One Night in Bangkok … ah, Joburg!

Recently work has been getting busier every day: New projects, urgent memos, data requests and sector reports come in by the hour; newspapers and magazines have started to pile up on my desk and often I only get a chance to read Monday’s paper on Friday! So it should come as no surprise that by Friday, I am ready to leave the office and completely forget about work!
Last Saturday, Nicolene’s birthday party presented the perfect excuse to spend a fun weekend in Joburg and forget about sectoral rescue programs, collusion in the retail sector and changes in food price inflation!
I decided to drive to Joburg early to keep Nicolene company while getting ready… this turned out to be an excellent idea because her housemate Katlego had not only opened a lovely bottle of wine, but also started a Braai! So while Nicolene and I beautified ourselves, KG made sure that our tummies were full and our glasses never empty – what a service!

Nicolene had organised a Salsa lesson for the first half of the night, which was a great idea as a lot of people didn’t know each other before. So while struggling to remember basic Salsa and desperately trying not to step onto each other’s feet, we got to know each other and into the mood for more dancing! When we were all salsa’d out, we moved on to Movida, one of Joburg’s finest clubs! The whole place is decorated in dark red velvet and satin and looks a bit like a posh brothel – especially as “Moulin Rouge” was showing on a big screen over the dance floor! The music was great, people chatty and everyone was keen to abandon Salsa for some normal dancing and we soon took over the club!

Pretoria’s a fantastic city, but unfortunately not blessed with a lot of nightclubs. So I loved hitting the dance floor and time flew by! When I first checked my watch it was already way past midnight and a lot of people had already left us – Losers! Nicolene and I partied on ‘til the early hours of the morning! Happy, exhausted and with bruises on our feet, we returned to her flat just to find that the boys had struggled to eat all the BBQ’d food… needless to say that Nicolene and I crashed out on the sofa and attacked some food while gossiping over the night!

I had such a great night out, but Sunday morning was probably even better - I treated myself to a holiday on Nicolene’s balcony! I spend hours sitting in this amazing oasis in the center of Joburg, listening to the sound of birds, enjoying the sunshine and reading my book… the perfect way to spend a Sunday and soak up energy!