Had so much fun at Beatenberg last night. As one friend said, if only the centre of town could be like HIFA all the time. Ended up with a group of friends and we danced and jived to some of their more upbeat songs. There were a few that were better suited to a lazy afternoon on the lawns of Kirstenbosch, but I really enjoyed it. We then went and hung out at the Elephant and Pineapple sipping gin and tonics and occasionally wondering what the tarot reader upstairs was doing when the floor boards shook and at one point leaked! Met up with a friend I haven't seen in ages and suddenly wondered if I have given back his Korean version of Settlers of Catan (he lent it to me five years ago but as it is in Korean I haven't played it). Harry if you're still reading my blog, I think I did give it back to you, I've looked again this morning :P Was going to get a lift home with a friend but it turned out my mother was still talking to people at the craft market in the Global Quarter, two hours after she said she was going home. She does love to stop and have deep conversations with each and every stall owner - I despair at times and move on. I found her talking to a guy called Oneway, who makes sculptures out of scrap metal. My mum is going to take him a whole load of stuff from our garage (yay). It did mean I got home slightly earlier though as the others were keen to go to Toby2Shoes playing at Tristan's - would have been fun but I have a lot of work to do today as I lost a whole day yesterday running round sorting out my phone.
It proved to be a little frustrating yesterday with Econet trying to get a SIM card with my same number. I went to Borrowdale first and was first into the shop but it turned out the card was under my mum's name and I needed her to change it to my name, needed her with me in person that is. So she managed to get leave from school to come with me to Avondale. Got to the front of the queue only to discover we needed a form and photocopies of IDs. Did this, rejoined the queue to be told, sorry, the system was down, I needed to come back after lunch. The guy was pleasant though and had the apt name of Trymore. So I went off to Harare Central police station - my goodness the traffic is awful down there. At one point got sandwiched between a massive ZUPCO bus and a lorry, with commuter omnibuses pressing in on either side. If the bus had reversed it would have squashed me - not pleasant. Found the police central. The interior is sadly so decrepit with the linoleum cracked and scattered and the parquet a haphazard patchwork. It must be a bit soul destroying working in there day in and day out. Having said that though, I was actually really impressed that the police had my report and had started processing it already and it was a quick visit in and out. Well, at least I was referred to a Constable Chakara but he wasn't there and so far I haven't been able to reach him on the cell number I've been given. If all else fails I will try get his number on Zimvine before thinking about going back into town again. I went to find out how much the phone I lost is now selling for and the shop assistant had high hopes that the police might be able to find my stolen phone as he said it's not that common a phone. I'm not sure if I have such optimism but a friend did get their phone back so maybe.
Last night we followed my friend Lucy's advice and parked behind the craft market and it was much better lit and felt safer than going round Monomatapa. The power has come back on at home, praise God. I really did worry our area's transformer might also have blown. I would be hamstrung if it did. Must maybe invest in a solar invertor at home as I cannot afford to be without power during term time with all the work I have to do. Saying this, I must get on now and get everything together that I have to have printed to give to my head on Monday. To work!
