Havana Nights in Grahamstown

Right, so: it would appear to the layman that I've once again become too well-settled in Grahamstown. This is not true. I have stayed here for two reasons: one, I wanted to sort out my passport and stuff because I've been considering doing some out-of-country travel (nothing too exotic or expensive: I'd basically be going through Africa, if anything). Of course, this particular job was never actually carried out due to a mixture of election hype and my own gross tendency to procrastinate. Go me.

The other reason was that at some point in the past, I promised a friend that I would attend her 21st birthday party. I can't remember when. I may have been raucously drunk after downing half a beer or something (DISCLAIMER: no, not really). It was some time after designing the party invite.

Damn, I'm good.

While my design skills are rather paltry (read: crap) compared to my godlike writing abilities (DISCLAIMER 2: I really am that good) I still like to keep in practice doing odd jobs for people. I received a year of super-duper official training, after all, so I may as well put it to some good use. Here's a higher-res version because I like to show off.

Anyway, enough self-indulgence. I went to this gathering yesterday evening. It was themed “Havana Nights”. Which was really cool. I mean, I had no idea how to really dress, but I decided to use it as a grand opportunity to dress up in my “you look like you came out of a Quentin Tarantino film” outfit, complete with my beloved fedora hat (which, by the way, I'd accidentally left in Grahamstown before backpacking along the Garden Route. I missed it oh so very much).

Actually, this pic was taken the day after. In the same clothes. And very unwashed. Don't ask.

The 21st was very nice, actually. It wasn't one of those typical parties where the aim is to get drunk and dance (those do not gel with me AT ALL) – it was one of those “sophisticated” gatherings with slides, cocktails and speeches. And stuff. I had a great time and all the stops were pulled out to make everybody feel fancy and cool for an evening.

Also: food. And yes, that's a guy in a dress.

I excused myself at about 11pm, shortly after all the main stuff happened. As I said, I don't mix well with all-out partying and even though the main evening was all fancy and stuff, people inevitably got their jollies on afterwards. I decided to have a more laid-back session afterwards and crashed somewhere else for the night. Which, by the way, urges me to post a bed that I have yet to mention:

An actual bed. In Grahamstown. The novelty!

This comes from a spare room in one of my friend's flats. I negotiated it after buying him dinner (his daily withdrawal limit had been exceeded, the silly bugger) and I can fully testify that it was absolutely glorious. I mean, yes, it's a bed, so it's automatically a notch up from couches. But there was such a lovely plethora of blanketry and pillowness that pretty much guaranteed that I could tailor my sleeping experience to just the way I wanted it. Or, very nearly. There was a certain something missing, but I can't exactly figure out what. Oh well. 9/10.