26 April 2015

This weekend was Sarah’s final weekend in Port Elizabeth! She is due to fly back to Germany tomorrow afternoon and I think I can speak for everyone when I say we’re going to miss her greatly, but what an excellent last weekend in PE we showed her!

We’d had this master plan to go to the EP Kings Rugby Game and follow it up with dinner at Cubata (after all, I did vow to return, and what better weekend than this to introduce everyone to their meatlicious delights?)

Unfortunately, some genius got the kick-off time wrong, and mistook 15:00 for 5:00… So, everyone missed the game, but we also had quite the adventure negotiating a set of tickets from a touter, realising our error and hastily recruiting a member of the Mandela Bay security to get our money back for us! A close call, a good story and a lesson learned!

Most people had been more keen to see the Mandela Bay Stadium itself rather than any kind of game, so I made up for the mix up with 24/12 hour clock with a charming little line for security

“Excuse, I’ve come all this way with this tour group, who are obviously a bit upset about missing the game. Most of them were just keen to see the stadium, can we please have 5 minutes just to look around?”

They very kindly obliged, and I led my tour group inside.

Five minutes later, we were just about to leave the stadium when suddenly one member of our group, Peter, spotted a player for the EP Kings!

“Hey” he said, nudging Sofia, “fancy a picture with a player?”

“Oh my god!” Sofia cried out “Lauren, let’s get our picture with a player!”

“…I don’t think it’s a player.” I dismissed.

“Lauren, for God’s sake, he’s leaving the stadium post-match in full kit! Of course he’s a player!”

“I just don’t think he is…”

“He is.”

So, what choice did I have. I approached the man from behind and tapped him on the shoulder

“Excuse me…”

A very enthusiastic fan, roughly in his 60s, turned around

“Errrr…” I hesitated. What else was there to say?

“…Can we have our picture with you?”

And so we did.

In case you’re curious about our expressions, he was very keen for us to all make war cries for this photo.

We then killed some time in a local pub, before heading to Cubata just next door.

An outregously delicious meal enjoyed by all (perhaps Sofia and Sarah in particular)

Alongside the masses of our most favourite chicken and ribs, we also tried Cubata’s prawns for the first time. OH MY GOD WHERE HAVE THESE BEEN ALL MY LIFE!!!!! Meaty, tender, zesty, garlicky… Pure perfection! The only problem was the portion we opted for… Two each was a STUPID idea!

After the meal from heaven, we all clambered into a taxi

And went on our merry way to Beer Shack!

Here we admired the Wall of Fame

Before adding each other to it.

We then proceeded to give Sarah a proper farewell.

To my astonishment, the next morning, Sarah was spritely as a lamb and keen to go shopping. So off we went for a pootle around the local market, where she successfully bought lots of gifts for her loved ones, and I watched on smugly and tourists paid double or triple for versions of gifts I’d successfully negotiated weeks ago.

To wrap things up, Sarah and Sofia commemorated the farewell by getting pretty braids in their hair

This weekend also commemorated Lena’s last in Port Elizabeth, however as we’re catching her in Cape Town in a few days (for which I am so very, VERY excited) it didn’t feel quite so final. With the exception of the Cape Town weekend, I plan on spending the remaining few at Kwantu so I can hope for better sleep, save money and revise for my approaching exam!

For this reason, I’ve stocked up…

Just the essentials.