CATCHING UP & MOVING FORWARD

I am somewhat embarrassed by the degree to which I have neglected this blog over the past 7 months ......... months that have been somewhat of a watershed period for me, and I apologize to any of you out there who may have become accustomed to receiving updates. 

I have been struggling for the past four and a half years to come to terms with the stress of dealing with people on a daily basis here in the Eastern Cape, who (not all - but for the most part - be they sub-contractors, bricklayers, plasterers, tilers, plumbers, electricians or basic labour), take no pride whatsoever in the work that they do, and who seem to have no work ethic at all ........... no sense of commitment .......... no sense of responsibility ........... and perhaps worst of all, no sense of guilt or embarrassment when they let you down.

Anyway - I decided that whatever the consequences, for my own peace of mind, I had to stop building / project managing, as it was becoming ever more difficult to deliver the quality of work that I had become accustomed to delivering to my clients over the years, and took the decision a few months back to change direction completely.

In addition to, and also as part of the above, I had the misfortune of taking my Diahatsu bakkie in to a newly established local workshop in Bathurst for an engine rebuild on the 4th October 2021. Calling themselves Automed/Custom Landys, they quoted me R18000.00, which after a series of turnarounds (which should have had me on my guard), I had already given them over R20000.00 in deposits by the 7th of November 2021. Unfortunately, a friend, Owen Putzier, with the same vehicle as mine which also required an engine rebuild, took his vehicle in to them at the same time on my recommendation and gave them a R27000.00 deposit ........... both of us thinking we were going to get reconditioned engines. This never materialized, and despite endless promises of engineering company guarantees of one year and 100000kms and excuses of every possible kind, and  lawyers' letters which I had issued on top of endless communications of one sort or another - now - at the end of 2022, neither of us have our vehicles back and they have skipped town. Unfortunately we are not the only ones who have fallen prey to these charlatans, and we currently have three other people we know of who are in a similar situation, along with my oldest friend, Peter Davidson, who did a deal with them in November 2021 to have them rebuild a Landrover they had on the premises for him - for delivery on February 2022. He gave them a R178000.00 advance along with a further R10000.00 in early February to expedite matters. Here at the end of 2022 he still has neither the vehicle nor the money he advanced them.

All this time I have been paying a monthly lease plus insurance on this vehicle - plus licensing it -  while not having the use for which it was intended, and estimate that I have passed on approximately R150000.00 worth of work to other contractors due to the nature of certain jobs which I could not do without the vehicle. During this same period the vehicle has lost at least R20000.00 in value on the open market. My estimate is that these people, John and Lize Harvey, trading as Automed/Custom Landys, have as of today's date cost me R105000.00 for a vehicle that, if it was in proper working order, I could sell for around R65000.00 ............ and I still have 6 months to pay off on the lease, while the vehicle is standing in their abandoned yard, on a jack, unlocked and unattended, waiting to be stripped by any interested passers by. Owen's vehicle on the other hand has already been stripped it would appear, as all his new upholstery and the seats are gone - the engine is missing, and a rusted bell-housing and driveshaft are lying in the back of the bakkie.

Nicolaas McCreath got a judgement against them in the Port Alfred Magistrate's Court on June 28, 2022 and a warrant of execution was issued on July 27, 2022, and on January 20, 2023, the Sheriff will sell in execution whatever moveable assets are on the premises. Furthermore, I was informed by their Landlord on Xmas day that his property where they were living has been emptied of all their possessions and that they have skipped with the rent three months in arrears. Let this then be a warning to all and sundry to be extremely wary of dealing with John and Lize Harvey in whatever capacity they choose to represent themselves. It is wholly evident and provable that they have fraudulently fleeced potential customers of deposits totaling over three hundred thousand Rand (that we are are of), without providing anything in return, including those vehicles for which the deposits were taken.

Enough of that then - please just be very wary if you happen to come across these people.

Going into 2023 I have decided to become considerably more active photographically than I have been in the past and have decided to concentrate on marketing my photographs and my abilities as a photographer - something I have been dabbling with since I was 12 years old ........ which adds up to a good 65 years of experience one way and another. 

