I was very impressed with Vodacom this weekend. I was having hassles with my account and told them I didn’t want to deal with any of their normal operators. I’ve been in Plett and told them I wanted them to send me their “number 1.”

Who do I get?

Michael de Pinna, the genius lead character in the “Yebo Gogo” Vodacom ads.

Michael had never heard the Michael Flatley joke

This was not posed
That was how we sat, for hours.

It was a good afternoon. We discussed various topics, from Randall Abrahams to a possible hit single collaboration between ourselves (Michael, a gifted singer), Goldfish, The Dirty Skirts and Rupert Mellor.

He also told me about de Pinna’s, his fabulous executive guest house in Johannesburg (comes highly recommended from friends who have stayed there). CLICK HERE to see the de Pinna’s Guest House website. Given past invites and successful stays at the likes of Le Quartier Francais (here, here and here), Michael promised me a weekend at de Pinna’s to discuss our various collaborations. Sounds wonderful!

Naturally we also found a moment to toast Vernon Koekemoer’s milestone first birthday.

Gelukkige Verjaarsdag, Vern.

And, as an added bonus to this already incredible article, you can click here to see a list of how to say “Happy Birthday” in a number of languages!

It’s never-ending, really.