Cape Town Happenings.

The remains of the Lions Head Pub

Today will be a sad day for patrons of the Lion's Head Pub in Panorama.

This quaint pub with its British character, dark wooden bar counters and nooks and crannies normally filled with happy clients is no longer there.

At around 9.00 am this morning we heard sirens screaming through our streets and as this is quite a normal occurrence no one took too much notice.

A chance drive up Hendrik Verwoerd Drive brought me face to face with the reason for the sirens.

This quaint little pub which I frequent from time to time with my retired workmates had burnt down.

Nobody is sure what happened or where the fire started but the damage is plain to see.

The pub and a hairdressing salon next door are no more.

Our three hour lunches with half a dozen bottles of van Loveren red wine will long be remembered.

The food produced in this pub was excellent.

Portuguese steaks with two sunny side up eggs on top were to die for, as were the “Eisbeins”.

While photographing the fire scene another strange occurrence was taking place above me.




The aircraft that caused my anxiety

We live on the final approach to Cape Town International airport so most planes landing there pass over or close to our home.


This green and white aircraft came flying past in completely the wrong direction normally taken by planes going into land.

It had its flaps partially down and its wheels partially out.

"Was this plane in distress?" were my immediate thoughts.

To the naked eye everything looked normal except the direction it was travelling in.

I kept a close lookout for the plane and about ten minutes later it passed overhead once more on its way to the airport.

A while later it was overhead again and going in to land again.

Strange behaviour especially for an aircraft that I had not seen pass overhead before.

Then it dawned on me that Kalula.com had introduced some new planes and flights into Cape Town and that they were most probably doing some practice landings at the airport before taking on passengers.

Whew! another possible disaster averted.


Geoff Fairman
ps

Turtle Essays is an ezine about Cape Town and its surrounding areas.

To find out more about this beautiful part of the world get your copy of the ezine emailed to you weekly.


Yes please! Send me the ezine