Playing Rugby
Let me get this out the way first. I have very little knowledge, and even less interest in Rugby. But what I do know about rugby is that:
- Along with cricket, it is the national past time of South Africa
- It involves a lot of stopping and crashing into each other
- If you have the ball in your hand, there is a distinct possibility that you won’t have it in your hand in a few seconds
- Everybody (except for me) is an expert
- A game or rugby (thankfully) takes a lot shorter than even the shortest game of cricket, and is only marginally more interesting
- It is very important in a social environment to have an opinion on rugby
- It does make for a good photoshoot
I took these shots at one of the club fields just down the road from us. I can’t tell you much except that everybody was supporting the players in blue, but the players in black seemed to be winning the game. So I guess the home team were not doing too well.
Here are the rest of the shots.
Horsing around
I have just realized that this is my 901′th blog post since I started this blog in 2004, that is an average of about 2.5 posts per week – wow, who would have thought!
A friend of mine is looking after a few horses on one of the farms in Noordhoek, and I popped over to get a few shots. While I am not really a horse person, they are beautiful animals, and make for some great shooting. And there is something nostalgic about being around horses. Here is a small example, the rest of the shoot is here.
They are all ex racehorses, and despite their frisky reputation, they were very friendly, and relaxed (probably as a result of the laid-back Noordhoek lifestyle), but they were very happy for me to wonder around them.
This horse should be renamed “Mr Sneezy”, he stuck his nose right into my camera lens, and he left it rather smeared and wet afterwards, not something that I usually have to deal with. I love the bent ear :-)
This is the only shot I managed to get of the horses trotting, they we just so chilled, being far too lazy to use any energy.
Just a big boy looking out and seeing what I was up to (and probably hoping for a carrot or two). If I was a cowboy, this would be my horse.
By the way, there are many farms in Noordhoek that offer out-rides on the beach, just Google “noordhoek horse riding” and you will see tons of stables offing riding to the public.
Chillin’ out
We seem to have so many yummy chilli’s for sale at the moment. From fiery hot Habenero’s, to the unpredictable jalapeno’s, to these mysterious long and yellow chillies. I have often seen long red and green chilli’s, but these yellow folk are new to me.
When I started enjoying hot food in the 80′s, I struggled to get any chilli’s, and now there is so much choice available. It is simply amazing. You seldom find a meal in my house that doesn’t include fresh or dried chilli’s, and (just in case) there is always plenty of chilli sauce on the table!
The best part is that while I eat hot chilli, my wife eats chilli much hotter that I do, so I never have to worry about making it too hot for her. The round and yellow chillies above are Habanero chillies, which are about as hot as you can commercially buy. Just about right for Lois.
The Pumphouse
I had a meeting in the Gardens yesterday, and on the way back I noticed this strange old building (it probably contains water pumps or something) sticking out into a water reservoir. I love the way it was built to be functional, but to still look pretty. Also can you see the two rows of birds sitting on the railing?
I have been in this suburb about a million times, and it is amazing how you can live in the same place for so long, and think you know an area so well, and yet you still stumble on things that you have no idea existed in the first place. A very unexpected find.
A day at the races
An early group
Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. On Sunday I wished for a wind-free day, and that is exactly what I got. However I didn’t wish for the temperature to go over 40 deg C, but it did!
By now you probably know that I cycled in the Pick n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour on Sunday. This was my 6th tour, and I clearly have an ability to pick interesting weather. Oh, how I would love to have a race in cool and wind-free weather. But not this year! Just to give you an example of some of the recent tours that I have completed:
- 2012: temperature peaked at 42 deg C
- 2010: howling wind (but not as bad as 2009)
- 2009: howling wind (over 120km/h – higher that what I experienced in hurricane Irene in USA 2011)
- 2006: rained (and crashed but still finished)
Maybe, just maybe next year will be great weather.
Relaxing before the start
While I didn’t take any pictures on the road, here are a couple (mostly) from the start line, and all on my phone (no my SLR does not go on the race with me). I hope this gives you a small taste of the feeling of being part of the 31324 cyclists that finished. There are so many people that while the first cyclists leave at 6:15am, the last leave after 10:30am which is after the first cyclists have already finished!
My group starting to assemble at the start line
The race leaves in groups of about 500, spread out every few minutes. My group left at 9:16am, and it was already sweltering. I drank over 9l water on the route, which is about what I usually drink in an entire week.
At the start line, about 5 minutes before my group started on the 110km route
The end, now I can relax for the next year, or at least until the 2 Oceans half marathon next month.
You can donate once-off or monthly.
Donate once-off
Donate monthly The more you donate, the more I can shoot, and the more photos you get to see. And of course you get to feel great by doing so!
Recent Comments