Africa, Page 3
Phillip continues to regale us with his close calls in the Bush and now we're dying to go on Safari and experience it for ourselves. But there's worked to be done and Meg, Ryan, Paul and Matt have to do it. Meg is the Creative Director/copy writer, Ryan is the wafer thin Art Director, Paul is the cherubic producer from the agency and Matt Badger is the British director who I have coincidentally met at an "acting for directors" seminar. It's a good crew, and a young and lively one. To see these people cast models is hilarious or deeply troubling, depending on your perspective. They pour over headshots of models, scrutinize video footage and make the most insensitive and sidesplitting comments that can be made about the human condition.
Their work done for the day and another fantastic meal in our bellies, Jason drives us like a mad man to the casino outside of town. It's a large casino and the draw is massive. It takes us fifteen minutes just to park and make our way in. Now Matt is a master gambler and I've always sucked at it. My quintessential casino memory is losing all my money in the middle of a Bahamas vacation with my younger brother, Mike, and having to starve for three days. So I devoted myself to watching Matt play and learning.
But we are a group and we decide to all play blackjack together. The five of us play, the dealer wins. Next round I get a pair of aces and Matt says, "you gotta split it," I do so and draw another ace and Matt says, "Split it again," but he's yelling it this time and I pony up more money to cover my three bets and before you can blink, the dealer is sweeping my chips into the hole. "Bad luck, that," Matt says in his British accent. "Can't believe you didn't get one face card. This place is bad."
And so it is until we go over to the roulette table. Now, I love roulette. Along with Baccarat, it seems so James Bond but previous outings were exercise in seeing how fast I can lose money. But the dollar is strong against the South African Rand, 1-8, and I'm betting 10R a shot (roughly $1.40). But I don't bet one number, I bet intersections- covering 4 numbers with one bet, and I do this with 4 or 5 chips per spin. And for the first time in my life, I'm on a winning streak. We're up. We're up again. Again. Then, we're down. Then up. I spend thirty minutes on the table and leave having tripled my money. It still doesn't make up for what we lost in 2 minutes on the blackjack table but for once I feel like a winner.
Okay, so this isn't chronological. You'll just have to roll with it. Next up on our high adventures was the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain.
Once at the top, Ryan and I decided it would be fun to Abseil or repel off the mountain. I had repelled off a 30 foot cliff about 20 years ago in the Boy Scouts and thought no problemo. This was a 200 foot repel from the top of the 3000ft high mountain. As with most things of this nature, the first moments are always the hardest.
The cliff face. Dave and Ryan wait for the repelling belayers to arrive.
I will post a video page soon for you to see all the dramtic footage.