Latest Developments

Hey there, hi there, ho there Gentle Readers.
I've been trying valiantly to upload pictures from the two digital cameras.  Thus far, I've got all of the photos hitherto taken loaded onto the netbook.  The problem now appears to be getting them up to the albums on Facebook.  Once that's accomplished, I can use some of the pictures as starting points for new blog articles.  How exciting.
Driving out to see my grand-uncle was interesting.  Apparently, the little enclave abutting a golf course in which he lives renumbered all of the internal townhouses since the last time my aunt went to visit, so we had a bit of a tough time navigating to it.  He had some wonderful stories and insights, and we finally left around a quarter past five in the evening, and the sun was plummeting toward the horizon.  This led to a lengthy drive toward "Surfer's Beach," complete with reverie and nostalgia galore.
On we drove, past hotels that stand upon what once were campgrounds, supermarkets that were fields, and resorts that were post offices.  Eventually, as dusk was reaching its final death throes, we got to the beach, and I snapped some shots of cresting ocean waves in the fading light.
Then it was time for some weird Zen-like descriptions of invisible things in the darkness.  The one patch of inky blackness was a place where people hung out at night near the other blotch of lightless void.  And somewhere beyond the all-obscuring ebon veil over there is another distinct lack of illumination that indicates the new place that couldn't be seen forty years ago either, but that's because it didn't exist back then.
Meanwhile, Australia was busy drawing 1-1 with Ghana, and going 2-2 in terms of collecting a red card in every game, although to be fair, if Harry Kewell didn't get sent off, he would have found a way to crock himself medically before the close of the game.
Later in the evening, the second team was mathematically eliminated from the World Cup.  Strangely enough, both teams are African.  So much for home-continent advantage.  Nigeria and Cameroon can do nothing except play spoilers to the teams that are still jostling for qualification.  Interesting also that FIFA chose today to release a report detailing all of the various programs that they've established to prevent and investigate match-fixing by betting cartels worldwide.  Considering the number of astronomically unlikely results coupled with bizarre and thoroughly mystifying refereeing decisions, one has to wonder if the Beautiful Game has itself become a pawn in a larger series of skillful manipulations.  As Lucas Podolski famously said, "Football is like chess, only without the dice."
On that note, I'm headed for bed, and I'll see what sort of joy tomorrow brings.  At least East London is nice and warm.
Cheerio all,
—mARKUS