Seasons' Change

Just reading a friend's blog entry about the onset of spring (in the northern hemisphere) promted me to write an equivalent post about a sudden change in the weather in Cape Town.

After months of hot sunshine, blue skies and hardly a cloud to be seen, with the resultant absence of rain,  Sunday 20th March, which was the Equinox, or the day, which occurs twice a year when the whole Earth has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness, and when the sun highest over the Equator, seems to have acted like a switch pushing this part of the world into a new season.

On Monday, which was a public holiday in South Africa (Human Rights' Day), I went out for my usual jog around 7am, it was cloudy and I felt a few spots of rain. It was still hot and humid throughout the day and the low cumulus cloud from earlier had transformed into beautiful high cirrus whisps later in the day.

Then around 4.30am on Tuesday our bedroom was lit up by a flash of lightning, followed about 10 seconds later by a peel of thunder.  This was repeated over and over during the next hour and when we got up, the ground was damp from rain.  The sky was overcast all day, prompting me to not to but my washing outside, when I went out and I was so glad I had heeded the warning, because around 4.30pm we had another sudden downpour.  Then the skies cleared again, but the temperature has dramatically fallen.

Last night we didn't put the fan on, for the first time in months and I needed a blanket on top of our sheet, half way through the night. Today, Wednesday, the sky is again overcast and it is definitely cool and very windy.

Looks like summer is over!

Alex Day - follow up

We just received an email from Joanne & David, retelling the events from Saturday.

Here is a selection and some photos:

"Yesterday, a day we had been dreading turned out to be a special day of reflection, remembering and thankfulness for Alex.

 

We started by planting some bulbs around his tree with 10 of our closest friends and then we all talked about Alex.  There were tears but there was also laughter.

 

                                   

 

Not long after, his friends, who had organised a balloon release started to arrive.  So many hugs and talk of other fund raising events they are doing, thoughtful gifts we were given followed by more tears and laughter.  The kindness and friendship his friends have shown in memory of Alex means such a lot to us. 

 

                                       

 

It was the most beautiful day, the best we had had in a long time.  Alex was a ray of sunshine and he certainly bought the sunshine.  We released over 100 balloons into the beautiful blue sky, the sun almost making the balloons twinkle, it was magical.

 

Afterwards the same 10 friends came back to our house and we watched DVDs of Alex, looked at photos, read some of the cards and letters we had received and then we had a meal of Alex's favourite food."

 

I think this was a really creative way to celebrate Alex's life, and so lovely for us to be able to share in it despite the distant.

Alex Day

Today, 19th March 2011, it is one year since our dear nephew, Alex James Pearson, died.  Alex was almost 12 years old and he had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Despite his restricted physical abilities, Alex enjoyed an amazing quality of life, right to the end.  He was a vibrant character: always quick witted, full of fun and smiles, and regarded his 'specialness' as a gift, rather than a trial.

Alex brought sunshine into the lives of everyone he met - he was a true inspiration. His funeral was attended by over 400 adults and children, whose lives were touched for the better by knowing Alex.  Further, there were countless hits on the special facebook tribute pages started by his schoolmates.

His parents, Joanne and David decided to call today, 'Alex Day', when family and friends can once again celebrate his life, which 'burns brightly in our hearts'. Local friends will gather at their home to watch videos and talk about his life and then gather on Gold Hill Common for a balloon release, near to his tree - a now, 13 year-old silver birch, which will continue to live on in his memory.

At the end of last year, when we selected photographs for our family calendar, we chose this one of Alex for March 2011, as our way of remembering him thoughout March:

It is my favourite photo of Alex, taken when he met Jeremy Clarkson, from Top Gear. The bright yellow Hummer T-shirt is typical of Alex, reflecting his bright personality.

Skiing 2011

Our skiing holiday is almost over.  We had blue skies and sunshine for the first two days, followed by cloudy and windy conditions for another two days, when the sky was heavy with snow, but we didn't get any fresh snow. Now late in the season, the slopes are not crowded, but there are many places of little or no snow cover, and the piste management is working very hard each night to make sure the most popular slopes are well groomed.

Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of our short trip:

  Aerial view of the French Alps from the plane.

Empty slopes and little snow on the mountains.



Ski lifts closed due to high winds.

Button lifts always open...

...but can be a little tricky to get off! (Here Andy should have come over the brow of the mound before releasing the 'button', which is on an elasticated strap. The poor skier following behind [in yellow] couldn't even make it onto the mound as Andy was still in the way.)

There are three types of lifts, 'buttons', chairs and gondolas, which a friend of ours refers to as buttons, benches and bubbles. 

 t

Inside the 'bubble'.

  Chocolate break in the warm sunshine.

