We all try and be as punctual as possible, but sometimes traffic gets very stressful. The desire to pull over, put our feet up and have a cuppa is almost overpowering but we soldier on.

So 25 years ago yesterday, Madiba was released from Victor Verster Prison. As you can imagine, huge crowds gathered to celebrate his freedom at the Cape Town City Hall, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But Nelson had other ideas, instructing his driver to make an unexpected detour. This from the Mail and Guardian:

[Mandela] was later found sipping tea with his shoes off in a quiet Cape Town suburban home, his driver having made a detour to avoid the “crushing crowd” outside the city hall.

“I was wondering what had happened to you chaps,” Mandela said.

It was the last of three short stops he made that day in the more than one hour he went missing.

You wise old owl, Madiba. It’s almost a scientific fact that a cup of tea, kaalfoet, has soothing properties. The waiting crowd worked themselves into a frenzy whilst they waited the main man’s arrival, and when he finally arrived the sun had long since gone down. The Mail and Guardian again:

When he finally made it, it was so dark Mandela had to read his speech by torchlight with a pair of borrowed reading glasses, his own having disappeared in the rush of his release.

Oh how we miss this great man’s presence more and more every day. We really do miss you Tata. Barefoot teas all round in your honour.

[source:m&g]