By municipal law suburbs have to have a certain amount of public open space. More or less behind our house is a large open field with this storm-water canal running through it. I've often seen people just sitting in the field, enjoying the sun, chatting with friends. I've also seen this little canal severely flooded during heavy rains, changing what is now a gentle stream into a fierce torrent. It's strange how a peaceful and beautiful place can so easily change into a terrible and scary one.
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Our neighbourhood
Our house is on the slope of a small hill, which allows us to see the sun rising between the trees. The cool air at this time of the year and the trees being silhouetted by the sun makes the sunrise on a clear day a phenomenal experience.
Eight-legged and scary
This Button Spider (known as the Widow Spider in other parts of the world) appeared to have drowned in the swimming pool. After shooting copious photos, however, I noticed a twitch from one of its eight legs followed by a slow rising and lowering of the abdomen.
I learned two things from this exercise:
1. Never try to drown a spider
2. Garden chairs don't miraculously get clean in the pool
The waves of Kommetjie
One of our regular readers sent us this photo that he took at Kommetjie beach. Isn't it spectacular? If you have a chance, take a look at some of his other photos on Flickr.
Kommetjie (loosely pronounced commey-key in english) is a small seaside suburb, south of Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula, and is known as an excellent surfing spot - though I'm sure that you can tell this from the photo.
This photo goes out to westernflyer who left a comment a few days ago requesting a seaside photo. Voila!
What’s a Criterium anyway?
This race, the MEDIHELP Criterium, is a charity race raising funds for the Jan Kriel Institute - a place of learning for kids with special educational needs.
The Jan Kriel Institute was founded by a minister's wife whose son died during an epileptic fit. Mrs Kriel started the school with only 4 pupils in 1937, and today the school supports over 550 kids with various educational challenges.
Read more about their history here on the institute's website.
In our winter city
I spent some time chatting to the volunteers to find out what is needed most right now. If you have the means and the inclination, whether you live in South Africa or not, please consider helping in one of the following ways:
If you are in Cape Town
The items they need most right now are toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, baby formula, and of course, more pillows and blankets. For the time being they have enough tinned food, toilet paper and sanitary towels - but that can change in a matter of hours, so if you're unsure it might be best to give the TAC office a call on 021 422 1490 before heading to the warehouse.
The warehouse is situated at 50 Canterbury Street (just off Roeland Street in Zonnebloem), and is open from around 8.30am to 10pm. They need volunteers to help with the sorting of donated goods, and also people with cars or bakkies to transport supplies to where they are needed.
The TAC office (4th floor, Westminster House, 122 Longmarket Street) is open 24 hours a day, and they are constantly in need of volunteers to help with phoning around, and doing admin and computer work.
If you are NOT in Cape Town
Please consider donating cash, either to TAC (which stands for Treatment Action Campaign: they are an HIV lobby and advocacy group, who have turned their hand to disaster relief - very effectively, I might add) or the Red Cross. There are a number of ways to donate to TAC, depending on where you live. Get more information here. You can donate to the Red Cross online here.
25 May is Africa Day
Our president, Thabo Mbeki, addressed the nation this evening on television, condemning the attacks and reminding the nation of its debt to the people of Africa. Click here to view his speech.
The guy in yellow is the Kaizer Chiefs soccer team's mascot who walks among the fans, rallying them up to support their team. I selected this photo from our archives because today is Africa Day and football is one passion that all brings all Africans together - even if they don't agree on who the best team is.
One man’s trash is another’s treasure
The part of the rubbish dump that you see in this photo is for garden refuse like branches, leaves, grass, etc. The big yellow machine is used to chop larger branches into finer pieces that are easier to compress and dispose of.
Whenever I stop to drop things off at this rubbish dump there are invariably five or six guys around who are very keen to help people offload their unwanted goods. It's sad in a way, but as the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Lief u my babe
Taking the glass elevator up to my office each day often gives me a moment to ponder this phrase and wonder what the story behind it was. It's needless to say that the intended recipient of this message never owned up to being such.
