For the Covid Sheeple...

 I've modified this post slightly from something I sent a friend recently. An extremely intelligent man and someone I respect, who seems to have lost his logical thought.

As everyone knows, SA went on Lockdown Level 3 from today, 29th December 2020, as there are a large number of people blatantly disregarding the law and not doing the whole social-distancing-no-large-group-gatherings thing. Personally, I'm all for individual choice and wear/don't wear a mask and sanitisation. BUT...it is law in SA that you have to wear a mask in public places (malls, etc) and people are disregarding that (along with who knows how many other laws). As a law-abiding citizen I wear a mask in public places.

My thoughts from my message to my friend after being told my attitude to the virus was wrong...

I agree that this lockdown was expected and predictable. Every one of us in SA thought that. But attitude works both ways. Without pointing finger at anyone, both sides say the other side has a kak attitude. That's human nature. None of us have denied the existence of this virus. We all know it is real. Some of us, however, question the handling of the response. In fact, both sides question the response. Some say regulations are harsh, some say not harsh enough. Again, two sides, both claiming they are right.

Without changing the subject, Brexit is another example of this. Some for, some against, both claiming they are right and damning the other for various reasons, real, perceived, or just plain manufactured.

Do masks help with controlling the airborne virus? To a small extent, yes, but they are not completely reliable. In effect, breathing through a mask not only allows you to still spread your breath in diluted form (but still spread it), it also concentrates what you keep breathing in yourself and probably makes it worse for you. Changing a filtered mask on every single breath would be the only effective way to use a mask. Not going to happen because it is unrealistic.

Government will always be seen to be doing poorly because, again, there are two sides. Some say they are doing well, others that they are failing miserably but, in effect, they are probably somewhere down the middle (aside from decommissioning the Covid wards, which was plain idiocy as they knew a 2nd wave would come).

What HAS got us where we are is a combination of factors, mostly stupidity on some people's part. Whose stupidity, remains to be ultimately seen when this virus becomes run-of-the-mill, like our current flu viruses. And what you will find then is that, instead of both sides learning from it all, one side stands up and says "I told you so".

"Friend B" is right in his confusion, as many/most of us are. Some regulations regarding movement are okay, but others not, even though it is blatantly obvious that some of the latter are ridiculous (malls vs beach is my example)? IMO, government don't have a clue, and they are not learning as we stumble along this rocky road. They are remaining political, refusing to clamp down hard on a population that is keeping them in power. The reality is though, that clamping down as hard as is required, would literally kill millions of people, either through concentration of illnesses or mass starvation.

Cyril's crocodile tears during his speech summed it up quite nicely. He knows there isn't much more he can do before he utterly destroys the country, and he feels it. Fact of the matter is, this virus has to run its course, one way or the other. Until then, there will be two sides to the coin of what must be done or not. Personally, I'm okay to changing my opinion, but show me empirical proof why, don't just tell me I have to.  In the meantime, I say we should agree to disagree on some things.

Dear Unilever...

 I have been a customer of yours for close on 50 years now. Your Marmite spread is, to say the least, delicious when slathered thickly onto a slice of fresh warm white bread and a layer of butter about an inch thick.

But...

It is time to change your jars. Or, specifically, the colour of said jars. What is the point of having a jar the same colour as my beloved Marmite? It makes it very difficult to see just how much there is left in the current jar and I usually run out before I have the next unopened jar in the cupboard. A clear jar is the way to go.

Actually, you need to change the shape of the jar too, please. The current jar with the rounded lipped top makes it very difficult to get all of the Marmite onto the knife and there is usually some left in the neck of the jar. What a waste. A plain, rectangular jar, something with a wide neck, would be perfect.

For my, and no doubt other Marmite lovers, sanity. Please. TIA.

Cycling must be good for me after all...

 ...as I've just put on a pair of jeans to discover that I can tighten my belt by another notch.

