After yesterday’s post.
And it’s good news:
#struisbaai #overberg wildfire 10/10/21 IC update 19.30
Status: 100% contained, but not out.
Flames and dense smoke still visible over the area.
Mop-up will continue throughout the night.
Well done and thank you to all involved.
More here on other subjects later.
Since I can’t do much of anything that requires energy at the moment, I’ve been tidying up some stuff on the computer and the internet. My Flickr page is now looking much neater and tidier, with all the images assigned to groups and albums so that they’re easier to find, enjoy and share. So go and do it!
And I have high hopes that (at least some of) my photos from the Matroosberg and Klein Karoo (remember that pre-covid trip?) will be edited, uploaded and equally well categorised by the end of the day.
Possibly.
In other news, we had a further disaster last night as the recently repaired living room roof, beneath which is the even more recently replaced living room ceiling (literally last Friday), decided to allow another several (or more) litres of water through during the frontal rain in the late evening. Those litres missed the furniture completely, because the furniture isn’t in the living room at the moment, because now that the roof is repaired and the ceiling is replaced, the new floor is being installed.
You know: now that everything is all watertight and stuff? Mmm.
I’m so very, very tired of all this now.
Other things you might also like to know:
Yesterday’s post was very popular. Go and have a look if you haven’t already.
And, this:
Remember when BA brought their A380 over to Cape Town? Just after the Germans had left their towels on the metaphorical sunbeds? [Flickr]
I know that this announcement gives us 2½ months notice, but with SA very much on the UK’s reddest of red lists (and with every good reason right now), I can’t quite understand why BA would be taking this step unless they know something that we don’t – or unless they’re just going to cancel it when nothing new happens, of course.
Watch this space [gestures generally at the sky above Cape Town], I guess.
A quick update on my knee situation (backstory here and here), because the cashier in the supermarket was asking about it this morning and she’s had bladder problems for 6 years now and even though she’s seen a specialist (he’s the best one in Constantiaberg, you know) and had several operations (including trying botox) it’s still not any better and she needs to take drugs every month and yes the medical aid does cover it, but it’s expensive and debilitating and… hasn’t the weather turned cold?
Actually, it all started because she asked me why I was wearing shorts on such a cold, wet day.
Now, I can wear long trousers, but because of the continued swelling and sensitivity of my knee, it’s a lot more comfortable if I don’t. And so I have been wearing shorts. Fortunately, my work allows me to wear shorts, the only issue being that when wearing shorts under a lab coat it can appear that I’m not wearing anything at all. But that’s actually just a minor concern, because in fact, I am wearing shorts under the lab coat – you just can’t see them.
Safety first.
Wearing shorts was, until recently, quite beneficial too, as the Cape Town summer waned slowly and lazily towards heady autumnal days. I sneered at men in longer, less practical trousers as they sweated their way around the Mother City. Now they’re laughing at me.
Not, I must point out, that the Cape Town “cold” bothers me. I was brought up… hang on… [cue the Dvorák]… ah, that’s better. Now, as I were sayin’, I were brought up in t’ Yorkshire Pennines. I din’t even know what t’sun was ’til I went darn sarth when I were 14 an’ t’clouds broke up just past t’Toddington services.
What I’m trying to say is that what passes for “cold” here in SA was actually pretty decent weather for us on all but the hottest day of summer.
And, due to the continuing inflammatory processes within my knee joint, I have my own little heater on board anyway. It (my knee) actually gets so hot sometimes that ailing power generation SOE, Eskom got in touch to ask if they could attach a steam turbine unit to it, but I declined, fearful that it might make an awkward-shaped bulge under my lab coat.
We may have load-shedding again this winter, but I insist upon maintaining some small degree of near respectability.
But I digress. Often.
My knee is improving. There are good days, there are bad days. But as with any recovery process, it’s worth noting that the good days are slowly but surely beginning to outnumber the bad ones. I’ve been off crutches for weeks now, and I can almost walk down stairs without looking like I have suffered some sort of recent cerebral trauma.
Walking is fine, running is not. Football remains a pipe dream.
And I’m single-handedly propping up the SA non-steroidal anti-inflammatory market.
The thing is, I could possibly expedite my recovery by working harder and doing more, but equally, if I did that, I’d be more likely to hurt myself and set myself back n weeks, like I did last month. And so, it’s a balancing act. As an aside, my balancing is actually pretty good.
The goal is to be mostly completely mended by the time we head off to Europe next month. To be still struggling then would be annoying.
In other news, I’m happy to report that my bladder is fine.
And judging by the recent traffic on the Apple support forums, I are not alone.
Suffice to say, don’t try and install any updates to the program if you’re running any version of Windows.
Something bad will happen.
Anyway, between trying to fix that, being a dragon guarding some treasure in the garden and heading out to a housewarming this evening, I find that I’m right out of time for posting anything other than this important warning.
You’re welcome.
It’s been a while since I updated you on what has been going on with Nic Henshilwood of #rabbit4nic fame.
There’s good reason for this. There have been some complications with Nic’s condition and they have affected his treatment timetable.
Nic was meant to have started his radiated iodine therapy on Monday, but there has been a delay and a change of plan, as his Dad describes:
NICOLAS UPDATE: The Radiated Iodine scan was postponed after the diagnostic scan last Thursday. There are still some Lymph nodes that are problematic and the Oncologists have advised that surgery is the best way forward.
We had a meeting with the ENT Prof on Tuesday. It looks like surgery will be scheduled for late next week!
Nic was a bit anxious at first but is now showing his true brave self!!
When he does go in for his surgery, Nic will obviously have several bunnies to take in with him, thanks to those kind donors across SA.
My inbox is regularly full of requests for news on Nic, so I’ll do my best to keep you updated on here. You can also subscribe by RSS, on Facebook or by email (see the bottom of the sidebar), so you don’t miss a thing.