Health advisory warning: long blog post
Tis the season for jacarandas and a resplendent sea of purple
Jo’burg and Pretoria of course are looking spectacularly beautiful with the majestic jacarandas all in their flowering purple glory.
Growing up in Grahamstown there were 3 jacaranda trees in our garden with purple carpets underneath them. Running around barefoot in the garden, my brothers and I regularly got stung by the bees nestling in the purple flowers; my Mom would make a paste of bicarbonate soda and a little water and put it on those pesky stings. Driving along a jacaranda lined street in Bryanston last Friday with my window open as the day was so hot, the freshly fragrant smell tickled my nostrils and that fragrance swiftly transported back to those carefree days of innocence, children, beestings, and purple carpets.
Smells, sounds, music are all such sensory triggers to memories. Certain church hymns take me immediately back to chapel when I was a pupil at both Kingswood College and DSG; “Jack and Diane” by John Mellencamp transport me to driving with my then sister-in-law Beth in Homer, upstate New York, USA days after my Mom, Dad and I had arrived big-eyed and bewildered in the USA.
I was thinking about the correlation of scents, smells, our senses and memories when I walked into Jackson’s Food Market (I had just had micro needling to work on eradicating my frown line and realising I needed to eat something to stave off a nose-dive fatigue / low blood sugar episode I walked into Jackson’s) walking up and down the aisles fruitlessly searching for a salad, I had this strange sensation of time travelling again because of the smells of this health food market and eatery.
The last time I was actually in Jackson’s market (as opposed to sitting on the deck for a coffee, smoothie and/or food) was before covid, the pandemic and lockdown (the new BC in all our lives) and I had no sensory memory trigger but this time it was strong and so intense. I was racking my brains as to why did I have this strong reaction to the smells of this store? I could not shake it nor the strong desire to identify the reason for the intense response to the smells of Jackson’s. Figuratively scrolling through my rolodex of memories eventually it dawned on me that the smell was familiar because it was how the Cornell Dairy Bar smelt. We regularly frequented that store in the year we lived in Ithaca and my Dad was at Cornell University – the goat’s cheese we bought there was sublime (caramel in colour, soft, smooth and melt-in-your mouth taste sensation), there would be fresh produce from the Cornell University farm to purchase and the ice-cream was so good (but I was later to discover it was not superior to Italian gelato). I have not thought about those Cornell memories for years and yet a brief shopping experience in Jackson’s brought all the memories flooding back – memories which were buried but evidently your senses never forget and are merely a sniff, whiff and a flare of the nostrils away.
Last Wednesday evening, Angie and I were privileged to experience an incredible musical soiree at the University of Johannesburg’s Art and Culture centre (and walking into the theatre was accompanied by a sense of déjà vu as the theatre layout and size is akin to that of the Rhodes University theatre – a space I know so well from going to the theatre as a child with my family and later working in that environment for over 5 years as the theatre was part of the drama department, where I was the administrator). It will surprise no-one that I am on the mailing list for the Italian Cultural Institute Pretoria and when I received an e-mail advertising the performance by the Italian pianist Raphael Gualazzi – it was a FREE concert something we were incredulous about – I swiftly booked the tickets. (A short bio about Raphael Gualazzi follows).
Angie was my chauffeur fetching me shortly after 5pm on that windy, storm-brewing Wednesday afternoon – we put “UJ” into Google maps and obediently followed the prompts but when we got to a very seedy, dubious area which looked like Mayfair or Brixton, it became clear that Google Maps had decided we were going to the Carlton Centre and not the University of Johannesburg; a new destination was inputted into her phone and after lots of “recalculating notifications” we safely arrived at the UJ Arts and Culture Centre. Despite the not-so-scenic detour route courtesy of Google Maps, the concert which was an hour long was wonderful and so uplifting. Raphael is a phenomenal pianist, singer, songwriter and he thoroughly deserved his 2 standing ovations and we were treated to one encore piece.
“Raphael Gualazzi is one of the most accomplished Italian jazz-blues musicians. Born in Urbino in 1981, his authentic sound is the result of his pianoforte studies at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, his eventual research of early-1900s ragtime blues and New Orleans jazz, and the love of more contemporary artists like Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, and Ben Harper.
