Yesterday afternoon, I went down to Durban to meet up with my dad at his offices. He wasn't in, he was down in the South Coast and so I had to wait for him to get back up. This was a little bit of an issue because the offices were closed and so I had a few hours to kill and absolutely no capital to expend.
I decided that the best thing for me to do was just walk around. I often go on about how great I think the city is, I know it's not the safest or even the most visually alluring place but I've always enjoyed going around it. My dad's offices are just down the road from City Hall, which I think is the most beautiful building in the whole city and it also has the triple whammy of housing the library and the Natural Science Museum. I'm in love with that building, let me get that out of the way early on. It's a little weird, I know, but that to me is one of the most spectacular sights we have in our city. Just being around it makes me feel so much happier.
I decided to kill time in the library. The last time I went to the library, in 2009 or so, I got mugged outside the library steps so going back was a little bit ugh but I figured that I'm no longer that little kid and if anyone so much as tried with me, I'd probably just have to kill them and bury their body underneath a hawkers table or something.
It felt great to be in there. I think the library is one place where time seems to never ever set foot. The biggest nod to technology they have their are the computers that students were using for their various projects. I saw this little homie, probably in grade 4 doing his project with all his little books out and next to him was a university student going HAM on some paper. The place was full of students going at it and I felt good inside, you know. It felt good to see that there are still quite a few people taking their schooling seriously. Often we see, and mistakenly, glorify the wasters and the slackers. Everywhere you look these days people are up to their eye-teeth in procrastination. I'm no different. I have a few good hours of work I need to do but here I am lying on my bed, typing out this post and criticizing my fellow wasters. Okay, I'm not that much of a waster, I do my fair share of necessary work but still. Anyway, I spent a good half hour trying to find a good read, coming across so many and then having the difficult task of trying to pick one. Did I want to read up on Hemmingway, see what was up with Mussolini. Did I want to go deep into the glits of Bowie or just really get stuck into some twisted thinking with Freud. Eventually I settled on something lighter but closer to home with Lewis Hamilton's autobiography. Being in that library just felt good, regardless of if I was reading or not.
Today though, today was special. I met up with my dad in Pinetown, we went through to Hillcrest and then back down to his office. He had a meeting and it was pointless going home and then comung back so we decided to chill around the city center and mill around. We went in search of lunch and had the most greasiest Mc Donald's burgers known to man. I'm willing to bet that Mc Donald's on West Street is the main reason why so many fat people hobble around town. Okay, I wont say it's the main reason. KFC probably is. There are more KFCs in town than there are Indians in KZN. Mc Donald's is just trying to muscle in on this fat making business so I guess now that I think of it, I get why their food is double fried in oil and butter. After that over indulgence in fat, we went off to City Hall. I don't know what it is about that building but it just does things to me. I can never go past it without gawking and drooling. I don't know who designed it - I'm gonna find out soon - but I hope they were given a key to the city and a house in every posh suburb in the land. It stands out in the mix of everyday dreary buildings. It's a regal looking thing. You can see the years in it and that gives you a sense of genuine appreciation. I'm a sucker for a nice looking structure and one there is by far the best.
We went to the museum, the one place I've been meaning to check out and it honestly didn't disappoint. The last time I went there was on a school outing so many, many years ago. It was cool then and about a hundred times better this time. When you're a lightie, everything is new and exciting. Your eyes go big and you marvel at the scary animals on display and get excited by it all and then finish it off by forgetting everything in a sugar induced coma. For me this time, it was exactly the same, bar the coma. I had to play it cool though because my dad was there. I didn't wanna be seen running around like this group of school kids we found in there but I swear if he wasn't there, I'd have been knee deep in the thick of things. I got to really appreciate it though. That place has been there forever. I remember I went there when we came down to Durban on holiday from Joburg. There's the big elephant head on the wall as you climb up the stairs and my dad was carrying me and like shoved me at it and I freaked my life out. It seemed real and I often thought it was. The fact that the municipality has keep it going, devoid of public funding in the form of ticket take-ins or anything is something to marvel at. I don't know if they've put in that many new displays, I couldn't quite remember so far back but for it to still be standing is something.
I know the museum isn't the coolest place for people, it probably isn't the coolest place I've ever been to. It seems an odd day out and a bit geeky but for this 20 year old kid right here, it was nirvana. There are a lot more places I wanna visit again in the city. I'm a little ashamed I've been sleeping on these true gems but if there's anything I have a lot of right now, it's time and the need to explore.
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