A good motivation nonetheless, as I have committed to doing the Karoo To Coast cycle race in September 2021 and also to losing 10kg in body weight before then. I want to get down to around 90kg.

Onward...

Moving, moving, moving...

...is never an easy, or likeable, thing to do.

One of these days we will probably be though. We need to become bond-free. I hate banks because of their really poor reasons for needing a house to be bonded.

Why in hell can I buy a car for R1m and pay it off over five or six years, but I cannot buy a house for the same value but it has to be done over a minimum of 20 years?? Doesn't make sense. Unless you are a bank and because the banks are ripping us off in the long term. People NEED houses, but they don't necessarily need a R1m vehicle.

Anyway...rant off.

As mentioned, the objective is to get us bond-free. This will save us nearly R10k a month in retirement benefits. No pensioner should have to pay R10k a month for a house. Ok, maybe we should have bought the house over a shorter period (10yrs, instead of 20yrs, which would have increased the payments accordingly), or we should have bought something cheaper. At the time, not an option.

I take a daily look at the housing prices in Sedgefield, our chosen area to relocate to. The town is peaceful, relatively free of harsh crime, has lots to keep us occupied (nature, beaches, fishing, cycling and walking trails, etc), and is also close to our very good friends who moved there two years ago. There have been a couple of homes we have liked, from the photos, and we have even taken a trip through there to view a couple of homes with one of the local agents. We even put in an offer on a home which was over-priced and had some off-plan changes made that I used thinking that they would reduce the price because of, but that offer was rejected and some schmuck bought the house knowing that there are changes on the buildings which may cost him a lot of money to rectify.

The one thing I don't want to do is relocate over December. The holiday period is traditionally quiet around the country with people taking a well-deserved break form a hard work year. Well, this year hasn't been too hard on the work front, thanks to Covid, but we need a break from everything else that has happened during lockdown. We need a break from lockdown itself. Many of the moving companies will either be closed down, or will be running skeleton staff who feel they should be on holiday so aren't going to take good care of your stuff. Or they will charge an arm and a leg for moving you, compared to during a normal work period.

The holidays are a time when you just want to unwind, have a few (more) braais, a few (more) beers than usual, and just generally get out of the normal day-to-day way of life. Go to the beach, if you can find one that isn't packed with Vaalies, have a swim, lick an ice cream cone, get a little sunburned (great for your VitaminD intake and Covid resistance).

I will complete the renovations on the house in the next couple of weeks and get an agent in to do an evaluation, from which we will decide when to put it on the market and plan on our own move date.

Until then, braai, beer, and beach...maybe get some fishing in...

Take care, y'all...

It's been a while...

 ...since I heard from my BFAM in the USofA, to the extent that I'd thought he was pissed off at me for missing his birthday by a day.

Inexcusable and a poor excuse, I know, but with so much happening these days it slipped my mind.

As it turns out, he had been without a phone for a month and just got a new one yesterday, only to see my message pop up when he got Whatsapp running again.

Still, I am extremely happy to hear from him again, even if it is only his usual cryptic message that he is okay. What with the whole USA Covid spread, and him without a decent job for a while now, it is understandable that I would be concerned not to hear from him. We do go through patches where we don't communicate for months at a time, but our relationship is such that when we do it's as if it was just yesterday that we spoke.

Be safe, Big Man...and stay well. Love you.

I am suffering...

 ...from a distinct lack of motivation to do much today. I hope this isn't going to be a common thing on retirement. If it is, they can shove it and I will kit out the Mazdarati for long-distance touring and take extensive trips into the unknown.

The weather is playing a part in my melancholy, as I had planned on going for a cycle this morning but then it started raining again. We had a big storm last night and 14mm of rain in about an hour between 3 and 4am. Needless to say I was awake for most of it, checking for localised flooding and listening for sounds of the roof trying to tear itself off the walls. It is still quite cool and rain is threatening again.

