Thursday 4 August 2011

The Alternative Harbor

  Today is Thursday, August 4th and we are going to visit Jarred's Simon's Town, but first, today in perspective.

Thursday, or thunder's day, is associated with Jupiter, Zeus and Thor, all of whom wielded the thunderbolt. Prosperity, abundance and good health are the concerns for today, to have enough to live in comfort and to be healthy enough for the effort to make a difference. Believe in yourself, wear your game face and stay positive.
Thursday's correspondences are the colors purple, royal blue and green; the fragrances of honeysuckle, nutmeg, sage and clove; and the tarot cards nine, ten and ace of pentacles. (Pentacles are associated with coins = money)

 Siman's Town is one of the most popular villages on the False Bay Coast. It was named after Simon van der Stel, the governor of the Cape Colony between 1679-1699. Born to the daughter of a freed Indian slave, Simon van der Stel was the first Colored Governor of the Colony, though this fact was not acknowledged during the Apartheid Era. We certainly weren't taught it in school!
Simon's Town was developed as an alternative harbor where ships could be secured during the winter months while Table Bay was battered by northwesterly winds. Simon's Town, as was the villages on the eastern board of False Bay, was protected by the mountains of the Cape Peninsula.
The town passed between the Dutch, French, and British, who turned it into a naval base and it was only in 1957 that it became the South African Naval base. It has a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere and historic Victorian buildings still line Main Street, the same street passing through Kalk Bay we chatted about yesterday, on to to Muizenberg (directly translated Mice Mountain) from where it veers onto the Cape Flats and on to Newlands behind Table Mountain and Storm's apartment.

Simon's Town from a different angle

Though Jarred was based in Simon's Town, he had an apartment in Bloubergstrand - literally translated Blue Mountain Beach - which is north of Cape Town, with a spectacular view of Table Mountain. I'll come to Bloubergstrand in a later post.
As an officer in the navy, the ocean was in his blood, so it was small wonder that he bumped into Storm on the beach near his apartment. What Storm was doing there, I'm not telling except to say that, though she had a valid reason, it was also a stupid thing to do.
What do you think so far?

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/monicabrinkmanandoana/2011/09/17/apartheid-chat-with-storms-choice-author-maggie-tideswell

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