In 2005, he released his debut album, Love Outside the Window, and three years later produced a Piano Jazz compilation for Wagram Music. In 2009 his cover version of Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop introduced him to a wider audience. In 2011 he participated to the famous Italian music competition “Festival di Sanremo”, where he won the Giovani (New Generation) award and was chosen by a six-member jury to represent his country at Eurovision with his self-penned bilingual song, Follia d'Amore. The track, Italy's first entry since 1997, won the second place and became the breakout single for his sophomore effort, Reality and Fantasy, that also included collaborations with French DJ Gilles Peterson, Italian trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso, and British soul singer Rox.”
It was a magical experience and transported us to this natural high of joy, delight and enchantment.
Loadshedding continues and navigating the loadshedding course continues – I made two batches of fudge in the latter part of the week and early on Saturday morning my chocolate buttermilk cake which is very similar to chocolate brownies without the nuts (the only nuts about the recipe is the baker ie me! Ha ha ha)
The weekend was very sociable and busy – collecting my Mom on Saturday morning I gave her a day of activities, people, experience beyond the walls of her retirement village. From delivering fudge to Morgan at 7 Sins to sell to the sinner clientele of 7 Sins, to coping with clothes shopping (for my Mom) at Millie’s, a tiny clothing store which seems to have stopped evolving circa 1980 but they do have a speedpoint for bank card payments; brunch at Sweet Tea and Chickadee in Linden complete with American biscuits and pancakes (https://www.sweetteachickadee.co.za/) and my nail appointment at Vanilla Nails (also in Linden) to use my birthday voucher from the Lovely Lindy – my nails desperately needed attention and that they did; the owner was so attentive to my Mom and my Mom enjoyed people watching and learning about nails and nail art (she has never in all her 90 years had nail polish on her nails let alone fake nails or nail art!).
Vanilla Nails is a lovely salon – small yet spacious, light and airy, with pleasant staff who are not intrusive or too much “in your face”; the prices are phenomenal and the air is not pungent with acetone (I have such an averse to the aromas of acetone) (https://www.vanillanails.co.za/)
I am thrilled with my very different nails – I love unique nail colours and styles which do not fit into the “sheep” mold and was pleased to find inspiration without delving into Pinterest (if I had done that I would still be lurking there creating different boards ad nauseum).
After days of strange winds, fake thunder and 5 drops of rain, during my nail pampering the heavens finally opened and a tumultuous downpour followed. The rain stopped momentarily while my Mom and I were walking to the car and I was folding the walker into the boot of the car, ensuring Mom was safely ensconced in the car and the rain resumed as we were driving home (to our house) – the roads were soon flooding as the gutters and drains are never cleared out and it felt so good to hear and see the rain despite the dreadful screeching of my windscreen wipers (note to self : remember to buy a new set asap).It was a pit stop at our house with my Mom staying in the car before we were off again, this time for my hair pampering as we had 2 birthday celebrations that weekend so good nails and hair was essential. We were early and my Mom was thirsty so a visit to the Wimpy was required. My Mom was thrilled that we could get ice-cream floats (apparently at the coffee shop at her retirement village the staff have no idea what an ice-cream float is; desperate to give her a milkshake and not understanding it is vastly different to an ice-cream float).
Nothing like a ginger beer ice cream float treat to quelch your thirst and
put a big smile on a 90 year old lady’s face!
It was a hectic day and I certainly got good arm exercise with the walker. Saturday evening, we left our dark house (loadshedding had ended but then there was a trip at the substation; another déjà vu as that also happened on Friday evening to go to a surprise birthday party at Momo Kuro in Rosebank. Zen organized a surprise birthday party for her sister Rene as she had missed Rene’s birthday due to a work assignment in Kenya – there were 9 of us; I had made fudge for the thank you gifts and Johan owes both Zen and Rene a repertoire of card tricks. It was such a fun evening and great to catch up with the beautiful sisters.