I also want to finish redecorating the house, but I absolutely abhor/detest/hate/despise painting. Did I mention I don't like painting? It is an exercise in futility. If we move to Sedgefield our next house must be face brick so that it doesn't ever need painting. I am probably 80% done on the house, so I just need to get my finger out my arse and get it finished. If the weather had been better today, I would have carried on with painting the boundary wall. So much for that.

Knowing that I have recently been spending a bit on new cycling gear (shorts, helmet, socks - have to look the part on Meredith), a new PC (the old one was a dog with only 4GB RAM, about 8yrs old and too many programs to function effectively), some other bits and pieces, I took a look at the budgets and that is even more depressing than the weather. So, from now on, the spending will be curbed too. Sucks being a pensioner...

On the bright side, on Tuesday I got the Marauder a new battery and a trickle feeder, charged it up and took the bike for a run over the mountain yesterday...to buy more stuff for Meredith (chain wear measurement tool, chain cleaner, chain lube) and a new pair of biker gloves as my old ones were falling apart. The Marauder still runs like a dream and, even though I am thinking of exchanging her for a BMW GS, I still enjoy the ride on the cruiser. I really do need to get out on her more often. One of our Tuesday drinking team (named TIAB - There Is Always Beer) has a soft tail Harley and goes out regularly for a Sunday run. I'll see if I can join him on a couple of them.

I see the tides are looking good for a throw on Sunday afternoon, but the wind looks like it might be up a bit. Maybe I'll see how the wind goes, then go for a little throw down at a beach close to us. Then again, it also depends on whether I go for a cycle or bike run on Sunday. I like to go for a long cycle on Sunday while SWAMBO goes off to church and a coffee with her cronies.

Right now, my tea has gone cold and SWAMBO is due home in an hour or so, so I think I'll see if I can make myself look busy for when she gets home. It must be a bit demoralising for her to get home and find me lounging about on the couch like a potato while she is out looking after her 94yr old geriatric patient. Still, it gets her out of my hair for a few hours and brings in a bit of an income for her. It will be an adjustment in Sedgefield. not having that few grand every month, but maybe she will be able to find an old dear there to look after. Goodness knows there are enough of them in that village.

Be well, friends...

Ok, so I thought I would write more...

 ...but I haven't recently. Sorry.

There is so much going on at the moment that it is difficult to find the time to post on the blog.

If I had to list the things that are going on, they would be:

- Retirement: Yep, I am now officially retired. Fuuuuck, that means I am old. Thanks to Covid-19 and an unscrupulous owner of the company I used to work for, I am now in forced retirement. At my age (I have a young mind for a 58yr old) and the lack of employment opportunities due to aforementioned virus and the dumbfuck cANCer government's BBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEE (I've lost count of how many B's and E's there are supposed to be in the acronym) policies, my chances of getting re-employed are virtually nil. So, I opted for early retirement. And now I am wondering/hoping that our retirement funds are going to last until I (or we) finally kick the metal receptacle down the passageway in the direction of the bright white light.

- Lockdown: damn fuckin waste of time, expense and effort. Ban the lockdown, I say. The less said about lockdown, the better.

- Potential relocation: As I am now officially retired, I need to get us "bond-free" to make sure we get the most out of our retirement funds. That might mean relocating, and we have Sedgefield in mind. Other friends of ours are already there, and we like the place. Did I mention there is great fishing?

- Brewing and distilling: I have added distilling to my alcohol-based hobbies. I am still learning a lot and have yet to finish my first product worthy of being bragged about. Right now, I get the alcohol out, but have to teach my taste buds the difference between the good and bad stuff...before I go blind. Beer brewing is a long-time hobby and will always be in the background.

- Cycling: I recently bought a Merida Big9 29er bicycle so that I could get a bit of exercise and, should we move to Sedgefield, to make sure I have a semblance of fitness to keep up with my good mate who is a cycling machine. These days, I try to do a minimum of 25km per ride, even if it means doing thew same route multiple times in a row. There are only so many rideable roads in this part of the world and episodes of riders getting mugged if they venture onto the trails, so I stick to the tar roads for now.

