V&A Waterfront - Freedom of freedom

I love public holidays. It’s a good day to lie in, sleep late, have a nice relaxing breakfast. Maybe meet up with a few friends later on, have a few drinks, maybe light a fire. Maybe it’s a good day to treat your wife, girlfriend or someone else’s wife or girlfriend for that matter. It’s a good day to go shopping, to finally get round to the garden, to finish that book you never got round to, to finally clean the garage. Maybe it’s a good day to go visit the family, to climb Table-mountain or to just watch TV. However you decide to spend the day, you should enjoy it and make the most of it.

Of course, my wife works on public holidays so this is usually an early morning start for me. Now I’m not one for political celebrations or politics as a whole for that matter. So when the holiday in question is freedom day and you’re up early, why not spend the day celebrating freedom itself. I went through to town with my wife early the morning and after a cup of coffee, decided to go to the V&A Waterfront. At 7.A.M the waterfront is quite a peaceful place. There’s the odd security guard, the odd shop assistant rushing towards their shop, no doubt planning the financial killing they’ll be making. It’s the time when you can smell the first pot of filter coffee when you walk past the coffee shops. Yeah, it’s quite enjoyable. Needless to say, it’s a great time for photos as well. It’s quiet, there’s no tourists, no people trying to sell you anything from sunglasses to helicopter trips. It’s peaceful, it’s quiet and with the scenery and the smell of the ocean overwhelming your senses, it might just be heaven on earth. Celebrating this, taking it in and capturing it on a photo is what celebrating freedom is all about to me. This is how I want to spend freedom day every year from now on. Because there are a lot of people in a lot of places who can’t do it, because I have the privilege to do it. Because Nelson Mandela couldn’t do it for 27 years. Because we never take the time to do so. And most of all, because no one will tell me otherwise as I’m free to do whatever I want.