Charles Apple

Given that I spent the better part of the past three months in South Africa, I’m excited about the movie Invictus that opens today.

The picture is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. And man, does it look like it’s going to be terrific.

A.O. Scott of the New York Times writes:

It is hard to think of an actor or a filmmaker who so cleanly embodies a single human impulse in the way that Mr. Eastwood — from Pale Rider to Mystic River, from Dirty Harry to Gran Torino — personifies the urge to get even.

Invictus is to some degree an exception, a movie about reconciliation and forgiveness — about the opposite of revenge — that gains moral authority precisely because the possibility of bloodshed casts its shadow everywhere.

Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post writes:

Morgan Freeman doesn’t play Mandela as much as inhabit the man, in a performance that seems to embody the very transcendence that Mandela himself has come to stand for. Freeman captures with perfect pitch the inner workings of a man who, put in charge of a country still ravaged by the still-fresh violence and injustices of apartheid, sees an opportunity for healing in the rites and rituals of sport. His job is to forge within the black community a sense of identification with a mostly white team that for years has represented oppression.

The climax of the movie, presumably, will be the moment when the politically wily Mandela put on a Springbok jersey, uniting the country — blacks and whites — behind the national rugby team.

Here’s a photo from when it happened, in 1995:

Here it is, recreated for the movie:

And here is the actual jersey itself, on display in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg:

Call me silly, but it gave me a thrill just to see that jersey, back in October. And it gives me a thrill to see Matt Damon examining Mandela’s cell on Robben Island, just as I saw it back in September.

Oh, this movie is going to be so incredible. Please watch this scene:

We have company this weekend, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to see the movie myself. As soon as possible, certainly.

I hope you enjoy it, though.

So when I left you last – nearly 24 hours ago — I was preparing to board a huge South African Airways jet bound for Washington’s Dulles airport.

Although we had already passed through security, we passengers were pushed through yet another checkpoint at the gate. This is because U.S. requirements are so much tighter than those of other countries, we were told.

Problem is, it’s a big plane. With lots of passengers. And there aren’t nearly enough guards to make this an efficient process. So the line grows to enormous proportions.

Somehow, I actually got pulled aside for a patdown and a carry-on spotcheck. I enjoyed the patdown — hell, some people pay good money for stuff like this. But when the guard opened my carry-on bag, he took one look at the crap I had tossed in there, rolled his eyes and zipped it back up. So much for security.

This was the front of my plane:

About where the A straddles the windows — that’s where I was sitting.

And, yes, the aircraft had wings and engines, too:

Once again, my clients sprang for a business class seat. Man, these things are comfortable. And that comfort multiplied when no one showed up to take the seat next to me.

A row to myself!WooHOO!

As you can see there, the first thing I do is pull off my shoes and change into my travel slippers. They might look goofy, but they’re very comfy.

Our flight was delayed another half-hour, though, when two passengers didn’t board. Their luggage had been checked and loaded, the captain explained. So they had to go into the hold, track down the bags and remove them from the plane.

Once we got off the ground, the entire country of South Africa got together and offered me a wonderfully generous going-away present: The most incredible sunset.

My nice Canon Digital Rebel was packed away, so I had to shoot these with my “backup” camera, Sharon’s Kodak EasyShare. Take my word for it, the actual colors were much more vivid than this.

I had been telling everyone I had a 16-hour flight from Johannesburg to D.C. but I was mistaken — it was more like 19 hours, including an hour on the ground in Dakar to refuel and to change crews.

I read an entire book — Born Standing Up, an autobiography of comedian Steve Martin. Plus, I watched two movies: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (which sucked) and Land of the Lost (which sucked slightly less, but only slightly).

And I got some sleep. A lot of sleep, actually. Which was fabulous.

We arrived in D.C. 20 minutes early. Going through passport control was much easier this time than it had been in September, mostly because of the new luggage Sharon bought me.

Richard Curtis — who retired from USA Today a year ago this month — met me at the airport for breakfast.

It was great to see him again. He was the last guy I saw when I left, too. I’m very lucky that Richard bookended my trip for me.

I’m writing from gate A1, surely the grungiest of all the gates here in Dulles.

At least it’s not crowded this time.

And normally, it’s quite warm in here. It’s rather chilly at the moment. Probably because it’s December and I’m wearing short sleeves. I only brought one jacket — a sport coat — and it’s in my checked bags. Which, at this very moment, are either being loaded on my plane or on a plane for Timbuktu. Even money on which.

I’ll be in Norfolk by 1:20. And man, am I looking forward to seeing Sharon and Elizabeth.

