UNDER THESE SKIES TOUR DIARY- WRITTEN BY MEG AKA "MEGA"
Its been really awesome doing the past exhibition with Senyol from Cape Town. Over a year of planning, painting, designing, drawing and organizing was put into this body of work and it was a real dream come true to do this touring exhibition. To celebrate the awesomeness Mega has written a little tour diary along with some pics for your reading pleasure on our trip to Cape Town where we hanged out with Senyol and friends, set up the show, fed squirrles and enjoyed spending some time away from Durban. Big thanks to Jaco, Julian Goldswain, Justin - thanks for helping with the cupcakes, Senyol (in the city!) and of course my lovely Meg! Would like to thank everyone out there for supporting us in buying clothing and artwork from us and we really look forward to seeing you all again in the future!
DAY 1 - Wednesday. Wes and I sitting on Mango plane waiting to take off, we just heard that C.T is 16 degrees – EISH, it’s a bietjie koud ek se! Well this is my second trip to Cape Town and second time on a plane, so excited, I will be journaling our trip again as last time. Ok, plane is moving now… YAY! More later. So we arrived in C.T, to very overcast weather, bit bleak about that, but still freakin excited to be here! Paul fetched us in his new little white bakkie, upgrade from the ‘box’, gotta call him ‘bakkie boy’ now… we threw our millions of bags in the back, even our 7 kg’s extra that we had to pay R175 for, can you handle it?? We then proceeded to drive on to his housey in Bellville, very nice area, took us about 30 mins to get there. Cute house, lotsa art on the walls, I have my own room, as does Wes, SWEET!!!
We then hopped in the car again and drove into central C.T. to Pauly’s little studio, it’s so cute and cool, he has a photographer next door, Julian, and this girl, Jeannine, a fashion designer, working upstairs, and at lunchtime everyone gathers together at Paul’s for yummy food and tea, we did today, just chilled there and had some cool food and chat. This other guy Jono also joins in the festivities, he works across the street, he’s a bookkeeper, not arty at all, but he fits in nicely. We then headed to the new gallery, called Salon 91, where Paul and Wes are exhibiting, it is still being built , and opening is on Friday, little hectic, but it should be cool. Really fancy place, very up market, it’s in Kloof Street, similar to Durban’s Florida road, but even better, VERY larny. We sorted out Wes and Paul’s stuff a bit, laid it out ready to hang, I folded the shirts, when it got to about 6.30ish we decided it was time to leave, as we were going to Paul’s homegroup at 7pm, which is at least half an hour away from where we were, and we still had to pick up some people on the way, talk about going to be late!!! Anyway, we dashed off, picked up this french black guy in Parrow, bit of a Dodgeville place, he was very cool, and we then headed off to homegroup, only about half an hour late! EVERYONE was Afrikaans, not that I have anything against them, they were all SUPA rad, but I just couldn’t really understand what they were saying hey bru! - especially Wes because he is worse than bad at Afrikaans…LOL. The message was really awesome, but by the end I was so dead tired, I fell asleep on Wessie’s shoulder. We eventually managed to drag Paul away to go, got home, chatted a bit with Paul and Wes, ate some yummy homemade donuts by his super cool mom, and then finally I was able to get to bed, where I just passed out..SJOE!!! night night.
DAY 2 – Thursday. Woke up at 8.15ish, well Wes woke me up actually, with a big hug and a kiss…NICE! Had a bath, got dressed and went to have some breakies and tea, which I was late for, because I had to blow dry my hair darling! We left Paul’s at 9.30am, trekked off to the gallery, and started setting up, lotsa work, HEAVEN’S ABOVE!!! We are now at Paul’s studio again eating a yummy salad lunch just like yesterday, and chilling, hey just like yesterday! Gotta get back to the gallery now though, no real rest for artists these days, or an artists girlfriend for that matter. More later… Ok so later turned out to be a few dots and a space down, but for us it was really more like an eternity, we were there for the rest of the day, I didn’t expect it to take so long, we worked really hard, but it was fun, hanging out with my love, and Senyol, having some laughs, even some disagreements, but nothing we couldn’t sort out easily, we are super heroes after all! We stuck up cool vinyl stickers on the window display, that looked, FLIPPIN RADICAL, if I have to say so myself, well, actually I do, cause I’m writing here! Whilst hard at work we got some really awesome pizza, from this really awesome pizza place up the road, I think called Picasso’s, and Wes tells me he saw So many kiff galleries on the walk there, so many galleries in one road, now that is rad, according to Wes…. We chowed down, and then carried on with the work. Finally, we had enough, around 22.30ish, possibly even later, we were all DEAD tired again, and so ready for sleep, so we left, work was mostly done by now, just a few minor things still to do, but that we could leave for the next day. Wes and I climbed into the back of Paul’s bakkie, to have a Mandoza (that’s a doze or a sleep for those of you who don’t speak my language), we had to stop on the way home to pick up a DVD from Paul’s friend, and then we left for home, aaaah…SLEEP!!!
