Weekend Away

We've just arrived back from a picnic with Henry's classmates and their families at his school. This was very informal with just his class and his teacher outside on the grounds. We got to meet Henry's friends and their parents and chat with them for awhile. While I usually see them during the day when I pick Henry up, this gave us more time to talk. People here enjoy wine. Anywhere and anytime there is a picnic, and there are lots of opportunities for them. In Canada we are too uptight about this.

Tomorrow (the 16^th) is Auntie Kelly's birthday! Happy Birthday!

We are off to Noordhoek and Camp Faraway for a weekend getaway with the Mowbray Presbyterian Church. We're not entirely sure what to expect, but it is apparently fun with good food (I won't have to cook). Here's a link http://www.peninsulainfo.co.za/process.asp?area=NOO01 At any rate, we'll be offline for a little bit… I will have my cell along. 076 715 7555

Keep the comments coming…they're great Aunt Frid! Nice to know that there are some readers out there.

 

Heading west past Roland, you'll run into Somerset West. A beautiful city on a mountain overlooking False Bay is Somerset West in the Hottentot mountain range. Carla's meetings started at nine this morning so we were off right after dropping Henry off at school. This was the nicest hospice I had seen so far which makes sense since this is a very wealthy region. They also had a very nice garden on the grounds, with a big selection of roses.

Here is an article from today's Cape Times newspaper.

"City's housing crisis spirals" -Aziz Hartley

Cape Town is a city where hundreds of thousands of people do not have proper homes and little prospect of getting them, the Western Cape government says.

They are young, unemployed and poor, and the situation is becoming worse by the year; according to the province's housing plan, presented to the legislature's portfolio housing committee yesterday.

Even if R1 billion were spent building homes each year, it would take 27 years to meet the need for formal housing. 79% of applicants earned less than R1500 a month and 18% between R1500 and R3500.

We see the issues every time we drive on the freeways, shack upon shack…it would be unbelievable if we didn't see it ourselves.

On a lighter note, the world cup of cricket is underway in the Bahamas (I think) and that has people very excited since South Africa is a very strong team and is one of the favourites.

Downtown with Mr. Rondi

On our way to get buns this morning, we ran into Mr. Rondi busily on his way out the door. He quickly asked if we were busy and offered to take us downtown to look at some commercial property that he was interested in moving his bakery to. Harry and I had no plans this morning so we said sure, let's go. Off we went in the little Nissan truck. Along the way Mr. Rondi gave us some history of Cape Town dating back to the fifties when he moved here along with his family. Apparently the house he used to live in was now the site of the freeway which we were driving on. Once we got downtown we met the real estate agent and went to find the building where the space was. While we were inside the building there was a great commotion outside and we went to check what was occurring. We saw a man being chased by a group of others and then taken down. Also there were security guards (there are many) in the chase group. People were shouting and then cheering when the man was caught. We saw the guards pull up the shirt and remove various items which looked like stolen goods. He had been seen taking a purse or something and then run down by onlookers. Our first brush with crime here (besides a blatant pram runner over). As it was over, the noon gun which fires each day went off. This is the only major city that has kept the tradition of firing its signal every day. Other cities have started this, but Cape Town has done this for many years. The space that we looked at turned out to be unsuitable due to Mr. Rondi's big ovens he needs to transport. He will keep looking.

On another moving note, it looks like we will be escaping some of the traffic noise and moving four floors higher to apartment 504 within a few weeks. This might mean a phone number change, we'll keep everyone posted. Off to Somerset west tomorrow…hopefully we'll get the Honda in for a service.