October 2012

Impressed

We all dread having to deal with Home Affairs — replacing an Identity Document or renewing a passport is seen as a schlepp.

But I had to do it, so I got there this morning at 07:41 (wanted to be there at 07:30 when they open, but traffic), got ticket #26.

Yes, they have a system where you get a ticket, which is logged on the system, and then they call you to the correct desk. Which means that one desk can be serving number 6, the other desk number 36, while you, number 26, are sitting reading your kindle (Shiver on the Sky, BTW, and I think it jumped the shark halfway through so I stopped reading it).

It also means that the fellow you need to see deals with number 6, 11, 24 and then 26, because all the other numbers are waiting in a different virtual queue.

I was out there by 08:30. Impressive.

I shall have to stop calling them “Infernal Affairs” now.

(My new drivers’ licence application at Fish Hoek traffic department was equally painless)

2012-10-25 by Farting around 0

Chicken Paprikash

Made this recipe last night. Yum.

Firstly, you need decent paprika. I bought half a kilo from House of Goodies. Red = good. Brown = crap.

Mix some* flour and some* paprika. Coat the chicken (in this case, four drumsticks, four thighs) in this mix and fry in oil, in batches. Remove, fry some* onion, cayenne pepper, a bit more* paprika, salt. Add chicken back in, add (homemade, I think this was the seekrit ingredient) stock, cook.

Add creme fraiche at the end, with the leftover flour. This didn’t thicken the sauce as much as I would have liked.

Serve with mash, although it also goes damn well with sourdough bread.

* The recipe gives quantities. I see that more as a guideline.

2012-10-21 by Foooooood 1

New tails

Two much anticipated additions to the household. Currently known as “the black one” and “the shy one”.

Proposed names have been Pip and Squeek (but that would probably need to change to Heffa and Lump if they’re anything like the other male cat in the house), Westley and Vizzini, Scylla and Charybdis — but these ones definitely don’t come when you call them so what’s the use.

2012-10-15 by Farting around House 1

Brainworm

It bothered me all night.

Hazmat Modine‘s Bahamut (featured as an instrumental on So you think you can dance) sounds like something I’ve heard before… but what.

And the answer is… 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P.

It also reminds me of Clare Fader’s Cabin Fever and there’s some Tom Waits-like bits in there as well. That’s expected. But 50 Cent? Wow.

2012-10-12 by Farting around 0

Namibia trip

So we saddled up the teardrop, and headed north, half past six one Saturday morning.

First sleepover was Grunau, a tiny little place known pretty much as an overnight stop where the great North road (B1) crosses the great West road (B3). I had booked (and paid for) the house-in-town advertised by Grunau Chalets, but when we got there they’d given that to someone else, banking on completing the new units by the time we got there… they didn’t.

So the kids slept in the teardrop, and management gave me a sixpack of beer rather than some kind of a refund. And since (1) we all slept over, so I got what I wanted in the first place and (2) beer places were closed (Namibia stops selling beer at 13:00, not 17:00 like I’m used to on a Saturday) all was good.

(Like the road, this post is a bit long, so here’s a cutline for you)

Continue reading…

2012-10-09 by Uncategorized 5

Curator Needed, Part Four…

To follow up on Tamara‘s Curator Needed, Part III…

Aside: I still have to tell all of y’all (both of you) about the teardrop trailer I built and then dragged up to Etosha for the school holidays. But that’s not important right now.

Just north of Windhoek there’s a little town (most towns in Namibia are little, and there are not so many towns either) called Okahandja, and there we passed a military museum. I was kind of sad that we didn’t have time to visit.

But after checking out their web page, I’ve changed my mind.

Some gems include:

“DFSH 41: The gun is made out of brown wood and black metal. It has openings at the end of it, where bullots will come out when it is used.”

“60MM Mortal: Its made out of metal, plastic and leather and its green in colour. It has a metal object fixed on it, where it can stand.”

Yes, thank you. I go to museums to glean these arcane and obscure bits of inside knowledge, carefully researched and tastefully presented to discerning visitors from distant climes.

2012-10-07 by Farting around Guns 0

Archives

Archives

Close

Would you like an ad-blocker with that? Speak to Stefan. He's a cool guy.

https://stefanbohacek.com/