WTF Is Mandy Doing Up At 7 O'Clock In the Morning?
Warning: This post is picture intensive.
Photos without borders link through to Flickr. (If that is of interest to you.)
Can you remember last-week Wednesday? Me neither. Thankfully, I have a photographic record. It was my last week at a job I had been at for two years, and we were on deadline during that week, so I had too much to do and not enough time. Therefore, I trekked into work at a ridiculously early hour with the help of a colleague, so as to get a jump on the day. It's all a blur, so I'm glad I took pictures.
7:04am: What you are being prevented from seeing (for your own protection, and mine) is the look of disdain on my face. WTF am I doing up at 7 o'clock in the morning?
7:06am: In the suburbs. See the headlights down the road? It's the middle of the night! Yet I am outside, taking photographs. Disaster!
7:07am: On the road with a colleague. I'm wearing sunglasses because I had no idea that there would be no sun in the suburbs at 7 o'clock in the morning.
7:11am: This is the other side of the mountain, made famous in the figurative sense by Kyknoord's blog.
7:17am: See the glow of the street lights? Something must be wrong. They never do that when I'm on the road at 8:45am.
7:22am: Subaru! (The blurry blue one.) Completely irrelevant to this post. [For RN, not that he reads my blog.]
7:26am: Our first glimpse of misty smog (or smoggy mist) - it's all that brown stuff, as well as the haze over the city (and the reason that you can't really see the city).
This crap gave me adult-onset asthma. For that I will always be immensely appreciative. What else can I use my expensive medical aid for?
7:27am: Two empires.
Left: The civic centre, home of the mayor and all things bureaucratic. It is incorrectly positioned, according to Feng Shui principles, and money and bad luck flow straight out of the building (and probably in, too. Well, not money. Money flows into the SARS building, which is a few hundred metres away - it's positioned correctly). Don't we, the poor, harassed (depending on who in particular is mayor at any given point) citizens know all about that! (Bureaucracy and taxes, in case you couldn't follow that. This (lack of) mental flow is what my colleagues have to deal with every day, though not, usually, at 7 o'clock in the morning.)
Right: Media24, the headquarters of the organisation that generates 60% of the country's published media. The money flows in here (and up to the top floor, where it has a great view of the city). One day the building is going to topple over. I'm not being prophetic. I just know these things. I mean, I don't know these things. Seriously, I haven't heard anything. Did you hear something? What did you hear?
7:27am: Watch, in amazement (and almost-30-frames-per-second action, except there are only three frames), as two BMW X5s with flashing lights and pompous driving habits drive at high speed down the middle of the highway, lights blazing, and try to force everyone out of the way (case in point: the white car). This has been happening with increased frequency lately. [Paul, this is your chance to rant in my comments section, much like the Cape Times wouldn't let you do on its letters page.]
7:28am: Our first glimpse of the other other side of the mountain (the side made famous by a million postcards of Cape Town. If you post your address I'll send you one - a postcard, I mean, not the side of the mountain.)
7:28am: The city, the city, the city's on fire (well, something on the tracks near the station is). Burn, Mother City, burn! [For DS and CC.]
7:29am: Where's there's smoke... (there's probably a protest).
7:29am: The empires loom closer. Heart palpitations anyone?
7:30am: Completely irrelevant to this post, except to say that there's a Lube Bay at this Shell garage. That's always good to know (you never know when you might need some lubing...that's probably not a word...).
7:32am: If you obey the law and drive under 60 near the docks on the foreshore you may pick up something you didn't really want - I'm just saying (not from personal experience).
7:32am: This is where the Media24, Caltex, CTICC, and other empirical plebs have to park, as well as Madame Zingara's Theatre Of Dreams night visitors (sounds bad, but really isn't, although they do have circus people, and that can't be good, right?). Because it's 7 o'clock in the morning we beat everyone, so it only took five minutes to walk to all the way to the office instead of seven.
7:34am: From left to right: Media24, Madame Zingara's Theatre Of Dreams, pole, flag, Signal Hill, flag, crane, spikey building, building under construction, crane, Arabella Sheraton hotel.
7:35am: Speaks for itself. Well, probably not, unless you already know what it's saying, in which case there's nothing to say, but if you don't then it probably doesn't really, so it's all confusing. I can't really explain.
7:36am: Civic Centre, UFO on Civic Centre, Table Mountain.
7:37am: The Empire, bathed in its personal officious magnificence. No...wait! That's the sun. No wonder none of it could reach the suburbs.
7:37am: One day this will probably be a building, which is the only reason I photographed it now, while it isn't. That's much more exciting.
7:41am: Blurry people.
This is what the world looks like to me before I've had my morning tea. Actually, afterwards too. The tea doesn't really help. I just drink it because Martini Bianco would be inappropriate. Or so I've been repeatedly warned.
