Dec 23 2014

Diaspora

Pera is in the air somewhere between Auckland and Johannesburg. She has spent three weeks in New Zealand visiting her sister whom she hasn’t seen in fifteen years.

She lands in Port Elizabeth tonight and comes to Strand tomorrow – Christmas Eve.

Sean has been in Plettenberg Bay, St Francis Bay and Nelson Mandela Bay. He, too, comes to Strand tomorrow.

Phillip has been in Plettenberg Bay, Bushman’s River and Nelson Mandela Bay. Tomorrow, he will also be coming to Strand.

I have been in Nelson Mandela Bay and Kleinmond, and now I am in The Strand, awaiting the arrival of the family tomorow.

Yes, it is Christmas. Christian (and other) people tend to go home at Christmas and gather with family. So we are here in my home town of Strand and still I can say ” How beautiful is my valley!”

I flew from PE last Sunday and was fetched in Cape Town by my sister Lyn and spent the rest of that day with her and her family.

Then, in the evening, I was fetched by Willem and Gretel Wust and off we went to Kleinmond. Seven days of absolute bliss and beauty – meeting up with old friends (including the Van Jaarsvelds now living in Switserland), eating,drinking, relaxing, walking, swimming, beering, chatting, sitting, house viewing, shopping, Arabelling and etc!

Yesterday (Monday), they dropped me in The Strand with my niece Michelle and Sebastian and their family. A frenetic pace of people here – hitting the malls, the roads, the beaches and all getting ready for Christmas! I also managed a visit with Sonja van Rhijn who has MSA and Danie Schoeman.

Now we await the rest of the family and put into action the Christmas plans!

Christmas 2014 – 2000 years after the birth of that tiny Baby in Bethlehem who changed the face of our World. And as the Jews of that time were all going home, so there are many people who will be on the roads at this time, also going home.

Travel safe, my family, and you and yours. Enjoy this time with your family and friends, rest, recharge and review your life as we prepare to enter the next year of 2015.

I saw a sign in a shop in Kleinmond – it read “Be Kind! The World is a small town.”

May Santa be kind to you as you are kind to others …

Please give a thought and do a deed for those who are alone and lonely this Christmas time, for those who are diseased, ill and in pain and for those of us who have lost close friends and family members during the course of 2014.

Have a very happy Christmas – wherever you find yourself.

Apr 22 2014

I Remember Home in the Western Cape

7 years 7 months ill …

Physical: Advantage CBD / Mental: Deuce

I remember …

My residence, Helshoogte, at Stellenbosch University where I lived from 1976 – 1981 and became the first English-speaking Primarius in 1981.

I remember …

that the passages seemed longer than they are now, that the doors weren’t locked, that there was no chicken on the entrance ramp, there was definitely no swimming pool on the top floor and no pub in the res. The committee room was not so elaborate and Simonsberg is still in the same position!

I remember …

tennis courts and parking areas where there are now new residences. And they still play rugby at Coetzenberg on a Friday afternoon at 17h00, much to the delight of all the students.

I remember …

going home to The Strand, where my my sister Lynne (and Anton), their children Nicolette (and Morne) and Michelle (and Sebastian) and the grandchildren Nina and Hannah … the next generations … still live.

the magnificent windstill evenings over False Bay, the crowds walking along Melkbaai Beach and the sun setting over Table Mountain and the Cape Peninsula.

I remember …

the N2 back to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, via Grabouw and Mossel Bay.

Apr 20 2014

I Remember Sonja

7 years 7 months on …
Mental: Advantage CBD / Physical: Advantage CBD

I remember Sonja van Rhyn …

Last Friday I was at home in The Strand. Sebastian, my nephew, took me to see Sonja, unannounced! We were at Hottentots-Holland High together. She was diagnosed with MSA (Multiple Systems Atrophy) shortly after my diagnosis and is now confined to a wheelchair. I caught her in bed!

Loubser, their son, has been visiting from London and has been there for some six months now. He made me coffee and we chatted for a short time ..just twenty minutes or so.

It was great catching up with Sonja, it was great meeting Loubser. Whoever knows whether our paths will cross again on this earth. When i said goodbye, it was with a lump in my throat. I have learned to wipe the tears away, privately and discreetly, I think!

