Aidan Williams - High Acuity

Wednesday

It took me a couple of hours in the airport lounge to acclimatise myself to the warm weather, having come from freezing cold London.

My brother Murray picked up my brother Rory (who flew in from Johannesburg) and myself, and proceeded to give me a tour of every area of Cape Town that we passed through, while we caught up on the way to his house.

In the afternoon Rory and I drove out to Murray’s country club and had a couple of drinks – R16 for a beer and a brandy and coke!? That’s £1.30p – do you realise that I’d expect to pay around £10 for that in London!?

I was able to see my nephew (six years old) for the first time in years and my niece (four years old) for the first time ever! They’re two incredibly beautiful children and my nephew looks so much like my brother did when he was a child. I got on great with my niece straight away – she’s a very pretty and lively young girl – but it took a while before I saw my nephew as he was running around the garden climbing trees and having fun.

In the evening Murray and I grabbed a couple of beers and he took me on his motorbike up the hill behind his house in Somerset West where we sat, caught up, watched the sunset, and he tried to persuade me to buy a house and move out there.

That night, Murray organised a braai (barbeque) at his house with all three of my brothers, their mother (we have different mothers), their grand mother, my brother’s wife and my stepsister. The food was incredible – every kind of meat you can think of along with salad and sweet corn. After a few conversations with my nephew about how I was related to his father and the rest of our families, he hugged me (so cute) and went to bed.

Thursday

My brother Rory drove me around to Gordon’s Bay in the morning, where we had a good old-fashioned English breakfast and admired the new apartments being built close to the beach.

After a few tours of local beaches and some lunch we headed out to walk up Lion’s Head – he neglected to tell me that towards the top there are vertical parts with chains you have to use to pull yourself up, but it was a fantastic climb and incredibly beautiful at the top.

When we got back into Cape Town, we went to see and chat with uncle Paddy – the guy is 57 years old and still looks amazing. He’s an actor and has just finished his part in the new film about Nelson Mandella; ‘Disgrace’. After that Rory and Kim took me on a tour of 3 pubs and a wonderful Asian restaurant.

Friday

Friday morning my stepsister and I grabbed some breakfast and she drove me into the Waterfront where I had breakfaster and read the book I just bought.

In the afternoon I went to drop my bags off in the hotel I’d be staying at for the next few days as Camps Bay. The woman who owns the hotel is a friend of my dad’s so when we came in she gave my brother and myself some champagne, which we drank on the balcony as we watched the sunset and admired the most incredible view over Camps Bay.

When we took my bags to my room, I discovered there were petals of different flowers spread over the king-size bed – they were so expertly placed that when I first saw them I thought they were part of the bedspread. There was also a huge shower room with a 1ft by 1ft showerhead that rains down upon you. What an incredible place and an incredible room.

In the evening Kim took me to see the gayest show in town – Bangbroek Mountain – a spoof on Brokeback Mountain. Now I’ve seen gay theatre before – I saw The Producers recently, which is a pretty gay show, but this definitely takes the crown (or tiara?) for the gayest show I’ve ever seen and it was brilliant! The venue was called ‘On Broadway’ and the show had 5 people – three beautiful black girls singing and two lead guys. It was hilarious, very well written as they took you through the years of these guy’s lives and changed the themes of the music accordingly, from 60s to 70s, 80s and 00s.

After that Kim and I had supper – incredible huge steak burgers – at an American jazz bar – fantastic place with great music.

Saturday

In the morning Kim and I drove around the coast taking in the sights. We stopped at Harold Porter Botanical Gardens for a walk and it’s such a beautiful place – a small paradise within Cape Town. We walked all the way to the waterfall, sat, dipped our feet in the water and chatted for a while – it was great.

In the afternoon we met up with my uncle Paddy, Nick (aka ‘Fink’ – a professor of law who used to be Mandela’s personal lawyer and now works for the UN as a ‘conflict resolutionist) and his son, Jude – and watched the England VS South Africa rugby game.

After the game and a large amount of alcohol, we went to the house that Paddy had rented close by and had a boy’s night away from it all – after Kim and I had a game of backgammon, we drove up to the beach, sat on the rocks and ate a huge amount of muscles while we chatted and watched the sunset. When we got back, Fink cooked, we ate and played poker for money for the rest of the night – it was an incredible experience to spend the night with these guys. For a boy’s night out we did end up spending an awful lot of time talking about the women in our lives though.

Sunday

Sunday morning, after a hearty cooked breakfast of champions that we all prepared, Kim, Paddy and myself cleaned up the house and Kim and I headed to Murray’s farm in Elgin. While Murray was busy and Kim was reading the Sunday papers, I helped Nicholas put the stickers in his sticker book, played with Maya for a bit and then read them both a storybook. Maya is amazing – obviously she doesn’t read completely yet, but she remembered the whole story I read to her and opened each page and read it back to me. Nicholas was really cute and said he wished I didn’t have to go back to the UK and they both asked if I’d be back for Christmas and when I said no but I may come back next year, they asked me if I’d stay forever.

Kim then drove me round to Franschhoek (French Corner), we went to Dieu Donne vinyard to buy a bottle of wine and then headed to Delaire vinyard for some lunch. Delaire had some absolutely incredible views (pictured above).

In the evening Kim and I walked up Lion’s Head again. Having walked up there with Rory, I knew what to expect. What I didn’t know to expect was Kim’s insane pace – we managed to make it to the top in 34 minutes, which Kim insisted was decent, but I know his record is something ridiculous like 22 minutes.

After that Kim, my stepsister and myself went out to the Bayside Café in Camps Bay for supper and a few drinks.

Monday

On Monday I spent the afternoon exploring Camps Bay and enjoying the beach. The water was absolutely freezing, but it was still incredibly beautiful.

In the evening my stepsister drove me into town where I met up with Kim and we drove to Murray’s house to celebrate his and his wife’s anniversary and spent my last night together. Murray set up a braii while Nicholas showed me how fast he could run around the garden. The food was fantastic as ever and Nicholas kept on running back to the dish to bring me more meat. It was another incredible night with my brothers and others and we shared a lot of laughs. Murray’s wife laughed when she came back after tucking nick in to sleep, saying “Well, I’d ask when you’re coming back, Aidan, but Nick insists you’re coming back next year!”

It’s been an absolutely incredible week – I could not have asked for more – especially in the time I was able to spend with my brothers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 10:32 pm and is filed under General, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.