Food!

Boerewors

The kids gave a thumbs up to the local sausage here….along with baby potatoes, green beans and onions it was great. We have been managing quite well with the grocery shopping, even finding sour cream for the spuds. We have a Pick and Pay as well as a Shoprite quite close and we walk there to get our groceries. The fruit and vegetables are very fresh and the supply is immense. Plums, peaches, nectarines, pineapples, grapes (of course), bananas are all abundant and quite inexpensive. I think that we're paying about 2/3 the cost of similar products here. Even milk is cheaper, but it seems to spoil after a few days. We try to buy a 2 liter every day and a half or so to keep it fresh. Also 2% is the low fat, no 1% and skim is available, but more money. The grocery stores all have a bakery with fresh bread, buns, and sweet things as well as a ready-made foods section. This is good for meat pies, samoosas, and salads. The background seems to be Dutch servants that were brought over from Malaysia and Indonesia back when Holland had colonized that area. They brought their unique style of cooking over with them and it stayed ever since. Katy chose a snack at Simon's Town of chutney flavoured chips…they were very good, so we bought a bottle of chutney and used it as the base of the stir fry we had on Sunday night. Last night we headed over to Spur's Restaurant near the Groote Schuur hospital (where Carla has an office to share) and had the burger special. This is a Native American themed food establishment but specializes in western fare such as steaks, ribs and burgers. The special was a burger, fries, and onion fries for 16.95 Rand…about $2.80 Canadian. The kid's meals cost more. But there was a play land which gave Carla and me some time alone.

Carla's office is about a ten minute walk from here and her colleagues appear quite friendly. Actually all the people really appear quite amicable. Especially when Harry is along, people will stop and give high fives. We live in a mostly black area, and it always seems to me, it is friendlier than we meet up with the Afrikaans people. We met an Irish man in the train. He was inebriated, but very friendly, he burst into song for us, and U2 In the name of Love won't ever sound the same to me! The entire train car was laughing with us.

Happy birthday to Luke today! He turns 4 in Winkler…we had a short chat with him this evening. It was also nice to talk with mom and dad (both sets).

Oh by the way the car is almost ready for us, we've bought a Honda Ballade (like a Civic). It is a 94, but decent shape with automatic transmission, AC, and 210K. It'll do for the year I think. I'll post pictures when we get to bring it home.