LIFE IS A BOWL......

See, I cant be sure cos I didnt write it down at the time, but I'm thinking it was Wednesday last week that I saw

a young guy wandering aimlessly around by the gumtrees over the way. Nice black and yellow anorak but old baggy, tired jeans. He appeared to put something down next to the Senior Boys Hotel buildings, behind the hedges and shrubs there..

Being as my house is really small, I have learned to keep a sharp eye whatever I am doing and the next time I noticed him, he was standing right on the edge of the bluff in the open, peeing down onto the rocks below. After that I more or less forgot about him.

I havent blogged yet about the next day, Thursday because, to be frank, it seems so unreal and staged.

Anyway, its Thursday afternoon at about 2.30pm and Flo is finishing off the cleaning and I glance out the front door across to the gumtrees and see a young guy has climbed up into one and is just sitting there. He could have seen me quite clearly. Over the years I couldnt remember anyone else climbing one of those trees but I carried on about my business... 10 minutes later i noticed he had climbed down and was standing with his back to me, up against the trunk of the tree. Flo left and after I had come back downstairs I noticed that the guy was still standing in the same position so I got out the binoculars.

They clearly showed a rope of sorts tied onto the tree higher up. I AM slow and just stood there as the head gears slowly meshed and then I called der Kommissar and said there was a guy appeared to have hung himself and would he send someone. Before I hung up I said that if it was some sort of joke, it wasnt funny? Which may give you some sort of indication of the staged performances I have been treated to while living here.

I then went online and posted it on myadsl.co.za and called a journo from the Gazette and told him what had happened and suggested he write a piece on the youth of today. That was it.

My old man came in then as he was driving up to fetch the kid down for a few days. I had seen the first SAPS bakkie go over to the trees and by then there were another 2 SAPS vans and an ordinary car parked there facing me across the way. I didnt see them taking the guy down but they had laid him on the ground where he stayed until 5.00pm and the Mortuary van came to collect him.

Apart from the initial freakout when I realised what had happened, I pretty much felt nothing. I did blog to Bali at some point later that I wondered what had happened to the 'dead' guys shoes. While he was sitting there up the tree I'd thought he had black socks with a red and white pattern on them and that his shoes proper would be on the ground....

Interestingly enough, yesterday, (a whole 5 days later) while I was seeing my old man off to work, a guy came haring round into the Crescent and slowed to a crawl when he saw me standing at my gates.

He was behaving really strangely and kept looking pointedly down at his shoes and then at me and beaming? The penny dropped when I realised that they were in actual fact what Id mistaken for socks on the 'dead' kids feet sitting up in the tree. An easy mistake as they were like athletic shoes, very small and close fitting with almost no soles.

They looked to be brand new and the wrong size as the guy was walking strangely. I merely nodded to him and said "nice shoes" and he went off smiling and constantly turning round to make sure I was watching him, up the Crescent and into Subeera's property at the top!

(2 days ago i saw the young guy mentioned in the first para. Heading on down toward Cato Crest wearing the same ugly, baggy jeans....)

* and now this Toad looks at her Controller and wonders..... how far would you all really go? So much time and care spent on Such an insignificant Toad? The word 'tableaux' springs to mind... yes?

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Thursday 7th September 2006 at 5.20am