Farting around

Proto Snark

The Diary of Tamsyn Blake, aged 12 3/4.

There was a lot of Drama* and Blaming going on which didn’t suit me at all.

[…]

*I think they keep getting confused. Drama is on Friday’s  Zonals are on Monday.

RTWT

Whales

Driving home Mike Wills mentioned that the first whales of the season were in False Bay.

(Fish Hoek beach, looking out to the far side of Simon’s Town. That’s Boulders over there, for those of you with a thing for penguins).

Didn’t expect them to be so close to shore (OK, there’s a bit of shortening with the lens and all, but they’re right in). It was getting dark, so I didn’t stick around waiting for a more interesting photo opportunity.

These are Southern Right Whales, and we have plenty of them — as opposed to the North Atlantic Right Whales, who number around 400 and are individually named, and the North Pacific Right Whales, who are even more rare.

“Our” fellows cruize in here around the beginning of September, bringing lots of revenue for small towns like Gansbaai and somewhat bigger towns like Hermanus.

WTF?

Lemme get this straight…

You’re trying to bribe me into persuading my boss to pay R7600 to send me on a course? Bribe me with a free crackberry? And the course is on ethics?

Thanks but… no thanks.

In the vicinity of Mesopotamia

Working in Kuwait. Blogging from the eee (running puppeee BTW).

Flew out of Cape Town on Saturday with 90kg of equipment. Between three of us, with a few items of clothing added, and after weighing the carry-on (which was about 5kg less than the allowed 21kg for three people) and subtracting that, we were 10kg overweight, for R3000.

That’s a lot cheaper than couriering the stuff

Plane left at 1800 or so so we got supper. Then at 0100 SA time they woke us up for breakfast, because we were about to land in Dubai.

Dubai International reminded me of that scene in Men in Black. If you know the movie you’ll know which scene I’m referring to.

After a few hours got on another plane for the short (< 2 hour) flight to Kuwait, and we got fed again.

So I’m not hungry.

Worked in 36 degree heat (OK, I lie, they do have aircon but outside is… interesting) from about 11 to about 5. Apparently 36 is a nice day and it occasionally hits 60+. Thanks but no thanks.

Fellow driving us around had to fill up. R1.30 a litre. That’s not quite one tenth of what we pay back home, but it’s not far off. He couldn’t get four Dinar (R100) into a bone dry Dodge Charger…

Now sampling alcohol free beer, trying to determine which is best (Insert joke about the  tallest midget competition here).

Internet is also interesting. I can receive mail but I can’t send. I know neither of my mail servers will tell me “Connection refused” when I try to telnet into the SMTP port, so I guess it’s blocked. MSN also doesn’t work. IRC does, but I want to chat to my wife not #GBC.

(Incidentally, here’s a picture for the #GBC guys)

So apologie to all of y’all (if there’s more than three of all of y’all) iff’n you get bored being cc’ed on sitreps to home.

Alive

<me> Yay! The internet’s up again! *

<Tanya> Yah, but is it going to stay up?

<me> That’s what she said.

(you had to be there)

* Internet’s been down for a week. Telkom lines. And on a good day, internet is 384 kbps down and a whole lot less up ADSL. 1999 indeed.

Posted without comment…

… but a translation is available on request.

Basically it involves my brother, his girlfriend, a new-year’s eve party, and my brother’s girlfriend’s father’s shotgun.

A good example…

… of a bad example.

Wattefok soek die ding in my huis?

Take a hermit living in a big house all by himself, add winemaking as a hobby[1], and before you know it he’s rolled up the carpet and planted a tank in the living room.

Gotta love my bro, he sets the bar low so I can shine :-)

[1] Or maybe obsession.