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Published: December 4th 2006
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Feb 13
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone; the shops here seem to be as eager to get your chocolate covered money as anywhere else in the Westernized world. Everywhere I go there are teddy bears and specials on pink lingerie…just like home.
Weather: still lovely.
Views: still beautiful.
Still messing around with various bits of paperwork: I WILL get Internet access this week, I am DETERMINED.*
It’s been a rough week for Maggie; while she had been feeling reasonably confident of her schoolwork, she was also beginning to challenge the system, in some ways without even realizing it. Still, I think that the whole experience will be incredibly important in her growth, and she still amazes me with her insight and logic.
She seems to be making friends; was invited out by some girls Friday night and seems to have made some connections. Fortunately/unfortunately kids can’t drive until they’re 18, and even then they don’t automatically have access to cars, so parents are expected to drop off and pick up. It can mean a late evening for mom and dad; it also means that the evening can end at 12:00 and that’s that. We’ll see what happens when she befriends a few more 18 year olds. Right now she is really enjoying the opportunity to sit around in a place somewhat like a bar, where the beers are about $1 each, and they can dance or play pool or listen to live music and not have to hide the whole experience from the parents. It’s liberating for all of us, really.
We had a fun time on Saturday; we took the train into town to check out the Grand Parade market. The Grand Parade grounds are left over from when the “Castle” was the primary military fort, and the soldiers would parade on the large plaza area in front of the Town Hall. The Castle is now a museum and event location; the Parade is a parking area and marketplace on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There is a lot of imported Chinese crap there, but the big attraction for Maggie & me are the tables and tables of rolls and rolls of fabric. I used to regularly shop there and it was great to see that it was more or less the same.
We then walked up to Greenmarket Square, which is right in the middle of town, and has not stayed the same. 20 years ago it was primarily a craft market, with a fair amount of African handiworks, but also lots of miscellaneous vintage and antique dealers. It is now entirely African crafts, most of them from outside of South Africa. Still it is a popular tourist stop and has a great vitality of its own. We revisited a favorite lunch spot; Die TuinHuis which is the old town hall I think; it now houses an art collection and a nice terrace for eating lunch. Jasper, Maggie, Ken and I had eaten there on our last visit here, and Maggie was eager to return.
Then we overcame our inhibitions and decided to catch a “taxi” home. Taxis here are generally vans, like a VW Vanagon, that has been fitted with enough seating to accommodate about 14 passengers comfortably; 17 uncomfortably. They charge less or the same as the train, depending upon how far you’re going, and the drivers are well-trained in the art of anarchic driving at great speed, or a snail’s pace, whichever makes you the least comfortable. We actually had a great time, especially in locating and boarding a taxi at the parking lot above the train station, which is a chaotic event in itself, with more stalls ling the perimeter selling fruit, sunglasses, clothing, dishtowels; and in the middle of the lot are lines of these taxis with their hawkers calling out the areas they’re driving towards, then all yelling at each other to get out of the way, and loading up the vans as tightly as possible. Since then, we have been getting worried lectures from members of the family regarding taxi safety etc etc. Hm.
Then Sunday we drove out to an animal shelter to get ourselves in the mood for getting pets…no not a baboon or a warthog, although they are awfully cute. We want a puppy and a kitten, but are probably going to wait until the container arrives and we can sort out where the animals will be able to fit. We also visited the farm where Ken and I had worked on a TV series 20 years ago; we were amazed and actually delighted to see that the farm with all its outhouses and barns and old wood floors has been turned into a charming restaurant, artists studios, craft shops, and antique shop. There’s even camel rides for the kids! Some of you may recall the story of Kris, our dog, and the baboons; this is where it happened. That particular spot on the farm is now a lovely open air terrace with a gorgeous view of the beach and countryside.
We then had tea with the family of one of my host sisters from when I was an exchange student to Johannesburg in 1971. Phillippa and her husband Tony live in a fabulous home on the grounds of Klein Constantia Winery; very pleasant indeed. Molly, my host mum, was there as well, sweet and warm as always. When it all comes down to it, that family was responsible for providing the rich and welcoming soil that I planted my South Africa roots into; if they had not been so gracious and welcoming to me, I might have had a much different opinion about this country. So you can blame them; take Ken off the hook.
*Feb. 16: OK we now have dial-up internet service at our home, but I must point out a few challenges we have with it that will make you appreciate the ease of internet service in the U.S. if that’s where you are:
- if you send funny photos, amusing videos, anything other than personal communication or personal photos, we probably won’t open it. If it’s REALLY GREAT, then indicate that on the subject line; some thing like THIS IS WORTH THE EXTRA $5 TO OPEN IT . And by god it had better be worth it.
- we hope to get broadband at home but it will take 4 weeks (!!!!) so we will be carefully timing our dial-up time. It’s a lot quicker for us to open photos if they are in a program like Yahoo photos or Photobucket.com, etc., instead of as attachments to your emails.
- Once we do get broadband, however, there is actually a limit to how many items you can download (!!!) depending on how much you pay. So again, if you send items that need to be downloaded in order for us to open them, we might not do it unless it’s important or truly fabulous.
- We’re going to check into internet telephone services; skype seems to be the most popular. We’ll let you know when we figure out what will work best for us.
So. That’s this week’s epistle. Hoping for a washing machine to arrive this weekend so I can stop washing the clothes in the bathtub. I do like hanging laundry out to dry in the sunshine again though; it’s very pleasant labor.
Love to all;
Kris
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