In the spirit of community I slipped letters under all my new neighbours' doors urging them to be kind to my cats and to call me up if they like. Now: asking a Capetonian to call you (especially by slipping a letter under their door) is about the same as spitting into the wind and hoping it will transform into a piece of cheese. That's right people, it's just not going to happen. Well, true as bobbery, my one neighbour called me! (She turned out to be from Jozi though, and so my world can keep on spinning and the planets are still aligned.)
What a nice yet tiny lady. Her head reaches all the way up to my thighs when she stands on her toes on top of a chair. She has electric blue eyes and her jeans must be a size -0. Freshly divorced she moved into my block 3 months ago to be closer to her new lover who's an ah-tist. That's how she says it, with that look that says "he's really exotic-like, you know?" She's a feisty little ball of dynamite, I'm sure she drives men completely crazy. The smallest little hot elf lady I ever did see.
We drank Rose and talked about men and art and Afrikaans people and Melkbos and sales and Christianity and all and all whilst her two kids watched Ice Age and complained about how loud we were talking. More Rose, more talking. She has great furniture, the kind that sidles up to you and says "hi" in a languid kind of way that makes you wonder why you don't have the same couch in your house because it seems it just utterly belongs there.
Now I'm not big on kids but hers are kind of sweet. The little girl had two stick on tattoos on her arms and was wearing silver shoes with heels. Her little brother was falling happily all over the show and eating his food off the floor with glee whilst we sipped Rose and giggled.
Nice lady, nice kids, nice neighbours! Praise be for that. Naturally no one else called. They must all have been living in Cape Town for longer than 15 seconds and known that it would be downright wrong to communicate with me in any direct way. I've seen some of them though. They duck and hide, but they can't get away from this sharp Mama. Right across from me is a Korean family whom I've seen only snatches of, but they seem really kind even though it sometimes feels like they spend their days cooking too much garlic and play ping pong past the reasonable hour. That sound... it could drive one over the edge.
Ok, so there's one part of a new story. I've made a new friend. Now all I need is a couple more I guess. Then the fab new job and the hot new man.
Any day now people...
(The view of Table Mountain from Bloubergstrand.)
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