Paying The Price?

I blame it on the coriander rather than the general pigging out I’ve been doing since I arrived at Sun City, but the morning of day five is a less-than-happy one for me. I’m unable to do anything other than curl up in bed, whimper for my mom and fantasise about healing chicken soup. I remain room-bound through the morning, curtains drawn and medicine at the ready, while outside the most perfect day so far unfolds.

I find out later that the crew got a bit of a workout in the morning – lugging heavy equipment cases from the Wave pool to the Royal Baths, then to the tanning pool and then up to the Palace entrance. In all of this, our project manager Julia Pretorius managed to lose several (thousand) Brownie points by getting everyone ‘lost’ in the (er) Lost City’s Palace Gardens and working their muscles just that tiny bit longer.

I can hear Huey and Anthony laughing at the Sun Terrace restaurant at lunch time but even that isn’t enough to convince me to leave the room. I remain ensconced in a sea of pillows and blankets, grateful that the curtains don’t allow even a sliver of sunshine to enter my safe place. Side note: I can report with full authority that if you leave a privacy sign on your door, you will not be disturbed by so much as a whisper, and that my Sun City Hotel bed (room 126, in case you want to request it) is one of the most comfortable I’ve ever been in.

But by supper time, I’m getting cabin fever and feel the need for human contact (and maybe a beer), so I change out of my pyjamas and join the crew for supper. I’m tempted to order dry bread but settle for a grilled chicken breast and a bowl of ice cream. There’s talk of going out en masse to Silhouette, a nightclub located at Sun City’s Entertainment Centre, but… you guessed it. Another ninja bomb, and I’m asleep within minutes – ironically dreaming of clubbing in Ibiza and kissing boys on the beach.

There’s always next week, right?

Author: Ania Rokita