Sheeps on a train

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Not quite the excitement or peril of Samuel L Jackson wrestling with venomous reptiles at 35,000ft, but a worthwhile sequel nonetheless.

Thing is, it seems like there’s no specific rule that forbids you from taking a sheep on a train in Scotland. I found this out from this news article in which a man took a sheep on a train in Scotland, and the railway company said that it was fine for him to do that.

Mr Gibson said the lamb, whom he calls NJ, was the latest of many pet sheep he has cared for over the years.

What an odd relationsheep.

ScotRail’s policy on animals on onboard trains states domestic pets are welcome and that includes dogs, cats or tortoises.

Ewe must put them on a lead or in a cage, though.

He says he has been travelling by train with his pet lamb because he cannot drive due to suffering from blackouts.

And the sheep is too young to get its licence.

Honestly. I’ve herd everything now.

Quota Kestrel

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A long but fun day celebrating Mrs 6000’s birthday. There were gifts, there was a really good lunch, there was even a bit of time to chill out this afternoon.

Oh, and there was incredible wind, as well.

We – like the UK – are in for a rough day or two.

But now I’m knackered, so here’s a quota Rock Kestrel – a Rooivalk – from Agulhas last month.

Obliging little guy sat on an old telegraph pole very patiently for just as long as I needed to shoot him.

Thanks for that.

Heading home

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Not me. I’ve been here all along.

Nope – it’s back to the Mother City for Little Miss 6000 and her classmates. Communication has been sporadic, but I know that it was a cold queue at the border crossing this morning:

To be fair, it wasn’t that much warmer down here last night.

They seem to have a great time though, and the photos of the scenery from the N7 aren’t half bad:

It will be great to have all the family back together. Red wine, roaring fire, good times… and – I would imagine – a very early night.

It has made me think that we need to head up that way again soon. Yes, further even than this.

Have you not heard of squash?

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Spotted on a local Facebook feed this morning:

What? No. That’s simply not right.

You know that I’m not the biggest fan of padel. But that’s neither here nor there in this instance.
Because I’m not really into squash either, but I do know enough about it to know that hitting the wall is very much part of the game there. It’s pretty much the entire way of playing the game.

Ask Google about padel and it says:

Padel is often described as a cross between tennis and squash. It’s played on a court similar to tennis but smaller and enclosed by walls, which are used as part of the game like in squash.

“Squash”, you say?
“Walls”? Hmm.

It’s hardly subtle stuff. The clues really are all there.

What makes this even funnier (for me, but then I’m still recovering from that meeting) is that ironically, Bredasdorp (where this padel tank is) is very much an Afrikaans speaking area (83.1% first language), and the Afrikaans word for squash is Muurbal, which literally translates as “wall ball”.
I actually only worked this out this a few years back when driving past the Bredasdorp Muurbalklub, and they’d cut the trees back.

See?

I’m just waiting for Miskey’s to open their 10-pin bowling business: “the only sport where rolling a ball is actually part of the plan!”. Although I’m sure that the Bredasdorp Rolbalklub (yes, seriously) would have something to say about that.