Another lovely day here today and the forecast looks set for more lovely sunny days in the week ahead:
Those temperatures aren’t anything to email home about, but it’s nice enough and, as Mrs 6000 pointed out, it’s hardly summer, is it? Which it absolutely isn’t, no. That would only start on the 1st or the 21st of December, depending upon which system you’re using.
But we shouldn’t be complaining, especially when looking back over at the UK. This image has been doing the rounds over the last 24 hours, indicating the number of hours of sunshine around the UK, the Isle of Man and Ireland over the first 7 (seven) days of November.
Ouch. Eina. My fok. Goodness gracious.
Bearing in mind that London is sitting on an average of about 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight each day, they could have had over 65 hours of sunshine. They got 2. The Isle of Man – averaging just over 9 hours of daylight last week – got not a single hour.
In seven whole days!
Aberdeen was the big (and rather unlikely) winner. 8¾ hours of daylight each day, and a whole 13 hours of sunshine in seven days. That’s 21% of their daylight as sunshine. Incredible. Their local Burns Unit must be bursting at the seams, just like it is in late January each year.
We made hay (not literally) while the sun shone today, with the Boy Wonder driving himself and his friends down to Agulhas for a long weekend, and LM 6000, having recovered from her singing last night, riding a horse over some big sticks, rather amazingly.
But now it’s time to sit back with a glass of local red, and catch up with the Youtube videos I haven’t had time to watch this week. I’ll be incredibly knowledgeable and a brilliant photographer in about an hour.
Despite the danger from wild animals around every corner (and on every golf green), South Africa is still a really popular tourist destination. Decent weather (T&Cs apply), loads of varied stuff to do, a single flight from and a very small time difference from a lot of Europe, and THAT EXCHANGE RATE.
It’s pretty rubbish for us living here, but the ever-weaking Rand makes SA deliciously attractive to tourists. Follow anyone who has come here (on social media, not like stalking them), and you’ll hear them wax lyrical about the service, the wine, the scenery, the wildlife, the people, the food and the prices.
I can’t believe that we got all of this – including drinks – for less than fifty quid
is a regular line at the end of every 4 course meal shared on the TikkityTok. And if you’ve ever been to the UK, you’ll understand exactly why that seems amazing.
And then I saw this:
I did some rudimentary calculations and worked out that at an average of about R40 (this is not Fireman’s, Forries or the Waterfront, obvs!), we’re sitting at about the €1.98 of Hungary for a 500ml Castle Lite or a Black Label. Sure, that may not be your tipple of choice, but this isn’t just about you, and if you’re going to want to drink something “Crapft”, then sure, things can get silly quite quickly.
But this is about the average price for 0.5 litre domestic draught beer in restaurants. Like it says on the map.
And that shows just how cheap this place is when you’re coming from somewhere that’s yellow, orange or red. It also demonstrates that needs to be more than just cheap beer prices to take into consideration when choosing a holiday destination. Because Ukraine looks very inviting on this map.
But… well… you know…
I remember going to Czechoslovakia (when it was just still Czechoslovakia) and buying a bottle of beer for the equivalent of 2 English pence. I thought they’d misrepresented the price or I’d mis-converted it, and it should have been two pounds (which would have been very expensive for someone from the North of the England in those days), or maybe 20 pence (ridiculously reasonable). It turned out that I just needed to move my decimal point along again. Amazing.
Looking back, I demonstrated some incredible – and some might say, foolish – self control on that trip.
Beer has gone up a lot more in the ex-Czechoslovakia in the last thirty years than it has in the UK.
And it’s definitely more expensive here since I arrived as well, but then isn’t everything? But like I say, if you’re coming out to Cape Town from London, then you’re probably going to think that they’ve undercharged you for your beer.
Still, the “cheap” beer is also a good thing for us locals. It’s just a shame that these days we can’t afford anything nice to eat with it.
Look, we live in South Africa, and while at least some of the rest of the world [waves to the USA] think that wild animals roam the streets, it’s not quite like that. Well, not every day, at least. Outside the cities, you certainly might come across ostriches on your drive, and if you’re near certain bodies of water at night, there’s always the chance of a notoriously unreflective hippo.
More likely is that you’ll hit one of the big buck though: and that Kudu a lot of damage to your car: a bull can weigh 300kg.
Sadly, it rarely ends well for the Kudu, either. But thankfully, these events are fairly uncommon in the greater scheme of things.
Even less common are encounters with lions.
Well, that is until recently. Because suddenly, there seems to be a lot of lion in the mainstream media.
Please note that if you’re reading this out loud for the benefit of someone else, you’ll need to clarify that I mean the big cat, not a lack of truthfulness. That wouldn’t be unusual at all.
Here are three very recent examples. Happily all up North, a long way from here.
The original image was posted on X, and as the Citizen says:
A reverse image search on Google revealed similar photos of lions spotted in the Kruger National Park.
Well, yes. Similar, because that’s what lions look like, but actually not the same. So was this claim genuine? No-one seems completely sure. The truth is out there. And maybe there’s a lion as well.
Guests at the Skukuza Golf Club, famously dubbed South Africa’s wildest golf course, recently witnessed an extraordinary scene when a group of predators converged on the final green to share an impala kill. In a rare sighting that perfectly illustrates the untamed nature of the course, two lions, a crocodile, and a pack of hyenas took turns feasting on the kill just metres from the clubhouse.