'Apres ski' in the jacuzzi........"ahhhhhhhhhhhh".

Bizarre & Basaar!

One day this week I took my teenage friends Helena & Jaco into town to see the Wildlife Photographer of the year 2010 exhibition, on in Cape Town until March 12th. During 2007 we had visited the Iziko museums of Cape Town extensively as I tagged along for their various homeschooling trips, so it was great to be revisiting familiar places but seeing new exhibitions.
Obviously visitors are not allowed to take photos of the exhibits, but we spent a lot of time there, viewing and reading the information about each winner and runner ups, in the various sections.
"The exhibition offers an extraordinary insight into the beauty, drama and diversity of the natural world." (taken from Iziko web site)
We were particularly impressed with the under 10's section, but every section had it's own merits and inspired each of us to take better photos.

Then we moved to another exhibit called Virtual Earth, which is due to completed in July 2011. However there is an amazing 'taster' taking pride of place as visitors to the Natural History section reach the top of the grand staircase:

:                                     
Again I copied this explanation from the Iziko web pages:

'Virtual Earth takes the form of a Gaiasphere, an interactive digital theatre housed in a large (3.2 m diameter) back-projected hemisphere with which animations of changes happening on the earth’s surface can be shown.

From a touch screen you select different views of our changing earth, such as the earth at night, ozone hole evolution, earth surface temperatures, earth core structure or interactive atmospheric predictions.'

                                             
...and a closer view of the touch screen


                                   

We experimented with various elements and then decided to have some fun!  We rotated the Earth vertically so that it turned 'upside down'. It was such a bizarre view:

                             
...and to put it in context, here is me standing next to the 'upside down world':

                                       

Of course, from space there is no such thing as an upside down world, and we discussed how diffferent the world looks from this perspective and how we get used to the stereotypical view of a flat map with America on the left and Australia on the right.

We particularly enjoyed the Tsunami 2005 section (which actually was incorrect as the Tsunami happened on December 26th 2004), which showed how the waves spread out from their source in the Indian Ocean, right around the globe:
                              

This photo clearly shows the impact on South America.  In January 2005 when we returned to Rio de Janeiro, after spending Christmas in UK, we noticed that the landmark rock, known locally as Recreio Rock, which had been attached to the shoreline by a narrow sandbank, was now an island.  Friends explained that this was the result of the Tsunami waves washing away the sandbank, and over the next year we saw how the sandbank gradually reformed, making access onto the rock much easier.  

It was another example of the bizarre or strange events, which force us to adjust our viewpoint of the world.

We found this view of the earth's surface temperatures very colourful, and again bizarrely are shown on the oceans not the land surfaces: 

                             
...and this is where we left it, for the next visitors.

We returned to the car to get our picnic and found a VERY tame squirrel waiting for us:

 It jumped straight onto Helena's jeans, running up her leg, so we took a small piece of bread from a sandwich so that it would repeat this and I could capture the moment:

This was another bizarre happening...

Then, the next day I decided to visit a 'basaar', which is a South African summer fete, which was held at a large Dutch Reformed Church, nearby. I had seen the notices on lamp posts earlier in the week. It was a late Friday afternoon event, for four hours. When I arrived it was packed with people milling around the various stalls and enjoying the hot sunshine.

It was 90% food stalls and groups of friends had met up, were chatting and enjoying different types of food. There were hot food stalls, like burgers and sausages, which they call 'patties' and 'woerst', pies with gravy, and pancakes, and then lots of cold foods, like wraps, salads, cakes, biscuits, rusks, and candies of various kinds. Inside the church hall there were stalls where homemade foods were sold, packaged up and then there were drinks (hot and cold) and icecream stalls.

There were lots of inflatable games for children, like bouncy castles, ball pools and one I hadn't seen before called bubble ball:

The plastic ball is unzipped for the child to get inside, then sealed and rolled onto a pool of water, where they can walk around the pool. I did wonder how long they could stay inside such a contraption, as the air supply would soon be depleted and they would be breathing carbon dioxide. Perhaps it has a breathable skin or section which doesn't allow water to pass through?

In another area they were a few stalls selling brik-a-brak, second hand books and toys, and fruit and vegetables.  I wandered around this section and bought several items very cheaply (plastic containers for the fridge, some tall glasses, a couple of books and a bunch of grapes) spending R30 in total, less than £3.

I watched some children having their faces painted and then started wandering back through the crowd. A couple sitting on plastic chairs recognised me before I saw them, and I stopped to chat for a while, realizing how heavy my bag was becoming. They pulled up another chair and we continued to chat, as other friends of theirs joined them. They asked me if I'd seen the Pastors' Pizza stall, which I hadn't, so I decided to go and look.

