Alright by Cast

Intro:  G#  F#  C#  (x2)

G#              F#                C#
   I guess I’m alright, guess I’m alright,
G#                   F#                   C#
   I guess I’m doin’ fine, guess I’m doin’ fine,
F#          C#        F#             C#
D’y'think I miss you, do you think I care,
F#          C#           G#
D’y'think I lay down and die.

               C# F#  G#
You never even tried,
               C# F#  G#
You never even tried.

G#                F#                   C#
   Now it’s about time, it’s the right time,
G#                    F#                      C#
   If you willed your mind, if you willed your mind,
F#        C#        F#              C#
So fly on swift now, on your journey home,
F#               C#            G#
And you fled the nest now, and you have flown.

                        C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you don’t know,
                        C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you don’t know.

(solo)

                        F#       G#              C#
   Look out to sea, and tell me what we came here for,
F#                 G#               C#               F#
   Is it what they say, or is there more than we can know,
       G#
and if so,
                  C#  F#  G#
Which way am I to go,
                  C#  F#  G#
Which way am I to go.

G#              F#                C#
   I guess I’m alright, guess I’m alright,
G#                   F#                   C#
   I guess I’m doin’ fine, guess I’m doin’ fine,
F#           C#        F#       C#
Can’t see no reasons, for not pushing through,
F#               C#          G#
So make like the wind that’s blowing you,

                      C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you can do,
                      C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you can do,
                      C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you can do,
                      C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you can do,
                      C# F#  G#
Ain’t nothing you can do.

Just by Radiohead – love it on acoustic

C (x3555x)
Eb (x6888x)
D (x5777x)
F (x8(10)(10)(10)x)
Am (577555)
G# (466544)
Eb* ((11)(13)(13)(12)(11)(11))
Bb (688766)
G (355433)
F* (133211)

INTRO:        | C    | Eb    | D    | F    |  (x3)

        Am                      G#                             Eb*    Bb
VERSE 1:                  Can’t get the stink off, he’s been hanging round for days
        Am                 G#                            Eb*   Bb
         Comes like a comet, suckered you but not your friends
        Am                       G#                         G    G#   F*
BRIDGE 1:                 One day he’ll get to you and teach you how to be a ho – ly   cow

                         C        Eb     D                  F
COURUS 1:                You do it to yourself you do and that’s what really hurts
                            C         Eb   D              F
        Is you do it to yourself just you, you and no-one else
                         C  Eb  D  F                 C  Eb  D  F
        You do it to yourself____    you do it to yourself____

        Am                      G#                         Eb*   Bb
VERSE 2:                  Don’t get much sympathy hanging out the fifteenth floor
        Am
         Changed the locks three times
        G#                                  Eb    Bb
         He still comes reeling through the door

        Am                        G#                           G     G#  F*
BRIDGE 2:                 And soon he’ll get to you and teach you how to get to pur – ist hell

                         C        Eb     D                  F
COURUS 2:                You do it to yourself you do and that’s what really hurts
                            C         Eb   D              F
        Is you do it to yourself just you, you and no-one else
                         C  Eb  D  F                 C  Eb  D  F
        You do it to yourself____    you do it to yourself____

SOLO:        | C     | Eb     | D     | F     | C     | Eb     | D     | F     |
        | Am    | G#     | Eb*   | F*    | Am    | G#     | G  F# | F*    |
        | C     | Eb     | D     | F     | C     | Eb     | (F)   |

           (F)           C        Eb     D                  F
COURUS 3:                You do it to yourself you do and that’s what really hurts
                            C         Eb   D              F
        Is you do it to yourself just you, you and no-one else
                         C  Eb  D  F                 C  Eb  D  F
        You do it to yourself____    you do it to yourself____

OUTRO:        | C     | Eb     | D     | F     |  (x9)  

        | C     | Eb     | D     |

Day 8 – Namib desert and Sossuvlei

Even more driving than the day before and so up even earlier but at least it is getting warmer.  Today was a 500K drive and although the drive was long we are starting to get to know the others we are on the tour with and so it is painless enough.

The landscape is pretty barren still and the roads are as poor as you can imagine.  In the van we have the kiwis, Alan and Janice who continue with keeping themselves to themselves but the 4 Italians, Betta and Macro, and, Laura and Giorgio are a good bunch.  Giorgio’s English is the better of the bunch and he’s got a very good sense of humour and so is central to the group. 

At the end of the drive we get to the camp site and are dumped in a pretty crappy spot, we’ll be here for 2 days and go into the desert all day tomorrow.  While the sun is still up and after getting the tents up we dashed out to the first sand dune climb and on the way we pick up the final 6 people who were to join the tour, all Italian but because we’re in a rush introductions are poor. More about this lot later.

The picture below is from the top of the sand dune, this took about 30 minutes to climb and just seemed to go on and on.  The top of the sand dune offered a spectacular view and it was a pity you have to head down early to ensure you get down before you lose the light, though I’m sure we were some of the last down. 

On the way down Ivana did disturb Johnny foreigner who figured that as there was no trees taking a piss on the path was acceptable, he didn’t even stop talking as he whipped it out; unbelievable!

 

Day 7 – Into Namibia

That’s a whole week.

It wasn’t until we were filling in our entry cards that I realised that in fact most of the tour was in Namibia, doh!  Still didn’t change what I knew we were going to see, I just though the last part was in Botswana.  Still, I will get to that later.

If yesterday was a drive an do little day, today was a drive but do a little day.

There was a bit to see and the landscape was becoming very deserted, the roads had become the same, no tarmac, asphalt or bitumen in site.  We drove across the boarder painlessly and it was a pretty nice one as borders go, and impressive rock face and river.  Then we bombed it into the camp, put up our tents and went to see the Fish River Canyon (pictured).

