Back in the UK, Blair was widely and rightly regarded as a machine who would simply recycle Guinness into well, filtered Guinness but back in the bottom half of the world, his more suave smooth jazz side comes out. So, it's only a few pints of Guinness until moving more swiftly on to a more local drop, the wonderful wines of South Africa - well priced and well, quite delicious actually.

We spent a good few days living at Blair's place in Umhlanga Rocks enjoying his wonderful African hospitality and some exceptional African weather,... until, that is, the weather changed for the worse. The hospitality was still outstanding. With Blair we went to Ushaka Marine World an aquarium, entertainment park and a fine spot for dining and, obviously, wining. It could have been a great for whining as the weather was foul and one of us, not the local and not the smarter of the two visitors, was remarkably poorly attired for the day. Oh come on, shorts and t-shirts are ideal for Africa. I mean, let's face it... it's so hot here that the harvest fails all the time... so who needs warm weather togs? Uh.... me, actually. Still, nothing a steaming mug of coffee can't put right. Apart from the weather, Ushaka was great. It's a really well designed aquarium that is home to some absolutely beautiful prehistoric beasties with about 9000 fangs. (AKA - Sharks) The waters off SA are, or perhaps more pertinently were, full of the gorgeous monsters but now sadly numbers, especially of the really big buggers, have fallen dramatically. Still, there has been a ban on catching them for around a decade now so hopefully the coastal stretches will once more become a don't swim unless you're mad zone. And I really suspect there are some really mad folk in these parts other wise why would they have to put up signs on the top of the shark pools which are open cautioning against taking a dip. Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad!

After Ushaka you'll not be surprised to hear that we took a tour of the local pubs back in Umhlanga with Blair and a few of his pals. We went and I'm cringing as I scribble this to a karaoke bar. Don't worry, with the indictment for crimes against humanity and music hanging over my head from the wedding singing (See: July 10, 2004), I didn't up to belt out a number though one of Blair's friends did and the odd thing is she was good. Good singers aren't supposed to take the mic at Karaoke. It's meant to be for people who sing anything by the carpenters with a Bob Dylon voice. Not actually vocally talented folk. That's really missing the point. Regardless, we had a fabulous time.

As if we haven't been taking it easy enough already, we decided we should have a "take it easy" day. These are among the finest days you could ever wish for primarily because they only involve the highest priorities in life. Lounging, eating, drinking, and sport. We were able to watch a venerable rugbyathon. I think I watched 4 games consecutively. Wonderful!  We watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees. Beautiful! We saw Lance Armstrong ease (if that's the right word) his way to another yellow jersey in the tour de France. Heide can't believe it's really been a year since we were watching it back in the Pyrenees (See: July 23, 2003) but of course at her advanced years, time apparently just whizzes by. We saw Michael Schumacher win again (yawn, yawn) and we drank a few cheeky bottles of South Africa's fine reds. Really beautiful! We tucked into the local specialty cuisine called the Bunny Chow. I suppose it's the Zulu version of Birmingham's balti. It's a curry you don't really get anywhere else and it's served up in a hollowed out loaf of bread. It's filling, it's delicious and it's a cultural thing. So, we did in fact do something valuable beyond cheering Boston to victory over the evil empire on this wonderful day.

We decided that we'd try to get to the Natal Shark's board to see a dissection of a shark. Alas we missed it by a few minutes. What we didn't miss was the freezing downpour that left us wetter than the recently sliced up cousin of Jaws had ever been. On the trudge back home we were picked up by Blair who was passing on his way home from work. He recognized us on two counts. One - I was wearing, in Blair's opinion, a really loud orange coat. In fact, it's a subtle off orange indeed more of a yellowish and gray sort of hue. And secondly, and more pertinently because "There's no way any locals would be outside in this weather." So there you are. You want to look local... stay inside on inclement days. After drying off it was out for a last hurrah with Blair and one of his friends, Françoise. Only this last hurrah turned into multiple hurrahs and then a few more besides. By the time we'd finished it was already early the next morning Blair had work to get to and we had to catch a bus for the long run down to Coffee Bay in the Transkei. 'S True (That's an inside joke for Blair) we had a fabulous time staying with Blair. He's an excellent bloke and a fabulous host. We can't wait until he gets to visit us back in Seattle where we can repay the compliment. Cheers mate.