One thing that strikes me wherever I travel in Africa is how happy the majority of people seem. Despite any hardships, they seem genuinely pleased to see you and talk to you. It's a strange situation where in shops, bars and restaurants, a lot of the time the staff are the most friendly and helpful that you could ask for, but they obviously haven't received European or American customer service training. Yesterday I headed down to the V&A Waterfront for a beer while reading some of my book and watching the views over the harbour. The bar I chose had about 50 tables outside overlooking the harbour. The tables were busy with a mixture of tourists having a drink, locals meeting for drinks after work and people having an early dinner. At 5pm the waiting staff started removing the parasols over the tables. This involved closing the parasol and then lifting the 6 foot pole and rolled up canvas, up out of the hole in the middle of the table and lifting it all over the table and storing them by the wall of the bar. Back home, they would have started with the empty tables and then removed the parasols from the other tables as they became free - not here… With smiles on their faces they just turned up to each table in turn and removed the parasol. If a family was half way through dinner, no problem, they just moved the plates a little to the side reached over the diners and removed the parasol! The rule book obviously said the parasols were brought in at 5pm and therefore that's what they needed to do. Doesn't matter if someone is in the middle of dinner. But, the staff were so friendly that no one objected. I know which one I'd prefer - the genuine friendly approach that's a bit clumsy at times, or the fake American 'have a nice day'…