Capetown

I was with my dad while he got his prescription filled at Noyes Pharmacy in Kenilworth which still amazingly has a film autolab. You can see the diamond grid where they once had many brands and types of 35mm film for sale and now there’s just one - and only about a dozen in stock plus some disposable cameras. They used to have a collection of vintage Leicas - MIII’s through M6s I think. Maybe 20 or so. Not even for sale. I believe the old owner sold them quickly when digital moved in - not realising like most of us that their value would recover in time I think. ...

First time on the metro rail since the pandemic began. Despite massive government looting and the dismantling of much of the infrastructure, the new trains do feel much better than the postwar stuff that my ma also used in uni. Though there’s a big gap and step up from the platform to the door which is inaccessible for many people with disabilities and is sure to cause accidents.

If you’re in Cape Town, please send me pics of any cat matching this description. Grey, marble - not stripe - tabby. Grey feet. Grey throat and chest. No collar. Only white just around nose. Belly pouch. Large, neutered male. Cash reward for info leading to his return.

Well I’m sure you’ve all just been dying for another of my blockhouse walk photodocs… I had a cold and was waiting to come right before re-embarking on exercise. Hopefully the fact that I’m typing this rather than lying dead from a stroke means I waited long enough. For the first time I decided to listen to music on my walk. Well… you add that mountain feeling to those music feelings and you can get pretty close to ecstasy, no lie. I had some thoughts: ...

In the queue at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for my first COVID shot yesterday. It’s a huge, well-managed, friendly operation. With the current dominant variant, it’s a long way from a guarantee that we won’t get the virus. But there’s a much better chance, and an even better chance that the virus will pass mildly and leave no long term effects. It’s not a castle. It’s a shield. But a critically important one that would be impossible without the dedicated efforts of thousands of independent, university-based scholars and masses of tax-payer funding globally.

The tourist’s eye view of Cape Town. A shining jewel between two great oceans. True but also not.

Huge day for me. First time I’ve ever seen a wild otter. And it was here, fifteen minutes’ walk from my house where the city thinks it’s ok to bulldoze everything to put up offices for Amazon. The Cape Clawless Otter is thriving in this little bit of urban paradise.

90s bois. Set the camera up in the grass. Push the little lever. Wait for the mechanical whirl to end in a click. And a day in 1996 is captured in grainy, squinty glory. What were we up to on plum-pudding hill that noon? Digging. Just another madcap Gareth scheme.

Lovely light on the way up to coffee in Obz this morning. Winter in Cape Town is not the non-stop downpour many imagine.

This is our last autumn in Ash Street. We’ve lived here since 2007. Without any plan in that regard we’ve both lived here longer than either of us has ever lived anywhere else. We’ll miss wonderful neighbours but it’ll be good to be moving… a full 3 or 4 blocks away.