Friday morning was a frantic rush to put things in order before we left. As we would be taking Monday off as well, we had to complete all the packing for the next week's clinic and then organise for people to cover all of Sam's Monday activities. After packing prescriptions for 4 hours straight, we finally wrapped up the pharmacy, then spent the next hour sorting out Sam's stuff, went to pack for the trip and were on the road by 2pm [good work!] :D
It was a drive of epic proportions since we first had to traverse the dirt road which was experiencing a minor dust storm where the dust even came into the car through the vents and we all nearly died of dust inhalation. [Well, not really.] Anyway, when we emerged from that in a now-brown car, there was the tar road which would be more accurately described as a 60km series of interconnecting potholes. After that trauma was over we finally arrived at Mqanduli which is one of my favourite places due to the presence of the Post Office :D After trying three times in the previous week to pick up my post there I finally managed to get some mail, yay!
This time the postman had brought me:
1. A letter from Grannie
2. A letter from Auntie Kathryn
3. A letter from Megan
4. A stunning cake postcard from Marjorie
5. Two letters from Mum with stickers for the kids in ARV clinic :)
6. A postcard from Auntie Fiona, Uncle Donald, Cameron and Bruce in Singapore
7. A London postcard from Megan [handwritten for once :P]
I love post. And thank you to everyone who writes to me :)
Back on the road we were now on the N2, one of South Africa's national highways, characterised by a) a lack of dust and b) a lack of potholes. It's still only one or two lanes wide and has cattle, dogs, sheep and people wandering all over it! We drove through endless beautiful African landscape and through the Kei cuttings until we finally left the Transkei [and according to Liz, re-entered the real world]. Then we entered some extreme mist and had to slow to a crawl [not wholly because of the mist, but because some of the other drivers thought that lowered visibility was a good reason to forget that the purpose of the car was to move forward]. We continued on along a long straight road surrounded by whiteness on all sides for what felt like a long time, enjoying the now familiar tunes on Liz's Grammy's 2010 CD [and realising with great sadness that we knew the words to the country western tracks as well].
Finally [finally] after nearly 5 hours of driving [and 4 hours 59 minutes of road rage ;)] we arrived in East London, yay for the city! It is so completely removed from the tiny village of rondavels that we live in that it is properly like entering another world. We went to get showered at Liz's friend Jules' house [a house! A real house!] then went out to the cinema at Hemingway's, East London's new shopping centre.
Entering Hemingway's, which just happens to be the shiniest building in the world, was the strangest feeling, Sam and I were looking around like we had some kind of issue – it felt really surreal to be back in civilisation! We met up with some more of Liz's many friends then went to the cinema to see a film called Leap Year. The cinema here is SO cheap: R20 for a ticket and R18 for a massive box of popcorn (that's a total of less than three pounds!). The film was pretty funny but for all the wrong reasons since it took being cheesy to a new level. Either way, going to the cinema = good. After the film we went for coffee and Sam and I had these stunning cappuccinos with chocolate cream and whipped cream on the top, yum yum. We then got dropped at Buffalo backpackers which was to be our home for the weekend.
Or not, as it turned out. Described in Coast to Coast, the backpacking bible, as 'designed with travellers in mind...owners with stacks of experience...large garden courtyard....spacious reception...saloon' it would be more accurately described as 'a bit like a prison, designed for local guys to get drunk and shout at each other in the concrete courtyard and give abuse to the owner who doesn't even know what day it is'. I'll give them their dues, the bed was comfortable, it was clean and only cost R75 for the night but the atmosphere and facilities in a prison would probably have been preferable. Needless to say, Sam and I got up and left right away for another backpackers. I think it says it all that when we told the owner of the next backpackers that we had been staying at Buffalo, her only response was, 'Aw, shame!’
Niki-nana's backpackers, with its stripy zebra roof, pool, brightly coloured bedrooms and cable TV was like something out of a dream after our night in the cells. We checked in for the next two nights, ditched our stuff and wandered down to the beach front to have some breakfast and start our 100th day of the trip in style. We ended up at Wimpy [which isn't the greasy fast food joint it is the UK] and had a stunning meal: Sam had a cooked breakfast and I had a toastie and a muffin. Sam ordered a fruit smoothie and I ordered a chocolate milkshake, something which continued throughout the weekend when we did the same everywhere that we ate!
Later on, Liz and Jules dropped us off at the beacon of civilisation that is Hemingway's and we spent the next 12 hours in there. Who would have ever thought of doing that back home? Truth be told, we didn't actually do very much shopping and got tired after about 1.5 hours, clearly we are too used to the snail’s pace of life in Zithulele. We bought new bed linen so now I have a sheet which actually covers my mattress and doesn't come off every time I roll over; some more t-shirts so I don't have to wash clothes every 2 days and a second pair of shoes since my sandals are looking, shall we say, a bit past it.
