6000 miles…

What a difference a week made…

Posted on March 16, 2026March 16, 2026

…168 little hours.

[with apologies to Dinah Washington]

March 8th 2026: Don’t send warships.

March 14th 2026: Send warships.

Flip flopping like a fish out of water. And hopefully expiring just as quickly.

I’m no big fan of Iran or their leadership, and no big fan of the UK PM either*, but I’m right with Starmer on his stance on this issue so far. Just as Iran has gradually isolated itself from its neighbours, so Trump is now doing exactly the same with the US’s allies. And I’m glad that so many leaders are showing him a diplomatic middle finger and choosing not to be a contributor in this unholy mess he’s made and continues to make.

The sad thing is that this is a global issue. No matter whether you choose to support the Israeli and US action in the Middle East or you choose to condemn it (or anywhere in between), we’re all affected by the decisions of this dementia-ridden bag of poorly painted skin.

And never in a good way.

* There are levels here, obviously.

Sunday

Posted on March 15, 2026March 15, 2026

I have spent much of the day editing photos.

Let’s just say that they are done and leave it there. As ever, some good stuff, some not so good, but then a handful of images that just stand out. Throw enough darts, you’ll get some bullseyes.

Several of them.

And so, with some light relief required, I lit the braai. Because that’s what we do down here.

Yeah. We’ve got some wood to get through.
Can’t wait.

Good chicken, great ribs, disappointing steak – no fault of mine – you can’t win all the time.

But a nice Shiraz and a great evening. Almost – almost – ready for the week ahead.

Almost.

Hectic day

Posted on March 14, 2026

Up early. Gym.

Dodgeball Youth Cup all day.

Heat, wind, dust, sun.

Some amazing games. Many happy faces.

2,500+ photos. Editing will follow. Terrifying.

United. Harsh red card. Missed penalty. Decent draw.

Couple of Milk Stouts.

Bed. Well deserved.

A scheduled post to test my scheduled post settings

Posted on March 13, 2026March 13, 2026

You know that I’ve been doing this daily blogging thing for an awfully long time. But because sometimes I’m travelling or I’m out of range (because that’s something that can happen a lot in South Africa) or I’m just a bit knackered; and because WordPress has a nice reliable system to make sure that I can write in advance and then publish when I want, I schedule a post (or two) to go out and keep that daily record going.

I don’t think it’s cheating, for the simple reason that cheating involves breaking rules, and there are no rules when it comes to this sort of thing. Even if they were, I would make them, and I’d just include “You can schedule posts” as one of them.

So we’re all good.

Until I wrote a post yesterday, and:

WordPress just ignored my request to publish this post this morning. No apology, no warning, no explanation. And what’s more, when I rescheduled it to see if it was a one-off, it failed again.

Maybe it was just that post though, so I’m going to write another one (you’re reading it), schedule it for a few minutes into the future, and see what happens.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to work out why it hasn’t worked. And if it does work, I still won’t feel that I can trust WordPress 100%. But that’s anxiety for another day.

So… let’s see what’s going to happen, shall we?

UPDATE: