Tag: car park

Another day, another car park

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Gone are the days of the twice weekly sojourns to the old car park in Milnerton.

But Tuesday afternoons bring me to a different car park at the moment.

We nearly died getting here. In slow motion, sure, but still. The Stanhope Road bridge in Claremont – IYKYK – was like the Wild West this afternoon, with four lanes of taxis, Checkers bikes and old women in Mercedes fighting it out to get into the one remaining lane over the bridge. The traffic lights weren’t even being treated as a suggestion by anyone.

Every man, woman and vehicle for him, her and them self.

Absolute chaos.

And this car park is somehow worse today in that there’s a water polo match going on just over there [points], and water polo is the most whistle-happy sport in the world.

Every. Three. Seconds.

Additionally, Vodacom is misbehaving. Not in an illicit corporate way (possibly, anyway), but in just not providing any decent service. And that’s making my time here rather fruitless and very frustrating.

Who even knows if this blog post will work? But I need to get it done now because it’s curry for dinner and Sheffield United for the win this evening.

Well, definitely the curry bit, at least.

Let’s pray to any available deity and hit the PUBLISH button. 

Car Park Fog

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Very busy day today. Bit of gym, some photography, some editing – cut short by loadshedding – collecting the kids from school… [YOU ARE HERE] …and then some horseriding, a belated birthday celebration and some football from Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane (again, partly hampered by loadshedding).

So here’s a photo from my car park on Monday evening.

Just a phone pic because I didn’t take my camera (rookie error). A puddle, some fog and some security lighting making for a spooky scene. No editing. The fog was less fun on the way home. It’s all good until someone doesn’t have any working rear lights. Then it’s not good at all. But because that sort of thing happens regularly in South Africa, you have to be ready.

What you can’t see here are the billion mosquitoes from the local wetlands. I promise you that they were there though. I killed about 20 in my car afterwards, and I’d only had the door open for a couple of seconds.

What you can’t smell here is the local sewage plant and oil refinery. I do feel that you’re missing out on the full experience.

Anyway, as mentioned, much to be done, so pop back tomorrow (and every other damn day) for more bloggery.

Drone sunset

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I’ve sat in my car park many, many times this year. In all sorts of weather (but mainly wet):

And I was there again last night for the team’s final practice session before the World Cup.
Last week when I was up North, I wished that I had brought my drone along. The sunset was incredible, but I was surrounded by ugly buildings and tall trees, which didn’t make for any decent photography.

So this week, rather than miss out again, I did take my drone along. And predictably, the sunset was completely rubbish.

Initially…

I’d actually packed the drone away and was settling down in the back of the car to watch an episode of Only Connect when I spotted the first tinge of pink in the sky. And while I didn’t think it was going anywhere, I knew I’d be pissed off if it did and I missed it, so I unpacked and set up again and by the time I got flying… well…

First things first: this is a stacked image of 5 bracketed shots, given that the sky was BRIGHT and the mountain was DARK. I’ve already been accused of RBOSSery by someone on the family Whatsapp group (wow – et tu, Brute?), but in fact, it’s actually UN-RBOSSed:

Look at that! And that’s just because there was far too much going on in the sky for the teeny, tiny sensor on my aging drone to handle. So no, definitely no RBOSS or hypocrisy here*.

I think this image would have been better with a bit more Table Bay in the mid-ground, but I was just down the road from Blouberg (aka “Blow”berg), and the South Easter was pumping. I was getting wind warnings even just up at 30m, so I decided not to risk much above 50. A bit irritating, but there are some things that you just can’t control, and hey, I still have a drone this morning, so that’s nice.
Always look for the positives.

Because the World Cup is coming up, I’m not going to be in my car park for a while now, and when practices do start again, they will likely not be 4 or 5 times a week, so I think this was a really good way to sign off for a while.

* Add a bit of Whatsapp compression and I can maybe kind of see where he was coming from, but I’m still rather hurt.