Cape Town, My City.

try climbing that.

The first time I arrived at the mother city, I went on many Cape Town tours around the city. First on my list was to see the renowned table cloth hanging over the illustrious pride of Cape Town…Table Mountain. Those in the know…scientists to be precise, explain the table cloth that often hangs over the mountain as the result due to the moisture-laden south-Easter that blows against Table Mountain from over False Bay. At a height of approximately 900 meters, the winds reach the colder layers of air and then thick clouds form. These clouds roll over the mountain and down towards the City Bowl. When the clouds reach the warmer, lower air layers and dissolve once more, the unmistakable table cloth forms. I sat and marveled in silence at the magical sight before me. Some minutes later, I ventured over to view the lions face on the equally popular Lion’s Head.

My definition of frustration was redefined because as intent as I was on seeing the proverbial lion on the other portion of the mountain, I just could not see it!

Let it also be known that as a youngster in the company of other youngsters who constantly oohed and aahed at the 3D pictures that came free with moms purchase of the YOU magazine, I was similarly vexed when I could not see the “flower” or whatever object that I was meant to see. To this very day, I still cannot see the “dolphins swimming in a circle” in that chain email picture of a man and a woman hugging affectionately. Nor can I see the image of the young lady within the image of an aging woman. Despite my friend/tour guide’s mild insistence, patient and then impatient directions of “Just relax, close your eyes and then open them again, you’ll see it”. I scratched off Lion’s Head as one of those things because I simply could not see it.
A few weeks later as a Capetonian and no longer a tourist, I was flat hunting in a suburb alongside Lions Head. Walking up towards the address of the flat, it formed before my eyes in a way only fitting of unexpected things. I, all of a sudden, saw the face of the lion on Lions Head! It was crouched up in all its glory, just as everyone else had described it. My delight in finally seeing it came out in the form of a chuckle and then a squeal that must have surely been interpreted as either drunk or high behavior, judging by the look the madam driving into her drive way, shot at me.

I am now a resident at the said flat. Elsewhere in South Africa, many others will drive off from their Tuscan villa inspired townhouse/flat , facing hundreds of rows of other “villas” that stretch as far as the eye can see. I on the other hand, will delight in the beauty and splendour of Cape Town’s most famous landmarks (Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill) that are situated practically at my door step.