egoli escape

on friday night i drove 60km, from pretoria to johannesburg, to visit nicole.

at first, i had vague considerations of driving this far. after three months of cape town conditioning, the equivalent of driving to somerset west felt far. at night.

but after filling up at engen, and stocking up on a beef noodle wrap, iced coffee and lemon curd-filled cupcakes from woolworths, it only took glen lewis' les indiscretes playing from my one functional toyota tazz speaker to revive my enthusiasm.

i ended up staying the whole weekend.

in nicole's gorgeous art deco style apartment set against the rocky rand hill of houghton estate. from the road, the impressive facade is invisible behind brick walls, and the general commercial and vehicular distraction of louis botha avenue.

but once you take a few steps up the brick line driveway, the apartment block is hidden architectural splendour. to me. pot-plant lined corridors, surrounding greenery, moss covered concrete. vaguely reminiscent of paradiso perduto in alfonso cuaron's great expectations.

instead of going out drinking, we stayed in and talked. consistently. i even contributed my five cents to a discussion on photo shoot selection. nicole and her boyfriend, brett, are a photographic/stylist duo, and it was educational to witness the thought processes behind creating a visual story. something i have definitely taken for granted when flipping through magazines.

there was some wine, and several conversations. about nothing, and everything.

i have known nicole my entire life, but 7 years of almost continuous separation by landmass and oceans, highways and occupations have kept us from spending long periods of time together. brief stints of city sharing have been infrequent, as a result of my restlessness.

but this weekend, i camped out on her double blow-up mattress, made tea for myself in her kitchen, and washed her dishes. i attended her regular morning yoga class and took strain. we watched summer heights high and bjork's disturbing debut.

dancer in the dark.

leaving on saturday faded with the strength of my kundalini'ed-limbs, other plans in other places falling through as i fell asleep on her beige couch, the gigantic palm tree through the curved window like a giant umbrella to the drizzly sky.

i chose the comfort of goose down, cookies and a screen over other diarised adventures. it was weirdly hilarious australian satire and a factory worker's plight over other social interaction.

but somehow we managed to make it out on saturday night. to trabella. near wanderers. a busy pizza place. so busy that our table was inconveniently located next to the crockery/cutlery cupboard, the waiter's arms common intruders into our white-cloth space.

luckily we complained, and moved.

to the quieter area up the steps, and a few other patron's dismay.

(when i said sorry, my version of 'excuse me', to a lady nearby, in order to get by. she said thanks. obviously peturbed. we were not.)

more conversation over halloumi salad, two glasses of cafe culture and a rocket, papaya, pancetta and feta pizza later, i had a head full of pinotage and a tipsy encounter with the ever confusing pull/push door setup on leaving.

with take-away boxes of breakfasts to be.

our drive home was a circuit pathway of high walls, traffic lights and circles. at one point we noticed a well attended fair, through a fence. i caught just a glimpse of teenagers, fires and inflated bouncy things. my lethargic self was strangely urged to attend.

there was silver sun pickups, and inside head reminiscing on previous trips to the city. every visit a new comprehension of the maze of streets, the main arteries of the M1, jan smuts and william nicol slowly connecting me to a deeper understanding, and appreciation.

notorious for many things, jo'burg, egoli, the city of gold, is fascinating. to me. restaurants around a suburban street corners, architecture and a revival of inner city. there is history, space, trees and unlike cape town, parking.

but as with any city, it is only relative to the company you share, there.

and that for me, is something i will be going back for.

on the next N1 southbound escape.