{"id":36,"date":"2016-11-18T09:11:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T09:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/?p=36"},"modified":"2016-11-18T09:11:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T09:11:59","slug":"cape-town-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last week in Cape Town has been a time for reflection on the months to come, and a time for meeting people and developing all sorts of contacts (as well as a time for exploring and sight-seeing)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_37\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37\" src=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_7776.jpg\" alt=\"V+A Harbourside Area\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_7776.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_7776-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">V+A Harbourside Area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We have met some amazing people.\u00a0 Has the country created these characters, or have the characters created the country?<\/p>\n<p>For example:-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The man (who has experience of living and working on Tristan) who was returning on a dirt road from a dive trip in Natal when he was ambushed and shot, and left for dead, by a robber \u2013 all for the \u00a3150 that he carried.<\/li>\n<li>The man from Scotland who rents a property not far from Stellenbosch, who helps in a soup kitchen and who pays for the education of some promising youngsters in his township. He discovered that none of his money was going into the school, being used instead for drink and gambling.\u00a0 Now he pays his money direct to the school, and puts checks on its proper use.<\/li>\n<li>The tiny slip of a girl from Cape Town who has just completed a degree at Imperial College London in bridge design, and who plans to take up the offer of a bridge design job in a London office.<\/li>\n<li>The woman in her late 50\u2019s who thinks nothing of cycling 100 km a day on her own \u2013 equipped of course with her own tasar.<\/li>\n<li>The refugee from Zimbabwe who now presents wines at a top-end tasting winery, who displayed a sense of humour and a knowledge of current affairs second to none.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_38\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-38\" src=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1040609.jpg\" alt=\"Atlantic Fur Seals on their own bit of the Harbour\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1040609.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1040609-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Atlantic Fur Seals on their own bit of the Harbour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>No doubt it is a hard country, and one that has seen all manner of social changes over the years.\u00a0 However, we have found a warmth, politeness and a get-up-and-go attitude from all sectors of this beautiful country.\u00a0 There are those at both ends of the social chain (and at both ends of the power divide) who do not properly pull their weight within the community, but certainly there is hope for the future once the main problems are properly addressed.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_39\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39\" src=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1040646.jpg\" alt=\"Our hotel in the centre of the picture\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1040646.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/P1040646-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Our hotel in the centre of the picture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last week in Cape Town has been a time for reflection on the months to come, and a time for meeting people and developing all sorts of contacts (as well as a time for exploring and sight-seeing) We have met some amazing people.\u00a0 Has the country created these characters, or have the characters created &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/?p=36\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Cape Town Characters&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}