March 2015

March madness maybe the best way to describe the month. We've been on fire watch.

It began with reports from Cape Town of fires in the area heading towards Hout Bay. With no news coverage in the UK, we had to contact friends and family and search online for information and hope that it didn't spread as far as our property. It certainly looked bad but in the end it didn't affect us, though next week we will see for ourselves the extent of the damage caused.

These are NOT pictures of Mt. Doom from "The Lord of the Rings"

Flora Bay, very near Hout Bay.

The Cape Town Cycle Tour (formerly known as the Cape Argus Pick 'n' Pay Momentum Cycle Tour) had to be reduced from the normal 109k to just 47k as many of the roads became too dangerous to use or were closed. The change, unprecedented in 38 years of racing history, went ahead in support of the brave men and women who had risked their lives to battle the fires that had wreaked havoc on the Southern Peninsula.

We had a report from our friend Lynne, in Hout Bay, which I reproduce here. 

(A glossary will appear at the end to translate some of the words used): 

*dagga (marijuana)

*bergies (mountain homeless people)

*stompie (cigarette butt/fag end)

*sms (Short Message Service - SA version of text  message)

Then no sooner had the situation eased, when we heard of a fire in Clapham Junction. Late on a Friday afternoon, the London Fire Brigade were called to the Battersea Arts Centre on Lavender Hill. The air was choked with ash and smoke and those nearby were told not to open their windows. Unfortunately, the Grade II listed building was badly burnt, but at least no one was injured. The smoke had spread to such an extent that by the time Margaret got off the bus at Wandsworth Bridge and walked home, she had inhaled so much smoke, she wouldn’t have needed the smoked nuts we usually ask for at one of our new favourite pubs ‘The Cat’s Back’.

Battersea Arts Centre - Friday 13th March 2015