The Honkin' Blog Entry!

Man, it’s so easy to fall out of sync with blogging! Haha… I’ve been trying real hard to be consistent, friends. Erm… not too shabby I hope? Aight… so let me recap on the past few days’ happenings.

August 5^th… So we climbed the Helderberg yesterday. Holy crap was I feeling sore! My legs muscles were especially feeling it today. Everyone felt the same, I guess, so we all decided to take it easy and spend a day visiting Capetown again. We planned to check out Green Market Square and Table Mountain mainly. When we arrived in the city, Table Mountain didn’t look too inviting because it was overcast. Then when we checked for ticket availability and the attendants told us that the mountain was closed for the day due to high wind turbulence. BOO-URNS… so no Table Mountain for us today. Oh well… next stop… Green Market Square. The square was similar to our very own Churchill Square back home. There were a tonne of booths set up close to each other, selling merchandise from African jewellery and clothes to masks and bongs… haha. It was a very fun experience just to walk through. The buying experience was also very amusing because you got to practice your bartering skills. That’s always a hoot. I enjoy bartering, but then again… I’m Asian.

After the square, we spent the rest of the day at the V & A Waterfront. We had some free time to do whatever we individually wanted to do and then met up for dinner at Primi Piatti – a tantalizing Italian restaurant. Our waiter’s name was Cash… the most energetic and poppin’ server I’ve ever met. I swear he was on Speed or something. Haha…

After din din, we strolled down a very high-end strip in the mall, where they sold only designer clothes. This part of the mall totally reminded me of Las Vegas… EXPENSIVE! Nigel found a Ben Sherman store and went haywire buying this and that. Everyone eventually ended up at Ben Sherman to see what the big deal was. Apparently they had 50% off everything in the store and the prices were ridiculously cheap compared to BS prices back home. Haha… everybody (except Kaitlyn) ended up buying something! I must admit, the store did have a pretty striking deal. Because of the sale and the currency exchange, Nigel saved himself thousands of Canadian dollars buying here than had he bought back home. Because we all were BS branded now, we thought we had to capture this moment in a photo. Haha… so the clan of us posed at the front of the shop with our shopping bags. The sales ladies were such good sports to let us bombard the store like we did. Then again… we did spend a lot of bucks overall. Haha… whatevs… high Canadian dollar = more shopping fun.

August 6^th… Otay, today we finally got to visit Table Mountain. Like really, really this time. Only Nigel, Joel, Naty and I went. Scott stayed back to deal with Squeaky Sam’s situation. Oh yah, I didn’t tell y’all about Squeaky Sam’s probs yet, so allow me to tangent just a bit. Shortly after we arrived in Somerset West after our roadtrip adventure, Scoot’s car suddenly didn’t want to start one morning. For the past few days, it’s been under inspection at a garage, and they still don’t know what the real problem is. Scott is sort of bummed because he’s worried that these guys are doing a poor job and going to charge him up the ying yang for their services. Sigh… I feel for him yo. So due to recent circumstances, our SA trip has been prolonged until further progress with the vehicle. I hope Squeaky Sam will be OK. Marijke has been a sweetheart and was so kind to lend us the vehicles that she wasn’t using. Thanks to her, we’re still able to continue touring around and having fun. =)

Now back to the story. Nigel, Joel, Naty and I arrived at Table Mountain. The weather looked really nice so we wanted to take advantage of that while it lasted. As mentioned before, the weather here is so wishy washy… sunny one moment, rainy the next, you never know whacha gonna get. We lined up to get tix and were happy to see that the line wasn’t very long as we had expected. Naty and I scored some bonus points because we had our U of A One Card with us, which knocked R40 off our tickets. Woot… though I’m technically not a student anymore, there’s no harm in milking the benefits before the card expires. ;-p

The view from on top of the mountain was breathtaking. We were 1085m above sea level and could see so far out into the distance. The water below was so still. We could see clouds hovering in the horizon. Guh… so stunning! We spent a good couple hours or so walking a loopy-loop around the mountain. Unfortunately some clouds did come in and covered a good chunk of the 12 Apostles (a series of mountain ranges), but at least we were able to clearly soak up everything else.

Dinner that night was SUSHI at Blue Waters Restaurant back in Somerset West. It was highly recommended by Tessa, so of course we had to check it out. You can imagine how ecstatic I was! YAY SUSHI!!! K, long story short… we got there, ordered, ate, complimented and left. This was probably one of my BEST sushi experiences in my life – comparable to my fave restaurant “Wasabi” back in Edmonton. The fish was so deliciously fresh. They had mouthwatering salmon flown in from Norway. I wanted more, but my stomach was simply too full. Sigh… next time, next time.

August 7^th… Geocaching and scenic drive day. Scott, Nigel, Joel & I decided to spend the day sightseeing and appreciating the natural beauty in this area. We drove along the Garden Route which followed the coastline and passed by some awesome mountain ranges as well. We visited several coastal towns along the way, including Betty’s Bay and Kleinmond. The route was also very geocache friendly because there were a tonne of caches to be found. Scott took it relatively easy with the caches however because we were somewhat pressed for time. He had to be at a Bloemhof rehearsal in Stellenbosch later in the day. So we drove, saw plenty of beauty sights, and took a lot of pictures. We also drove through Franschhoek, a beautiful little town that used to be colonised by the French. I definitely noticed the French influence just by reading the signs that passed by. Garth’s granny is actually from Franschhoek. Heehee… so we thought it would be cleverly sneaky of us to go spy on Mammie’s house for curiosity’s sake. Haha… the guys were teasing me and telling me to go inside and say hi and stuff, but I thought that would have been really awkward. Some of Garth’s aunties and cousins live in the house with Mammie as well (though Mammie is in Walvis Bay right now avoiding the South African winter cold). I’ve never met the lot of Mammie’s family yet, so it would’ve indeed been totally weird to have barged in. Haha… glad I didn’t do it. I took some pictures of the house and was satisfied with that. ;-p