I wonder if the note had it's intended effect...
Growing, growing…
I subscribe to an interesting service called Fact-a-Day, which reported a little while ago that, in terms of formal employment, the construction sector had the highest annual growth rate (11.5%) of all sectors from 2001 to 2006. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this sector is still continuing to grow faster than any other - there seems to be building work going on wherever I look.
More of Ratanga Junction
Purple Blue
This photo is of the canal at the Canal Walk shopping centre - taken over the weekend, after the Canon roadshow.
For those who have died
Whether here legally or illegally, these are human beings; what is being done to them is entirely inhuman. For the first time since I was a schoolgirl and apartheid was still in existence, I feel saddened and heartsore beyond words for my country.
I have met some wonderfully warm and kind people from other African countries working as car guards or selling their craftwork around Cape Town, and it breaks my heart to think that they might end up as victims of someone else's rage.
We are fortunate in the Western Cape that this level of violence has not yet erupted here. I hope with all my heart that it doesn't, and I hope that a solution is found soon to restore calm to the streets of Gauteng's townships.
Ratanga Junction – The wildest place in Africa
You'll remember from yesterday's post that I attended Canon's Playground roadshow at Ratanga Junction. During the refreshments break we had the opportunity to walk around this deserted theme-park, and although the security officials kept us to our designated area, I managed to snap a few shots. This carousel is relatively small, and is really something to entertain toddlers and dads while mom has a go on the terrible ride called Congo Queen. This particular ride (featured in yesterday's post) is a long boat that rocks back and forth like a huge pendulum, and leaves no way to escape once the nausea sets in.
We don't have kids, but I can assure you that I'd be the first volunteer to babysit and escape the wrath of this Congo Queen.
Canon’s Playground Roadshow
Canon gave away loads of awesome equipment (lenses, camera bags, an external flash, photo printers, remote triggers, magazine subscriptions, etc.), which clearly went down a treat with the audience. Sadly, I didn't win anything this year... but you can bet that I'll be back next year, not only to learn, but also for that remote chance of winning one of Canon's spectacular lenses! ;)
The theme-park was closed to the general public today, so unfortunately I don't have any photos of people having fun or feeling nauseous, as Kerry-Anne and I do respectively. I'll show you one or two more photos from inside Ratanga Junction in the next day or two.
Sun shades
There's one area in the middle of the building where (for asthetic reasons) there are no sun shades. Even though the windows are tinted, offices in this part of the building tends to be a few degrees warmer in the summer months. Every now and again, when my office become to chilly, I find a reason to visit colleagues in this area for a quick cup of coffee. :)
Parking problems
The parking bays closest to the building are snapped up by the few early risers - with the rest being left to park some distance from the building. Parking a little way from the building is good from an exercise point of view, but seriously unpleasant when it's raining or after your car's been baking in Africa's hot summer sun.
Breakfast with a view
I did some research and found that oats is very good for combating LDL (the bad form of cholesterol). A pharmacist also told me about a natural product called Cholesterex, which is said to increase HDL levels, and HDL helps manage LDL in the bloodstream (or so I'm told).
What you see here is my daily breakfast, in the office kitchen - a cup of uncooked oats with cold milk and honey (a good alternative to sugar). This keeps me going until lunch time... after which I'm left ravenous, and head off to the canteen for a quick bite of lunch.
Now as far as the stress portion of the equation is concerned, I'm afraid this is unavoidable without the risk of being fired; and the exercise aspect - well, that's still up for decision. I think I'll give this diet a couple more weeks and then have another test. Perhaps eating better and taking supplements will be good enough? ;)
Healthy fast food?
Nando's have become famous for their off-the-wall advertising over the years; and their in-store signage is pretty clever too, usually combining some sort of poultry theme with whatever's currently in the news.
Are all these lights strictly necessary?
A number of companies - such as the Virgin Active chain of gyms - have taken definite steps to lower their electricity consumption; maybe it's time that others followed suit.