DAY 3 – Friday We awoke at around 8.30ish, got ready and then headed for Paul’s studio to drop off some stuff, then it was on to the gallery to do some last touch ups. We were running really late by now, I still had to somehow make my cupcakes and cut out all 30 boxes and put em together, inwardly I was freaking out a little, but outwardly, as calm as a goat on a mountain… we finally managed to drag Paul away, where he took us to his mate Justin’s house to make them cupcakes, Pauly still had stuff to do though at the gallery, so he just basically dropped us off and went back, and then the baking and making began. Wes was really great with the cutting of the boxes, while I baked away, and Justin even started helping when he saw the desperate looks on our faces, so that was really awesome of him. We managed to finish in literally the nick of time, SJOE!
We then made our way to the gallery, set up an outside table to sell Wesley’s t-shirts etc, and the cupcakes, and then were able to just chill for a moment and breathe. The gallery was looking stunning by the way, they only finished it like 10 minutes before the opening, talk about HECTIC!!! By about 7.30, it was so packed already, like 100 people all jammed into that little gallery, the vibes, music, people, and scene were just all pumping. We sold so many shirts, even some hoodies and caps which made us stoked. People loved the cupcakes and the radical boxes, really great hit. We met so many cool people, from all parts of S.A, even a brazilian chick who just happened to be at our little church, Hillside, in Durban, the week before, how weird is that!!! Small World!!! Then there was this French guy interested in buying Wessie’s whole wall ….ALL of them, but that turned out to be a schmooze, he wanted a super reduced rate, which is so not fair on Wes, as he is worth so much more, so after a couple days of negotiating, with him not backing down, we said, sorry! its not worth it, and we left that dream behind. But, not getting blue or anything, Wes still did really really really well, that’s 3 ‘reallys’, that is GOOD, he sold a lot of digital prints, even a light box, but more important than that, people absolutely loved his work, which is more rewarding than anything I say.
People finally started leaving, by then we were feeling rather pooped, but also rather hungry, so we chatted and rapped things up and took a walk down Kloof Street, which leads into Long Street, where Paul took us to this cool little restaurant called “Royale”, which was uber packed and vibey, but so a Cape Town thing, so just like true tourists, we were digging it. We ate THE most delicious burgers EVA, mine even had blue cheese…my favourite! And Wessie was supa stoked to see his friend and work colleague, Ian, at the same restaurant, talk about small world…AGAIN!! We then cruised back to Justin’s place to pick up all our belongings, where we met Justin’s other roommate and their friend Howard, who was the funniest guy, he had the craziest hairdo known to mankind (Whoa on the fro), gotta give him a 20 outta 10 for originality! We ended up staying for tea and by then I was so over tired, I just woke up again, and we convinced all the lads to play “I will crush you”, now if you don’t know what that game is, you haven’t lived and need to get into contact with Wes immediately to hook it up. These guys though, being from Cape Town were not the most enthused, so it was short lived, but still worth it. It was then time for us to head home and get some well deserved sleep for the night…zzzzzz Here are some pics of the gallery and the opening nite.
DAY 4 – Saturday. Early rising, as we were meant to meet Monique (the gallerist) for breakfast at 10am at Arnold’s, across from the gallery, we left at 9ish, actually, 8.30ish, rushed to Paul’s studio quick, and rushed to meet Monique, who we then found out was not longer joining us, so we basically rushed for nothing, bit irritating but anyway!! Breakfast was worth it none the less, really yummy, just like all the Cape Town food we had eaten so far, must b cause we were "IN THE CITY” (Paul, you will appreciate that…WORD!). Julian, the photographer guy previously mentioned, and his 2 adorable little boys and a friend of his also joined us for a bit before we bounced across the road at 11am to the gallery, to do the dance about, I mean walk about, but dancing would be really cool. That went phenomenally well (impressed with that big word self!) Wessie and Pauly spoke really well, like true artists. Wes sold another shirt, yay! We then packed up Wesley’s old school bag (I think it is literally from the 1800’s) and all the stuff we needed to take back to Durbs as we would not be returning to the gallery again, and climbed in Paul’s bakkies botha to go back to his studio for a bit.
