Yawn… an awesome long weekend

Somewhat predictably, the weekend was fabulous. After all, if you take a boyfriend and girlfriend who have not seen each other properly over the past 5 weeks, stick them in a city they haven’t explored in yonks, and give them a bonus weekend day, how could it not be?

So, the lowdown:

Friday – arrive later than expected in Durbs (sigh… when will they see to the “rotational delays” so frequently cited as excuses?), and to both my dismay (at the lost opportunity to embarrass the Gilb) and relief (at not having to fight with golf clubs for seat space), the rental car is upgraded from a Chevy Spark 800cc to a Golf. That’s not all that’s upgraded: the room we booked in a La Lucia backpackers is improved too, at no extra cost. Shweet! Dinner at a nearby Italian trattoria, and retire to bed like an old (randy) couple at the thoroughly respectable hour of 11pm.

Saturday – breakfast at the harbour followed by a stroll down the colourful Promenade, the de riguer tourist trip to Gateway (because I stupidly forgot to bring a cozzie, and oops, found some Avril Lavigne-wannabe Vans shoes – black with pink hippo’s, how could I possibly resist?), the de rigeur walk on the beach. Then a movie (Miami Vice, loved it) and the de rigeur dinner at a pukka Indian restaurant. Advice: some cultural cuisine specialities are really acquired tastes to be left to those with the necessary experience under the belt. I ordered the only exotic drink on the menu, a milkshake (Bombay Shake) that was pink with floaty green squishy aniseed-tasting bits (Fear Factor, behold!), thankfully was denied the starter of my choice (“out of leaves, madame”), and after the damn fine curry, stuffed a handful of the Indian after-dinner-mint equivalent in my mouth. Which consisted of many different seeds, mixed with hundreds and thousands, and tasted like perfume. So revolting I couldn’t bring myself to swallow, yet too many people around to spit it out. The Gilb had a mighty enjoyable ten minutes dawdling over paying the bill before we could leave and I could spit it out in the bushes on the pavement. Retire to bed like an old (randy) couple at the thoroughly respectable hour of 12pm.

Sunday – quick dash to uShaka to see what all the fuss is about (verdict: if you’re purely interested in the aquarium, the Two Oceans in CT wins hands down, although the dolphinarium thing, while being a highly Americanised for of entertainment, was admittedly very enjoyable), followed by a golf day for the Gilb and his old golfing buddy in Amanzimtoti, while I lazed away the five hours with his girlfriend (we couldn’t be more worlds apart if we tried) and 3-year old son, watching Shrek on dvd THREE TIMES. Yes, as you may have suspected, it’s far less entertaining from viewings 2 onwards, but at least it kills time when all you’ve got in common with the lass you’re stuck with is the fact that you both have ovaries. Five long hours later, the boys returned, braaing and more drinking commenced, and the evening improved. Retire to bed like an old (randy) couple at the thoroughly respectable hour of 11:30pm.

Monday – my turn to catch up with friends, this time a doctor doing her community service in Scottburgh. She’s fallen in love with an abandoned five-month old baby who she’s practically fostering until suitable adoption parents are found. Interesting story: the baby was born to a black prostitute who is suspected of blackmailing the wealthy white (married, and familied) businessman with whom the child was conceived. Why else would some dude pay maintenance fees to a prostitute? Anyhow, as a result of the shambles with the parents, the perfectly healthy baby’s adoption process is being hampered (apparently four families want to have her) and the poor thing is living in a ward with sick babies. Taz has fallen in love with the child (who unfortunately only responds to the nickname “Poopsie” and not her real name Melody, which is entirely Taz’s fault) and takes her home regularly. The Gilb, a man normally in fear of such concepts as “marriage” and “children”, took a huge liking to Melody, and I now have photo’s of him nursing the non-white baby to use in an enjoyable shock-the-parents moment – “Ag tannie en oom, kyk vir Gilb met sy pragtige [out-of-wedlock] kleurling babatjie!”

The one major downer of the weekend was news that two good friends have put their marriage plans – and indeed, relationship – on hold. Major respect to the lass for her courageous action, and no doubt more to follow in my next post. Processing, you understand.