I am acting like a real life (or is it real live? I hope it is both) journalist taking my pencil, notebook and camera with me on adventures. I stopped a good few times on route this morning (to take pictures and to rest because my shins were burning a bit from all the over-activity of the last 3 days). 5.45 in the morning is a wonderful time to get out and about, especially on a clear and windless morning, in a place like Cape Town on a perfect day like today. I headed off. A couple of yappy dogs disturbed the peace and I had to dodge some sprinklers that were starting their day's work but all was good.
The mountain from my pavement at 5.45
Sun rising from Parry Road
I made off in the direction of Parry Road (off Queen Victoria Road) - my old "hood" - and arrived just as the sun was beginning to rise. The street was deserted but households (or should I say parents) were starting to wake up. I am sure most school children were up early and dressed and eating their Coco Pops eager to start the first day at school. Walking down Parry Road, peeping over the wall of the now fancy house in the corner, where we used to live, I started thinking about how quickly the years go by. How it was not that long ago that I was getting children ready for the first day of a new year and now there is probably a mom in the same very house getting her children organised for school (Nosy me had spied the "Baby on Board" sign on her car). Maybe they are still too young for school and she has a few years grace before facing the school gauntlet, so I hope she was still fast asleep.
The playground at Claremont Primary on Palmyra Road - soon to be
shocked back into wakefulness and life
Now it is wonderful being up so early in the morning because before 7 this morning I had had my walk, made my tea and was downloading the pictures I had just taken for this post. I then started looking for "First Day" pictures of the boys in my picture box (how can you be late for work when you are up at 5.30? Ask me!!). Our scanner is not working but I made a plan and took pictures of a pictures (surprisingly clear).
Gareth, in the Parry Road front garden on his first day at Arderne Gardens
Nic and Matthew on Matthew's first day at RBPS (not that clear because it has been zoomed in on - but you get the idea!!)
Matthew (Sub A - Grade 1) after being used as a dartboard by his brothers
I started doing the maths (yes, I needed a calculator - Matthew will be 25 in February and he started school just before he turned 6) and worked out that the picture above was taken 19 years ago (my aching nerves). Matthew (my nearly 25 year old baby) has been out of school for 7 years!!
Matthew is probably going to kill me for publishing this picture but on Sunday I had to take a couple of pictures of Nic and Matthew in their rugby shorts. It was for a challenge that Nic is involved in - Read about it here. He writes a great story.
19 years later
Matt and Nic - "last day of the holidays" and before they had to put on uniforms and ties and wear blazers on stinking hot days and get blisters on their heels and toes from brand new, hard, black Bata Toughees school shoes
(best they shave their lips and chins too!!)
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