Made it down

Down in Agulhas for New Year, our plans having been delayed by a few days because of that thing with the beagle.

And it will be a weird New Year: no trip to Struisbaai beach this year for the first time in many years, because there will be no fireworks there. The fun sponges are reveling in delight that their darling cats and dogs will spared the ignominy of a whole 15 minutes of noise this whole year, whilst also lamenting that the local economy could do with a few more visitors. But there’s no Sea Shack, there’s no fairground and there’s no firework display. Shooting themselves in the foot, bit by bit.
This year, it still seems to be doing ok, but when you remove all the attractions and add in that wind, which has made the beach thoroughly unusable for the past week, well, who will be coming back this time next year?

Still, this year, it is doing ok. Sure, we arrived at lunchtime on New Years Eve, but everywhere is full and on one occasion, I had to wait behind two other cars at a stop street. This is very unusual. I had almost forgotten that it was holiday season: I go into something of an autopilot when I’m driving down here and the traffic really wasn’t bad at all until we got into Struisbaai.

And I’m very much struggling for cell connection. The cell towers are made for the other 50 weeks of the year, and with Gauteng (quite reasonably) emptying into the Western Cape, Vodacom just can’t keep up. This post marks the start of my 13th year of daily blogging (Eish!), but it’s going to be a struggle to upload it. It’s already been a struggle to even write it. And that with a fancy new laptop too. I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations and that means 4,384 consecutive days of blogging. Assuming you are reading this.

Happy New Year to you and yours and thanks for for your support. See you in 2024 (that’s tomorrow) for more fun and games.
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An emergency post

There are internet problems in Agulhas. It’s always slow at this time of year, but right now, it’s not working at all.

So here’s a brief post to maintain that record of blogging every day since forever, just in case I can’t upload anything else (like the post I had written).

If you’re reading this, it worked.

Happy New Year!

Today is very busy…

And it’s not been helped by the poor beagle hurting her leg.

Obviously, the 24hr emergency vet is heaving, given that it’s the only place open for veterinary treatment in the whole of the city.

So this is written from the waiting room floor. We’ve been here an hour already. They’re snowed under.

Would have hoped to have a more positive post today, but fingers crossed we’ll be out of here and happier soon.

Also, there’s just one annoying bloke here who thinks he needs to be attended to before anyone else. Trying all the tricks: he likes the receptionist’s tattoos, he’s chatting to (and delaying) all the vets who are coming out of the consulting rooms, he’s talking loudly on his phone about how long he’s been waiting.
It’s about 40 minutes less than us.

And now he’s wandering around muttering stuff under his breath.

Weird and irritating.

I’ll keep you all updated.

EDIT: Aaaaand… it’s a torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament: possibly done chasing a cat from the garden this morning. Surgery required once the vets are open and working again. A great start to the festive period and the New Year. Eish.

Saturday – the Day of Rest

I dunno. I was never really that into the Old Testament. But surely any genuinely omnipotent deity would have got all the stuff done ASAP and given Himself the whole weekend off.

I’m not claiming to be either omnipotent or a deity, but I worked hard yesterday and this morning for the opportunity of a quiet afternoon in front of the football before the hectic festive season kicks off again tomorrow.

Sadly, a combination of a very dull West Ham game and a horrific new animated ad constantly in the corner of the Newcastle game have made it a bit frustrating thus far, but I’m thinking that a gammon sandwich (yes, with lashings of English mustard) and a beer in front of Liverpool v Arsenal might make everything better.

When will I learn?

Of course the plan yesterday was to do the post I meant to do yesterday, today.

But that was before today suddenly happened, including some work on the roof, some work on the pool and some last minute shopping for braais today and tomorrow. There was also a larney fruit salad to construct.

But no problem. I’ll blog at horseriding (not me). But no. There was shifting of poles to be done and rocks to be thrown at sticks. Don’t ask.

So this is it before I race home, dive through the shower and head out for meat and beers.

Maybe tomorrow.  [cue lols from both readers]