Mr. Rondi

We heard bad news yesterday from Mr. Rondi. He has to be out of his premises by the end of the month. No more fresh buns or bread or baked goods for us, we no more within a short nine iron that is. I'll have to take out the 5 iron now to get my baking. He says the UCT is forcing him out of his lease so they can have a fire inspection business in that location. Tough luck for Mr. Rondi, he has to find something else in short notice, move his ovens (takes a small crane and 3 ton truck) as well eat all the improvements he's made to the building. We'll stock up the freezer before he goes, but having it fresh is much better. I'll have to rely on the bakery at the Pick'n'Pay I guess or the Shoprite.

Carla and I are off to see a movie, Dreamgirls, tonight. The kids will be at Heather's place, a lady from church who has spent time in Canada at Regent's College and he kids. We are fortunate for people like this to help out.

Tomorrow is the big race…37000 riders. We'll be watching.

St. James Beach

Henry's class went on a field trip this morning down south of Muizenberg to St. James beach. What a beautiful day, high of 32 and sunny with a slight breeze. The pool gets filled daily with fresh water from the high tide and warms up with the sun's heat. I took Harry as well and we enjoyed swimming in the pool. The grade ones were finding crabs, mussels, etc. I managed to get a parking ticket while I was there for some odd reason, parking on a yellow line. There was no "no parking" signs or anything and others were parked along the road where I was. In the end, I called, pleaded ignorance and the ticket will be quashed.

This weekend is turning out to be a cooker, with highs of 36 tomorrow and over 30 on Saturday. On Sunday is a huge bike race, the Cape Argus. It will have over 35000 riders all told including some big names like Greg Lamond and Jans Ullrich, both former winners of the Tour de France. We are planning to watch some of it as it passes close to our flat. It is over 100km long and will take the riders down the peninsula and back into the city.

Katy is off to a birthday party on Saturday, then we drop the kids off at a sitter!!!! First time in almost three months. We're planning on visiting a restaurant or going to a movie. Heather from church offered to take the kiddies…what an angel!

We are back from a one day excursion up the west coast to Langebaan and Vredenberg. Carla was visiting the hospice in Vberg and we stayed overnight at a guest house called Croesoe hosted by to great people. We would consider going back in August or September when the wild flowers are in bloom, it is supposed to be marvelous. We left after picking Katy up at school and got on the road around 3pm. On the way up the R27 we decided it felt like driving in Saskatchewan, but with scrub bush as scenery not combines. We passed a game farm where we could see a couple of giraffes…that is breath taking, and finally saw the Saldanha Bay where Langebaan was situated on. For supper we went to a local spot called Pearlies that was right on the ocean…the kids could play on the beach while we waited for the food and had a drink. The pizza was great and the draughts were cheap.

The West Coast National park is also on the peninsula and can contain over 250 bird species. There a hundreds of thousands of waders attracted annually to this wetlands giving it international importance. We entered the park around nine in the morning and immediately saw our first turtle (of many) and soon after an ostrich. We soon got bored with so many sightings, but I still say those birds are quite impressive. Henry saw a snake, added to a few other smaller lizards and a mouse.

2007-03-07 Vredenberg Trip

Carla had some good experiences with her interviews, and her visits. We picked her up after 1:30 and went to another coastal village of Pater Noster. All the houses were white and the beach was amazing (and cold). We found many little discoveries here, one of them being that Harry still has some chubby bum cheeks!

Rain

It was a quiet day on Saturday due to the rain. It was the second time that we've had showers since we got here two months ago. The temps were hovering around 20 all day except the short times when the sun came out, then it warmed. The kids all had good naps as did Mom. Dad did the grocery shopping and picked out the movie, Annie. The kids loved this one. Our only adventure of the day came when we were picking out the entrees to order off the Thai takeaway menu. We told them we'd pick up the food, so we got on our jackets to walk over. I had checked the maps and knew which street to look for, but since streets change names here at intersections, we walked right by, and into an area known as Salt River, kind of a shadier area of town. We ran into a movie shoot and the fellow told us to make like bandits and get out of there. We turned tail and finally found our destination. The food wasn't hot anymore, but it still tasted ok.

Henry got a haircut as well yesterday at a "hair salon" down the street. They charged 20Rand (just over $3) and he got a buzz. Apparently Henry's headmaster had stopped him at some point and let him know that he had a bush on top of his head. Now he looks very clean cut.

Today we're planning on meeting up with a Newfie, not Kevin but a real live Newfie. Hannah, a pole vaulter from McGill is here for some reason that we will find out.