Small decisions. Split seconds. Life and death

I like speed. Not the drug - never had that, never intend to either. No, I like driving fast. In my time, I’ve had my fair share of tickets, but in recent years, I’ve been trying hard to slow down, to stick to the speed limit. I’ve even installed one of those recorder app thingys on my phone, linked to my car insurance, to encourage me to slow down. And thank God for that, because last night, on my way to the matric dance, if I’d been doing my preferred speed on the highway, I would have killed a pedestrian, and possibly myself as well.

It was dark (it’s winter), and I was in the fast lane on a piece of road with a gentle S-bend on an incline. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pedestrian steps into the road from the concrete divider. Almost as if in slow-mo, I process this and think - “no way! This guy’s seen me, he’s going to step back.” He wasn’t stumbling and did not appear drunk. He just calmly walked across the road. In that moment of incredulity of realizing that he wasn’t stepping back, that he either truly did not see me, or was not aware of the danger of crossing a busy highway at night, I had to decide how to respond - which way around him to aim for. I braked like mad, swerved, and missed him, but then nearly hit the concrete barrier, so swerved again, and then nearly lost control of the car as I tried to avoid going into the next lane and hitting the car a few meters behind.
In the lane next to me, another car was sitting a few meters behind me, almost in my blind spot. I don’t think the driver saw the pedestrian either, until I swerved initially. As I was focused on trying not to lose control of the car, I didn’t see what happened next. But as I managed to glance at into the rear view mirror, I saw the pedestrian’s bag go flying out from behind the 2nd car, with all his stuff flying everywhere. My best guess is that it clipped him, or at least, clipped his bag. He survived though.
Thank God I hadn’t had my usual Friday afternoon end-of-the-school-week glass of wine, or, in this case, the end-of-term-celebratory glass of wine. Thank God I was going the speed limit. Because if either of those things had been different, the end result could have been very different.
Small decisions. Split seconds. Life and death.

Functional Art

Don't you just love this 4-seater bench? Designed so that each alternate person faces the opposite way, making it easier to have a face-to-face conversation while sitting next to each other. But I also just love the detail of the mosaics. Beautiful. I wish there was more functional art like this around Cape Town. This bench is in The Company Gardens.

Geocaching

We went geocaching again yesterday. Spectacular fail on two sites, but spectacular success on one.

The one we found was at this fountain in Mowbray. The fountain it's about a century old, and the twin of the fountain in Rondebosch.
Nellie was the hero who found it. She was super-excited, so I let her write her name in the cache list.

I think this could become addictive...

Bonnievale worse than Hillbrow?

I heard some stories today about life in Bonnievale... horrific stories. Granted, it's hearsay, 3rd hand information, but the quote that stuck with me is that someone in power in the boxing world said he'd recently run a trial event with the youth in Bonnievale, and the aggression he saw there was worse than in Hillbrow.

With the recent death of a 6yr old, it would seem that things in Bonnievale are almost ready to boil over. Drugs is HUGE amongst kids. One 74yr old is working hard to change things there. She's got a programme going for pre-school kids, as well as for teenagers. Apparently, she told my source that many of the 18 yr olds she was working with did not even know what a toothbrush is for!!!

I don't really have many details, but I've asked for them. If even HALF of what I was told today is true, then Bonnievale is in desperate need, and I can't stand by and do nothing. I don't know what to do, but I know some people who might. I know my sleep will be troubled tonight, no doubts about that.

Photo catch-up time

It's been such a LOOOOONG time since I posted some photos. I finally got around to getting them off my phone and so I thought I'd post a few.

This is one of a series of photos I've taken while taking the dogs for a walk. Don't we live in such a beautiful part of the world? I love CPT, and this is one reason why.

This photo was taken at Milnerton beach. My kids ADORE the waves (what kids don't??) This was the day I took the unintentional self-portrait (posted on FB around the time I took it). I love this one because of the contrast - my big girl is so little, and my little boy is so big! You can hardly see it in this photo, but the new stadium really does dominate the cityscape, and I think it's a rather pretty addition to the traditional cityscape.

Here's my little boy all growing up. He's being helpful, putting things on the checkout conveyor belt for us. He's entered that phase of life where being helpful is starting to be something he wants to be. (Of course, he is still a little terror at other times, point blank refusing to do whatever I tell him to do... sigh! I guess that's part of being a kid.)

And these are my other boys... Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee, Abstinence and Cell Phone (and yes, there is a story behind each of those names!). Towards the end of the term I was seconded away from chess to help run the DT system. I've managed these boys since I arrived at the school, so this was my 4th year of close relationships with them. It's only been a few weeks of me no longer being involved, and already I miss them like crazy! Thank God I still teach them, or I think I might go stir crazy! Whatever am I going to do at the end of next year when the elder three leave school for good???? 

Canal Walk Century City

Yesterday we went to Canal Walk and decided to take a walk right around the canal. WOW! It's the first time we've done that walk (all the way down to Intaka Island and back) and I was stunned at how beautiful it is. I bet that most Capetonians not only don't know this walk exists, but have never done it. If you're one of those, it is definitely worth doing.

This is the view from Knightsbridge (an exclusive apartment block) towards Canal Walk.
This waterfall is half underneath the bridge that leads to Knightsbridge.

All along the walk there are little alcoves, or benches, for stopping and resting. This one was particularly pretty.
A sign of hope? The canal has several Egpytian geese around, many with goslings. At the other end of the canal from Knightsbridge they are busy building a new suspension bridge and the pool in front of whatever building is there (hotel??) has been drained (or not yet filled?) but the duck/ goose ladder is still there. It seemed like such a sign of hope to me - planning for things to come.

