27.12.07
Gee Man!
Cape Town – 12/12/07
Went into Cape Town today for another look round the centre and waterfront. Again we tried to get up Table Mountain but failed.
In the morning before setting off I had a bit of a marathon session entertaining Matthew. This was all happening whilst K was being beautified by Judy (Ruth’s sis).
So I was a car, a plane and a baddie; on occasion all at the same time.
I spent an age trying to get him to play something that didn’t involve shooting, bombing or hitting anything; and eventually succeeded.
We had a chat about the holiday so far and what he’d remembered. When bored of that we moved on to superheroes.
He knew of the X-men and expressed a preference for Wolverine. Then he went all conspiratorial and told me that a friend of his had come up with a new X-man.
What is it? I wondered.
“It’s a lady with no clothes on.”; he whispered this perhaps expecting censure. “But she’s got no powers” he finished.
Oh what little he knows. I changed the subject.
By the time we headed to CT I was knackered so slept in the car on the way.
We saw the castle; more like a fort in the American west style. Certainly not a patch on any European castle. Nice backdrop though. It also contained a couple of musea which were worth a look. And then there was a free tour. I dropped out of it early as the guide spoke rather too quickly and quietly. I was still tired enough not to want to strain so I went instead to play with my camera and people watch.
In the evening Judy and her man were to take me and K to a jazz club in town. The time given was 9pm pick-up.
K went to bed at 9.45. They eventually showed up at 10.30. Still we DID make it to a jazz club; just in time to hear half a song by a fantastic singer. After that half song finished she left the stage and that was her. After about 20 mins quiet time another singer got up and the band played her a tune. This singer was rubbish though; far too shouty. But she only did 1 song before there was another break.
During this break I had some chat with Judy. She’s also done the Harkerville trail/trial with Ruth and she did some wonderful “Oh my god you did that too didn’t you?” stuff. Apparently half way through the first day she started singing a gospel number “If you ever needed the lord” to gee herself up a bit. Rather bizarrely I remember the tune stuck in my head on this trek was “Down Under” by Men at Work. Incidentally I spoke to yet another person on this trip who’d done that trek and got another load of nervous laughter, mad eyes, another tale of hardship and another “I’m never doing that again” type comment.
The band returned to play a couple of numbers (minus a singer). The music was good, the players very good, except the pianist (who incidentally looked like a black version of Rod). They all looked the part and actually looked like jazz musicians. Great stuff if rather brief.
And that was it. 2 instrumentals and 1.5 songs one of which wasn’t worth bothering with.
We headed out to find some life in CT but everything was shut. So home to bed.