When you have been to South Africa as many times as Linda and I and stayed in the same locality, it does become a touch difficult to write with any originality because we have become creatures of habit when the cases are unpacked and the first beer or bottle of sav blanc has been uncorked...or in the case of this wine region, unscrewed! Boy is it easier to unscrew a cap rather than have the rigmarole of a corkscrew. I have become a self abuser with corkscrews, having an inate ability to draw blood from some part of my anatomy whenever I have one in my hands! Sorry, what was I talking about?
Oh yes, being boring, unadventerous and as I reflected earlier, creatures of habit.
In reality, nobody who knows me could possibly class me as boring...could they? Unfortunately, if our activity had been tracked by GPS over the past three years, immediately after arriving at Cape Town Airport, the routes, the timings and the places visited would be scarily identical!
First port of call has to be the wine farm at Vergelegen for a breakfast in the outdoors - I have already written about this place in an earlier post. Second place visited is PnP which stands for Pick n Pay, a major supermarket chain here in South Africa which if compared to a UK equivalent would be somewhere South of Morrisons but a little North of Aldi which disturbs me a tad because we now do lots of shopping at Aldi! Shopping at Aldi is an adventure, firstly to try and understand their sell by dates is like trying to crack the Enigma Code and secondly to try and pack your shopping bags quicker than the assistant can scan your goods! A year into shopping there and I am still coming a very distant second!
You don't have that problem at Pick n Pay because this is Africa and things don't happen with any haste and anyway, another assistant packs your bags for you. It's brilliant. It doesn't stop there either because as soon as you exit the supermarket, a parking assistant arm wrestles your trolley from you, pushes it to your car and then loads the shopping into the boot. How cool is that and I am sure that if you asked them, they would drive you home as well. It's difficult to restrict your tip to R5 (that's less than 25p!) which is the advice given because these guys are ever smiling, ever helpful and an example to others. Perhaps in a later dispatch, I will write about the glaring inequalities of this society. It will be a very lengthy post!
Friends? Well we are lucky to be enjoying the company of some of our oldest friends, Ann and Paul, for the next six weeks but yesterday, we met up with some other friends, Kate and Ian Stafford who are visiting the Western Cape for the first time. Needless to say, after only three days, they have fallen in love with it and a further visit in 2018 would appear likely. They aren't the only ones and I will report on future encounters.
As for family, I am delighted to report the safe arrival of Sarah today who will be staying with us until the end of January and should leave the Cape fighting fit because today, we both joined the local Virgin Activ gym and are committed to 7am starts for major workouts for the next three weeks! I have continued since arriving to walk daily but tomorrow morning my activity will move to a new level. What's the betting on pulled muscles or a torn achilles before the week is out?? My daily walk has become something of an entertainment to Paul who says he can track my route merely by listening to the barking of the myriad of dogs as I pass various houses . Let me tell you that some of these dogs are bloody scary even though they are contained behind huge fences topped by razor wire with 24000 volts running through it! I even went past a house today where three labradors looked ready to rip me to shreds and I thoughts labs were cuddly and friendly. Not in South Africa. Definitely bred to kill!!
Final note tonight, the fires are out, the air is clear again and the skies have returned to the bluest of the blue. A mere 32C by late afternoon. Phew!
Meeting Up With Old Friends
Clear Blue Skies Return
Oh yes, being boring, unadventerous and as I reflected earlier, creatures of habit.
In reality, nobody who knows me could possibly class me as boring...could they? Unfortunately, if our activity had been tracked by GPS over the past three years, immediately after arriving at Cape Town Airport, the routes, the timings and the places visited would be scarily identical!
First port of call has to be the wine farm at Vergelegen for a breakfast in the outdoors - I have already written about this place in an earlier post. Second place visited is PnP which stands for Pick n Pay, a major supermarket chain here in South Africa which if compared to a UK equivalent would be somewhere South of Morrisons but a little North of Aldi which disturbs me a tad because we now do lots of shopping at Aldi! Shopping at Aldi is an adventure, firstly to try and understand their sell by dates is like trying to crack the Enigma Code and secondly to try and pack your shopping bags quicker than the assistant can scan your goods! A year into shopping there and I am still coming a very distant second!
You don't have that problem at Pick n Pay because this is Africa and things don't happen with any haste and anyway, another assistant packs your bags for you. It's brilliant. It doesn't stop there either because as soon as you exit the supermarket, a parking assistant arm wrestles your trolley from you, pushes it to your car and then loads the shopping into the boot. How cool is that and I am sure that if you asked them, they would drive you home as well. It's difficult to restrict your tip to R5 (that's less than 25p!) which is the advice given because these guys are ever smiling, ever helpful and an example to others. Perhaps in a later dispatch, I will write about the glaring inequalities of this society. It will be a very lengthy post!
Friends? Well we are lucky to be enjoying the company of some of our oldest friends, Ann and Paul, for the next six weeks but yesterday, we met up with some other friends, Kate and Ian Stafford who are visiting the Western Cape for the first time. Needless to say, after only three days, they have fallen in love with it and a further visit in 2018 would appear likely. They aren't the only ones and I will report on future encounters.
As for family, I am delighted to report the safe arrival of Sarah today who will be staying with us until the end of January and should leave the Cape fighting fit because today, we both joined the local Virgin Activ gym and are committed to 7am starts for major workouts for the next three weeks! I have continued since arriving to walk daily but tomorrow morning my activity will move to a new level. What's the betting on pulled muscles or a torn achilles before the week is out?? My daily walk has become something of an entertainment to Paul who says he can track my route merely by listening to the barking of the myriad of dogs as I pass various houses . Let me tell you that some of these dogs are bloody scary even though they are contained behind huge fences topped by razor wire with 24000 volts running through it! I even went past a house today where three labradors looked ready to rip me to shreds and I thoughts labs were cuddly and friendly. Not in South Africa. Definitely bred to kill!!
Final note tonight, the fires are out, the air is clear again and the skies have returned to the bluest of the blue. A mere 32C by late afternoon. Phew!
Let's hope we are one of your 'future encounters'
ReplyDeleteHi Gill. Be very disappointing if we don't meet up.
ReplyDelete