SHARK!!

While out looking at the lights in Adderley St, we stopped to feed Nathan and discovered a lovely little square at the front (back?) of the Capetonian Hotel that links across to Jetty St. The square is filled with interesting, life-size statues of people, including a child with his little black motorbike. Closer to Jetty St side, there are several rotating sculptures of sharks.

While my rational mind KNEW that these were just sculptures and that we were far away from the ocean where their real counterparts were, the fact that they were shark-shaped and that they were moving kept me in a state of anxiety the entire time I was there photographing them. It struck me that there really is something instinctual about the fear of large predators. They're well worth a visit though! Pretty amazing sculptures.

Miserable weather

What is it about cold, windy, wet weather that makes us all so miserable? In autumn, as the wind bands shift north again and our prevailing wind direction changes, the weather is rather inclement. After a few gorgeously hot, clear days we seem to be back in winter. First we've had gale force winds for a few days, and today the rain arrived.

There's a big difference between the winter rain in the UK and the winter rain in SA. In the UK it drizzles interminably. In SA it buckets for about a week, then stops for about a week, then buckets for another week, etc. I guess that's why I learnt to hate rain - in the UK you can still go outdoors when it's raining because you don't get a) blown away or b) soaked.

I did have grand plans of FINALLY getting into the garden again today. The lawn is about 15cm high in places. The weeds think they own the lawn, as well as the beds. The dogs think they own anything they can dig up (like my roses). Anything that's left, the snails think belongs to them. I was determined to prove them all wrong today.

After a very disturbed night for me, an emotionally and physically exhausting week back at work, and after seeing the foul weather, I decided to head back to bed this morning after I'd been up for a while. I didn't get much sleep, between Nellie's loud playing and Nate's gurgling to be picked up, but enough that I felt I could suck it up and play nicely with them.

My next plan was then to make use of the foul weather and try to recreate a few files I'd lost in my laptop reformat... (no energy to tell that story now). However, I'd forgotten that the kids have a 6th sense for that kind of thing. No sooner do you decide upon a plan to work than they suddenly discover they absolutely have to, have to, HAVE TO have your attention. So - here we are, at about a quarter to five, and this is the first time I've got to the computer since this morning.

This evening is a no-work night. It's a DATE NIGHT. Yay! Nellie is off at a nursery school sleep-over, and Nate is usually so good about sleeping at night that it's almost as if he's not here after about 7pm. G's organised a fabulous meal, and I'm going to dress up, and we're going to eat at the dining room table. What a treat!

I'm thinking that, to finish it off, I'd like to watch a movie, but we'll see how time goes - in this weather I don't really want to go out and get a movie, and there seems to be something to watch on telly that I don't NEED to go out.

What I would really love right now though, is a big glass of wine. Methinks we will have to open a bottle...and maybe light a fire later. Yup, it's definitely winter again.

Cape Town sunset

These were taken from the balcony of Common Ground Cafe next to Rondebosch Common. We were there for a wedding reception. What a fabulous venue! (and smashing food too!!)

TBG: The secret (or maybe not-so-secret-anymore) celebrity

I've recently started reading a Cape Town blogger Seth (2Oceansvibe.com). It's a site all about Cape Town stuff. If you're looking for deep, meaningful, insightful stuff, then it's not the site for you. (If you want that, then you should be reading the Mail and Guardian's ThoughtLeader blog. Lots to chew on there!) No, rather, this is typically student culture kind of stuff. But it's local, and as everyone knows - local is lekka.

So anyway, I've just come across the most bizarre thing from the site. Way back in August 2004, Seth commented about an anonymous guy who just appeared in a photo he took*#. Well, what with one thing and another, the guy, nicknamed TBG (Tall Blonde Guy) took on a celebrity life of his own. Or rather, 2oceans readers gave him a life of his own. Since then, whenever someone has spotted him, they snap a quick pic and send it to 2oceans. What's amazing is that there are readers from ALL OVER SOUTH AFRICA who have done this. Yup. TBG (not to be confused with the other TBG - Token Black Guy - also a Capetonian, but he has a name... I did find it on a website during my trawl to discover the identity of 2oceans' TBG.. sorry, can't find the site now. Can you tell that I'm stuck at home today and don't feel like doing anything constructive??) has developed a real cult following.

Apparently, you can see him 'all over [Cape] town'. Hmm... Can't say I've ever seen him, but then I guess that since I live a rather insular life (having kids & pets will do that to you), was out of the country for nearly 8 years and work in a job where you can't really leave the office between 7.45am-3pm, I can't really comment.

So - I will make a plan to get out and about more in the remaining weeks of my maternity leave, and while I'm out and about more, to keep my eyes peeled for TBG. Who knows - maybe I will get my minute of fame by snapping a photo of him with me and sending it in to 2oceans. A girl can dream, right?

* That reminds me of another story... about G's brothers who went through a phase of trying to wangle themselves into the background of other people's photos. That would be all well and good, except they did so with their fingers up their noses. Ja, even I have a photo of one of them trying to do that to me. Well, he succeeded, I guess, since he's in the photo, eh? If I can dig it up I might post it for your viewing pleasure. Then again, maybe not.

# If you want to see it you should go to the site, and click on the link in the left hand menu. I tried to get the link for you, but the site seems to have crashed in the last 15 mins. Sorry.