Aidan Williams - High Acuity

It’s been a hectic and great couple of weeks.

Last week I finally booked my flight to Cape Town towards the end of the year to visit my brothers, my niece, my nephew and to just have a nice break. The last holiday I had was a trip to Cape Town after my operation. In honour of that, here’s a photo that didn’t make it into my Cape Town post last November.

Last week my business partner and I interviewed three accountants. We went into each interview with the plan to be ostensibly knowledgeable and hit each of them with our twenty heavily-researched and well-advised questions, while in reality, aside from the research we’d done, we were both pretty much clueless, although I think we did enough to be sure we made the right decision.

I met up with my mum, who I haven’t seen in six months, and sister for lunch in Soho last week. They both almost fell over when they saw me in my smart clothes (I’ve avoided a suit for the last five years after having to wear one every day throughout school) and general new look, with various blasphemous exclamations and laughs – they assured me their shock was a good thing. After lunch we went clothes shopping – something I’m usually not all that interested in, but the sales are in their final phases right now and all the shops are seriously slashing their prices. I picked up two very nice £60 shirts for £11.50 each.

I tore a tendon in my foot on Monday – I went into hospital the next day as I thought I’d broken my foot – yes, I am in fact a complete wuss – and the nurse informed me that it was a torn tendon that can feel worse than a broken bone – but I think she as just saying that to make me feel better. After a few questions, she told me that it probably happened when I was running in my tapered dress shoes. She also said it could take three months to heal fully and may get worse before it gets better. Well it certainly did get worse for a few days but that was probably because I just couldn’t stop and had way too much to do around the city.

The film of the year is here! My flatmate, my girlfriend and myself went to see an early preview last week and I will be forcing her, or someone else to see it with me again now that it’s been released this week. This film is awesome – I love the Bourne series and this is a brilliant addition.

My girlfriend gave me this angel made out of my birthstone this weekend.

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.

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic to say the least. Let’s start with the week at the beginning of this month:

I decided to be slightly more romantic than usual by planning a date with my girlfriend. As part of the plan I was a bit of a bastard and told her I wouldn’t be able to see her at the weekend. I ordered a bunch of roses to be delivered to her on Friday with a note giving away that I would see her on Saturday and a hint that we’d be going on a date.

The only problem was that Interflora had other plans and decided not to deliver the flowers on Friday at all and therefore, not let my girlfriend know that I would be seeing her at the weekend and that we’d be going on a date.

On Saturday morning I went into Oxford Circus, tried and failed to find roses in two places before finding two long-stem roses left in Selfridges – my saviours. I bought the flowers, bought some lunch and went and met her at her work (she’s working seven days a week right now).

While she finished work I spoke to a couple of old friends on the phone, Lynton and Remy and then my girlfriend took me to the roof top of her building to stare out over London.

We walked down some back-streets of central for a while, ordered a couple of milkshakes from Haagen Dazs and then went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in the West End Odeon Cinema where it premiered.

After that we were both pretty exhausted but we shared a passion fruit and apple martini and some Dim Sum in a restaurant near Oxford Circus.

The day wasn’t anywhere near what I wanted it to be, but she was happy, and so was I.

Last weekend, my company has done so well in the last six months that they decided to take all of us away for our yearly ‘Vision’ meeting – we went to Biarritz in the South of France and it was absolutely incredible: sunny, chilled, beautiful, fun, fantastic food, and only an hour and a half away by plane.

On the first night after we ate, a few of us went down to the beach and myself, one of my fellow web producers and a designer stripped-off and went swimming in the sea – it was beautiful – completely clear sea water to the point that you could see your body lit by the moonlight in the water, so we stayed for a while, floating and starring at the stars.

On the second day, after the vision meeting, some of us went surfing… most of us for the first time – damn that’s a tiring sport! No wonder surfers are so ripped! And you really have to concentrate on everything you’re doing in order to get up on the board, although I’m sure it becomes a natural reaction after a while.

In the evening we all met up for a meal and some laughs before some of us went off clubbing and others went skinny-dipping in the sea. Can you guess which group I was in? I wouldn’t have minded doing either, but decided I can go clubbing any time in London, so went down to the beach and, with one short break back at the hotel which was right by the beach, ended up staying on the beach till 5am.

It was an incredible couple of days and felt like we crammed so much in there. I definitely want to go back sometime soon.