Tag: Cape Town

OMD in Cape Town – a great night out

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Did I miss the Zeitgeist on this one? It’s Sunday lunchtime, and the concert was Thursday night.
But I’ve been busy and tired and chilled, so this is late.
I get it.
Sorry, not sorry.

But still a concert and an evening absolutely worth documenting. Starting with a decent free parking spot a whole 100m from the gig: I’m really not sure where else you can do this. And sure, we were there only about an hour after the doors opened, but why not make use of the VIP bar, seated area, sunshine and early entertainment from SA’s own Werner Bekker?

Burger and chips and a visit to the merch store sorted, we grabbed some space on the grass and waited for éVoid, infamous for their 1984 hits Taximan and Shadows. And they played, and the crowd – seemingly exclusively 50 and 60-something year olds from Parow and Edgemead, and encouraged by a Bok Radio DJ – lapped it up. It was such a feelgood moment watching people transported back 40 years, back to whatever club in which they were dancing to that SA New Wave “Ethnotronica”. And they really were back there. Acting like they were teenagers, for as long as their knees would let them.

But wait… there’s more… OMD.
Andy McCluskey not looking any older than 12 years ago. Paul Humphries with only a passing resemblance to Jerry St. Clair from Phoenix Nights. They were just happy to be there, you could feel it from the first moment.

What followed was just under two hours of nostalgia, energy, audience engagement, incredible stage presence and just really good vibes. Starting with some new stuff, as expected, before Messages and Souvenir dragged us back to our youth.

A brave Kraftwerk-esque performance of Veruschka was a particular highlight for me, after which McCluskey thanked the audience for indulging them with “a slow, new one”.

The interplay between the crowd and McCluskey was just perfect: each feeding on the other’s energy and enthusiasm and just pure enjoyment of the moment.

A powerful, loud, brash – but still tight – version of Enola Gay rounded off the set before a stonking encore of Look At You Now, Pandora’s Box and Electricity sent everybody home happy, although I do suspect that everyone involved could happily have gone on for at least another hour.

All in all, just such a great evening. Band and audience both recognising their roles and duties on the night, and then performing them perfectly. One I will remember for a long time.

Videos courtesy of my daughter, who also had a great evening

OMD tonight

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Weather is good.
Tickets are by the door, ready to go.
We’re looking forward to a fun night and some great music.

Support by local boys eVoid, who had 2 hits way back when in 1984, and – according to all the sources I can find – haven’t had much success since. But live music is always good to hear, and I’ll be looking forward to them finishing their set with (I’m guessing at this point) Taximan and Shadows.

Going to stick my neck out and make another prediction, which is that Andy McCluskey will introduce their fifth song of the evening – Kleptocracy – with a suitably Scouse anti-authoritarian comparison of the UK and SA governments. Power to the people, aluta continua, innit?

At least half the line-up are big Liverpool FC fans, which might not make for the happiest of evenings (for them, at least). Let’s hope that they don’t have one eye on the football.
Although alternatively, I suppose if things go really well in Bergamo, it might be all night party time.

Either way: I’m more than ready for some old skool (and a bit of new skool) electronica.

End of an era

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I’ve been going to the same hairdressing place for several (or more) years now. But no more.
The service has been slipping a bit for a while – nothing really bad – just not as good as it was.
And in retrospect, while the signs were there, I kept going along because there was no one thing that was bad enough to warrant moving elsewhere.

Until today.

A mess up with the online booking system. My stylist running so late that they called me over an hour ahead of time to make another arrangement. But then my original guy was free the entire time I was there and the new guy they gave me was running 20 minutes late. The lady washing my hair fresh in from her smoke break so her breath and hands smelt of fags. The new guy trying to sell me stuff the whole time – NOT FROM THE SALON – FROM HIS HAIRDRESSING SIDE HUSTLE. This included (but was not limited to) prescription drugs that he gets “direct from the supplier”.

Breaking off regularly from his work to chat with colleagues, friends, a passing spaniel called Keith. Michael Jackson’s worst hits (Invincible (2001)) loudly on the music system. A rather poor haircut.

Thankfully, I have the good looks to carry it off.

Wax instead of gel. Rushing me out so he could get his next client in just 15 minutes late.

