Come on, Terence,” said Harry, “don’t you know about the Hannover Fair?”

“In Hannover, Germany?” I said. “Exactly,” he answered.

Harry took another sip from his teacup. “You and Willy must go there – to find a machine which coats plastic with a mixture of paint and sodium metabisulphate.”

“Willy?”

He pointed. “Dr Holst. It’s his idea.”

We greeted. Willy also had a cup of tea.

“Can I have a cup of tea?”

Harry took another sip.

“We’ve run out,” he said sadly.

“Our tea is measured using a tot measure,” said Willy by way of explanation.

The Hannover Fair is, guess what, in Hannover, Germany. We had to fly via Dusseldorf and catch a train to Hannover. Here, we would get a taxi to the hotel. We hoped. We found a taxi and gave the driver the hotel address. He frowned. No GPS.

An hour later, we were still in the taxi and darkness had fallen. We finally found the hotel. It was about 90 km from Hannover. Apparently, Harry, giving instructions to the German travel agent, had advised that he would not pay more than €100 a night for our accommodation. So he had told the agent, “Find me the nearest hotel to Hannover which is less than €100 per night.” The agent duly complied. So, Willy and I would have to take the train to Hannover.

Willy’s family came to the Cape in 1680. They were German bakers, the head of the family being, surprise, Wilhelm. The male Holst line has hardly changed in image: they are medium height, stout and look very, very German. Only Willy is Afrikaans and cannot speak German. Harry had asked me how my German was. I said better than my Spanish and worse than my Zulu. I told him I could say “Wache! Nicht schießen . . .”, since my father had taught me this (it means “Guard! Don’t shoot!”) Harry said it was probably all we needed.

The following morning, we left the hotel. At the railway station, there was an immediate problem. Willy looked so German and I so non- German that the lady at the ticket counter addressed all her queries to him, all in German:

Ticket lady: “Hello, sir! Where to today?”

Me: “We are to Hannover going and coming back. Two first-class coming back.”

Ticket lady: “Very good!” And to Willy: “Where are you from?”

Willy (to me): “Wat sé sy?”

Me: “Sy wil weet vaarvan afkom jy.”