Many years ago, when we first moved to Sun Valley, there was a Mall. Sun Valley Mall. A little complex with a supermarket and a few other useful shops such as a chemist, a florist, a video store, a coffee shop, a hairdresser, ATMs and a few clothing shops. It was enough. If we wanted variety we could go to Fish Hoek and browse the Main Road establishments. When going to Fish Hoek, I heard the older folk say they were ‘going to the village’. 🙂 Simple days they were! The Mall looked like this:
But developers decided, with the area growing (which it was), we could do with another Mall and so opposite this one, Longbeach Mall went up…a LONG mall with more space, bigger grocery stores and more options than Sun Valley Mall.
And so Sun Valley Mall became the “old mall” and Longbeach Mall became the “new mall.” We wo
uld say to our friends, “we’ll meet you at the mall” and they would say, “the old mall or the new mall?” and we would say, “the new mall” and that’s what would happen. And so for many years, that’s the way it was. We went to the new mall to do a ‘proper shop’ but if we wanted just a few things and were in a hurry, we nipped into the old mall. We referred to them as the old mall and the new mall. That’s the way it was. And we seldom went “to the village” to shop, unless we needed to go to AP Jones massive sale. And if we needed something really big or if we were going to the movies, we would venture OTM (over the mountain) to the Blue Route Mall.
But de
velopers decided, with the area growing (which it is), we could do with a BETTER old mall. And so they pulled down the Sun Valley mall. And after lots of plans and permissions being passed, they started building a new Sun Valley Mall.
It was going to be much, much bigger than the old mall and would certainly be major competition to the new mall. Who knows, maybe we won’t ever need to go OTM again!
After the ground lay fallow for many, many months, finally it started to grow. We watched it rise from the ground when we were waiting at the traffic lights coming out of the new mall….
And today:
I took a stroll to the new old mall…this is the gym side…
And this is one of the entrances…
It’s due to open in the next day or two…but there’s lots to still be done…inside there are lots of people rushing around finishing things…
At least there is coffee available…and a sense of humour…
It was quite exciting actually. I smiled to myself as I walked away. The humble old mall is now the new mall and the new mall is now the old mall. We will say to our friends we will meet at the new old mall and not at the old new mall – well I’m sure we won’t. We’ll avoid confusion and say we’ll meet at Sun Valley Mall!
But this is how life is. What goes around comes around. Solomon said it and it’s recorded in Ecclesiastes 1:9
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
The key three words in that verse: “under the sun”. Yip, nothing new under the sun. But eternal life is beyond ‘under the sun.’ Where I am headed one day is outside the realm of ‘under the sun’. All that is in heaven is beyond our understanding and there is everything new beyond the sun.
Until then the old and the new will go round and round. Let us enjoy each season.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