Anyway, we arrived in Stellenbosch finally and Scott rushed to the Bloemhof rehearsal. Then Nigel, Joel and I went and got some take away from Blue Waters Restaurant. Yep… SUSHI for din din again!!! WHOOP! Seriously, I just can’t get enough. The fish was so incredibly fresh considering it was flown in from Norway. So of course I plan to take advantage of this delicacy while I’m here. It would be a shame not to. MmmMmmMmm… =D

The guys and I spent the rest of the night playing Bonanza and watching Catherine Tate comedies on DVD. The Catherine Tate Show is a very hilair British comedy series. It’s basically one woman playing all sorts of different characters. The cast is relatively small, but each person plays several roles. It’s sort of like MadTV or Saturday Night Live except… British. Haha… kinda crude at some parts, but funny nonetheless. Check it out!

August 8^th… Yay! Squeaky Sam is back! We picked him up from the garage this morning and started driving out to Stellenbosch to do a hike. Not to far along the road, we noticed that the engine was revving really high and sounded funny. We even noticed a slight scent of something burning. Oy vey… NOT a good sign. Talk about an anticlimax! Scott was understandably upset because he had been receiving so much crap from the garage already, and now this happened. Sigh… so we called off the hiking excursion and drove back into Somerset West to get the car checked out. The bunch of us totally didn’t mind spending a chill day at home though. The most important thing was that Squeaky Sam got better.

Being that today was 08.08.08, the opening day of the Olympics, Joel and I thought it would be an awesome idea to change the mood of the situation and go celebrate by having lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I called Marianne for some suggestions and she told us that the Chinese restaurant right beside Blue Waters was actually very good. I took her word on it and we (aka Nigel, Joel, Kaitlyn and I) went there for lunch.

Haha… the restaurant was called Wok This Way and was actually owned by some Korean folk, but the food was amazing! The Chinese food was actually Chinese food!!! And guess what, they even had DIM SUM!! Will ya fathom that! I’ve been so often disappointed whenever I sought for and experienced Asian cuisine in Africa. Haha… they’ve just been very interesting encounters. BUT, so far SUSHI and CHINESE FOOD in Somerset West have gotten two thumbs of from moi! I am most impressed!

Scott soon joined us for lunch as well. Squeaky Sam was all better. Apparently it was running on 5 cylinders instead of 6 and that was the reason for all the revving and burning. Everything was fine now and Scott got a free bevvie from the garage manager out of the whole ordeal. Whoopdy-doo. (sarcasm) Sigh… I just pray that our recent bout of car probs is over now! Curse begone!

Later in the afternoon, we had a Siyacula rehearsal at Marijke’s house. Joel, Naty, Kaitlyn and I will be singing with the group at a concert this Sunday. The concert will be in Stellenbosch at the university’s fancy Conservatory, where the World Youth Choir performed last year when Kokopelli was here. We’ll be singing a bunch of African traditionals, plus You Are the New Day and Make Lemonade, which Kokopelli sang before. Dunno what to expect really, but it should be fun.

We went to see Tessa’s Pops Concert at Somerset College in the evening. I thought it was going to be like a high school talent show, but the production was actually very well put together and professional. The crowd was an interesting mix though – half the gym was set up like a fancy grad banquet for family and friends (with a four course dinner and everything) and the other half was set up with bleachers full of screaming school kids eating pizzas from boxes. Strange huh? The repertoire for the evening was very mixed, from “Mustang Sally” to heavy metal guitar playing! Very interesting indeed. Still it was all very impressive with live bands and backup vocals and stuff. I could tell a lot of time and effort was put into the organization of this event. Our very sweet Tessa performed her own arrangement of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley and “Mercy” by Duffy. She amongst a few others totally rocked da hizzouse!! I was so proud of her. Naty will post some videos soon!

All in all, it was another full and hectic day in South Africa. Car issues aside, we’re still alive and having a blast! Hope you’re all enjoying the blog so far. Haha… if you’re still keeping up with all of this, good for you! *HIGH FIVE*

August 9^th… I’ve caught up with blogging y’all! Yeehaw! The whole clan of us is taking it easy today. Haha… we’re calling it “The Mall Day.” First stop, the Canal Walk Mall. It’s sort of like the West Ed of Capetown, except the mall is surrounded by canals where people can paddle boat along. There’s also an outdoor amusement park, but it was closed today so we couldn’t check it out.

Next stop, the V & A Waterfront… again! Haha… Scoot had to pick a battery for his laptop at the iStore here. So why not spend some time blogging in the meanwhile, right!

After we finish everything here, we’re going to head back to Somerset West. Naty & Kaitlyn have a girls’ night dinner date with a bunch of ex-Siyacula girls. Then the rest of us are going to meet up with them at the Somerset Mall to catch a movie afterwards. Hmm… we’re thinking “Get Smart.” I’ve heard only good reviews about the comedy, so I can’t wait to see it! Besides, I love Steve Carell & Anne Hathaway!

As for din din, I don’t know what we’re all doing yet, but I think Ima gonna get sushi again. Haha… it’s just THAT good! I’m getting my fill before we head back to Namibia! ;-p

Over & out ‘til next time!