Cape Town Part 2

Well, we’re back in Cape Town and once again enjoying the generous hospitality of the Field household. We’re using this time to try and get organised, to plan where we’ll be heading next, to research places to stay, to apply for jobs, to stock up on provisions and to buy a car.

We’ve also bought the tent that will be our home for the next few months, we now just need something to transport it (although, as demonstrated by the Cape Town wind which blew the tent across the garden, we could well use it as a giant kite and fly round Southern Africa – much cheaper and far more eco-friendly).
It’s still the cricket season here, so Evan’s been happily glued to the live Zimbabwean Twenty20 matches. The tournament was primarily organised by Evan’s cousin Clive’s wife Bridget (Clive being Collin’s brother, and who we stayed with in Zim last year). As if that wasn’t exciting enough, part way through one of the matches the commentator announced “and now joining me in the commentary box is Clive Field” – and there he was, on TV! Unfortunately he’d been dressed in a particularly hideous shirt which removed some of the gravitas of the situation. Despite this, he commentated well and intelligently according to the panel of experts on the sofa next to me.

The following Saturday we went to watch Collin play a friendly at his club, and I ended up being scorer for the match! Who would have thought that the combination of cricket (woo) and maths (double woo) could actually be quite fun?! Dot-dot-4-dot-wide-1-wicket, end of over 15th over, batsman out at 67 for 3...BOWLER’S NAME???!!!! Smith: 4-dot-dot-1...

Considering the fact that up until this point in time I’d never actually managed to sit through an entire cricket match - except with the help of a few beers, some cold chicken and a good book of course - I think that my scoring debut went very well. There was the slight problem that Collin’s team lost by a couple of runs...I’m sure I’d counted them all correctly...

Evan is still worryingly obsessed with bird watching, though thankfully he’s temporarily distracted by the new lantern that we’ve bought.

It is a great lantern! It is all shiny and Ellen lets me play with it and sometimes it’s dark and I want to read my comic and then – yay! – I switch on my shiny lantern and I can see the little pictures again and everything. It’s sooooo cool. I almost broke it and Ellen took it away and said I was naughty but I hope she will give it back soon as I have been good (I have).

Ellen now says that I am genuinely a worry.

Anyway, finally managed to change our flight back to Blighty after a nice chat on the phone to ‘Cleopatra’ (nice name), so we’re not coming back ‘till June. Marvellous! Better get the hunt for a car finished asap....we’ve seen only one so far, but have two more lined up to see in the next day or so – the first one, if not actually stolen, was maybe not, technically, when viewed in the harsh light of day, and if he looked at himself honestly, perhaps, a car that he actually, erm.....owned himself. Still, a nice little *bakkie* (African word for pick-up truck, used by just about everyone) it was and I’m sure we’d be very happy in it, right up until the point we are arrested for purchasing stolen goods.

So, onwards to the next one. It’s a cool tent though. And Ellen was really great at scoring during Saturday’s cricket match, a real result that! And we were both fairly confident that we were correct on the score, at least to within, say, 20 runs. And the fact that my cousin’s side lost by four runs, well....everyone enjoyed the game didn’t they! And we have a tent so are happy to sleep in the garden in any case, I see it as good practice for our camping trip. Besides, it just means I’m nearer the pool...