The Weekend

This will be a real workout for my brain. I have not done well with memory work and now I will be trying to recreate two days in the past... wish me luck.

Saturday...

I believe it began with 12 hours of sleep, desperately needed. We still had a day on our blue bus pass and had yet to visit the botanical gardens and since we had slept most of the morning away, it seemed that that was probably what we were going to get out of the day we had left on our pass. The weather called for only 10% chance of rain until 6 pm so the odds were in our favor to get our walk in before the rain if we dressed and left.

We made a great discovery on our way to the waterfront to catch our bus... a little dive with questionable food in a lighted window but who made us great egg and cheese sandwiches from scratch (definitely not fast food... which I discovered why this morning when I got today's breakfast. It is prepared beforehand and put in the window to sell later) on brown seeded bread for just over three dollars. We ate it on our walk and got coffee once we got there. (I also found a local food bank organization to donate to to ease my conscience about all the beggars we passed along the way, one who smiled at me and actually did seemed to appreciate that I acknowledged him with my eyes even though I did not give him money. I did not, of course, have time to do research; but I took some papers and it seemed a safe bet.)By the time we boarded the bus, it was raining and we opted for the covered seats on top. We sat on the front row but as there was no windshield wiper the view was pretty limited

We rode through the rain to the botanical gardens and regretted that we brought only one umbrella but not that we had come. It was so beautiful, even in the rain. It was the only walk I've even been on with Maura where she didn't complain even once. She took more pictures than me because my phone, unlike her little camera, was not waterproof. We both are determined to return, in the sun or in the rain. We just did not have time to do it justice because we only had a few hours before the last bus of the day. It was all wonderful but the walkway over the trees was spectacular and I took a video but I'm not sure I'm good enough to post it.. or that it would do it justice.. we really just got enough to piss us off, so to speak. They had a huge flower of the one growing outside our apartment which may be one of the most unique flowers I've ever seen. I also feel in love with the quiver tree... which is vulnerable... which I think is what we call threatened which is just under endangered, but maybe it's a level under threatened. I need to look that up but just have not had the intenet time to do so. We did manage to grab some more postcard and I have written and stamped cards to all my students. Now if i can just manage to get them into the mail.

I am so bad without a mouse that I will now stop trying to arrange the pictures. As you can see, even in the rain, it was so worth it. However, we were soaked through and through by the time we got back on the bus. I smelled like a wet sheep in my wool shirt and jacket but poor Maura had on jeans and a jacket that was supposedly water repellent but had absorbed at least a bucket worth and we still had a lot of road to go. We moved downstairs on the us where it was a bit warmer. We also had the bus mostly to ourselves. We picked up a few more people at the World of Birds (which is another place I wouldn't mind seeing) and some other ritsy kind of place that I can't remember at the moment, and at Hout Bay where people had been eating, not out on the boats.. although I still hold out  hopes for a trip to Boulder Beach and the penguins...We rode the high rode through Camp's Bay which was beautiful once again, and probably would have been even more so from the top deck but we passed. It wasn't raining quite so hard but was quite windy and colder and we were quite wet. We were trying to decide whether to eat before going home or going home and getting dry and then coming back out and Maura kept changing her mind, but we finally got off at Green Point so that Maura could take a beautiful sunset picture... only she didn't notice the empty swimming pool to her left or we would have never gotten off there. (My daughter has an absolute phobia of empty swimming pools. I have to admit that we have run across some pretty creepy ones.. the best/worst being one at James Island with things growing out of it that seems a perfect location for a murder mystery.... I think it stems from a trip in her early childhood to the Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina where they had an Olympic size pool for the family. She was sure when we entered the house that giants must live here... But once again, I digress.

We took our sunset picture and like the mean mama I am I pointed out the empty pool and Maura grabbed me and hid her face and started in the other direction.

Up the hill  we eventually found a mutually satisfactory Thai place where I had green curry this time, a bit hotter with different veggies and once again more than enough to bring half of it home... especially since we started with spring rolls. There was also this adorable chocolate lab puppy in the table beside us that reminded me of our beloved Hujambo. If we do get to retire to Port St. Joe and live long enough to need another dog (God forbid the thought of outliving our present beloveds), we might need to consider adopting a lab. They are such water dogs... but I'm not sure that we could ever be without at least one boxer in our lives.

Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were exhausted ... and still soaked! We used the hairdryer to dry ourselves as much as possible and hung our clothes over every possible available space.. but the humidity is such that I don't think anything will every dry... a laundry service is an inevitable part of our future.


Sunday
... I convinced Maura that we should be heathen.. or at least that we should attend the jazz eventide and not find a morning service.. i managed to twist her arm without breaking it and we managed more hours of sleep. again, desperately needed by at least one of us... and then the sun came out and even though we really needed to do many things... including clean our bodies.. we opted for the beach and grabbed out Citi bus passes and maura her bathing suit (also eliminating the need for a clean bra) and headed to Whale Rock.

 It was as bright and beautiful as it was rainy and foggy the day before. The waves were huge and the rocks go well out into the ocean making it easy to understand how so many ships met their sad end here. On the bus ride to the beach there were many school children walking together in groups... clubs, scouts... whatever the uniformed groups are here.. with staffs and smiles making their way to the various Clifton beaches where the walk to the beach determines the status of who goes there. Whale Rock is for those tourist who aren't interested in swimming or surfing although there were some people with those beach surfer boards who seemed to be having a good time. It was also home to some. There were some bushes near the water that the child in me wanted to explore as they provided shelter from the wind in inviting little caves but they provided shelter from scarier monsters and carried with them the fear that pervades poverty of both the poor and the rich that surround them. Maura and I sat on the rocks and she disrobed enough to gather some sun on her pale white skin in hopes of looking good in her yellow bridesmaid dress for Leah's wedding in July. I guess winter South African sun gives m

ore tan than no sun at all. The rock was pretty hard but she managed to turn once and give both sides a chance to soak up some ultra violet cancer. Meantime, I watched the waves and thought once again what a perfect metaphor the ocean is for the divine... so beautiful and majestic and fierce.. how can it not be respected and for many of us loved. it is wild and free and can never be put in a box and contained and explained and made to behave or perform in a certain way. like God, it follows certain patterns and rules, but it is not to be dictated.

 We caught the bus back to Green Point not wanting to push our luck with the rain and found the South African equivalent of the dollar store or in my day the five in dime ... the five rand. Here we looked for hair fixes... something to hide my hair... Maura did better than i did... another umbrella... fail.. they only had large.... and i found large warm black tights ...one size fit some that actually did... at least once... maybe not after they are washed once... and then scored another big plus on a great Indian place. Kerry would have loved it. Maura ordered medium and hers was almost too hot for her to eat. He didn't ask me so I went up to the cash register and told him I wanted mine hot.. and it was almost , but not quite too hot. And plenteous... I now have great leftover... also because Maura's salad came with dressing that was too hot for her but perfect for me.

...
We came home tired and dirty but satisfied. I broke down and let Maura help me in the bath to wash my hair, filling my popcorn tub with warm water so I didn't have to turn around and rebrake my collarbone.

And we didn't make it to church. Maura actually wasn't too hard to convince... i guess that makes me a pretty heathen mother, huh.

We did get to talk to Shosha and Matt and our newest granddog Eno on google video.  Nicholas was there but Lydia was stuck in Charleston... in the hot I later found out.. what a bummer. The boxers think we should all live together in a pile at our house... sometimes I think they have the right idea.

So I may have left out some but I declare my brain amazingly successful at piecing together the last two days of our weekend when it's barely been able to remember the day before. I think it is slowly but surely healing and for that I am immensely grateful.