Hash, palace, birds and defeat
On Saturday, we once more went on the Jacaranda Hash, which saw us running through a dry riverbed most of the time after which we had a pleasant cheese fondue, mostly with veggies and meat, not bread. South Africans can *not* go without their meat, hey.
After the hash, we originally wanted to go to what appeared to be a Japan-oriented bar, but on later inspection seemed to be more of a regular club than anything else. Instead, we went to Emperor’s palace, a themed mall close to the Jo’burg airport. Where Montecasino is ‘faux-Tuscan’, Emperor’s Palace is ‘faux-Roman’. It’s actually not as good as Montecasino as it’s basically only one ‘street’, running from the arcades on one end to the huge casino on the other.
We spent some time at “Marc Anthony’s”, a pub with an above average singer doing all sorts of average songs. All fun and games until the Steve Hofmeyr support band was urged on stage and went completely wild. This included a Joe Cocker-like singer, a rocker on electric guitar, a virtuoso pianist and two girls on violins. Steve himself, who decided to take it easy and enjoy the show, stayed in the audience.
Enjoying the show where a bunch of Durbanites who clearly already had had too much fun and drinks. One of them, a one-trick-pony only able to slowly move her ass from left to right and back again, left a decently sized mark on the dancefloor when she became violently sick.
On the Sunday, we finally visited the Montecasino bird gardens, which really was a blast. Betsy got bitten by a cuckatoo while a bunch of Macaws (Dutch: papegaaien) were trying to eat my shoes. Lots of fun.
And, indeed, Holland lost against Portugal. I’m not much of a soccer fan and know even less about soccer, but it was pretty clear, even to me, that there was a lot of ill-luck involved here.
For once, we didn’t visit the Holland House in Fourways Gardens. I hope the pub is still standing after tonight.