I used to work for a health magazine – which you might struggle to digest if you knew me! Along with being quite health conscious, I can also be lazy and have a tendency to eat junk. It’s all about balance, I say. This is the reason we detox in January after the festive season’s indulgences. I believe it’s also the reason we swear off men (or women) after a bad relationship experience. I guess it’s in our nature to want to ‘correct’ bad behaviour’.
Surfing at Muizenberg
This was the basis of my decision to have a balanced week: I decided to first do something ‘nerdy’ and then something ‘cool’ last week. This is a true reflection of who I am and to be honest, I quite like that I have these different sides as it keeps my very busy mind occupied with novel, strange things to do!
My nerdy activity was advertised as follows on a local website:
“Astronomy of the Great Pyramid: The pyramids of ancient Egypt were literally “stargates” – from where the spirits of dead pharaohs were believed to ascend to the stars. The largest of all pyramids – the Great Pyramid of Khufu – contains an elaborate system of shafts. At the time the pyramid was built, these were directed towards the most important stars in the sky. The planetarium, since it can be set back to ancient times, is the ideal device for demonstrating these alignments – and for exploring speculations”
With great and typical enthusiasm, I lined up my partner and some friends for a nerdy night out.
I was completely blown away by the numbers of people waiting outside the door of Cape Town’s Planetarium – it’s clear I wasn’t the only nerd! I felt a little bit like a 10 year old on a long anticipated school field trip. The tickets were a ridiculous R25 per person for which we enjoyed a 40 minute talk on the theories around the alignment of the pyramids to the stars and how this could possibly have been calculated thousands of years ago, followed by a 20-minute talk on the “Sky Tonight’ showing us where to find popular star constellations. The presenter was clearly having fun and entertained us with a mixture of theory and light-hearted, nutty professor rambling.
The following Saturday it was time for our ‘cool’ activity: We awoke with an urge to get dumped by really big waves. Really. For the record, I’m very much a beginner when it comes to surfing but what I lack in skill, I make up for in blind enthusiasm.
The second you catch that first wave, the hard paddle to the back and the icy cold water is worth it over and over again. Sometimes I lie at the back and I honestly don’t understand why more people do not try it! The sense of freedom you get from riding the powerful mass of water is something you can only understand when you do it. It requires total submission to the powerful force of nature which in itself is quite a liberating sensation. This is where the conversation has the potential to get substantially deeper and more meaningful, which leads me to the next magical moment: my first latte on a cold day or beer on a summer’s day. Mother’s milk!
So what is the balance I found in this day? Was it the mindless with the intelligent, or the soulful with the educational? Like we say in Cape Town, it’s all good!
SA Museum & Planetarium: +27 21 481-3900
Learn to Surf: Contact Ant on +83 414-0567 or www.learn2surf.co.za