Using internet cafes
Before I was beguiled by Wi Fi and I Phones, I made use of internet cafes whenever I was abroad - I would send e-mails to friends describing what I'd seen or heard - I used to marvel at the fact that my breathless reports would arrive immediately wherever I'd sent them - I would imagine seeing the words flying through space quicker than a thought -
The first internet cafe I really made use of was in Fish Hoek - I was staying in the Freeman's house during the Easter Holidays - the KLM 747 had flown from Amsterdam to Cape Town, with an hour stop at Johannesburg - during the night I'd moved from a world of watery pale light to one where every colour was vivid and profound - I'd soared over mountains, deserts, huge rivers snaking through deep jungles -
The internet cafe in Fish Hoek wasn't far from the beach - the sea was warm and a startling blue - the whole of the southern Indian Ocean was before me when I stood on the sand - inside the cafe, the PCs were old and clunky, with small screens - I felt as though I was on another planet, sending messages to the world I'd left -
I ate a fish dinner fit for a milord in a beach restaurant - the exchange rate favoured pound sterling - there were signs telling you not to give money to the street children - Chubb Armed and Medical Response vehicles drove down the streets -
I knew someone had called South Africa God's own country - driving in my hired Golf I could see why - I'd never seen such white sand before, smelt such fragrant flowers - I'd never seen stars, like great white lamps, hanging just over your head, nor seen a moon so yellow -
But I was always aware of an invisible country of violence, co-existing with the beautiful world I saw - the townships with their warrens of hovels made out of cardboard and flattened tins - the schools encircled with barbed wire to keep out teen gunmen -
This internet cafe is in Elm Grove, Southsea - it's still got that air of being a way station, a place for sending messages to other worlds - a place where you feel yourself to be a wanderer, ready to move on as swiftly as the sentences you shape on the screen before you -
Tessa's sitting here, checking out some information on-line - I'm looking at my shadow -
Before I was beguiled by Wi Fi and I Phones, I made use of internet cafes whenever I was abroad - I would send e-mails to friends describing what I'd seen or heard - I used to marvel at the fact that my breathless reports would arrive immediately wherever I'd sent them - I would imagine seeing the words flying through space quicker than a thought -
The first internet cafe I really made use of was in Fish Hoek - I was staying in the Freeman's house during the Easter Holidays - the KLM 747 had flown from Amsterdam to Cape Town, with an hour stop at Johannesburg - during the night I'd moved from a world of watery pale light to one where every colour was vivid and profound - I'd soared over mountains, deserts, huge rivers snaking through deep jungles -
The internet cafe in Fish Hoek wasn't far from the beach - the sea was warm and a startling blue - the whole of the southern Indian Ocean was before me when I stood on the sand - inside the cafe, the PCs were old and clunky, with small screens - I felt as though I was on another planet, sending messages to the world I'd left -
I ate a fish dinner fit for a milord in a beach restaurant - the exchange rate favoured pound sterling - there were signs telling you not to give money to the street children - Chubb Armed and Medical Response vehicles drove down the streets -
I knew someone had called South Africa God's own country - driving in my hired Golf I could see why - I'd never seen such white sand before, smelt such fragrant flowers - I'd never seen stars, like great white lamps, hanging just over your head, nor seen a moon so yellow -
But I was always aware of an invisible country of violence, co-existing with the beautiful world I saw - the townships with their warrens of hovels made out of cardboard and flattened tins - the schools encircled with barbed wire to keep out teen gunmen -
This internet cafe is in Elm Grove, Southsea - it's still got that air of being a way station, a place for sending messages to other worlds - a place where you feel yourself to be a wanderer, ready to move on as swiftly as the sentences you shape on the screen before you -
Tessa's sitting here, checking out some information on-line - I'm looking at my shadow -
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