So Co Lime was doing a huge party at three
venues in the same complex and catering to the student market
in the heart of Stellenbosch.
We were also scheduled to do sound for three
bands performing that night at a place called De Bras Brew
or something like that.
One of the bands was named ‘Die Seisoen Na Somer.
“Now this is going to be fun.’
I thought to myself.
Different.
I was quite looking forward to it.
But back to the blonde.
Probably in her late thirties, pudgy, with
a ruddy reddish complexion, she was dressed in a loose fitting,
nondescript fawn coloured lacks and a white blouse. She
had on a pair of blue rubber beach thongs.
Sh e reminded me of a very minor character in a dog-eared
James Hadley Chase paperback.
Weather beaten.
Judging from her accent, she was definitely
foreign and probably Germanic.
I have no idea how long she had been sitting there, but when
she ordered her next beer from the black waiter, I noticed
that her tone was arrogant.
She spoke to him like a slave owner talking to her husband's
slave.
‘Probably a German thing.’ I thought.
The blonde tried to strike up a conversation
with one of the crew.
In fact, during the course of the morning she tried strike
up a conversation with anything that moved.
But when she spoke to anyone else, the arrogance
was not there.
Every time she spoke to the waiter though,
it was back.
Several beers later, she had forced herself
on an unfortunate guy who made the mistake of having a coffee
while reading his newspaper on the blonde’s terrace.
She had joined him at his table and when the waiter passed
by I heard her literally screaming at him ‘YOU TOOK
AWAY MY GLASS! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DRINK MY WATER!!’
I wanted to lure her into a dark alley behind
the pub and strangle her, like other characters in James
Hadley Chase novels would have.
But I regress.
According
to the crew, the party rocked.
It’s been a while since I saw so many whites
in the same place, but they mixed freely with all
and sundry and there wasn’t a whiff of racism
in the air.
Like the owner of one of two venues said to me ‘I
told you. It gets rof.’
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|
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And
on Sunday my faith in foreigners was restored when
we did a very laid back and very up-market lunch and
cocktails gig with a jazz duo performing at Sansibar
on the Asara Wine Estate, catering to an obviously
very rich but not so famous crowd. |
Two completely different faces of Stellenbosch,
with the only sign of racism coming from an aged beyond
her years, frustrated foreign alcoholic bitch who had passed
her sell by date.
