Wow. We have raised a child to the age of 18. Years, nogal.
It seems incredible. It’s taken both forever and no time at all.
Would we do it all over again? Well, we will have done in about 2½ years time.
But let’s leave it at that, shall we? Job(s) done.
Happy birthday to the Boy Wonder.
I mean, I say that, because I’m not a fan of heights. But actually. I’m really fine with heights as long as I know that I’m attached to something. And these guys – building a 400ft tower (a 122m transmitter in English) – in Ohio do at least seem to be that.
Also, they don’t even have to carry anything up there. It’s dropped in piece by piece from above.
Easy money.
For Midwest Helicopter Airways Incorporated, motto “We put big loads in tight spaces” (eish!), this is their job. You can see them lifting boxes and aircon units on some of their other videos, but this one is the best, giving you (almost) a bird’s eye view of a job you’d never usually get to see.
I’ve been looking back at last week, and I think one thing deserves a mention, even if only to make sure that I don’t forget it (MMIRIM, remember?).
Our health insurance has a sidearm to encourage its members to get healthier and stay healthier. This benefits the members in that they… er… get healthier and stay healthier, and it benefits the health insurer in that they theoretically don’t pay out as much money due to ill health. And then that extra money can benefit the members again by enabling lower premiums.
Lolz. Just kidding. That extra money goes to their shareholders.
Anyway… The sidearm gives you various points for working out for more than 30 minutes at various percentages of your maximum heart rate (calculated as 220 – your age). You can get 100 points for a >60% workout, 200 for a >70% workout and 300 for a >80% workout. Reach your goal by the end of the week, and you get a reward in the form of “Miles” which you can use to pay for everything from coffee to cinema tickets, and even a pair of sunglasses.
My goal is always 900 points – the highest for a standard person (i.e. non-professional athlete). Usually, I get around 1,100 or 1,200. But last week, I decided to see if I could – even at my somewhat advanced age – get to the maximum number of points for the week: 7 x 300 = 2100. That’s a full-on workout each and every day.
And it turns out that I could. Just.
Day 6 was a push. (Day 6 also included 28,000 steps at the OMD concert, btw.) Day 7 was almost impossible. And Day 8 was fairly miserable because of Days 6 and 7.
But I did do it.
Have I learned anything? Well, yes. Sheer will power and determination should never be underestimated, because they will help you reach your goals, but also, setting those goals too high is a silly idea.
And so will I do it again? Sure, probably. But I might work my way up to it a little more gradually next time.
In the meantime, after a (somewhat enforced) rest day on Saturday, I’m back at it, and have almost reached this week’s goal already.
And I can still walk.
#blessed #winning
I do some photography and people are generally very nice about it. Sadly though, there’s always someone who will go out of their way to be rude.
Look, if it’s not to your taste, that’s fine.
But there’s absolutely no need to resort to – and then publish! – this sort of vitriol:
It might not be the greatest photograph ever taken, but there are certainly some positives in there. The leading line of the path, the tangled branches of the winter trees, some autumnal colour still visible on the ground.
But no, it’s not going to win any awards. Still, for me, the (New Milton) Advertiser and (Lymington) Times‘ critic has really overstepped the mark here.
Wholly unnecessary. Vicky has my sympathy.
Did I miss the Zeitgeist on this one? It’s Sunday lunchtime, and the concert was Thursday night.
But I’ve been busy and tired and chilled, so this is late.
I get it.
Sorry, not sorry.
But still a concert and an evening absolutely worth documenting. Starting with a decent free parking spot a whole 100m from the gig: I’m really not sure where else you can do this. And sure, we were there only about an hour after the doors opened, but why not make use of the VIP bar, seated area, sunshine and early entertainment from SA’s own Werner Bekker?
Burger and chips and a visit to the merch store sorted, we grabbed some space on the grass and waited for éVoid, infamous for their 1984 hits Taximan and Shadows. And they played, and the crowd – seemingly exclusively 50 and 60-something year olds from Parow and Edgemead, and encouraged by a Bok Radio DJ – lapped it up. It was such a feelgood moment watching people transported back 40 years, back to whatever club in which they were dancing to that SA New Wave “Ethnotronica”. And they really were back there. Acting like they were teenagers, for as long as their knees would let them.
But wait… there’s more… OMD.
Andy McCluskey not looking any older than 12 years ago. Paul Humphries with only a passing resemblance to Jerry St. Clair from Phoenix Nights. They were just happy to be there, you could feel it from the first moment.
What followed was just under two hours of nostalgia, energy, audience engagement, incredible stage presence and just really good vibes. Starting with some new stuff, as expected, before Messages and Souvenir dragged us back to our youth.
A brave Kraftwerk-esque performance of Veruschka was a particular highlight for me, after which McCluskey thanked the audience for indulging them with “a slow, new one”.
The interplay between the crowd and McCluskey was just perfect: each feeding on the other’s energy and enthusiasm and just pure enjoyment of the moment.
A powerful, loud, brash – but still tight – version of Enola Gay rounded off the set before a stonking encore of Look At You Now, Pandora’s Box and Electricity sent everybody home happy, although I do suspect that everyone involved could happily have gone on for at least another hour.
All in all, just such a great evening. Band and audience both recognising their roles and duties on the night, and then performing them perfectly. One I will remember for a long time.
Videos courtesy of my daughter, who also had a great evening