I think we did ok on Black Friday. It was fortunate timing for replacing items after this. But we don't splurge. We select the deals which work for us, and we use the opportunity of a discount to purchase things we were going to get anyway. Except, well... There was this on Simonsig's Instagram: We’re pricing like it’s 1969.

I'm usually the one that organises the advent calendars for the rest of the family. And I did that again this year. What a great excuse to enjoy some chocolate. This year, one got organised for me, too: It's from smokedoke.co.za, and it's a mixture of chili sauces and condiments: one each day, as is the tradition. I'll give you an update sometime in December as to how things are going and which items you need to order to spice up your festive season up a bit.

Long day. Good day. Lots of fun around the braai and watching a bit of sport. No win for a racehorse, nice win for United, big win for South Africa in the rugby. Eben Etzebeth remains a complete twat. (Was there ever any doubt?) But despite those positives, it does seem like the universe was trying to send me a message with the stuff that was appearing on my phone this morning.

Indeed: The mantra "If you never try, you will never know" captures the spirit of exploration, growth, and fulfilment. It encourages us to "break free from the shackles of fear", step into the unknown, and embrace the opportunities that await. Wow. They make it sound so adventurous, don't they? And yes, all of what you read there is absolutely correct, of course.

This is equal parts dull and mesmerising. It's a guy rolling a tyre down a hill, which is ostensibly very boring, but weirdly, you get drawn into the video and you want to travel with the tyre, down the mountain. Where will it go? Who will it meet? Will it survive? Amazing scenery, great drone work, appropriate music, and a story that ends all too abruptly.

So thank goodness I'm writing this down. Regular readers - yeah, plural because I'm an optimist - might recall that on Monday, I was wondering whether to stay up late for the football. I decided to be sensible and not to. But then circumstances took over anyway. Because sadly, our son's car was broken into while he was dodgeballing, and stuff - a lot of stuff - was stolen.

Oh wow. Remember when the internet used to be like this? Pure HTML. No fancy languages, scripts or tricks. Better still is that this site is still regularly updated, and it's all about lighthouses. I haven't had time to exhaustively search it just yet, but it does seem to bear a reference to literally every lighthouse in the world. Add in the latest lighthouse news and pretty much anything else lighthouse-related, and not only is this lovely nostalgia, it's also a really nice resource.

See, the issue is that aside from the December holiday/festive season marking the end of the year like up North, here in SA, it's also the summer holiday. So all of those fun times that you would normally have in summer in the UK (both days if you're lucky), and all of those fun times that you would have over the festive period, are distilled down into one big party month.

This was nice to watch. I usually enjoy a bit of a contest when it comes to football, but the odd one-sided affair is always welcome: A messy, scrappy game, but sometimes it's more about the result than the performance, and a local derby is always one of those occasions. Happy days.

I downloaded a few videos to watch while I was away, and this one entertained me during some restful moments on the beach. I really enjoy Rory Sutherland stuff. I'm not a marketing person, so I don't know how relevant this sort of thing is in the day to day lives of actual marketing people, but I just love the different way that Sutherland looks at things that we just take for granted.

Spotted while we were away: plenty (or more) Phelsuma ornata. And while some other creatures' common names don't quite follow through on the description - a Koala Bear isn't bear, a King Cobra isn't a cobra, a Jellyfish isn't a fish etc etc - there can be no complaints here. Je vous présente le Mauritius Ornate Day Gecko. …

Wow. It's like the 1990s and the early 2000s never went away, because: I dunno. But lying on a tropical beach overlooking the Indian Ocean took me back - way back - to our honeymoon several (or more) years ago. And I'd just got my first ever iPod, brought over from the UK by one of the wedding party. Sadly though, there wasn't the time, the knowledge or the bandwidth to get much on there before we headed off to Mozambique, and so I ended up listening to Keane's…

Wow. That was a great few days away. Lovely company, great place, amazing weather, superb service, friendly people. It had it all. But can I admit that I was rather disappointed with the flight back? Heading out to Mauritius, I went via Joburg and landed (pun intended) with my bum totally in the butter on one of Air Mauritius' (almost) brand new A350-900s.

I don't know why the weapons were taken away from rabbits at the end of the Middle Ages. I don't even know why they were given weapons to begin with. But that is a great image of a flying kick. For reference: The British Library describes manuscripts from the 14th century showing rabbits hunting and fighting hounds, a reversal of their typical predator-prey relationship.

I have absolutely no desire to visit America. The United States thereof, that is. I didn't have much desire to visit there before Captain Cheeto came along - maybe Monument Valley, and Washington State, but the rest of it: nah - and I have a good deal less now. Yeah, I'm sure that I'm missing out with my simplistic anti-American views, but I'm not ruling out travel altogether.

Warning: Juvenile post ahead!(As if you hadn't guessed from the title.) But seriously, Little Miss 6000 recently did her Grade 7 vocal exam. And the natural progression is now to Grade 8, although there's a consensus that there's not going to be too much hard work towards that in the remainder of this year. Just a look. And so the books were brought home last week.

I might be on a nice little island with some lovely beaches, but are any of them Blue Flag Beaches? Well, actually, no. While Mauritius is making efforts to achieve Blue Flag status for its beaches, and some beaches have the potential for it, there are no universally recognized Blue Flag beaches listed in the search results for 2025.

I haven't been out here for 9 years. But I'm hoping that at least some things won't have changed. Like this: I'm not 100% sure what was in this particular cocktail, but I will have no issue in experimenting out here until I manage to get something like this shot again. Perhaps with a little more light on the subject in question, although it depends how many subjects I will have gone through before taking the photo as to how successfully it turns out, I guess.

I'm away for a few days. Traveling all day today - well, the daytime hours, at least - for a few relaxing days away with Mrs 6000. Actually, she's already there, so there are plans for a romantic rendezvous on the west coast of a tropical island this evening. As for the blog, well this is a holiday dedicated to slowing down (almost to a full stop), relaxing and enjoying the sunshine.

My plan for the next little while (in conjunction with Little Miss 6000) is to find some more female artists or female-led bands to listen to. This because we've looked at or listening habits and discovered that we don't have many of those demographics in our most-listened to lists. I'm thinking more New Dad, more Wolf Alice, more Skunk Anansie and even a bit of delicious Australian punk from Amyl and the Sniffers:

On our patio, nogal. OK. Not so terrifying. He's a Cape Skink (Trachylepis capensis) and he's completely harmless. Not uncommon around here wither. You may remember them from previous posts on 6000 miles... We have a family of them living in the back garden, and with the warmer weather now with us, it's nice to see them out and about, legging it between the woodpile under the braai and the bushes on the far side of the patio. Always with a slightly knowing smile on their little faces.

No. Not that one (although it does get a mention). I'm talking about the annual boat race between the football clubs of Sevilla and Real Betis. No, I hadn't heard of it either. But, thankfully, The Tim Traveller is there - once again - to help us out with a short, but entertaining and educational video: Lovely stuff, as always.

Lady night was unpretty. And so in an effort to make tonight a little prettier, I'm going to make the process start a whole lot earlier. Night night. (It's 6:47pm.)

The chances of being attacked by a carefully concealed Hadeda in your back garden are small... ...but they're never zero.

OK, so this one is only for UK readers, but I do like the idea, and I'm sure if something similar were set up here in SA, it would be massively oversubscribed hugely popular. And yes, I was drawn in by the bright colours and the beagle. It's a sidearm of Christina Poulton's business, and it's there to help out organisations like charities, community groups and voluntary projects.