Another Crappy Day in Africa

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town
March 3rd 2008

Published: March 3rd 2008

Well it’s been 2 weeks since we arrived in South Africa, and to be honest we have barely stopped moving.

We are staying a stones throw from the sea and have been taking full advantage either going for walks along the sea front or occasionally have been more active and been running!!

A Day With Brian

Our first Tuesday was the second anniversary (by the Jewish calendar) of Jan's mums passing, so we spent the day with her brother Brian. In the morning we went to Westcliffe beach, adjacent to Boulders Beach and Jan and Brian went for a swim in what was supposed to be warm water, but ended up being cold and even managed to swim near the penguins. Afterwards we went to Jill’s favorite restaurant in the area - the Tibetan Tea house, and followed this by a walk on Muizenberg beach. Here Jan and Brian reverted to their childhood and went on the water slides and had a great time, and generally acted like kids.

That evening we joined Lucille at Kirstenbosch gardens as they were having an art auction, in which one of her friends was selling a number of paintings. As we arrived early we went to the restaurant for some dinner and then secured prime spots. It was a very different auction than the ones Stephen was used to, but was very interesting to see the prices reached as well as, for Stephen, the styles of the auctioneers.

The following day we went with Jan's father to visit the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. For those of you who don't know, this was where Jan was a regular visitor in her younger days, and they are now embarking on a major extension project and the family have made a donation in memory of Jill for the Jill Weiner Pain Unit. We went to see the progress made, and the building works have commenced at a pace.

Dolphins

That afternoon there were sightings of dolphins in the water so we went down to visit a friend who has a house on the sea and watched them frolicking. As it was a Wednesday Jan's uncle, John, was sailing and we have a standing invitation to join him on his boat and we took full advantage. Unfortunately we did not see the dolphins whilst out there, but had a great time, and John decided to take advantage of the hired hands and put Stephen to work.

The rest of the week was spent visiting friends and family, as well as walking, and running on the sea front as well as generally enjoying the sun. However there were very rarely times to relax and do nothing, as everyone seems to be busy here.

On Saturday, we met up with Claire who was over from London due to her brothers impending wedding, as well as several other friends. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant where we had our own area and very great pizza.

A Typical Cape Town Sunday

Jan's father traditionally spends Sunday morning up the mountain or on a trail. Unfortunately for us the second part of his tradition if he is leading the walk is getting lost on the mountain! As it proved this day. We went on the contour path and he could not find our way down, leading us around in circles. eventually the path was found and he asked a German tourist for directions of the mountain!

We decided to spend the afternoon with friends and Jan's cousins David & Ruth on Camps Bay beach, taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine. Several of the group were hardy souls and decided to plunge into the cold Atlantic waters, however Saul and Stephen were more sensible.

That evening, after Stephen was recovering from watching Chelsea loose to Spurs in the League Cup Final we went to Anthony’s lovely house for an impromptu braai (BBQ in English).

Design Exhibition

On Monday we spent the afternoon with Jan’s gran Freda and went to the annual Indaba Design Exhibition at the Conference Centre. This was a really good exhibition of modern design in South Africa and we kept loosing Freda, and whenever we found her she was happily talking to a stall holder or anyone else. We found some wonderful jewelry; one piece quickly became her fathers’ birthday present to her.

Township Tour

We decided from our arrival that we wanted to do a township tour, and were picked up by Charlotte to take us to Langa - Cape Towns oldest township. We arrived and were met by Timberlakey (or Tim) who took us on a walking tour of the township. He showed us everything from the hostels where there are 3 families staying in one room, to the refurbished one family hostels and even the Beverly Hills area, where there are nice houses. All of these had proper floors and ceilings, but the final homes he showed us were the ones that people think about when they see the word Township - self made shaks with dirt floors and walls and floors made out of scraps found.

The tour was finished off by seeing the community centre where they have several educational projects for the kids and was very impressive.

Jan's Birthday

As we are talking about Jan her birthday had start energetically, with a 7am walk along the seafront with Lori, whilst Stephen went for a run instead. After a quick shower and change we met Lori and Brian for breakfast.

This was followed by a trip up Table Mountain, as for South Africans it is free to use the cable car on their birthdays. This was the first really hot day in about 3 (indeed it had rained heavily during the week) and the queues were horrendous. However as it was her birthday and she did not want to wait in a queue Jan went to find someone who would speed up the process, and sure enough we were allowed to queue jump. Just below one side of the mountain was a layer of cloud which gave the whole mountain a wonderful atmosphere. The mountain was followed by a family lunch.

That evening was Claire’s brothers' wedding which was held in the gardens of Kirstenbosch, which was a really lovely affair.

1st Anniversary...4 Years on

Finally Feb 29 arrived we had reached our first wedding anniversary 4 years after getting hitched. During the morning we went to see a play held in adderly street fountain which was directed by Ruth, Jan’s' cousin.

We decided that for our fist anniversary we would have tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel, where we were married. There was loads of food, as well as a complimentary glass of something sparkling upon our arrival. We took the opportunity to walk around the gardens seeing various places from our wedding.

From there we went to a private game reserve just to the north of Cape Town called Clara Anna Fontein. We were met by Pauline and shown our private cottage. It was a lovely 2-bed cottage with dining and lounge areas. We were then asked at what time we wanted dinner, and had a few hours to relax and wander around.

After playing on the owners’ kids’ trampoline we had a lovely dinner made by Pauline, and we surprised to discover that we were the only people there for the night.

The next morning we went on a game drive to see the animals that they have on site, as well as to simply admire the views. We have come to the conclusion that wildebeast are actually very ugly!

Darling

After the game drive, we headed off to a small town called Darling. This is the home of Evita Bezuidenhout aka Pieter-Dirk Uys, a South African Dame Edna, but with a very cutting satirical edge, constantly commenting on the ludicrousness of reality and politicians (as he says they provide his material so does not pay taxes, but royalties!) He/she? was very funny and Stephen managed to get most of the jokes, having been constantly stealing Lucille’s newspapers.

That evening we went to see a conceptual art show, which started outside and we were escorted inside. Jan loved it and Stephen once again realised that cutting edge conceptual art was not his cup of tea. Afterwards we went to a friends house to meet some of their friends.

Another Sunday

Being Sunday again, we struggled out of bed at 7 to go for a 4-hour walk up the mountain, however the main difference between this week and last week was that Ronnie did not get lost!

During the afternoon Claire, Saul & Jan went on Saul’s powerboat, and we had dinner with Jan’s father.

All in all a pretty hectic time and we have Lara & Paul’s wedding next week and are then going to Kruger for the Easter weekend.

We will write after that

PS the reason for the title is that whenever you speak to people during a nice hot day they say 'Another Shi**y day in Africa'