Category: learning curve

Nice guy

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Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Commercialism gone mad, preying on the young lovers of the world, or the Feast Day of St Valentine who lived in the 3rd Century.

How about both?

Busy guy, too. Aside from his caring for the poor and weak during his brief time on the planet, he’s also got himself a number of sponsorship deals Patronages. in the afterlife. He does Terni – a somewhat nondescript city in Southern Umbria in Italy. And he does Lesvos – the Greek island famed for featuring a diverse, mountainous landscape with olive groves, medieval castles, and a rich, traditional culture, and offering a quieter, non-commercialized alternative to popular Greek destinations. 

His other gigs? Well, happy marriages and affianced couples, obviously.

And then… Epilepsy, Beekeepers, Plague and “against fainting”.

I never knew that you could have a Patron Saint “against” a bad thing. And if you can – and you clearly can, because he is – then why not add (in this case, at least) “against” Epilepsy and “against” Plague to the list? Because this dichotomy does make it look like he’s actively supporting those two afflictions.

And while we’re at the whole “religion is a bit weird” thing, how is St Valentine depicted? What are his Attributes? As in – when you see an image of him, how can you identify that it’s him and not some other random 3rd Century clergyman/martyr?

The list starts off fairly routinely: Birds. Roses. A priest giving sight to a blind girl.

We move on to more specific things: A bishop with a crippled person or a child with epilepsy at his feet

Some modern day social media stuff: A priest holding a sun.

And then (perhaps somewhat predictably), it goes a bit nuts:

A bishop with a rooster nearby.
What sort of radius are we looking at here. Is it a small rooster, or is it far away?

A bishop refusing to adore an idol.
How do you even begin to depict that?
Is looking away really the same as “refusing to adore”?
Or does the audience have to do a lot of hard work connecting the dots?

A bishop being beheaded.
A priest bearing a sword.
I feel that we need to know if these two are connected. Is this some sort of Christian coup?

And if it is related to his actual martyrdom, well, they’ve missed a bit:

Valentine was arrested and dragged before the prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.

Yeah. Probably not something you want to see at your local art gallery.

Tell me why…

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…I’m not particularly looking forward to this coming Monday.

With apologies to the Boomtown Rats.

One of the best bits about this blog (ok, ok: possibly the only good bit if you want to be like that) is the fact that I don’t have to stick to any one given topic. This isn’t a blog about music or football or politics. It’s a blog about whatever takes my fancy that particular day.

But I have been talking quite a lot about the weather recently.

That’s completely reasonable though, because the Cape Town weather has been bloody weird over the last few months. And after a week of horrific humidity, gloomy skies and even *gasp* occasional rain, next Monday looks… well…

…”warm”.

Ironically, this isn’t actually very unusual for February. We will have a few days each year here that get up towards 40oC and are generally rather uncomfortable. More surprising is the fact that this will be the first one of the year.

That said, even if we’re used to it, it would probably be wise to take things a bit easy that day and to drink plenty of water. Also, find and hug an air conditioner.

I’m full of great advice.

Ice Road news

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Great news for anyone wanting to travel between the Estonian islands of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa, but who hasn’t been able to get a ferry because of all the sea ice in the… er… sea.

The authorities have opened a 17km ice road between the islands – specifically between Tärkma on Hiiumaa and Triigi on Saaremaa – over the frozen sea.

This is pretty cool (no pun intended), as it’s an official ice road, sanctioned by the government and maintained by a private contractor. You can even check on the current status of the ice road on this website.

The really good news about this official ice road is that it’s safe, simply because it’s sanctioned and maintained. But Estonians are a wild bunch, and so authorities have had to warn against individuals using several unofficial ice roads (no sanction, no maintenance; no Pirlo, no party).
That does come with some risks:

“The concern is really about this uncontrolled situation. The risk is high. Right now, one might think the danger is not great since the weather is so cold. Because right now the road is unclear and not everyone knows exactly where to go. You definitely have to monitor the road. There is just one spot where there’s a crack with water, but otherwise it’s totally passable.”

Oh, just the one spot where the freezing, dark, salty water of doom is creeping through?
That’s perfectly ok then.

The list of rules for the official ice road is long, involving weight limits, visibility constraints, distance between vehicles and banning overtaking. Also:

Seat belts must be unfastened, and vehicle doors should remain easily openable.

But why? Oh, wait.

Oh.

Right.

But it’s not like they haven’t thought this stuff through. How about this for a directive:

The recommended speed is up to 25 km/h or between 40–70 km/h (speeds between 25–40 km/h may generate a resonance wave that could damage the ice).

I wonder how they found that out?