The church leaders were wearing red chef's hats and aprons, and there was a highly organised conveyor belt of them putting ingredients onto already baked pizza bases and then into small pizza ovens to bake. I ended up buying one to have for my tea, and found it very tasty indeed, with a very generous topping of ham and pineapple:

As Andy's away, I shall take the remainder to share with some friends I am seeing for lunch tomorrow.

'Bun in the Oven'!

Close to where we live was a small bakery called 'Bun in the Oven'.  It was next to Skaapland Meat Emporium, but almost hidden and without a shop front, display window, so easily missed. In fact I had never bought bread here and only noticed it one day a couple of months ago when I was running early one morning and the aroma of baking bread wafted across the road.  At the time, I saw the name displayed outside and thought it would be good to come sometime.

So when friends of mine, who work in the area of liquidating businesses, said they were going to be working at Bun in the Oven preparing it for auction, I was surprised and interested to know more.

                                                   
Preparing for an auction involves, cleaning and packing up all the goods and equipment left in a business when they close. Often this has happened suddenly, so for those involving food items, the time between the closing and access by liquidators can result in food in fridges and freezers (switched off when the place is closed) going rotten and mice or even rats invading the premises.  My friends have told me some horror stories of what they have had to deal with at some premises and the shocking state of kitchens and food preparation areas, often away from the public view.  As a result they have become more discerning about where they purchase their food items.

I popped in to see them in one of the days they were working in Bun in the Oven. Although there was a little evidence of mice droppings and hanf-cooked pies had been abandoned in the ovens, this establishment was not too bad and most dry goods had been stored correctly. The kitchens had been kept very clean, making their job much easier. Also, this was quite a small business, spread throughout several smallish rooms, comprising, a small shop and side office, and several back rooms for ovens, fridges and other bakery machinery, and large surfaces for dough preparation.

It took a couple of days to clean and pack up the items for auction and then a week later, after advertising, the auction was held.  I again dropped by so see some of the auction, as I'd never been to one before.  I took these photos of the various areas:

 The small shop with display cabinets and the auctioneer standing on a milk crate, with customers scattered around.

                                         

Preparation room with hatch through to shop.

 Back preparation room with large dough mixers and dry goods containers etc.

   

                                            

 Lots packaged ready for auction and a customer viewing the lot list and items.

 

                                                    

 Hannes next to poster about auction.

 Hendriette in the office area handling the administration side of the auction.  Their two teenage children were the 'runners' for the auctioneer throughout, double recording the final prices of sold items and linking customers with the office for payments and then collection of their goods. They had helped with the cleaning and preparation beforehand with their parents. It was a well oiled family-run business and as an observer, I found it fascinating to watch.

All the office equipment was included in the auction, and the auctioneer moved round the various rooms as the auction proceeded, pointing out items and leading the bidding.  He spoke very fast and to me it sounded like a cattle auction, especially as he wore a microphone and a small speaker amplified his voice through the premises.  Here's part of the Catalogue:

 The whole thing, of 110 lots, was very fast-paced and over within a couple of hours, but then followed by a day and half dismanteling machinery and customers collecting larger items.  It all had to be completed before the end of February, otherwise another month's rent would be required from the auction profits by the premises owners.  Now the building is empty, stripped bare and available for rent again.

Another news item I'm including in this section, amusingly is not unrelated to the title!

 Recently at CVC Media we have had two baby showers, for staff who have left to await the birth of their babies.

 Last Friday, MariLouise, who handles all the finances, left to await the birth of her second child, due any day. She is expecting a girl and already has a boy, now aged 2yrs. Marilouise has gone on maternity leave and will return to work in a few months.

 The other baby shower took place early in February and was for Candy, whose baby is not due until July. However, Candy was also leaving CVC Media and not taking maternity leave, so it was also her leaving party. Candy worked in production, was extremely fun-loving and so the theme for the party was fun and games.

We decorated the room with lines of baby clothes and photos all the different and quirky events that Candy has been involved in.

Trying to plan a surprise party of Candy was tricky and to catch her out, it was brought forward by a day.  However, she loved all the board games, balloon fun, 'candies' and special video put together to celebrate her three and half years at CVC. Her vivacious character and creative gifting will be greatly missed.

                                             

This was a serious game of Rummikub, which was about to start and I joined the group. Only one other person had played the game before and it was very interesting seeing how the strategies improved as the game proceeded. Near the end, one player was determined to use all his pieces in a single move and so win the game (we didn't keep score) but however he moved numbers around he just couldn't work it out.  Another player and I could see what needed to be done and he realised that there was a way to do it, but finally we decided to show him and end the game - after all this was the lunch hour and people had to return to work!

It was a wonderful social event, which is great for building relationships.