The beauty of the ordinary

Our dining room and stairs, with the light metered for Holly asleep in her secret corner.

Ange in our galley-like kitchen, malva pudding for some friends coming to dinner.

Angela and Liony - industrious morning

The strange beauty of the slightly stuffed wall, the arch, Simon
and Melissa's finger-lady holding the keys - a wedding gift

So why these photos?  I took a mid-day trip on "David Goldblatt Rail"  yesterday, my prolonged absence from SA leaving a longing - so I went through some of his photos that I so love, and which somehow anchor me - the little dry towns passed through over the years, on the journey from here to there.  Graaf-Reinet for example.  The way the Goldblatt Rail trip works is you look at the picture, and then you use Google Maps to go and look at the place as it is now - but of course you are constrained by whatever 360 degree photo that has been uploaded by some kind soul.  It was pretty cool, and did a pretty good job of temporarily quenching my thirst. It also made me giggle.  For example, here is a picture of his of Graaf-Reinet of a young family.  To me, a town passed through on the way to the Eastern Cape - a dry and dusty oasis of sorts in the desolation around.

If you look it up on Google Maps, the 360 degree photo tagged there is really of the town in the distance, taken from a vantage point looking down over the appropriately named Valley of Desolation.  Here's a triptych of screen shots from my phone.  From the left, if you look carefully you can see the town in the distance.  In the middle one, the Valley of Desolation, for what it is.  Both must be taken from some sort of a viewing point (reached by some dusty track no doubt) - and this is the real gem - because it has a sign, shown in the third pic which reads, delightfully: "Don't even think about throwing rocks into the valley below" in both English and Afrikaans.  Reading that really felt like being home:-)

Anyway, I digress, one of the many things I love about Goldblatt are his photos of the details of the incredible beauty of the ordinary all around us, which is what prompted the photos above.  This is his photo of "the voorkamer of a widow in Hillbrow":

23 years, bling shoes and baldness

 Yesterday Ange and I have been married for 23 years.  That's a surprise, the fast flowing river of time.  It called for a celebration, and so we broke out the glad rags (including the damn fine black and whites, freshly polished) and went to a wonderful restaurant - a rare thing in the past so many covid months.

I was trying to work out where it was that I got psychologically hooked on this type of shoe.  I think it was in Marabastad (does that even exist any more) with a Pretoria News photographer, Walter Pitso, in about 1986.  It took me years to find a pair that fitted.  I can remember getting Roy, Ange's brother, to take me to downtown Durban once to look for a pair. Eventually I found these in New York around 6 years ago.  They are Doc Martens - doubly cool, with an air sole :-)

  

All this passage of time stuff. The cool part of where it is that one eventually goes bald is that you have to make an effort to see there.  Mobile phone cameras are a disaster.  Bloody hell.

Metaphors of people

Sixteen months in Clearwater Bay - I am so getting into the details and their humour.  Every day, without fail, I ride or walk hills and swim.  Until a while ago I ran too - but am having some sort of hamstring grief that makes that hard for the time being.  The trip to Beach 1 takes me past this bus-stop, where chairs thrown out have been collected off the nearby tip by the local cleaners and lined up under the shelter for wary bus passengers to use.  Such a kindness.

I'm so struck how people-like our discards are.  Lined up, waiting, different shapes and sizes, with different features and talents.  The regular folk, some squeezing in, some claiming their space; the siblings that look so alike, one more punctual than the other; the business-person standing tall, five (not four) legs and wheels - rotating (you know, better, should be in charge actually); the robust twins; the slightly moth-eaten grandfather, old fashioned clothes and with a wonky arm, but properly dressed (and once a business man).  I just love it.

Further down, the slopes leading to the beach - overcast day - the phone camera couldn't handle the intensity of the greens and blues, so had to average things out with a dose of yellow (I fixed it with photoshop).  Tsk tsk.

 And in the parking-lot, a hammered over-nighter, with this delightfully out of context badge.  Made me smile, because I've crossed a piece of that road on a bicycle - just in that world the sign was blue.

Dinner at Hebe with Ange and the Pickle

Couldn't resist this, because without intending it I took a pic of Ange and Ev heading into Hebe which will give you some perspective on how the fourteen year old has grown.  Seems apt, and Aiden turns 17 tomorrow, which is somewhat alarming.

Just love the Hebe deck- happy place - some semblance of normal returning (an illusion).

The day after Easter

Delightfully, is also a holiday in Hong Kong - though I felt guilty about not working.  Aaaargh.  Certainly there is plenty to do, but that is tomorrow's problem.  There's been a lot of banter in No89GF of late about the actual tennis rankings.  Aiden seems to have accepted that the Pickle's prowess on the court has overshadowed his, Ange who played league here for years hasn't played since 2019 (and in fairness is probably still number 1 with her nagging consistency and hyper-competitive will to chase everything down), I haven't played for probably a year longer.  So Ev threw down the gauntlet, and we hit the courts in Po Lam at 6.45am this morning, a delightful start to the day.  I can barely walk now :-/

Yesterday we wen't to lunch at Liz and Pete's place, it was really divine - delightfully cool and grey sky and sea-wise, but then delightfully coloured flowers, and a uniquely decorated hat for everyone.  It was so lovely and so pretty - along with Liz's kaleidoscope of flotsam along the wall of the pool.  In the morning Aiden and I made a massive pot of butternut soup - so nice to cook something with him.

My hat was perfect for me I thought: firstly, on the top it has two sunflowers (which I so strongly associate with South Africa - I remember they used to pop up outside my bedroom window as a child from time to time, thanks to me throwing old hamster food out there :-) and one of those dangerous looking red and white mushrooms from Newland's forest; on the side a Namaqualand daisy with a couple of ladybugs which marvelously match the mushroom, and then from next to the front door of 121 Perseus, a row of  hydrangeas, topped with a bunch of roses which look like these ones (I just love this portrait of Rose):

 

Happy Easter

The boys, stuffing around

Holly, hard at work.

Aiden post run and swim and hosepipe rinse off - automatic good mood

Howzit from all of us to all of you - hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend

 

The beaches re-open and we await the next wave...

 

There is that saying about insanity, and expecting different outcomes from the same inputs, and it is with heavy heart that I can't help saying that I fear that for Hong Kong.  With vaccies far from rolled out, the beaches opened again yesterday, and it feels like all seven plus million of us launched into the summer weather.  I'm relying on the picture above to load full size if you click into it - but bear in mind - this is Sai Wan beach, you can't drive here - so if you can, in the distance, check out the number of campers spending the night on the beach. A gorgeous late afternoon it was.

The day before Aiden and a couple of his mates spent the night camping on one of the village beaches, which weren't subject to the closure rules - and no such crowds - I was on my way out for a swim in the morning and could see their two tents in the middle left in front of the turquoise wall.

At the beach - moth still - decorated by shards of green leaf.

We got to Sai Wan thanks to an invite from Robyn and Pieter and their new RIB which is a machine of note.

The Clearwater Bay peninsula shrinking in the background

Tasty Udon noodles and rice with beef black bean sauce for a late lunch.

Late afternoon before leaving, people having a massive jol, but at what price and when?