New here and starting Topa and with a question
Well, Space, I live in a very sleepy upmarket Afrikaans neighbourhood. So, where I am is very safe and I'm 5km away from public transport. Public transport is still linked to the have and the have nots because call it what you like but most white people have more money and cars and a large percentage of black people still live in informal squatter camps without cars and rely on cleaning and gardening jobs and public transport. Thats why public transport are deemed unsafe and why if you live near it, your house is also a target for break-ins.
I havent been to the city a lot and last Sept I kept warning my bf about Cape Town city and the vagrants and how the trains are awful and what to avoid but then he came after the Soccer world cup was here and actually the money injection made the city a much nicer place and it gave us money to build much nicer buses and trains and stations, so we are getting there in some aspects. We could even walk at night as they built larger sidewalks and put up really bright streetlamps.
When I lived in the city for many years, or rather I lived next to the beach, close to the city, I was often scared, as you used to get many rough sleepers who would harass you for money and I was mugged once and 'almost' mugged twice but my pepper spray saved me. I learnt street smarts, dressed down, always wore flats, had attitude and became less scared. But after London and moving to the suburbs and getting my own car, I'm scared again, I'm afraid I'm a wuss an no longer feel like 'part of the people.'
I have to say that I'm not a racist and that I wasnt even in the country when the whole apartheid thing was taking place. I had mixed race classes since first grade and had black friends since I was two and living in Zimbabwe. So when I clarify things, its only because I'm speaking plainly, not because I'm being judgemental. But 80% of the crime statistics take place in the informal settlements.
If you shared in a one room home made out of scrap metal with 6 relatives. And the area was filled with people who didnt have jobs or were dirt poor and had no proper lighting and had only some toilets you had to share. HIV rates are high, gangs are everywhere, people steal from anyone who has anything, rape is common. You get better parts (the ones at the entrances where the police stations are) but you get better parts too.
Khayelitsha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nyanga, Cape Town - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But where I live is a bit like Ealing, big yards, lots of trees, except its a bit like France as well, we are next to a wine valley (sigh) lots of sunshine and green rolling hills. Very nice area, a bit snobbish, but my friends are nice.
Well, it seems I'll be hanging out in Leeds quite a lot but as bf is a decade older I doubt I'll really be hanging out with the younger crowd. I'm over my clubbing days and am more of a restaurant girl myself really. I'd much rather go to a nice restaurant or a show than go to a noisy club with teenagers having sex in the toilets, thanks ya very much.
I think the government actually encouraged the pulling thing by closing the pubs at 11. Everyone got so fecked by then they could hardly walk, and then they had to catch the tube home by 12, so they just ended up sleeping at whoevers home they were at. Its a very foreign concept to me and I'm actually so surprised that HIV isnt more common in the UK. I mean, it isnt as if there arent foreigners living there as well. And you get some nasty people out there, as in guys who know they are HIV+ and then sleep with as many girls as possible to get 'revenge' on the one women who passed it onto him.
Anyway, let me stop talking so much!!! I'm just excited about the UK today and now I cant stop nattering. I've already done online window shopping in Ikea and Argos, such nice stuff! Now, let me go do some stuff, being lazy today!
:h
Well, Space, I live in a very sleepy upmarket Afrikaans neighbourhood. So, where I am is very safe and I'm 5km away from public transport. Public transport is still linked to the have and the have nots because call it what you like but most white people have more money and cars and a large percentage of black people still live in informal squatter camps without cars and rely on cleaning and gardening jobs and public transport. Thats why public transport are deemed unsafe and why if you live near it, your house is also a target for break-ins.
I havent been to the city a lot and last Sept I kept warning my bf about Cape Town city and the vagrants and how the trains are awful and what to avoid but then he came after the Soccer world cup was here and actually the money injection made the city a much nicer place and it gave us money to build much nicer buses and trains and stations, so we are getting there in some aspects. We could even walk at night as they built larger sidewalks and put up really bright streetlamps.
When I lived in the city for many years, or rather I lived next to the beach, close to the city, I was often scared, as you used to get many rough sleepers who would harass you for money and I was mugged once and 'almost' mugged twice but my pepper spray saved me. I learnt street smarts, dressed down, always wore flats, had attitude and became less scared. But after London and moving to the suburbs and getting my own car, I'm scared again, I'm afraid I'm a wuss an no longer feel like 'part of the people.'
I have to say that I'm not a racist and that I wasnt even in the country when the whole apartheid thing was taking place. I had mixed race classes since first grade and had black friends since I was two and living in Zimbabwe. So when I clarify things, its only because I'm speaking plainly, not because I'm being judgemental. But 80% of the crime statistics take place in the informal settlements.
If you shared in a one room home made out of scrap metal with 6 relatives. And the area was filled with people who didnt have jobs or were dirt poor and had no proper lighting and had only some toilets you had to share. HIV rates are high, gangs are everywhere, people steal from anyone who has anything, rape is common. You get better parts (the ones at the entrances where the police stations are) but you get better parts too.
Khayelitsha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nyanga, Cape Town - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But where I live is a bit like Ealing, big yards, lots of trees, except its a bit like France as well, we are next to a wine valley (sigh) lots of sunshine and green rolling hills. Very nice area, a bit snobbish, but my friends are nice.
Well, it seems I'll be hanging out in Leeds quite a lot but as bf is a decade older I doubt I'll really be hanging out with the younger crowd. I'm over my clubbing days and am more of a restaurant girl myself really. I'd much rather go to a nice restaurant or a show than go to a noisy club with teenagers having sex in the toilets, thanks ya very much.
I think the government actually encouraged the pulling thing by closing the pubs at 11. Everyone got so fecked by then they could hardly walk, and then they had to catch the tube home by 12, so they just ended up sleeping at whoevers home they were at. Its a very foreign concept to me and I'm actually so surprised that HIV isnt more common in the UK. I mean, it isnt as if there arent foreigners living there as well. And you get some nasty people out there, as in guys who know they are HIV+ and then sleep with as many girls as possible to get 'revenge' on the one women who passed it onto him.
Anyway, let me stop talking so much!!! I'm just excited about the UK today and now I cant stop nattering. I've already done online window shopping in Ikea and Argos, such nice stuff! Now, let me go do some stuff, being lazy today!
:h
They don't have to know its on an alkie site. 
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