What a nice way to start work after my long holiday. Thursday was my first day back and Kyle let me off just after 13:00 already, and to sweeten the deal even more, Friday just so happened to be my half day as well! Lucky!! In fact, the day couldn’t have gotten any better – I got great news that my pal Iradney is coming down to Cape Town at the end of the month and my babes Chantelle was coming through to visit me in the evening despite having to work the morning shift on Saturday!
In any event, I put in my mandatory couple of hours at work, which basically involved me doing the most miniscule of actual work …work’ and spending the rest of the time updating my laptop, writing blog entries and burning anime DVDs.
After I had got all those necessary jobs out the way, I jumped into my Jetta and jetted off to Kirstenbosch on my mission to buy the group’s tickets for the Seether Kirstenbosch concert on Sunday evening. Much to my surprise, I actually had to queue for the tickets, listening as all around me Seether tickets were being snatched up at an alarming rate. This concert was going to be huge!
Seven successful ticket purchases later, and I was off on my next shopping mission that involved visiting various toy and music/electronic stores in search of the latest addition to C&C’s gaming stable, namely a dance mat and game. I have in fact owned both before, but in a moment of kindness after my breakup with Liz, I let her keep all the party game stuff. Silly decision looking back at it now, because it is going to cost me a bundle to replace it would seem. However, thanks to the looming car service, I opted instead to leave the purchases until next month, when my cash flow restores itself just a little. Hopefully.
The rest of the afternoon I pretty much played Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith and cleaned the kitchen of the flat. A strange combination I know, but one that brought satisfaction to both me AND Chantelle – once she eventually arrived home from work. Seeing that the weekend was destined to be busy, we pretty then much chilled for the rest of the evening, spoiling ourselves with fish and chips for supper and embarking on a late night stroll for an McDonalds ice-cream run.
Saturday morning I got abandoned by Chantelle in favour of her work, but luckily for me I already had a backup plan in place which involved me travelling to Parow to price a chest of drawers. However, my plans took on a nice twist when Ryan contacted me and we ended up going together on my expedition. We successfully and safely navigated Voortrekker Road, Parow to get my prices (depressingly heavy I tell you) and then set off to more familiar waters of Willowbridge and Tygervalley malls.
Seeing as I convinced Ryan to drive us around for a change, he stopped by my flat after all the shopping was done (actually, we ended up with nothing for the either of us) for a couple of games of football. As always the FIFA 08 was tight as hell, though towards the end we finally managed to start scoring a couple of goals against one another. It would seem that it is getting tougher and tougher to get a result when we play, simply because we just know each other’s moves too damn well! (Still, I did manage to get a fluke 3-0 win against him! Made all the more impressive by the fact that lately it seems like I’m unable to hit the broadside of a barn!)
Once I finally kicked him out, it was back into waiting mode as I awaited Chantelle’s return from work in time for the evening’s braai at Monty’s place. Luckily I had the wonderful combination of clocking Star Wars III and cleaning the bathroom to keep me company. Again, a good combination for keeping both Chantelle and I content! :)
The evening’s braai at Chantelle’s parents’ place went off without a hitch. As always Robert put in a near perfect display as the evening’s tongmaster and with Retha there as an added bonus, the evening was filled with lots of fun conversation and good food. And of course once Retha opened our gift to her of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel whiskey, tongues really began to loosen up even more – which is always guaranteed to be fun!
Sunday morning kicked off with a visit to church, something which we haven’t done in ages. After the service though, I was left to my own devices as Chantelle had to join up with the rest of the guys for singing practice for the next service in which they have to lead the praise and worship session. This meant I got to whiz around Parklands and Tableview in the little green Getz, eventually settling on browsing through Bayside Mall’s bookshops to pass the time.
While she was practicing however, the bad news came in that Boschendal had phoned to cancel our picnic appointment thanks to the particularly bad weather we were experiencing. Highly disappointed, we nevertheless decided to still take our afternoon drive through to Franshoek, eventually ending up at Hillcrest Berry Orchards where we endured the chill for an absolutely stunning view of the mountains and a selection of absolutely delicious scones and jams.
Next on our busy as always agenda was a trip through to Kirstenbosch on the other side of the world, this time to catch the Shaun Morgan (of Seether fame) acoustic set. Kirstenbosch’s Summer Sunset Concerts is a wonderful way to spend a Sunday evening – provided the sun is shining of course. A lot of local top music acts are on display in this most picturesque setting and it really is the perfect way to end your weekend.
Seether is one of SA’s most famous rock music exports ever, originally starting out as the acclaimed Saron Gas band before signing a record deal and heading out to the states where they renamed to Seether. As it was, Kirstenbosch is a little guilty of false advertising because they put out that Seether was performing when in fact it was only Shaun Morgan, lead singer and lead guitarist of the band that was making an appearance. Nevertheless, the crowd didn’t seem to mind because the concert was sold out on Saturday afternoon already (ticket sales only open on the Friday before the concert) and Kirstenbosch was literally packed to the hilt. Everyone was there for a good time and Shaun certainly didn’t disappoint. He has an amazingly strong voice and delivered hit after hit, much to the crowd’s appreciation. It is just unfortunate that the rain decided to spoil the party somewhat, meaning a lot of people left a little early, ourselves included!
That said, it was pretty much the blondest moment that either Chantelle or I have had in ages. We knew it was going to rain, yet we completely didn’t dress for it, nor did we remember to take either of the umbrellas out of the car when we parked for the concert! In fact, we were walking up to the gardens when we remembered the umbrellas in the boot – and promptly decided to leave them there. Doh! (The direct result was that we were got soaked to the bone. Wet top, wet jeans, wet socks, wet shoes and wet underpants do not make for a pleasant drive home you know.)
Back home we warmed up and I set about transforming Chantelle into a gamer by shoving a controller in her hands and sitting down for some co-op Fantastic Four with her. She sucked a little, but so far so good, there is plenty of promise in her performance, that’s all I can say! :)
Some KFC for supper and we ended the evening off by watching Asterix and the Vikings, abandoning it halfway when bed started calling us rather loudly.
Ah, as always another jam-packed weekend in the life of Craig :)