Hangover in Cape Town.

On my first morning in Cape Town, I sat down at Vida e Caffe and opened the newspaper. I don't normally read my horoscope, but this one stood out. Cape Times, June 2, 2007, "Leo (July 23-August 22): An auspicious term for resuming contact with special friends and foreign connections, with a view to setting up a reunion. If you already have a journey arranged, this should be an ideal time for successfully settling the details." The coincidence of reading this on my first morning back in South Africa, hours before a scheduled lunch with several old friends, was startling to say the least.

While this horoscope bodes well for my brief return to South Africa, my first day in Cape Town actually had a rather inauspicious start. I spent the morning painfully hungover, consequence of the beer, margaritas, and tequila shots I had taken the night before to celebrate my return. After slowly drinking my long-awaited Vida latte (and forcing myself to finish a bottle of water, which for some reason my body was rejecting despite its dehydration) I walked up Bree Street to Frieda's, where I eventually settled on a bowl of muesli and a bran muffin as being the most curative option on the menu.

Maybe in sympathy for me, the city itself seemed to be suffering a bit of a hangover as well. It drizzled cold rain all day, and the cloud cover in the City Bowl was so thick that Table Mountain remained entirely concealed.