Friends Reunited

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Ahh Cape Town, we love Cape Town.

There is just something so special about a city dwarfed by a huge flat topped mountain and surrounded by beautiful bays and beaches. Marissa obviously has affection for the place, as not only was it the location of many a childhood holiday, but many close friends and family still live there. It was also where G and I had a fantastic holiday 5 years ago so it felt great to be back (and even better that G was back too - this time with Shaaron). We had over 2 weeks in a great city with some great company ... Happy Days.

The first period was spent catching up with peeps, taking it easy and working on letters for the New Years Day message - a hard life. It was also the run up to Christmas. I have to say, Christmas never really feels the same in the sun; you don't seem to notice the decorations. We did spend a lovely Xmas Eve around the Richard's Braai and spent Xmas day on Llandudno beach drinking Champagne and eating a top class picnic, but it just wasn't like the over eating I am used to!

Shortly after Xmas Ivan arrived for his 2 week holiday and we really stepped up the sightseeing. Over the next week we climbed Lions head, played putt-putt at Green Point, drove to Cape Point (stopping off on the way home to visit the Penguins at Boulders Beach), walked around the Table Mountain top, celebrated New Years and went wine tasting.

Ahh the wine tasting ... he he ... so much fun. This involved a short road trip and an overnight stay in Stellenbosch. We chickened out of the full day of tasting - 9.30am was even too early for me to start drinking. So we were picked up at midday by minibus, we had five vineyards and 1 cheese tasting to pack in before evening. Our bus was also carrying 4 very entertaining Dutch guys who were determined to make the most of the tastings. It all started off very civilised for us though. We had a notebook where we were going to write down every wine we tried, mark it out of 5 and also collect some notes about what our different pallets liked. This was pretty successful at first, with comments such as:
"Ivan enjoys the smell of Cabernet Sauvignon"
"Marissa likes old world Chardonney and New World Sauvignon Blanc"

However, as the day went on the comments became less sophisticated:
"Ivan's pallet is evolving & he is no longer sure he likes the smell of Cab Sav"
"James is disappointed by all the Shiraz's and is now talking only in the 3rd person"

After the 3rd tasting, our driver overheard us talking about New Years plans. He was trying to push a Psy Trance party on us, and so for the rest of the day we became the Psy Trance Wine Bus - pumping out a thundering noise, waving our fists in the air as we meandered around beautiful Cape-Dutch winaries. Class! I'm not sure that is the traditional way to do it, but we all had loads of fun, tasted some great wine and cheese and even bought a few bottles to see us through the rest of the Cape Town trip. The wine must have been good, as our new Dutch best friends persuaded us to go to an International Women's hockey game that evening - with Germany (sporting a beer advert on their butts) losing to the Dutch.

The whole excellent Cape Town jaunt was rounded off nicely by Marissa and I doing tandem Paraglides off lions head. I thought Cape town looked amazing from the ground, but floating above it the views in all directions were simply stunning. The whole experience totally RULED.

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This Week Likes:
*Flying like a bird above Cape Town
*Seeing some familiar friends - at last Marissa had some decent company
*G and Shaz's internet connection - thanks guys! It was great to be able to Skype with some of you back home. Especially a Cape Town - Cricklewood - Queens Park - Bristol conference call!
*Boschendal Chardonney/Pino Noir 2006, Boschendal Grand Van Blanc 2006 and Fairview Merlot. 😊

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This Weeks Dislikes:
*The freezing sea around Cape Town. Fabulous beaches is one thing, but it would be ace to be able to swim too
*Missing out on the Ellis family Xmas. I hear there were some "Strictly Come Dancing" impressions this year - maybe a lucky escape afterall.
*The poor attendance at our NYE event, such a shame as the venue in the foot of the mountain looked great, just 1000 tickets short. We should have got the hint when everyone we spoke to in the run up said they didn't make a big deal of New Years in Cape Town.

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Elbow Update:
Swelling has reduced, but still limited movement. M wasn't able to surf or go on the waterslides with the others, but at least Paragliding involved no use of the left arm!

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Photos

Oh Be-have!
We were thinking of running a caption competition for this one ... all comments welcome.

Penguins
We couldn't come to Cape Town without visiting the penguins at Boulders beach

Peroni Boat
Views of Cape Town from the sea at sunset with unlimited bubbly - how could we go wrong

Putt Putt
Not quite the golf plans we had for Cape Town but I was delighted to still be able to play putt putt with the dodgy arm

Merry Xmas!
We spent Xmas on the beach with a picnic of my favourite Jewish treats

And we laughed and we laughed
Hope you liked the new years greeting. We definitely had a lot of fun creating the letters.

The End of Africa
Your bloggers chilling at the Cape of Good Hope

Babooooooooon
The advice we later received was to ensure all car windows were tightly closed upon sighting a baboon - instead we were winding down the windows frantically to get the best shot!

... and then we went wine tasting!
Around the table with our new Dutch friends.

View From Lions Head
This is where we took to the skies and floated down to the beach below in a paraglide

Paragliding
Amaaaaazing!

Childhood memories
Back to the beach were I spent many a summer holiday as a kid - and one of the few beaches in Cape Town where the water isn't freeeeeeeezing

Allllllllllllllllllllllllright!
Making the most of the waterproof camera on the Muisenburg slides. As you can see they don't worry about safetly much here!

Comments

[Joools]

Oh so jealous ...
... well guys, it all looks amazing and remarkably, my bitterness seems to be waning ... which is somewhat strange given that I'm at my lowest ebb for quite some time. This January really has been a killer but officially only 48 hours to go. Will definitely start planning my South America jaunt as soon as this hell is over and already planning a two week trip round the canyons in Nevada, Utah etc. in June and a 2-week trip to China in October - so life could be worse ;-) Keep up the blogs - always great to hear from you - and some of those photos will look ace when blown up and framed! Jx

[Tony Blair]

Your Country Needs You!
Now, look kids. I'm down wid you an' all dat but don't you know there's a war on? You can't go galavanting all over the globe when your country is in the middle of it's noble crusade against the axis of evil, the greatest threat mankind has ever known... ever. We will not rest until everyone with a beard, with dark skin, with creepy eyes, a funny name or even large sheets wrapped round them has either been bombed into the next world or else had their arms twisted into believing in the rightness of our cause. (And I believe Merissa will testify to the wisdom of the arm twisting.) So, although you might think Iraq was more than enough, let me tell you that Iraq is just the beginning. We have a lot of work to do and we can't afford to rest - or, more relevantly perhaps, play - until our mission is complete. Come back now and join me, I beseach you. Your Eternal, TB