52 Sunsets

This place

I’ve always enjoyed this part of Cape Town. It’s remarkably quiet for a City Suburb. You can almost forget that the city is at your feet. It’s probably because the mountain is at your back. There’s a sense of ‘being above it all’, not in a snobbish, colonial or classist way, but rather in a spiritual, detached way. Looking down you can observe without influencing, appreciate without having to interact. The one-on-one activities that consume your everyday existence fall away and become of no importance. It’s this feeling that I’d like to hold on to and carry with me throughout the coming week. Every time doubt, worry, confusion, anger or fear cross my mind, I’ll take myself back to this place and remember how pointless those emotions are. How much they waste the precious moments we have.

The season’s upon us

It’s back. This week was the week that summer started folding over us again. There’s an excitement in the air. A heated excitement. The beaches are filling up, the gyms are packed with frenzied fat-loss freaks and the stores are on their marketing drives again, full of chocolate sins and garish red Santas. What gets my juices flowing is the sun. The source of it all. It’s bringing the life back to Cape Town and everyone can feel it. Driving behind me today were two girls dancing in their car to whatever they were playing on their system. It made me smile, and it made me remember – yet again – why I have such a love for this city, this place in the universe that is so full of diversity, mystery and controversy. It’s something about the unique blend of sea, land, mountain, and people congregated on the tip of Africa that keeps me interested and inspired. I keep saying I’m going to leave to experience something else, but I keep staying. I’m not ready to go yet.

“Find the place, find your space, fill your mind with the sun’s warm embrace. “

I didn’t think I’d get a sunset today. It’s been a strange weather day. Mostly overcast, but with a few bits of open skies thrown in for good measure. I gave up at around 18:30 when I saw that it was overcast. But then at about 18:45 I saw the sky open and rays of sunlight streaming into the city bowl from over the neck. I dashed to my car and rushed up towards Camps Bay where I caught the sun before it dipped below the clouds. Still a stunning sunset though.

Karma saw fit to reward me this week. Ruan was selling his couch, so I said I’d take it off his hands. On Monday night I went over to his place and we moved the couch from his place to mine. Not too tricky -it’s a smallish two-seater and we managed to get it into the lift ok.

The next step was to go to Kim’s place and fetch the couch that Ruan was replacing the old one with. Well, this was a bit trickier. It’s a rather large 3-4 seater. Kim’s flat is on the first floor. With a bit of rope and some careful planning, we maneuvered the unwieldy beast over the balcony and down to the ground. First step successfully overcome. So off to Ruan’s place with me in the back of the van ensuring the couch didn’t go anywhere.

We carried the couch into the lobby of Ruan’s Apartment Block only to realise that there was no way it was going into the lift. A five-storey climb up the stairs was the only option, so we resigned ourselves to it. It took about 20 minutes to climb those stairs – we were two very tired people when we arrived on the 5 floor.

We got the couch into the passage without a problem. But then we realised a few obstacles to couch heaven. We needed to lift the couch vertically so that we could swing it through the doorway. But there were 2 problems with this – firstly, the ceiling on the first floor is lower than in the lobby, so we couldn’t swing the couch vertically. Secondly, Ruan’s doorway is at the end of the passage with about a metre and a half of floor space. So even if we did manage to get it vertical, there was no way that we could’ve swung the couch through the door.

We pondered this for about a minute while the tempting smells of the chicken cooking in Ruan’s oven distracted us. Better to eat and renew our energy and then tackle the problem again, and that’s what we did.

I think Ruan realised that the couch had very little chance of ever seeing the inside of his flat, barring a creative bit of chainsaw handling, so he told me to take it. I was (pardon the pun) taken aback. Not too taken aback to miss the opportunity. So we took the couch back down 5 flights of stairs, back into the van, and then up to my place, where it now has filled up my lounge quite nicely!

So I’ve gone from no furniture (except a few odds-and-sods from Bruce’s antique collection) to 2 lovely couches! The universe is definitely smiling at me, and at this point I am beaming back all cheshire-cat-like.

This is my first post from the comfort of the new large couch, in the place that I’ve come to call home for the last 6 months. It’s really starting to feel like home too. I have a little garden going, I have a place for guests to sit (finally!) and cats to bring a certain warmth and energy, albeit a furry, hairball kind of warmth and energy. I feel I’m slowly creating my kingdom around me. I was never particularly attached to the idea of owning much stuff and I still don’t hold much regard for material things, but I’m enjoying this. I’m getting into the idea of sculpting the world around me in the way I want it to be. It’s happening slowly and organically, allowing me to take small steps and really think about how I want my world to look. I’m grateful for this. It’s a process, not a final outcome. It’s about understanding and accepting my views and perceptions and then making them real.

“It starts with the realisation that we each have something unique to share. After the realisation comes the desire to share that uniqueness with the world. Take that desire and carve paint your canvas, write your song, dance your dance. Create your kingdom.”

It was an earlier sunset this time. I decided to see what it would be like from the city bowl. Still breathtaking.

I didn’t have the ‘me’ time that I usually have though. I was at Brian and Dale’s place. A very peaceful afternoon after quite an eventful weekend, to say the least. But I’m not going to go into that here. I’ll leave that for the book…

A great memory of this past week was spending some QT with Andre, my friend who plays the violin like an angel. I went over to his place to listen to some SACD recordings he has. We sat through Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ in it’s entirety, blasting the neighbours away with discordant and cacophonous beauty. I hadn’t heard it for quite some time and this recording was simply fantastic. Neeme Jaarvi conducting. Beautiful phrasings abounded. Instrumentation I hadn’t ever been able to pick out before became amazingly clear. The SACD format really does allow for a clarity of sound and tonal range second to none. It’s a pity it hasn’t taken off more. I understand why though. People wanted portability, not more clarity. SACD quality doesn’t really matter for modern pop music. The range is simply wasted.

He also played me some music from the movie ‘The Red Violin’. Moving stuff, pardon the pun. Andre lent me the DVD to put me in the picture. I know, another terrible pun.

And from one Rite of Spring to another – we donned our party gear and headed for the clubs to partake in the spring festivities for the first real Spring weekend we’ve had so far in Cape Town this year. Let’s just say that the evening didn’t dissappoint…

“Celebration should be enjoyed, not regretted.”

I finally got around to fixing the garden today. Brian and Dale kindly lent me their mower to try and un-jungle the garden. The cats were starting to enjoy the long grass though, but it had to be done.

I went to the nursery in Sea Point and got everything I needed to start my herb garden. Potting soil, compost, mint, parsley, coriander, rosemary, thyme, sweet basil and some kind of lettuce. It took me a few good hours to get it all done – pots and troughs needed to be moved around and I removed the hideous wooden railing that wasn’t serving any purpose. That allowed me to gain a little bit more extra space by moving my pots onto the edge of the garden. The pots need painting, but I’ll get to that next month. The whole exercise cost more than I wanted to spend, but I feel good that I’ve done it now. I was talking about it for so long and the sense of accomplishment after having completed it was definitely worth it.

But today meant more than simply cleaning up the garden and planting a few herbs. It’s a step forward for me. I never cared for gardening before. There were always too many other more important things to do. Now I’m looking forward to caring for and nurturing the plants. It’s another form of responsibility that I’m taking on. The cats were the first major step – the plants are the next. Plants need attention and care and I feel I’m ready for that now. It also allows another way if interacting with Mother Nature. I didn’t think about anything else when I was gardening today. That was a good thing.

“Take the earth between your fingers. Feel it’s contours, smell it’s energy, and let yourself be moved everyday by the rejuvenating power under our feet.”