Green Belt Running and Parlotones Rock

After Quinn's Army party on Saturday, I made plans with a friend to do a Sunday run on the Constantia Green Belt.

We met at the gym. She was rather late so I had already done 4km on the treadmill by the time she arrived, and was all hot and sweaty already. Still I decided to brave it anyway, but told her to be gentle on me, and that I might flake out quite quickly. The benefit of the treadmill is that I know I can stay next to her, our differing paces are not an issue, so we chat away merrily and can run or walk or go at whatever pace we are comfortable with at the time. Actual outdoors running involves compromise and cooperation... Luckily she is kind.

Anyway we set off, and amazingly I was able to chat and run. Gasp. I have certainly progressed from the days when it was all I could do not to pass out and die of a coronary if I so much as tried to break into a trot. We took it easy though as it was already 11am and very hot and dry. We probably did a 4km circuit in the end. I will definitely go running there again, as it is very lovely.

After a good shower and leaving Griffin to spend the day and night with his beloved Maxine, Quinn and I headed off to pack a picnic for our Kirstenbosch concert.

We also had to go past my rental house , which is a complete nightmare right now! I see a lawyer and suing the tenant, who has just disappeared amidst a heap of steaming lies, in my near future. Bastard! But enough about that now. If I have learned anything in the last few years, it is to detach and not treat each crisis as the end of the world. I will deal with it in due course and will not let it suck all the joy out of my life in the mean time.

So after that Quinn and I set of for Kirstenbosch. He was initially not THRILLED about going, and despite inviting heaps of people, no one else decided to go.... I half considered going back to sell our tickets and just go home, but then thought that would be boring and a real anti-climax after being so looking forward to it, so we went in anyway. I heard later that people were selling their extra tickets for R100 after they sold out. They cost R40 originally. Perhaps I should start a mini-business there. ;)

We arrived at about 3pm, and had to park miles away. These concerts really get crowded these days. Gone are the days of sauntering in at 5pm for the 5:30pm start. Anyway I like being early and having time to relax and sprawl and watching everyone else arriving, and on my goodness are there some stunning people who come out to these gigs. As well as some ridiculously over dressed and over made up girls!

We settled ourselves down and relaxed with our picnic. Watermelon, grapes, baby tomatoes, roast beef rolls with sweet mustard, blue cheese and crackers, cold shandy, and chocolate. Mmmm! Quinn is a brilliant partner, and we had lots of fun. It was quite warm, and I caught a bit of sun on my back, but it doesn't seem bad, and I think it has blended the terrible tan lines I had from my Christmas Eve toasting.

I popped of to the loo and dashed out the back, just as the band were arriving there, and almost ran into them... They were looking pretty cool. (Lindy I also saw Panic and he daughter there.)

The Parlotones were brilliant as usual. I really really like their music. I am tempted to buy the CD actually. I think they were blown away by the venue and the crowd, as they kept mentioning how awesome it was, and how it was the coolest gig they had played. The usually semi-comatose 'we are so relaxed' Cape Town crowd all got up and were really getting into the mood of the concert. Near the end the lead singer, Kahn Morbee, was so in awe he paused the concert so that he could take some photos of the crowd, with a 8000+ strong yelling of 'CHEESE!!!', followed by a 'shit! Memory card full, hang on...'. LOL.

It was a wonderful afternoon, and a great way to end the week-end.

There are more pics of the concert here.