Cape Town Beginnings

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Saturday, January 2, 2016

Well readers, here we are in Africa, after an uneventful flight from the UK. It feels different the minute you step off the plane. I can't explain why, but you get the sense of a steaming melting pot just over the hill. However, we started off with a slight brouhaha, in that as I passed through the body scanner at Heathrow, it went bananas. Thankfully, all was relatively quiet, it being New Year's Eve and most people having somewhere else to be. It took me a minute to realise that the dreaded knee brace was the culprit! Following the full body search of me and said brace, in a locked room with a witness, all was fine - interesting start!!
I think every other person on the plane was a 'blood & custard' type and for the uninitiated amongst you, this is the slang term for MCC members, due to the virulent tie that is a required item of apparel. Peter's was duly packed and is on display today. We have bumped into most of our fellow passengers here at Newlands of course!
The drive from the airport passes a very large township which immediately brings home the journey that this young country has yet to make. Our driver informed us that the government is building a huge amount of new starter homes a year, ownership of which are offered for a very small price, but the occupants have to remain residents for 10 years before they can sell.
It is a start, but my goodness it will take a while.
We are staying in the garden district of Capetown in a very smart apartment attached to The Cape Cadogan Hotel. The staff couldn't be more helpful, even to point of running us to and from the Test Match today, which was unexpected. The hotel is in the foothills of Table Mountain, which towers above us as we walk down the street. At night it is floodlit and appears like a ghostly apparition above you. Magnificent sight would be an understatement, with or without its cloud tablecloth. Great restaurants abound. We visited one called Societi Bistro last night, which was jammed. We had a superb meal, including a bottle of very good local wine for less than £30 for the two of us!
Today, as you will have gathered we are at the Cricket. Peter bought tickets through the MCC, so we have seats in the Pavilion. They are very good, directly on the walkway where the England team come out. They look so young, no more than babes some of them. I could have tucked a couple under my arm and put them down for a nap. It is absolutely sizzling, 29 degrees C and we are in full sun, so its half an hour in our seats and half an hour in the pavillion itself. As the afternoon heat built to some astronomical temperature we have managed to find a couple of seats inside (air conditioned) and are watching through the plate glass windows. The match is tight. Not a lot in the wicket for the bowlers and it must surely be hard and hot work for the South Africans in the field today. They need to be young and fit, that's for sure. Hence, I am tapping away to you all from Newlands itself. It is a beautiful ground, green and verdant with Table Mountain as a backdrop. There surely can't be a finer ground anywhere in the world. It is situated just out of the city in Claremont, which incidentally is where my Gt Uncle lived - no wonder he loved it so. As we found in Australia, everyone here is very friendly and keen to chat. I guess it is the sporting brotherhood. A great yell goes up and Joe Root is out for 50. He comes striding up the stairs past me, muttering to himself in disgust and the colour of a Belisha beacon. 'Poor boy' says I, 'rubbish' shot back Peter 'he should be disgusted, it's a flat wicket and it was a soft dismissal!' I think I'll just pop round and see whether he would like a cup of tea and a motherly hug in his iced bath! In truth, he would probably prefer that from some lissom young thing 40 years younger!!
And so here endeth the first South African epistle. Tomorrow is planned to be more of the same, so we'll speak again when I have something different to tell you. Think of us in the clear blue skies and sizzling temperatures of a South African summer. It's tough, I can tell you!Read more