NOW I got something to blog about!

Being payday, and the first week in ages where I didn't have to bake/cater for a Friday night... we took a wander down to our local Mall (more like city - needs its own postal code) for lunch and then a leisurely shop.

We had lunch, but as we entered the first shop on our to-do list, a voice on the speakers said: "Shoppers, kindly leave your purchases where they are, move to the nearest exit and get to the parking area - the mall is experiencing technical difficulties. This is for your safety. It is not a drill." In other words - Bomb Scare! Nicely phrased.

OK, this is South Africa, and such things should be expected now and then - but this is the first time in all my years of shopping there that we've had a bomb scare. We had a couple of power failures, but generators kicked in so no worries.

Luckily we were near an exit, and got out to where half of Somerset West was milling around - and then getting in their cars to leave. The exit next to ours was cordoned off already with police cars parked outside. Car-guard bloke said the shops would probably close for hours now, and there was nothing to it but to leave.

We were parked way on the other end of the mall, so walked across past long queues of cars trying to get out. We gave it about half an hour until most of the traffic had cleared, and sat in the car to wait (and hope there would be something interesting to photograph, perchance). A private jet did a once-over to see what the fuss was about, a couple helicopters flew by, police cars and fire trucks started to block off entrances, and we left. Still a lot of mall employees standing around, but most folk were leaving.

The roads were completely jammed! Took us half an hour to crawl the 3km to our exit. Still didn't hear any big bangs or spot a plume of smoke, so I guess we either missed it or it was all under control pretty much.

Fortunately we didn't need to buy anything urgently. We stopped at a smaller shop for our contribution to supper in Cape Town (leaving shortly), and that was it. Any other grocery stuff can be done another day.

So that's our excitement for this Friday! That and a partial solar eclipse that has everything looking a little dimmer than normal. What a strange day it's been....

(By the way, this is all my aunt's fault. The last time she was in the area and had supper at another mall, they had a bomb scare there too! She's down here again - hence supper... :) I really think we should urge her to stay in her part of the country)