That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten ... The Wolf - Pulp Fiction

Harvey Keitel is Winston 'Wolf Man' Wolfe in Pulp Fiction. Even amongst the evil characters of the film he stands out as terrifying. He gets the call to come and dispose off a dead body and the quote above is his reply. He says it with little emotion and dead pan. Brilliant.

This in not a phrase you will here in Cape Town however. Here time is not taken too seriously. Well by true Capetonians anyway. Now that the city has become so much more cosmopolitan, there is a conflict of attitudes. Today there are many more Joburgers living in the mother city than ever before. The levels of frustration they go through every day when making arrangements with ‘a local’ is hilarious to witness.

Typical conversation:

Joburger: “Let’s meet and discuss, what time can you make it”

Local: “Ya cool hey. Well what’s the time now?”

Joburger: “It’s eight twenty eight.”

Local: “Geeez I thought it was only about seven bru. Cool, I can probably make it at about ten. Ya let’s say I’ll meet you there between ten and eleven.”

Joburger: “?!”

Post script: A lot of the make up of the new cosmopolitan Cape Town are foreigners from Europe - model types. Those from ‘The Continent’ are generally more into African time and more welcome than those highly strung Joburgers.