it is with nothing short of unbridled and unrestrained joy that i write of how that most curious of elements in the universe, the postal system of South Africa, delivered yet another miracle with the penultimate challenge i set them.
yes, i agree. let us take the time of this sentence to reflect on the magnitude and amazing ways of this.
and what was this penultimate challenge? to deliver, unharmed and in no way compromised, a certain item to the child of the condiment phoenix. this is an item which provided the conduit, perhaps even the foundations, for several of the more popular posts i made way back in those heady days of 2013.
the item, unharmed and not compromised, for your viewing pleasure.
no, not any of them trees. or the window, or even the table. look between the window and the table and you shall see it. yes, it is true - what you see is indeed the Gautrain card i used and in some ways reused on all rail based adventures last year. mostly Pretoria, granted, but it did also at one point go with me to the airport and back. which also means, now that i think, it went to Dubai and England when i was required to.
now the card sits not in Dubai, England or South Africa. it is in the custody of the child of the condiment phoenix, and thus now resides wherever they decide to reside. as the child of the condiment phoenix was one of the more enthusiastic fans of my train adventures, indeed pressing me on to do even more of them, it seemed appropriate to send it on.
does the card work on the rail network system of where the child of the condiment phoenix resides? i have no idea, but my feeling is probably not. if it does, well then so much the better - this was no hollow gift or trivial gesture; the card has funds on it. funds enough to make one journey, at the least.
the more enthusiastic followers of this blog will no doubt find their thoughts, disturbed as they are, circling around the subject of how it was on my train adventures, in particular when business took me to Pretoria, that i developed, perfected and showed off, as far as my lack of vanity permits the latter, my much vaunted, presently retired cowboy look.
it is my most earnest view that it was the availability of only brown boots which precipitated my cowboy look, which is to say it was unrelated to either any train or any means of paying for carriage on such. i do not, then, expect the child of the condiment phoenix to develop a cowboy look just because they have the card. there are several other reasons why they are unlikely to either, but now is not the time.
just admire the card as it goes on its journey in its new land.
and employee or representative of the postal organizations who made this possible and are reading this are, i trust sensing immense pride right now. well done on doing the job for which you are paid to do.
let us move - briefly but in no way finally - away from my, or rather my former, Gautrain card and consider, for a few moments, confectionery. a conversation, broken by time granted but a conversation no less, led to a request to present here an image of chocolates on display for sale to members of the public.
the specific request was for this in Tesco, but alas my journeys today did not take me to Tesco. they took me to a number of clothes shops, really. clothes shops which, it has to be said, seemed rather keen only to sell to gents somewhat smaller and slimmer than me. no matter, for i did visit a store called Morrisons, and they had a suitable enough display of chocolate for me to take a picture of.
lots of lovely, lovely chocolate, i am sure you will agree. what did i purchase? none of them. the budget was for the most part already blown on clothes and shoes, with what currency i had left being reserved for milk, fish fingers and some Gouda cheese slices.
on that note, what does England have against Gouda cheese? it seems impossible to find, bar some sliced variants today. i thought perhaps that it was branded as that Edam business here, but alas no, young William assures us that Edam is no Gouda.
if they had any Wispa Gold on offer i might have bought one for my (considerably) better half, as she is really rather partial to them. i suppose i could have bought a conventional Wispa and one of them caramel things at the top and advised her to put them together and maker her own Wispa Gold, but i suspect her response would have been of the less than happy variety.
moving back to trains, then, and have a look at this.
it has, surprisingly, come out really rather well, has it not? the child of the condiment phoenix is unable to do Commodore 64 mode pictures, so i thought i would have a go at taking some of the pictures forwarded off the screen. i was expecting poor results, but i am really rather happy with this.
yes indeed, scan line mode is very much switched on for these pictures. and in that regard, yes indeed all that will feature for the rest of this post is pictures that i have taken in Commodore 64 mode with scan lines on. so if you are not interested, well, leave now.
for those of you that are interested, here we go!
actually i saw a pair of brown boots earlier today that looked like they were actually purpose made to be, or give the impression of being, actual cowboy boots. it was sorely tempting to get a pair whilst my existing ones continue their travels on the treacherous seas, facing trial by shark and trial by pirates. however, a look at the price means that i did not even ask if they had my size.
i am aware that the above is pretty much irrelevant in regards of these pictures, but one has to write something in between the images, i feel. here is another.
although i did not obtain any new boots, cowboy or otherwise, today, i did get some new socks. they were socks that i found to be of a most agreeable price, and as a bonus are tailored to fit the rather more larger footed of gent, a member of which club i am most certainly one. the agreeable price was complemented by a substantial stock level, so i indulged a bit and acquired no less than six pairs.
getting six pairs of socks at once is a bit bourgeois, i suppose. it's a bit Elton John, or Frank Sinatra, to be getting so many socks all at the same time. i do not in any way, shape or form intend the purchase of them to be some sort of statement to the effect of me saying i care not for the plight of the proletariat, for i will have as many socks as i like, it really was just that the price was good.
no i have not taken any pictures of the sock as such as of yet. i may do soon, but then again i may not, for i don't know if i should be going around rubbing everyone's face in it.
probably best if i just quietly drop the subject and put up another Commodore 64 picture.
also i bought a pen, but any further revelations are likely to see me publicly hounded and put on some sort of political point-scoring show trial for my crimes of opulence.
so there you have it. what i hope you walk away from this blog post is would be knowledge that the postal service can and sometimes does work as intended, and that it is entirely possible to take class Commodore 64 mode pictures off of a monitor, even a child's toy one like what i am using now.
more pics, posts and Commodore 64 things as and when i can!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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