I am sinking into my chair, my head is floppy and my eyes are at half-mast. I have succumbed to chronic Durban-ness. I can barely tap the keyboard. I would pay someone to tap it for me, but that would mean going indoors to make a phone call or something, and I can’t be arsed. It is a wintery 26°, the air is slow, soft, barely there. Not much is going on. I went for a coffee, and half a swim. Neither can beat the slumber. I want to say conquer but that seems too much effort.
I saw a monkey a week ago, there by Burman Bush, he is still there, thinking about the road and when he will cross it. Maybe one day, he will take the leap. In Durban, you can be 48, and still living at home, thinking about that surf shop, coffee shop, DJ collective you always meant to open. That’s why I like Durban. Ambition is metered by lethargy. Change is what you do when you take off your board shorts and put on your smart shorts. Activity is a word found in the dictionary, not on the street. There is a stillness to purpose that Buddhist monks yearn for. If we could bottle it and sell it, we’d make millions, but who can be bothered with that?
I can hear the call to prayer wafting up the hill from across the race course, it is teatime. My wife and I used to talk about politics, the environment, the moral responsibility of individuals versus corporations and some other stuff. Now we talk about the virtues of homemade banana bread, toasted with butter. But ag, who really cares? If you are quiet enough, even a banana tree has something to say.
It’s only bilharzia, of course.
I love dirtbin.
This explains so much about me. It’s not my fault I’m a sloth, it’s cos I’m from Durban. All you can do there is lie still and minimise the sweating.
Although from what I have heard P.E. makes Durban sound like New York.
“Ambition is metered by lethargy.”
Yeah, and progress is measured by the number of times you THINK about the task.
Ahh, what a life!
Oi!!, why is Durbs so often linked to lethargy, slowness of pace, and even laziness? There is no basis for this. I’ll take you to see citizens sitting under trees, leaning on spades and creaping along in the fast lane anywhere in the land…..
Ex Durbanite
I run a national business from Durban. I sit here blogging while my branches and managers in other provinces run their arses off making me money. Going fishing later….if I can get the energy. Hard life this.
I envy you!
Being able to disconnect and just vegetate for a while is something we all need to do, at least occasionally.
Some people think they can’t do it because they have too much to do.
Some people, like me, can’t do it, period.
You can give me a week completely free of any obligations and I will be crawling up the walls because I simply cannot disconnect and relax.
I always have to be doing something.
It’s a curse.
Meh. And they call MY city ‘Slaapstad’…
Bet you could have written that before you arrived back in Durbs, so PC and SA main stream. Find exactly the same when i venture down to CT.
Brent
Spent 30 years in Durbs you can blend into the undegrowth like that. A lot of slow thinking rustles in the bushes and slow food too.The vervet monkeys run the University I worked for for 20 years and always have done and always will do. A place of sheer wonder and befuddlement. Splendid new concrete beachfront though and an Olympic host city dream amidst a rusting world of imijondolo poets and earnest hijackers and grand schemes in city halls.It rolls on a Metroslow of note and notriety. I wonder who burnt the busses and why?
And this, remember, is the time of year when we all have double the energy because the weather is cool…
This place is heaven. It’s Durban. But it’s no wonder no one can get up the energy to oust Mike Sutcliffe and the various idiots who condemn the local sculptures. Elephants? So South African; even one of the Big 5…King Shaka? Oh, please! At least the local cattle got a look in, but no more. Spur should really buy those cattle and set them up outside their restaurants; bet they’d pay for themselves!
It used to be called “Natal Fever”