Tag: lighthouse

Shooting Stars

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No, not the popular 1990s Reeves and Mortimer celebrity panel game (although, happy memories right there), but the Perseid meteor shower, currently happening all over the world and photographed by lots of people.

I would have been out there amongst them, but for a lack of photography expertise, the fact that apparently Cape Town wasn’t (geographically-speaking) the best place to see the shower, and the dense, heavy cloud twixt me and the heavens.

Thankfully, several, or more individuals had fewer problems and produced stuff like this:

Owen Humphrey’s effort was taken in Newcastle, and it features a lighthouse. Boxes ticked everywhere.

More here, and given that the Perseids are around for a while, maybe more to come.

Weird Internet Problem and a Manx Lighthouse

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I’m having a weird internet problem. I thought it was due to my ADSL connection at home, but now I’m having the same issue at work as well. I can’t look at my blog. “Lucky Bastard!” I hear you cry. And you could well be right, but it’s also a bit annoying.
Afrihost don’t seem to be able to explain it, so just in case you’re a internet whizz, here’s the info:

When connecting via my Afrihost ADSL, I get a connection timeout error if I try to look at 6000.co.za, or any of the back end. I noticed this yesterday evening. This was across multiple devices: 2 PCs, an iPad, an Android tablet and my Android phone. As soon as I hopped off the wifi and used my Vodacom cell connection, things were fine.
And it wasn’t just on Chrome or any other browser: the WordPress app didn’t connect either.

I could seemingly access every other site (.co.za’s, .co.uk’s and .com’s) with no problem. And other people (including those with Afrihost ADSL in Cape Town) could access 6000.co.za.

So it looked like an issue with my home ADSL, but then exactly the same thing is happening at work as well (where we also have Afrihost ADSL). I’m using TunnelBear to connect via a proxy in Sweden to write this, and that seems to be working just fine.

So, my Einsteiny little friends, what’s going on here? I’m really hoping that someone will turn round and go: “Well, obviously, that’s your QBR settings; go here and click this and it’ll all be fine,” and I will go there and click that and it will all be fine.

Anyway, if you’re still here after that admin and gobbledygook, you’re probably a dies hard reader and you know that I light lighthouses. Here’s one just down the road from us in the Isle of Man: Langness. It’s a great photo, but it was emailed to me so I don’t know who took it, but give that man (or otherwise) a Bell’s. Or even some decent whisky.

langness

And now things are slowing up, presumably because my bear is growing tired of tunneling under Stockholm or Malmö or wherever in Sweden he is (EDIT: Just checked – he’s in Borlänge), so I’m going to end this. Hopefully by tomorrow, I’ll have some answers and will be able to give my ursine assistant some well-deserved time off.

Point & Shoot

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Another lighthouse pic, this one illustrating the fact that sometimes, you just need to point and shoot to get a half decent photo:

Doubtless, I could have done better (perhaps even achieving the dizzy new heights of a ‘full-decent’ photo) with a little more time and a little more effort, but I didn’t have the former and I had limited inclination for the latter, so this will have to do.
Honestly, it’s got a lighthouse and a sunset in it. What more do you want? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain? Quit your whining.

Point of Ayre

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Busy day today. Busy evening ahead too, with LCHF being thrown to the wind as I head out with the boys for beer, banter, burgers and alliteration.

So just time for a quick QP. This one is another gem from Peter Killey of Manxscenes.com:

Point-of-Ayre
It’s the red and white lighthouse at the Point of Ayre in the Isle of Man – the most northerly point on the island. Red and white because there’s nothing directly behind it, so the contrasting colours make is more visible during the day, much like the Cape Agulhas lighthouse, which also has very little directly behind it.

Do we still need lighthouses? Well, the people who look after our lighthouses think so, otherwise there would be no value in spending a lot of money refurbishing them. The (probably not ever so impartial) Lighthouse-News.com warns that an over-reliance on electronic aids and a poor visual lookout can still result in disaster – even in the 21st Century, although the line:

Actually, the presence or absence of the lighthouse made no difference in this case.

probably detracts from his case somewhat.

South Africa’s New Baby Lighthouse

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Y’all know I have a thing for lighthouses. Fortunately, living near the coast, there are a ready supply for me to enjoy.

One of the ones a bit further away from home is the Robberg Peninsular Light which, as the name suggests is sited on the er… Robberg Peninsular. You may remember the Robberg Peninsular from such hotel room views as this:

IMG-20131019-WA0002

Anyway, the Robberg Light has just been replaced and has regained its position as South Africa’s smallest standalone lighthouse. It’s also the highest light in the country, at 129m above sea level. This is much lower than the old and now defunct Cape Point lighthouse (229m) which was shut down in favour of the “new” lower (87m above sea level) lighthouse, because it was regularly shrouded in fog, and therefore useless.

robblight

The Robberg Lighthouse is a little less fancy, being solar-powered, unmanned and just 8m tall. Still, as long as the baby of the South Coast does its job of keeping passing marine traffic off the South Coast, all is good.