REMEMBERING MY EARLY YEARS (Part 2)

Me when I attended Kenmore Private School.

As  I said previously we stayed with my grandparents in Florida Road for awhile til we could find a flat or house for ourselves. The house was built in the early 1900's and am told that there were stables for horses at the back.After my grandparents died, it was declared a National Monument after the family tried to sell it. It is now a resturaunt. The house had large grounds, with a front garden where my grandfather had made a swing, a see-saw and a roundabout for grandchildren to play on.Those days you could leave your front gates open without any fear of criminals entering the premises. On the one side of the house were tennis courts which they had converted into a large greenhouse for my grandmother's anthirium plants. She was known as the "anthiririum queen" and used to always win prizes at the annual horticultural flower show in the Durban City Hall. She used to grow the plants from seedlings and was known for her monthly sale of anthirium plants. Every weekend she used to cut blooms and pack them for rail transport, with the help of her 2 daughters and my mother. They were sent to florists around the country. When us kids had the silkworm craze, she used to help us collect mulberry leaves, take the "silk" off their cacoons. Our grandmother was interested in many things. I remember her nursing a baby bird that was abandoned by it's mother. Whilst staying at my grandparents I went to a few schools. In Class 1 and 2 (not sure what they call it now) I attended Maris Stella school in Musgrave Road. I remember my teacher was a Cynthia Wood who was an accomplished pianist and organist as well. In Standard 1 I attended Kenmore Private School which was actually right opposite my grandparents house in Florida Rd. Our parents finally got a flat in Rapson Road in morningside a few years later. After attending Kenmore, I went to DPHS in Gordon Road. I recall attending a few years there before we went to St Henry's (Marist Brothers).

295 Florida Road, Durban. It was declared a national monument
after my grandparents passed on.

Should I do a part 3? There are so many stories to tell from our days in Glenwood to when I started work. Hopefully I can get the time to recall my early years of life.

DURBAN PRIDE 2015 IS COMING!!!!

Yes in fact it is all happening tomorrow at the Ampitheatre on Durban's South Beach (opposite the Elangeni Hotel). Are you excited? Are you ready? Do you have your costume or are you going in drag? All I can say is I'm ready and looking forward to it. I'm actually feeling excited and nervous all at the same time. You still have one day to prepare! So we'll see you all tomorrow!!!! Oh and don't foget gates open at 10am and close at 10pm. I believe a lot of entertainment has been arranged after the march at 12noon. It looks like a fun-filled day tomorrow!!

REMEMBERING MY EARLIER YEARS (Part 1)

Left: The Flowerpot Men. Right: Andy Pandy & friends.

Being born in 1953 it made me realize how the world we live in has changed over the years. I was born in Cardiff, Wales. My mother was a Norwegian who grew up in Cape Town and met my father who was studying medicine at UCT. Our family was like a league of nations: a Norwegian mother and a South African father. As far as siblings go my elder sister was born in South Africa, my elder brother in London, myself in Wales and my younger brother in Durban. At the time of my elder brother's birth and mine, my father was in the process of doing his practical for his final exams as a surgeon. Hence him working at various hospitals in the UK. my mother used to recall breastfeeding me w..hilst watching the coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth on our black & white TV. Growing up I used to watch the children's programmes like "The Flowerpot Men", "Andy Pandy" to name a few.

From left to right: (backrow) my mother & father
(Front row) me, my sister and elder brother.

       At the age of 4 we returned to South Africa aboard the passenger ship "The Windsor Castle", leaving Southampton and arriving in Cape Town just after Xmas.The trip was quite eventful, and the things I remember clearly was a fancy dress contest for the children where I was dressed as an elf in a costume made from green crepe paper. Another teenage boy dressed in drag. On top of that I was sea sick most of the time. My elder brother took part in "the crossing of the line",  a ceremony done for passenger entertainment when the ship crossed the equator. Passengers who partook in the event met King Neptune and his loyal servants before recieving a certificate from Neptune himself. 

        We disembarked at Cape Town and stayed for a week or so with my grandmother (from my mother's side) in Greenpoint. My father had bought a Ford Prefect in the UK and he brought it with us on the ship. That little car got us around for many years to come, in fact my mother learnt to drive and got her driver's licence in it, but that's another story for later. We travelled to Durban from Cape Town in that same car, three small children and two adults. My mother was pregnant with my younger brother at the time. I don't remember much about the roadtrip except for the fact we saw a few tortoises on the way. I think we even took one with us to Durban. On arrival we stayed at my father's parents house in Florida Road until we could find a place of our own. My grandparent's owned a double-storey Victorian styled house so there was enough room for us all.
          I have decided to write these memories in several posts, as there is a story to tell here. Sixty-two years to be exact. I won't bore you with all the details of my life and family but hope you will enjoy reading about some of the stories I have to tell. For now this will Part 1 and soon I'll bring you the next installment.
                

