The Rest of May

Amazing Africa Cake!

My Group... Georgie, Anna, Cameron and Cathy.. haha love the hand on hip

Gr1s at Aquarium

Jellyfish... and Cameron

Super Cool eel

Cameron and Anna in the Nemo Tank (trying to coax a child out of there is pretty much impossible)

Cameron and Lisa with Creepy Starfish

Scary Belly Dancer at Mesopotamia

At the South Africa Museum

Wild Pointsetta??!! Crazy

Marina's Door, we spent one rainy afternoon decorating
Hello again,
Happy Africa Day! (actually on the 25th but we are celebrating today at school). The school is incredibly decorated- each class drew an African country and decorated their door accordingly. Also in order to entice girls to bring in non-perishables to be donated they have set up a competition in the front of school where each class has to build a structure representing their country out of the food that they bring in. (Also all classes with over 100 items get a mufi day- big excitement!) Today at break we had singing, dancing and music in the quad along with all the girls dressed in African garb and the world famous cake of Africa made by the Mammas in the Kitchen.

I haven’t written since the return of holidays. It felt a little melodramatic to get back after traveling and have to re-settle in to work and routine. The week of birthdays was good- we went to dinner with a crowd for Kady’s birthday to a restaurant called Mesopotamia which was sort of Indian themed and involved a lot of cushions and low tables. The food was good but it was sort of overshadowed by the fear of having to dance with the belly dancer who started to roam around the room halfway through the evening. George’s birthday was also fun, although they are no attractive or appropriate pictures of us in our costumes that I am able to put up. They were pretty awesome I have to say though- we made our own shirts after a very hectic shopping trip around town in a desperate search for white tank tops. The weekend was also pretty low key, we went to this old fashion movie theater and saw Dan In Real Life- (warning, tear jerker!), found an awesome burger restaurant (very works-ish, minus the onion rings!) and had a nice night out at Bantry Bay with the boys. It has been raining like crazy lately so the outdoor activities have been rather limited.

The biggest excitement of last week was the Gr 1 outing to the aquarium which Marina and I went on. One of the highlights was being driven to the aquarium by grade 1 parents in their beautiful SUVs with flatscreen tvs etc etc. I was pretty much a BMW brigade with a few Mercedes and even a hummer. We each had a group to look after which is always harder than it sounds. They started off in a classroom where the kids were able to learn about and touch different sea animals (starfishes, sea anemones, crabs, sea pumpkins etc etc) luckily the kids were completely fearless about picking these things up so we didn’t have to touch the creepy starfish with octopus-like tentacles. It is also really interesting because Cape Town is in a bit of a unique situation since it is the meeting point between two oceans and therefore has 2 groups of very different fish. After our classroom time we were able to run (literally) around the aquarium and briefly look at all the displays. They have amazing jellyfish as well as all types of penguins and these amazing eels at the very front. I think we may have enjoyed it more than the children- a trip back is still in order.

Last week we also had the house plays which were absolutely hilarious. They were based on an English play surrounding Christmas and each house played a different act. The girls are all very talented especially a little gr 8 who won best actress. This past weekend we joined the sports department for dinner and went out all together on Friday night. Saturday Marina and I had a nice walk down to waterfront and watched the movie “What Happened In Vegas” (hilarious) and then had a fancy girl’s night out in Camps Bay. Sunday we had our museum day (because they were free) so we went to the South Africa Museum, The Planetarium and the South African National Gallery and got them all done in one go. They were cool but had many creepy statues which made you thankful that you didn’t get caught in there at night.

This week at work has been particularly busy since both the Hockey and Netball teams are going away on a tour this weekend so we have been racing around to get everything organized. Also I have started assisting in a Grade 4 class in the mornings which has been fun, getting very up on my 10 year old math!

Yesterday I had the coolest day ever since I was able to accompany a friend I have mad (through his daughter) in Cape Town into surgery. He is an anesthesiologist so I was able to come into the theater with him during the four surgeries he performed on Thursday morning. After visiting the patients we went into the scrub room where I got to change into full scrubs, including mask hat and booties. Then after being scrubbed down we went into the theater where I got to help prepare the anesthesia for the patients. They were all surgeries for women who were not able to be pregnant and the first three were done with a scope. One woman had growths in her uterus with the doctor removed and cauterized, the second was getting a full work up to try to find problems which allowed me to see pretty much everywhere inside her body including an ovarian bisection. The third had a septum in her uterus- pretty much a wall down the middle which wouldn’t allow eggs to grow happily so the surgeon cut it away in order to make it a proper shape. The fourth was by far the coolest. She has having her abdomen opened in order to remove growths from her uterine wall. Not only was I able to intubate her (the part where you stick a tube in their throat) with the help of Dr Uys of course but I was also able to stand less than half a meter away while they preformed the surgery. I got to see pretty much everything inside her abdomen including her uterus which they pulled out and took apart. I was pretty excited that I didn’t feel nauseous at all, I more wanted to get my hand in there too. However I was pretty happy I was wearing a mask since I think I stood with my mouth open the whole time.

Tonight we are heading to a peace march with school against the xenophobic attacks that are happening just outside of Joburg right now. (I am sure you have all seen it on tv and on the news) Don’t worry we are all fine, luckily it is happening mostly in the Joburg and Durban townships. But it is beginning to spread to the Cape Town townships so although we are safe in the city center that position could change. Also they are targeting mainly Zimbabweans which we have a lot of working at school. Hopefully the police will be able to get it under control and everyone will be fine, but from the sounds of it, it has been an underlying matter for years and will not be easily silenced. Luckily we are well protected at school and are not staying in Joburg right now.

