May 30th

May 30th

A Man After My Own Heart

Shaklain and Alison (from the South Africa Team) picked us up this morning for a trip to Sun City. We stopped at Shaklain’s parents house for brunch and to meet his family – including his wife and 2 years old son. Who was a little shy with 5 new people in the hosue but warmed up to us as we were leaving…

Shaklain’s father told me that when I reach the point that I want a big diamond to give him a call and he’ll work through his network to find me one – I like him already ;). The also offered that we now have extended family in Africa and that we’re welcome anytime. We told Shaklain to be careful what he says because we just might take them up on the offer – especially with their place in Cape Town and the boat.

Sun City is an interesting place – like a Mini Las Vegas. And Shaklain is a man after my own heart because he found us the hook up. He got in touch with the PR woman and got us into one of the private, ritzy hotels in Sun City. You’re not allowed on the property unless you’re a “Resident”. Rooms on the low end go for $3,000 rand a night and the high end $15,000 rand a night ($450 US - $2,200 US). And it was beautiful. I could have stayed at the pool all day long. Shaklain told us that some wealthy South American had rented the hotel for his wedding a bit back. Geez.

A bit of the sites were closed at the hotel for renovations – as it is their “off season” and one of the places Shaklain wanted us to see in particular was off limits – however he worked his magic and pulled out the sheet of paper from the PR woman and got us in to look around. The power of PR people – gotta love ‘em.