There's a lot of stuff in the city that just doesn't get noticed. Its the place in which you live, work and shop. Where you get stuck in traffic or manoeuvre in intricate geometries to avoid it. Don't look around, dawdle or hesitate: a turn might get missed or some piece of flesh dressed in a vehicle will get stressed out and edgy. Not the sort of actions or attitude that will bring the lesser known, the unknown and the extravagantly mundane out of the dusty attic and into the parlour to be scrutinised and appreciated. For travelers, tourists and visitors our "Right Under Your Nose" series should point your snout at a few home made quirks, wonders and oddities. There's no entrance fee and no queues (yet). None of them are featured in Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor or Rough Guides. Table Mountain, Robben Island, the Winelands might be essential things to tick off on the sightseeing list but here's a sniff of what else is cooking on Cape Town's pavements and side streets. The unreleased tracks and B-sides, if you will, of our town, right here. Here's Right Up Your Nose #1 The Wesley Street Wall gets a facial: This part of town is near Gardens Shopping Centre and in the shadow of Wembley Square: apartments, fancy gym and delis and coffee shops for when you aren't wobbling on the PowerPlate or lifestyling in the penthouse. The neighbourhood is made up of equal parts of light industry like panel beaters, residential houses and small businesses. This part of Wesley Street is a bit of an open air art gallery. I've been driving past here for the last 3 years at least every 2 weeks (for the PowerPlate Turbo Yoga class) and have not noticed this wall until last week. I will be more observant. Would the artist please identify yourself? At first it just looked like the usual single colour all-in-one-spray-blast wall defacement. But then you notice the smock wearing woman, baby on back doing the painting at the end of the wall. Nice twist. I like the Shoprite bag in her hand with more cans of spray paint among the groceries. It looks like this graffiti mural goes through changes. If you look at the street view of Wesley Street and take a trip to Wesley St now (that's 1 Dec 2010) you'll see that the old painting was a big sidewalk aquarium view. Have a look at the verandah scene on the building on the other side of the road, complete with painted-on rug and pot plants. Find it here on Google Maps: http://goo.gl/maps/Tmzs (nice and neat little link morsels now. You can almost memorise them)