I think that it’s unlikely that ice roads will ever be a thing here in SA. Mainly because of the weather, but then where would we go to anyway? Robben Island? That’s really about it for local offshore land around here. But it’s probably just as well, given our dodgy driving reputation.

Honestly though, this Estonian version sounds like something that you should experience at least once in your life. Or just do an unofficial one and make it the last thing you do in your life.

I could live here

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It’s Denmark, which is the most boring of the Scandinavian countries I have been to (n=3), but still – look at this:

This bar will give you a free beer between 12 and 1pm.

There’s no catch, no obligation to buy another beer or any food or any other product. You just turn up and ask for your free beer, please. And then you can leave, although I’d advise you to drink the thing once you’ve ordered it, obviously.

The only T&C here is that you are only allowed one per customer per day, and that seems a bit tight perfectly reasonable.

As a loss leader for the bar, one presumes that it must work, otherwise they wouldn’t be running it. And – according to the guy who shared this – it’s not a limited promotion either. This has been going on since New Year already, and shows no sign of stopping.

I’ve seen beer offers before, but they’ve always come with the inevitable hidden catch. There isn’t one here. And for reference, a bar-bought 500ml Tuborg costs about 60DKK in Denmark, which is a terrifying R127, so this is a pretty sweet deal.

Sadly, the price of flights alone make this one a bit of a non-starter for us here in Cape Town, but if any of the local pubs are reading this and thinking that something along these lines might be worth a bit of a trial run… well… let me know and I’ll see you at noon tomorrow.

Frustrating, Infuriating, Embarrassing

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The whole situation regarding childhood vaccinations and childhood illnesses continues to worsen. And not just in the USA, where there are obvious reasons for the problems.

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet, and it’s estimated that the measles vaccine saved around 60 MILLION lives in the first 24 years of this century alone.

But all that is changing: and because measles is so very contagious, it’s changing fast. We had control over this terrible disease which maims and kills young children. No more.

On January 23, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced six European countries lost their measles elimination status: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. Canada lost its elimination status late last year. This means measles is no longer a random event in these countries; it’s endemic and freely flowing.

First World Countries! It’s embarrassing.

So millions of lives saved, sure. But equally, millions in danger again now. And it’s just so infuriating, because we have spent so many years on fighting this, so much money, time and effort on trying to make a positive difference, and we actually did it. We were winning.

And then some knobheads wrote some stuff on Facebook and it all started to unravel.

If those knobheads were scientists, microbiologists, vaccinologists, then I’d consider that maybe they had a point. But they’re not. They have no experience of science, experimentation, research or anything like that. Of course, they have their own areas of expertise, but imagine if you went into their place of work and told them that everything that they were doing was wrong, corrupt or dangerous? Imagine if you pretended that you knew more than them about hairdressing or plumbing or bricklaying, even though they’d been doing it for 20+ years, and you’d never even tried it?

They’d rightfully tell you to F off. Yet, for some reason, they’re all experts when it comes to vaccines.

It’s happening locally too. Diphtheria – DIPHTHERIA! – a proper, old school, medieval disease has killed 19 people in the last few months in South Africa. And with a current mortality rate of 21%. That, as the locals say, is pretty hectic, bru.

Yeah. That one really slipped beneath the radar.
It’s completely and utterly preventable. Those people could still be alive. No suffering, no illness, no grieving families. But…

Vaccination gaps appear to be a key driver of vulnerability. Among children aged 12 years and younger who fell ill, several were unvaccinated or had not received booster doses, while others had only completed part of the infant immunisation schedule. The report stresses that protection depends not only on early childhood vaccination but also on booster doses later in life.

The South African healthcare system may have its problems, but access to childhood immunisation really isn’t one of them. You can’t pin this one on them – this is all about the parents making poor decisions based on what they have seen on social media.

How can we stop it? I don’t know.
The lack of trust in the the healthcare systems and industry shows no sign of going away, and the unbridled misinformation spewing forth from social media and the US Government is, if anything, increasing.

At a personal level, get vaccinated. And get your kids vaccinated. There’s no excuse for your kid getting diphtheria: we immunise at 6 weeks old. And in SA, we give our first measles vaccination at 6 months. If your country doesn’t, then given the current situation, it might even be sensible to talk to your doctor and discuss early vaccination.

Choose wisely. Make sensibly informed decisions.

Doctors spend several years of their lives learning how best to look after your health. Amazingly, despite your alleged innate knowledge of your own body, they do know what’s best for you. The do have the expertise and the knowledge to make good decisions for your well-being.

The car mechanic up the road might be great with engines, but honestly, he knows fuck all about the benefits of vaccinations. Don’t believe what he says, unless it’s about spark plugs.

Oh – and if I didn’t mention it enough earlier – get vaccinated. And get your kids vaccinated.