Random Photos April 21st

Birds of paradise must be easy to grow here because they are quite common, still I like them.

In Melville, an neighborhood of Jo'burg, they are in the process of building a shopping mall out of industrial shipment containers. A neat idea but I wonder how it will fare in cold and super hot days.

An outdoor barber, at a fairly busy intersection, shaving the head of his client.

Zoo lake: the lake, the boats to rent, a nice bench to enjoy the gorgeous day and a broken lamp.

Beaded Animals part 2

Christmas Tree Ornaments and Tin Mugs

On Sunday morning in Rosebank ( a neighborhood of Jo'burg) there is The Roof Top Market where there is a lot of local crafts and stuff available. I went there today (sorry no photos) and bought a few things.

Some Christmas tree ornaments (I love Christmas tree ornaments):
Some African angel, I should add that they are particularly inspired from the Ndebele women.

 Maybe a little big for my tree as I like small ornaments, but there was only one size.

The smaller figurines below are meant to be key chains but I thought that once the ring is removed they would make nice ornaments.

You can see they are way smaller.

Things I had bought many times before but somehow gave all away are those hand painted enameled tin mugs. I quite like them and I was please to see that the merchant was still at the market. He actually recognized me and we had a pleasant chat.

They never used to have animals, but this time they had a few.

Mostly they have scenes of village life.

In a way I get the sense that this could be one of my last trips to South Africa so I am making sure that I get what I want, things that I have bought before and given away, or things that I have admired but never bought.

Beaded Animals - Part 1 (possibly many parts to follow, who knows?)

As per request, a close up of the beaded animals:
Those are just the ones I have acquired so far. I love beaded animals and I tend to acquire a few. They come in any size you want if you are willing to order them and wait. The one I have are small because they are one of the typical size of what you can get pretty much anywhere, also they have to come with me. But the goat in my friend's garden is life size.

One guinea fowl and two rhinos. (If you click on the photos you can see them better)

Close up of the white rhino.

The stand I photographed for my previous post had many more but I didn't buy any from that guy. I bought from him the frame of a antelope (a springbok)  head to hang on the wall as they are before they get beaded. I thought it was great just the way it was.

As you can see from the size of my hand, the antelope head is much bigger than the beaded animals I bought.
Honestly those guys are so gifted in the way they can bend wire into a perfect 3-D representation of pretty much anything they want.

Random Photos of my First Week in Jo'burg

Some random plants growing in the garden of the friend's house I am house-sitting right now.

An aloe

Blooming hibiscus

Pomegranate

In northern Canada there is a lot of beading but not surprisingly it is totally different from the beading in South Africa.
Also from my friend's garden a gorgeous beaded goat

A local guy and his beaded animal stand

Another typical thing about Jo'burg, and other cities of South Africa is the wall, gates, electric fences you get. You often cannot see houses, or at least not their ground floor. Here are just some random examples, all  you see is walls and doors or gates.

Very common birds here,  hadidas, a kind of ibis.

Two Not-So-Nice Things Happening in South Africa

There is a bit of a "thing" going on in South Africa right now. I don't know if it has hit international news.
The short version of it (my version) is as follow: As economic times are not great and jobs are even harder than usual to get yet another wave of they locally call "xenophobia" is hitting South Africa. This translate in frustrated poor South Africans attacking workers and business holders who are not South African because they are perceived as stealing their jobs and their opportunities. There was a riot in Durban a few days ago and they became violent as non-South African started to defend themselves.
One of the particularly weird thing happening right now is that apparently there is a wave of texts and messages on social medias warning (or is it threatening) that this Wednesday in Johannesburg they will start killing foreigners. I am pretty sure that they mean foreigners who they perceive as stealing their jobs, but nobody really knows what they mean and how it will go.
Things are apparently so bad that Malawi is saying that it will repatriate its nationals.

The other thing happening here, and this too is not new, is "Load shedding". South Africa cannot produce enough electrical power for its needs so its power company (Eskom, a state owned company) cuts the power to various areas at various times so less electricity is being used. About eight years ago load shedding was quite common and then it stopped. I haven't been in South Africa in nearly two years and now they are back. There is a schedule to warm people but it changes all the time and anyway means nothing really as it is not followed. This is not a temporary problem.
 And just try to imagine what it is like to try to run a business (shop or restaurant) when you have no power. Or what it is like to drive around Jo'burg when traffic lights (called "robots" here) are not working.

Gorgeous Weather as Expected

That is the one thing about Jo'burg: the weather is always gorgeous.

This is where I am staying right now. Then I will house-sit for a friend, then I am moving to another place etc etc.

One Small Piece of Good News

My bag actually arrived yesterday, so 24 hours after me.
I was so impressed. I have to admit that getting my bag does make life a lot easier.

I'm There

Alright, I am in South Africa but unfortunately my bag isn't!
I am still hopeful that it may catch up to me in the next few days but just the same I can't help but wish I hadn't packed my favourite pair of pants etc.

It is not a train wreck, I never pack anything I cannot be totally without in my checked in luggage.

As expected my cell phone number had expired so I have a new phone number. So far for some reason I haven't been able to call Canada with my new cell phone number. Right now it is 3:00am here so I have to wait but tomorrow I will make sure that international calls are not blocked.

The Wisdom of Poo Bear

I like this one.