Camps Bay Beach and Loneliness.

I’ve been missing my people! 

I have a long history of not keeping up with friends over summer vacation, moving across the country, or moving across the world. Not many people have kept up with me either, so I’m not sure if I’m just friends with people who have the same communication style, or whether its “out of sight, out of mind.”

Homeless woman with holes in her socks.

I try not to be lonely here, but it is hard. 

Really hard sometimes. This is what I didn’t expect about my move...

I sent out e-mails to people last week, and only one person responded (thanks auntie!). 

Many sea shells!

Trash on the beach; green vuvuzela.

Part of the reason that I haven’t e-mailed people much is that I use this blog as a medium of communication. Early on, my friends and family commented, but most have stopped commenting now.

My hubby, playing.

I have a widget that tells me which cities across the world have looked at my blog, and I can tell that not many of my friends or family has checked it out very often. 

I can’t help it, I feel forgotten. 

 

Family playing.

Foot print. Toe print?

 

  

But at the same time, I KNOW that it is up to ME to keep up with people through e-mail, facebook, or telephone. 

Me, playing.

  Enough that they want to share with me too, of their own accord.

There was a kid/young adult surfing competition going on that day.

We have not gotten any mail from the USA (except from Chase Bank, animal control, and junk mail)- no letters or care packages.

New friends.

 

 I do have a local AZ number through Skype, so it’s not that hard to call (and if you ask, I’ll give it to you)! 

Kong.

 

I hate thinking like this; feeling "whiny"; and I hate making people feel guilty…but this is my reality and I need to communicate it. 

 

Throw the ball!

PLEASE help me.
Please help me feel connected and not so alone. Even just one e-mail or call a month to keep me going and feed my soul.

So this is my promise: I will be contacting all my friends and family in the next week. I hope that I will get some positive responses…

I miss you!!

P.S. Thank you so much to those few who have kept in touch through e-mail and telephone!! It is amazing.

Song of the Post: A song by The Beatles, With a Little help from My Friends as sung by Joe Cocker.

My favorite lines:
“What would you do if I sang out of tune, Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, And I'll try not to sing out of key. Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends…”

Mzoli’s.

Last Saturday, one of our friends took us to Mzoli’s butchery and restaurant. It is in the Guguletu neighborhood and it was like nothing we have ever experienced. Please read more about it here. What we were told is that it started as a butcher shop in 2003, then they started braaing their lunches and they put some tables out to eat at. More and more people came and by 2006 it was incredibly popular for the locals and tourists. This place has a “bare bones” menu (there isn’t actually a menu…), so you need to come prepared. Beware: not vegetarian friendly.

The Butcher Shop.

The seating area.

What to bring on a trip to Mzoli’s:

-Napkins/paper towels! I cannot stress this enough.

Street vendors and car guards.

-Baby wipes if you hate the “sticky” feeling on your fingers.  

-Your own drinks: water, soda, beer, alcohol, mixers. Your choice!

-Own cups (especially if you brought stuff for mixed drinks). If you forget some, you can buy some cups made out of beer bottles from street vendors across the street.

-Plates.

-Silverware (mostly if you bring sides; every one eats the meat with their hands) and a knife (to cut the bigger pieces of meat). 

-Side dishes, if you so please. You can buy sliced bread there if you want. 

Drinking glasses made out of beer bottles.

The braai. See how smokey it is?!

Meat!

Gotta represent!

 

How it goes: Bring cash. They have ATMs there, but they maybe in disrepair or out of order. Go to the butcher (to the left of the dining area) and choose your meat. They have various cuts of chicken, beef, pork, lamb and they have boerewors sausage. You can order a marinade if you want- I suggest you do, it’s the best part! You carry your tub of meat down the hallway out back and leave it in queue. Then, spend many minutes searching for a free table…

After...it really was yummy!

Before, in our tub.

The hookah, and the bread!

 

The Saturday we went, at about 1:30 was cray-zy! It felt like spring break in Tijuana! It’s a possibility that it was the weekend before Varsity starts up here again, but I sure wasn’t expecting it. People were dancing at their tables, drinking, smoking on hookahs, and there was a DJ spinning tunes. It is hot in there, so they have water misters that turn on sporadically. Be prepared to wait at least 45 minutes for your food, so eat some of your snacks while waiting- but not too much because the meat is the main attraction!

The crowd.

We would definitely go back, but during the week to see if it is a more mellow atmosphere. Its funny- we almost felt too old for it, but not quite! And there were people definitely older than us there…

Partay!

P.S.- Wear clothing that’s nice but you don’t mind getting dirty if need be!

 

P.P.S.- I tried a South African Twix bar and it tastes nothing like the USA’s. I think the cookie crisp is different.

Song of the day: After Party by Ozomatli. 

The sound and picture aren't perfect, but it's the best video of this song on the internet.

Chapman's Peak Drive and Hout Bay.

On our way home from our trip to The Cape of Good Hope, we drove through Kommetjie and drove on Chapman’s Peak drive. People kept telling us that we needed to drive it, but never told us why. It is pretty amazing. It is a narrow winding road very close to the ocean, on the side of a mountain. In some parts, they carved out a kind of ‘half-cave’ for the cars to drive in. I would never have driven on this road as a teenager and young adult- not, I'm more brave, and wold be able to handle it (but my husband was driving this day).