- Redecorating: In anticipation of relocating, and to give the house a new look, I am redecorating the entire house, inside and out. I am about 80% done currently, but am struggling to keep my momentum going, what with everything else that is going on. And painting...who the fuck likes painting anyway? It sucks.

- SWAMBO: She Who Always Must Be Obeyed had a physical done recently and all her tests came back negative, including hyperglycaemia, from which she is supposed to be suffering. Doesn't make sense. Typically, by 8pm she is snoring on the couch, a sign of a spike and drop in her insulin levels. SWAMBO is also slowly losing her memory and sometimes cannot remember things she asked me fifteen seconds earlier. Some time ago she had a session with a neurologist who said that it may be related to the hijacking she went through in 2006, and could be PTSD which can manifest itself many years after the event. Whatever, it is probably affecting my blood pressure.

- Fishing: Or lack thereof, in my case. My crew has just about given up on fishing and it is dangerous to go alone these days. So maybe Sedgefield is a good idea as it is a lot safer out that way and there are more fish in those waters.

- Blood pressure: I also had my first physical exam last week and, to my dismay, the doc told me that I have high blood pressure. It could be as a result of all of the above, but I don't know. Probably. When I spoke to the doc about the results, she said my pressure goes normal at night (understandable, thanks to sleeping) but spikes again through the day. I asked her if it happened around 2pm, and she said yes. I said, okay, I know about that...that's when the missus gets home. No jokes. I have just started medication, which I hate as I don't like putting pharmaceutical substances into my body, but I suppose this is a medical necessity. I would hate to be forced into a heart condition, similar to which took my dad a little over a year ago.

There are probably a couple more items I could add to the above list if I really thought hard enough, but it is time for another cuppa tea. It's a tough life being retired.

Time...

I have so much of it on my hands these days, but it is getting ahead of me physically.

For the first time, I am starting to feel my age. Being at home, I am working in the garden, also busy slowly renovating the house filling in cracks, scraping open and cementing bigger faults in the plaster, then preparing and painting walls.

At the end of a day, I am properly knackered. And the following morning, I usually feel like a train has hit me from behind. My hamstrings are tight, my calves ache and my feet feel like I am walking on rough stones. It takes me about ten minutes to get over the morning-aches, as I call them.

So, things have to change.

A friend of ours recently returned from a six-week shag-athon with her boyfriend in Joburg (what else are new lovers going to do during lockdown?) and while she was there was introduced to cycling and mountain bikes. As a result, with her not having the boyfriend at hand at home, she has had to find a new way to expend the energy and she has bought her own bike.

Now, three times a week we are cycling for forty-five minutes or so, to Noordhoek Beach and back. It is a distance of about 11.8km. Not much, but it is a start.

Hopefully, it will bring the body back into shape a bit and delay the aches and pains a bit longer...

Lockdown Day Log # 54. Fuck this.

The Legend of Eddie Aikau...

Wow. What a story. A sad story.

I used to surf a few years back and had only ever heard of Eddie, but had never done any research into what the man was about.

Then a couple of days ago, I saw that DSTV was running the old ESPN movie "The Legend of Eddie Aikau" and knew I had to see it.

Unfortunately, Youtube does not have the full movie available (probably because of ESPN copyrights) but they do have the trailer for the show.

Do yourself a favour. Watch it. Then, if you possibly can, watch the full, tragic, 90minute movie. It will touch you.

Only at the end do you realise why the man is a legend.

Run...

...said Collective Soul in their song, but one of the opening lines is about being bored.

Lockdown day Eleventy Ninety Forty Million...

Finding something to do during lockdown...

...can be like looking for a needle in a bunch of needles.

