Whitney!

We accompanied MO last Wednesday evening to see Whitney Houston at the O2. I felt a bit of trepidation about the concert as Whitney has been slated in the press for being... how can I say it... cr*p. We arrived in plenty of time and after a dinner of bangers and mash we made our way to our seats. There were two support acts - the latter one being two blokes who came second in Holland's Got Talent!

Anyway Whitney eventually came on and began her last UK performance. Now I must admit I am not exactly a Whitney fan (unlike MO) but I do acknowledge that she can sing... it was just that she has lost her former glory. It has been said that she is a much better recording artist and it was certainly evident here. She was out of breath most of the time and couldn't hit all the notes. Towards the end she was certainly flagging. It also seemed to me that she tried to drag things out by rambling in between songs.

For me she was disappointing... but it wasn't unexpected.

MO's Rating: 5/10

Cape Town V - Part 14

This is the second time we have had brekkie at The Barnyard... an outdoor restaurant that caters for kids (it has a collection of friendly farmyard animals). LAB, N, myself and little c gorged ourselves on boerewors, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes etc... Actually what I meant to say was - I gorged myself on boerewors, bacon, eggs (you get the picture!)

Little c entertained herself on the swings and playing in the sandpit and demanded a ride on the pony that was led on an endless circuit of the establishment, whilst us three sat at the table chatting.

To be continued...

Kick Ass

"With no powers, comes no responsibility"... Kick Ass is excellent entertainment. Why hasn't anyone in real life decided to become a superhero? Well this film shows what happens when a teenager called Dave decides to do that very thing. Of course he is completely useless at it... until he gets drawn into preventing a mugging which is then filmed and shown on YouTube and he becomes an overnight success. Without spoiling the plot, Kick Ass teams up with a father and daughter team called Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and Hit Girl.

Hit Girl is a revelation... a foul mouthed, ultra vicious eleven year old she sets about beating the cr*p out of all the villains. In fact I may go as far as saying she is the true star of the film. There are some seriously funny moments, spliced with incredible violence. This is not a film for kids and I urge you to go and see it. Fabulous.

Rating: 9/10

Cape Town V - Part 13

After our daily call to Emirates we were told that if we could get to Johannesburg we would be able to get a flight back to Dubai. Of course they wouldn't pay for the internal flight from Cape Town to Joburg as it wasn't their problem. Nice isn't it? You really see the sh*t customer service come out when their backs are against the wall (I reckon this applies to all airlines judging from what I have heard from other people). Anyway we decided to go with it otherwise the alternative was to wait until 2nd May for a flight from Cape Town and even then that wasn't guaranteed!

I booked the flight online with 1time.co.za who turned out to be a pretty good budget airline (£75 each to Joburg one way).

Now we finally knew how long we had left, we spent our last evening at the cinema watching the film Kick Ass.

To be continued...

Cape Town V - Part 12

Didn't even leave the house today... well not until the evening when N and I took little c to Ocean Basket for dinner.

Coincidentally when we saw SG the other day he had been talking about the luxury train trips you can take across South Africa. The Blue Train and Rovos Rail. Then today on the news I saw that one of the Rovos trains was derailed and a couple of people were killed.

Still waiting for a call from Emirates to see when we are going home.

To be continued...

Cape Town V - Part 11

Nothing much to report for the last two days... I have spent my time mainly working via "remote desktop" connected to the server 6,000 miles away! I see there was a report about West Midlands local education authority not paying people who are stranded because of the volcano... I would personally like to bury my fist in the face of the w*nker that has proposed that one! Emirates phoned us to say "no news"... I can't help wondering that all this suspension of flights is unnecessary. These test flights have resulted in no problems whatsoever.

To be continued...

Cape Town V - Part 10

Our unexpected third Sunday in South Africa meant that we could take the coastal drive to the town of Hermanus. Famous for its whale watching from the coast, Hermanus is about an hour by car south of Cape Town. Unfortunately we visited at the wrong time of year... last week in September is apparently the best. SG was in our car and he performed a sterling job of showing us where to go. Our route along the coast road took us through various small towns, one of which we stopped off in. Kleinmond, whose inhabitants speak Afrikaans as their first language was an attractive quiet village... the total opposite to the vibrancy of Cape Town.

In Hermanus itself we had a spot of lunch in a fish restaurant (eating again!)... followed by 2 scoops of ice cream from an excellent ice cream parlour. We had a brief wander around the market and stroll along the cliff paths, which took us past The Marina Hotel (see photo above). There are a lot of holiday homes in Hermanus and a lot of them were closed up for the autumn. SG said Hermanus is nicknamed "Joburg-by-the-sea".

We eventually drove back a different route along the N2 going over the mountain pass and back into Cape Town... where we had a cuppa and some cake at SG's.

To be continued...

Cape Town V - Part 9

Well what can I say!... we are still in sunny Cape Town. Thanks to the Icelandic volcano all flights back to blighty have been cancelled.

A comment that has been made to me directly is that we seem to do nothing but eat when we go away... and to be honest that comment is spot on! So I'm going to carry on with the eating theme. Last night we went to the Wembley Roadhouse. What is the Wembley Roadhouse was my first question? Well... to put it in UK terms it is the equivalent of a drive in kebab place - in fact a large drive in kebab place. I of course had to have the "famous" Wembley Whopper and about 6 meat samosas all washed down with a banana milkshake. Very nice. Of course N found this very nostalgic because when she was growing up they used to go to the Roadhouse on a Friday evening... many years ago!

To be continued...

Cape Town V - Part 8

Flights cancelled... another night in Cape Town!

Shutter Island

Going to the cinema is dirt cheap in SA... R39 for a ticket at the Nu Metro multiplex at the Waterfront is not bad to say the least. Okay the screen was pathetically small - but you can't have it always.

Anyway... what was the film like? To be honest it felt a bit stilted, but I liked the old fashioned style of it. Di Caprio gave a great performance as the troubled US Marshall investigating the mystery of a missing patient at a maximum security mental hospital / prison. I had been aware prior to seeing the film that there was a bit of a twist to the story and I sort of guessed correctly as to what it maybe whilst watching the events unfold. The film also feels rather long and maybe could have been made a trifle shorter. Again having said all that it was well worth seeing and would certainly recommend seeing it. Not as good as The Departed. But not bad.

Rating: 7/10