7 Super Shots

I am taking part in HostelBookers 7 Super Shots.  What you do is pick 7 of your favourite photos, according to the 7 categories below, and write a short description of each.  For the other boring details, click on the link and they'll tell you what it's about.

So here are my shots..

a photo that takes my breath away

This was taken along the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa, at a spot called Waterfall Bluff.  Waterfall Bluff is a waterfall that falls directly into the Indian Ocean, and is a breathtaking and vertigo inducing sight. This was an epic day.  We undertook a 20 km hike from Mbotyi to Grosvenor, sticking close to the rugged coastline where possible, while at times venturing slightly inland and hiking up and down significant hills, through wild flower filled fields and taking dips in smaller waterfalls encountered along the way.  Towards the end of our hike we came to a river mouth that could only be crossed by swimming and so, after two members of our party managed to secure a lilo from a nearby house, we loaded it with our backpacks and swam across.  As we got out on the other side my friend casually mentioned that she'd seen a photo of sharks swimming in the very spot we'd just crossed.  It was with nervous giggling that we watched the others make their way across and breathed a great sigh of relief when everyone emerged with limbs intact.

a photo that makes me smile

This photo brings to mind a happy day from a few years ago, that of the marriage of my cousin.  As we arrived for the ceremony we saw my gran and my youngest brother, always so full of warmth, gave her a hug.  I love his joyful expression and her gentle smile. I love that this tender moment was captured.  

a photo that makes me dream

One of my favourite things to do on our family farm is to go for long meandering walks. From season to season the landscape changes dramatically and the same piece of land holds both fond memories and new discoveries. Beautiful places clear my mind of clutter and make space for reminiscing, dreaming and connecting with God, causing hope to blossom and perspective to be restored.

a photo that makes me think

When the former king of Cambodia died this year, the country went into mourning for their beloved King Father, who secured the country's independence in 1953.  This photo was taken on the 6th night of mourning, as thousands of people came to the Royal Palace to pay their respects.  I felt the sense of living through an important moment in history and the outpouring of grief and love really moved me.  It made me think about the importance of honouring our leaders, and while King Sihanouk made some costly mistakes during his life, he was remembered and honoured for the significant good he did.

a photo that makes my mouth water

I was a late discoverer of Eggs Benedict, but it has become one of my favourite breakfasts (of which there are admittedly many).  Efforts to create it at home have failed dismally, from a questionable Hollandaise to a swirling mass of stringy egg white.  The toast was pretty top notch though.  And so, until the secret is discovered, it remains a treat when eating out, and perhaps it's better that way.  

a photo that tells a story

A few years ago my family embarked on the "Simpson Family Road Trip", an epic cross country trip from Kwa-Zulu Natal, through Grahamstown to pick me up and on to Cape Town, the only other time we'd visited as a family being sometime in the early 90's.  My memories from that first visit include wind, being enamoured with my aunt, views of the city lights that blew my farm girl mind, cable cars, Table Mountain, big red buses, feeding squirrels in the park and some man shouting at me from a passing car to stop hanging my arm out the window.  On a day trip to Hout Bay I was walking along a pier at the harbour when I saw what, to my mind at least, epitomised a man of the sea.  I desperately wanted a photo but felt too shy to ask so I discreetly aimed my camera in his direction and pretended I was taking a photo of the rigging(1st photo).  Ninja skills.  Except it was totally obvious and he saw me, so I sheepishly asked if he would mind if I took his photo, to which he graciously nodded and I took it before scuttling off, a little embarrassed but mostly elated.  

a photo that I am most proud of

I can't really claim pride in a photo of which I was simply fortunate to be in the right place at the right time but I feel so happy to have captured it.  Last year I visited Koh Thmei, one of the many beautiful islands dotting the coast of Cambodia.  We slept in bungalows on the beach and every morning were treated to the most exquisite sunrises I'd ever seen.  On the first morning we hurried out to document it  before taking an early morning swim and I took this photo as my friend was walking along the shore.  It was an idyllic, almost surreal setting and one of the best holidays I've had.

Missing Home

I sat down to write this post a few hours ago.  Except I didn't know what to write so I searched for interviews of Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, who it turns out are BFF's.  Then I read my friend's blog (which is awesome), made a cinnamon latte, made some toast, thought about how I felt like watching Chuck reruns instead of writing and checked Facebook and Twitter.  To my disappointment, inspiration was not forthcoming from any of those sources so I looked up quotes about "home."

