Leave the old man in peace !

Having spent a delightful day today in Constantia,taking advantage of a promotional opportunity to brag about my accommodation portfolio, I found myself on the way home in the rather less delightful Friday afternoon traffic listening to the news where once again the annual 'Is Nelson Mandela about to kick the bucket' question raises its ugly head. Why can't they leave this poor man alone? For gods sake, he has done an amazing job to reach 91, especially when you consider what he has been through in his life, lets be really honest here - if he did pass away in his sleep one night, although terribly,terribly sad, surely it would not be a shock!? Diana was a shock. On the other hand he might just live to get his telegram form the Queen! My point is that none of us know how long we have left ... But one thing I know for sure, is that if I am lucky enough to reach 91, I would not appreciate every time I felt slightly under the weather, then reading in the newspapers that I was about to 'pop my clogs'. The biggest difference of course... is that they really wouldn't care!!

This photo was taken by me in March 1995. I had just fallen out with my best friend of so many years, following a short stint working at Sun city.She had come to South Africa with me on a sabbatical, but we had now decided to go our separate ways. She had just flown back to the UK .... and me, despite having next to no money and nowhere to stay, I decided to stick things out and head for a back packers in the centre of town. As I turned the corner at the top of Adderley Street, by St Georges Cathedral, there was the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh just getting into their cars,with darkened windows, with no time for any of the crowds that had gathered. I then continued my lonely walk towards Long street, feeling like I had the whole world on my shoulders ... glancing back for just a second in time to see another familiar figure - that of Madiba himself! I suddenly found myself in amongst the crowds with him heading towards me, which is when I took this photo. As corny as it sounds, when I eventually headed off to the backpackers, I had a new spring in my step, deciding to put the trouble with my friend behind me. There had been something about the experience of simply standing next to this icon and seeing him in the flesh, that suddenly put things into perspective and made me think I could now deal with anything thrown my way! I would never have imagined that nearly 15 years later he would still be inspiring people. My wish is only that he is allowed to enjoy his last days (how ever many they may be) in peace and without media intrusion.