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| Sam unearths some gems in Mr Price |
The cinema beckoned to us so we went and bought tickets for the 5.30pm showing and then set about trying to pass the next five hours. We decided to go for lunch at Mugg & Bean which was STUNNING. After drooling over the menu for a while we managed to order, then ordered some more things just for the hell of it before the first had even arrived, prompting weird looks from our waitress. We then ordered pudding, the biggest scone and muffin in the world, and for some reason they offered to put cheese on my chocolate muffin....err, what? We spent nearly two and a half hours having lunch and managed to see 3 people we knew, very strange!
The second film of the weekend was 'Date Night' which was quite hilarious – Tina Fey and Steve Carrell make a very good double act [Gregor, go see it]. After that it was time for ...yes you guessed it, food. We went to Primi Piatti for dinner and accidentally ordered so much food that we didn't even manage to eat half! The starters which were called 'Pizza breads' were actually full size pizzas and then they brought out massive bowls of pasta so even I was defeated by the huge amount of food! Luckily, they let us take what we didn't eat home :D
We then went and sat in the coffee shop from last night and waited for Liziwe to come and pick us up. We sat and had a brilliant creation called a 'chocolate chocachino' [which I promptly spilled all over myself] and watched the world go by for two and a half hours, during which time we realised that it was just the same ten or fifteen people going back and forth over and over again. Clearly Hemingway's casts it spell over everyone who comes and they feel unable to leave...
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| Chocolate chocachino |
Next day I got up and watched the news which was majorly exciting, that ash cloud is pretty impressive! Some weirdo man was telling me about how he had come to South Africa to see this woman but she had rejected him so he was stuck here for two months...a bit creepy, so I moved to a different sofa. Sam then came in and we caught up on all the Hollywood gossip from E! News – Hilary Duff is getting married!? What?
We decided that another trip to Hemingway's was in order so we called a taxi. The taxi driver's name was Charlie and he was a bit crazy and spent the whole trip telling us that he loves taxis so much and just likes talking rubbish to people and he loves taxis so much and hopes we enjoy a fun ride and he loves taxis so much...and oh wait, he's only been a taxi driver for 5 days. Er, OK! Sam and I just seem to attract the crazy people! Anyway, he was very sweet and gave us a cheap fare so we took his number in case we ever wanted another trip/dose of the craziness.
The day followed almost the exact same schedule as the previous. We went to Mugg & Bean for lunch, much to the amusement of our server who was still there and wasn't mad at us despite the measly 20p tip we left yesterday. We had a round of chocolate milkshake and fruit smoothies which were waaay better than the Wimpy ones. Sam ordered lemon meringue for dessert and honestly it was about 20cm high! I've never seen such a big slice of meringue! After lunch we went to Woolworths which is like Marks and Spencer here. Sadly we had to leave sharpish because all the incredible looking food they were selling made us feel sick when we thought of our empty fridge back home :( Our third film of the weekend was Bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston which was watchable, not exactly great though. But who cares, it was a cinema and it only cost R20! Hooray!
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| Our empty fridge [pre East London] |
After the film we thought we should try to leave Hemingway's and decided we would call up our good friend Charlie and get a fun ride back to Niki-nana's. True to form, he livened up the trip with stories about his customers that were frankly a little disturbing, but again he was very sweet and didn't even mind when we realised we didn't have enough money to pay him the fare. What a good guy.
At half five, Liz came to pick me up to take me to church. Walking into the church here was completely different from walking into any of the churches back home. At home, you would expect to go into a big old building with a few old ladies in their Sunday finest scattered about in the pews and the organ droning on in the background. Here, I entered a bright, modern room absolutely buzzing with people, most of them young, a band playing, and in general it just seemed to be far more welcoming and appealing than any other church I've ever been in. Praise and worship was followed by communion then a sermon by a young guy who was so funny and got so excited that his microphone fell off. It was such a different experience from church in the UK and definitely far more enjoyable :D
After that, Liz and her friends asked if Sam and I would like to join them for dinner. Sam was still at the backpackers so had to call upon good old Charlie to take her to Hemingway's [again] so we could eat at Primi Piatti [again!]. There were six of us, Jules, Liz, Monique, Clive, Sam and I and we had dinner and chats and just general good times. :D
The next day was a day for admin – buying food for the next however long until we could get another lift to a supermarket and collecting stuff for Jabulani [well, that part was Liz]. Sam and I managed to keep within our budget for the food shop which was an absolute miracle given that everything on the shelf was screaming at us to buy it! We went for one final civilised lunch and enjoyed our last chocolate milkshake/fruit smoothie combo then it was time to leave the bright lights of the city. With a car laden with R5000 worth of paper etc for Jabulani, all our shopping and our clothes and two new CDs for the road trip, we were ready to go.
Back through the mist we went to the sounds of the Roxettes [and some of their questionable lyrics], then back along the N2, then along/through the pothole road in some lovely rain. Much to the dismay of everyone, the CD player then broke on the random, bad bad bad times and Liz navigated the final stretch of dirt road in the dark and rain [what a pro driver] until we were back in good old Zithulele, all road tripped out.
Good weekend much?
Thank you Liz :)
xxxxx
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