Day 27 – Just done it!

This doesn’t seem to be a big deal for many people, but it’s quite a big deal for me.
Yesterday marked 366 (because 2020 is a leap year) consecutive days of doing over 10,000 steps each day.

I’d be past 500 days if it wasn’t for a pesky virus (not that one) that I got 367 days ago. I managed 12 steps that day.

I know that there is some discussion about whether the 10,000 steps thing is useful (I even discussed that myself here), but for me, it’s been very helpful to have something to aim for each day.

And while on some days it’s been very straightforward to get my goal, there have been (plenty of) others when I have really had to push myself. Which has been a huge positive. It’s helped me make some better decisions (exercise-wise, at least): I will walk to the shops instead of drive; if I need to get up out of my chair and move, I will; and if it takes n laps of the house to get to 10,000 before bed – I’m on it.

It’s been especially hard during lockdown, so I have had to push myself again to get out and about. This has almost killed me on one occasion, but also kept me sane on others.

Day 367 is actually going to be quite tough. I’m achy and tired and I really don’t feel like exercising. But that’s very much the point I’m trying to make: I will raise my game to get my steps today instead of moping around.

And that’s a good thing.

Day 26 – Really missing footy

Another day. No football.

I’m getting very tired of seeing this. You could argue that simply not opening up the app would prevent the daily anguish of seeing this message, but then if there was – by some massive stretch of the imagination – a surprise game of togger, you wouldn’t know it was coming.

Can you imagine how awful that would be if you only found out after the fact?

Sadly, it’s not likely to be right any time soon though, so maybe I will actually take a chance and spare myself the regular torture and associated depression for a little while.

Day 25, Part 2 – We Are Led

Each time Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation (i.e. turns up late and reads from an autocue for 20 minutes), the level of fawning on social media is quite remarkable – usually exemplified by the phrase:

We Are Led

This is because:
1. Cyril is a very good orator,
2. SA has a very low bar as far as recent presidential achievements go after 9 years of Jacob Zuma, and
3. Cyril isn’t Jacob Zuma.

For some reason, when he speaks, people are apparently able to look past the fact that he is invariably tardy, and conveniently forget the nonsense coming from the rest of his circus (of which, we shouldn’t forget, he remains The Ringmaster).

I wonder if they’ll be quite so forgiving when he next (eventually) appears at the podium, given that the only big decision his government appear to have made in the last week is [drum roll]… banning the sale of hot cooked food.

Seriously:

Well, Thank God.

That will certainly aid the fight against coronavirus.
It will feed the hungry.
It will really help with contact tracing and screening.
It will definitely make a huge difference.

What an utterly pointless, pathetic move.

South Africa is being bullied by these little Hitlers, flexing their muscles and reveling in testing their powers.

Moreover, Cyril Ramaphosa – The President of the Republic – is also being bullied by them.

And he’s supposed to be in charge.

We Are Led? More like:

Are We Led?

Day 25 – The man who stares at goats

(with apologies to Grant Heslov et al.)

There are lots of online things happening to entertain you and your family during these difficult times, but none so far has topped this one for me.

It’s only a LIVE GOAT CAM!

Really:

 

Fairview‘s goats are a big draw for the Paarl wine farm, and visitors had been missing them. No longer though, because now there is GOATCAM and you can watch the goats at play on the famous tower, on the bridge and – in my experience this morning – hiding behind stuff for ages and ages when you need to get a screenshot for your blog post. All with an empty car park backdrop.

You may also spot Hadeda Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) and occasionally – Delivery Trucks (Transportia cheesum).

It’s rather addictive. Have fun.

Day 24 – DIM

DIY = Do It Yourself
DIM = (Fine, I’ll) Do It Myself (then)

I have been forced into doing all those little jobs that my wife has been going on about for a few days years now. Well, technically she did half of them and then I felt so guilty I had to join in and do the rest. We now have – amongst other things – cleared flower beds and painted walls.

And a stronger marriage. Maybe.

These were the sort of chores that we might normally have done together over a weekend, so I don’t feel too bad, but they did still need doing and I hadn’t (until now, at least) done them.

That’s not to say that I haven’t done anything though – the steps in the back garden were falling apart, and now they are falling apart a little bit less. Some trees and bushes were getting a bit overgrown and now they are less overgrown. But sometimes it’s hard to motivate oneself to do these rather mundane tasks, especially when one day is very much blending into the next and the world is not going to fall apart (any more than it already has) if you don’t do them.

Even I have to admit that the flower beds look better and the wall looks lovely though. I tried to suggest that the fact that we’d done these jobs together meant that we can both be proud of the outcome, but my wife rolled her eyes so far back that she could see 2019.

I may be in trouble and I suspect that only a well-mixed gin and tonic will get me out of it. I’m going to give that approach a go right now.