Morningside is the Bohemian suburb of Durban and sex on the sidewalk an evening occurrence in the sultry summer. I am of course referring to the orgies of flying ants that dive-bombed the cleavage of those Durbanites who turned out at Harvey’s restaurant for the first KZN Good Times function last night. Having ants copulating inside your Thomas Pink as you neck duck magret on the pavement set the tone for an evening of hedonistic excess that could have ended up partying with Neil Roake (Life’s a Beach Cottage, Modern Museum, 2007) and friends at Ball Bag Bulimia (a local late night club), if an early flight to Cape Town had not been on the cards.

Neil Roake

Winemaker Jacques Viljoen from Kuilsriver winery Zevenwacht supplied the wine and Andrew Draper the morogo-stuffed chicken breasts on madumbi (yam). (“Waiter, this olive’s stuffed. Bring me another one.”) And it was an inspired match, as Jacques’ rich Tin Mine white blend 2007 recalls the turn-of-the-last-century mining operation on the farm that employed Herman Charles Bosman’s dad as miner. HCB shot to fame as SA’s best short story writer, publishing his early masterpieces in the Sunday Times, so the choice of Zevenwacht was suitably symmetric.

Jacques Viljoen

While Oom Schalk Lourens is his best-known creation, HCB also was the first person to translate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, that 11th century Persian mathematician, mystic and fakir, into Afrikaans. Quatrains like “A Book of Verses underneath the Bough / A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread – and Thou / Beside me singing in the Wilderness – / Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!” pretty much summed up the evening. Now to persuade Mike Dobrovic to translate the rubaiyat of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi into die taal.

Andrew Draper

Ps. Uncorked has been reliably informed that the correct name for Ball Bag Bulimia is Bean Bag Bohemia and we apologize for any confusion caused.

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