Maybe A Diamond

How lovely the Joburg CBD is in Winter.
No, I'm not being sarcastic.
The bare trees planted by the bus stops, the clean-swept roads, the masonry and new paintwork sparkling in the sun.
The colour of the sky. Oh, the colour of the sky - and the scent upon the faint breeze of Spring approaching.

We took a ride into the heart of the city this morning, Warren and I, to pick up some papers from his work. Passing through Braamfontein I was flooded with memories of being 18 years old, with a motorbike, in residence at the University of the Witwatersrand, studying Physics. The people had changed, then from now, although they were still mostly students. The buildings had changed, becoming more shabby and surprisingly more brightly painted.
I was supposed to be afraid passing over the Nelson Mandela bridge into the criminal hangout of downtown. But I was enchanted, instead. The sky, the skyscrapers, the taxis, the new cobblestones...the sky, the sky, the sky.

Waiting for Warren in the only sunny spot on Diagonal Street, I sneaked a couple of pictures.Of the sky, of course. And also of this man who I have shared my life with the past 13 years. This relationship, which has lasted five times longer than either of my marriages, is an astrological conundrum. Our Suns are square to each other, and so are our Moons. This is, speaking generally, a recipe for disaster. Perhaps the shared Ascendant - Scorpio as first house, which insures our houses coincide - and the conjunction of our Venuses in Virgo are enough to override this inauspicious square.
But maybe it's a Diamond, not a Square.
In any case, this man whose fate seems tied to mine has  turned 45 today.
Happy Birthday, Warren - may you enjoy many tens of thousands more.