It is always fun going away, even if it’s for work. And even if it’s Joburg.
One of the interesting things is staying somewhere different and meeting new people, and sometimes, animals or other creatures of the night.
Not long ago I Boeing-ed up to the Big Smoke for four days.
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Ironically, I did not actually see any smoke or smog.
The weather was beautiful and a welcome relief from the coast’s chest-pressing humidity.
The B & B we stayed at was a tiny oasis in the concrete jungle, a charming spa retreat with a zen-like calming garden, complete with river (okay, okay a bit of journalistic license here – an aesthetically pleasing storm water canal would probably be a more accurate description!)
I met a new friend on the first night.
It was a moonlit evening and so I decided it was worth taking a few moments to enjoy the cool air.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man near the building, standing absolutely still.
I was sure he had seen me, but he remained immobile.
Then I saw something strange – he had the biggest, shiniest head of any person I have ever seen.
It looked like it was made of marble. Which … it was.
I laughed out loud when I realised it was a garden statue, admittedly a very big one.
I half expected my new friend to in my laughter but he just maintained his stoic, 1000-yard stare in complete silence.
Two nights later some of my colleagues also had a night garden ‘scare’.
One suggested she had heard an ‘other-worldly’ guttural growl coming from somewhere among the plants.
Being journalists, they could not resist the urge to investigate and set off by the light of a cellphone torch. They found nothing.
“That was no frog or anything I have ever heard before,” said one.
The next morning another colleague straightened things out, explaining it had to have been the feline forager she had seen earlier in the day.
“It was a cat with an electric meow. It’s the strangest noise I have ever heard a cat make, but that’s the best way to describe it,” she laughed.
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