durban july - with a cold

It was a tough call this year, whether to go down to the July with a roaring cold. The airline nazis at Mango took away my medication and tissues as I was sitting in the emergency exit. Guess people with colds are public enemy number one. which would include the whole of joburg at the moment. Ears blocked up completely while we were flying and didnt return to normal until we hit the ground. a balmy 25 degrees greeted us, hurray for durban. off to our hotel the new quarters hotel in avondale road stone's throw from the track. after getting our accreditation myself and fellow journos rushed off for lunch garlicky calamari at mamas. the most woes chilli in the whole of durban which was wonderful for the sinuses. dammit the oufit from african mosaiquewas so good i had to recover and not be rudolph the rednosed reindeer. after a well deserved two hours in bed and having to circumnavigate the Victorian spiral staircase with my suitcase (which was just for show as i discovered there was a regular style outside one)!!. then it was dinner with designer friend gideon who had redesigned his house. it looked amazing. his partner Gianpaolo had raided the paint shop and painted the furniture in wild colours in lacquer paint. the wall paper was emerald green interspersed with another contrasting floral strip and face-decorated plates over that. the kitchen was voomah orange and Gianpaolo had gone Alezssi -befok. lovely cats and dogs and oscar the cat sat in my lap and made me feel better. visi would have been inspired. kind gids took me to the pharmacy for a cocktail of berocca and corenza c which worked like a bomb. except it kept me awake and the skanks who arrived at 1am at the hotel reception under my room and then roared up and won slamming doors and shouting till 5/6am did not help. No skank was going to spoil my race day and i got up and was off to the hairdresser. had thoughts of going to the birdpark to steal some bright orange pheasant feathers as the 30s vintage hat needed them but gids said there were no feathers to be found in the whole of durban! hairdresser gave me all the dirt on the bad behaviour in the carparks and on the tracks. joburg not alone in its skank quota. It was a fabulous day (read my column in The Citizen Cheek to Chic for all the details). Did NOT want to leave Durban all the love and good weather. Why let a common cold spoil all your fun?