As I queued at Passport Control, a horrible thought hit me - I had no idea who was picking me up, where I was staying, er .. anything to be honest. What if they deported me, or shot me ... that's what they do in Johannesburg. It was on the news.
As it was, there was nothing to worry about. After shuffling past a man that it can be fair to say "has let himself go" (PIC1) I sailed through. Not literally. I literally walked through but without too much delay.
As I emerged from the airport I was greeted by the smiling Michelle from the club holding my name up. I said goodbye to the man in the best shirt ever (by which I mean laughed at him with Michele) (PIC2) and we headed 40km to the accommodation. Although it's called the Dennis Road Guest House I'm in a lovely little cottage.
I was greeted there by Barbara
"That's my mum's name"
"Rob's my husband's name"
"And my dad's"
Typical I go halfway round the planet to stay with the South African version of my parents.
Barbara and Michelle laughed at my suggestion that I may sit out in the 19C sun ("In winter?"), and I decided to catch up on some sleep. After about two hours of dozing I managed to crack it and drifted off for all of 10 minutes before there was a banging on my door.
"Hi. I'm Trevor. Are you ready for this interview?"
The towel wrapped around my otherwise naked, tired and sweaty body should have given him some clues.
"Hmmm. ... take your time then"
We headed off to do a podcast for the SA Times with a guy called Brendan Jacks.
"He's really funny and off-the-wall. It'll be fun"
The podcast (or Jackast as they call it) was OK if stilted a little by Brendan's need for me to only answer questions about my biog. Whenever I deviated and tried to be funny he looked bemused, although I've been told that's his style. He looked genuinely gutted when I told him my story of upsetting the town of Wrexham as he hadn't found that in my biog.
He did say one thing that puzzled me. "Are you doing Carnival City?" "I don't know". Michelle asked me the same question earlier, with the same look on her face. One that suggested it may not be the most normal of gigs.
From there Trevor took me to a shopping centre where I bought supplies from Woolworth's. Apparently they're still going strong here. That might have something to do with all of their products being branded M&S stuff. "Sometimes they even accidentally print M&S on them"
He's promised to take me to an IPL cricket match next weekend too. I'm blown away by just how nice everyone is.
Just before he left he told me he was away all weekend and that someone would come for me later.
"By the way; have they told you if you're doing Carnival City?"
No! YOU'RE "they"!
So back to the guest house and time to prepare for my first gig ......
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