Sonja sets such an example to me. She keeps a blog site too – please read it at http://msainsouthafricawithsonja.blogspot.com.

Karin Holtshauzen, also from HHH, is such a star friend to Sonja, and then there’s Lilian, the domestic, who has even undergone a course in home care. Together with Sonja’s husband, they give Sonja such great support.

But, too soon, I had to leave.

I will remember …
those twenty odd very special minutes.

Today, Louber left for London. Sonja wrote the following:

He left in the night. Part of him will always be here living in my heart. In the olive tree he planted (which he fed, one last time, with Seagrow last night in the dark). In the memories of 6 beautiful months he spent with us, mostly putting our needs before his. I wish I was so selfless at that age. We learnt much from each other. I am thankful. I let him go…

I am so thankful for those special moments when we discussed that favourite city London … when you grow tired of London, you grow tired of life!

Neither Sonja nor I are there yet!

I will remember …

Sep 22 2013

The Cape of Snow

Sneeukop from our kitchen window in The Strand

Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.

Oct 20 2011

The Cape of Good Hope: Day 5 (Wednesday)

Thursday 20 October 2011: 5 years 1 month on … Advantage ED

The holiday agenda for the week was penciled in as follows:

Wednesday AlgoaFM from Waterkloof Farm and wine tasting

Wednesday evening Rocking Horse Show – Durbanville (Die Boer Theatre)

Thursday Trip to Robben Island

Thursday evening Drinks at Forrester’s Arms in Newlands (Old Greys)

Friday Head off to Montagu (wine tasting)

Saturday Mountain trip (Langeberg) and Potjiekos Lunch (Protea Farm)

Sunday morning Return to Port Elizabeth

(Plus a list of people to see and things to do – if time allowed!)

I am busy inking in the gaps… in the meantime, look at some of the pics on the earlier blog!

Day 5 – Wednesday 5 October 2011

We had been so fortunate with the weather – it just kept on getting better and better. And so our early rise on Wednesday presented yet another beautiful warm windless day,

Sean had arranged to get a lift to Cape Town on Wednesday morning with friends of his. He was off to see the Coldplay concert at the new Cape Town Stadium (built for last years FIFA World Cup) and was scheduled to meet up with us again on Thursday morning.

We were off to the Waterkloof Wine Farm – just behind Somerset West on the slopes of the Hottentots-Holland Mountains, and we had to be there before 10h30 in order for me to do my AlgoaFM chat show via telephone to host Lance du Plessis.

Waterkloof is a modern newly-built wine farm, and they say “every picture tells a story” and “a picture is worth a thousand words”! So please look at the photos accompanying this blog and at the previous photo blog and admire the beauty of the Hottentots Holland basin, the HH mountains, Sir Lowry’s Pass, Gordons Bay, Strand, Somerset West, False Bay and the Cape Peninsula in the distance. My words can certainly do no justice to such magnificence!

After my interview (which was minimal as a result of a discussion about the dangers of fracking – listen to the podcast), we did our first wine tasting of the week: the Waterkloof wines. Then we headed off for lunch on the other side of Somerset West, behind the Helderberg, on the way to Stellenbosch. This time we were visiting the farm Avontuur, the owner of which is now married to Jake White, the ex Springbok rugby coach.

A splendid meal was had on the terrace, with a view of Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak in the southern distance and the Helderberg as the northern vista.

We got home late afternoon, and barely had time for a short snooze, before we were picked up by Sebastian and his father and friend Kallie van Heerden. This time we were heading off to Durbanville and to the Die Boer Theatre – sort of restaurant come theatre come pub all rolled into one.

It’s owned by Jurgen Human, who studied electrical engineering with me at Stellenbosch and once courted my sister. He went on to work at the SABC, married Afrikaans theatre doyen Dowwe Dolle and is now involved in this theatre venture. It’s quaint, it’s fun, it’s enjoyable. You eat and you drink and you listen to the music. And tonight it’s Country and Western!

The band playing is Rocking Horse, and two of the members of the band of three are Ridgways, cousins of Sebastian and sons of Sebastian’s father’s late brother. So it’s all in the family tonight, except for Sean, who by now was rocking away at the Coldplay concert in Green Point.

