Another year ... another birthday ...

Maybe its the only child in me that feels the need to celebrate birthdays ... but given that i'm now at an age where most people would rather forget they've become a year older - i've compromised on having just a b-day week rather than insisting on celebrating all month ... so it was all rather fortuitous that my friends jay and bindee chose to share their honeymoon with us in south africa ... legitimising all the fun i wanted to have ...

On the actual day ... i had a relatively muted event ... dinner with a few mates at a rather lovely restaurant overlooking crashing waves ... the waiter informed us that less than an hour before - James Bond had been sitting at our table filming his latest movie .... he was apparently now safely ensconced in the penthouse suite of the attached boutique hotel .... sadly his security guards were unmoved by my pleas that birthday kiss from the delicious Mr Craig would make my day - perhaps even year - complete ....

But then under the pretext of needing somewhere to drink the large bottle of Oban that Peter had given me as a pressie (needless to say - i didn't receive a single non-alcohol related present ... birds of a feather ...) - we all decided to go away for the weekend ...

Kersefontein has been singled out as one of the world's 5 top luxury farm stays .... promising that "This is one of the most authentic, unusual experiences to be had in the country -- to be hosted by what is effectively a South African aristocrat in his beautiful Cape Dutch farmstead, a national monument." We were excited .... not least because the dinners there are so famous in CT that people drive up from the city allegedly just for the company .....

We arrived after several stops at the wine farms en route .... to this gorgeous old rambling farm .... on the banks of a river seemingly trapped in a glorious and rather romantic time warp - i felt like a heroine on a film set .... just waiting for the waggon trail to come in ....

We watched the sunset ... played with pigs ... chased cows and peter tried to smuggle some cats ... we ogled the farmhands heaving bales of hay .... and drank more ..... before heading through to the main event of the whole weekend .... the much vaunted dinner .....

We walked in a little awed by the whole place (for instance on the way to the grand dining room you pass the skull of the last Berg River hippo - shot by the first owner in 1876 after it bit his servant) .... the current owner fancies himself as a bit of a Renaissance man - his business card reads ‘Farmer, Pig-killer, Aviator and Advocate of the High Court of S.A.’ He was a rather eccentric host .... in order to aid intermingling - he seated us all at dinner .... and then plied us heavily with wines from his cellar ... before producing a huge roasted wild boar ... shot just hours before in the wilds of the west coast .... nothing like a bit of hunt and chase to make meat delicious ...

I wish I could say the dinner was a huge success .... but really its just made me learn that i shouldn't take my friends out in public AND let them drink at the same time .... Shaun managed to pick a fight with some idiot sitting opposite him .... Peter was fending off advances from some woman who seemed to have forgotten to put her bra on that evening .... and poor Jay whilst sitting next to his new wife .... found himself between a couple who clearly thought we'd all put our car keys in a bowl at the end of the night and swop beds ... and spent the evening controlling both his admirers and placating the fuming Bindee ....

The dinner rounded off by the very camp Julian trying in vain to lead a sing-song around his piano .... but the darkies were having none of it .... and Jay was living in terror at what fate might befall him if he stayed too long .... and so we crept off to our own fireplace and had our own late night whiskey-fun .... and rather shamefully - thats where my memory ends .... the bottles the next day pointed to a great night .... its clearly the one thing good about getting older - you know whose company you prefer ....