After having spent Friday evening all on my lonesome watching movie after movie and playing a seemingly endless amount of Warriors Orochi, it was kind of nice to have Terrance pitch up at my door on Saturday morning for our planned get together with Anime Mark (as I’ve always referred to him since I’ve known him), a bloke I haven’t seen for over a year, the last time being at 2007’s UCT held Otaku Anime convention event!
As it was, Terrance arrived about an hour or so earlier than Mark and we sat down and caught up all the news since Terrance had last visited my doorstep (he seems determined to come out and visit here in Gordon’s Bay each and every time because it gives him the perfect excuse to get fish and chips from Ooskus Fisheries!). As is always the case, time flew by quicker than what you can catch a kitten doing something naughty and before we knew it, the doorbell rung and Mark made his triumphant entry, having found my place the first time around!
It turns out that life is finally looking up for the chap, as he has finally manage to land his first permanent job at a agriculture-based firm that researches and implements orange-oil crop spraying, something Mark is helping out with in a hands-on researcher role for now. He has also finally moved out from Stellenbosch to a place out in Somerset West, so now I know who I can invite along should I ever feel the urge to host an anime viewing event here at home! :)
The three of us had a lekker chat, touching on all the topics close to our hearts like anime, manga and games, the old guard from Stellenbosch University, and even the old boring topic of life in general itself.
Of course, with Terrance being the engineer for the morning’s visit, we didn’t hang around the flat for all that long because it was off to Somerset Mall to indulge in a hearty lunch at Ocean Basket, a restaurant franchise that Terrance has been threatening to try out for months now. Despite the fact that he is a known sushi eater, Terrance disappointingly followed my suit and went for their plain old feesh and chips throwing in a order of extra chips simply for good measure. Mark however was not to be outdone, purposefully tossing some prawns onto his plate which he then delightfully peeled in front of us, delighting in my cringing at all the little eyes and feelers all over his plate! Chantelle and Retha do the same thing to me too :(
It was a good lunch despite the fact that the restaurant was basically completely empty (foreboding if you consider that it was lunch time on a Saturday afternoon at the beginning of the month), and the food was pretty tasty – but not quite up there with Ooskus according to Terrance’s review. Admittedly, ordering those extra chips had not been a great idea, because when we all waddled out of the restaurant (well only Terrance and I waddled), we were sitting with two rather upset stomaches!
We bid Mark a fond farewell as he was about to hop into his car and hit the long road to Parklands where his girlfriend stays (a good hour, hour and a half’s drive I would say), and then re-entered the mall to kill off time before the start of Hancock, a movie that the two of us had decided would make for a good Saturday afternoon watch.
Of course, with the two of us milling about the mall, it was pretty much game and music shopping and while I managed to hold Terrance’s resolve strong and prevent him from splashing out the big bucks for Ninja Gaiden II (despite Newlande’s telephonic protests), I failed in my own attempt at control as he managed to convince me to pick up a copy of Just Cause which was going at a VERY good price from Incredible Corruption.
After a very long (and painful) walk through the mall, the start time for the movie was finally upon us and we settled down in a fairly full cinema to relax our aching stomachs and feet, sitting back to what turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable Will Smith outing. Hancock may not be every reviewer’s cup of tea, but I certainly know that I enjoyed it!
The movie done, it was out of the mall and onto the N1 in Terrance’s little red Golf – The destination: Bellville. The target: Dean’s hamburgers get together!