Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me... Happy birthday to me. I always wanted to try and take one of these rear view mirror self portraits and have just never gotten around to it. So today I though I will give it a go. For Birthday's sake. LOL. I just needed to get out the office and drove down to the beachfront and just did it. After making sure nobody was looking. Didn't know if…
Continuing our coverage of the spring day havok, the section of the Settlers freeway that runs past Sidon street towards Albany road also took a pounding. Even after the waves had eased up a bit, they were pretty impressive.These are the main railway lines that feed Port Elizabeth, an as you can see it may be a while before normal services resume! A huge concrete section of the breakwater wall was tossed onto the tracks like a lego block by…
This past weekend I was at the Getaway Show. It is South Africa's premier travel and outdoor consumer show and held anually in Johannesburg. As expected the Western Cape also had an exhibit at the show and they brought along a four man Cape Coon (Kaapse Klopse) band to make traditional Cape music. The Cape Coons are as traditional to the Cape as Table Mountain is.I got the following off Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaapse_Klopse) just to explain what the Cape Coons are:The…
Usually it would be the sounds of birds chirping hopefully, flowers popping up in happy colourful profusion, winter coats being stored away.... but PE is never a place that can be considered predictable and boring, so on our spring day yesterday, we had a big surprise. Our coastline was pounded by Tsunami type waves, railway lines covered with huge chunks of the concrete breakwater wall, businesses flooded, and the freeway closed most of the day due to waves crashing over…
Port Elizabeth seems to be part of a large family, and has a few sister cities, including Tainan in Taiwan, and Jacksonville, Florida as well as Palm Desert, California,in USA!The one I have always felt was the closest relation is Gothenberg in Sweden. When Panoramio first started on Google Earth, and there was a small community of photographers who all corresponded and knew each other, a guy called Andreas Elmquist from Gothenberg used to post pix, and I was putting…
Gaston has been finding more fascinating old photos for us. This is Govan Mbeki Ave as it looked in 1953 ........ (it was the only place in town to go shopping, long before de-centralisation took place)And as it looks now, with the recent development into a pedestrian mall with shaded lock-up trading shelters for the street traders.
It is the m in sam's birthday today, and the family decided on an outing to the wonderful Addo Elephant Game Park which we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep. So we packed a great picnic and set off this afternoon when our son-in-law got home from work.Addo is looking quite dry, which is a bit scary, because we should have had some major rain at this time of year. As we drove in we saw a huge…
Again, many thanks to Gaston from France, who sent some of his pictures, taken when he lived here in the late 50s early 60s, and enabled us to do this comparative series. This is St Augustine's Cathedral, taken in 1960. And here it is this week. As with the Campanile view, I really question whether "progress" has brought around any improvement. The lovely gardens and fountain in front of City Hall, with natural stone paving, has been replaced by a…
Last week the Greatermans building in the city centre burned down in a fire that started in a neighbouring warehouse. This week the fire department was still busy securing the ruins and ensuring that there is not another flare up. It is amazing how, in such a short time, what seems like a strong and lasting structure can be reduced to rubble.
These 2 wonderful old members of the ficus family have grown at the end of Main Road Walmer for as long as anyone here can remember, and are really well known landmarks. As the system of roads surrounding them is being constantly upgraded, and shopping centres developed all around, they are looking sadder and sadder. Despite the watering they receive from tenants of Fig Tree Village, which was named after them, they are looking much sparser than they did several…