Day 697 – Basic cartography

I’ve spent the morning as a Cartographer’s Assistant. It was interesting and rewarding stuff, although it doesn’t pay well (actually, it doesn’t pay at all), you can get a bit sunburnt, and – where possible – you should choose not to assist a cartographer in a dog shit filled park.

Unpleasant.

The cartographer in question was my son, using basic triangulation to plot the whereabouts of some bridges, some benches, a lamppost and at least one bin. This was for a Scout badge, and – to me, at least – it looked like all the requirements had been fulfilled. The DSF park in question was Keurboom Park in Claremont, which has likely been mapped already [checks]… yes:

…but this was still great practice for him, should he need to map anywhere that hasn’t been mapped yet.
Especially if there are lampposts and bins and bridges there. People need to know whereabouts those sort of things are.

Thankfully, now that Keurboom Park has been thoroughly mapped (at least twice), I won’t have to go back there. What a disgusting toilet of a place it is. We were there for about three hours, and we probably saw (no exaggeration) about 150 dogs. At a rough guess, I’d say that 50% of the owners cleaned up after their pets. And if you’re looking at [kwik maffs] about 50 dogs per hour, that’s 25 new “hazards” each 60 minutes, or 1 every 2½ minutes throughout the day – just in that bit of the park.

It’s everywhere. Utterly repulsive.

Of course, it could all be so much better if the owners did something about it. The park even provides free bags and there are plenty of (mapped) bins. But the middle-class white people of Lynfrae and surrounds (or at least 50% of them) clearly feel that they are above cleaning up after their dogs.

Probably a good idea not to bother getting a dog then, you wankers. Just a thought.