Chew was no longer our guide.
We were replaced by the owner of a travel agent.
Nice lady but poor woman!
She lacked the confidence of Chew and struggled with her Engrish.
She is Taiwanese.
Let's call her Ms G.
"We are going to the wine celler-lee (cellar) ... we are going to the wine celler-lee... "
I am certain that I was NOT the only one holding back the deep urge to break out into a fit of laughter. Celler-lee? That was when the orientals short-tongue disability to mispronounce the 'r' and 'l' became apparent. And on and on in my head it played,"See sel see sel by der see sor."
Shoot me.
My horns are growing again.
Wine cellerlee a side, AA was far flom implessed with 'er. The golf game ended rate again, AA was hungry (thought she refused to admit it), there was the wine cellarlee to do, we were all hoping for good wea-der (weather) to do Table Mountain, and we had a fright to catch. Yikes! Time was definitely not on our side!
Enough teasing on the 'r' and 'l' thing... back to normal Engrish....
We headed straight for Groot Constantia straight after golf and thinking that we could grab some takeaway food there, we did not stop for lunch at the clubhouse. When we arrived at Groot Constantia, we first entered a little tea-shop to purchase some food. Sorry. No takeaway food available. The restaurant that did have takeaway food was a distance away and the wine tour was going to start in 5 minutes. No time. We headed for the wine cellar for the tour and the tension of AA's displeasure stung.
The wine tour was relatively interesting with a personal guide to explain the wine-making process. Then there was wine-tasting, which I gave a miss due to my unpredictable stomach. There were crackers to go with the wine so we happily munched on it to fill the stomach a little.
After wine-tasting, there was a video-viewing sesson on the history of Groot Constantia and wine-making as well - I think. AA immediately expressed her disinterest as she was starving. We read her hungry stomach and agreed to give the video-viewing a miss - except TWG, as oblivious as he is, enthusiastically agreed to watch the video. I don't think AA's mouth could have dropped any further. She didn't express her objection either and we proceeded to watch the video. I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh at that point. TWG's oblivious ways is laughale, but AA's displeasure was cryable. Good grief!
Right after the video, we brisked our way to the restaurant and I was secretly hoping they do have food to provide the hungry AA. Murphy's law. You guessed it. Need I say more?
That grey expression on AA's face? Not to be trifled with.
Ms G offered to bring us to a nearby place, or perhaps petrol station, to grab some food. By then, AA had lost complete faith in the capability of this woman and I could see the bubble above her head, "I'm going to dieeeee....". Ok... I'm exaggerating here. But you get the idea.
Fortunately, the place she brought us to had a Woolworths there. Knowing AA's love for pastry food, I suggested going to Woolworths and grab some pies to eat. Quick, easy and filling. Should work fine. And it did. We bought the pies and AA's mood started to turn for the better. Phew!
I suspect that Ms G felt really bad about what happened, so she bought some apples for everyone to it. That surprised AA. And well, let's say that Ms G got lucky.... no better way to appease AA than a little freebie. Well done lady!
We continued our journey to Table Mountain. We ate our pies in the van and immediate clearance of grey overcast. It was all sunshine again. Thank god!
Well, at least I managed to learn one thing from the Wine Tour (the only thing actually) :
Due the the lack of rainfall in SA this year, the quality of 2005 SA wines will be of inferior.
Ha! Not bad eh?
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