Day Zero

Our most southerly city Cape Town, is sitting on the edge of disaster, by being the first major city to reach Day Zero for having no water, well not quite the first major city as I remember Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, a few times running out of water. With the City of Cape Town declaring Level 6B Water restrictions after consecutive years of drought in the region, another city Port Elizabeth is not far behind. Didn't someone predict that the next major war will be over water?

Although we are having rain in Johannesburg where I live, we are sitting on Level 1 Water Restrictions and hopefully we won't get as bad as where Cape Town is today, there by the grace of God go I. Let it rain, let it rain.

Anyway why is my post about Day Zero? Well I had a board meeting this morning at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens, and afterwards I took a stroll up to the waterfall and took a few photos of the Witpoortjie waterfall for ARMOUR, the group Action for Responsible Management of Our Rivers, as they requested some from me a few weeks back. It got me thinking, it is raining now and it seems that we have plenty of water but what are we doing to save water? For example not even 6 months back there was raw sewerage flowing down this very waterfall. How quickly can things change. We are living in this false bubble where we believe that it can't happen to us.

In all the toilets at the Bot Gardens, SANBI, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, has put up Water Savers' signs but I hear that at V&A Waterfront in the very heart of the Cape Town, they have not even one sign telling visitors to use water sparely, not one. Shame on the V&A Waterfront and its owners Growthpoint and the Public Investment Corporation, the South African government's pension fund company looked after by the ANC's appointed Finance Minister. Does that mean the national government of South Africa want to see Cape Town reach Day Zero?

So it seems that it is business as usual for the Western Cape's tourism industry while the Cape Townonians face a disaster of note. Surely the City of Cape Town can at least balance the big business interests with their own citizens who pay their taxes. This is something that only together we can beat.

Sigh, enough ranting about water, here in a wet Bot Gardens, the animal life enjoying the rain, such as this damselfly sunning itself during a break in the clouds.

Witpoortjie Falls

The weather looked good with afternoon thundershowers to cool the day down later so we decided to take Lynda’s dad, Hilton, to the Botanical Gardens just below our home.

Matthew was a blessing as he became very useful as a wheelchair pusher as it became hot in the narrow valley leading up to the 70m Witpoortjie falls. Both the grand old Black Eagle Emoyeni and her young mate Thulane were nowhere to be seen but just the peacefulness of the place was more than enough.

Too Many Butterflies

I seemed to be in a strange place today. My sleep studies have been concluded with last night hazed sleep but somehow by mid-afternoon wanting to nod off. But yesterday I had a meeting which sort of puts me at the crossroad.

So this lunchtime I took my lunch in an occluded area of the garden, sitting down and I slowly peaked my lunch while contemplating my future and well as having a deep conversation with God. In a way I feel that I have failed but yet there is still hope. Sigh, while the birds chirped, I closed my eyes and spent time just being near to God brooding, going through many scenarios with God. Too many butterflies, too many...

Good news in this strange day is that after I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnoea where I stopped breathing 44.8 times per hour, the results from sleeping with the CPAP device shows that it has managed to drop my apnoea down to 0. Yes zero which means this horrible machine works.

Cranky Old Man

My forgetting is getting better, say with one hundred and forty eight years under my belt or is it just shy of fifty, uhmmm. This afternoon we went up to the Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort to get away from the maddening crowd. I don’t want to be reminded that today is my birthday; I am not getting any younger as my get up and go has already gotten up and went.

To lay on the grass and hear a century old tortoise chomp away at the green grass, to hear the hop hoppity of the Cape Robin, or the babbling of the brook. What will my future hold now that the spark in my eyes starts to fade? Ahh aren’t I the cranky old man.

What do you see in me? What do you see? What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?

Now that I am nearly fifty, Lord God I pray that you grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell them apart.