I just had to put this somewhere - Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees

I'm too dumb to fully appreciate Radiohead and their music. But sometimes a light goes on for me. This was one of those moments. For your reading pleasure, Fake Plastic Trees.

A green plastic watering can

For a fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth

That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself

It wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns

He used to do surgery
On the girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

And it wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, it wears

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And it wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time, all the time

-Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead

This is absolutely brilliant. Love it.

What's up with the weather

 The weather has been, lets just say, less than favourable the last couple of weeks. I've planned and schemed, but to no avail. Every weekend seems to be a wet mess. Did get about between spells of rain, notably to ride up the mountain after storm Eowyn battered Ireland on the 24th of January. Rode up to Cruagh wood on the 1st of Feb for a spot of coffee with a view.

The evening of the 2nd Feb the Crescent Moon was seriously close to Venus. If I had known that it would be the last bit of stargazing to be done for the month of February, I would have made more of an effort. Be that as it may, I managed to get this shot, which I'm quite happy with.

And then it started raining and being generally Irish weather. 

Sitting around moping, I realised that the trout season is around the corner. I have not fly fished in ages, and I have never tied my own flies. Which ones to use though? 

So I have been scouting around for Irish patterns. I will be posting patterns that I have collected along with my attempts at making them. Should be interesting and entertaining, to say the least.

Misty Morning Spin

Yesterday morning started off foggy. Wanted to take the bike out for a spin to see if the cleaning of the injectors did anything to the mysterious misfire, but I thought I would give the fog some time to burn off. The day before yesterday, the fog lingered around all day, so I did not hold my breath.

But then, lo and behold, the fog lifted and the sun came out.

So I left home. The sun was shining. I checked.

As I went over the hill at Dundrum heading down to Blackrock, the fog returned. And properly so.

But I persisted.

Rode all the way to Dun Laoghaire harbour and parked on the old quay at the old coal harbour. I've not been down here in ages. Was amazed to see that quite a lot of boats were still moored there. 

The fog made for some great pictures, though.

It made  such an impression that I could not help myself, and had to have a stab at sketching it. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Poolbeg Towers

So I previously posted on the little walk Narina and I took on the Dublin Harbour east pier. I took a photo that morning of the Poolbeg Towers, and everytime I look at it I think that it should be sketched. I am also interested these days in Pen and Wash sketches, so watch this space, it may get a facelift 😁. But for now you will have to live with the Pen Sketch as it is.

(I also noticed that I have dated it 2023.... new year syndrome!!)

Naas Harbour

 The wife and I drove out to Newbridge in search of a market. We found it, but was not impressed. We heard about a farmers market in Naas, and drove over there. Mheee. So we walked around and explored the area. 

Just off the main road there is an old harbour on the Grand Canal. An absolutely lovely little corner of Naas. I can definitely recommend a visit.

Grand Canal - Wilton Terrace

On my way from one meeting to the other I stopped for a bite to eat next to the Grand Canal at Wilton Terrace. There was an open bench. I had a book and pen, and an hour to kill.

Howth East Pier

Out and about last week and visited Howth, looking for Chocolates, of all things. Not a great sketch, but you get the idea.

Christmas Time !!

When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall. Now I am not so small anymore.

When I grew up, Christmas was always a big thing. It felt like that to me, anyway. And I always try to keep it a big thing. I always did anyway, until the kids grew up and stopped believing that I was Father Christmas. 

So my daughter came to me and said we should have a competition to see who can draw the best snowman. This was my attempt. I think it is not half bad.

So a merry Christmas to all, and a prosperous new year. May the best of this year pale in comparison with what is to come.

 

Just a doodle

 I have to admit that the deer look a little "Oh Dear"!

Quarry Drive Park

 

Working from home has it's perks. One of those are that I can walk over to Nariko's school and fetch her. It allows me to get some exercise, and for some reason she is not too keen on walking home on her own.

Next to her school is a green area. I will not call it a park, per se. The school uses it for some PE, but it is also not a curated field, as such.

It sits next to the school, in Quarry Drive, so I will call it Quarry Drive Park, for lack of a better description. Now, while I am waiting for Nariko's school to come out, I usually stand around in this park, because the sun shines down on it nicely, and heats up the old bones.

Spring has sprung (or that is the rumour anyway) and the trees around the park are just starting to leaf up. I was looking at this, and the myriad of dandelions in the grass, and thought it would be fun to try and sketch it. So here, for your viewing displeasure, my pencil sketch of the Quarry Drive Park.

