Since I was completely exhausted last night and couldn’t stay awake long enough to write my journal entry, I did that first thing this morning. Sue was itching to go for a morning walk early enough to miss the heat — the forecast high for today was low to mid-30s. So after I finished my entry and my first cup of coffee, out we went. We headed to the V&A Waterfront — we wanted to find out how far ahead we’d need to book the ferry out to Robben Island, something we want to do together with Robert and Arlene when they join us here at the end of the week. Looks like a day or two before we want to go should be okay.

After wandering around the waterfront we found ourselves on the boardwalk leading back to Sea Point. The views of the waterfront, the big shopping arcades, the huge stately V&A Hotel, the big soccer stadium, and a backdrop of Table Mountain — stunning. Lots of people out for a walk, a jog, a sail, and an impressive number of cyclists and cycling groups. And of course, lots of folks enjoying Sunday brunch at the restaurants and cafes that lined Beach Road.

We made our way around the coastline until we got back to the lighthouse and then headed back home through the park. We passed the big stadium again — the parking lots around it had quite a few cars and even more busses parked there. The sound coming from the stadium sounded more like preaching than like soccer or track-and-field cheering. By the time we got home and were sitting down to our bacon-and-egg breakfast, the strains of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and“Nimm Zeit Dir Zur Andacht” (I’ve forgotten the title of the English version) were echoing up to our balcony from the stadium. All I needed now was a quick lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup, a bit of golf on the TV, and some medach-schlop.

But no, we decided to take Peter’s nice Volvo out for a spin on this Sunday afternoon. Destination? How about up to Milnerton, where there is a new golf course right alongside the ocean? It’s HOT today, not a lot of wind, and traffic won’t be too bad. Okay.

And it was a great day to drive the convertible with the top down. What an amazing car! Sue pushed a button on the console and voila! the roof of the car lifted up, divided into sections, and lowered itself into the open trunk! Das tut automatic! Passersby stopped and stared! Yeah, we’re cool! “The name’s Bond — James Bond!” (If my video didn’t take so long to upload I’d show you how the same thing happens in reverse when you press the ‘top up’ button.)

Luckily we’d put a bit of sunscreen on our schnazes. After stopping in at the golf course we continued up the coast to a place called Table View, a west coast suburb of Cape Town. You can probably guess why it’s so-named. We parked at the roadside parking lot and took a quick walk down to the beach. Yikes! the sand is hot and the sun even hotter! Quite a few families are out on the beach; surfers on the water — and we’re quite sure we also saw a couple of dolphins playfully racing with each other — jumping right out of the water.

We didn’t stay long. We drove the 30-minute drive back to our apartment. We parked the car and made a quick trip to the butcher shop to pick up some sausage (to go with our cheese and crackers for ‘coffee break’) and a couple of rib-eyes to braai for supper.

While Sue quickly finished reading her bookclub book, “Slade House”, I watched a couple of documentaries on Netflix: first “How to Live on a Dollar a Day” (a couple of Americans try to survive in Guatemala on the average daily Guatemalan income),  followed by “Cowspiracy” (all about how bad the beef industry, okay the animal agriculture industry, is for the planet and for humans). Yikes! That won’t make the steak barbecue today taste any better!

Just as I lit the barbecue I heard a crash and a guy swearing loudly — so I went out on the balcony to witness a (probably drunk) old white guy get physical with the black driver of the car the white guy had bashed into from behind. Idiot. A taxi driver and another tenant here both got involved (and the black taxi driver also got pushed around) before they dispersed.

That little Webber barbecue on our deck does a pretty good job on a piece of dead cow! We sat out on the patio and enjoyed our (last?) piece of beef. The outside temperature was now perfectly comfortable.

By 9 o’clock Sue had supper cleaned up and we were back in our seats. What should we watch tonight? I found CBS Sunday Morning online and we watched that. A short snippet from CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

At 11pm we’d completed another Sunday in Cape Town.