Farting around

The TDi Golf I drive has been giving starting hassles. The auto-electrician gave it a clean bill of health, and the agents changed a fuel filter and said it was fine. Still, it doesn’t always start in the mornings. After charging the battery for half an hour everything’s fine, so I suspect an intermittent charging system.

Meanwhile, last week Friday, Tanya phoned to say her car (Opel Astra Classic) won’t start. Jumped it off the Golf and it started easily. Made a note that I need to take the car for a new battery next week Monday (being, today).

So this morning Tanya says I’d better check that all the cars start. Opel, dead. Golf, dead.

So the trusty Rand-Lover gets started up. Hmmm, cables won’t reach. Reverse out the front gate, turn around, reverse in, wire up Opel, get that started.

OK, now the Golf is on the front lawn. And it’s too heavy for Tanya & me to push. Land-Rover out the front gate, around and in the other gate, bit of back-and-forth, get the Golf started.

I proceed to bugger off to work with the Opel, except around the first circle I realise that my work keys are still in the Golf. So I turn around, and the Opel dies. It has an electrical power steering pump, see, and the sharp turn with the engine cold and idling slowly was just too much for the system.

So I call Tanya to bring the Golf, jump start the Opel…

We don’t get thunderstorms all that often in Cape Town. This morning was the exception. Lots and lots of thunder and lightning, catching all the weather predictions off guard.

And the sunrise was amazing.

You know what the worst thing is about the internet? It gives you concrete proof that your fellow citizens are as ignorant as you’ve secretly suspected they were all along…

— Tamara.

For those of you who don’t know, we just had an election here in South Africa. The ruling party won again, no surprises there, they did however not do as well as they might have liked to.

The following from a thread on myADSL, a local forum:

DigitalSoldier:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i…5915540C929292

Quote:

With the date for the swearing-in of premiers rapidly approaching, the ANC’s new rules for appointing them are threatening to cause rifts between the ruling party and its alliance partners.

One Zuma to unite them all

timgaul:

One Zuma to rule them all, One Zuma to find them. One Zuma to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Africa where shadows lie.

The world is changed. I feel it in my wallet. I feel it in my job interviews. I smell it in the air in Vanderbijlpark. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember the Freedom Charter. It began with the forging of the Tripartheid Alliance.

Three votes were given to the ANC; [previously] immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven, to COSATU, great gold miners and craftsmen of the townships. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the SACP, who above all else desire power. For within these votes was bound the strength and the will to govern South Africa. But they were all of them deceived, for a new alliance was made.

In the land of Kwazulu-Natal, in the cheque books of Shabir Shaik, the Dark Lord Zuma forged in secret, a master vote, to veto all others. And into this veto he poured all his corruption, his immortality and his will to dominate all women. One vote to rule them all.

One by one, the free peoples of South Africa fell to the power of the vote. But there were some who resisted. A last Democratic Alliance of men and women voted against the government of Zuma, and on the very slopes of Table Mountain, they fought for the freedom of the Western Cape.

OK, this is probably lost on most of y’all, but I think it’s FSCK funny :)

So we’re watching TV and Tanya goes “Isn’t that a snake”. Check the TV, no, it’s an AR-15, although, it being TV, it’s the fully automatic version with the 1000 round magazi… oh you mean that thing the cat’s playing with?

Stuck it in a jar, released it on Boyes drive this morning.

(In response to Tanya’s blog :-)

Bagheera slept with Jessica last night and I must say, it was a lot quieter around oh-dark-thirty this morning.

We had a partial eclipse this morning. It was cloudy in Fish Hoek, but at work the clouds pulled back just a bit, giving me a chance to take this photograph.

As you can see, this was taken after the maximum (about 40 minutes after).

To tell you the truth, it rained yesterday evening. December isn’t what it used to be. But we’ve managed to braai a few times already, and more of the same is planned for the next week or so — life’s good as long as the beer holds out. And I’m really enjoying Marko not coping with his summertime decision to move to a snow zone.

In contrast with the fact that it’s high summer, SWMBO insists on turkey for Christmas. This is not your traditional boertjie Christmas fare, I grew up in a leg of lamb kind of house. I’ve managed to make a few decent turkeys in the past couple of years, and the leftovers get frozen and made into stock, and we end up making risotto in June after discovering more turkey in the bottom of the freezer. This year I’m brining the turkey in vinegar, which is a bit of an experiment, since our turkeys come pre-basted from Brazil, and one’s supposed to brine a non-pre-basted bird…

Turkey, gravy, roast potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Brussel sprouts is [1] nowhere near in season. It’ll have to be frozen stuff.

Of course having a vegetarian teenager around is a new challenge. Did you know that packet gravy is vegetarian? Saves a whole lot of hassle, that does. So we started making a nut loaf for Jessica last night. It’s a bit like meatloaf, with nuts, of course, and it needs to be frozen before it goes into the oven. Will see how that goes. Then we got pizzas and watched Taken, a sort of a vindication feelgood movie for the paranoid.

(And for those of you who don’t recognise the title of this post, it’s a Chevrolet radio advert from toeka).

[1] I think it should be is. And if it’s not, y’all be sure to tell me and I’ll phone the queen and ask her, OK?