SA Roadtrip - Durban

Durban 28 - 31 August

As Elangeni  had functions in the room where we were due to set up, this was a free day – the last for a long time!!  Got up fairly late, had a sumptuous breakfast and walked along the beach.  Efforts to get my computer connected were mostly unsuccessful because of problems with SMTP settings for Cell C and even when I eventually used the hotel logon, I still could not send e-mails.

The room was supposed to be available at 5pm but when we arrived there we were told that this was not the case and that we would have to wait until the function was finished. “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be long – its mostly ladies and speeches”.  The speeches went on and on – we had some food  and the speeches continued.  Eventually at around 11.30 pm they told us that we could go in.  By this stage we had moved the equipment into another room close by but now had to move it into the function room and set it up.  Ethan was the DJ so he took the Disco equipment – which included putting together a large dance floor made up of small squares which had to be fitted to reflect PEP stores and their new logo – and Corbin set up the sound.  It should be noted that (with the exception of Corbin) we had never seen this equipment before and there was a lot of equipment that was not even required for this function.  As a result we spent the first hour or so going through the boxed and deciding where the equipment had to go.  Paul (the guy who ran the equipment and operational side of the show) had provided some layouts of where he wanted the equipment to go in the room so we had to work out which equipment was which before we could set it up.  I assisted Ethan with the setting up of the dance floor which turned out to be a major operation as it had never been put together in this format before.  Once that was completed we needed to put up two large screens, wire up two overhead projectors, lights and a large backdrop.

To cut a long story short we eventually finished at around  5am and got some shut eye before a meeting scheduled with Paul and 7am.  When Paul arrived he immediately went on a major rant.  Complaining about the way that the cabling had been done, the exact positions of some of the items on his diagrams.  As is the way with people who rant, no sooner had he found one problem than he found 10 others.  Of course, while it was true that the sound wiring was a mess,  none of us had any idea of exactly what was required so we bore the brunt of his fucking this stuffing that and how useless we all were etc etc etc.

It was clear that the ‘fun’ part of the trip was now over.

The function went smoothly  and Ethan’s disco went well in the evening.  We had to be there at 7am next morning to remove all the cabling and to re-do it and to be honest this was necessary.  As the senior person I guess I should have checked the cabling but I had assumed that Corbin was aware of what was required as he had worked with Paul before.  Anyway, it is true that once it had been re-done there were a large number of cables that we had used that were not actually required (a definite no-no in sound engineering)

That day’s function started at around 1pm and I had to assist Paul as I would be doing the sound in Bela Bela.  Once it was finished (at around 5pm), the second vehicle arrived with the second crew of two.  The main guy there was Dean who is a lecturer at the tech in audio production and a rapper by night.  His assistant was David who lives in Imizamo Yethu and originally made contact with Paul when he did some painting at his house.  Dean is very man about town and (like Corbin) takes a keen interest in anything that moves in a skirt (or that could wear a skirt)  Both claim to have serious girl friends.  We had to assist with the  set up their function in the Durban Casino having earlier picked up some equipment that had been flown in to Durban.  This was a similar set up to ours but a bit smaller (no dance floor thank God).  Even with 4 of us working we only completed the set up at about 9.30 so when we returned I was starving (not having had any food that day!).   We checked in with Paul and he had started striking (breaking down) our system (in the dark as the disco for the function was still running).  I went off in search of food – the main buffet closed at about 10.30 so I ordered room service (R170 for a steak – a lot to bay but it was a great steak!) .  Slightly refreshed I returned to find  Paul ranting again about how much time I had wasted having dinner and I should have ordered the food to be delivered to the function (which is what the other guys subsequently did).  Striking the equipment took us to around 2.30am and we had to load it the next morning to go to Bela Bela.

We had an early start – around 7am – loading the vehicle – not an easy process as all the equipment was on the first floor of the hotel and had to be brought down in the lifts which were in use.  Finally completed the job by around 9.30 and had some breakfast before setting out on our journey.  Corbin had to drop something off at the Casino (where Paul was about to run a function) and then the bombshell.  We would have to swap a CD player (which was in a rack right at the back of the vehicle) in Joburg and go to collect a car radio in Pretoria.  To add to this, the car was sending out regular beeping alarms which made the journey irritating.  We stopped off along the road to try to find the source of the alarm (as well as sending off SMSs to Paul to try to find the solution).  After 3 hours or so, Paul came back telling us that there was a switch on the dash which would get rid of it – fortunately it did!!  I SMSed Paul to let him know that it was unlikely that we would get to Joburg on time but he insisted that it should be possible.  In the mean time we had to phone Joburg and Cape Town to try to get the player.  Of course in a van this size – getting an average speed of 100km/h is not possible not to mention the numerous stops for tolls and at least one stop for fuel.  We eventually came in to Joburg at around 5.45 (the shop having closed at 4pm and the sales person having arranged for a CD player to be collected in Durban.   We still had to collect the radio in Pretoria (Lynwood).  To my surprise, Gertrude (our GPS) insisted that I take the M1 (instead of the R21) to get to Pretoria.  She then told me to come off at halfway house.  Pretty sure we were going wrong, we followed her directions and she took us to the (now closed) equipment shop.   We were then unable to enter the new details to get us to  the exact location (a Toyota dealership). So we just went to Lynwood.   We got to Lynwood road, and had to drive up and down, asking at petrol stations and eventually found the dealership.  The Salesperson there was supposed to have left the radio with the night guards – but of course it was not there.

So on to Bela Bela.  We arrived at around 8.30, checked in and had a meal at the Spur (all meals covered by PEP and the Spur was where we were to eat for the next 12 days.