Aside from restructuring my photographic website, I have also set up a store at https://neville-lance-photography.picfair.com and take this opportunity to ask all those of you who land on this page please to forward the link on to anyone you know who might be able to make use of my images for any purpose whatsoever ..... from a home and office decor point of view through to advertising and business presentations and/or motivation or banner representations.

I have recently also become considerably more active on Instagram, putting myself out there daily as both https://www.instagram.com/nevillelancephotography/ and https://www.instagram.com/uviewnev/ in an effort to bring my work to a much wider audience. I also retain my Facebook page as a reminder to all of my friends and family that I am trying to make it in this business, so https://www.facebook.com/neville.lance is just one more place where I can be found.

As a teaser for what we can look forward to on my photographic website and in the store, I am putting up a couple of pics taken very recently at a friend's home here in Bathurst of an AFRICAN PYGMY-KINGFISHER (Ispidina picta), that had begun nesting in an abandoned mole hole which was exposed in a bank of soil where they had started excavating. Enjoy!

Please click on images to enlarge

BATHURST 2022 BOOKSHOW

It has been exactly three years since the last Bathurst Bookshow held in 2019, with 2020 being cancelled literally with just a couple of days to go due to the whole Covid lockdown thing. Similarly the 112th Bathurst Agricultural Show made an amazing comeback (despite the very welcome rain), over the weekend of April 1st - 3rd 2022. Photographs of all the aspects the Agricultural Show can be found at https://www.nevillelance.com/bas, while  a few photographs of the equally successful Bookshow can be found here.

The Relix Bookstall

The Marquee on the Village Green

Punters discussing their potential purchases

Tom, Maryna and Alison working the St.John's Church bookstall

Aiden Dreyer - purveyor of all things Historical

Tom Barrett - again!

The Relix "Al Fresco" eating place

Shugg at his book table

A very busy Pig and Whistle

Outside Fables Bookstore

Another Marquee on the House of Hope lawn

Purveyors of Fine Art inside the Fables / House of Hope building

David Bristow at his independent bookstall

A very busy Bathurst Centre

All about Self-Publishing

Writer and Raconteur David Bristow talking about his latest book 

"20 Bush Tales from Southern Africa"

An enthralled audience

David and his friends walked an off-road marathon from Salem to the Pig and Whistle the day before the Bookshow as part of the event promotion

Inside Relix - all things esoteric!

Anthony Caplan getting a bite

NEW YORK CITY REVISITED

On the 12th of May two years ago I posted a very brief statement on Spirit of Place about our visit to New York as preamble to a piece about our stay in Memphis. Right about now we are approaching the 10th Anniversary of that amazing two weeks in New York City which began shortly after we returned from our visit to Sydney, which I documented in detail on this Blog during November and December of last year. 

The Spirit of New York City (A Billboard seen from the High Line)

I received a call from my cousin Lynda Gilfillan sometime during either February or March of 2012 inviting Pat and I to join her and Rob for two weeks in New York to celebrate her birthday. They had booked an apartment on 42nd Street and had just discovered that it had two double bedrooms, and wanted us to take up the 2nd bedroom at no cost to ourselves, which despite my protests, she insisted was part of the deal………. otherwise the offer was off. Wow! What could I say but ‘thank you’, and immediately started trying to figure out how we were going to afford the trip so soon after our six week stay in Australia. 

It took a bit of fairly deft juggling, but an opportunity like this only ever comes once in a lifetime, so one way and another we found ourselves landing at JFK very early on the morning of the 23rd May ……….. a drizzly, damp day - but who cared, we were in the Big Apple, and we just spent the day walking and walking and walking - looking up at all the amazing buildings that surrounded us and grabbing a bit of culture during a quick visit to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, with its beautifully painted ceilings and well appointed reading rooms.

One of the New York Public Library  ceilings - Built in 1854 by John Jacob Astor

Eye catching Skyscraper

We were scheduled to meet Rob at the apartment building at around 7pm that evening, which we did - only to find out that he had been thoroughly scammed - and that while the apartment did indeed exist as it was presented on the internet, the booking was bogus, and all the money he had put down was now forfeit.

