Being here has lead to some interesting insights on my part, having very little to do.
Coca Cola is the most refreshing thing on earth. Particularly at 4am when I can’t sleep and need a cigarette to get back to reality and forget about the nightmares. However, my mother thinks I drink too much and I have to hound her to replace the ones I’ve finished. Coke in Zim is different to Coke anywhere else. It comes in a glass bottle and NOTHING tastes like Coke in a glass bottle.
Cigarettes here are dirt cheap. The local ones that is. A carton of Marlboro Lights in SA wills et you back about R240. Here a carton of Newbury Lights (which are far smoother and superior in my humble opinion) will set you back R45. No contest. Guess what I’m bringing back to SA?
Potholes grow on a daily basis and they move too. It doesn’t matter if you think you know where the pothole was yesterday; you still need to be seriously alert because they grow. And they move. And they proliferate like rats. And yes, I still have to check for rats in my mother’s car.
Dawson’s Creek is a good show. I watch it every day on Go at 12.30 for 2 hours. See, I’ve sunk to new lows. Still, nothing beats Battlestar Galactica. Frak! I’ve also become addicted to the Golden Girls which is a serious classic – they are hilarious. The reason for this is someone dropped off a whole bunch of DVDs including 3 seasons of the Golden Girls. The clothes are awful but the humour is timeless. I’m now halfway through season 2. You see, there’s not much to do except watch DVDs here.
Cerelac and Nesquik in Zim has no equal. It’s my favourite healthy (not) breakfast. Chocolate Zim cerelac – YUM. For those of you that don’t know, cerelac is baby porridge. If it’s good enough for a 6 month old, it’s good enough for me.
People here have good ideas. I am seriously looking at going to Crete in the next month and working in a beach bar or something for the summer even though my Greek isn’t that great. It’s passable and it will improve while I’m there. I could do with some sun. And there’s no time like the present to do it while I’m unemployed, unencumbered and irresponsible.
The dial-up service here is terrible. It takes ages just to connect and check my webmail. But it turns out that broadbandis ridiculously expensive so it’s not really worth it. And it doesn’t work all that well from what I hear.
Conversation is king. When there’s a power cut, and it happens often, there is NOTHING to do. So you better have something to talk about. Most Zimbabweans are great conversationalists because of that.
When somewhere has a descriptive name like the Bat Cave, believe it. One night, a friend of mine offered to take me out on the town, so to speak. We stopped at Tin Cup, or Caddyshack for a drink which is on the driving range. We weren’t there long because after 5 people left, we were basically the only people in the joint. From there we decided to go to Busters as we had heard that quite a few people were going there. Buster’s is a rugby club and is as classy as the name suggests. We didn’t last there long either. Finally we went to this new club called the Bat Cave. It was quite far in Zim terms and dodging potholes at night on a road you don’t really know is always good for some entertainment. We finally got there and the place was as dark and dodgy as the name suggested. Some of the patrons rather closely resembled bats which explained the name to a large extent. The bar was almost impossible to get to with people cramming it 5 and 6 deep. For Bulawayo, I must say the place was pumping although I didn’t know a solitary soul. This is unusual for Zim but maybe I am just getting too old to frequent these places. The varsity kids should be back next week so it should be more festive and that way I will know one or two people, but only because they are my little sister’s friends!
Taking 2 sleeping pills at 1am means you will sleep till lunchtime. Not the smartest idea.
That’s pretty much all my collective wisdom for now, like I said, not too profound but hopefully interesting at the very least. Being somewhere like here makes you think weird things, that’s for sure.
Soundtrack of the day: Ma Baker – Boney M. A classic.