Ms Fag Hands and the actual haircut itself were enough grounds to find somewhere else but overall the whole experience was just horrible today. I couldn’t wait to get out and I can’t wait not to go back.

I think once you’ve worked in a service industry and dealt with the public, you understand that not everything is going to go right 100% of the time. But you still do your best. You’re still professional, right?
And I’m really not a needy customer. I just want the basics done right, and I know from personal experience that that salon can do it.

Or… it could.

Onward and upward. But just not there.

Somewhere else.

Meridian Coffee Error

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Spotted online recently, this:

…which really made my geographical OCD senses tingle.

What? A mildly blurred image of a disposable takeaway coffee cup?

Well, yes. But one which has come from the Greenwich Coffee Company in Greenwich Turkey, and one upon which the 0o Prime Meridian very definitely doesn’t go through Greenwich.

Or Turkey.

In fact, their 0o Prime Meridian is actually very much 18o.

Oops.

And, if you choose to ignore Stockholm (but then again, why would you?), then the only other major city on this line is right here: Cape Town. Quite why a business choosing to name itself after the accepted home of the Prime Meridian (since 1884, at least) has chosen to put the Prime Meridian going nowhere near… well… the Prime Meridian, is a little baffling.

And it gets even more confusing when you look at the decor in one of their outlets:

What now?!? Another Prime Meridian, this time again ostensibly at 0o, but actually sitting somewhere about 6o east of the actual Greenwich Meridian*, despite the big orange lettering suggesting otherwise.

But maybe there are other clues on that wall. Ireland being joined to Wales and Scotland. New Zealand only having one island. Hudson Bay being Hudson Lake. The easterly migration of Rwanda and Tanzania. And the misspelling of Guatemala.

Perhaps it’s just that they’re not actually very bothered about geographical accuracy. And I guess that’s fine, as long as they are putting a bit more effort into their products and their service. And they do get 5 stars on their one review on Tripadvisor, and that despite the coffee being rubbish:

So the only coffee they bought was crap, but they gave it 5 stars and titled their review: “Coffee [yummy, licking lips emoji]”. This place really is confusing.

For me though, it’s just a bit disappointing that I’m not going to be able to stick a straight bit of metal on my patio and then charge tourists a hefty fee to take photos of themselves standing astride it.

Perhaps I should be considering a campaign – potentially fronted by the Greenwich Coffee guys – to move the Greenwich Meridian to Cape Town. For a while, at least.
Just while they use up the last stock of that bulk order of geographically incorrect takeaway cups, and I get to make some decent money from the temporary rehoming of the big North-South line, thus paying for the therapy I will need from having had to see it come through here anyway.

* and thus missing every single city in the world apart from Saarbrücken.

What a load of BS

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I’m not planning to go into the city centre today, and that’s a good thing, because parked up in the harbour right next to that city centre (and right next to the Cruise Terminal, nogal!) is the Al Kuwait: a 190m, 16,110Mt livestock carrier owned by Croatian company Korkyra Shipping and stopping over from Rio Grande in Brazil as she heads east.

And she stinks.

According to Marine Traffic, the Al Kuwait is currently reporting a draught of 8.8m, which means that she is fully laden with livestock. This amounts to 23,474m2 of cattle. That’s about 50,000 studio apartments worth of space. And so it’s no wonder the residents of the CBD are up in arms over the whole situation – it’s not just about the smell, it’s clearly pure jealousy about all that extra space, as well.

Pity help the passengers of the Azamara Pursuit…

…who have paid a ridiculous amount of money to sail into the Mother City and experience the fresh, clean Cape air, only to be parked next to this stinking floating farm truck (seen here under her previous moniker, Ocean Shearer – named after the Newcastle United football star’s daughter):

And now social media is alive with the cries of people desperate for the SPCA to board the vessel and check on the wellbeing of the 23,474m2 of cattle, as if this were the first time that a livestock carrier has ever docked in SA.

There are dead, decomposing animals on board

suggested one commenter, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

Aren’t human beings just the worst?

decried another keyboard warrior, who only found out that cows went on ships when a smelly boat parked up near her flat last night, but now thinks that the entire thing is terrible and must stop immediately.

Which is all fine, but is also such a kneejerk reaction which you can bet will likely be forgotten by tomorrow, by which time the Al Kuwait will be well on her way to her next port of call, taking her stench with her.