Christmas in Dublin

As I mentioned previously, living in Ireland is like living in a picture book. Well, I think Christmas probably tops that. Everybody goes into festive mood, and then the Christmas lights come out…

This year I did not get round much, and not a lot of pictures was taken, but I promise to do better next year. That said, below are some of the pics taken this year. Mostly in Dublin around Henry and O’Connell streets, and then some of the houses near my home that put on a lovely display.

Lockdown Christmas

 It's been a strange old year alright.

First the world imploded on itself. Then I moved all the way across the world. Then my family cannot move because of COVID variants and all silly things like that. 

And now it is Christmas. 

And I am sitting all by myself in Ireland. 

Not the best way to end a year, but at least this year is ending. Not one I will easily forget.

At least there are Christmas lights. 

So here are some from the neighbourhood. Merry Christmas.

Down Memory Lane

 Went to view a rental this morning. Got a call this afternoon that I got the house!! No small feat in Ireland, I can tell you that. So will be moving from my Air BnB next weekend. Cutting it fine!!

So a little good news there.

After the viewing this morning I went for a trip into Dublin city. What a little trip down memory lane that was!

This non-descript door in North Great Georges street was the front door to my apartment building back in 2002. I lived on the top floor in the smallest 2 bedroom apartment you have ever seen. It was just me, so suited me fine.

Right on top there, where the small windows are. That was me. Lived there for two years. When I was still young and handsome.

And this was my local. Many a night was spent in that pub. We had the best of times, we had the worst of times. 

This is Moore Street. There was a market here every weekend back in the day. Obviously all closed up now due to COVID. Will have to see if the market is still going. Used to buy most of my fruit and veg here back then. 

Still here!! The Tesco in the Jervis Centre in Henry Street. This was my go-to supermarket. Always on a Sunday morning once a month. All the groceries you can carry! The rest of the centre has changes, but Tesco is still there. 

And this was my bus stop to get to work. Every morning :-)

When I first moved to Ireland in August 2001, I happened to stay in the hostels in Trinity College for a couple of days while I looked for somewhere to stay. The internet was in it's infancy, Facebook was not even an idea yet, and it was not possible to look for a more permanent place to stay online. You had to take what you could and sort it out from there. This was my "take what you can get" at that time. 

I will have to go and look for my other haunts at some point when it is easier to get around.

Until then, I will be getting myself geared to move into more permanent accommodations. 

Happy days.

(Almost) new beginnings

 Just when you thing everything is grand, and life is peachy, 2020 happens. So here I am, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, and I have just landed in my new home.

Now, I have to admit, I am not entirely new to Ireland, and Dublin specifically. In fact, it is almost 18 years to the day that I first arrived in Dublin. It is this familiarity with Ireland and the Irish standards that has sparked interest in my abilities, and has ultimately led to my appointment. That, and the fact that once again, there is a rather large skills shortage in Ireland.

Now, the trip over here was interesting and frustrating, to say the least. The South African government has made it all but impossible for anybody to leave the country, and I had to jump through some hoops to get out, eventually catching a repatriation flight for Europeans from South Africa, departing from the Netherland Embassy. To say that flying out of an all but abandoned OR Tambo Airport was an experience it putting it mildly.

Then, obviously, sitting on the aircraft with masks in place, even sleeping (or trying to) with a mask on. Running around a very quiet Schipol Airport with the same mask still in place and eventually arriving in Dublin where I now have to self isolate for 14 days in an Air B&B.

I'm tired. Really tired. Not much sleep on the plane last night, so properly bushed. Checked into the Air BnB. Going to catch some Z's now. I start working tomorrow. The company will drop over Laptop and the other necessities tomorrow. No rest for the wicked.

Sand Art

 Went to Fish Hoek beach yesterday. This little sculpture was on the beach. Some people are so talented!!

You are not defined by your job

 Sometimes not so easy to remember…

You are not your job.

You can have pride in your job, yes.

You can enjoy your job, yes.

But when you mess up, or hate what you do, you need to remember that your job does not define you. You are the person you are.

This article by Toni Morrison is absolutely spot-on. Worth a re-read at least once a month.

Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

An ode to the download

I can still remember when the internet started making it’s way into our offices and lives. At that time nobody had e-mails. If you wanted to tell somebody something you had to write a letter, on paper… or use the trusty old phone. Or fax them. And notwithstanding this lack of communication everybody survived. Economies grew. And life was a lot more simple.

Then came the internet.

