The Impossible Dream

It’s been a hot day in Cape Town, and it’s been a busy one too. I would love to be sitting at home in front of a warm TV right now, but it’s Monday evening and it’s Dodgeball training, so I’m out in my car park. Given that I am out here, I would love to be sitting in my car park with the windows down and the fresh breeze blowing the heat of the day away.

Sadly, there appears to be a raw sewage issue somewhere in the vicinity. It’s literally nauseating.

Anyway, not much I can do about the thick pooey odour enveloping everything here.

So here’s a video I watched earlier. A great tale, 17 years in the making, some amazing videography, and some important lessons about recognising when it’s time to give up.

We all have our impossible dreams and we all have our limits. How we choose (or are able) to balance one against the other, and how much value we place on each will likely define our successes. It doesn’t have to be running marathons. For example, Forest Drive (Bishopscourt, not Pinelands) kicked my arse again today. That’s a 750m bit of asphalt, not 42km of American city roads, but that’s my current nemesis. But I’ll return on a cooler – but equally steep day – to fight back.

And I will beat it. Or I’ll give up.

One of the two.

Puzzled

A bit of a gentle day today. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, and simple conservation of energy dictates that the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

I also appear to have swallowed a book of clichés.

And after a bit of a sleepless night, I chose to have something of a day off.
Not great, but lucky to be able to have that luxury.

Anyway, I’m going to turn in another early night, but not before I have linked you to a couple of Puzzgrids I chucked up today. My lack of oomph is other people’s pleasure. Or something.

What’s Puzzgrid? Well, it’s a spin-off of the Only Connect Wall and it definitely pre-dated NYT Connections. But if you like either of those, you’ll definitely like this.

Please enjoy #92135 & #92139. They shouldn’t be too difficult, but I do always say that they’re only easy if you know all the answers. I do know all the answers.

Bar Menu

Tired of poncy, posey, inevitably expensive eateries? Aren’t we all.

When looking at a menu, there’s a fine line between doing good food right and doing average food pretentiously.

Apparently allegedly, this is a particular issue in Brooklyn, New York, although you might find the same problems in Woodstock or Die Waterkant in Cape Town. And a lot of other places, I’m sure.

Someone has come up with a Brooklyn Bar Menu Generator, and it’s pretty close to perfection for mimicking and mocking this trend:

The paper. The font. The adjectives. The ingredients. The ubiquitous lack of currency. It’s brilliant.
Go and play on the link above.

I’m drooling at the thought of tormented artichoke, stubbed kraut and “plum”.
Shared to me by a restaurant owner, nogal. Lol.

Geodetective

A spin-off from GeoWizard, Tom Davies’ occasional series here. (See what i watch in the sidebar.)

Basically a photo of a place (or a person in a place), and you have to find out where they are. Tom has been doing this for a while now, and as you might expect, he’s pretty good at it.

But now a fan has made a site dedicated specifically to it, and as a first attempt, it’s really rather good.

https://geodetective.io/

Basically, you are given an image of a place, and you have to locate the place. You can use whatever means you like: googling is actively encouraged – but you do have to find something to google.

This was the first one that I attempted. And I got it spot on in about 3 minutes. So clearly, everything you need is there.

Anyway, the only downside is that you have to create a (free) account to play. But it’s well worth it as an occasional fun distraction from the misery of modern life.

IOM

Because we are (hopefully) arriving on the Isle of Man today, here’s a great article about this year’s IOM TT Races. Much maligned by many in the “mainstream media”* (especially the pisspoor Sky News), there is still something very special about this two week period for many, and it’s often seen as something of a pilgrimage for motorcyclists the world over.

And if you think “oh, well it’s just more motor racing”, you really couldn’t be more wrong:

Formula One has turned itself into a mainstream sport by focusing on everything outside the racing. The way F1 is marketed makes it seem almost like they want you to ignore the racing because they understand that it is dull, and that they cannot fix that it is dull, and instead focus on that there are things to do to distract you from that dull racing.

It’s true. One guy wins all the races…

…and so you have to turn to Netflix documentaries and pitlane feuds to prop up the excitement.

The TT is the same, but also almost totally the opposite. If you have only ever experienced the TT from the sofa – rather than a grass bank, a garden, or a hedge – it is likely that, on arriving to the island for the first time, you will simply be blown away by the amount of people there, and the amount of motorcycles. There is a lot going on outside the racing, but it is all created by people who are there primarily for the racing, so it doesn’t detract or distract from the racing, because it is, ultimately, generated by the racing. 

I don’t envy the author. It truly is an experience which is near indefinable in words. But he gives it a good go, and I quite like the honest, warts-and-all approach he takes. Less so the awful photos that he took, but hey, you can’t have everything.

It’s a good read. Especially (but not exclusively) if you like your island-based, two-wheeled motorsport.

* amazing albeit accidental alliteration