And the video, although portrait and a bit blurry, is incredible:
The “You must have signed the indemnity form to pass this point” sign in the foreground is particularly amusing, given the range of dangerous carnivores tearing apart the unfortunate impala.
These magnificent beasts are supposedly apex predators, but they are no match for a Toyota Land Cruiser. This incident occurred in Kruger National Park, which you can drive through in your own vehicle (I recently found out that this is bewildering to foreigners). And you can get really, really close to the really wild animals. But when there is a good sighting, word spreads fast and it can get a bit busy.
Patience is key. Don’t be like this guy. Don’t get this close.
No damage done here apart from to the driver’s bank balance once the Rangers got a look at this video.
KNP spokesperson, Ike Phaahla, confirmed that the driver was fined. “We dealt with him by tracing the number plate.”
Good plan. I would have started by looking for traces of lion fur on the front corner of every white Toyota in South Africa. But your way is probably better. I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.
“All we know is that he was trying to make a way at the sighting when he bumped the animal,” Phaahla explained. He added that while he was unsure of the amount the driver was fined, the maximum fine is R1,500.
A slap on the wrist for a bump up the arse.
We naturally crow about our amazing wildlife in SA, but I have no clue why there has been a sudden plethora of lion stories in the local press. Still, it’s good that we take pride in sharing the stories about these big cats when we encounter them.
Did I miss the Zeitgeist on this one? It’s Sunday lunchtime, and the concert was Thursday night. But I’ve been busy and tired and chilled, so this is late. I get it. Sorry, not sorry.
But still a concert and an evening absolutely worth documenting. Starting with a decent free parking spot a whole 100m from the gig: I’m really not sure where else you can do this. And sure, we were there only about an hour after the doors opened, but why not make use of the VIP bar, seated area, sunshine and early entertainment from SA’s own Werner Bekker?
Burger and chips and a visit to the merch store sorted, we grabbed some space on the grass and waited for éVoid, infamous for their 1984 hits Taximan and Shadows. And they played, and the crowd – seemingly exclusively 50 and 60-something year olds from Parow and Edgemead, and encouraged by a Bok Radio DJ – lapped it up. It was such a feelgood moment watching people transported back 40 years, back to whatever club in which they were dancing to that SA New Wave “Ethnotronica”. And they really were back there. Acting like they were teenagers, for as long as their knees would let them.
But wait… there’s more… OMD. Andy McCluskey not looking any older than 12 years ago. Paul Humphries with only a passing resemblance to Jerry St. Clair from Phoenix Nights. They were just happy to be there, you could feel it from the first moment.
What followed was just under two hours of nostalgia, energy, audience engagement, incredible stage presence and just really good vibes. Starting with some new stuff, as expected, before Messages and Souvenir dragged us back to our youth.
A brave Kraftwerk-esque performance of Veruschka was a particular highlight for me, after which McCluskey thanked the audience for indulging them with “a slow, new one”.
The interplay between the crowd and McCluskey was just perfect: each feeding on the other’s energy and enthusiasm and just pure enjoyment of the moment.
A powerful, loud, brash – but still tight – version of Enola Gay rounded off the set before a stonking encore of Look At You Now, Pandora’s Box and Electricity sent everybody home happy, although I do suspect that everyone involved could happily have gone on for at least another hour.
All in all, just such a great evening. Band and audience both recognising their roles and duties on the night, and then performing them perfectly. One I will remember for a long time.
Videos courtesy of my daughter, who also had a great evening
The impending World War is a bit tiresome. I do hope that it’s not going to affect our football team weekend away towards the end of the month. That would really be adding insult to injury. Imagine society crashing down around us and you didn’t even get the chance to share a few beers with your mates at what looks like a really decent place in the Klein Karoo before it all kicked off.
Tired of the politics in this country. The iffy polices and the usual pre-election promises and lies. Yes, yes, I know that they’re the same thing. Tired of the polarised viewpoints and the unjustified ad hominem attacks on social media. Weary at the people who think that what’s happening on twitter bears any relation to the situation in the real world.
And, related: HOW HAVE WE SUDDENLY GOT SO MUCH ELECTRICITY? Sure, no loadshedding is great and all, but at what cost is this pre-election “normality” coming? Something unsustainable is happening. More on that in a future post. Maybe.
Tired of – and a bit bewildered at – this sort of stunt from local news site (the) Daily Maverick:
I recognise the need for journalism, and I recognise the need for a strong and independent media, but 1) Is that really what they are?, and 2) Is this action a bit OTT and a bit drama llama-y?
Mmm.
Tired of being just being tired. I went to bed ridiculously early yesterday evening, and I slept really well. I just could have done with another few hours. I’m sure you recognise the feeling.
Still did much better than this guy though:
Oh why have all the moonbats come back out of the woodwork recently? Was it the eclipse? So damn exhausting. They’re suddenly everywhere again, including literally shedloads of Americans who think that Cape Town has been washed away by some massive weird tsunami thing that none of us actually in Cape Town, noticed.
And like that guy above whose name was blanked out on this screenshot, but who has clearly risen like Lazarus, if he’s repeatedly had no pulse for 5 minutes at a time. If resurrection is a side effect of the covid vaccine, then I think we need to know.
