Nothing so sleazy as you might be thinking. Actually, my Dad from the airport on a delayed flight from Amsterdam. Delayed initially by several lockdowns, then by Omicron, and then by one of Schipol’s baggage lifts malfunctioning. Each of the delays thankfully being somewhat less severe than its predecessor.
But it was a really late night last night and then something of a “normal” school morning this morning, albeit with additional grandparentery. So tonight will simply feature a low key braai (it would be nice if the southeaster would relent for the evening while we’re at it, please) and – I’m imagining – an early bedtime for us all, meaning that tomorrow and the forthcoming days can be enjoyed without this deathly, sleep-deprived hangover feeling.
And then we can get on with enjoying some quality time drinking wine doing the things that we enjoy and creating lasting memories.
I’ve spent the morning as a Cartographer’s Assistant. It was interesting and rewarding stuff, although it doesn’t pay well (actually, it doesn’t pay at all), you can get a bit sunburnt, and – where possible – you should choose not to assist a cartographer in a dog shit filled park.
Unpleasant.
The cartographer in question was my son, using basic triangulation to plot the whereabouts of some bridges, some benches, a lamppost and at least one bin. This was for a Scout badge, and – to me, at least – it looked like all the requirements had been fulfilled. The DSF park in question was Keurboom Park in Claremont, which has likely been mapped already [checks]… yes:
…but this was still great practice for him, should he need to map anywhere that hasn’t been mapped yet. Especially if there are lampposts and bins and bridges there. People need to know whereabouts those sort of things are.
Thankfully, now that Keurboom Park has been thoroughly mapped (at least twice), I won’t have to go back there. What a disgusting toilet of a place it is. We were there for about three hours, and we probably saw (no exaggeration) about 150 dogs. At a rough guess, I’d say that 50% of the owners cleaned up after their pets. And if you’re looking at [kwik maffs] about 50 dogs per hour, that’s 25 new “hazards” each 60 minutes, or 1 every 2½ minutes throughout the day – just in that bit of the park.
It’s everywhere. Utterly repulsive.
Of course, it could all be so much better if the owners did something about it. The park even provides free bags and there are plenty of (mapped) bins. But the middle-class white people of Lynfrae and surrounds (or at least 50% of them) clearly feel that they are above cleaning up after their dogs.
Probably a good idea not to bother getting a dog then, you wankers. Just a thought.
I’m in Hout Bay where my daughter has a riding lesson. The plan was to write a blog post when I got home, but I’ve hit a bit of a metaphorical wall, having stayed up way too late watching football last night.
Writing a blog post will help to keep me awake.
So I thought I’d lob something up here while there is some zigzagging with a cowboy grip going on in front of me. There aren’t any cows around, but I guess it makes sense to be prepared. You never know.
Safety first. Or maybe safety after a quick nap on the sun.
…but rather getting on a plane for the first time in over 2 years and going and doing a work thing Oop North. More Ooper North even than Pretoria. I know. I was also amazed.
And while the cat is away, I will hold the fort, because the mice will invariably try to play, and that does nothing for their academic progress. Also, we will get takeaway burgers this evening.
Today, a fussy day full of frustrating tasks and appointments; tonight, United on the TV. And our centre back is clearly much better behaved than West Ham’s.
It all seems so long ago now. In a galaxy far, far away.
But it was actually less than 3 weeks ago when the boy wonder and I stood on the front stoop at Suiderstrand and tried to find Comet Leonard somewhere in the vast Western skies over the South Atlantic Ocean.
A little route finding via instructions on the internet and a bit of good fortune, and there it was (sort of) in plain view. Kind of about that far [indicates an approximate distance] across to the left at about 10 o’clock from Jupiter.
Don’t bother looking now, of course.
Things will have moved.
We tried a million (only just an exaggeration) different ways of photographing it, fiddling with the ISO and the shutter speed on most every shot, and given that the wind was PUMPING, the locals had the place lit up – appropriately enough – like a Christmas tree, and we didn’t have any specialist equipment like a tracking mount and the like, I’m fairly happy with the results. A little tweak here and there in Lightroom has made a difference too.
Here are a few of our efforts:
Both at 211mm | 6s | f5.6 | ISO 6400
Yes, some streaking because of the exposure length required to get enough comet action, but actually, that only serves to make it look like it was moving very fast. Which it was of course (see below), but this isn’t whizzing in and out of the stars like you see in a movie or a cartoon. And yes, those two above are crops because even at 200mm, it’s still just a tiny smudge in the sky:
200mm | 8s | f5.6 | ISO 8000
In fact, even at 150mm (the widest my chosen lens could get) you’re still getting quite a good zoom on the thing. I should have taken a shot of the whole sky. The more I think about it, the more I realise that we did well to find it, let alone shoot it.
150mm | 2s | f5.6 | ISO 16000
A quick wave to (and a wish upon) the photobombing shooting star on that one.
Many people (with or without better equipment than me) will have taken many better shots of Comet Leonard, but I don’t care. We went out after dinner, stood in the relative darkness and the northwest wind with a tripod and a basic DSLR and took photos of a little 1km diameter ball of ice travelling away from us at 254,411 kph (70.67 km a second!!) and already 106,909,845 km distant.