7:45am: Heerengracht Fountain not bathed in sunlight. That's because it's still the middle of the night. How ridiculous is that? I shouldn't be awake yet. Well, technically, I'm not; I'm just physically present. It's better than being presently physical (depending on who you ask).
7:49am: "The sun caressed the stiff peaks, much like a whisk wouldn't." [For MV, who doesn't read my blog either (with liberties, since I used up my only spaceship joke, which wasn't even amusing...or my joke, and, anyway, this is a picture of a mountain).]
8:05am: Now that the crags are shadowy the mountain is finally recognisable to me.
8:12am: We end with a panorama shot. On a normal week day I would be awake about now.
I thought I would be ending this on a joke, but apparently I'm not. Being awake at 7am is a sobering experience. Hopefully this will be my last sobering experience for a while.
Photos without borders link through to Flickr. (If that is of interest to you.)
Can you remember last-week Wednesday? Me neither. Thankfully, I have a photographic record. It was my last week at a job I had been at for two years, and we were on deadline during that week, so I had too much to do and not enough time. Therefore, I trekked into work at a ridiculously early hour with the help of a colleague, so as to get a jump on the day. It's all a blur, so I'm glad I took pictures.
7:04am: What you are being prevented from seeing (for your own protection, and mine) is the look of disdain on my face. WTF am I doing up at 7 o'clock in the morning?
7:06am: In the suburbs. See the headlights down the road? It's the middle of the night! Yet I am outside, taking photographs. Disaster!
7:07am: On the road with a colleague. I'm wearing sunglasses because I had no idea that there would be no sun in the suburbs at 7 o'clock in the morning.
7:11am: This is the other side of the mountain, made famous in the figurative sense by Kyknoord's blog.
7:17am: See the glow of the street lights? Something must be wrong. They never do that when I'm on the road at 8:45am.
7:22am: Subaru! (The blurry blue one.) Completely irrelevant to this post. [For RN, not that he reads my blog.]
7:26am: Our first glimpse of misty smog (or smoggy mist) - it's all that brown stuff, as well as the haze over the city (and the reason that you can't really see the city).
This crap gave me adult-onset asthma. For that I will always be immensely appreciative. What else can I use my expensive medical aid for?
7:27am: Two empires.
Left: The civic centre, home of the mayor and all things bureaucratic. It is incorrectly positioned, according to Feng Shui principles, and money and bad luck flow straight out of the building (and probably in, too. Well, not money. Money flows into the SARS building, which is a few hundred metres away - it's positioned correctly). Don't we, the poor, harassed (depending on who in particular is mayor at any given point) citizens know all about that! (Bureaucracy and taxes, in case you couldn't follow that. This (lack of) mental flow is what my colleagues have to deal with every day, though not, usually, at 7 o'clock in the morning.)
Right: Media24, the headquarters of the organisation that generates 60% of the country's published media. The money flows in here (and up to the top floor, where it has a great view of the city). One day the building is going to topple over. I'm not being prophetic. I just know these things. I mean, I don't know these things. Seriously, I haven't heard anything. Did you hear something? What did you hear?
7:27am: Watch, in amazement (and almost-30-frames-per-second action, except there are only three frames), as two BMW X5s with flashing lights and pompous driving habits drive at high speed down the middle of the highway, lights blazing, and try to force everyone out of the way (case in point: the white car). This has been happening with increased frequency lately. [Paul, this is your chance to rant in my comments section, much like the Cape Times wouldn't let you do on its letters page.]
7:28am: Our first glimpse of the other other side of the mountain (the side made famous by a million postcards of Cape Town. If you post your address I'll send you one - a postcard, I mean, not the side of the mountain.)
7:28am: The city, the city, the city's on fire (well, something on the tracks near the station is). Burn, Mother City, burn! [For DS and CC.]
7:29am: Where's there's smoke... (there's probably a protest).
7:29am: The empires loom closer. Heart palpitations anyone?
7:30am: Completely irrelevant to this post, except to say that there's a Lube Bay at this Shell garage. That's always good to know (you never know when you might need some lubing...that's probably not a word...).
7:32am: If you obey the law and drive under 60 near the docks on the foreshore you may pick up something you didn't really want - I'm just saying (not from personal experience).
7:32am: This is where the Media24, Caltex, CTICC, and other empirical plebs have to park, as well as Madame Zingara's Theatre Of Dreams night visitors (sounds bad, but really isn't, although they do have circus people, and that can't be good, right?). Because it's 7 o'clock in the morning we beat everyone, so it only took five minutes to walk to all the way to the office instead of seven.
7:34am: From left to right: Media24, Madame Zingara's Theatre Of Dreams, pole, flag, Signal Hill, flag, crane, spikey building, building under construction, crane, Arabella Sheraton hotel.
7:35am: Speaks for itself. Well, probably not, unless you already know what it's saying, in which case there's nothing to say, but if you don't then it probably doesn't really, so it's all confusing. I can't really explain.
