Theater icon street names

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality recently (yeh ok, some months ago already) renamed three of the streets around the PE Opera House to celebrate three of Port Elizabeth's theatre legends.  John Kani, Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona are truly three world icons and worked together on Sizwe Banzi is Dead in 1972 and The Island in 1973. Ntshona and Kani went on to win Tony awards for best actor for both plays while the names of all three have become synonymous with a phenomenal theatre legacy in South Africa.

Belmont Terrace was renamed as Athol Fugard Terrace, Whites Road to John Kani Road and Chapel Street was changed to Winston Ntshona Street.

Prospect Hill

I'm posting this just because I like the photo.  I was waiting for Chaos Boy to pass during the Urban Run a while ago and was pointing the camera in different directions.  This was one I liked.

Bottom of Russell Road

I know today's photo isn't the typical touristy photo nor one anybody would use to promote the city with.  It's still one I would like to share with you.  I was at a meeting at Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism in Donkin Street the other day and ventured down to Chapel Street and over to the cul-de-sac overlooking the bottom of Russell Road.  Not an angle of the road one get's to see often and hence the share.

Sunday afternoon on Main Road

If you sit in traffic on Main Road through Walmer every day then it would be hard to think its the same road when you look at it on a Sunday afternoon

Trees on Doncaster Road

On a recent guided walk around St Georges Park, our guide told us a very interesting fact about Doncaster Road.  Doncaster Road is on the other side of park drive close to the Prince Alfred Guard Memorial.  On the day our guide pointed out that not two of the trees lining Doncaster Road are the same.  When the trees were planted it was decided to plant different species all the way between Park Drive and Cape Road in the background.  Now here's the catch.  I haven't been able to find any information on this anywhere on the internet.  So, don't take my word on this as gospel, but if its true its something really special as far as flora in Port Elizabeth. 

Rink Street and Russel Road

Looking down onto the intersection of Russel Road and Rink Street from the pavilion at the Westbourne Oval.

Parliament Street afterparty

This isn't the greatest photo, again the light was green in our favour and there was no time to compose or zoom. It was taken recently from the intersection of Russell Road and Rink Street just before 5am on a Saturday.

The Parliament Street all night party begins to ease up, and the last revellers converge on the apron of the Service Station across the road, dancing to music that blares from various cars. All this would be quite festive if it wasn't for two unfortunate habits... urinating in the street and breaking the liquor and beer bottles as they are emptied. Since we have been doing neighbourhood watch patrols, I have had to repair my tyres 4 times, because it is sometimes impossible to see the glass on the streets at night, until it is too late.

We have seen cleaners trying to keep the street clean throughout the night, presumably employed by the committee that looks after the Parliament Street upgrade. I wonder if this doesn't just make the party-goers even less responsible for their actions... they rightly surmise that their bad habits are creating employment for others, so they carry on regardless. Rather than feeling bad about anti-social behaviour that costs the City a fortune, they feel good that they are benefitting the cleaners!

After the Party

Our shift of Neighbourhood Watch patrol was from 2-5am this morning, so we got to see the end of the New Year's Party in Parliament Street. This was taken at 4.48am, when the party had just ended, and the street took on a warm glow from the lights reflecting on the wet streets. By the way, judging by all those pavement decorations, are we to assume the architects of this new look had a lot of balls? hehe.