Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
They invited me to attend the symphony that evening as their guest to which I
gladly accepted. I had to tell them that I lacked formal clothing in my 'wardrobe.' They
told me not to worry and to just come as I was.
Icycled hometotake aquickshowerandselected my'wardrobe'whichcomprised
of a bright blue t-shirt with bright large oranges (given to me by Manie Kitching from 'Ra-
dio Oranje' in Bloemfontein), my beige slacks and my neon green cycling jacket. Francis
didn't say anything as he dropped me off at City Hall but I felt that he didn't approve. As
I entered the hall, the doorman at first wasn't going to let me in. When I explained that the
mayor invited me, he smiled and moved to the side.
I have never felt so out of place in my life. I stood in the center of the VIP lounge
in a sea of black tuxedos. My neon green jacket was a beacon of attention and many were
looking at me as if I was crashing the party. The staring stopped as soon as I walked over
to the mayor to chat with him and felt a collected sigh of relief from the crowd as if they
were saying, “Ah, so Mr. GQ is not crashing the party.”
ThemayorandIwalked intotheperformance halltogether totakeourseats. Asthe
performance was about to start, a lot of people in the audience recognized me (must have
been from all my school visits) and called my name and waved. “Ha!” I thought, “Mr. GQ
could wear whatever he wanted. He was famous.”
At the end of the performance I met the mayor's son and his friends and just hung
out at the post-reception for about an hour. After thanking the mayor for the invitation, he
had his driver take me back to my home.
Not to sound too big-headed, but I sort of became a small celebrity in Cape Town
over my remaining weeks. Because of my media interviews and all the schools I visited,
people would wave to me and shout out my name from either a passing vehicle or from the
sidewalk. I also was stopped several times on the side of the road to chat. Some of these
ledtoinvitationstospeakatvariousclubsortovisittheirhomefordinner.Once,Imettwo
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