The road is so narrow- I can't believe this cyclist feels safe!

The 'half cave'. (Is there a real name for this?)

Then just before we got to Hout Bay, we got to see the best sunset that we have experienced here.  It was magnificent with the ocean and the mountains.

Sunset yellow.

Hout Bay at sunset. Lovely.

My sweetheart!

How are you doing today? Have you gotten your body moving?

I’ve gone to the gym for eight days straight. I feel great! We got now Polar Heart Rate monitors, and because I’m a nerd, I find it pretty neat to be able to track my progress with so much data!

Song of the day: Sunset by Jamestown Story. I just discovered this song today, and I like it! It's not really a video, but you can listen to the song.

The Cape Point and The Cape of Good Hope.

I decided to finally post our pictures from our trip to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, which we visted exactly a month ago. It is a very beautiful place. It took us about an hour to get there from Rondebosch because there is road construction in Kalk Bay and the only road to get there is Main Road. It is a very scenic drive by the ocean on the left and mountain on the right. We drove through Simons Town and Fish Hoek for the first time and thought they were CLT’s (Cute Little Towns)- too bad they’re far from Cape Town. 

The Cape of Good Hope is part of Table Mountain National Park and costs R80 (a little over $10) each. The Visitor’s Center here and one place in Cape Town are the only places to buy the Wild Card national parks pass. We decided not to buy right then to save a little money and buy when we are more ready to do some safaris! 

Their brochure states that there are “at least 250 species of birds here…Large animals are a rare site…but there are small animals such as lizards, snakes, tortoises and insects. There are some herds of Zebra, Eland, and a variety of other antelope. Small mammals also include Rock Hyrax (‘dassie’), Striped Mouse, Water Mongoose, and Cape Clawless Otter. The area offers excellent vantage points for whale viewing. The Southern Right Whale is the species most likely to be seen in False Bay between June and November. Other species like Humpback Whale and Bryde’s Whale, seals and dolphins may also be seen…The Chacma Baboon Papio ursinus troops on the Cape Peninsula are the only protected population of this species in Africa.” 

Baboon warnings: 
“Please be aware that babons are dangersous and attracted by food. Baboons that have been conditioned to receive food from humans may have to be destroyed.

•  DO keep a safe distance from baboons.
• DO move away slowly if a baboon approaches you.
• DO NOT display food when baboons are visible.
• DO NOT open windows or doors of your car when baboons are present.
• DO NOT feed baboons. You will be fined.”

Scenic views on the way there were lovely.

Boulders Bay.

Baboon herders following the Baboons. The baboons were climbing into people' yards and holding up traffic.

Building by the visitor's center. So quaint!

  

This is dried Baleen!

The path to the Cape Point lighthouse. Baboons roam freely.

We drove straight to the light house area first, after stopping at the visitor's center. You can ride the Flying Dutchman Funicular (kind of like a rail road car going up the side of the hill), but we walked up to the light house. Even when the funicular ends, you still have a bit of a walk up a bunch of rock stairs to get to the light house, which is the highest point in the area. You can’t walk in it, but only around it. Then we walked down and around to the farthest point we could get to, Cape Point, and it is lower than the light house. We saw dassies and lizards.

Reminds me of cliff dwellings in the southwest. The photograph almost looks "tilt shift."

P looking happy. The light house is way in the background.

Me at the farthest point of Cape Point.

I love how the waves curve around the Cape Point.

Directions from the light house.

Baby baboon with a Chile Rojo.

Baboons grooming.

Rock Hyrax, aka, Dassie- look at it's feet!

Dassie in its natural habitat.

P with baboons.

Baby baboon.

A proud Agama lizard.

Agama lizard with yellow grafitti.

Leaving the lighthouse area, we were pretty worried when we were walking back to our car because we had a mini pizza (it was really yummy) to go with us and there were baboons around. The car guards and park staff warned us to be careful. Thankfully we made it to the car without incident. We did see a baboon sitting on top of someone’s car though.

We then went to some different scenic routes to the Atlantic ocean and saw the Cape of Good Hope and Diaz Cross. Diaz (or Dias, depending on who spells it) Cross is painted black on one side so that it makes a better silhouette for ships to see when in False Bay. There is a Da Gama Cross (we didn’t visit it) that is used, along with Diaz Cross, as known points in order to triangulate ships’ positions so that they didn’t crash on hidden rocks in False Bay. There are some ship wrecks, but we didn't look for them. Next time!

Dias or Diaz Cross.

Dias Cross- do you see how painting it black really helps?

Along the way we saw ostrich, zebras, a tortoise, and some other big animals (not sure what they were- any one know?). It was way cool, or as they say here, “lekker.”

Tortoise- we almost ran him over!

Zebra.

Zebra.

Is this an Eland?

It was a good day. In the next post I'll show you what our drive home looked like.




P.S. Check out P's blog to see what's going on with him!

Song of the days: Strawberry Fields Forever as sung by Ben Harper.