What I found ranged from the cynical to the odd to the heartwarming.
Some of my favourites:

"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home." - Confucius

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body." - Benjamin Franklin

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou

And then I came across one by a guy called Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe who said, 

"Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home." 

I feel this keenly and have been thinking about what it is about home that I miss so much.  I love this adventure that I'm on and I frequently get a thrill as I take in the heady mix of sights, sounds, flavours and smells that surround me.

That said, the sacrifice of home and all that it encompasses is a very real one.  Living away from home means missing out on not just the big moments but the smaller, everyday ones that make up a life.  It means giving up comfort, perhaps not financially, but emotionally and psychologically.  It means surrendering a lot of what you believe is the best way to do things.  Often it means laying aside your own food preferences and your own language.  Nothing is instinctive and everything must be thought about, all the while knowing that despite best intentions, there will be times when you have no idea what is going on or being said around you and there will be times when you get offended and cause offence.  

Being away has also made me think about what a remarkable country South Africa is and I am more thankful than ever that I get to call it home.

While varying in acuteness, homesickness is always there. Besides the obvious things like family and friends  there is an exhaustive list of things I miss about home.  Some of which are:

• Smarties and Cadbury chocolate
• Nestle hot chocolate
• Going for meandering walks on the common in Grahamstown...

•  and the farm in Harding

• Green

• Sitting as close as possible to the fire in Winter while roasting marshmallows
• Day trips to Kenton, in fact the whole Eastern Cape coastline

• Evening drinks and chips on the veranda with my family
• Driving my car

• South African's (we are a glorious motley crue of cultures and languages and beliefs and I love it)
• Grahamstown Festival

• Walking around my mom's garden, cup of tea in hand, while she points out newly blooming flowers or describes her plans to develop an area of the garden.

• Star gazing
• Mr Price & Woolies (it's so great knowing exactly where to find pumps or a good pair of jeans)
• My typewriter

to name a few...

Long Distance Communication Fail

The downside of living halfway across the world from the people you love is that you don't get to see them in person.  The upside is that you get to see them in grainy, pixelated form with jerky facial movements and stuck with unfortunate expressions, as if the wind has suddenly changed direction and the old wives tale is true. Skype, what a wondrous invention.  

This afternoon I had an appointment to chat with not just my immediate family but a few cousins and aunts and uncles too, all gathered for my aunt's 60th birthday party.  

The chat went like this:

Me: hello? hello? hello? Can you hear me?

[Lots of sighing, peering at camera, fiddling with buttons while family does same.  Remembered that camera was on and wished I’d turned it off before peering right into the camera, sticking face up close and scrunching it up in frustration..

Typing:

[5:06:59 PM] Victoria Simpson: i can see you but cant hear you

[5:09:00 PM] Victoria Simpson: can you hear me

[5:09:02 PM] Victoria Simpson: ?

hang up, check sound (it’s working), check mic (it’s working) call again.

Typing:

[5:09:55 PM] Victoria Simpson: cant hear you..is your sound on?

[5:11:00 PM] Victoria Simpson: can you hear me?

[5:12:19 PM] Victoria Simpson: can you hear me?

[brother and dad alternately stick mouths right up to the camera and mouth words, of which I can work out exactly none.

Typing:

[5:14:13 PM] Victoria Simpson: type

[5:14:20 PM] Victoria Simpson: hello?

[5:14:39 PM] Dale Simpson: Vic wer can hear u (sic)

[5:14:55 PM] Victoria Simpson: ok well i cant hear you guys..

[5:15:01 PM] Victoria Simpson: just see you:)

[5:15:05 PM] Victoria Simpson: is your sound on?

[5:15:09 PM] Victoria Simpson: i mean your mic

[5:15:21 PM] Dale Simpson: u talk we will listen

Me speaking : no I can’t do that, that’s arb.

[dad begins mouthing words again and someone points camera hurriedly at each family member, reducing them all to a blur of light and colour]

The “conversation” carried on in this vein for close to an hour: cousin making faces, alternate family members waving, more frenzied camera movement and close ups of faces at odd angles, more typing and me talking to silence and laughing ruefully and waving and grinning at each other.

I love my family. And while I like it when Skype works, sometimes it’s funny when it doesn’t..