The St Georges Park swimming pool has been a favorite with young and old for like forever. We haven't been to the pool for ages as we have a small pool at home, but a week or so ago Drama Princess had to practice her swimming for school and we decided to go for an hour or so. Entrance to the pool is cheap at R8 an adult and R3 a child and the facility was being thoroughly utilized. Good to see…
I'm not a regular flyer. The first time I got to fly was in a Jac (similar to a Harvard), a flight I would never forget as the pilot did two rolls with this very nervous and acrophobic passenger in the back. Since then I have become a lot better and over the last seven years got to fly a couple of times a year on passenger planes both around South Africa and internationally. All that said, I still haven't been up…
I wanted to make this Monday post a bit of a light hearted one to start the week off on a happy note. Looking at the pictures I haven't posted I decided on this one because, like Libby Sharwood of SAMREC says, "You can't help but to smile when you look at a penguin."
Some people see gardening as a form of art while others just try their best to keep the weeds out. Few people know that one of the 67 art pieces on Route 67 is a garden. Not a pretty arty garden, but a garden of indigenous plants, mostly aloes, saved from sites being developed around Port Elizabeth.
You often see chicken bones lying around in public. More than likely left overs from a KFC meal dropped while eating on the go. But what if you suddenly encounter a fish bone? One bigger than yourself? Well, then you either stumbled on what is left of a whale that washed up somewhere or you are standing on Market Square in Port Elizabeth. The Fishbone art piece by Imbono FJA Architects is an architectural element intended to visually anchor the…
Imagine my excitement when I was told the other day that The Firefly Photo Files has been selected as one of five finalists as Best African Weblog in the fourteenth annual Weblog (Bloggies) Awards. This is where I would like to ask for some help from you. Public voting plays a major role in how the winner gets chosen and I need all of you as well as your spouses / partners / moms / dads / kids / uncles / aunts /…
Every day a number of commercial and private planes take off and land at the Port Elizabeth Airport, but outside the airport there are two planes that just hang around, not going anywhere. The one is a Piaggio P.166, a twin-engine pusher-type utility aircraft developed by the Italian aircraft manufacturer Piaggio Aero. In the South African military the aircraft is known as the Albatross and was used by the South African Air force from 1969 to 1993.
Starting on Belmont Terrace right in front of the (unfortunately closed) King Edward Hotel and leading onto the Donkin Reserve is the Welcome Carpet art piece. This Route 67 art piece by Lisbet Demeyer is a Quartz Carpet with inlaid bead artwork and acts as a welcoming celebration of the Eastern Cape's cultures, leading the diverse visitors to the Donkin Reserve onto the park.
The Karoo is known as blue sky country. That means when the thunder clouds start to pack together after a hot day there is lots of sky to watch the approaching storm in. Like this one I witnessed just after leaving Cradock on my way back to Port Elizabeth. I can just smell the drops splashing down on the hot tar road again. Its one of my five favorite smells along with the smell of cut grass, fresh bread, the ocean and a…
No 7 Castle Hill is a favorite spot for both young and old (and in between as well). I have been there so many times and always see something that I haven't seen before. It also helps that the museum has a passionate curator in Mrs Grizel Hart who really cares deeply for the museum and it's history. There is often not a day that passes without a school group coming through the museum but every now and then there is…