Day 394 – Bending the rules

Remember this?

Upon which I wrote this:

I’m not saying that there is any danger or risk in how those people are gathered on the lagoon on the left. But instead of choosing to understand that there was a reason that they weren’t allowed to gather on the beach on the right, they simply chose to just gather somewhere else close by.

In this case, it’s not the virus being “clever”, it’s the people being obtuse.

Well, this weekend, school rugby is back. And with it are the entitled Karens and Gavins of the Southern Suburbs Private School Set. Because while school rugby is back, spectators of school rugby aren’t allowed. For this reason, our local school – hosting matches today – closed its entire campus for the day, so that the rugby was played behind closed doors… er… gates. Karen and Gavin didn’t like that idea of no spectating though, so they just stood directly outside the fence and watched from there instead.

Genius.

Now, I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with the rules and regulations. Nor am I suggesting that these people are breaking any law. But given that there has been no school sport for over a year now and students and parents alike have been telling us all how much they have missed it, surely some degree of caution to help prevent another lengthy lay-off would be common sense? And while it would be wrong to say that there wasn’t a mask in sight, there were very few, and they were notably absent on the more bellowy, steroid-fuelled pumped-up fathers.

But, much like the beach and the lagoon above, it’s not the virus that’s “clever” enough to know on which side of the fence these parents are standing, rather it’s those parents not thinking (or more likely simply not caring) about the implications. Or maybe just thinking that the rules are for someone else, because yes, these were mainly Karens* and Gavins from Bishops School and generally, they are of the opinion (and theirs is the only opinion that matters) that rules and regulations don’t apply to them.

You know the sort.

With our R numbers steadily rising over the last two weeks, with school holidays and colder, damper weather just around the corner, with no vaccination programme even starting for another 3 weeks – and with this sort of behaviour ever more rife – it could be a fairly miserable winter for SA.

* I promise that there were several Karens in there, despite what the photo might suggest.

Zebra & Giraffe just up the road?

After the melodramatic pain and heartache of Sunday evening’s traffic jams (apparently, there was some concert or other on, as well?) and most especially for those who are still stuck at Val de Vie, but might make it out before tomorrow lunchtime, a timely reminder that you can see Zebra and Giraffe and the Dirty Skirts tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 12th December) at Wynberg Boys High School.

zg

This is part of the Sunshine Concerts series, wherein Wynberg Boys noticed that Kirstenbosch, Paul Cluver, D’Aria and Backsberg (not to mention several others I haven’t heard of yet) were doing weekend concerts and making plenty of cold, hard cash from the whole thing. Just don’t mention the parking.
Actually, parking won’t be an issue for me, as WBHS is just around the corner from us. I regularly take the boy up onto the field there to fly his kite, kick his football and chase hadedas. Sometimes, if he’s good, I let him join in.  
So we’ll be having a family afternoon out and we’d be more than happy if you want to join us. Obviously, this is the first “big” concert that WBHS has staged, but I’ve never had any problems with being a guinea pig for any sort of concert venue before, so I’m unconcerned about the organisation. *ahem*
This despite the fact that the times stated for the doors opening, start of the concert and length of the event all differ between the flyer and the Computicket page.

Next week, SA rockers Prime Circle are on and then in February, the delights of… er… Kurt Darren and Watershed await.
Watershed have been understandably quiet since I had a word with them at the Nelson Mandela Invitational and told them to go away and write some good stuff. But it seems that they’ve taken my advice and done that and now they’re back.
And they’re almost certain to do that brilliant hard rock version of Indigo Girl as a surprise finale.

Oops. Sorry.

A reminder

We had a minor break-in at our house on Thursday, which capped a completely crap week off just perfectly (hence the lack of blogging). I don’t really want to go into it, but suffice to say that it really was the final icing on the coffin which broke the camels back.

So it was nice to take advantage of the stunning weekend weather to take the boy up for a run on the local school field. We sat there for a while, enjoying the view and eating jelly and custard in somewhat sombre introspection*.
Then the sprinklers came on and he made a dash for it.


Click here for bigger version

20 minutes later we returned home, both soaking wet but still somehow covered in an implausible amount of custard.

It’s amazing how one little thing can swing your whole mood around. It was a reminder that whatever bad things life throws at you, watching your 2 year old son giggling uncontrollably as you both succumb to several hundred litres of high pressure water can sort all your woes out…

 * I did anyway. He sat there eating jelly and custard via osmosis.