Not jealous

The following are photos sent to me this week by my parents.
The first depicts the Isle Of Man Steam Packet Company ferry, Manannan, while second seems to indicate the kind of holiday they ate currently enjoying. Note the subtle inclusion of the sunglasses.
Ok, ok. We get it.

image image

Of course, it hasn’t been half bad here either. After a breakfast of note, I took the kids to Maynardville Park, where roundabouts were ridden and slides were slidden. The City has installed one of those outdoor gyms there, but it was being used more as an extension of the playground than for any serious adult exercise.
We’re all eleven different sorts of tired now though. So it’s going to be an early night, and early to sleep, perchance to dream of ADSL reconnection in the morning.
Hold thumbs.

Sweet Peeps and Muse News

After the summery sunshine of the weekend, the public holiday turned out to be a wet and windy disappointment, reminiscent of public holidays UK-wide. Out came the Monsters Inc. DVD, which is kept on standby for such emergencies, and a HUGE bowl of popcorn, which is kept on standby for such emergencies. And thus we were sorted.

Yesterday, as I have already mentioned, was a completely different story as we made the best of the stunning weather and headed down to Maynardville – the local park – which the city council have recently furnished with a rather large jungle gym.
We got a call from Dan Plato, the executive mayor, who asked us if we could take the boy down to give it a thorough test. Apparently, if it can survive him, it can survive anything. Much like Cape Town with Dan Plato, I guess.
All of which gives me renewed confidence in my own invincibility. Anyway, he (the boy, not Dan Plato) thoroughly tested it and it passed with flying colours.
And while he was thoroughly testing it, his sister used the opportunity to be thoroughly cute through a hole in the climbing wall.

Come now, even the anti-child brigade (led by Goblin* together with all her little Goblin minions) can’t deny that she is a complete sweetie.
Even if she is apparently a little lopsided. More pics of the sunnier bits of the weekend on flickr.

In other news, Muse announced that you can pre-order their forthcoming album The Resistance and get it posted over to SA so that the workers at SAPO can have early Christmas presents for their Muse-loving family and friends.
Apart from the safe yet boring downloadable version at £7.99, you can order the standard CD for £9.99, the CD/DVD version for £13.99 or go the whole hog and provide the OR Tambo Post Office staff with enough goodies to last them until Easter with the super-duper, dogs-bits deluxe version for a mere £59.99:

THE RESISTANCE
LIMITED EDITION DELUXE BOX SET

Multi format box set containing the following:
– CD + DVD in foldout softpak including The Making Of The Resistance DVD (43 minutes 53 seconds)
– 180g Double heavyweight vinyl
– Muse USB pre-loaded with WAV, Apple Lossless and MP3 320 files plus bespoke audio player
– 12″ Art Print
– **Exclusive to muse.mu** 5.1 surround sound Audio DVD (full bitrate DTS & Dolby)

FREE WORLDWIDE DELIVERY

Sadly, as I suggested, the free worldwide delivery so subtly advertised in upper-case will probably only get it to the first sorting office in Mzansi. And I’m not sure I can chuck R800 out (plus the inevitable 14% VAT bill from SARS) when there’s such a limited possibility of anything actually getting to my front door. Especially when the stuff we’ve heard so far sounds worrying like Queen. Dear lord…

* who, in a moment of weakness, has previously admitted that she thinks K-pu is cute.