It's been a long while since I sent out an email; sorry for being out of touch. I hadn't the heart to write anything after Max and I parted ways. I still miss him so much, but we just couldn't make it work.
As I write this, I am in Durban, at my friend William's endangered parrot breeding facility. As I write this his African Grey parrot is watching me, and saying "Joanne, it's her, I'm watching you." Lot's of little newly hatched parrots shrieking like crazy. It's very wet, but at least it's not cold. Tomorrow, I have xmas dinner with my ex Llew and his wonderful family. Then on Monday, it's back to Capetown, when loads of friends from London will be flying in for the big week of New Years festivities, including that most famous of pool parties: Boy Soup.
So I have actually been extremely quiet in South Africa up until now. In Capetown I've been staying with my friends Kobus and Gerhard up in Oranjezicht, right under the shadow of Table Mountain. They have two lovely dogs, Shadow and Sugar. Shadow, a Staffordshire terrier, likes to lie out on the sunny deck, legs splayed out like a spatchcock chicken. Sugar is a golden retriever, and she is really the canine equivalent of a dumb blond beauty contest participant. She gets jealous when I pat Shadow, and rushes over to shove her silky body between us, nosing her wet black nose into my hand. I've rented a blue motor scooter, which has no power and grinds and struggles to get up the hill. I've been very quiet; going to the gym, playing a little tennis, doing a little yoga, seeing a few friends and going to the beach.
I did, however, go to the big annual costume ball in Capetown, the Mother City Queer Project party, the other day. It was held in Ratanga Junction theme park and the theme was Circus. My group of about 10 friends all went as tigers. We had tiger print trousers with tails, black and orange feather boas and I persuaded all the guys to paint their faces. We were a really fun group, and I had a good time.
The other day I climbed Table Mountain up Skeleton Gorge from the back by Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. It was gorgeous. We hiked up this deep wooded cleft in the mountain, filled with huge trees, strange earthy scents, birdsong, dappled shadows and the occasional glimpse of Capetown far below. At the top we burst into a field of ferns and then some lovely yellow flowers, amongst the old curious rock formations. We walked through a grove of twisted trees, with soft white sand as earth - on top the of mountain! We then hiked across the top of Table Mountain to the cable car, by the old dams on top of the mountain which were completed in 1897! The dams were full of huge tadpoles, swimming in the brown water.
I'm heading back to
London in early January for some job interviews for a company that's trying to headhunt me. Not quite sure what to do; I had thought that I didn't want to go back into banking, or to live in London again, but I think, after 9 months of no work, no writing (biggest case of apathetic writer's block ever), no house, no partner, I probably need some structure again! Well, we'll see.
I did go to a psychic the other day, a huge Afrikaans woman. I told her NOTHING, but she told me that I must not "go back to work in that financial or analytical job in an industry that involves a lot of abuse of power" (can you think of a better description of banking?). But then 10 minutes later, while flipping cards, she said "Oh, I can see you're going to take that job anyway. Oh, well, don't stress about it. you'll do it until you're 45). However, she said that she saw me back in the
US or
Canada, so maybe it's not this particular job that I'm interviewing for, then.
She said also that I'd be single until I was 45, and that then I'd meet a younger Middle Eastern Guy. I thought my lord, she wants me to date a younger Arab; sounds like lots of drama to me! I'd discount her completely except I walked into the room and she said immediately "you have a bad neck problem, which you have to fix, it's been going on too long" - which is absolutely true. At any rate, after those job interviews in London in early January, I'll come back to Capetown, and then go on to Australia, at least to research my book, even if I seem unable to write anything.
Anyway, my friends and loved ones. I hope you are well, and I wish you joy and happiness, love and peace, prosperity and health in 2006. Apologies to William who hates sentiments like this.
