<< I carry it maybe 3-4 times per year...

but.. what if people need to get hold of you anytime of the day or night?

They are doing well, their town lost power for a day - but my father in-law has enough solar panels to keep a small city going for a few days!

Their garden was left a little worse off, but he is talking about the rebuild already 

The Western Cape is just on the other side of some incredibly strong winds and a storm that will go down in memory.. on Sunday night my in-laws had gusts of 177KPH (110MPH) in the coastal town of Bettys Bay, in the global scale of Hurricanes - it's a Cat 2. The next day had steady winds of 148KPH.. devastating floods, winds and people still without power even this morning.

If you skip through this YouTube video you'll get a taste; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw5bVSWFu7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_zKi5hfZZ8

I spent about 10 minutes disecting the room (screens, maps etc..) I was calmer afterwards 

Is there a reason that many electric cars/trucks all look like they were transported from the future? I could never bring myself to buy one purely down to the looks!

Same here in Cape Town - the most expensive supermarket in South Africa recently changed their packaging and now their products are almost impossible to open without a knife and scissors!

In the more scenic spots in Cape Town (Cape Point nature reserve) the baboons are 100% accustomed to humans - they casually walk up and take food from picnic tables or even out of an unsuspecting tourists hand!

Many shops/stores and even houses have security gates that are there more to keep baboons out than the potential thieves...

Side note: the company's gardens in central Cape Town is a no go zone due to squirrels, they chase you down looking for food! I was there maybe 4 or 5 years ago and saw a group of 5 chase a guy..

hehe this morning, lots of baboon troops on the Cape peninsula. Just before this photo I saw one of the rangers following from a distance - two rouge males, both brothers out on the town looking for a good time 

Even if it catches on in the US at a grass roots level it will be decades before we can take on cricket superpowers UK, India and Australia / South Africa.

elections.. we just had ours here in SA, soon the UK, then the USA and I read that Mexico just had theirs!

Cricket and T20 is huge down here in South African and especially in Cape Town... I have a feeling if the T20 world cup attracts any of the run scores like it did in the most recent IPL season (Indian Premier League) then the USA crowds are in for a good time.

>Rugby has a good chance of catching on.  Everybody wants to see NZ play.

The Springboks (current world cup holders) play the All Blacks in September here in Cape Town, my name is down for 8 tickets.. just sitting tight to see if my name is drawn from the lottery system.

I would say that in South Africa the small to mid sized truck (which we call a bakkie down here) is the back bone of the economy, the larger more robust bakkies (Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux and the VW Amarok) are still heavily sought after but their prices make them out of reach for the majority of the working population.

My wife (of 17 years) and I met on WebmasterWorld - she was in Cape Town and I was in the UK, that was 22 years ago.

One of my go-to healthy meal options when I am in a bit of a rush with not much to spend in the kitchen is roasted veg with feta and steak. The local supermarket does the veg in a simple ready to go bag.

Butternut, Baby marrow, Red onion, Red/Green pepper and Rosemary - in the oven for 40 minutes then when it's fresh out of the oven crumble feta and toss it through... then a medium sirloin steak.

Intuitive Machines: Moon lander pictured on its side with snapped leg
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68425211

"We went from basically a cocktail straw of data coming back to a boba tea-sized (very large) straw of data coming back."