JULY 2016 - KNYSNA, DURBAN, THE COTTAGE, AND MORE!!!!!!!
so life rambles on in here in ZA, the new life adventures in africa of COTW.
we began in 2011 moving to nairobi, kenya and now in 2016 feeling quite at home in Cape Town, the Mother City. such a cool european feeling city on the tip of africa. and it's winter which i love! cold days, lots of storms, beautiful skies, it's a stunning place!
and i'm becoming a complete urbanite, a car-free citizen! not that i've sold the TT, it's just i never use it in town! my whole life is a 20 block radius and i walk everywhere and if needed i'll hop an uber to go to and fro. my car is used every other weekend if that. so basically, i am car-free. and i love that. no commuting. no traffic jams. no hassles.
just wake up, walk to coffee, walk to my office, walk to the cinema, walk to gym, walk for shopping, walk walk walk. and it's a small city. i live in the heart of the City Bowl District or CBD. and i have a wonderful flat with such a stunning view. and during the slow winter season my voiceover agent is kicking in so i'm in the booth about once a week which is great! love doing VO work, very fun and rewarding! always in a good mood when they book me, and no auditioning required, they book me off my reel. see here: www.davidmorinvo.com
so that is going well, and all in all, life is pretty fantastic!
had a nice getaway up the garden route, the N2, to the coastal town of Knysna with some friends at a pimpy huge house, and then flew to Durban to see a new couple friend of mine. he's a writer so we have fun hanging out.
Durban was nice but not as cosmopolitan as Cape Town. felt more provincial and parochial. it's the last mostly all british outpost in the RSA and it was nice to see some 25 years later after my last visit. i was this time for there 3 days and i'm good. sorta been there done that. for me cape town is more charming, complex, has more history, is topographically way more interesting, and overall just a much cooler place to live and work.
still waiting on my immigration approval, for my permanent residency permit, but if that fails, i can try for an Extended Visitor Visa for 3 years in "film" where i could still work here. if that fails, the other option is to file for a student visa where i could be here and still work 20 hours a week, which i rarely exceed doing what i do. then last resort is to retire and be a "pensioner", but as ZA is the cheapest country on earth to live in, and i happen to love it here, that would be a fine option as well. and my social security kicks in next april, so a little extra every month coming in is unreal!
starting to feel like a local and really appreciating the culture here. it's so charming and mostly secure, and clean, and friendly and polite and again, euro feeling with a pinch of africa tossed in. a great blend! and western cape has so many stunning locations on the coast, the mountains, the wine farms, the beaches, the highways, it really is an incredibly beautiful province.
i'm meant to stay through next august with my current work permit, so i intend to savor every day of it whilst i sort out the next solution to living here and preferably working here as well.
the acting class is on hiatus for the winter, but hopefully we come back strong in October! i miss teaching and my whole team is excited to get back to work! but with this slow period it means i'm having to give me up my satellite office. it's just too expensive and too much pressure to pay every month. so end of august we move out, consolidate back into my flat.
i nearly burned my building down last month. i got to the kysna house after a 6 hour drive up the eastern coast and my phone kept ringing so i finally answered it. apparently smoke was pouring out of my flat! i had inadvertently switched on the electric stovetop and the cutting board covering it started smoldering. so badly they had to break my door down and put out the fire. whoosh, that would have been beyond terrible to burn down The Piazza!!!!!! a bad legacy for sure!!!!!!!!! so, you never know! i'm more careful now. more thorough before leaving everyday, plus i turned off the 220v switch entirely!
what else???? i'm loving my SnapSeed photo filter. my photos have so much more punch! i feel a little like i'm cheating as i've always been a purist, but this blog is meant to entertain primarily and you all love the photos most, so why not go there! i recommend it to all smart phone users! and it's a free app! Snapseed, use Drama 2 filter. then export.
i'm off to the states for a family reunion for most of september, and will do 3 nights in Doha at the ritz carlton on the way. cape town-doha then doha-dallas. on qatar airlines. my next adventure!
i think that's covers all that is fit to print.
my FINDING MESSIAH doco and 48 song soundtrack are now available on iTunes! and i finally finished cutting together the 2 hour concert of the cape town youth choir singing Handel's Messiah! well done CTYC!
now for some photos! another travelogue of western cape and durban!
again in no particular order! enjoy!
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| saturday market outside durban. huge! |
