What happened here?

I’m heading up North next week to do some stuff. I was having a quick look at the flight I’ll be taking, and I’m not sure what happened to it a couple of weeks ago:

That’s a lot of “Diverted to CPT”. And CPT is where it set off from. Bit weird.

All those flights seem to get close though, although they also all seem not to have landed, only dropping to around 4,000m before turning and heading back.

My best guess is that there’s some sort of “not switching the ADS off or on”, and the diversion to CPT is merely the return flight; the anomaly just being the landing (or lack of it) up at the other end. It’s also worth noting that almost all the flights that were “Diverted to CPT” were on ZS-CMD, and all of them were on Mitsubishi CR9s. The problem seems to go away when they ran a Beech 1900D on the route.

A turbo-prop. That would be my first one in SA, and my first one since that horrific landing at LCY last July. Limpopo next week then. Or CPT, depending on what plane I get.

Annoying x2

That my bank card got cloned is very annoying. It could have been much worse, as whoever did the clonery hit it with one successful transaction yesterday afternoon, and then followed up with another quickfire 8 efforts, but thankfully, only the first one managed to get through.

What’s even worse is that the one transaction that did go through was at a US-based woo-woo dietary supplement site, thus adding pseudoscientific insult to financial injury.

I called the bank immediately, and – credit to them (no pun intended) – they reacted very quickly in stopping anything else from happening, using a scorched earth policy. I can’t help but think that the guy on the other end of the phone – friendly and efficient though he was – wasn’t really bringing much to the conversation by suggesting that it was “probably fraud”. It’s fair to say that everyone involved in the situation was probably well aware of that.

So where did my card get cloned? I don’t know. I used a Nedbank “back of the van” mobile ATM at the races on Saturday (with the card), and I also bought some food there (with the card, but on my phone). I bought some sugary water at a well-known supermarket chain on the way to football yesterday. But if that was the weak link, then we’re really in trouble.

I guess we’ll never know.

I don’t have a bank card at the moment, which is rather frustrating, because I really needed to buy some food today. I guess I’ll just have to manage with the two tonnes of protein powder and multivitamins that have just arrived from Atlanta to keep me going.

All about horse

Today is all about football. I played 5-a-side this morning, during which I was compared to both Ibrahimovic and del Piero. Sadly, it was Keith Ibrahimovic, a plumber from Aylesbury, and Jennifer del Piero, a postgraduate history student from Boston. Still: it’s a start.

And just now, I’m going to put on my big boy pants and brace watching United at Wolves. Such is the injury crisis at Bramall Lane, I think Keith and Jennifer are both on the bench.

But if today is all about football. And it is – I just said that – yesterday was all about horse.

An early start in the grey, drizzly conditions out at Hout Bay for Little Miss 6000 to take half a ton of well-muscled ex-racehorse around the course at a show there:

And then quickly home for a shower and a change before heading out to Kenilworth Racecourse to watch Mrs 6000’s favourite horse come second in a very, very competitive field.

It was an amazing result.

A great day out then, although the weather was distinctly un-February-like: cold, wet, grey. But once you’re wet once, you’re wet. And the fun takes away the cold.

Sort of.

Correct me if I a wrong

With the election date announced (May 29th, thanks for asking), everything here has become even more politically charged than usual. Voting will be for provincial and national government, but the players are all the same, and so even anything to do with the municipalities becomes antagonistic and polarised very quickly.

Here’s a reply to a Facebook post regarding funding for homeless shelters in Cape Town.

It looks like a keyboard has fallen down a steep slope, bouncing on several rocks and deflecting through the branches of a particularly thorny tree before coming to rest in the midst of a honey badger family, where the junior members have flung it from one to another for an hour or more.

And then one of them hit the POST COMMENT button.

This comment is absolutely unintelligible, but it’s still easier to read and is more sensible and pleasant than most of the stuff you’ll read on social media for the next few months.

Although “spiritual warfare attackers” will almost certainly feature less in that other stuff.
Which is no bad thing.

Correct me if I a wrong.

What a load of BS

I’m not planning to go into the city centre today, and that’s a good thing, because parked up in the harbour right next to that city centre (and right next to the Cruise Terminal, nogal!) is the Al Kuwait: a 190m, 16,110Mt livestock carrier owned by Croatian company Korkyra Shipping and stopping over from Rio Grande in Brazil as she heads east.

And she stinks.

According to Marine Traffic, the Al Kuwait is currently reporting a draught of 8.8m, which means that she is fully laden with livestock. This amounts to 23,474m2 of cattle. That’s about 50,000 studio apartments worth of space. And so it’s no wonder the residents of the CBD are up in arms over the whole situation – it’s not just about the smell, it’s clearly pure jealousy about all that extra space, as well.

Pity help the passengers of the Azamara Pursuit

…who have paid a ridiculous amount of money to sail into the Mother City and experience the fresh, clean Cape air, only to be parked next to this stinking floating farm truck (seen here under her previous moniker, Ocean Shearer – named after the Newcastle United football star’s daughter):

And now social media is alive with the cries of people desperate for the SPCA to board the vessel and check on the wellbeing of the 23,474m2 of cattle, as if this were the first time that a livestock carrier has ever docked in SA.

There are dead, decomposing animals on board

suggested one commenter, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

Aren’t human beings just the worst?

decried another keyboard warrior, who only found out that cows went on ships when a smelly boat parked up near her flat last night, but now thinks that the entire thing is terrible and must stop immediately.

Which is all fine, but is also such a kneejerk reaction which you can bet will likely be forgotten by tomorrow, by which time the Al Kuwait will be well on her way to her next port of call, taking her stench with her.