We bought some cool chow to put together as we were heading to Cape Town’s Central Park to feed squirrels (oh the excitement, I nearly fainted in fact) and to eat lunch. Firstly though, the boys had some business to attend to, so I started writing in diary, exactly what you are reading right now, while they filled in some questions that their friend Will Edgecombe had asked them for an interview in the Mango Airlines Mag…ok hold on for a sec while I laugh, cause that is quite funny, ok, anyway, for them it was cool, and I was proud none the less, but it did take forever to answer them questions, cause they were getting quite into it! Julian the photographer even took portraits of them as they had to send pics of themselves also, he takes really awesome photos by the way, and I definitely recommend him. Eventually we got to leave, to do what... feed little babushka squirrels, OH MY WORD! Aah man, they were so supa cute, we bought lots of bags of peanuts to entice the little runts, which so worked, they run straight up to you and take the nuts from your hand, and even held onto our fingers (tear…), that is so precious, I want one! We fed a damn lot of squirrels that day in central park, cause we had so many flipping nuts.
We drove up the hill a bit to the foot of table mountain, where we went and sat up on a rock next to this beautiful trail (called the ‘pipe track’) on the edge of the cliff to watch the sunset, what an amazing view, aah bliss, didn’t want to leave, but Cape Town gets rather chills vills at night so it was time to get some warmth out of the car, which we did, by driving down to the hill, to the most exciting place of the our whole trip, Camps Bay, where Ice-cream HEAVEN is, It’s called Sinnfull ice-cream, great name, cause that’s what it is, you just want more and more and more and more, the best ice-cream I have personally ever tasted, Candy would be so jealous. Then we went home to eat home made toasted sandwiches and indulge in our AMAZING ice-cream…it tasted like more… glory glory… it was then time for our contented selves to go to bed!!!
Day 5 – Sunday. Woke up for church, got there at about 8.30am. Lots of Afrikaans people, but was nice, really nice church, we sang good worship, even an Afrikaans song, can you handle it? Afterwards it was off to Stellenbosch, where we went to Paul’s friends house, Jaco Haasbroek (Rabbit Pants), we picked him up, then met some other people at the shops, bought some lunch, and giant samoosas, which we thought would be awesome like Durbans awesome ones, but boy were we wrong, YUK! It was then off to the mountains, long drive there, where we found out at the gate to the place we wanted to drive into, that we could not in fact drive in, so it would be merry walking for us, luckily Paul had some extra takkies in the car for me to borrow, just a few sizes to large, but who cares really when you are about to walk up a mountain.
So we walked along the long windey, dusty road to the big deserted forrest, where anything could happen, ooh… we hiked up, and up, and up, for about an hour, it was steep like the price of Lindt chocolate, but so supa beautiful, it was worth all the sweating and sucking desperately for air. Then we got to the exciting part, going DOWN the really steep hill on the other side, we risked our lives as we hung on by our fingernails and toenails to what little there was to grab onto, and slipped and slided our way to the bottom to meet up with the river, the really freezing river, which looked like coca-cola, pity it didn’t taste like it though, but fresh water was just as good.
We sat there on the earthly rocks, straight from mother nature, ate our chip and blue cheese rolls, and chilled by the chilly water. Paul, Jaco, and this other girl, Jenny, swam, and eventually they convinced Wes to take a dip, I on the other hand was not willing for my heart to be frozen over, so just couldn’t do it for mankind. We took some random photos of the Jaco’s cool little stuffed toys he makes himself, aren’t they rad! I took a video of some ants running off with our bread crumbs, the little thieves, and I caught them on camera, ha. It was time to trek back up the hill, to risk our lives once again, this time we decided to take a bit of a short cut though, across the river, so we had to walk barefoot, sheesh kabob, that was beyond freezing, what were they thinking swimming in that there water, we made it across the river, filled our water bottles up with fresh mountain water and carried on our hike back home, along the long dusty road. What an adventure!
