Everyone left between 3pm-4pmish on Friday. Most went to the Lords bar which is over the road or to the Barons bar behind the JSE building. I finished at about 5.30ish and waited for some the girls to finish as they were going to a bar called News Café which is like agenda/abacus. Most of the consultants go there but the older guys stay clear of it as they say it’s a meat market especially my SA manager who hates the place.

I was chatting to some of the guys and girls and they were discussing going out sightseeing as some of them were from Cape Town so hadn’t been to Jo’burg before. We plan to go the Lion park next weekend.

There were free beers downstairs in the canteen called NINO’s so I went down with the girls and chatted to some of the guys who all asked me how my head and nose were feeling after my accident on Thursday. My noise is still very bruised and red and hurts!

I left with one of the girls called Tauhir and went to her best mates place in Sunninghill to meet the rest of her friends – there were 5 of us altogether. We had dinner and went to their mate’s house party. All the flats are in secure gated communities and very nice. Some flats are designed especially for bachelors like this guys was, although I didn’t see anything that different about it. We left his place after an hour as it was very boring, everyone has such strong accents and they got stronger the drunk they got!

We left and went to a bar called Fashion Café TV in Sandton city. It was holding the Zoo bikini model finalist there. It was a good evening, Tauhir’s mate Eleez had so much attention. She looks like Iman (David Bowies wife). In the past she has been out with Enrique Inglasias’s agent and got to meet the guy and go out some parties with him and also got to met tons of other celebrities (I’m not in awe or anything just thought I’d build a picture) . It was crazy how many guys she met that night in Fashion Café, she got more attention than the models believe or not and she’s uber nice.

Saturday morning I met Nick in the foyer at 8.30am, we were driving to Andrew’s place where we would then go and take his and his brother in law – james’ 4x4 and go to Hennops to take the them on a offroad trail.

We took the route called ‘DongaLapa’ the word ‘donga’ meets ditches and there lots on this trail including mud-holes and steep ricky climbs, with also some wildlife along the way. You don’t realise how good of a driver you are until you have driven off road. Andrew and James were both good drivers. The first donga we got too, Andrew and James got out to take a look at how they would drive through it. It’s all about clutch control apparently. After they had driven thru it a couple of times, Andrew let me take a go at it – it was hard, I stalled 8 times! I finally made it over the donga, I had to give it more gas but at the right time.

The last donga was very very hard. The guy before us tried 4 times but in the end had to reverse his car out of the ditch. This made Andrew and james even more determined to do it! I think it took 15 trys for James to finally get thru it. It was hard as James’ 4x4 is heavy in the back so it was harder for his car to lift up over a steep ditch. Andrew was directing him all the way. It was hard as this donga had a 2 mud-holes, which makes the wheels very slick and hard to grip, even with the diff lock on (this is when the back wheels are locked to turn in the same direction - I’m learning stuff!)

We drove up to a camp and BBQ site and Andrew put some chicken on. We had donkeys come thru and these donkeys were very funny looking they were a cross breed. Some looked liked zebras!
It was a very tiring day and our drive back to Andrews we went past some shanty towns and its amazing how many there are and how they were setup. Apparently some of them even have B&B and the owners will take you around the town and help show you around which is a much safer way to explore the place.

All in all a good day. Went to the gym when I got back and watched the film Anaconda followed by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - good TV, especially ‘Anaconda’, it was awful!

Sunday I headed for Sandton City Mall. It was huge! It was 2pm and I was starving having been to the gym in the morning I’d missed breakfast. I remember one of the guys at work telling me about a halal takeaway place in the food court called Kuaui. I got a beef wrap from there it was so nice!

Went to Woolworths – its nothing like the Woolworths back home its exactly like Marks and Spencers. Everything’s the same price as back home, probably because this is an expensive area, as I’ve read in the guide books. I met Tauhira and Eleeza at 4pm and headed to the cinema with them to a place called Monte Casino. This place is a bit like the Trafford Centre in Manchester, the ceilings are painted like the sky but inside its setup like Trocadero, all games and restaurants etc. Most of the place is set up like Little Italy, very cool. The cinema was really nice the seats are huge; my feet couldn’t touch the floor. We saw Oceans 13. It was a preview, apparently it had just literally arrived through customs so was delayed, the film started half an hour later than it should have. It was so good, really funny, much better than the second.

I got back at 9pm, I’d wanted to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at 8pm but had to settle watching it half way thru. I ordered beans on toast and relaxed with my tea. Training starts this week at work and one the UKDC managers is over this week to overlook it. I also got told that we’d be working overtime this week because of it….fun