There is always something to do, but it comes down to whether you want to do it or not at the time. There is always tomorrow. We will still be on lockdown. Except between 6am and 9am for exercise, during which time I am usually in bed, reading, with a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

So each day tends to blend into the next, some being a little more productive than the others, some less so.

For the last couple of days, because I have a "mix tape" of music (okay, a "mix-SD card") in the cars, in which some of the tracks have volume issues and are too soft for my liking, I have been messing about with a downloadable application called WaveEditor. I suspect I, some time ago, inadvertently levelled and lowered the volume of a bunch of my music collection tracks before I knew what levelling was. Lesson learned. The hard way.

Anyway, WaveEditor allows me to manually boost the volume levels on a per-track basis, so I have been going through all 400-something tracks on the SD card checking which need to be changed or not. Anyone for something tedious to do? I didn't think so.

But it had to be done, so I did it. And later I will find another needle to remove from the needle stack.

Stay healthy, y'all...

Someone pass the Vaseline, please...

...I think I've been bum-rushed. In fact, I think the entire planet has been fucked over.

Yes, it's another Covid-19 posting, but I am quite fuckin angry and need to vent.

/Rant ON

I have been stuck in the house for the past five weeks, believing (like many others) that I was doing my part to prevent the spread of a deadly virus. True, the virus has been deadly to many people, for many different reasons which I am not going into.

Having had just about enough of the sight of the inside of our house, I arranged with a friend to meet at a clandestine spot so that I could pass him some home-brewing kit (fermenter, bubbler, tube, iodiphor, rubber bung) that he is going to use to brew some pineapple beer (all the rage at the moment, thanks to the lockdown).

I left the garage feeling like a naughty child, wondering whether I was going to get stopped by the cops and fined or arrested for breaking the law. I had even put on jeans and a nice shirt, thinking I might tell them I was on my way to a job interview.

I needn't have bothered.

I was astounded at the number of people out on the roads, either walking, cycling or driving. Granted, most of the people we saw in the mall we met in were wearing cloth face masks, but for the most part of the people outside of the mall there wasn't a mask or pair of surgical gloves to be seen, which got me to thinking that we have been taken for a giant fuckin ride.

I have come to the conclusion that the need for the declaration of the pandemic, and the subsequent lockdown, have all been for fuckall. I DON'T BELIEVE IT ANYMORE!!!!

I now want to know the whole gamut of answers, the who, why, when, where and WTF of Covid. And I think the global population needs answers from our politicians and business leaders, who stand most to gain from it all.

Until then, fuck your lockdown.

/Rant OFF

It's about time...

...that this fuckin lockdown was over.

People have lives to lead and, unless you are one of the "essential services" companies, you are stuffed. Stay at home, we are told.

There are too many thoughts running through people's heads, okay through mine, about this fuckin pandemic.

Is it, or isn't it a pandemic?

If it is, why isn't it killing more people? We haven't gotten that much smarter since the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. Well, let me qualify that a bit more...a whole lot of people haven't gotten any smarter. Some European countries are taking a beating and blaming thousands of deaths on the Covid-bug. But are they really? There may also be underlying conditions that the bug is exploiting, resulting in the high death numbers. But just how many is the bug itself killing? I don't think we will ever know.

Africa, with all its underlying problems and issues, isn't experiencing the large number of deaths it was expected to. Yet. Perhaps its time is still coming, who knows? Having seen the lack of "social-distancing" skills of the local population, I think the numbers are still going to escalate dramatically. Our winter is on its way, the traditional flu season, so we will see folks picking up the "normal" flu and, with immune systems already low, more people getitng (possibly dying) from the Covid-bug or related issues.

If it isn't a pandemic, how is it possible that global governments can hold an entire planet to ransom? Given what we have seen so far, it is obviously possible for (say) 10,000 people to hold 7.5 billion people at bay. And how, you may ask? FUD....Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Instil fear into the masses through mass media campaigns. Create uncertainty by telling them you don't know the way the bug moves, how it came about, that you have no antidote for it. Then create doubt in their minds by not keeping people up to date on the true numbers behind the virus, exactly how many have died, whether the "curve" in your country is positive or negative, that you don't know how long it is going to take for an antidote to be made.

