Best Atmosphere in England? Mauricio knows…

I’ll just leave this here:

Asked about the best atmosphere he had experienced in his time in England, Pochettino picked Bramall Lane. “They are a historic club currently in the third tier and for a Cup game there were 35,000 people in the stadium. So it’s that, not Old Trafford, or Stamford Bridge or the Emirates that stands out.”

Not wrong there, Mauricio.

And HITC Sport’s Subhankar Mondal evidently knows his stuff as well:

English football is not necessarily the most aesthetic, but support and passion in the lower leagues is probably the best in Europe. United regularly get thousands of supporters for League One matches, sometimes more than some Premier League clubs do.

The Sheffield-based club are one of the biggest of England despite playing in League One, and retain one of the largest fanbases in the country. What is refreshing about the United fans is that they have remained loyal and go to games despite their team not being in the Premier League or in the Championship.

Yep, there’s just something about being a Blade that brings out the passion and encourages undying allegiance, and despite the occasional disappointments, there are many moments to savour as well.

Good People, For You

I watched a film last night. Regular readers will be aware that this is somewhat of an unusual occurrence, so it probably deserves a mention here. The flick in question was called Good People and scored a massive 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. And I can understand why: it was a bit shoddy, wholly implausible from start to finish and rather (very) predictable. But, that said, it was quite fun if you overlooked the nonsense and there was Kate Hudson, so it wasn’t all bad. What definitely deserves a mention is the theme music of said film, and so I’m doing that too:

I’m getting whiffs of Shirley Bassey, Amy Whitehouse and a thick layer of Bond Theme on the palate. Serena Ryder is a 32 year old Canadian singer who I had never heard of, but that’s quite a voice right there. I’ll be exploring a bit more in the coming weeks. Incidentally, the only other music mentioned in the credits was:

Excerpt from ‘Mansquito’ Written by Joseph Conlan and Sophia Morizet Published by Brevity Music, Inc.; Asymptotote Music BV, Inc.

and was dark and brooding in a very David Arnoldesque way. Upon further googling, ‘Mansquito’ appears to be a 2005 TV Movie with the following plot synopsis:

While trying to find a cure for the West Nile virus, a scientist turns herself and her subject into mutant insects.

Which sounds only slightly less believable than Good People. Film: 5/10 (for the lolz) Theme music: A strong 8½/10 (dem lungs)

No recharge available

We forgot to charge the beagle before this afternoon’s loadshedding.

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There’s not much we can do about it now until the power returns, but hopefully this will serve as a warning to other beagle owners in South Africa to not make the same silly mistake.

And no, I’m not going to tell you where the plug goes.

#ChargeYourBeagle

Beware the petrol price drop

The preamble:
The petrol price in South Africa is regulated by the Department of Energy. That means that wherever you go within your locality, the price you are charged per litre will be the same. The only variation in price is between coastal and inland areas, e.g. Joburg prices are different to Cape Town, because of the additional cost of transporting the fuel from where it’s made/shipped to, to where it’s sold.

You might like this system, you might not. You may even be wholly ambivalent about it. It is, as they say, what it is.
And it’s not what this post is about.

The petrol price changes monthly to allow for any increases and decreases in the oil price and variations in the USD/ZAR exchange rate. These changes are announced in the last week of each month and instituted at midnight between the first Tuesday and first Wednesday of the following month. And it’s been good news recently for the South African motorist, thanks to the oil price being in freefall. The price of a litre of Unleaded dropped by 93c at midnight last night from R10.83/l to R9.90/l, and it was for this reason that I didn’t fill up on the way home yesterday.

In which I buy some petrol:
I don’t generally subscribe to the queuing up ahead of a fuel price hike – saving a few cents or a couple of Rand isn’t worth the time, effort and frustration. But when I need lots of petrol, the price is dropping quite a bit in six hours, I can fill up on the way to work and save enough for a six pack of beers, well then it’s the perfect storm of logic, right there.
So I filled up this morning and it was only afterwards that I noticed that I had been charged the old rate.

This shouldn’t have happened.

I would have noticed straight away, but I thought that I needed more than 50 litres, and the guy actually put in 45 litres. No issue there, you only pay for what you take, obviously, but I only looked at the price (R490.00), which just made me think I’d got more petrol at a cheaper rate. Compare 50l at R9.90 (R495) vs 45l at R10.83 (R490). It was only when I looked at the receipt closely that I noticed the “error”.

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In which I go back the the petrol retailer and ask what’s going on:
I headed back to the garage about 30 minutes later, receipt in hand, to speak to the manager. I had a quick look at the pumps as I walked in and – fair enough – they were showing the new, lower price of R9.90.

The manager was friendly enough. He immediately apologised, told me that there “had been a glitch” and they’d “had to reset the system”. He paid me R44 difference, told me he needed to keep my receipt (conveniently removing any evidence of naughtiness) (apart from the photo I took of it) and we went our separate ways.

I’m not going to name and shame here, because I have no evidence that there was any deliberate wrongdoing here – as I say, it looked like the pumps had been updated in the intervening half hour. (Afterthought: but are the pumps linked to the card machine in any way?)
But then look at it the other way: the garage was packed this morning because of the petrol price drop, and if every motorist there in the first seven and a half hours of today was being overcharged by R44, then someone (spoiler: it’s the garage owner) is making a pretty penny. Or more.

These things happen elsewhere too:

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not saying there was deliberate dishonesty here, but what I am saying is that – much like every sell by date in SA – you should double check before you assume that you’re getting the right deal.

Happy motoring.

Re-release

Ooh. Exciting news for the legion of a-ha fans that follow this blog in order to hear exciting a-ha news. This are that day!

Marking the 30th [weeps slightly] anniversary of the release of their first album Hunting High And Low, a-ha are releasing… Hunting High And Low. But this one is “a Super Deluxe Edition of the album… remastered and packed full of bonus content”!

Colour me excited. So excited, in fact, that here’s the title track of that 1985 classic:

Morten featuring as both singer and super-predator there. (Aquila chrysaetosCarcharodon carcharias and Panthera leo for the Linnean purists.) Although that notched caudal fin at 2:29 looks far more like that of Prionace glauca, I’m sure you’ll agree.

But minor shark identification discrepancies apart, what a song – drama, an orchestral background, harmonies deluxe and when you’ve seen it performed live, several (or more) goosebump moments.