A few things

It’s been a while since i did one of these and my Pocket is filling up again. So…

It’s Springtime! (in the UK) and time to switch to BST. But this isn’t the correct way to put your clocks forward:

And this might work, but is also very confusing:

Pro-tip: Use a whiteboard marker and you can simply use a damp cloth to change the clocks back again in October.

Good news for me on this change is that evening football matches now kick off at a more reasonable time and so I can watch them and still get enough sleep (see below).

However, that good news is tempered somewhat by the fact that their Spring means our Autumn. And the weather has been doing its bit to remind us of the changing seasons. We’re losing 2 minutes of daylight a day in Cape Town each day at the moment, and we crossed the 12 hours daylight/12 hours nighttime line yesterday.


I was reminded of this Soy, Ginger and Chili salmon recipe today. I must cook it again. Today is all about the big boneless gammon joint on the hob, though. The whole house smell of cloves and all-spice (coincidentally also the name of the giant robot formed when all the Spice Girls zigazig-arred together like the Power Rangers). Delicious.


The future is bright: Sheffield United win the Professional Development League (North) for the third season running.

A fact made even better when you look at the whole league table:

LOL – mind the gap!


A Long Read about Long Covid here.

tl;dect (didn’t even click through) – risk of developing LC drops after a secondary infection (UK 4.0% to 2.4%), but that’s still not zero!

and just for reference, 2.4% of the UK population is one and a half million people. That’s a lot of potential cases, and a huge burden on individuals, families and the health service.

Covid really is just like the common cold.

I was out on a run earlier this week and was thinking about how I couldn’t even manage a staircase in the aftermath of my acute Covid experience. Things are clearly much, much better now, although it took over a year to get back to normality. That said: three things I have noticed post-Covid: I need more sleep, my lung capacity still isn’t what it was before, and my memory (which use to be very good) really isn’t as good any more. Especially on people’s names. Other random nonsense (phone codes, capital cities, song titles/bands) – generally fine. Names (famous ones or personal acquaintances) – nope.

Weird.


Stop stacking rocks on beaches (and elsewhere), say SANParks.

…The problem is that people are increasingly building rock cairns to leave their mark or symbol of their presence in a natural setting or for posting on social media. Therefore, when engaging in this activity, it is important to be mindful of the potential negative impacts on the environment, wildlife and other people’s experiences.

Moving rocks and stacking them can disturb the natural habitat of tiny creatures. On the rocky shore, these organisms, such as crabs, molluscs, and algae, depend on their environment’s rocks and other structures for shelter and protection. By moving or stacking rocks, we may inadvertently destroy or disrupt their homes, harming their populations. Similarly, rock stacking can also have adverse terrestrial impacts on insects and moss in wilderness areas.

The article has a (terrible) picture of Agulhas National Park in it. So this is a local thing, close to my heart. And when the kids were younger, we did used to do this from time to time, albeit that our towers were built near the low tide mark, ready to be knocked down as the waves came in, and never for social media purposes.

Anyway. No more. Stoppit.


Lastly for today: a new way to filter flights on flightradar24. This is the update that everyone as crying out for. And it works. From being a very cool tool, its now also massively powerful. You can now get it to do whatever you want (and even more if you pay for a subscription). A lot of the features are in the free Beta version at the moment, but it seems to be stable and full rollout isn’t likely to be far away.

Transfer

Sometimes, football transfer windows are all about who you sign, and what they can do for your team. This time around for us, it was more about who we could hold onto, given our current lofty league position, a few desirable players, and a pending takeover bid for the club.

And it didn’t look good, with our Norwegian midfielder, Sander Berge, left out of the squad for last weekend’s FA Cup tie on instructions from the board, and the blue side of Liverpool (amongst others) after our Senegalese star forward, Illiman Ndiaye.

There’s obviously more to the team that just those two, but their influence can’t be understated and losing either one of them would have been a huge blow.

Thankfully, the club owner made a decision not to turn in a quick profit, and told the bidding teams from the Premier League (and beyond) that we were not selling anyone. That was good.

And then he stuck to his word. That was even better.

And so once the chaos and rumour of the transfer window was closed, the club’s social media team chose to advertise the next game with this image:

Both still here with us. Both – hopefully – Ultimate Champions.

We didn’t buy anyone – we couldn’t (it’s complicated) – but that wasn’t what mattered this time around.
Holding onto all our players has given us as much of a boost as any new signing would have.

It feels good to be a Blade this week.
And look – he seems happy to still be at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane.

Onward and upward*.

* T&Cs apply

Two Photos

I alluded to a good football score on the weekend, but I didn’t go into detail. Unable to watch because of the dodgy internet in the deep, dark wilds of deepest, darkest, wildest Africa (well, the very bottom bit of it anyway), I chose to nap the afternoon away, and catch up with the news at the end.

And what great news it was. But it was a couple of social media posts from the club which really brought home to me just what a special afternoon I had missed.

Here’s Jack Robinson (left) who – after a personally horrific first half – got our third goal. Yes, the passion and the relief is clearly evident, and Oli McBurnie looks like a naughty schoolboy running away having just chucked a stink bomb into the staff room, but the photographer getting the big screen in the background is what really makes this image so good.

And then the aftermath of that duo running to celebrate in the corner. (Is that the previous photographer bottom left?) (And is Oliver Norwood levitating?)

But everywhere you look: happiness, joy, unbridled glee. From the ball boy at the front to the dad missing the high five with his son on the left, and the chilled, gilet-wearing surfer dude in the grey beanie who is just taking in the moment. (I’m excusing the steward with the corner flag lodged in his chin – that must be painful). It’s another really great shot.

Football is a sport that often brings out the best (ok, and the worst) of passion in people, but we need more of this exaltation and delight in our lives, especially when you look around at what else is going on in the world right now. 90 minutes of escapism each and every Saturday afternoon seems like a very good idea.

I just wish I could have been there for this one.

Flying high

This isn’t a football blog. This is a me blog, but I do like football and so there will be mention of it on here from time to time. And particularly at the moment, given that Sheffield United are top of the table going into the first of this season’s international breaks.

Mmm. Healthy stuff.
It’s early days, but I’m reminded of the line from KonKan’s 1988 dance classic I Beg Your Pardon:

Come along and share the good times while we can

Because there are still 36 games and therefore [kwik maffs] 108 points to play for and it might all go pear-shaped at any time.

So why not enjoy it while we are flying high?

I love this: so much joy in one image. No, not the steward, obviously.

In other news: perhaps an opportunity to get some extra posts done this afternoon, with a massive 4½ hours of loadshedding coming our way. We’ll be without power today – on a Sunday, nogal – for 9½ hours in total. Scary times.

I ‘ll probably do some exercise and get some sleep as well (plenty of time for many activities, after all).
I’m still a bit tired after hula-hooping the night away in a repurposed watermill last night.

As you do.