So, that cockroach/beetle problem? the one I thought I'd sorted by lifting the hob and spraying the swarms to hell and gone? Yeah, not so much. There have been increasing numbers of cockroaches on my counter top over the last week or two, and I have been completely unable to work out where they're coming from ( Read more... )

Gods, but this epidemic thing is weirding to the mental health. I have spent two weeks quite happily noodling around at home, surviving interminable Zoom and Teams meetings (Tracy, I completely agree that Teams is horrible, it's severely clunky and the sound quality is awful), and tempering the faculty's disfunctional flailing by cuddling kitties ( Read more... )

This house has a cockroach problem, or perhaps a problem with beetles who resemble cockroaches too closely for comfort, or, most likely, some kind of horrible mix of both. In pursuance of the eradication of the above, I have so far during this lock-down done the following ( Read more... )

The country goes into lockdown tomorrow night, which seems sensible, and was predictable enough that I did a huge shop for it on Sunday in advance of actual announcements. In defiance of probability I had no problem stocking up on catfood and kitty litter this morning, which I forgot about on Sunday. (Nastily vindictive satisfaction in bypassing ( Read more... )

Bloody load shedding again, ye gods I hate living in a third world country. I am at the stage where I can tell that the lights are off when I get home by the quality of the alarm system's beep, it's a semitone lower when on battery power than it is when on mains. (I don't actually have perfect pitch, but I have sufficient musical training that I ( Read more... )

• It is fortunate that this particular period of the year is characterised by holidays (Easter, Worker's Day, voting day) which means I just had three four-day work weeks and another next week, which is just as well as fatigue is kicking my butt. I am feeling on a more or less ongoing basis as though I'm coming down from a codeine hangover, which is ( Read more... )

I appear to be nesting. I had another outbreak of internet art acquisition, and upon arrival of the spoils carted them off to the nice framer man (he's a closet sf geek and gets terribly excited about some of my artwork choices) and had them properly framed. (And may I add, ye gods and little fishes, international customs duty has skyrocketed this ( Read more... )

Feeling a bit non-existent again, so am taking this opportunity to remind myself of my own instrumentality. When suffering reality slippage, it helps to tally up the small but perfectly real motions in evidence of one's own actual impact on the world.

Things I achieved over the weekend:

1. A load of laundry.
   
2. The watering of the garden with the grey ( Read more... )

Last weekend, by my request and in response to a couple of interrupted attempts to get into my front door by unspecified crowbar-wielding Bad Guys, my nice landlord came and installed a solid cast-iron gate in place of the original rather flimsy cheap trellidor. As my front door is right on the road, this was Reassuring. All was gas and gaiters ( Read more... )

Oh, yay, heatwaves! 37 degrees last week. Cape Town, how do I love thee at this time of year? not at all. In addition, by way of merry summer celebration, that damned starling appears to have it in for me personally, he had another go at me last week, and again this morning. He's lying in wait, I swear. He doesn't hit hard or claw me, but it's a ( Read more... )