Back at Mzoli’s today. I went out early and ordered a bucket load of meat (literally). There were 20 or 30 of us in total. We did order more meat later though. This was just the first round!
Tag Archive for 'South Africa'
I was on my way home last night. I stopped my motorbike to read a text message. It was just next to the central train / taxi station. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a guy crossing the road towards me. Not in front or behind me, right towards me. I stuffed my phone in my jacket pocket. The bike was in 3rd gear. I dropped to 2nd and twisted the gas. It starts slowly in 2nd. He was running by now. He got to me just as the bike was moving off. His hand went straight for my pocket. He was on my right hand side. My right hand was on the accelerator. My left hand just managed to keep him out of my pocket. As my speed picked up he dropped off.
Close call.
Gotta love South Africa baby! 
I’m going to Mzoli’s again today. Last time my trip to Mzoli’s prompted me to give up alcohol. The following morning I started counting my drinks from the night before. I drank somewhere between 15 and 18 beeers. I felt fine in the morning. Well, perhaps not fine, but normal.
This prompted me to question my alcohol consumption! I decided to give up alcohol for the rest of the month. I made an exception after my attempted mugging, but otherwise I haven’t had a drink since.
Today should be fun. Sober fun no less! 
Oh, and no kilt this time. I don’t want to over-excite Gugletu!
I was at the Cape Town Facebook Developers Garage last night. I have the badge to prove it!
It was an interesting evening. Pizza was generously provided by Butler’s Pizza. If I’m not mistaken their delivery staff arrive wearing a tuxedo shirt (whatever it’s called) and a bow tie! Fantastic. Drinks were supplied by Joyent (I think I got the link right).
There were a few interesting presentations. Jacques Marneweck spoke about memcache. He looked pretty nervous, but had some interesting things to say. He talked about starling, a memcache based queue server developed by Twitter and some other highly techy stuff. His slides were missing due to a format issue. I think the slides would really have helped the presentation, maybe he’ll post them online.
I’m meeting a few of the same people at most of the tech events in Cape Town. There seems to be a few interesting businesses going on down here. It feels like a small tech community, with a few “big fish”. Reminds me of Edinburgh.
The first little snapshot of where I live here in Cape Town. Here’s my current CouchSurfer chilling by the pool in the garden.
Last Sunday I was at Kirstenbosch gardens for their weekly sunset concert. Last week McCully Workshop were playing. They’re a popular South African ’70s band and the concert was excellent.
Yesterday, Ismael Lo was playing. The concert set a new Kirstenbosch record selling out all 6′000 tickets in 6 hours. Ismael Lo is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist.
He really is a great performer. The whole band were excellent. They worked the audience well. By the third song people were already standing and dancing in the garden. By the end the whole audience was upright. It was a great afternoon.
They made an announcement at the beginning of the concert asking for no videos or photos. So the following are brought to you illicitly.
Here’s a shot of the stage early in the concert:
Now here’s a shot of the crowd later in the concert:
Then a shot of the stage again nearing the end of the concert:
Finally, a short video of the closing seconds of the whole concert, after the 3rd encore, when the crowd were at their most excited:
Long Street is the main backpacker hang out in Cape Town. It’s very much down town, a street lined with bars, restaurants and hostels.
I was walking along Long Street on Friday night. It was just before 6pm, so still daylight. A guy approached me asking for change. I responded with my usual “not on yer life pal” look. As he got closer he said “Don’t make me use my knife” and moved to block my path. The he turned to his friend, who at this point was behind me, and said “Give me the knife”.
I managed to skip around the accomplice made my escape along the road. I resisted the urge to run. I decided the street was pretty busy, they were unlikely to chase me.
All in all, it was a remarkably calm situation. I didn’t loose my cool. They didn’t try to stop me getting away. It was fairly unsettling though. The guy threatened using a knife in broad daylight. On a quiet stretch of an otherwise busy street.
The incident won’t stop me going out in Cape Town. I will definitely be more careful on that stretch of road though. I’m sure I’ll also be more cautious in general, particularly at night. Perhaps I’ll avoid future hassles because of this first contact with Cape Town trouble.
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