A terrible shock, but nothing in life is insurmountable, and priority No. 1 was to find somewhere to stay for the night, and a quick trip through Google told us that in spring in NYC, there is little or nothing available at short notice - but right across the road from Madison Square Gardens there is 1 Penn Plaza - a huge hotel that seems to double more as a Backpackers than a hotel, and there we found a room (albeit a smokers room), with a double bed and the promise of a gurney for the third person. Poor Rob - not only was he the third person, but he had to put up with my snoring as well.

The 24th presented us with the challenge of meeting  Lynda at Grand Central and breaking the bad news to her (which Rob preferred to do alone), and finding somewhere to stay for the ensuing fourteen days. This I tackled via the online facilities at a MacDonalds that gave access to AirBnB, where finally we were able to get a two bedroomed apartment on 116th Street East - Spanish Haarlem - at a cost that split between us at least made up for some of what Rob had lost on the 42nd Str. booking.

 

Pat outside the entrance to our digs at 327 116th Street East - Spanish Haarlem

Hey ….. it wasn’t the most comfortable place in the world - but you know what ……. it did the job and gave us the opportunity to  see a part of the City that we would never otherwise have taken the trouble to visit. 

A taxi ride to somewhere

We took turns cooking each evening and had some amazing food - virtually always accompanied by a “not too bad” dry white wine from Chile that Rob and I discovered we could get at the local liquor store for $5 a bottle ……… a whole hell of a lot cheaper than anything else that was on offer.

Each day we would take the subway from 116th Street station down to wherever it was we wanted to explore that day …….. essentially the train ran underneath Lexington Avenue almost as far down as Delancey Street if I remember correctly, which was hardly more than a hop, skip and a jump down to the Battery, Wall Street and the World Trade Centre.

Rob doing a demo of something amusing

Lynda and Pat doing the "shoe thing" at Macy's (I think?)

Wandering through the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria

Funny story: The day we decided to visit Wall Street it was raining and ‘just in case’ Pat and I took along a few of those pocket roll up yellow plastic raincoats. I was dressed in my everyday shorts and shirt - and my faithful Crocs. Hardly had we stepped up to the daylight from the station when the Crocs became ice-skates on the granite pavers that covered the area. I had no option but to take them off and carry them much to the disgust of Lynda and Pat ………… imagine walking down Wall Street in the company of an aging Boerseun barefoot and in shorts and carrying a pair of worn Crocs ……… they were very careful to keep their distance and quietly ignore me. 

I'm sure that Bull smiled when he saw us coming

Lynda’s fashion sense too was somewhat ruffled by the need to stay dry, with her and Pat basically forced to wear what looked like dry-suit tops off a Cape Town building site. I was sure I saw a little smile on the face of the Charging Bull as our motley crew crossed the road to get a closer look at him.

The girls in their "dry suit" tops

Each day would find us somewhere special, with the abundance of NYC art galleries seeming to take priority - the best by far being the Metropolitan Museum of Art with its floor dedicated to the Impressionists which took up most of my day there - also the amazing American Western art and sculpture - the Frank Lloyd-Wright room and gallery - the incredible Willy’s Jeep Gallery and so on and so on and so on. To do the Met justice one really needs to spend each and every day for weeks and weeks there, building a total mental picture of what is has on offer that one can carry around in a little pocket of the brain for evermore ………….. much as I compiled at the Tate when we lived in London all those years ago …… unfortunately now spoiled by categorizing all the various eras of art rather than the wonderful rambling institution that it used to be. One of my favorite paintings there was La Suerte by Wyndam Lewis - hidden away in a corner near some small stairs as I recall - I would spend ages there, mesmerized by the woman’s eyes …………… sadly it is now nowhere to be found in the gallery.

