DOING LIFE

A VISIT to the MOTHER CITY

{... and some Jewellery commissions}

Below is another international jewellery commission I received, all the way for Norway, for a slider watch and bracelet set. Lets hope that the future owner will be satisfied with the result. It seems that these slider bracelets and watches combined with pearls are quite popular and I would ascribe it to the fact that it can be worn with any outfit, which makes it very versatile.

Once again you will have to go and get a cuppa, put your feet up and scroll through some pics of South Africa's most beautiful city, the Mother city, Cape Town.

Conroy had to attend another coaching course at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business. The campus is situated adjacent to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Its quite an interesting campus as the old Cape Town prison has been converted into lecture rooms. Most of the original features have been kept, which makes for quite an interesting site. A part of the prison has also been converted into the Breakwater Lodge, a Protea Hotel, where we stayed for five nights. And naturally the guests booking in are assigned a cell number instead of a room number.

The Breakwater Lodge was very convenient in that Conroy could literally fall out of bed into his lecture room and for me it was within comfortable walking distance from the V&A Waterfront. Conroy left the hotel room at 7:30 and only returned at 6:30/7:00pm, which gave me loads of me-time. I hired a taxi to take me to the Bead Merchants in Long Street. Its quite a big shop with two floors, but quite disappointing in that they were all out of stock with the items I were specifically looking for and had nothing different and unusual.

The following day I took a stroll down the V&A Waterfront Shopping centre where I had an appointment with Partners In Hair for a cut and colour. It was the most disastrous hair appointment I have had in my 40+ lifetime. Firstly I asked that only about 10cm be cut of and i want everything one length. And then I only wanted a colour 2 shades darker which we agreed to after looking at colour swatches. Well when the colour started changing after it has been applied, I could see that it was seriously dark, but thought that after washing it would be find. But as time went on it became darker and darker and needless to say, my mood as well!

After washing, it even appeared darker, nearly black. Stupid that I was, I should have just left it there and not even consider a cut. But I reluctantly went ahead and she started cutting. She started cutting in the back and I could not immediately see what she was doing and a short while later realised that she is chopping my hair off just under my ear, which was far from a bit longer than shoulder length. Well she continued to chop my hair randomly, never ever have I seen a qualified hairdresser, cut so bad. My hair has been merely chopped off randomly all over ... just horrible. I am off to my local hairdresser, Pieter this coming Friday to get the mess sorted (he will of course be very cross with me) which means I will have to go seriously shorter. The colour is washing out bit by bit after every wash ... never washed my hair so often. The moral of the story, never ever do such major changes to your hairstyle at hairdresser you don't know. And all this after forking out just under a R1,000.

The next day which was a Saturday, I arranged a full day tour with a tour company, Cape Rainbow Tours, around the Cape Peninsula. I was very impressed with this tour company. The 12 seater bus was fully air conditioned, comfy seats and the tour operator had a microphone and he updated us with loads of interesting facts, as we drove along. It was quite interesting as a SA resident how the country was described to overseas tourists and to see their reactions. Things that are merely part of our every day lives, are often unusual and strange to overseas tourists. There were 8 Swedish, 3 Germans and of course one GP (Gangsters Paradise i.e. Johannesburg) tourist on the bus, yours truly.

Below is a collage of some pics I took during a 1 hour visit to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I have been here about 20 years ago. It is still just stunningly beautiful and of course one hour is hardly enough time to appreciate the natural beauty.

Below are the lighthouse at Cape Point situated within the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Most of the tourists with me on the bus were 55+ years old with only 3 of us being younger (mmm ... nice being able to think of myself as younger). So only the 3 of us climbed up to the Lighthouse.

And of course no tour is complete without visiting the Penguin colony at Boulders. Our tour guide was very sneaky and took us to a spot adjacent to the actual Boulders, where one need to pay entrance fee. This was fantastic as one could really get up close and personal with these characterful creatures of the sea. These Jackass Penguins are endangered as there food sources are fished from the sea by fishing industries and they have to swim much further to find food, often not making it back to shore to feed their young. Then there also oil spills caused by boats. The oil clogs up their feathers and they loose their waterproofing. But, I am sure you agree, what a life they have, lazing around and preening one another.

Above is a young penguin still missing its full plumage.

At Hout Bay, I initially decided not to partake in the optional boat ride to visit seal island, as I get seriously sea sick and very quickly as well. But there was an 82 year old lady from Germany with us on the tour, who I in a way started bonding with, helping her in and out of the bus. She had a stick with her and the tour operator put a small step bench next to the bus to aid her getting on and off the bus. She always held onto my arm, just to balance herself and this made me think back of how I use to help my late Mom. Well to make a long story short, this 82 year old lady was a real 'bok vir sport' i.e. translated, game for anything, and went on the boat, so of course this 'young' lady could not stay behind.

Fortunately the boat ride was 20 minutes to the seal island and 20 minutes back. Even in this short space of time, I really had to concentrate focusing on the horizon to contain my nausea feeling. The swell was 2m which meant it was everything but a smooth ride. At least I managed to maintain my dignity. It was a beautiful day and as you can see below the sky was a beautiful fresh blue.

If, I can remember the beach below is Sandy Bay.

Below is a few evening/night shots of the V&A Waterfront. The building far right with the white roof lights are the Restaurant called the Den Anker. We had the most delicious Kingklip and Creme Brule there one evening.

Below, Table Mountain in the background.

Some seals below getting ready for the night.

Thank you once gain for sharing my Cape Town trip with me and for your lovely comments.