supply, no reduction in demand = higher prices. And that means unhappy people.

I’ve never been convinced that a single straw could break a camel’s back. But several big fat straws? Well, maybe we’re in for interesting times ahead.