7:36am: Civic Centre, UFO on Civic Centre, Table Mountain.
7:37am: The Empire, bathed in its personal officious magnificence. No...wait! That's the sun. No wonder none of it could reach the suburbs.
7:37am: One day this will probably be a building, which is the only reason I photographed it now, while it isn't. That's much more exciting.
7:41am: Blurry people.
This is what the world looks like to me before I've had my morning tea. Actually, afterwards too. The tea doesn't really help. I just drink it because Martini Bianco would be inappropriate. Or so I've been repeatedly warned.
7:45am: Heerengracht Fountain not bathed in sunlight. That's because it's still the middle of the night. How ridiculous is that? I shouldn't be awake yet. Well, technically, I'm not; I'm just physically present. It's better than being presently physical (depending on who you ask).
7:49am: "The sun caressed the stiff peaks, much like a whisk wouldn't." [For MV, who doesn't read my blog either (with liberties, since I used up my only spaceship joke, which wasn't even amusing...or my joke, and, anyway, this is a picture of a mountain).]
8:05am: Now that the crags are shadowy the mountain is finally recognisable to me.
8:12am: We end with a panorama shot. On a normal week day I would be awake about now.
I thought I would be ending this on a joke, but apparently I'm not. Being awake at 7am is a sobering experience. Hopefully this will be my last sobering experience for a while.
Labels: Cape Town, Cultural Expedition
posted by Mandy J Watson at 10:14 PM
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10 Comments:
Oooh. I get to be the first to comment (read: be a bit of a wise-ass)
I'm deciding on a career change from [current bloody career] to copy-editing..that said, please see my comments below: (yes, I scrutinised your post AND took notes)
7.26am What exactly is MEDIAL aid? Is this something I should be considering for myself?
8.05am Shadowey in fact has no 'e'. (I wasn't sure so I looked it up)
8.12am Being awake at 8am is a sobering experience, but surely the point of this post was that you were in fact awake at 7am?
Yay! Online notoriety at last :-) And WTF indeed....it is only us plebs at the ERAF (Embattled RAF - well, that's what the Press always refer to us as) who have to be in at 8am sharp and (to add insult to injury) sign a register like a gang of dockyard stevedores. Still, at least you drive in - I used Metrorail until about six months ago. Their train service should be renamed the Poo Poo Choo Choo as on some days, especially during summer, a good percentage of their passengers are in a desperate need to renew their acquaintance with Mr Soap and Mrs Hot Water. Eau de B.O anyone? I now get a lift with my sister who also parks in the Media 24/Chevron lot. As for the BMW X5's: if a vehicle is *not* an officially marked SAPS or SANDF vehicle (with B and M suffixes on their number plates respectively) or an ambulance, no git with a blue siren can force you out of the way. The use of sirens by private vehicles is illegal in terms of the Road Traffic Act, so next time, feel free to give them the Hawaiian Good Luck Sign and stay in the middle of your lane. Still, there have been times when I wish I could have teleported Mr Bean on his scooter smack in in front of them :-) I'm not sure who the passengers are, but I think i is Ebrahim Rasool and his minions - I was walking past the Provincial Administration a few weeks ago and saw a pair of blue-siren bedecked X5's as well as a few Mercs, BMW's and other sundry 4x4's parked under the arches that lead onto Keerom Street. Our taxpayers money hard at work, no doubt :-)
Tracey: Seriously. Do you not know that I can delete wiseasses from the face of the earth? Jase is my copy editor of choice, and he has mailed his changes, but I was offline.
1) I changed it, but medial aid is apt. Have you never used yours?
2) I don't have a dictionary anymore, and your Internet connection was too damn slow.
3) Both are sobering! I am never up at either hour.
Paul: I am recommending that you get your own blog. You obviously have too much repressed.
I think so too....but what to write on without incurring the wrath of 99% of society (lol)
Yeah can I just add something to Paul's comment, those vehicles aren't the ONLY ones you HAVE to get out of the way for. If you see a black van, with black tinted windows and NO reg plates, i would suggest you move, or face the consequences.
*nods at mandy* You should be still asleep by now. :)
Paul: You are letting fear get in the way of your destiny.
Francois: Welcome back! I still am not sure about that van of yours. Anyway, I have a (new) job, which you know about, so *obviously* I am up at this early hour.
Thanks! It's good to be back. You have a new job? I know about? *looks around nervously* Oh hey! Congratulations! *quickly digs up old emails in the archives*
Har har. You received the same email as a number of other people. I have the proof.
And I have the proof that you read it timeously. You created it for me. I just had to sit back and watch.
I am amused.
Lube is a good word, for blog hits. :-)
Katt: LOL. You are so right. I should check the stats. I get all sorts of Speedo hits due to the Cosmo post. Every one counts.
Um...I think....
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