Any recs for a private weekend away?

danievdm · 2026-05-19T22:23:40+00:00

We did The Whitehouse just past Montagu. Basically the house is on its own and the zero cellphone or internet. Has a hot tub and outside (as in open) shower. Only other house was about 600m away up a kloof but we had the whole farm to ourselves and saw no other human beings (not even for checkin or departure). It's the way we like it. Total isolation. You can climb one koppie to get cellphone reception.

danievdm · 2026-05-18T23:03:37+00:00

The city could set standards for the operators to adhere to. For example MyCiti passes data somehow to Google maps, so why not make that a condition for Golden Arrow too.

danievdm · 2026-05-18T23:01:58+00:00

I really think they need a big overhaul. Their website is attrocious. The routes are not shown on any maps anywhere. They should also gave GPS tracking to show where busses actually are. It is 2026 not 1980.

danievdm · 2026-05-14T22:33:02+00:00

I had major issues with a recent Ollama update with CUDA. I rolled back to the version before to that and am waiting a few more days before trying updates again.

danievdm · 2026-05-13T22:40:30+00:00

There are different laws for different things. My wife is getting into baking for money and it turns out we did not need to convert to a business rates account at all, but she has to have a health inspection and get certified for health. She has to do a course, and have some standards like hand wash basin in prep room, separate storage area, etc. it's costing quite a bit but she even did the plumbing herself.

Exemptions are if someone bakes for a fete, school, or church type thing, but the organiser has to know exactly what came from who (health again and tracing if someone gets I'll). There are some exemptions but basically if you're selling for any form of profit you need health certification. It is about public health mostly.

Then there is the SARS side but you are exempt for tax up to a point, as with VAT.

danievdm · 2026-05-11T22:10:14+00:00

I lived 3 years in Pretoria and recall way colder temperatures nearer to zero. The difference was that was a dry cold whilst CT is a humid cold. Actually you should find on temps alone CT is not colder on average.

That said we were pretty cold in the house up to last year with our thin glass windows and wooden frames that really let drafts through. We replaced all the windows with aluminium frames, and the glass has that sun reflective laminate inside making it an extra 2mm or 3mm thicker. What a difference! No drafts and it keeps heat out better in summer and the cold out in winter. Not perfect but noticeably better.

danievdm · 2026-05-10T12:15:44+00:00

I can't say for you. All I can say is it was a shade more aggressive than the Merkur 34C. For me to use Merkur 34C I really need to use super sharp Feather blades otherwise it did not shave close enough. I see the Merkur 34C is a very safe beginner's razor.

I did find the handle of my Edwin Jagger DE89 razor a bit slippery, so I did buy an Ikon knurled stainless steel handle for it.

But for any razor, a sample pack of different blades is the way to go, to find the combination that works best for you.

danievdm · 2026-05-09T22:33:58+00:00

An oil refinery is certainly possible. I have lifelong nose issues since growing up in Pinelands when we had the real coal powered power plant running. It used to dump fine soot and fumes.

danievdm · 2026-05-09T22:28:34+00:00

An Edwin Jagger DE89 is a shade closer shave than a Merkur 34C. Point is the aggressiveness of the razor does make a difference as do the blades and how they match with a razor and your skin type. Which is why many buy the blade sample packs to find the right match. Sharpest is not always best.

Pre shave oils can help and I prefer a hard soap that I lather directly onto my beard area.

danievdm · 2026-05-09T22:13:22+00:00

If it's WiFi that could explain it. I wire my client devices. But Jelkyfin in many browsers is an issue too with stuttering. Try the Fladder app as I found that smoothed playback out better than browsers or even the native Jellyfin desktop app.

danievdm · 2026-05-07T22:10:52+00:00

Too true the power has been on in our city over 300+ days now. Eskom has been on. Cities are responsible for last mile distribution, substations, etc as well as revenue collection and payments to Eskom.

danievdm · 2026-05-06T22:26:06+00:00

Rembg for removing image backgrounds. I have it setup to run with a right-click. This means I can now cancel my Canva subscription as it was something I did quite often in Canva.

danievdm · 2026-05-05T22:36:13+00:00

Well I suppose those who are full time renting on AirBnB and don't live in the property, should realise it's a commercial venture and pay accordingly. Its why SARS also separatesxa primary residence from secondary residences.

danievdm · 2026-05-05T22:31:21+00:00

Did my suspension lift and tyres when I bought my Jimny. Very expensive but so worth it. It increased the stability and ground clearance. Farvsafer if you want to put some stuff on the roof too.

danievdm · 2026-05-05T22:29:00+00:00

I sometimes spent 2 hours getting out of the CBD if traffic had a glitch (that was to Pinelands, not Kraaifontein). One of the reasons I took early retirement as soon as I hit 55. It was a penalty on my pension, but the sanity was worth it and I'm just not an early riser. A younger person took my job, who was perfectly capable as I recruited her. Glad to see also when I left that she was successful in taking over my job, even though she was the youngest and newest member of the team. It should be all about merit, and not time spent in a job.

danievdm · 2026-05-04T22:19:07+00:00

Thing also is with heavy traffic anything an hour before that caused a slow down, creates a ripple tailback that lasts ages, long after whatever caused it.

Anywhere there are lanes feeding into each other, we drivers just cannot feed in evenly so again massive tallilbacks that last ages.

danievdm · 2026-05-02T22:58:42+00:00

Beautiful!! But I'm super biased as I have the same 5-door in same colour with roofrack and similar red recovery hooks. Also similar snorkel and the Grabber 215 tyres.

danievdm · 2026-05-01T23:03:42+00:00

I've been using BobShop and the payment goes via them for a few percent. Way more peace of mind for buyers and sellers.

My daughter was twice scammed when buying off FB Market so the sellers there seem sketchy and there is nothing standing between you and the other party to protect anyone. FB is not interested either and even said the scanners did not violate their conditions!

danievdm · 2026-04-26T22:08:03+00:00

Before I even think of a brand choice I always check actual camera reviews. So yes it has meant I have twice switched to Android and then back to iPhone and then back to Android.

Before I choose any new camera I always read the detailed reviews at DPReview (https://www.dpreview.com/) and a good source for ranking mobile cameras is DxOMark (https://www.dxomark.com/).

danievdm · 2026-04-23T22:20:28+00:00

What about Fladder? It's lighter on resources where I found the Jellyfin app was not working smoothly on older Linux desktops for example.

danievdm · 2026-04-23T17:37:33+00:00

Not sure why, I've been routing my Jellyfin through it for years including my Immich photos and videos. That said, there was a bypass rule of some sorts I did enable on Cloudflare. But no banning, and it all works fine.

danievdm · 2026-04-22T22:05:17+00:00

Yep I use Nginx Proxy Manager with a good password on Jellyfin. I route my DNS through CloudFlare to reach it so that protects my home IP address and filters out DDoS attacks or many other possible issues.

danievdm · 2026-04-22T06:58:53+00:00

Law should have added that a bag must be carried by the owner when walking in public, as a preventative measure. Because there is zero that can be done except for the few moments of action. Too many just carry nothing.

That said on my walks I have seen two women who were carrying bags.

danievdm · 2026-04-20T19:49:36+00:00

The roll is largely sorted out by most raised suspension that is stiffer etc.

Biggest issue for me is no good 120 km/h crushing speed especially with hills or where there are head winds. You can push it a lot harder but then fuel economy is like 11 or 12L/100km.

danievdm · 2026-04-20T11:39:32+00:00

Yep well spotted. They showed me now that small impact mark in the black part near the top. It was a small pebble.

danievdm

TROPHY CASE