I’ve spent so long drinking red wine and watching VH1′s Final Countdown: One Hit Wonders that it seems that I have left no time at all for a blog post. Bugger.
The top three (as chosen by VH1) were:
3. Tasmin Archer’s 1992 hit Sleeping Satellite – she blames you for the moonlit sky. And the dream that died. Steady on, love.
2. Deep Blue Something with Breakfast At Tiffany’s – in which a ginger bloke tries to convince a chick that because they both like a film from the early 1960′s, he’s a good bet to go on a second date with, despite his hair. Ja right.
1. Never Met A Girl Like You Before by Edwyn Collins. I hate this song.
What were they thinking?
I also uploaded my 2,500th item onto my flickr photostream - some surprisingly remarkable trolleys at Canal Walk – a big shopping mall in Cape Town:
Surprisingly remarkable not just because of their number and structural conformity, but because they are all still where they should be and aren’t being pushed along the N1 with some bergie’s life in them.
And now I have to go and prepare for tomorrow morning’s school outing to the beach by train.
More on that little adventure tomorrow. Possibly.
To St James by train
One Sunday each November, the children of Alex’s playschool, together with their associated parents, grandparents, various hangers-on and their teacher Jayne, head off to Kenilworth Station to board the 08:54 train southbound to St James. St James is charming little place which has a road, a railway line and a row of colourful beach huts on the shore and not much else – but that’s fine, because the station is all of 50 metres from the beach.
Much like last year, the party of around 40 individuals - many of them small and loud – descended upon the Southern Suburbs line, much to the horror of the more regular users of the service.
I’ll never forget last year, when passengers getting on at Retreat stopped and stared, open-mouthed, as the doors opened and they were greeted by a carriageful of somewhat out-of-place, (almost) middle-aged whities and their kids. It was awesome. South Africa has a interesting relationship with the concept of race (for obvious reasons). It warms my heart when people go out of their comfort zone and try something they usually wouldn’t. Even more so when all involved can find some wry humour in the situation: as was the case last year.
It will come as no huge surprise to regular readers to learn that I took my camera along and managed to knock off well over 100 shots, which I have whittled down to 50 for the purposes of uploading to Flickr. Even that 170-odd MB took most of the afternoon to sort out. Gotta love SA internet and the ASDL hamsters enjoying a Sunday afternoon nap in their wheels in Bloemfontein.
The weather was much warmer than the forecast 19°C, much calmer than the 45kph SouthEaster we were promised (although that has since arrived with a vengeance) and (I believe) a good time was had by all.
Alex moves on from his two year residence at this school next year, but we have already secured our place on next year’s outing by popping out little K-pu. It should, however, be noted that although this is a great day out, we have ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS for any other back door invitations once our daughter has completed her time with Jayne. Believe it, because it’s true.