The life and times of the G 4
What a good laugh I had with my girl Dee last week Friday, me in Pretoria and her in Beijing! It has become a habit that now and again (probably too often in Dee's view), I call or send her a WhatsApp message and re-live the good times that we have had in the past, in particular our all-inclusive, all expenses paid, green braclet holiday in Zanzibar in 2012!
We then progress to recalling everything from how we "won"the holiday in the first place, our journey there, time spent in transit in Nairobi, our arrival in Zanzibar and how in our excitement we got into the first car that we saw without even first ascertaining that the driver was actually taking us to the correct resort. We talk about the food we ate, the sandbank in the middle of the ocean, rowing in the ocean and at some point being the only natives on the beach.
We then noted that we cannot talk about Zanzibar without going back to our time in the DRC in 2011. That was another epic experience, Che*, Dee and I - we ran that town! The three of us were comrades in arms. That was a great three weeks of work and fun. Daily lunches at either Nandos or Mama Colonel with pap, spinach and chicken; how we always had a deck of cards on hand, playing Crazy 8 like we were addicted; driving around Kinshasa with our dear driver Landry. (For my own reputation I will deliberately forget to mention one specific moment, it shall suffice to just mention a few words: taxi, window, me, shouting, ministerial convoy, che). And how I could ever forget my rendition of Marvin Gaye's Lets Get It On, at karaoke night? Of course I will never live that performance down, NEVER. Just this morning one member of the G4 called me to remind me of that night, FOUR YEARS AGO!!
November 2011 was yet another good month worth remembering. Good memories indeed, in fact now that I think about it, this was the only instance that the G 4 was fully constituted!! Dee had decided that she wanted to go away for her birthday weekend, and as the loyal friend that I am, I was readily in support of that plan. So off to Mpumalanga we went, the four of us, Dee, Che, Sankara* and I - ROADTRIP!!!! I can't even contain my laughter as I recall all the events that preceded our departure.
On Friday, 4 November 2011 we got to work, all clad in our summer dresses, and had planned to depart at 10am. We asked one particular colleague to drop us off our the designated departure spot somewhere in Hatfield. We waited for a few minutes for the other half of the G4 to arrive and off we were to our weekend destination.
About 2 hours into the drive we had already begun to build rapport and gel as the G4. This was our litmus test and I must say that we passed it with flying colours. During our phone call Dee and I laughed so hard as we remembered the guy who insisted on taking "same time photos", the good conversation that we had over dinner to the sounds of wildlife, playing 30 seconds (although we did not really move even past the first round), playing cards (Crazy 8 of course), going to gods window, the three rondavels, Jabulani the elephant that was more comfortable with people than his own fellow elephants, Bongani the cheetah, Stolichnaya and the self-appointed mixologist, the list is endless. It was on this particular trip that the ever famous phrase "feelings don't lie"was born [Refer to very first blog post of August 2012 of the same title]. And of course our sound track for the weekend was, yes you guessed it, Lets Get It On - hence when the DRC trip came up that song was still fresh our ears!
Oh the life and times of the G 4. The G4 as we once knew it has since been disbanded, or rather, it no longer exists in the shape and form that we once knew it. It is now most probably the G 2+1+1 or something along those lines. But one thing remains for sure: I have got nothing but love for most of the members of the G 4... (lol...ok for all of them).
*Not their real names, in order to protect their identities - I do not want any lawsuits to come my way!! What happens in Mpumalanga stays in Mpumalanga!!!
We then progress to recalling everything from how we "won"the holiday in the first place, our journey there, time spent in transit in Nairobi, our arrival in Zanzibar and how in our excitement we got into the first car that we saw without even first ascertaining that the driver was actually taking us to the correct resort. We talk about the food we ate, the sandbank in the middle of the ocean, rowing in the ocean and at some point being the only natives on the beach.
We then noted that we cannot talk about Zanzibar without going back to our time in the DRC in 2011. That was another epic experience, Che*, Dee and I - we ran that town! The three of us were comrades in arms. That was a great three weeks of work and fun. Daily lunches at either Nandos or Mama Colonel with pap, spinach and chicken; how we always had a deck of cards on hand, playing Crazy 8 like we were addicted; driving around Kinshasa with our dear driver Landry. (For my own reputation I will deliberately forget to mention one specific moment, it shall suffice to just mention a few words: taxi, window, me, shouting, ministerial convoy, che). And how I could ever forget my rendition of Marvin Gaye's Lets Get It On, at karaoke night? Of course I will never live that performance down, NEVER. Just this morning one member of the G4 called me to remind me of that night, FOUR YEARS AGO!!
November 2011 was yet another good month worth remembering. Good memories indeed, in fact now that I think about it, this was the only instance that the G 4 was fully constituted!! Dee had decided that she wanted to go away for her birthday weekend, and as the loyal friend that I am, I was readily in support of that plan. So off to Mpumalanga we went, the four of us, Dee, Che, Sankara* and I - ROADTRIP!!!! I can't even contain my laughter as I recall all the events that preceded our departure.
On Friday, 4 November 2011 we got to work, all clad in our summer dresses, and had planned to depart at 10am. We asked one particular colleague to drop us off our the designated departure spot somewhere in Hatfield. We waited for a few minutes for the other half of the G4 to arrive and off we were to our weekend destination.
About 2 hours into the drive we had already begun to build rapport and gel as the G4. This was our litmus test and I must say that we passed it with flying colours. During our phone call Dee and I laughed so hard as we remembered the guy who insisted on taking "same time photos", the good conversation that we had over dinner to the sounds of wildlife, playing 30 seconds (although we did not really move even past the first round), playing cards (Crazy 8 of course), going to gods window, the three rondavels, Jabulani the elephant that was more comfortable with people than his own fellow elephants, Bongani the cheetah, Stolichnaya and the self-appointed mixologist, the list is endless. It was on this particular trip that the ever famous phrase "feelings don't lie"was born [Refer to very first blog post of August 2012 of the same title]. And of course our sound track for the weekend was, yes you guessed it, Lets Get It On - hence when the DRC trip came up that song was still fresh our ears!
Oh the life and times of the G 4. The G4 as we once knew it has since been disbanded, or rather, it no longer exists in the shape and form that we once knew it. It is now most probably the G 2+1+1 or something along those lines. But one thing remains for sure: I have got nothing but love for most of the members of the G 4... (lol...ok for all of them).
*Not their real names, in order to protect their identities - I do not want any lawsuits to come my way!! What happens in Mpumalanga stays in Mpumalanga!!!
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