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More from South Africa 2006 2/2
Part Two After only a short time in Cape Town, we were just bowled over by how genuinely friendly and relaxed most people were. We met very few white, South Africans. Those we did meet, seemed to be a little tense and abrupt and had little time for the tourists in their midst. Not so the Black South Africans who overflowed with friendliness and welcome. Following Ian’s helpful list of ‘things to do’ we visited the well-known and highly colourful, gay quarter at Waterkant. Here the streets were wide and sunny and the buildings clustered along their pavements in a cheerful array of green, orange, yellow and blue. The only…
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Eating out
(The second of my holiday posts) Dining out is part of the holiday, for at least some of the time. On the whole, the food has been good and the service great. There have been those odd occasions though, when things have seemed a little, well, odd. Take the other night. The guest book recommends a nearby hotel for food and drinks. Lisa and I are sceptical. We both recall a holiday to Italy a few years ago. My sister was with us at the time. We decided to check out a hotel that looked very inviting from the roadside. We enquired at the desk if non-residents were welcome to…
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Donkeys, pool-men and an end to suspicion
This post was scribbled during my recent holiday to Rhodes. What makes grown men and women think that riding a donkey up steep, winding steps in temperatures of 40 degrees, will be fun? I have not fallen into this trap I hasten to add but plenty do. Hence, as we wander through the labyrinth of streets that make up the City of Lindos, we witness many folk of mature years struggling to climb aboard these truculent beasts of burden and once aboard, to stay seated. Nor is this penchant for self-harm shared solely by the older generation. As we step aside to allow one donkey-train to pass, we note a…
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The Doll’s House
This is the second of my scheduled re-runs covering my absence from the computer. This post was first published on 27th September 2010. I have always been one to make something out of nothing, in the creative sense I mean. I wouldn’t like you to imagine I am prone to hysterical outbursts at the slightest provocation! So, given a few cardboard boxes and some egg cartons when the kids were young, I’d disappear with boxes and children for a bit, returning with a space ship or a sweet shop or anything else that our imaginations could dream up. So confident were my children that I could make them anything they…
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“I heard that – Pardon?” *
As I will be on an island somewhere in the blue Aegean Sea for the next couple of weeks, I am scheduling a couple of re-runs to fill the gap. The following post was first published on 9th September 2010. This post is inspired by what I now see as selfish behaviour on my part. Yesterday, the telephone didn’t stop ringing. As well as calls from family, there were many from British Gas, BT and a variety of sales people not to mention those irritating automated calls that begin by telling you it is an important public announcement (it never is). Having spent most of the day answering the…
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Adventures in South Africa 2006 1/2
As I prepare to pack for the holiday I mentioned in my previous post, I thought it an opportune time to schedule a few memories of a South African trip taken in 2006. The following is the first part of my account. Part two will follow in due course. Part One I have always wanted to go to New Zealand. New Zealand intrigues me and not just because I believe that is where all the Hobbits come from. New Zealand has been on my list of places to visit for years. As my fiftieth birthday approached and folk were deciding how I should celebrate it, a quiet drink, a…
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Talking myself into it
I am about to go on my summer holiday. Am I excited? Trying to be. Am I looking forward to it? Trying to. Am I driving my family mad? Yes. Do I need my head examined? Maybe! The thing is, however good a holiday sounds, I am one of those people who would be quite content to stay at home, in theory if not in practice. This may surprise you given that I have already told you all how I left my home and family and travelled 5000 miles to spend three weeks with an eccentric, undeniably strange and sometimes bizarre woman, the likes of whom I had never met…
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Festivals and BBQs
I was never a ‘festival goer’. That is to say, I could never see the attraction of camping in a muddy field, with limited sanitary arrangements, soggy sandwiches and warm beer. Much less did I ever fancy standing with thousands of other people to listen to a band. Yes, I am well aware that to some people this is absolute bliss. (Jane G, if you are reading this, I admire your stamina!) I am not sure whether it is my aversion to the mud and undeniable discomfort or my claustrophobic reaction to crowds that bred this dislike of such things in me but dislike them I do. The only outdoor…
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Curiouser and Curiouser
Our regular trips to the gorgeous seaside town of Fowey, (pronounced FOY) in Cornwall, never fail to delight and to throw new experiences our way. A while ago we seemed to be in a Celebrity hotspot. Celebrities wandered the streets and sat at dining tables with us, they queued for groceries and stood in doorways making TV adverts while we lesser mortals tried to look inconspicuous. If you are wondering what I am talking about, I point you in the direction of: Fowey Royal Regatta – Celebrity or not Celebrity? Sept. 2010 Our latest visit, however, threw up an entirely new experience. That experience came in the form of a new…
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More haste less speed
“Oh My God! Look at that poor woman Beryl!”
