Saturday. I woke up nice and refreshed from my early night on Friday and headed off for my fateful squash encounter with Ryan and Pops as chronicled in {0290}. I did however not get too long to sit around and mope on my return home, as I got a phone call from Chantelle to inform me that she had just heard over the radio that there were still tickets available for the Twenty20 cricket clash at Newlands later the evening.
Now she was pretty keen to go watch her first ever live cricket game, and to be honest I was pretty keen to see some of the action myself for a change. The only thing I didnt like the look of was the very heavy clouds hanging over Cape Town – as well as the rain prediction for later the evening. Nevertheless, I grabbed the phone and tried phoning the stadium to confirm ticket availability. No such luck, the lines were not being manned.
No problem, Computicket should sort me out.
Except they had disabled bookings for the event.
Bugger.
So with no other alternative, I resolved to jump in the car and head out to Newlands myself – but not before giving Merkaba a shout and asking if he wanted to tag along. Newlands is a good 35km or so from me, so I needed to make it worth my while to drive out that way – luckily that is never a problem because my favourite book store is right around the corner from Newlands – Readers Den comics shop :)
Had to laugh though. After taking a scenic trip through to Claremont and stopping to put R100s worth of petrol in my tank (just in case we got lost), we finally made it to Newlands. We joined the almost non-existent queue, and just as we reached the head of the queue, the lady in front of me enquired as to whether or not the stadium accepts debit cards. The short answer: they dont.
No problem, I have cash on me. I needed to organise six tickets, so that was R240 I needed. Opening my wallet, I scratched around to find that I had exactlyR140 in notes. Damn that unnecessary petrol stop!!
So detour time, as Merkaba and I headed off to Readers Den (co-incidentally located in a mall where I could draw money as well). There we didnt hang around for too long, but I did come out clutching volume 1s of Love Hina and Chobits manga :) (Oh yes, we eventually got the tickets too, just in case you are wondering).
Back to Bellville!
Chantelle joined me from Gordons Bay later the afternoon, and as soon as she stepped through my door, we headed straight back out, hitting the road to Kennilworth in order to pick up Retha and her roommate so that we could make the cricket in time. And talk about perfect timing, we arrived at the stadium literally minutes before the scheduled start. Too bad the start was a little delayed, thanks to some light rain that had fallen. Nevertheless, we located out seats next to Pops and Ryan and proceeded to enjoy a thoroughly entertaining spectacle, with South Africa defeating Bangladesh easily enough, but not before Bangladesh entertained us with a gutsy big-hitting batting display.
Chantelle, Retha and Anne-something-or-other seemed to all enjoy the show, and Pops, Ryan and I were happy thanks to being able to gorge on fatty stadium food :)
The cricket finally finished up, the dancers and DJs packed up and the crowed filtered out of the stadium. We followed suit, stopping by Rethas flat for some well-deserved coffee and lack of milk tart (I don’t know why on earth Spar in Kennilworth is closed by 22:30 :P).
Sunday morning saw Chantelle and I head out to church in Tableview in order to attend the christening of Andri and Malcolms baby – The service wasnt bad, but the snacks were definitely the best! That was followed up by picking up Robert and heading off to visit Chantelles gran in the old age home. We didnt stay all that long, but we did eat the most delicious tart I’ve ever tasted from Limnos bakery that I bought. A combination of milk tart, custard slices and cream, a heavenly blend whose name is completely escaping me this very instant. It was something foreigny I think. Started with fab.
The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and watching a torturous hour and a half of Idols (but I did get to finish the rest of the tart!). The evening saw us zip off to Cape Gate to chow down on some Steers and then catch the 8:00 showing of Hairspray, a movie Chantelle had been wanting to see for a while now. Thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining, even I must admit.
And thats pretty much it for the weekend. Phew, looking at this post, seems like I cant complain about having a boring weekend :)