Purple flowers

We are heading away on our annual holiday and this year it takes us up to the majestic Drakensberg. I'll be back online early in the new year again so I would like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a Happy New Year.  May 2011 bring lots of happiness and tons of awesome pictures.

Summer Christmas feast

We like to get together as a family over Christmas with my family coming over on Christmas Eve and my in-laws on Christmas Day.  We normally eat way to much over the period, but we'll worry about that in the New Year.

Because Christmas falls in the summer down here in South Africa, we as a family don't do the whole traditional Christmas meal thing, but rather opt for cold meats and salads.

This year we started with prunes wrapped in bacon made in the oven followed by a hake (fake lobster) starter.  The main consisted of gammon, salt beef, beef tongue, Hong Kong Chicken, carrot salad, potato salad, pasta salad and Greek salad with a desert of ice cream with a whole nut chocolate / condense milk sauce.  On Christmas Day we had a braai with the in-laws and Mother-in-law brought her traditional trifle. 

Merry Christmas everybody!!! Hope you didn't eat too much...

Christmas candle

Its the night before Christmas...

Ruined house

One of those unwritten rules of photography (and life) is to never venture somewhere potentially dangerous or unknown while you are on your own.  Always make sure you have backup.  Not that a guy like James Bond listens to that kind of advice.  But James Bond I'm not, so I ventured as far as the door.  There are a couple of old houses at the bottom of South End in Port Elizabeth that is literally falling apart and I decided to have a closer look.  Unfortunately I was alone so I didn't venture further than the door for safety reasons.

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Saltpan flowers

Its amazing how you often see a photo opportunity and when you go for it you find a whole host of others.  I stopped on the Swartkops Road between Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage to get some photos of the old Swartkops Power Station and the flamingos on the salt pans and also ended up with little yellow flowers with the salt pans in the background.

Sukume Museum

The Human Dignity Center in Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth recently opened a small museum on their premises to act as a window into the culture of the Xhosa people.

The Sukume Museum and Xhosa Cultural Centre also tells the story of Walmer Township, known amongst the black people as Gqebera.  During the Apartheid years the residents of Gqebera resisted forced removals as the area was close to their work places and they would have ended up unemployed if they had to move to the opposite side of town. 

Part of the Human Dignity Centre has a program where locals produce hand made crafts.  The Sukume Museum also gives them an outlet for their items.  Chaos Boy is busy scanning the price list to see what something he is interested in costs.

Some of the handmade items

Proudly South African

I know that this beautiful country of ours has many problems, but I am very proud to be a South African and is very patriotic.  I probably would have made a great American cause they know what it is to be patriotic.  South Africa has what must be one of the most beautiful and recognisable flags in the world.  Although there is no official symbolism attached to the flag, it does represent what is going on in the country today.  Black, green and yellow are the colors of the African National Congress which is the ruling party, while the colours of the former Boer republics flags (red, white, and blue) have also been included.  The Y shape represents the convergence of South Africa's diverse society and unity.  The red stands for bloodshed, blue for open blue skies, green for the land, black for the black people, white for the European people and yellow for the natural resources such as gold.