Diary of a day in CT

I spent a fabulous day in Cape Town yesterday, all for the very important meeting with our company’s website designers to finalise its content… this is how the day went – if only every Tuesday could be as pleasant:

4:30 – wake up! Wash, change, drag an assortment of bags and folders to the car, head to the airport. Try an experiment: test airport security by leaving my Leatherwoman in a zipped pocket in my bag

6:15 – Kulula my way to CT (first time in my experience that any Kulula flight’s left on time!), head on to Imperial Cars to pick up my pond-scum rental, only to be informed that I’ve been given a free upgrade (Ford Ikon, hardly an upgrade if you ask me, but hey, had a free radio. Plus a bag of mints – shweet!) Given my need to stare at Table Mountain at every possible second (even if it involves frequent 180 degree turns of my head) I decide to upgrade the rental premium to reduce the excess in case of an accident

8:30 – 9:25 – staring at the magic mountain while dodging scary CT drivers (and I do believe their taxi drivers have finally caught up with the full suite of bad manners and illegal road maneuvers that our Jozi ones are famed for)

9:25 – 9:30 – marveling at how much Long Street has changed since I last was there in the middle of last year – it now sports more upmarket stores such as Caroline’s Fine Wines and Gourmet Burgers, but I was relieved to see that that reliably dodgy old institution, Mr Pickwicks, is still around (how much longer, I wonder – the rent will probably shoot up soon)

9:30 – 10:15 – meeting with the website designers in Kloof St. I’m so damn organised, it took a lot less time than anticipated (although I’ll not pass this information on to my boss!)

10:15 – 11:00 – shopping on Kloof! Despite the fact that I have less that zero money this month (anticipated cost of 4 x dentist visits this month = R10,000; car service just cost me R6,500; gifts & birthday costs = R800; Gilb anniversary gift = reasonably pricey; long weekend in Durbs = probably R2,500) I felt the need to burn even bigger holes in my credit card. This little shop called Nylon on Kloof had some great deals, which coupled with the fact I scored a date with the manager (obviously unable and disinclined to accept), made me feel obliged make to a purchase (or two). The goods: a silver flower-shaped ring, and a mini-mini-mini denim pleated skirt (more on this purchase in the ‘Fat Post’, to follow later this week).

11:00 – 11:20 – staring at the magic mountain while dodging scary CT drivers en route to Kirstenbosch, where I can see the other side of the magic mountain.

11:20 – 1:00 – walk around Kirstenbosch, often backwards, staring at the magic mountain – are you starting to get the picture that I’m a little obsessed? Keep the sea, I say, gee net vir Jozi die Tafel asseblief! Chuckle at the colourful language of dozens of coloured grannies who mysteriously descend on the gardens in a large, noisy group.

1:00 – 2:00 – eat lunch at the coffee shop, every now and then doing you-know-what to look at the you-know-what. Sigh! So beautiful! Get immensely disappointed at a call informing me that Peas’ friends had decided to cancel the real surprise I had planned for her last night (I’ll get you yet, Peas!), but recover rapidly because the beautiful mountain does wonders for my mood.

2:00 – 4:00 – play the dutiful employee (and geeky yuppie) by whipping out my laptop, positioning myself in full view of the lovely hunk of famous CT rock, and working solidly for 2 hours (probably got more done than I would do in Jozi in 5 hours, thanks to the absence of the Internet)

4:00 – 4:30 – staring at the magic mountain while dodging scary CT drivers en route to the airport (yes, all good things come to an end).

4:30 – 8:30 – get seriously close to finally finishing Paul Theroux’s “The Mosquito Coast”, which I promised myself I would complete before starting on my much-awaited “The Annotated Alice” – 60 pages to go.

8:30 – emerge from the airport to my familiar and much-beloved Jozi skyline, with my Leatherwoman still firmly in my possession – seems airport security’s a little slack, eh?

10:30 – try to devise good reasons to go back to CT to have another absolutely critical meeting with the website designers (nothing convincing as yet… any ideas?)