On Holiday in Cape Town

Well, not exactly Cape Town, we are in a little town just outside of CT - a place called Somerset West which is close to Stellenbosch (yep, where the wine comes from).

God, it is cold down here! Clear blue skies, plenty of sunshine, windy and bloody cold, especially when you are out of the sun. Of course, the locals are wandering around in shorts and T-shirts as if it is the middle of summer - well, it's alright for them, they haven't just flown in from Dubai where the temperature is in the 40's with shedfulls (or should that be shedsful) of humidity.

Anyway, plaudits to Emirates Airline. Brilliant flight down here. Now those who have known me for some time will be aware that I am not shy about criticising Emirates and I am certainly not their biggest fan, but I have to give credit where it is due... the trip down here was probably the best flight I have been on for ages!

Check in at Dubai was dead easy - no hassle whatsoever. Breakfast in the Irish Village at the airport was a bit fraught - the waiters were rushed off their feet 'cos the place was so busy, but I guess I can live with that, at least I got breakfast. The boarding was no problem - we even got to put our baggage in the correct overhead locker (not always that easy, in my experience). The plane was about 5 minutes late taking off... let's face it, boys and girls, 5 minutes late is comparitively early for a flight getting off these days. It arrived in Cape Town a full HOUR early! I watched two movies (couldn't possibly tell you anything about either of them because neither was particularly memorable... one of them had Nic Cage as some kind of a treasure hunter - it was like a low budget Raiders of the Lost Ark - I have not idea what the other was about. Mrs DB and I played each other at backgammon on the inflight entertainment system - that is great that you can play games against somone else on the flight (small things...). The food was reasonable - don't get me wrong, it wasn't lip-smacking great or anything, but it was OK. All in all a pleasant flight - so thank you to Emirates Airlines.

We arrived at Cape Town and went quickly and smoothly through immigration, which was an improvement on my previous experience of South African Immigration officials. The lady was very pleasant. By the time we were through immigration the bags were already going round the carousel - brilliant. I guess it took about 30 mins from landing to exiting the airport. Very impressive. Well done Cape Town International Airport.

So, why are we in Cape Town and not Skopelos?

Well, avid readers will be aware that Mrs DB's aunt and uncle are going to be celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary this coming weekend (the 26th of July), so we came to celebrate with them.

So, names changed to proctect the innocent as usual - Uncle Sam and Aunty Beeb, counsins Hinge and Brackett and their respective husbands and offspring (is offspring one of those words like "sheep" that is both singular and plural, 'cos offsprings doesn't look right... in fact I think I will change it. There, that's better) are the relly's down here, so now you will know who I mean if any of them get a mention.

So, Aunty Beeb and Brackett's husband picked us up at the airport and transported us round to Somerset West, where we found Uncle Sam ill in bed. Very ill. Uncle Sam has had problems for a while now, he had the toes of his right foot amputated in June and has been struggling to recover. I really do think that it has been touch and go since then and I was quite shocked to see how ill he looked. He did manage to get up for a little while, half an hour or so to have a chat with us, but, the effort was way too much for him. The problem is that he isn't eating and his resistance is very low. Everyone is trying to help but nothing seems to be working.

The next morning saw Uncle Sam looking a bit brighter, and once again he got up and came to sit and chat with us - once again this was really too much for him and within half an hour he went back to bed. Later on we went to sit in his room and we all watched the British Open - he seemed to enjoy it.

On Monday he was supposed to go to see the surgeon to see how his foot was healing - sadly he was in a terrible state and there was no way we could take him to the surgeon, we ended up having to get an ambulance and now Uncle Sam is back in hospital. He was looking much better last night when we visited - I think the anti-biotics he had been taking were not working properly and his wound had become infected. They had him on an anti-biotic drip yesterday and that seemed to have kicked in. Today he has to have an op to have the wound cleaned up - I don't think he is looking forward to it. The nurse said this op is "no big deal" - easy for her to say, she isn't the one having it! Anyway, we are all hoping that he recovers, but I don't think he will be out of hospital before Mrs DB and I leave. Poor Aunty Beeb is frantic.

So we went round to the other cousin (Hinge) last night and had a very pleasant evening eating cold take-away pizza and drinking delightful wine by a roaring log fire - what a great night! See, life goes on.

We are out shopping now - or at least Mrs DB is - she has parked me off in the internet cafe while she shops! At least it gives me chance to write this.

I do have another entry to make, which I shall do in a minute and then I think that will probably be it until we get to Skopelos.

I'm just going to read through this before I post it...

I forgot to tell you, (you'll love this) - we went to some cheap clothes shop and bought fleecy tracksuits - I got two, one orange and one yellow, but the yellow top turned out to be a different colour of yellow than the trousers! So, I have split the two and wear either a yellow jacket with orange trousers or an orange jacket with yellow trousers - not haute couture to be sure - but great for lounging round the house with. Once I get back to Dubai (15 August) I promise I will post a picture of me in this ridiculous garb!