Season Finale

As the days grow shorter and the nights longer there is only one conclusion to be made...winter is at our door step just waiting to come in. Just this past week I experienced four seasons in a couple of days but when you live in Cape Town this becomes the norm.

The other day I was getting ready to unpack my ‘winter’ clothes, I usually wait until the very last sunny day to do this depressing task as it means finally giving in to winter.  Winter isn’t all that bad though except for being as pale as a ghost, that’s never fun, it has its perks. Such as hot chocolate, snuggling in front of a warm fire, comfy winter pjs and marathon movie nights but still it’s not as good as having sundowners, spending days lazing at the beach or pool or shopping for cute bikinis.

So it is nearly time to say good bye to March and officially welcome April and with that the start of winter but hopefully we will get a few more warm sunny days to cherish before we have to say goodbye until spring. 

We are what we do

I think that is a true saying because just like we are what we do in the same breath we are what we eat. I eat a lot so I can easily relate to this saying. It is a simple yet oh so true saying, if you eat unhealthily you are going to be unhealthy, if you eat a lot you will be fat and if you eat too little well then you will be too thin. So can something as simple as food shape who we are. Yes it can literally and figuratively shape us.

How many times have you binged on junk food all day and landed up feeling so yuck the next day that you swear to yourself you will never eat that much junk food again? I know that feeling too well and it never feels good. So food can make us feel happy, sad, full, tired and sick...it is almost like a boyfriend, it can change your mood in an instant from happy to sad or vice versa. Without it we moody and too much of it we get tired.

It is a simple known fact that without food we would die so for an object that isn’t technically living and in most cases gets eaten, it’s a pretty powerful role player in our society. Now that is food for thought!

A sad Saturday

Saturdays are the best, no work or classes, you get to sleep in and just chill. That’s what my usual Saturdays consist of but this Saturday that just went by was a very different. I love animals so much; especially dogs so this incident touched me deeply.

It was early Saturday morning and my mom had just returned from her morning run. She came home all flustered and in a panic. She said that she had seen a dog in Goodwood running along the main road looking delirious, starved and badly looked after. The thought of this poor dog being all alone and in such bad shape was too much to bear so my mom and I went back to the area she had first seen the dog and we drove up and down the road looking for this dog. After ten minutes of driving around we thought the dog must have wondered off somewhere where we would be unable to find it, so with heavy hearts my mom and I gave up our search. We started making our way back to the main road but for some reason we took a wrong turn and to our disbelief we saw the dog lying on the pavement.

I have never in all my life seen such a sad looking dog; it was shaking and was so scared of anyone that came near it. It had ticks, fleas and flies all over it and was so thin its ribs were sticking out. So we put the dog in the back of our car and took it home. We gave the dog a great meal and water. But we could not keep the dog as we have a dog of our own. I called the animal welfare and they said we should bring the dog in. I know it sounds silly but I had grown so attached to this dog in the short time we looked after it.

So we all got back in the car and took the dog to the animal welfare. I have never wanted to go to such a place but on this day I had no choice. As I entered the place I started to cry. I had to fill in a form about the dog before the vet could look at it. I was emotional and the tears rolled down my cheeks on to the form I was filling in.

After I filled the form in I was told to bring the dog in so the vet could assess what could be done. We brought the dog in and the vet looked at the dog and said, “In cases like these...”. When I heard those words I knew what was coming and didn’t want to be around to hear it so I ran out the room sobbing. I waited outside and when my mom came out five minutes later sobbing my suspicions were confirmed. They said the dog was too sick and too old for adoption so it would have to be put down.

I cried the whole car ride home for that poor dog that obviously wasn’t loved. The kind of people that can do that to an animal makes me so mad. Dogs are loving animals that love their owners no matter what and here someone had just forgotten about their dog. The dog didn’t have a name but I decided to call it Macy, so that it could at least die with some dignity.

We are afraid of the wrong things

There are many things to be afraid of in the world we live in. From the natural disasters that destroy cities to the high crime rate to not knowing where to go in life, in fact no matter who we are there will always be something we fear.

It is hard to believe that there was once a time when we used to be young naive children who feared the simple things. The saying, ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ wasn’t relevant back then as the ‘small stuff’ was all we knew as children. We didn’t know or need to know about crime, poverty and all the bad things that the world has to offer. Instead we were scared of the boogie man living in our closet, going to sleep without a night light, being sent to bed early for being naughty or that a rainy day might ruin an adventure to the park. As children we were afraid of the simple things and life was good.