9500 bps. That was the first modem I ever had the pleasure of working with. Dial-up was all the rage. It took you half a day to download a file. But who cared?

Slowly but surely the whole thing took off. Faster and faster. More data. Larger files. Tons of e-mails per day. Working holidays.

Silly, really.

“What are you on about?” I hear you ask.

I am currently dabbling in a spot of programming and app development. Call it a passtime. All of a sudden I am in need of an Apple MAC. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a MacBook for a week or two and frankly, I hated it. Most of the software I use is not available for Apple. Bit of a bummer. So I stick to PC’s and indulge myself on the iPad and iPhone.

So how now brown cow?

Hackintosh…. Yes. That was my expression as well.

Seems that OS X can run on the humble Intel and AMD processor. If you look at the iMac Mini, it is based on an Intel processor.

Well well.

If you are interested, Google “Hackintosh”. Interesting stuff.

I am therefore now busy building myself said equipment. Part of the exercise is to download OS x. Which I am currently doing. All 5,9GB of it. Currently on 4GB. And that in just more than 90 minutes. Impressive. (Telkom Uncapped LTE… because I know that’s your next question.)

That took me back to the old 9500 modem and me and a mate of mine downloading the “WarCraft” installation file, which was just over 5MB if memory serves correctly. The exercise took us the best part of a night and then… just before completion… the line died!!! Oh, the good old days. That file would today have downloaded in about 10 seconds.

And we wonder why we feel so overworked and pressurised.

Download speeds.

Decrease in Energy Demand

I subscribed to Sharenet’s (www.sharenet.co.za) load shedding alerts. Worked like a charm, especially during the high load shedding periods. This morning I received this mail from them (all credit where credit is due etc…) Interesting reading.

“There has been no load-shedding for several months now, and ESKOM have informed they do not expect any load-shedding to occur in 2016. This is the good news and for once, we agree with ESKOM that load-shedding probabilities are low next year.

Now for the bad news – the low probability of load-shedding in 2016 and beyond is not solely due to ESKOM getting its act together with its maintenance program and horrific building delays. It’s mostly due to a massive fall-off in DEMAND caused by the shutdown in factories and mines and other energy intensive industries, as well as a slumping SA ECONOMY.

The pullback in demand is horrific.

So despite improved and accelerated maintenance (we fully accept the great job being done by ESKOM new management here), demand continues to trend downward, now down almost 8% since the Jul 2007 peak at the height of the last economic expansion.

This is bad news because this means the economy is contracting and if this continues long enough, we will be plunged into another recession. A recession will likely affect your business or employer and it will definately affect the Rand/$ which in turn will drive up costs of imported goods. Falling earnings will affect JSE shares that are heavily exposed to the SA economy, but fortunately there are many listed shares on the JSE that are immune to the local economy and actually gain in value when the Rand falls.”

The First 20 Hours

I am stuck in traffic for a large part of every day. If it is not on my way to work, then it is on my way back from work. Or on my way to a meeting. Or on my way back from a meeting… you get the idea.

I have therefore invested in Audible. What is it. Audio Books. On your iPhone (and I would imagine Android device as well). My “reading” of books has therefore increased from near zero to about 4 books a month. Which is great.

Latest one I “read” is ‘The First 20 Hours’ by Josh Kaufman. Interesting read about Rapid Skill Acquisition (RSA). Josh sets himself a couple of tasks ranging from learning to code in Ruby and learning to play the Ukelele to Windsurfing and Yoga. All to be mastered to a certain level with 20 hours of practice. And he does it. And I’m impressed.

Definitely a book I would recommend. You can find it here.

The Rule of Law

 

Well now. There has been a lot said lately about the rule of law. And how the rule of law should prevail. And how the law is above all, etc. etc.

Then, there is the seemingly lawless minibus taxi industry in South Africa. Do what they want. Drive how they feel like. 

Then there is the person (and I think most people fall in that category) who has quite a lot to say about said taxi drivers and their disregard for the rules of the road. 

This morning when dropping the kids off at school, I noticed a strange phenomenon. The gate for the Grade R's are supposed to be for the Grade R's only. This has been said over and over again and is also in every newsletter issued by the school. Strange thing is; I see some of the bigger kids walking through there, some even accompanied by the parent(s). Granted that the other gates are all half a block away and around the corner. Shortcut then. 

BUT, rules are rules. And if we disregard one rule, then we may as well don our dark glasses and tee shirts and join the ranks of the taxi drivers. Or stop complaining about the taxi drivers. 

Just saying...