          

DURBAN GAY PRIDE 2014

There will be two posts one with a selection of the photos, the other with a review of the days proceedings. I was a bit disappointed that I could not attend the event in drag due to my recent hospitalization (see my earlier blog post) as I needed more time to plan for such an event. I will have to wait til next year and luckily I have found a dressmaker, so I should start planning now! Anyhow back to the 2014 event. I was accompanied by two friends and luckily we were about a kilometre away from King's Park where Pride was taking place, but unfortunately we ended up walking due to the cab company's cabs all being fully booked up. Something about end of the month, they said. On arrival we met people we knew, and as the day progessed a great time was had by all! Everybody was dancing to the music provided and I believe this was a very successful Durban Pride! Looking forward to 2014!
NB: This post appeared to have been half finished, for some reason, that is why I'm just updating it today.

FINDING BIGFOOT -Part 2



An apparent "bigfoot" killing in 1945.



Even though I'm very sceptical and I find the presenters a bunch of eccentrics, this show does have entertainment value. I have been sitting watching the show on DSTV Channel 171 and I find that either the show is scripted or that the presenters are a bunch of idiots if they expect us to believe what they say. They have never seen a "bigfoot" yet they are able to tell us how tall they are, what food they eat, how  they walk and what they even look like. I personally think that they make this all up, even some of their so called "eye witnesses" are their best friends. Maybe they pay them like they do when casting extras in a movie? And why is it that their camera mysteriously malfunctions leading us to believe that they missed an opportunity to capture "bigfoot" on film? Really? In all the episodes they have never seen one, but yet again they know exactly the kind of noise they make. Unbelievable is all I can say! And who says that "bigfoot" is a meat eater? And why is it that no one has found a dead "bigfoot" or even the skeleton of one? Because good people they don't exist. Just like the unicorn, "bigfoot is a fictitious creature. Either that or the "eye witnesses" all smoke weed or something! I really do not believe that this creature exists. Just like the Lochness monster no one has actually seen it up close and personal. As the one female presenter, Rennae, says that she is having a lot of trouble believing all this and until she actually has a close encounter with one personally, she remains  a non believer. If they ever do find "bigfoot" I'm sure we'll be the first to know!

FINDING BIGFOOT - FACT OR FICTION?



Is this real or a man in a monkey costume? You decide!

 How many of you have watched the TV series "Finding Bigfoot" on the Discovery ID channel? To me it seems very far fetched, and personally the people who claim to have actually seen these creatures must have wild imaginations or they were hallucinating at the time. It is very strange how the same eye witnesses didn't take a photo of it with their smart phone to actually prove they saw what they saw. Their excuse would probably be that the battery was flat. Let's not forget about the presenters of this show either. In the dark of the night they are shown using night lights to see where they are going, and making the "call" of the "bigfoot". How do they know the sound that they made is actually that of a "bigfoot"? They haven't seen one as yet. And the sound of their two-way radio communication and all the visibility of their night vision lights and so forth is enough to scare any animal away. In a loud whisper the one guy say to his buddy: "Did you hear that? It came from that direction." And he points vaguely into the distance. Of course the viewer heard nothing. Then there was the time when the guy tripped and fell just when "bigfoot" appeared in front of them. And in a loud whisper over the radio, he said "Damn, I nearly saw it with my own eyes!" Come now you seriously expect me to believe all this?   The whole series is clearly scripted, and I don't believe these presenters are experts in their field when they've never seen "Bigfoot"? The "eyewitnesses" seem to know more about the animal than the experts do! Mankind has always been interested in these type of "sightings" whether it be animal or even UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects) which sometimes you cannot dispute as you've never encountered them before. You may believe they exist or you can just take it as an interesting fact. Take the "Lochness Monster" for example. Is it real or is it just myth? For centuries man has tried to uncover the mystery surround the creature that supposedly lives in Lake Loch in Scotland. Countless movies, stories and "fake" photos have emerged about sightings. In the Himalayas there were reports of an ape-like creature which was called the Yeti that was sighted trudging around in the snow. But which disappeared when humans tried to track it down. Sound familiar to you? The yeti was also known as "the abominable snowman" and probably spawned all these theories and myths about "Bigfoot" in the USA, as comparing the two the descriptions are very similar. So whether you believe in "Bigfoot" or not, one must admit it makes very interesting viewing for television.

The Yeti or Abonimable Snowman.

DURBAN PRIDE 2014 PHOTOS