Tag: rain

And when I say wet…

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It has been raining a lot. And it is still raining. And there’s more rain in the forecast.

But just how much has it been raining?

This much:

367.8mm in the last few days just down the road from us about an hour ago. And I’m only saying “about an hour ago” because it’s almost certainly more than that now.

The rain has only really been falling for the last 4 days, so we’re looking at almost 100mm a day. And our local ground really isn’t set up for that. Hence all the flooding.

We might have a couple of dry days (T&Cs apply) before the next wave(s) of rain head in.

Right now, I’m going to watch the mud-wrestling rugby from the stadium in town.

Unexpected weather

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It’s wintery today. The frogs are going mad out there.
The rain arrived early this morning, surprising absolutely no-one who had been keeping an eye on the developing forecast over the weekend.

I was shocked.

Shocked because I thought everything was arriving tomorrow and I was going to do today’s post about it. And indeed, there are plenty of warnings out for “disruptive rain”:

…but just not for today.

But the rain tomorrow is coming and it does look suitably biblical. Probably at least one inch or 25mm, which the dams (59.1%) and the gardens certainly need, but which is going to make for a(nother) rather unpleasant day.

And so it turns out that all the prep I had in mind to get ready for the rain tomorrow now has to be done in the rain today. Bugger.

And so much for that blog post forewarning you all of the nastiness.

Not much point in doing that now, is there?

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.