When we were young all we ever wanted was to grow up and be big but now that we are and have to be afraid of the real things in life, the fantasy we had as kids to be big and old doesn’t seem so glamorous anymore. So I think we should learn from our younger selves and take life less seriously because in the end no one gets out alive.

Fish falling from the sky

Fish falling from the sky, hmmm the thought of that is rather intriguing. I personally have never seen fish falling from the sky, just rain and the odd hail stone. With all the crazy things happening in our world today I wonder if it would even make the headline of the newspaper?

So let’s take a moment and actually picture fish falling from the sky. The first thing that I think of is what type of fish would it be, sardines, tuna, bass or swordfish? Sardines could be cool but I’m not sure about the others, I mean if a large bass fish had to fall on you from the sky you might be knocked unconscious because those fish are no small fry. However, the thought of a sword fish is a little more frightening; just imagine hundreds of sword fish falling from the sky...people could get hurt.

One positive would be that all the hungry would be fed and there would be more than enough fish to go around. Fish can be a pricy delicacy so to get it from the sky for free wouldn’t be too much of a bad thing.

I highly doubt that we will ever see fish falling from the sky but who knows maybe it will happen and then I will, literally, have to eat my words.

Howsit my China

When you think of the country China, what do you think? The mega country that has so many people that if they all had to walk around the world the line would never end? That would be correct but having never been to China before I really don’t know what it’s like. However, I have been to China town and it is quite something, I imagine it to be a small taste of what China is like just on a much smaller scale.

For those that don’t know China town, it is where you can find lots of shops with good s from clothing to food to toys, actually anything you could possibly want. I suppose that’s why it has the word town in it, it is so big and has everything. Although the quality and origins of the products they sell at China town might be a bit dodgy, it is a great place to find cheap things.

Just the other day I was at China town and got a dress for R60, quite a bargain I would say! It is so easy to get carried away buying the most random useless stuff because it is just so cheap. There is even a R5 store with nothing over R5, there is just no way you can walk out empty handed.

So if you in the mood to buy something random that won’t cost you an arm and a leg go to China town, you are sure to find something there.

View from the Top

I have always loved the fact that I live in Cape Town but how many of us have actually seen all the beauty and amazing sights that Cape Town has to offer? Yesterday I got to feel like a tourist in my own city and it felt good! I spent the day doing things that a tourist from Europe would do and I loved it. That’s the beauty of Cape Town you get to see and do things that are only a few kilometres from where you live. The mountain, the sea, the people, the vibe - it is just amazing!

I had one of the most perfect Sundays I’ve had in a long time, usually Sundays are spent mourning the weekend that just past but not this particular Sunday. Instead I decided to embracfe the beautiful weather and revisit Cape Town. We started off with a picnic on Camps Bay beach followed by Sinful ice cream, if you haven’t had it before you should go get some. And then to top off the day we ended it on top of the world, or that’s what it felt like at least, on Signal Hill. Wow, it is beautiful up there, we were just in time to see the sunset and it looked breathtaking. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the amazing view though, there were lots of other people Capetonians and tourists taking in the beauty below.

On the drive down we stopped along the road to see the other side of the city and with all the lights and tall buildings it looked magical. While looking upon this beautiful view I wondered, if people could see how amazing Cape Town looked would there still be so much hatred and crime? It is hard to believe that people can be so cruel to each other when we live in such an awesome city that makes even the people that live in it feel like tourists.

Colour of the Wind

What is the colour of the wind? I sure don’t know but what I do know is that we live in a world full of colour. Imagine a world without colour, just black and white. Talk about a blue Monday there would be no such thing.

Colour helps the world and people to express feelings and emotions. The leaves on the trees turn yellow when they don’t get enough water, instead of the healthy green colour they should be. Without colour we wouldn’t know this.

A world without colour would also mean no options, just the choice of two – either black or white. And in today’s world we are people that like options and don’t have to settle for what is put in front of us.

Different colours mean different things, red means angry, blue means sad and yellow means happy. Without colour in our world we could never make these assumptions.

I will end off with a quote, which I think is so true.

"Man needs colour to live; it's just as necessary an element as fire and water."

Fernand Leger