Friday, I went to Sandton to pick up my ticket for the Round of 16 USA vs. Ghana match in Rustenburg. I don’t have much angst about this game though I worry Ghana may not be able to beat the US. The US seems to be somewhat better this year than they were in 2006. Eh, but today is not the day to worry about that. On our way back however, 007 was caught by a parked police for talking on the phone while driving. At first I thought he just stopped to ask for directions as we were having difficulty finding our way. But apparently it’s illegal to talk and drive, which is news to me as everybody, including taxi drivers, has done that. 30 rands later and directions in hand we were on our way.
Most days are planned on an hourly basis. This day, the plan was to meet up with everyone at our favourite spot – Decco bar in Montecasino for the 4pm Portugal vs. Brazil game. I got there an hour ahead and reserved a table for 12. Why did these Africans not show up until well into the first half of the game? I was not in a good mood at all from having to fight off other patrons from our table but once the game begun it was a losing battle. At the end I gave up. As for me, I have my seat. The rest of them can stand in the packed room …that is if they are allowed entry. It was such a boring match too.
Afterwards I roamed the grounds of Montecasino to let off steam. At one point these two ?West African men passed me by and one said “hello” or something like that. I said “hello” back as I continued on my way but they must not have heard or expected some other kind of response. The other man then started to holla “Hey, sister, Hey” and as much as I wanted to ignore him I decided that since this was the year I was going to be nice to men I would stop to see what he wanted. I turned around and he yelled from a couple yards away “My friend said hello!” I gave him one of my looks, said “hello” while shrugging my shoulders then turned back around and went on my way. Seriously! What was he expecting that I do? Come running back for a hug, to kiss his feet, to give him my full name, phone number and address? What?!
We watched the evening Chile vs. Spain game again at Decco. My namesake and her husband came to join us. After the game, Decco begun a Karaoke night and this helped improve my mood. By the time we crashed a really good Ghanaian house party in Morningside Manor I was feeling better. Here I was talking to my namesake when some guy came up to me and kissed me on one cheek, then the other, but when he tried to go in for another I pushed him away. What on earth! If you want to introduce yourself to me how about a name, a handshake, I don’t even mind a single peck but don’t try to slobber yourself all over me. My namesake had even moved away to give us privacy because she thought I knew him.
Ugh!
From here we went to Taboo nightclub in Sandton. Incidentally, while we were going from Montecasino to Morningside Manor by taxi we saw these rays of light in the distance. The taxi-driver told us that if we ever wanted to meet prostitutes all we had to do was go to where the light is. So why did we arrive at Taboo and see these large floodlights there. Apparently, a lot of nightclubs have these. The taxi-driver was correct though. There did seem to be a number of scantily clad women flitting from guy to guy. Even several of the guys commented that there were a lot of prostitutes around but when pressed as to how they knew they were prostitutes they couldn’t respond. I mean, why can’t they be like PhD in Physics students taking a break from writing their dissertation by going just a bit wild?
One of the guys had arranged for VIP seating for us. However we ended up on the top floor where they were playing what sounded like House music, which I didn’t mind. However the much happening floor was the one below playing a contemporary mix of hip-hop, R&B and local hits. Here we run into Abedi Pele sitting in one of the VIP areas. 007 was able to snag a picture with him. The rest of us had to contend with handshakes. We were provided several bottles of champagne, a carafe of something and Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey for the privilege of the VIP seating. The whiskey went home with the guys at the end of the night! Shhhh! Don’t tell!
We left around 5am. 007’s friends had some items in the car so Bond girl and myself waited in the car for them to come. Next thing we know one of the security guards knocks on the window and tells us that our friend has been arrested. Impossible! We’ve hardly been away from the group a couple minutes, how could anyone be arrested? But we turned around and saw what seemed to be rising panic. We looked around and realized that 007 was no longer standing by the car like he was just a few seconds ago. And knowing him, we figured he could have just done something really silly. Bond girl went to check and indeed it was him in the back of the police car.
She came back and confirmed it was him but didn’t seem too concerned. Annoyed and tired but not too concerned. Apparently he was being arrested for public urination. I rolled my eyes. We just left the club not two seconds ago! Seriously! What silliness! We figured it couldn’t be that big a deal so we sat in the car waiting for it to blow over. But minutes later, one of 007’s friends came running up to our car stating that he was going to have to drive us to the police station because they were going to book him. Now we started to panic. They couldn’t possibly! Really?! Dude, that’s messed up!
We drove off but couldn’t find the police car and begun to panic as we didn’t know where the station was. However we soon saw the car parked ahead of us. 007’s friend got out and went up to the police car where he proceeded to wipe his wallet out. Given that we were still around the club and around other police cars we figured that was not a smooth move. I don’t know what transpired but he soon returned to the car and we continued to follow the police car around the block where they again stopped. Again 007’s friend went up to the police car but this time got into the back seat. A few minutes later they both came out and one of the policemen came up to us to make sure the girls were alright and to advise us that public urination is a crime and next time our husband/brother (respectively) would not be so lucky. All that for 300 rands! The silver lining though is that we are Ghanaian. For whatever reason, were 007 Nigerian, he would definitely have seen the insides of a jail. That’s sad this reputation/hatred Nigerians have garnered in South Africa.
We were afraid that once 007 begun to drive us off that we would be stopped again for driving under the influence, because he had been drinking at some point in the night. But they let us go peacefully. 007 later told us that he did try to urinate but they caught him when he started to mess with his belt. He even pleaded with them to allow him to urinate first if they were going to arrest him anyway! Hilarious!
We got home before he relieved himself but he was so visibly shook up! Poor boy! One would think he would learn from this right?
tonixoxo says
LOL..funny. I need a phone date with you so you can tell me EVERYTHING that happened.
tonixoxo.wordpress.com <3