So, today had been one of wine, food and song. Another great day which was serving as the prelude for our much-anticipated trip to Robben Island on Thursday. And the weather was forecast to be an even better day – warm and windless.

Our eyes started closing on the half-hour trip back to The Strand from Durbanville …

Oct 18 2011

The Cape of Good Hope: Day 3 (Mon)

Tuesday 18 October 2011: 5 years 1 month on … Advantage ED

The holiday agenda for the week was penciled in as follows:

Monday morning MSA 1km walk – Strand beach

Monday afternoon High Tea – Mount Nelson Hotel – Cape Town

Tuesday morning Shopping – Factory shops: Cape Town

Tuesday afternoon Ice-skating – Goodwood

Tuesday evening Drinks at Costa del Sol (Strand) (HHH school mates)

Wednesday AlgoaFM from Waterkloof Farm and wine tasting

Wednesday evening Rocking Horse Show – Durbanville (Die Boer Theatre)

Thursday Trip to Robben Island

Thursday evening Drinks at Forrester’s Arms in Newlands (Old Greys)

Friday Head off to Montagu (wine tasting)

Saturday Mountain trip (Langeberg) and Potjiekos Lunch (Protea Farm)

Sunday morning Return to Port Elizabeth

(Plus a list of people to see and things to do – if time allowed!)

I am busy inking in the gaps… in the meantime, look at some of the pics on the earlier blog!

Day 3 – Monday 3 October 2011

Somewhere in the last paragraph of Day 2 (Sunday evening), I should have written that I lost my cool. I do that too often nowadays. However, when I become stressed, it’s almost like a pressure valve that releases the pent-up anger.

This time it involved the arrangements for Monday. Sean was in Stellenbosch and needed to be fetched on Monday morning. Phillip wanted to watch Grey play water-polo at SACS in Newlands on Monday morning. I needed to walk The Strand beach on Monday morning and we all needed to get to the Mount Nelson Hotel in Oranjezicht (the City Bowl) for High Tea on Monday afternoon.

Distances in Cape Town are not like Port Elizabeth. A trip from Strand to Cape Town (depending where and when) could take upwards of an hour. And between us, we had one car, two drivers (Pera and Sean), one navigator (that’s me who knows Cape Town like the back of my hand) and four people going in different directions.

So I exploded and spoiled the fun for a while.

But, by Monday morning all was sorted. It was Pera’s birthday!

Phillip got a lift with Michelle to Newlands, Pera and I walked the Melkbaai (Milk Bay) Beach with Sonja van Rhyn and some thirty other people. It was International MSA Day (Multiple Systems Atrophy) and people were asked to walk a kilometre and light candles to highlight the scourge of MSA.

Sonja was slightly ahead of me at high school and an excellent athlete. She was diagnosed with MSA (a cousin neurological disease to my CBD) a little more than a year ago and is already in a wheelchair. Her disease is moving at a far more rapid pace than my CBD.

After the walk, we lit candles at Casa del Sol, a restaurant in one of the multi-towered blocks of flats that now line The Strand’s Beach Road.

Then we went to Stellenbosch to fetch Sean, headed for SACS to collect Phillip and made our way to the Mount Nelson Hotel.

But then another logistical challenge raised its head. None of us boys were wearing clothing that could have been considered smart casual for the Hotel’s High Tea!

So we headed for the Garden’s Shopping Centre to buy some clothing. Nothing cheap there! Then we drove around the downtown City Bowl area looking for a clothing shop – nothing there! I almost lost it again!

Sebastian had said that the worst that could happen was that those who were not properly attired (smart casual with a collared shirt) would have to sit in the car and watch the rest fill their faces.

So we went on to the Hotel and guess what? No one questioned my short pants, nor the boys t-shirts, board shorts or “sloppies”!

And so we tea’d and ate, and tea’d and ate, and tea’d and ate, and champagned to celebrate the birthday, and tea’d and ate … the Facebook photo record would prove that I ate four slices of cheese cake and added on a few more kilo’s! (For a full record of a earlier High Tea at the Mount Nelson please read my previous blog As Long as there’s Tea there’s Hope!)

