We were lucky enough to crack an invite to go to Switzerland for a Bank Holiday weekend of hiking, red wine and fireplace cuddles. Sadly, with us having to wait until the very last minute to hear whether or not I’d be lucky enough to be granted a Schengen visa, our flights to Zurich now are so expensive that we’ve decided not to go – seriously, it was going to cost more than it will cost us to fly back to New York for a week of Big Apple fun! So here we are, on a Thursday afternoon, with very little planned for a long weekend. John hasn’t been home for four weekends in a row, so he’s looking forward to doing as little as possible. I figured that it may well be time to give it a final push and try to get our living room sorted. With Annie’s help I found these rather darling pouffes which I might go check out this weekend as an extra seating solution. We’ve also taken the plunge and ordered an Eames chair for the living room – perfect solution to our current sofa-not-large-enough-for-two-tall-people-to-lie-on situation. John will have his very own reclining chair and I get to keep the sofa all for myself! I’ll share some photos of the apartment soon – I promise.
On Saturday we have tickets to go to the LED Festival (London Electronic Dance) – yes, yes, I know. But we mainly bought it because current hot SA act Die Antwoord are performing and after rave reviews of what they did in New York, we’ve been so keen to experience it for ourselves!
I will no doubt be singing ‘A-hee-haaa-hee-jaai, I am your butterrrrfly, I need your protekshion, need your protekshion’. Can’t wait!
Another landmark experience I missed by not living in my beloved Cape Town anymore happened yesterday – the demolition of the Athlone Cooling Towers. Now let’s be honest, no one’s going to miss those hideous things, are they? But it would have been cool to have been able to say ‘I was there’. (Though, after missing the recent World Cup, this is nothing compared.)
Had to share this great video by my friend Rowan Pybus – undoubtedly one of the most talented and creative people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting!
Yesterday we returned from three glorious sun-drenched weeks in Namibia and South Africa. In an effort to stay awake and combat the dreadful jetlag that a six-hour time difference and a 23-hour door-to-door journey leave you with, we decided to head to the movies and see Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, featuring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as the captain of the Springbok rugby team, Francois Pienaar.
As the camera panned the Cape Town scenes that I love and know so well, John whispered, “Do you think there’s anyone in the theater that saw Table Mountain in person more recently than us?”. No. There definitely couldn’t be. But most importantly, I felt pretty sure that no one in the packed theater was viewing this amazing film with as much love for that country as we did.
It was a strange experience, seeing what went on ‘behind the scenes’ during the run up to this momentous rugby match. I was a 15-year old girl living in Namibia at the time of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and all I remember of it is the immense pride with which we watched every game the Springboks played in, right up to that final kick by Joel Stransky that declared the Boks the winners. As a white teenager living in the relativele luxury of white suburbia, I really was oblivious to all the politics and drama that was happening on our doorstep. (Namibia became independent of South Africa in 1990 and has remained a politically stable country ever since.) What I do remember is the absolute passion with which I fell in love with Madiba. His humility and passion for his country was contagious and the way with which he embraced all races inspired me and everyone around me.
The camera panned a scene of the townships outside Cape Town and Johannesburg and John again said, “It’s shocking that it hasn’t changed much since 1995, right?” and I felt a surge of anger…and of shame. What are we doing to change that? Here is a country filled with so much hope, so much creativity, pride and an overriding belief that things can change, that everyone has a chance of being who they want to be. And yet the vast majority of people in this country still live in absolute poverty, with so little hope. And, not for the first time, I felt ashamed. And I decided that this year I will do something to change, for the better, the lives of at least one person living in my homeland. How I’ll do that I’m not yet sure. Perhaps we should each sponsor one child’s school fees for the year. Perhaps I will start a fund to help our domestic worker in Windhoek to send her kids to school. One thing is for sure – the problems in Southern Africa are not going to fix themselves. It is the responsibility of us all to help in whichever way we can.
The year ahead is filled with opportunity and change – for me and John and probably for you too. What will you do to help others?
Invictus – William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
So here we are, on a Thursday afternoon, with very little planned for a long weekend. John hasn’t been home for four weekends in a row, so he’s looking forward to doing as little as possible. I figured that it may well be time to give it a final push and try to get our living room sorted. With Annie’s help I found these rather darling pouffes which I might go check out this weekend as an extra seating solution.
We’ve also taken the plunge and ordered an Eames chair for the living room – perfect solution to our current sofa-not-large-enough-for-two-tall-people-to-lie-on situation. John will have his very own reclining chair and I get to keep the sofa all for myself! I’ll share some photos of the apartment soon – I promise.