The Frank Lloyd-Wright room at the Met

Western art at its best - and these guys didn't have photographs to copy from

Paul Cezanne - a couple of details

A detail from 'The Horse Fair' - an incredible study in horseflesh

We of course also spent a good few hours wandering around NYC’s most visited building - the Guggenheim Museum, possibly Lloyd-Wright’s most iconic building. Unfortunately on the day we were there they were busy with maintenance and access to the spiral gallery space was not allowed ………… not to worry, the important thing was that “We Were There”.

The Guggenheim Museum (We were there!)

On another day we hired some bicycles and took a ride through Central Park - all the way up the East Drive past the Zoo and then round and about up to the lake with a turn around at the Imagine mosaic at the entrance to John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields dedication. A very special day, with, I remember quite a bit of time admiring the incredible detail on some of the 59th Street building facades, a visit to the Apple Store and coffee in Trump Tower.

A bike ride through Central Park

The gold plated 'Chopper' made for Trump by American Choppers in the foyer of Trump Tower

Waiting to be seated in the Trump Tower coffee shop

My cousin Mignon whom we had not seen since about 1971 in London flew in from Oregon to see us, and her and her two daughters Meghan and Maria spent some very special time with us on a boat trip all the way around Manhattan and a wonderful walk and talk along the Highline from West 14th Street all the way up to West 34th. They were also kind enough to take Pat and I for dinner at a very special restaurant whose name I unfortunately cannot remember, but which despite the exorbitant prices and really good food had such bad acoustics that we simply could not hear a word that anyone had to say. But all in all it was so good to catch up with Mignon again.

Mignon and Pat in the amazing sewing machine store

Walking the High Line

Pat, Mignon, Meghan and Maria (with yours truly)

One of the best things we did was buy a New York Pass which was quite new at the time, but which got us to the front of the lines almost everywhere  we visited - (Top of the Rock / Empire State / Radio City Music Hall and numerous other places) - all the while saving us a ton of money on entry fees - I would recommend it to anyone visiting the city.

Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Centre)

Pat with Robin and Lynda at the Top of the Rock

Times Square - Rob hogging the girls as usual

One of the highlights for anyone visiting NYC is Times Square, and we spent a magical evening wandering around with Rob and Lynda taking in all the Razz-Ma-Tazz that it has on offer.  On another occasion we decided to take up Liselle’s suggestion that we visit the Magnolia Bakery in Bleecker Street which she had seen in some movie ……….. boy, did we walk to get there as I had also wanted to visit an exhibition of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s paintings in Greenwich Village and we must have hiked a good 10kms before we found the gallery where I managed to pose with Pat against Andy Warhol's original print of Mick. 

The Ronnie Wood Exhibition

On the Subway (Guess where?)

Bleecker Street was a disappointment - we were hoping to be able to relax for a while with some nice Jazz - but everywhere was a total rip-off on entry fees, and when Rob asked if we could look in before paying he found there was absolutely nothing going on. Sad …….. it would have been nice! At the Magnolia Bakery we each bought one of their famous cookies and took time out in the Bleecker Playground to relax for a while, where Rob had us in fits as he shared a table with a local tramp.

Rob unsuccessfully trying to make a friend

A couple of 'Homeboys' showing off their fashion sense

On another day Pat and I visited the Irish Hunger Memorial and the NYC by Sea (Tribeca Sailing) Yacht Club and took a leisurely walk all the way down the Boardwalk to Battery Park

The highlight of our visit was in many ways time spent at Ground Zero where One World Trade Centre was nearing completion. The 9/11 Information Centre was extremely moving and literally had me in tears to the point where I simply had to leave the exhibit. 

A reflection of the four of us taking a break at the Remembrance Pools

One World Trade Centre nearing completion

When we eventually left New York via the New Jersey Turnpike on our way to Memphis we looked back at this magnificent tower which at a distance stood up out of the Manhattan Skyline like a giant finger to those who thought that their act of terror might destroy the spirit of a nation.

All in all our stay was without doubt two of the most wonderful and exciting weeks we have spent anywhere, and the company of Lynda and Robin simply made it so much more special than it might otherwise have been. Thank you so much for the invite guys …………. we’d do it again tomorrow at the blink of an eyelid.