So my last day In Johannesburg was relatively uneventful. I blogged last at mid-afternoon, I believe. I spent the latter half of the day packing two months’ worth of crap into my suitcases:

I had intentionally left quite a bit of space so I could carry stuff back. Although it looks quite bulky here, I’m glad to report it all fit with plenty of room to spare.

Granted, the books were heavy. But at least they fit.

Here, the Telkom tower in Hillbrow peers through the window and into my mirror as I pack:

And, from the window of my hotel room, here is the tower itself, catching the final rays of Sunday — Day 61 of my stay here in South Africa:

Sunday evening, I drove over to the home of Tarina Coetzee, one of my very friendly hosts here in Johannesburg. She threw a party at her home to commemorate my time here.

We sat around a table out by her backyard pool. Which looked awfully inviting. I kind of wish I had “fallen” in.

One of Tarina’s three cats knows exactly how to use that big pool:

I’m telling you, that’s a big cat. He makes my own fat cat back home, Bones, look like… well, skin and bones.

Business artist Elsolet Joubert showed up with her her husband. She gave me a parting gift from her and another artist, Anton Vermeulen — a beautiful scarf woven with the colors of the South African flag.

Also there was Jaco Visser, the very capable editor who wowed me with his eagerness to research and write some of the wonderful huge megagraphic ASFs we’ve been running in the business section the past couple of months.

Adri Van Zyl was there. She’s a business reporter who worked with Elsolet on a nice big piece that ran Sunday.

And my pal Lauren Thys, a copy editor, came as well. She’s been pulling double duty lately, working her usual job in biz while also working Saturdays for the sports section.

I posted a number of photos of her the day of the big rugby game — most of them were of the back of her head.

And then, here’s Tarina. She went way, way out of way a number of times during my two months here, picking me up at the airport, loaning me a cell phone, chasing down medication when I found myself struck with hay fever.

We had a ball Sunday night. I can’t thank everyone enough.

So Monday, I slept in a little later and finished packing my bags. Note the GPS unit, still in its little blue bag. I’ve taken it out only once — and that was to photograph it for the blog.

Getting to the airport was a breeze. So was checking in — as opposed to the huge lines I endured coming back from Cape Town a couple of weeks ago.

I went down to the enormous food court here at O.R. Tambo Airport…

…parked myself at Spur and had a nice steak for lunch.

—
UPDATE

Man, this airport is nice. Just gorgeous. And they know how to move people around, quickly and efficiently. Just in time for the World Cup, too.

Click this montage for a much larger view:

Going through security and passport control was a breeze. I remember from last time, though, they’ll run us through another security gauntlet as we board our plane.

The gate areas here are lined with shops, stores and restaurants. Even the cheaper ones look upscale, which lends a classy touch to your whole experience here.

Hell, take out the gates and the security checkpoints and you’d have a damn nice mall here. I ducked into that store above to pick up a couple of last-minute Christmas presents for my nieces.

And I can’t stress strongly enough how soccer-crazy the entire country is in preparation for the World Cup next June. Here is an officially-licensed FIFA store, just waiting to suck rands out of your pocket:

Speaking of rands, I somehow ended up with an embarrassingly large amount in my own pocket… and stashed in various compartments of my briefcase. When I stopped by the newspaper this morning, I was given an envelope containing a fairly large amount of cash. Trouble was, I still have cash left over from the last time they reimbursed my expenses, a couple of weeks ago.

With no hope of spending that much in the six hours before I departed and with no way of depositing it into my bank account, I needed to to find a currency exchange to convert it all to U.S. dollars. Finding a place is easy in an international airport. But the amount worried me. And most of it was in small bills. My fear was that they’d think I was a drug dealer or something.

Luckily, they didn’t — as you can probably guess; most South African jails don’t have wifi, I’m told. I was on my way fairly quickly.

By this time, I was in a heavy sweat. Usually, a sign I’m dehydrated. Not good. So I stopped for a Coke Light, but decided I’d try a couple of these instead:

Yep, that’s Tab Cola. It was pretty much phased out in the U.S. in the early 1980s with the advent of Diet Coke. I like the taste of Tab much more than the South African Coke Light.

Unfortunately, they didn’t serve it cold. Arrrrgh!

As I write update this, I’m minutes away from boarding my plane. We depart at 6:10 p.m. Johannesburg time, which is 11:10 a.m. in Virginia Beach.

My flight schedule:

That six-hour layover in D.C. shouldn’t be too bad. It takes a while to go through U.S. passport control, I learned last time. Plus, I’m told I’ll have to check in for my flight to Norfolk to get a boarding pass.

Richard Curtis says he’ll meet me for breakfast in Dulles. He saw me off on my trip out, too. I’m looking forward to seeing him again.

I’ll see you guys Tuesday!