Thankfully the gift of electricity was awaiting us when we returned home; such a treat – you can feel me rolling my eyes I know! (My eyes of course are the most exercised part of my body with my constantly rolling them; it’s as natural as breathing to me!)
It was very exciting to be reunited with my precious friend Charlene on Sunday morning; she treated me to a delicious breakfast at Silver Birch at Lifestyle and the time flew by as we had so much to catch up on since we last saw each other in June and Charlene semigrated to Cape Town. It was a very special time and spending time with Charlene, in person, emphasized by how much I miss her but she is living in a beautiful part of the countryside and she is happy as are her adorable French bulldogs who have added various creatures to their diet.
The last social activity on our “social dance card” for the weekend was Alyssa’s 30th birthday celebrations at Pablo House in Melville. This is a guest house which has an eatery attached to it, Dos Manos. Parking and access is limited so we parked down the road at the Melville Spar and Morgan and Alyssa drove us up the hill and dropped us, birthday present and birthday cake, off. They returned to the Spar, parked and were driven up the hill again by the Pablo House tuk-tuk driver.
Pablo House is intriguing and overflowing with very eclectic artworks and artefacts – on this very gloomy stormy grey afternoon the view was limited but there is a view and it was a really great experience.
It was lovely to eventually meet Alyssa’s Mom, Lynne, her brother, Keeton and his girlfriend, Danica.
Of course Tristan and Skye were there as was Alyssa’s former trainer and her partner. We had delicious pizzas, enjoyed hearing about some of Morgan and Alyssa’s West Coast holiday escapades and Johan enthralled everyone with his card artistry and tricks.
The cake was devoured and a lovely surprise for Alyssa which was fun. Alyssa told us that the bathroom had an interesting mirror which had LED lights and an infinity mirror (google it! – I actually saved you the trouble; they are not cheap; R6k ) – I found a google image as did not take a photo and an image does far better than my feeble attempt at endeavouring to describe it.
Alyssa did NOT reveal another strange feature about the bathroom. This bathroom had 1 door and *drum roll* no, make that a toilet flush or a royal flush ….. this …..
Two toilets side by side with no division - is this for couples, ladies who like to go into the loo 2-by-2 like the animals went into Noah's Ark; for those who believe in sharing absolutely EVERYTHING?? Personally that form of sharing is definitely not caring but it was intriguing, a talking point and the cause of great hilarity (and no one is definitely not a bidet!) Don't believe it - go and visit Pablo House in Melville .... you have been warned!
A truly memorable and amazing weekend, a positive week and wonderful much-needed good rains and precious experiences with family and friends - as the old VISA advert would have said "priceless".
In other news:
Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister in the UK in the latter part of the week and the memes swiftly followed thick and fast – I did not like her as much as I did not like Bonkers Boris and hopefully the new PM will last longer than a lettuce and for more than 6 weeks.
And Exploited has added 2 caps to its range of merchandise :
Fancy a tattoo? Place an order on www.exploited.co.za and follow the other prompts and you are in the running for this amazing prize!
I was absolutely tickled when my post on LinkedIn was shared by my boss! I could make a comment about being exploited or exploiting the boss but I won't .... oops I just did!
What have I been reading/ am reading?
"To Venice with Love" by Philip Gwynne Jones - finished, a wonderful read
"Truly Madly Guilty" by Liane Moriarty (first time I am reading her novels; I watched "Big Little Lies" and "Nine Perfect Strangers" on the small screen and loved both series which are based on her novels by the same name)
Podcasts:
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Internal Affairs
The Daily
Damage Report
The Bittersweet Life
The Tylenol Murders
Hoaxed
Dear Gabby
Death of an Artist
What am I watching?
Netflix, downloads and more on my laptop screen:
· Chesapeake Shores (Netflix) - it is finished forever and always, sad but true
· My usual bubblegum tv
· Pointless
· Bloodlands - brilliant crime thriller; also now finished
· Chicago Med, FBI, FBI Most Wanted
NBC News
Sky News
Duolingo - daily I do my challenges and am now on a 494 day streak.
· And that's a wrap for my funny old week - for now!
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