A President, A Model, And A Group Of Snipers Converge While I Curse My Lack Of Stalker Equipment

Above: 100 metres away from a celebrity (and a president) and all I got to show for it was this lousy photo...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at parliament in Cape Town today with his new wife, model and singer-songwriter Carla Bruni.

Unfortunately my people did not inform me that this was happening (and who keeps up with politics these days?) so I wasn't prepared with my film camera and its zoom lens and a stalker position five feet away, so this photo was the best I could manage.

Meanwhile, the snipers, a familiar sight in and around parliament, were out in full force. The president's arrival was greeted with cannon fire, the usual salute when a visiting dignitary drops by, which is a source of constant amusement to the kids at a primary school down the road who always shout "Yay!" as the sound reverberates around the city and then pretend that they've been shot by falling to the ground*.

Carla Bruni, meanwhile, is a constant source of intrigue and fascination (read all about it on that encyclopaedic tabloid for the masses, Wikipedia (I say that with all fondness)). She's an Italian heiress; a supermodel; an ex of Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, and Donald Trump with (to most) controversial views on polyandry; and now a singer-songwriter, debuting in 2002 with Quelqu'un m'a dit, an acoustic-guitar-driven album, in French. (I highly recommend it - it's a superb album.)

*Before you act all appalled at how South Africa's going to hell there's no difference between that and kids playing cops and robbers with toy guns. Also, when I was in Standard three we played a similar game, which we called "War", every break, except we had to imagine all the firepower as the suburbs - at that time - didn't provide it for us (can't say the same thing now).