Late late Friday night...

September 30, 2006 9:22 am Capetown, 3:22 am Atlanta

Well it has been a crazy couple of days but not a whole lot to blog, really. Work was hectic and by 5 pm yesterday, we were all ready to blow off some steam. Of course, we didn't actually leave the office until nearly 6! We decided to try to do sundowners again but since it was so late, ended up going to a bar right in the city that was attached to the Radisson hotel. The bar was really cool - sat right on the beach, above the rocks with the waves crashing right below us. Unfortunately, the Capetown weather was off kilter and it was FREEZING, not to mention severely cloudy. So we didn't actually see sundown. It would be an amazing place to go on a warm day though!

We still had fun - we ended up meeting up with a couple of people from the client and hung out and had cocktails and watched the seagulls freezing their butts off, and stupid kayakers who were kayaking around in the sea. It was really cold but the bar gave us all blankets and there were heaters all over so it wasn't too bad.

We were trying to decide what to do for dinner and John, who is our 'local' American (he's been pretty much living here for the past 2 years) wanted to take us to a place called Madame Zingara's. It was supposed to have authentic African food and a really cool atmosphere. When he went into the hotel to call for reservations, the concierge told him that the place had BURNED TO THE GROUND the night before! It was very strange.

So we ended up at this place called '95' which is an Italian joint. Amazing food - John knew the chef and so we had a really lovely evening, the wine flowed continuously, we all ate really well and had a great time.

The night progressed from there - we ended up wandering around the main drag in Capetown (looks like Bourbon street but without the smell! Or at least, without the SAME smell). We went to a few clubs and danced a bit. One of the places we stopped at was this amazing restaurant/club called Mama Africa. They had these guys playing the marimbas - it was incredible. They were playing this funky african version of Amazing Grace and I finally felt like I was seeing a bit of Africa. Anyway, I stopped drinking fairly early and am thanking my stars for it. We didn't get home till nearly 3 a.m. and are heading off to wine country this morning so I really did NOT want to be hanging today.

As it turns out, I feel great. I could use some more sleep and I still never made it to work out but hopefully that can all happen tomorrow. We need to be on call tomorrow because the client is in the process of going live so we can't really do much too far from the office. So I'm thinking it'll be a good day to catch up on some work, work out, sleep etc. We shall see.

Today - wine country! I can't wait!