And when you've done all that, tell the masses that the way to control this thing is by putting the entire planet on a lockdown. Shut the entire planet down!! If that doesn't get the FUD going, I don't know what will.

But I do think the people have woken up to the possibility that the whole thing has just been a massive hoax. There are already groups threatening to take China to court for starting all the shit (good luck with that), learned people like doctors stating that they are convinced it is a hoax and giving their reasons why, other "woke" groups claiming that the whole thing has been elaborately planned by governments to realign economies.

Whichever is the right answer, or the right response to the lockdown, has yet to be seen. But rest assured, when it comes, it is not going to be pretty. Someone is going to take the fall for the outbreak. Hell, we may even have WW3 on our hands.

If, on the other hand, it is a genuine pandemic, it needs to take down 4 to 5 billion people if the human population is to survive more than another 100 years or so.

In the meantime, cancel this stupid lockdown. People are doing their own thing anyway. If it catches or kills them, they were warned. Let's get the rest of this planet back to the new "normal".

There's life, Jim, but not as we know it...

...said Spock when they landed on some or other planet in some or other Star Trek movie.

And it is quite apt for what we are going through these days in this COVID-19 lockdown. It is four weeks today since I left the property, apart from two seperate trips to one of the malls to get some supplies. And it is boring the pants off me.

Life, since being retrenched for the third time in forty years, is quite literally becoming a drag. I'm lucky if I crawl out of bed at around 10am, after being woken at about 7am (if I'm lucky) by either the cats fighting, the cottage tenant tripping the fuckin' burglar alarm, or SWAMBO waking me up with her snoring. Fuckit, I wish I could sleep through half the shit she can.

Once I'm awake, that's it. I cannot get back to sleep again. The only thing I haven't tried is a sleeping tablet, partly because I dont't have any and I don't like to throw that kind of shit down my throat anyway.

So, I read. Until four weeks ago, I was reading about a book a week. Now, I am reading a book every three days, at most. While it probably isn't a bad thing, I am struggling to find good books to read. So much so, that I am now reading the old Sidney Sheldon novels again. I probably read those about thirty years ago, so they seem pretty new to me again.

I have read all the Baldacci, Childs, Follett, Hassel, et al, books and am struggling through Sheldon for want of something newer and/or better. I have a bunch of Cussler novels on the tablet too, but the plot and characters in his novels are all the same. Just change the dates, locations and the bad guy's names and you have the next Cussler novel. Ka-Ching on the way to the bank for Mr Cussler.

When I eventually drag myself out of my bed, I have some breakfast, potter about the house a bit, do some chores, watch an episode of some old series (lately I watched the whole series of Band of Brothers again, and am now on The Pacific - both WW2-based), have a cup of tea, wander about the property, rinse and repeat.

B-o-r-i-n-g.

I need the hardware stores re-opened. Then I can get some more paint and wood supplies so that I can finish my projects around the house.

Until then, b-o-r-i-n-g.

Come on, Cyril, use the establishment to make better use of the resources you have at your disposal. Get the country working again.

Rinse. Repeat.

Do we need more...

All the postings about how nature is changing (Thailand showing record numbers of turtle hatches, giraffes wandering the streets of Nelspruit, etc) got me thinking...

Do we need to have a global lockdown more regularly, perhaps every ten years or so? No diseases, just a lockdown, for nature to correct the world a bit...

W T A F...

It's been seven years and ten days since I last posted anything here.

Other social media platforms seem to have killed off blogging to a large extent, and people requiring a quick response to something that someone else has said have probably contributed too.

I don't know if anyone is still following this blog, but if there is, let me know and I will start writing again. Fuck knows, I have the time. I got retrenched two weeks ago....bastard.