Mother’s Day
It's been a cold and rainy day today so we didn't venture outdoors much. I took this photo at Cape Garden Centre, a local nursery, a while back. Heh - perhaps it's appropriate to post a photo taken at a nursery for Mother's Day. ;)
My own mother reads this blog, so I'm dedicating today's post to her. Thanks mom for the 33 years of love and support - you've done good and I love you loads.
Birthday bash at Sinn’s
Sinn's, named after its chef and proprietor Thomas Sinn, has an awesome cocktail and tapas-style snack menu, and the cocktail lounge is fast becoming a favourite spot for casual get-togethers. And of course, it doesn't hurt that they offer free wi-fi. ;-)
This is no ordinary credit card
This card isn't a normal credit card. I can't use it to buy dinner, a fine set of glasses or even a candle holder. All this piece of plastic is good for is to buy petrol or diesel.
South Africa must be one of the few countries where you cannot buy fuel with your ordinary credit card. How disastrous it must be as a tourist to find out only once you've filled up your rental car's tank that the filling station won't accept your credit card.
Since we can't use traditional credit cards to purchase fuel, we have to either carry wads of cash around with us, draw money at the filling station's ATM, or use one of these special "garage cards".
Chocolate cake!
I'd love to take a poll to find out how much you would expect to pay for this piece of cake in your country. So, please do leave a comment and let's find out where we're able to get the best deal on chocolate cake.
Cross rail tracks only…
Perhaps some unfortunate motorist once had to reverse faster than a pregnant woman at a chocolate exhibition after the vehicle in front came to a halt at the red light. Or, perhaps the city council was smart enough to realise that drivers are often much like sheep. Whichever it is, this sign certainly is large enough to catch anyone's attention.
Austin Seven
About four years ago a good friend of ours dropped off a broken-down Austin Seven at our home for safe-keeping. He had bought it for a song and had the crazy idea that he could make some money out of it. It turned out that it would cost him far too much to restore and so he ended up selling it for around R2000 (200 Euro).
If I remember correctly, the new owner wanted to cut it in half, down the middle, and make some kind of artwork out of it...
The long haul home
We recently had the pleasure of catching the train again for the first time in 10 years. The trains are still the same old trains - minus the aluminium baggage racks, which I'm pretty sure were stolen and sold as scrap metal. That said, as much as things stay the same, some things do change. In this case, the presence of armed security guards was the most apparent. There were (seriously) no fewer than 5 fully-armed, flak-jacketed security guards on the coach we were in. While looking perfectly approachable, all five had "don't mess with us" looks on their faces. I'm guessing that the intention is for them to discourage criminals from even boarding the train.
Although the train was no where close to the standard of trains in Paris, Singapore or Sydney, it was a pretty interesting ride along the Simon's Town route. 25 ZAR buys a ticket from Cape Town station all the way to Simon's Town and back - allowing the traveller to hop on and hop off at any stop along the way.
Winter is upon us
Kerry-Anne and I ventured outdoors this afternoon and popped in at the coffee shop attached to the Wordsworth bookshop at Willowbridge (an outdoor shopping mall). If I had left Kerry-Anne there she would have spent the remainder of the day just like the subject of today's photo... reading and drinking coffee (though in her case it was white hot chocolate).
Into False Bay
Click through to our Extras blog for a few more photos of what you may see out on this huge concrete tongue.
Robert Mugabe has lost?
In case you're unaware of what's happened in Zimbabwe, let me explain. It's been five weeks since the Zimbabwean elections and only today were the results revealed. It appears as though the current president Robert Mugabe (leader of Zanu-PF) has lost to Morgan Tsvangirai's party (the MDC). Neither has gained an outright majority which means that a second round of voting will have to take place for one party to establish an outright majority.
For good reason many claim foul on the part of Zanu-PF, but it appears as though it's back to the waiting game to see who will rule the country. God bless and peace be with you Zimbabwe.
Fresh fish fillets
I would have bought a fish from her, but thought it not wise to attempt the long train trip home with a freshly cut fish under my arm.