We “rolled” out of the Hotel at five and then headed to the northern suburbs of Cape Town along the N1 to visit Century City and the Canal Walk Shopping Centre at Bothasig. Then on to Welgemoed for supper with Jacobus and Tilly Wúst.

When Tilly and Jacobus had phoned whilst we were walking along the beach in the morning to invite us to supper, I had said something light to eat would suffice (because of the High Tea). Well, it ended up as a steak braai and anything but light! But, as always, it was a great evening to catch up with great friends over great food and wine.

And it was very late when we set course back for TheStrand via the N1, the R300 and onto the N2. Another tough day in Africa!

Oct 17 2011

The Cape of Good Hope: Day 2 (Sun)

Friday 14 October 2011: 5 years 1 month on … Advantage ED

The holiday agenda for the week was penciled in as follows:

Sunday Church Strand and then Lunch: Fairview Farm – Paarl

Monday morning MSA 1km walk – Strand beach

Monday afternoon High Tea – Mount Nelson Hotel – Cape Town

Tuesday morning Shopping – Factory shops: Cape Town

Tuesday afternoon Ice-skating – Goodwood

Tuesday evening Drinks at Costa del Sol (Strand) (HHH school mates)

Wednesday AlgoaFM from Waterkloof Farm and wine tasting

Wednesday evening Rocking Horse Show – Durbanville (Die Boer Theatre)

Thursday Trip to Robben Island

Thursday evening Drinks at Forrester’s Arms in Newlands (Old Greys)

Friday Head off to Montagu (wine tasting)

Saturday Mountain trip (Langeberg) and Potjiekos Lunch (Protea Farm)

Sunday morning Return to Port Elizabeth

(Plus a list of people to see and things to do – if time allowed!)

I am busy inking in the gaps… in the meantime, look at some of the pics on the earlier blog!

Day 2 – Sunday 2 October 2011

I was baptised in The Strand Methodist Church, went to Sunday School there, and was confirmed there in 1972.

My grandfather, Walter Charles Lunnon, was a lay preacher in that Church, my parents and my aunts and uncles attended that church and, indeed, my three sisters were baptised and confirmed in the same church. The surname Lunnon has been part of the Strand Methodist Church since the early days. Alas, no more!

There are no longer Lunnons living in The Strand.

The closest family members who are still members of that church are my sister Lyn and her husband Anton (Müller) and my Aunty Doreen (my late father’s sister) and her husband Peter (Volsteedt).

When I am in The Strand on a Sunday, I always try to attend a service at MY Church.

So, while the rest of the family were sleeping, that is where I went at 09h00. Few familiar faces remain and those that do remain now have greying hair and aging skin. (I suppose that goes for all of us!) But, I feel at home there and memories of my childhood flash through my mind in between the choruses sung from the projected words (no longer hymns from the hymn book!), the prayers and the sermon. All that remains the same, are the baskets in which the Offertory is collected.

Being the first Sunday of the month, I get to share in The Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion. It is a special day for me to return to my roots. I eat the Bread, drink the Cup and I am thankful for a special life that I live and a journey that I am privileged to undertake.

… the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Then it was lunch time. We headed off to Fairview Farm at Agter-Paarl, together with sister Lyn and Anton, and the Ridgways. Driving through Stellenbosch, I sms’d Sebastian that he was taking the wrong route and should turn left towards Kayamandi. He then indicated that we should take the lead!

For the first time, I was taking the incorrect route and we headed off in the wrong direction! It is indicative of the fuzziness of my memory at the moment. Anyway, I had to eat humble pie, apologise eventually and let Sebastian take us to our destination.

Luckily, they had kept our table and we joined the hundreds of other diners who just kept coming and going. The food was great, the view over the winelands towards Cape Town and Table Mountain is exquisite, the cheese tasting something else and the boys reckoned it was the best meal ever!

Eventually leaving sometime after four, we dropped Sean on the way home at Helderberg residence in Stellenbosch , where he was going to spend the night with his mates Graeme Clarke and others.

Then cheese (ala Fairview) and wine for supper with the Ridgways, I visited friend Attie Boshoff and eventually it was dux time just before midnight.