January 13, 2008. Pine branches, which I picked up behind the Christmas tree sellers for the holidays, have been standing at my place since the 20th, if not the 15th of December. That is, almost a month. And they will stand for another two days. After all, in Russia, we celebrate the 'Old New Year'! By the way, we celebrated Christmas in the Russian way too. I don't know whose idea it was—Kirill's or Stas's—but since both of them were working on New Year's, we planned the joint celebration for the 7th. I took two weeks off starting from the 7th. Vitya and I planned to go to Pretoria. But for the sake of this event, we postponed the trip to the 8th.
SAYING GOODBYE TO KATYA
On the morning of the 7th, first of all, I called Katya. Her time in South Africa had come to an end; she had to go back home. Finish university. Think about what to do next. Her flight was in the afternoon. I wanted to say goodbye. Katya had been complaining a month before her departure that she hadn't even left yet, but she was already missing Cape Town. If you think about it, I have little more than two months left. I already miss this city too. Vitya tells me that he will miss the Cape very much and will return with tears in his eyes. Katya didn't say that, but I was convinced: she would be sobbing on the way back. It's understandable: in a year, she had built a whole life here. She got used to it. She liked it here very much. She fell in love with this city.
I gave Katya a gift. As a keepsake. We hugged, saying goodbye, a little longer than usual.
— Katyusha, you were my best friend here! I will miss you so much!
— Won't have anyone to fight with? — Katya asked with a smile.
— Well, we didn't really... I think we got along quite well!
— Well, you didn't fight. But I did with you sometimes.
— You just love to fight!
— Imagine, my bag is three times bigger than me!
— And that's what I told you! Ten days before departure — and you went and bought new shoes!
— You, damn it! — Katya hit me on the shoulder in a friendly way, and we laughed.
I waited until she went up the steps, waved goodbye one last time, and left. Katya had to pack and get ready; in an hour, James was supposed to pick her up to take her to the airport.
In a year, Katya managed to do a lot here. Of course, she would have liked to do much more. But that's life! And it's impossible to do everything wherever you are. AND YOU DON'T NEED TO!
She had long been persuading me to go to Devil’s Peak. After all, in a year, she never visited it. On the 4th, she, Vitya, and I climbed up there. I decided that I wanted Katya's dream to come true. To say 'yes' to a dream, especially the dream of a friend.
JANUARY SEVENTH
On the 7th, Vitya went to an internet cafe in the morning. From Katya's, I went to SASTS, with the same goal as Vitya. We agreed to meet at the SASTS office at 1:00 PM. At the Waterfront cinema, they started showing the movie 'Yes Man' with Jim Carrey—one of my favorite actors—in the lead role. We went to watch it.
Afterward, we returned home, went to the store for groceries for the holiday, and went to Kirill's. Our friends were already waiting for us. Vitya and I bought ourselves cool stylish hats; I put mine on for the occasion. We dressed well, in our best and newest clothes.
We cooked shashlik. Sveta—Kirill's girlfriend—made salads. And she made pelmeni! How happy we all were about the pelmeni!!! Especially since they turned out great!
There were seven of us in total, matching the date of the holiday: me and Vitya, Kirill, Sveta, Stas, and Anshen with her brother Nez.
We returned home after midnight, not having eaten even half, but full and satisfied. In the morning, Vitya and I had tickets bought for the train to Johannesburg (Johannesburg; but it seems Johannesburg is the more correct name).
