My time at home in Cape Town was an amazing experience and I feel like I have rediscovered what it feels like to be a South African.

In the last week I visited an area in South Africa called Langa. I spent sometime chatting with some of the locals. I’m a massive fan of a singer called Brenda Fassie – she was very famous in South Africa but passed away a few years ago. She was born in Langa and some of her family still live there. It was amazing to look around the area but also very sad as the level of poverty is very high. I also visited a local day care centre which runs on public donations and the children there performed the national anthem and even did some dancing!!

I went to watch a football match at Cape Town stadium. It was the South African national team Bafana Bafana vs USA. The atmosphere was electric and I even got hold of my own Vuvuzela!!

I also went Great White Shark diving which was a very strange experience for me. I was quite calm throughout the whole thing, even while I was underwater with the sharks. There is something very magnificent about them – like they are the Kings of the Ocean, they are absolutely humongous! We saw three different sharks and the largest was 4 feet long. I have a video to put up which I am still working on so look out for that soon. The best part for me was spending time with family as I hadn’t seen them in almost 6 years! It was so nice to spend time there and I’ve realised now that Cape Town will always be my home and that I am very proud to come from there. It was very difficult to come back from the warm sunshine to the freezing cold but with all the excitement coming up in January I was very pleased to come back straight into rehearsals and other Boy Banned madness.

Howzzzit London, UK…world!!?? I’ve been in my home town for 5 days or so now and it has been incredible. The first day I walked up Table Mountain and Lions Head in one day – I was just so keen to see it all! Today I literally jumped off Lions Head with a parachute and went paragliding around Cape Town. It was so chilled out and it was almost like I was flying with the birds as they sort of follow the glider as we fly along. For about 10 minutes we gently soared through the mountains and then went over the sea for a bit. Then the thermal winds which crash into the mountains took us higher and higher. I waved back at people as they waved from the top of Lions Head. The instructor then warned me of an upcoming G Force experience as we quickly desended to the landing point at Clifton Beach in Cape Town. Wow!! It was incredible!

So far my trip to Cape Town has been amazing, it has been truly inspirational and has really reminded me of who I am. Seeing my family after so long as been lovely and I’m really looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I am missing everyone in the UK and can’t wait to get back to start promoting with the band for when it all kicks off January.

I will do another update very soon! Hope you are all enjoying the freezing cold – it’s baking hot here!

Love Darrin x