Soweto String Quartet - 19th May
We went to see Soweto String Quartet play in Reading, with James and Belinda Austin and Gus Kelly - who we met by chance at HTB about a week after he arrived. WOW!!! It was a real treat. I borrowed an RSA flag hat from Sue and Tim Gush, and Bee brought a huge flag. We met up with Ryna and Lisa Mickelwright at the concert, so we had a real RSA corner going. At interval, this woman came up to me and started talking to me in Afrikaans, and it was so nice…I can't even begin to explain the strange affinity I have discovered for South African's. I mean, I would never associate with half the people I've met here if I were back home, but for some reason I want to be with them. It's a similar feeling to having become VERY patriotic. I mean, back home, I was the first to criticise SA, but here - if anyone so much as glances at me wrong, I get all uppity and defensive about being a SA. And oddly, I feel very protective towards my country.
Anyway, the concert was wonderful!! It was so peaceful and calming and comforting to hear some good SA music again. I could hear the hyena's and lions and see the veld and mountains…very soppy I know, but I really could. It was very overwhelming for me, very sentimental. At one stage fairly early on, SSQ looked up to the balcony where we were sitting, saw the paraphernalia we had and grinned from ear to ear. MAN was that a good feeling! I was so proud to be there, and to be able to connect with them like that. We got to meet them (very briefly) at the end and they signed our programmes for us (along with just about everyone else!). Of course, I had to buy the CD after an experience like that! All in all, it was a fantastic evening, and yet another that I will never forget.
