Elasticity of a drought

On April 5 they announced the hosepipe ban in England. On April 6 it started to rain .... and rain, and rain. April showers as they say and so it has been with records likely to be broken in the month. The big Bewl water reservoir in Kent dropped to only 35% full but the way things are going it will be filling up soon. Every now and again there is a tremendous clap of thunder with attendant lightning. Not like the gigantic rolling thunderstorms you get in Joburg; rather these isolated and rather shocking one-offs that seem to come from nowhere. As if to say: I'm just cheeky, not bad. Walking down to the village this morning to exchange library books I had the brolly up and eyes on the pavement ahead. This is the best way to spot elastic bands. London is a city of elastic bands, they are everywhere. If you are looking you will seldom walk more than a couple of hundred metres and you'll see one. It took me a while to work this out and then I realised: it's the postmen. They jettison them as they make their rounds. The QSL is from Enigma 846, Trans Kent Radio, a pirate that used to operate on AM on Sundays and heard in Otford, Kent in 2002.

Surf by night, sail by day, in Itajai

After yesterday's in-port race in Itajai, the Volvo Ocean yachts head off for Miami today. The race was a disaster for Telefonica. After serenely dropping the fleet soon after the start and building an unassailable lead, Telefonica rounded the wrong mark and before anyone realised they were way at the back of the field. This allowed both Grouparama and Camper to narrow Telefonica's overall lead. While the yachting world has its eyes on Itajai, most don't realise that there are two great sufing beaches there: Atalaia and Brava. Atalaia interests me because it uses reflectors for night surfing. How many times have I wondered about the great waves going to waste after dark at Muizenberg Corner? You hang in there till last light but eventually you have to give in. Bondi beach in Australia have neon night surfing where the the boards and wetsuits are illuminated by lights from the shore. As the Volvo Ocean race presses on I still have a big question mark over the marginality of the boats. It's all very well to have leading-edge design technology but too many boats in this small fleet have broken. The QSL is from Radio Clube Paranaense, Curitiba, Brazil. I don't have any from Santa Catarina State where Itajai is located but Curitiba is not far, about 100 miles to the north. I heard them on AM 1430 in 1987 on a DXpedition to remote Copperton in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

The warmth and coolth of London to Cape Town

In recent months I've had multiple return trips between London and Cape Town, giving me the chance to compare the three mainline carriers servicing the route.  And a lucrative route it is too, with flights usually full. It may seem like hometown bias but South African Airways comes out tops, the other two being British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. At the end it all boils down to service and the SAA staff have worked it out. For one thing, they are genuinely hospitable, South African-style. I usually find the BA staff are rather cool, as if they're doing the job but would rather not be. It's efficient but not friendly or warm. They don't engage and hate criticism. As a customer you feel a bit lucky to be there. The Virgin staff are better - they are selected to meet the Virgin image of being sassy and in tune. They're energetic and the on-flight entertainment is outstanding. However, they take absolutely ages to bring the food. By the time you get to the main course, hours have passed and you'd like to be snoozing off, especially if you have work the next day. Don't dream of complaining, it doesn't go down well. SAA serve the food early and fast and they let you know that your needs are important. The QSL is from the old Virgin Radio in the UK, heard on 1215 AM in Johannesburg in 1993.

The power of cube not enough for some

Just back from another stint in beautiful Cape Town. Over the weekend the northwester arrived with perfect timing and Muizenberg Corner was on the button. On Saturday it was small but nicely shaped and on Sunday the swell really picked up - it was pumping. The power generated by a big wave is stunning. You can feel those extra cubic metres sweeping you up. I just couldn't stop and no need, I had nothing better to do. There was a little incident out back. I caught this ẁave and turned left - the next thing this dude crunched into me from my right. Clearly he thought I had dropped in and maybe I had. But when I took off I just didn't see him. Anyway there were stacks of waves and it really was unnecessary for him to make contact. We glared at each other and he shouted: 'What are you looking at me for, it was your fault!' So I suggested to him that he contact the Cape Town City council and request it to set aside a portion of the beach about 50 metres wide just for his own special self. This was a guy looking for a battle, not a surf. It all fizzled out and an hour later we were both still out there tearing it up. The QSL is from Radio 786, a religious broadcaster on FM in Cape Town. They kindly responded to my letter of reception which I posted from London although I heard them in Cape Town.

Luxembourg rocks, Juncker sulks

Little Luxembourg has a GDP of $55bn, which puts it between Oman and Belarus, in 69th place on the IMF list. But per capita it's by far number 1, ranking well ahead of oil-rich Qatar and Norway, by virtue of its small, one-half million population. The Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of finance ministers had a hissy-fit on Friday when his thunder was stolen by Maria Fekter, the Austrian finance minister. The group announced that the fiscal firewall for the Eurozone would be boosted to Euro 700bn by allowing the new ESM to run  in parallel with what's left of the EFSF. Juncker wanted to make the announcement but Fekter dropped in on him. This sent him fuming into the car park. The media jumped on this as usual as a sign of dysfunctionality. Indeed the scepticism in the UK about the Eurozone's turmoil is quite deafening, bordering on racism. To me it's actually been quite a surprise how well the Eurozone players have managed one of the most complex problems ever seen in global finance. No doubt Juncker will recover his poise. The QSL is from Radio-Tele-Luxembourg heard in Cape Town on AM in 1968. At the time this was the station that UK teenagers were listening to under the sheets at night because it was playing the great pop music of the day: music which the dinosaur BBC of the time refused to play. And down in distant South Africa we were listening to.