The Mother City
I know that I should have written this last night but I was so tired that I just collapsed into bed and went to sleep. For the next week I am in Cape Town courtesy of the African Union. They invited a group of us to attend a training session on some software called Fisheries Information and Statistical Systems or FINSS for short. There has been quite a bit of discussion around this program so it will be interesting to actually see it in operation.
I arrived in Cape Town yesterday afternoon on a fairly uneventful flight. I had been concerned about flying as the weather conditions in Durban yesterday morning were not great – a gusting strong wind and pouring rain. Fortunately by the time my flight left though, the weather had settled and all was good. In Cape Town the wind was blowing at a hefty 20 knots but then that is Cape Town. Transfers had been arranged from the airport to the hotel but there was no one to meet me. I phoned the hotel to find out what was going on and was told that according to their records I was only due to arrive after 8pm and there I was standing in arrivals at 16h40! Anyway, fortunately for me the shuttle bus was on its way to the airport to collect someone else and I was told just to wait. After an hour I heard my name being announced over the public address system and there was the driver. For the older South Africans reading this, the other person being collected was Adrian Stead who worked as a presenter for SABC for 40 years. Of course I had no idea who he was since I don’t really pay any attention to TV or radio but the shuttle bus driver (very much younger than me) knew exactly who he was and the two of them had a long discussion all the way back to the hotel about all the other various personalities that have been on SABC over the years.
The hotel that I am staying at, the Cape Town Lodge, is really nice. I have a huge room and the best thing of all is the view – that of Table Mountain. I am really sad that I didn’t bring the AC adapter for my camera to take some long exposure night shots of it but that is how it is. I’m still going to try some shorter versions with battery power and see how they come out. There is so much ambient light that it may not work but it is always worth a try. Just one more thing on the hotel – you have got to love a place that serves a fruit salad of strawberries and kiwi fruit for breakfast … I was in 7th heaven!!!!
I arrived in Cape Town yesterday afternoon on a fairly uneventful flight. I had been concerned about flying as the weather conditions in Durban yesterday morning were not great – a gusting strong wind and pouring rain. Fortunately by the time my flight left though, the weather had settled and all was good. In Cape Town the wind was blowing at a hefty 20 knots but then that is Cape Town. Transfers had been arranged from the airport to the hotel but there was no one to meet me. I phoned the hotel to find out what was going on and was told that according to their records I was only due to arrive after 8pm and there I was standing in arrivals at 16h40! Anyway, fortunately for me the shuttle bus was on its way to the airport to collect someone else and I was told just to wait. After an hour I heard my name being announced over the public address system and there was the driver. For the older South Africans reading this, the other person being collected was Adrian Stead who worked as a presenter for SABC for 40 years. Of course I had no idea who he was since I don’t really pay any attention to TV or radio but the shuttle bus driver (very much younger than me) knew exactly who he was and the two of them had a long discussion all the way back to the hotel about all the other various personalities that have been on SABC over the years.
The hotel that I am staying at, the Cape Town Lodge, is really nice. I have a huge room and the best thing of all is the view – that of Table Mountain. I am really sad that I didn’t bring the AC adapter for my camera to take some long exposure night shots of it but that is how it is. I’m still going to try some shorter versions with battery power and see how they come out. There is so much ambient light that it may not work but it is always worth a try. Just one more thing on the hotel – you have got to love a place that serves a fruit salad of strawberries and kiwi fruit for breakfast … I was in 7th heaven!!!!
Until later, take care!
I like the room, and the view of Table Mt. is really amazing!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Cape Town.
Aubs
It is a really nice hotel Aubs and fairly reasonably priced too.
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