Day 6 – Namaqualand, flowers and tents

Not a lot happened on day 6 and this was really summed up by the highlights below.

We set off from Cape Town early for the 600K drive north and into the country.  We saw a few farms (more farms) and then a few flowers, which at the time I thought ‘great’!

Highlights

• Flowers
• Tents
• 1 Caterpillar
• some impressive landscapes

The night was very very cold and Lucky insisted on a talk around the table, not the campfire, this seemed to go on forever!

 

Day 5 – The Cape of Good Home & Simon Town

Up early to leave our guest house and get a taxi the 800m down the road to our Hotel for the next night, and of course meet the guys we are going to spend our next 21 days with. 

Let’s start with the group:  Alan and Janice, from New Zealand and not a couple.  Nigel and Yvonne, Aussie teachers from Perth.  The four Italians; George and Laura, and, Marco and Elizabeta.  The chef called Darrell and our guide and driver, Lucky.  More about the lot later.

Another big breakfast and then in our truck and start the drive from Cape town down to the most south western tip of Africa.  Great part of the world we saw a shark, a quite big shark, feeding, our first Ostridge couple and loads of birds and little rock rodents and little lizards.

After spending 2 hours walking from where Ivana is in the photo, to the far tip of the head below Ivana, we set of (in the truck) to Simon town.

Simon Town had boulder beach and the penguins.  This was a little bit touristy and summed up by the fish and chip shop where we bought dinner, hardly Africa! 

Then the highlight of the day and the cable car up Table mountain, at least it should have been except the car was down and so we went to the botanical gardens, hardly the same.  Apparently the hot chocolate was good!

Day 4 – Cape town + Robben Island

A quick lesson on Cape town and then a brief history lesson.  Cape town is like all the other South African cities; scared! Scared of crime and in particular violent crime, almost every private residence has a 10 foot fence and where at the top the spikes are ill effective, most fences have 3 rows of electric fence.  It is sad to see, and is as much to do with the effect of fear on human behaviour and affordability of fences as it has to do with reality.  No South African I spoke to had first hand experience of crime, although ‘that is hardly suprising no’. 

As a result of this visitors are all funnelled to the private areas of town and in Cape Town this is the Waterfront which is a collection of overpriced shops and the like.  The Waterfront is the gateway to Robben Island and thanks to a fella from my old work this is where we booked in the morning for the 3pm ferry.  Actually we were very lucky as this tour is booked up days in advance normally, however the Tri-Nations were in town and so by 3pm no one wanted to risk missing kick off.  On this note we saw hundreds of springbok shirts, as you would expect, however, and read into this as you will, all were worn by whites only.

I did get a chance to buy a pair of appropriate footwaer for the tour and this meant I could get out of the Dunlop Volleys and as I sat down to change a begger caught me and asked for the usual.  I said I had no change, you get used to this when you live in a city, and just as I thought he would piss off, he said “how about your old shoes then?”, the bold request earned him a few Rand, a smile from me and a mention here.

Robben island is about 20 minutes from cape town by ferry and in case you weren’t aware it is where Mandella was imprisioned for 18 years.  We got a tour from one of his fellow prisoners who was also imprisoned for political reasons and it was one off the most eye opening tours I’ve ever attended.  We saw the tiny cell Mandella was kept in, but really the fella who showed us arround is what made the experinece so powerfull. I can’t begin to do the story justice but will whack the wiki link here >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

 

Day 3 – Into Cape town by train

A third day on the preverbal road and still no closer to seeing lions.  Train travel beats planes any day of the week, even when there is close to nothing out of the window and it take 20x longer, central South Africa is a whole world of nothing.

Arriving into Cape town was a little exciting, we were late and so were arriving as the sun set and having cruised up to and around table mountain we got a nice view of the slums and sea just before the sun set.  Arriving late meant having to find our taxi in the dark, not a prospect I was looking forward to.

Guest house was a winner, very nice little place and better value than the bigger places.  We hardly ventured out except down to the main road between the guest house and the famous Waterfront area next to which the new World Cup stadium is being constructed. Although it felt largely safe the, cars were all BMWs and the like, there was private security everywhere which was a little unsettling.

Day 2 – Out of Jo’burg by train

Another pretty uneventful day. Up at 8am (midday Sydney time) and after a big hotel breakfast, always is big when there’s a buffet, we had a short wait for the taxi to pick us up and take us to the station.  The station was hectic and our driver pointed out the guys who come in from Zimbabwe to buy food by bus.

We were in the lounge at the station and so aside from our walk from the taxi we saw very little of the centre.  Having got out of the underground station and into the light we left Jo’Burg at dusk, the city is like a big Stoke on Trent except the train line doubles as a footpath and Alton Towers.

Day 1 – The Airport Grand (aka The Apple Grand)

First we needed to get from Sydney to Jo’Burg and I never know whether to love or hate those early flights! Our flight was at 10am and so that’s up at 5:30, but then at least there is no waiting around.  We had a nice breakfast courtesy of our neighbours, Lydia and Tony who were very kind to pop around the night before with a packed lunch; who knows how they knew Ivana hadn’t prepared one.

Flying west always means a long day, so we set off at 10am and landed at about 5pm after 12 hours in the air.  We flew over Antarctic and some lucky window seats saw snow capped mountains and enormous icebergs.  I was not in a window seat.  The long flight wasn’t made any easier by sharing it with the 1969 Aussie rugby squad, all half deaf and all still like VB.

Long day and no sleep until until the Airport Grand, a typical hotel at the end of the runway next door to an industrial estate, were daren’t go out in the dark.

That was the first day of the holiday and our first steps on African soil (tarmac).