Blog 39 – Cape Townians: Masters of the Under and Overstatement …Ms Paige Turner tells an intentional fib on each blog. Be the first to spot and submit and win a Flash Fiction assessment (up to 250 words).
I’ve just returned from Cape Town where the sun scorches but the natives stare up at the cloudy sky (a wisp of white on blue) and say, “Winter is coming”. The shops are filled with faux fur: Cape Townians embrace their coming season being fed up to the back teeth, as my mother would say, with the sun. Ah …I try to see as many people as possible and quickly when I get back to the UK as I work so hard on my tan but like the sun, it disappears without notice.
In between the tanning work I covered ‘Common Crimes and How we all Commit Them’ with the lovely Fish Hoek Scribblers and then I was off to Milnerton and the West Coast Writers for a session on ‘Showing Off’ with Muriel Spark.
I’m a ‘swallow’: perfectly clear to the Cape Townians as a swallow migrates south in the European winter, but we only go for a month at a time and I do some work when I am down there. So you could say I’m a working swallow. See my ‘Swallow’s Eye View’ on www.scenicsouth.co.za It’s about chocolate this month for Easter but next month I’ll be covering my visits to the Desmond Tutu HIV Youth Foundation and the theatrical work that Earl Mentor and Thando Silo have been doing with the Marhoshi (The Kings) group. I hope to get involved with this drama work on my next visit.
I’ll leave you with some clever Cape Townians ‘understatements’. On a visit to a game reserve a truck load of us were faced with a buffalo I swear was going to charge and destroy the vehicle. He was mean: I was terrified. There were intakes of breath. Not a sound could be heard except for a snort and paw of the African earth. And then suddenly this South African woman pipes up, “He looks a bit short tempered, doesn’t he?”
Ah. You had to be there.
But the prize for understatement has to go to Mr Justin Case. Having spent an entire weekend in Fish Hoek with the patently obvious Scouse John Moore (one of my three blog readers) and his lovely partner, Mr Justin Case pipes up with, “Have you ever been to Liverpool, John?”
Thus followed much mirth and Merlot and Beatles’ refrains. Happy Easter.
• Just one place left on the Tuesday morning ‘Get Inspired’ summer course beginning April 24th for seven weeks.
• Writing Magazine is featuring my Home Tutorial work this month along with my ’40 Ways to Kick Start Your Writing Day’.
Me again, Jan. ‘Recharge your writing batteries’ is the name of your article in the writing magazine?
I think the intentional fib is that the presentation to West Coast Writers was on showing and telling, not on showing off! We don’t need much coaching in showing off in Cape Town, do we? 🙂 We have THE mountain, we have the sea, we have the sun … what we don’t have is the snow (sigh). Blessings as always, Dawn
Tough one, this. Thought there was a clue in the Scenic South but no good. Is Muriel Spark’s “Showing Off” similar to, “Telling off”?
Do Capetown natives really call themselves Capetownians and not Capetowners? “Capetownians” just doesn’t quite seem to gel, but then neither does Liverpudlian or Mancunian so they can call themselves whatever they like.
regards,
John