Tag: rain

About today

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I ducked out of football tonight after a weekend with an iffy viral thing. Nothing too bad – I just slept a lot. And while I’m feeling much better now, I tried a run this morning, and there’s not an awful lot of energy in the tank. Almost 30 seconds per km slower than usual, and the hills left me broken. So better to prudently withdraw, rather than try to push things too hard and give myself even more from which to recover.

I did get the opportunity to try out my new running jacket, though: this time in proper rain. Because it actually rained quite hard today. And it handled it perfectly. That Water Column Rating of 10 000 mm (I don’t know what this means) really worked well, and the Breathability: well, I know it says 10000 g/m²/24h (again, no idea how this works), but it genuinely felt so much more.

In other news, things are starting to end for the year. Exams are done (finally), piano lessons finished yesterday, art school today. The last singing lesson is on Thursday, and there are only 6 more days of school: mainly for exam paper handbacks, prizegivings, and general end of year celebrations.

We’re away for a few days at the end of next week: a place somewhere in the Swartland with a pool and a hottub and very little else, and I can’t wait. I’ll be working doubly hard in the run up to that little trip so that I can get some blog posts pre-written and ready to go, leaving my time free for relaxing and braai’ing. Some exercise wouldn’t go amiss, perhaps a spot of photography, and there might just be some olives and a wine farm or two on the cards as well, given the region’s outstanding reputation for Shiraz.

It would be rude not to.

But more on that nearer the time.

This evening: United at home to Oxford – one of my old stomping grounds. It’s going to be another late one, but I hope it’s another good one too.

Still going to braai

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It was nice this morning. A gentle breeze scurrying the little fluffy clouds across the blue sky, the sunshine playing in and out behind the vivid spring greens of the local trees. As I set out on my run, I thought “bugger me, this hill gets more painful every time I do it”, and then I also thought “We should braai this evening”.

And so, once back from the run and deciding that actually, no medical help was required after all, I went and grabbed a selected of meat and salad products ready for dinner.

Light it at 4, eat at 6ish. No huge hurry. No huge stress.
Just a laid back braai in the Cape Town afternoon sunshine.

And then the Cape Town weather stepped in:

Yeah, it’s no Hurricane Milton, but it’s also far from the best braai’ing weather. But the tjoppies are bought. The steak is marinated. And the fire is lit. So we’re going ahead, even if it chucks it down:

I’ll do my braai’ing in the rain.

Positive vibes and red wine. And possibly an umbrella.

Still grey

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Apparently, there’s a chance of some sunshine tomorrow, but for the moment, the rain keeps falling. Almost 350mm in the last 10 days now. It’s pretty miserable. This photo isn’t from today, because I’m here, not there, but I’d guess that it’s a fairly accurate representation of much of the Western Cape at the moment. Especially the bit with that lighthouse on it.

Even the much vaunted Hungarian goose down duvet has failed, and we have required additional coverage for the past couple of nights. Sure, 10 degrees or so won’t seem like a big deal to many readers, but we’re just not set up for that here. And with good reason: it really doesn’t make sense for 90% of the year. So no central heating, double glazing, warm carpets etc etc. And when it gets cold at night outside, it gets cold at night inside too.

Trump shot a bit this morning. Footy final a bit later today.

That line just for context when I read back about how much more important the crappy weather is to me than politics or sport, when I find this post in 5 years time.

A filthy day

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It’s raining.

A lot.

Dark, foreboding (and indeed currently boding) clouds are rolling across the Cape Town sky, propelled by a gusty Northwester, and dropping a lot of water on the Southern Suburbs (and elsewhere, I’d wager).

The racing at Kenilworth has been abandoned:

Following 16.5mm of rain overnight, with more rain expected throughout the day, horses were brought to the course to gallop.
The feedback was that the going was inconsistent. In the interests of the safety of both horses and riders, the race meeting scheduled for today has been abandoned.

I think that “the feedback was that the going was inconsistent.” is actually code for “the jockeys had a chat while galloping through the driving rain and – quite reasonably – decided “sod this”.”

While this rain might not seem like a good thing at the moment, we do need it. Dam levels this time yesterday were at 68.3%. Dam levels this time last year were 96.8%.
We’re a bit behind where we need to be.

But we really shouldn’t worry too much. The next ten days are packed full of precipitation:

More than 25mm already here today, and I’m very excited about our temporary rim-flow pool.

The Cape Rain Frogs are going mad in the back garden, chirping their celebratory noises at the miserable conditions. At the other end of the animal scale, the beagle – wrapped in seventeen blankets – has decided that perhaps the best way to get through today is just to sleep until tomorrow.

My thinking is that the beagle might have hit upon a rather good idea.