Flood

We had some epic rain this weekend. There was no warm spell to introduce it, it just rained like crazy for 3 days.

Everything facing upright which resembled a bowl flooded. Including my car's foot well.  Emphasis on well. Turns out the drainage system has a crucial design flaw, but nothing that couple of hundred bucks and a big heater can't fix. And possibly some newspaper.

In chaotic times, news travels faster than it should. I received reports that the sluice gates at Nahoon dam had been opened, only to be told that the dam has no sluice gates. That particular question remains unanswered.

On a positive note, the flood did provide alternative entertainment for the weekend, and had it not availed itself Im not sure what we would have done to entertain friends visiting form the Cape. Flood-damage sight seeing has something going for it.

Check out a wicked video by @kyllcs here http://www.pixelperspective.co.za/4/

C.O.R.

Humans are generally poor estimators of cost.  My uncle recently advised us not to spend money fixing up the house before we sell, because buyers usually under-estimate how much it will cost to renovate, and so rather them than you.

Turns out car buyers find themselves in a similar state of denial, and if not financially, then definitely in terms of how much time it will take.

My gorgeous car, which I have already developed a deep attachment to, has continued to vex me.  Ive since missed the road worthy date and will be paying the South African government another few hundred bucks while I wait for mechanic-Graham to sort out the inside drivers' door handle.  It decided, with an air of indifference, to simply stop working on Saturday morning.

Do not be naive.  A car which arrives with a COR, especially one from the AA, is worth it.

Bus Ride

Big news in my my world right now is that I bought another car.  Yes, I have retired the Hyundai.  I have mixed emotions - the Hyundai has been an honest companion.

carrier of choice

In order to get my paws on the new wheels I had a gauntlet to run, or ride... a bus trip to Graaff Reinet.  I wonder what the saving rate would look like nationally if you had to do a 7 hour bus ride before you could spend more than 10 gorillas.

Surprisingly, we left on time.  More surprisingly, I was quite enjoying myself... until we hit Queenstown.  The chairs are pretty comfy, and the window is big.  In Qtown we filled the bus.  My travel partner became a Somalian dude, who, from what I could make out... didn't speak English, but had taken a 2 hour ride on the back of a bakkie to get to the bus.  Hectic.  We're blessed to have cars.

A lady attempted to sell me a mielie at one stop... hawkers are fair game on board it seems.  While tempted I decided against it, budget concerns cited.

In hindsight it was pretty uneventful.

Tundra

Its. been. so. long.

Fortunately, I took part in my first ever mountain bike race.  The Kenton Extreme Eco Challenge.  I had to do something positive with the experience.

courtesy of jannes.

I don't own a bike and the sourcing of one went something like, "Kyle, do you have a bike?... Uuuuh... yes, it has two wheels. Great, can I borrow it?'

The Tundra, as it became known, developed legendary status on the weekend.  We actually beat some people, which I loved.  All I had was pride and a mild determination to live up to Lance's opinion 'Its not about the bike'.  It remains to be seen what Lance could have achieved on the Tundra, but the principle holds.

No regrets though.  It was good to do something tough.

At one point I lost my mind slightly, I had 2kms left to go in soft sea sand and I got owned by a wave.  Yes, a wave.  I think I shouted something Truman'esque.

Ag Show

I went to the Ag Show at the BEC.  That's short for Agricultural Show.  On one hand its supporting local business, I walked away with a tasty jar of pickles (Debbie 076 654 9155), and there's probably a committee of people lying on couches around town, breathing a sign of relief that the 2011 show is finally over, after months of planning.

On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if this is just another white, cultural thing.  Another thing whites do.  If you interrogate anyone who enjoyed their visit, you'll likely discover they what they really enjoyed was the crowd, the walk in the sun and their koeksister.  Is a full-scale fair the best possible vehicle for getting people into the sun, eating koeksisters and chatting?

Would a 'koeksister, en jou sister' day in the park not have the same effect.  Or, 'pancakes, and handshakes' at the beach.  Or a 'give me 20 bucks and i'll talk to you outside, here eat this' day.

Ultimate death match suggestion: Second hand book seller vs. sunglasses salesman.

No dumping

While cutting through suburbia on the way to the hairdresser yesterday I discovered a sign.  No Dumping.  A testament to community optimism.

The sign was on a light pole, on a pavement, in a completely developed corner of Vincent.  I'm staggered that enough people dumped their trash on that man's lawn that he felt it neccessary to put up a sign.

Dream with me for a second.  A builder has 2 tonnes of building waste to get rid of.  The tip is far away, deep within the 'hood (aka Amalinda), it's late and he wants to get home to his wife.  He decides to ditch his rubble en route HQ.  But just as he begins shovelling... he sees the sign.  Realising his error he re-clamps the tailgate and commits to making a more suitable arrangement, or at very least, to finding another lawn.  Really?

I don't think I'd be able to sneak that one past if I took a tramacet.  And you can sneak a lot past me when I've had a tramacet.

Mouse (Continued)

The next episode of the mouse tale unfolded this morning.  What I never mentioned was that a second mouse had taken lodging in our kitchen and could be seen dashing across the floor whenever you walked into the room.

It was cute for a while and I assumed we be able to scoot it out the door at some point, but last night CP and I decided enough was enough and got down to some serious trap building.  The idea was we'd try a new design every day until we nabbed the critter, taking the opportunity to entertain ourselves with creative custom-rodent-nabbing-machinery.

I had a number of designs running through my head; involving a small 'room of mirrors', large pictures of cats to make the rat back peddle into a toothpick and CP was ready to mix an evocative female-mouse call to lure the refugee.

We deployed our firsy trap at about 10pm, a simple one-way-flap-trap.  More than that, we researched the prefered mouse diet and laid out an enticing spread.

And so it was with a degree of dissappointment when I discovered a mouse tail, a subtle electric buzzing noise and a mild smell of burning mouse coming out of the toaster at 6:12 this morning.

Mouse community 0 : Toaster 2