“If music be the food of love, play on” William Shakespeare - Day 389

“If music be the food of love, play on” William Shakespeare. Music and food. What better way to bring people together.

We went back to visit my friend's Dad Keith and Cicely to have lunch and Tim helping with a few garden chores. We caught up on the past week’s activities; Keith had a busy week, including meeting up with old colleagues from 27 years ago. He still remembers many of their names.

Cicely arrived, and we immediately informed her that she was renowned in Darling. She looked quizzically at us. We shared that our lovely hosts, Janet and Charles remembered her from when she lived in Stellenbosch. Her eyes widened. “Oh, Janet” and then preceded to tell us about Janet’s incredible cakes that she made. (We did thoroughly enjoy the muffins she baked us.)

We sat down for a simple, yet tasty lunch and had a hearty discussion about writing, the demise of publishers and the growing trend of self-publishing and self-marketing. It must be challenging for people who have been in an industry for so many years and then, suddenly, due to either globalisation, technology or both, things change. I shared with Cicely how I did Michael Neill’s “Create the Impossible” project and in little over 90 days got my book into 22 countries (all in English I may add). She was fascinated to understand more, and I shared that a couple of my learnings was through lateral thinking and the power of compound interest.

I admire Cicely, despite being a professional writer for 50 years and being far, far more experienced than me, she was interested in learning new ways. And at a time of her life when many of her contemporaries have started to stagnate. As Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

Time was ticking, we needed to get to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, not to see the plants, that’s for another day, but to see Mi Casa at the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts there. Our friend Sue had suggested the gig to us, and we quickly booked tickets before they sold out, with not a clue what kind of music they played! Now that’s trust for you!

Here we were relaxing under a brilliant blue sky with the odd fluffy white clouds contrasting against the dark green towering Table Mountain as the backdrop. Wow! The packed crowd around us was completely diverse, age, colour, and gender. Fantastic, just as it should be. All enjoying this time together as one happy group.

Mi Casa came on with a big cheer from the audience. They were brilliant; their easy listening soulful urban jazz was catchy and great to boogie to. Crikey, I am such a luddite, I’d never heard of them and have now done a bit of research, they performed for President Barak Obama at his inauguration! Keep up, girl!

The three-member band had such great rapport with one another, they really looked as if they were enjoying themselves, With Dr. Duda on the piano, Mo-T in his bright stripy shirt playing trumpet and had some great moves on the dance floor and J’Something, the lead singer, who had great charisma with the audience, bellowing out his soulful tunes. They had, what I assume, session musicians who all seemed to be part of the band joining in the fun.

Tim and I were shaking our hips and tapping our feet for the majority of the performance. There were a group of four young ladies to our right who spent the majority of the time taking selfies or videoing themselves dancing. I must admit that quite a few times I was photobombing in the background. I wonder if they noticed the mid-aged lady with the cheesy grin behind them!

And when we got back to our Airbnb, the music continued as Charles had sent me a link to a youtube clip of The Crossing – Friends of Johnny Clegg with a note “Enjoy every bit of our rainbow nation performing”. Recently over 50 artists collaborated and recorded their own version of one of Johnny Clegg’s songs as a tribute to him. Sadly he is dying from cancer and they wanted to surprise and thank him for all that he has done for South Africa, not just the music, but also his constant determination to bring people of all backgrounds together, even in the days of Apartheid, going against the law for his beliefs, which I imagine are for equality, freedom and love.

What an incredible man. In 2012, he received the Order of Ikhamanga, the highest honour a citizen can receive in South Africa, and two years later he was given the OBE for his “unique service to the arts, vulnerable people, children and democracy in South Africa.” More research, more listening to fabulous South African music, more learning about incredible people who care about this country.