Pride (In the Town of Cape)

Long Street was thick with Canadian interns last Friday, as Jess and Lena joined Meghan and me for a delicious traditional Kurdish dinner at Mesopotamia. This was the second visit for your Cape Couple to this particular restaurant. We had so much fun the first time that we didn't hesitate to recommend it to Jess and Lena.




Here we are sampling the flavoured tobacco shisha known on the menu as The Hubbly Bubbly. I was expecting buggle gum flavour, but it was fruity. A bong for desert is not something you see every day (ever?) in Canada.



Pop quiz: which of the four of us accepted the belly dancer's invitation to join her on stage?





Okay, that was an obvious one.

Jess, who you may remember from Meghan's pony trek through Lesotho, was in town for the Pride Festival. On Saturday we hung out in De Waterkant at the street party. There were angels, witches, Roman soldiers, bears, bulls, several Cleopatras... Meghan loved the costumes.



I got bored and pooped out by the time the official house band of Cape Town (Goldfish) appeared on stage. Or maybe I was sulking because none of the guys hit on me. My loss, as I missed out on this amazing sunset that Meghan captured while walking back to our apartment with Lena and Jess.







They discovered me at home freaking out over the announced reunion tour of The Police, starting May 28th in Vancouver.





More recently, Meghan and I spent yesterday afternoon exploring Bo Kaap, the predominantly Mulsim neighbourhood of Cape Town. We visited the museum that explained how many of the original slaves imported by the Dutch colonists 300 years ago were from Indonesia and Malaysia, and that Islam became the religion of dissent. The neighbourhood is beautiful. Here's a typical street panorama.


Bo Kaap is nestled into Signal Hill. Meghan and I climbed to the top where the noon gun is located. Apparently they fire this cannon at noon every day, but I have never noticed. Here is Meghan sporting her newly acquired sunglasses.



Now for the requisite history lesson. It turns out that cannon between Meghan's legs is over 200 years old. The miracles of modern genomics willing, that is a sentence I hope to one day revisit.



Holy crap, where did these donkeys come from?



The only wildlife I have seen so far, and it turns out to be domesticated farm animals grazing on Signal Hill.

There is a Canadian Film Festival in full swing right now at the Labia Theater. Last night we entertained at the Labia ("sounds like my last date," quipped Dave) and caught the charming Quebecois film "Miss Meteo". On Monday we saw the documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey", which made me think that Meghan should make documentaries. Tonight we are going to see live dinner theater at the Old Zoo, which is literally an old zoo that was built on the former Rhodes estate (yes, that Rhodes).