We dropped old rabbit pants off at home, where we got to go into his room, wow, so many cool and random things, I spotted his haasbroek shirts that he made, so cool, and decided I had to buy one, so got a pink one. Nice price! It’s all about who you know!
It was then off to Flips for his birthday pudding, flip, that was yummy, excuse the pun. Choc cake, tea and Nik Naks, what more could you ask for. And we met his cute little doggy, that goes bananas when you give him attention, little pie.
Last night in Cape Town, how sad, and it was time to pack our bags, so we headed home to do so. I packed away while Wes and Paul sat on my bed, and we all had a fat chat, then it was time to sleep in our last day in that beautiful place, ay, its so lovely, cant wait to move there, hopefully…
Day 6 - Monday. We are leaving today, bitter sweetness, CT is so lovable, we have done such interesting, different things, such an amazing time. So we headed to Paul’s studio to pick up some art stuff for him, and then made our way to Hout Bay, yay, I love it there. Paul was doing a really kiff mural at this restaurant, so he dropped us at the beach/pier where the most awesome fish place is and off he went to paint. Wes promised me he’d eat fish if it was fresh out the ocean, so we both ordered fish and chips and I waited in anticipation as Wes ate his first bite, wow, first time in our relationship that he has eaten any kind of meat, big event. Shame, but it was really strong for him, so he could only eat half, so while we were sitting there, he threw some to the savage seagulls, who of course went bananas, and they all started flying in trying to take the food from our hands just about, crazy animals, people were giving us some seriously dodgy looks, so we had to stop and spoil all the fun. Instead we took the rest down to the end of the pier to feed them crazy birds, well Wes did, I couldn’t even see him barely at one stage, so many seagulls, eish bru! Then we took a slow leisurely, romantic stroll down the pier, and had a look at all the cool Hout Bay fishermen goodies, and then onto the beach, for another slow leisurely, romantic stroll, right to the other side, we crossed one little bit of freezing cold water then got to another little river part, which we started crossing, but it was just way to deep, we would’ve drowned for sure! so we sadly had to turn back, better anyway cause Paul was on his way back to fetch us. The 3 of us then hopped in the bakkie again and started our way back up Chapman’s Peak, what amazing scenery. First though, Paul took us to the restaurant where he was painting, very cool work, he was doing an awesome job… well done Pauly!
Up Chapman’s Peak, we stopped on the side of the road to look over at the one beach, SO BEAUTIFUL, there were some curios there also, so we had a look see and bought some little gifts. The beach was so stunning from above, water is crystal clear, and sand as white as snow, RAD! We drove back through Camps Bay and passed the waterfront, really awesome, and then onto Paul’s housey again to pick up our bags, said our goodbyes to his mom and dad and headed to the airport - sad time ahead. Paul dropped us at the drop and go, we said goodbye with tears in our tear glands and pushed our luggage inside, not to return back to that wonderful city in a long time. We decided to order some food for the plane as it would be passed dinner by the time we got home, so we ordered from Juicy Lucy, and were waiting for it when we heard a mans voice from above saying our flight number and that it was the final boarding call, and they were going to leave without passengers that didn’t check in straight away. We of course freaked out, pushed our trolleys as fast as was humanly possible and bolted for the check-in, leaving behind our hopes of dinner, which was paid for. We got to the counter, handed in our tickets and asked desperately for them to hang five so we could run and get our food, the lady said “5 MINUTES”, in a stern voice, so Wes ran with his long legs all the way back, whilst I waited nervously hoping we wouldn’t be left behind. Of course he was longer that 5 mins, it seemed like an hour in fact, but eventually he returned from his journey, sweat pouring from his face, looking like he was about to experience a heart attack, but he had the food and that’s all that mattered! We grabbed our bags and jumped on the bus in the knick of time to leave for the plane…whoa… then the excitement was over and the fact that we were leaving hit us again as we boarded the plane, but flying is so awesome, we soon got over it, and then soon got over that also, as we were both so tired by now, so we had a little cat nap, home was now much in anticipation. My dad picked us up at the airport on the other end, then we had to drop Wessie at home, sad to leave him after spending 6 solid days with him, day and night, I LOVE HIM! It was nice to be home though, had an awesome bath, unpacked my gigantic bag, chatted to the ma and pa, then slept, much needed sleep. Back to work, back to reality…SIGH!
And thus ends our awesomely amazing spectacular journey to Cape Town: 8th – 13th October 2008… GOOD TIMES!!!!
