A number of poor decisions

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It’s not been a great day. That’s probably mainly due to the copious amounts of Guinness, Black Label and Klipdrift I drank last night. A very South African approach to celebrating St Patrick’s Day.

I then compounded last night’s poor decisions with an intense game of 5-a-side this morning. Bright sunshine, much effort, iffy legs, iffier head and tummy. Everything hurts.

Thankfully, I’m all done with making mistakes like that.

Right now, I’m heading out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner: an early start to make sure that we get there in time for their tequila cocktail specials.

What could go wrong?

Rubbing it in

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An incoming email from famous neo-classical composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi:

Spring is coming!
As we reconnect with nature and the world around us, Spring represents a time of looking forward; as we plant the seeds for our year ahead.
To celebrate the changing of the season, I’ve released a collection of songs inspired by the coming of Spring and it’s yours to enjoy at the link below.

And yes, he provided the link as promised. And even a countdown to the Vernal Equinox (not the meteorological one).

The thing is, he’s forgotten all about his Southern Hemisphere listeners here. Spring isn’t coming for us. In fact, if Spring is coming for them up North, we’re headed straight for Autumn. Goodbye sunshine and long summer nights, goodbye crippling heat, goodbye days on the beach, blue skies, and fresh, new growth.

Hello winter storms, roaring fires, copious red wine, and (apparently) disconnecting with nature and the world around me. Oh, and the 2024 Euro Championship.

Of course, those of you who know me will also know that I have no issue with any of this. Because why on earth would I?

Happy Spring (or Autumn) to each and every one of you.

Balloon

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Mornings are early in Limpopo. The sun rises almost an hour earlier in Hoedspruit than it does down here in Slaapstad. And so I was up very very early to get some shots as the sun came up while I was away.

Busy busy, and not much time for looking at other stuff, but when you are placed right next to the Blyde River Canyon and the lip of the great African escarpment, it seems foolish not to grab a couple of shots as the tourist hot air balloons rise for their early morning trip.

This literally taken from car park of the main subject of my photography that morning. How they get any work done there with this as a backdrop is beyond me.

Of course, when I pointed this out, they reminded me that we have Table Mountain in Cape Town, and they’d likely have the same issue trying to work down here.

Which is a fair point.

SANBI announces new garden access membership scheme

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Indeed. Now that (almost) a year has passed since SANBI (who run the Botanical Gardens in SA) called time on BotSoc members (who are people interested in plants generally, and/or people who wanted “free” access to the Botanical Gardens in SA) getting “free” access to the Botanical Gardens in SA, SANBI has launched its own “free” access programme.

“Free”, because it’s not free at all, but does offer a huge discount on their day to day pricing.

Previously, by being BotSoc members at R562 per adult, and R90 per child, we could (and did) have access to all of the Botanical Gardens in SA. Unlimited access for a whole year, nogal. That was a really good deal. But then SANBI told BotSoc that it wasn’t going to continue, and… well… it ended with any membership that expired after 31 March 2023.

The good news is that – as you may have noticed in the title of this post – SANBI has now announced a new garden access membership scheme.

It’s basically the same as the old BotSoc one, but more expensive (because of reasons, obviously). Adult memberships are now R600 (up 6.76% – ok) [thanks for the correction, Anita B!] R800 (up 42.35%) and kids are R400. That’s a very reasonable 344.44% increase.

And yet it still represents decent value for money, with a day pass to Kirstenbosch R100 for adults and R40 for kids. So six eight adult visits and ten kids’ visits and already you’re ahead of the curve.

The new tickets are available (and valid) from 1st April 2024.

Back to the Beans

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While I was away, and with limited and sporadic connectivity, I decided that I needed something more than music to keep me occupied. And so I delved back into the world of podcasts.

Now I have tried this before on a number of occasions, but it’s never worked for me. Always something unappealing or uninteresting about the choices I have made.

And yet despite this, for some reason, I went back to a couple of previous attempts. The first was the BBC Radio 4 Comedy of the Week podcast, which was incredibly hit and miss. One funny, one actually horrifically painful to listen to, with awkward and sycophantic laughter.

So we’ll leave that again.

But I did really get into Three Bean Salad.

And that’s probably because I had chance to give it a few episodes. There are plenty of in jokes and call backs which can make it difficult to appreciate at first, but if you persevere, there are some truly hilarious moments to be had as well.

Especially their knack of delivering standalone lines which even out of context are just funny and lure you into wanting to know more.

So scared I couldn’t even take my clothes off.

Crime is never glamorous. Well, apart from diamond theft, obviously.

So was Stonehenge moved halfway across Britain by crabs?

Unless you’re wearing a protective nougat mesh over your face.

Yeah, sure. You had to be there, but in case you haven’t noticed, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting you do. Lots of fun, and loads of back episodes to delve into to fill the gaps between current offerings.