Charles Apple

By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way back home.

But I won’t stay there for long. Currently, the plan is for me to spend two weeks getting caught up on a little personal and family business and then to head back to South Africa for an even longer stay. Details are still being worked out, but the folks at this newspaper company have asked for my services for two months.

Naturally, I’m glad to say yes. Not only does this mean even more teaching and mentoring work for me, it also means I’ll get a chance to see more of this beautiful country. I’ll be spending some time in Johannesburg and possibly Bloemfontein.

This nation is nowhere as large as is the U.S., of course. But it’s still pretty large. Here’s a basic map, superimposed over the Eastern United States:

So you can see right away that my flight today from Cape Town to my connecting international flight out of Jo’burg today is like flying from Little Rock to, say, Buffalo.

I’ll be here so long they went ahead and issued me a company ID:

How do you like that staff number? Even better than 007, I think. I should ask if this gives me license to kill.

Our final sessions Friday for the local paper’s advertising and marketing folks went very well. We discussed the fine art of scrounging, talked about options for stock art and looked at some cutting-edge thinking about the future of newspaper advertising.

Unfortunately, a couple of our members couldn’t synch up their schedules at the end of the day, meaning I didn’t manage to get a group portrait of all six of us. From left to right, here’s the boss lady, Karmien, myself, Barry, Dominic and Jean:

In this separate shot, Dominic is missing but we have with us Rolene. And we’re all doing the funky surfer’s hand symbol, which had been kind of a running gag all week:

In honor of the end of my three weeks teaching here in Cape Town, my California-based pal Chris Rei sent me this electronic card:

I hadn’t planned to go back over to the waterfront Friday night, but once I returned to the hotel and faced the prospect of eating in the hotel restaurant once again, I found myself cowering on the shuttle van. No more steak and egg. No more…

Although I had shot it plenty of other times, the red clock tower looked particularly resplendent against the cloudless deep blue sky:

Palm trees stood still in the calm spring air…

…while a group of seals sunned themselves in the slightly chilly spring air:

I had been wanting to try this interesting Fish n’ Chips place on Quay Four ever since I first spotted, two weeks before. Friday night seemed like the right time:

Perhaps this makes clear why I grew confused Thursday. There are a lot of items listed here, but if you didn’t know that standard, everyday “fish and chips” consists of Hake, you’d never figure it out from this:

I bought hake, chips and two Coke Lights and found myself a table on the dock. I was having seafood, but on the next table over, I spotted poultry:

Mmm. Tastes like chicken.

Naturally, I felt compelled to take one last photo of Signal Hill, from the Waterfront (click for a larger view):

…And Table Mountain, once again watching invitingly from a distance (also click for a larger view):

Walking through the mall one last time, I suddenly came across this beauty. I can’t imagine how I could have missed it earlier:

Ah, the Athlete’s Foot. Aren’t you just itching to shop there?

I had to request a wakeup call from the front desk — my travel alarm clock finally died Wednesday night. I enjoyed the Westin’s huge breakfast bar for one last time. I’m really going to miss that breakfast with its “streaky bacon.”

Today dawned dark and grey…

…but by 7:45 a.m., the clouds are already burning off:

It looks like it’ll be yet another beautiful, gorgeous day here in South African paradise. The forecast is for sun and a high of 68 degrees. Meaning locals will wear sweatshirts and jackets and shiver and complain how damn cold they are.

What an incredible city Cape Town is. Just incredible. I’m so lucky to have been asked to teach here. I’m so lucky to have seen all that I’ve seen over the past three weeks. I’m so lucky to have met so many fine, friendly people.

Nigel, down at the doorman’s station, set me up with transport over to the airport at 10:30 this morning. My plane departs at 1:50 p.m. A quick look at my flight info:

It’s basically the same thing we had planned last weekend. The only difference: Everything is one week later.

Unlike my outbound journey, I won’t have long layover this time. So I don’t expect to have the time to speak to you along the way.

When I get home, I’ll get caught up with Sharon and Elizabeth, we’ll do laundry — lots and lots of laundry — and we’ll make plans for my extended stay here. I’ll need to rent a cell phone, I’ll need to find a way to bring more clothes. I need a haircut and to have a troublesome tooth looked after by my dentist.

And I still have an appointment next week with a lung specialist to look into the breathing problems I had back in June and July. Although frankly, that problem seems to have disappeared.

I’ll also try to get caught up on Facebook. I can’t seem to get Facebook working here in South Africa. That’s been very frustrating.

Also next week, I expect to spend some time blogging. There are three redesigns scheduled, I believe. I’ve found stories online for some. One paper has promised to send me live PDFs Sunday night. I’m looking forward to showing them to you.

Thanks for reading, folks. From Cape Town, South Africa: Buy a donkey!

—
EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA

You’re reading chapter 24 of my journey to Cape Town, South Africa. Previous installments:

• CHAPTER 1: Preparing for the journey.
  
• CHAPTER 2: I made it as far as the Dulles airport bar
• CHAPTER 3: Getting really bored sitting at Dulles
• CHAPTER 4: Safe and sound in Cape Town
• CHAPTER 5: Day one in Cape Town
  
• CHAPTER 6: Day two; No effects at all from jet lag
• CHAPTER 7: A tour of the Westin Grand
• CHAPTER 8: Dealing with little things like money and electricity
• CHAPTER 9: Thursday night on the Cape Town waterfront
• CHAPTER 10: Ending the work week on a high note
• CHAPTER 11: A Saturday trip to the Cape of Good Hope
• CHAPTER 12: A Sunday visit to Cape Town’s Table Mountain
• CHAPTER 13: The blustery ‘Cape Doctor’ winds arrive
• CHAPTER 14: Making some real progress in our class work
• CHAPTER 15: Giant infographics and a night on the town
• CHAPTER 16: Our last day of infographics class in Cape Town
  
• CHAPTER 17: Looking forward to a weekend of sightseeing
• CHAPTER 18: An interesting Saturday bus tour of Cape Town
• CHAPTER 19: Preparing for a week of advertising classes
• CHAPTER 20: A beautiful sunset over Signal Hill
  
• CHAPTER 21: A Sunday morning visit to Robben Island prison
• CHAPTER 22: Teaching ad and marketing artists in Cape Town
• CHAPTER 23: My last day in Cape Town

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 1:17 am and is filed under Charles Apple, Travelogue, Trip to South Africa, Visual ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.