The rest of our weekend really depends on weather. Tonight we are going out with some Stellenbosch friends and then tomorrow were are going to do our famous Camps to Waterfront walk as well as a stop at Sinnfull if weather permits. Sunday we are going with the sports department to the casino for some fun and ice skating which should be a laugh. I think I have a leg up on everybody in that department.
That’s all for now- got to get back for the last period of the week! Wahoo.

Xx Heather

Mid Term Break: Knysna and Stellenbosch

Map of our travels

Lemur!!

Table Mountain Shaped Wine Bottle- ohh to be a tourist

Our very own beach

Roburg

Plett Beach

Adorable Kitten at Cat Sanctuary

Marina Petting Chester

Chester the Cheetah

Knysna Heads and ocean

The Knysna Lagoon (taken from the Knysna Head)

Me walking with elephant

Marina, Heather, Louise, Roxy and Chelsea with Elephant

Marina and Chelsea walking with Elephants

Great White Ape

A favourite monkey

Hello all diligent blog readers,

We are back at school after a fantastic school holiday. Today is the first real winter day here in Cape Town, really windy and rainy with a max temp of 15 degrees. We are all rugged up and luckily Derek’s package arrived yesterday so I was able to have a warm cup of hot chocolate this morning. I am also having a weird craving for flannelette sheets.

Luckily winter has only begun since we got home so we had a lovely week in Knysna complete with beautifully sunny days. We ended up leaving Friday morning rather the intended 11pm Thursday night departure. We were able to get a lift with Sean, a friend of Louise and Ryan’s (Marina’s family friends who were stayed with) who was also heading down for a visit. It was so nice to go in a car rather than the bus- not to mention he had a huge Kombi which allowed us 3 seats each. The trip also takes about 3 hours more in the bus so we got their much sooner and even had a nice stop at Steers for some excellent burgers and chips. We first visited their beautiful B&B called Elephant Hide. It is situated on top of a hill that overlooks the Knysna lagoon and has an infinity pool on the front deck which makes it look like your about to swim over the edge into the lagoon. We also had a tour of the rooms which were all beautiful with amazing views- huge, warm/comfy looking beds and giant bathtubs. That evening we headed to the Friday fair that is held at the kid’s school (Louise and Ryan have two little girls- Chelsea (age 6) and Roxy (age 3) both very sweet.) There were food stalls set up all around as well as play structures, some dodgy singer women and a bar. We had a nice evening meeting their friends, munching on pizza, pancakes and homemade doughnuts (yumm) and playing with the girls. That evening marina and I took advantage of their absolutely huge tv (with satellite- what luxury) and then headed to bed in Chelsea’s Barbie bunk bed room which she was generously lending us for the week.

On Saturday we went to Mugg and Bean with Ryan, Sean and the Girls for breakfast. We had delicious waffles (definitely not a breakfast options at St Cyps) and realized one of the best parts of eating with small children- there are always leftovers. That afternoon we accompanied Louise and the girls to a “Mad-Hatter” Birthday party for their friend. It was held at a performance of Alice In Wonderland and extremely well decorated for. There was food galore (including oysters) and the table was amazingly decorated. Once the play started the kids headed to the front so the adults were able to sit at the table and eat cucumber sandwiches and drink Pimm’s. We felt a little like “birthday crashers” sitting at the front singing “happy birthday dear mmgmmgmm” while eating cupcakes but luckily we were very helpful in the set up/clean up so the host was very appreciative. That night Louise and Ryan had a braai with a bunch of their friends so we were able to meet them and their kids and then head out for a night on the town. Very interesting partying with plus 30s- the music taste discrepancies were hilarious.

On Sunday we were able to have a day with Louise and the Girls since they were off both school and work. We drove to Monkeyland (not to be confused with Monkeytown in Cape Town) where African monkeys are kept in a giant nature reserve area and you are able to walk among them in the forests. Although our guide was very, very strange we did see some really cool monkeys- including a great white ape and many cappuccinos. My favourite was this great big grey monkey with glasses-like marks around his eyes and the black lemur who was so accustomed to people (he was formerly owned by people) that he walked over my foot. Next we headed to The Elephant Sanctuary where we were able to do the trunk-in-hand walk along with petting them and feeding them. All in all soo cool except you get loads of snot on your hand when they hold it with their trunk but the “elephant breathing on you” sensation is pretty awesome. For dinner the girls all hit up Spur- a kid oriented restaurant famous for low prices and good beef which Marina and I had on our list of things to do. They had a deal for practically a whole cow worth of ribs plus chips and onion rings for only R44.99 which Marina and Louise took advantage of.

Monday was a bit more of a quiet day- Marina and I walked into town and checked that out and then somehow managed to find the waterfront where we met up with a coworker of Louise and Ryan’s. He took us to the Knysna Heads- the two mountains (ish) that almost close off the Knysna Lagoon to the sea (20ish m gap in between). We (well.. I) took some amazing shots of the lagoon and the rocky areas around the heads not to mention the amazingly huge houses from the lookout area. Then we headed down to the coast where we hiked among some of the rocks and sat out and watched the sea. He also drove us around the Knysna area showing us different parts of the city. That afternoon we headed down to the cinema and watched Step Up 2 with all the of 12 year old Knysna population- pretty amazing film. For dinner we all met up at ocean basket (probably one of my favourite restaurants) for prawns and chips.

Tuesday after a sleep in (8:30 wahoo!) we headed to a wild cat farm just past plett. After an unsuccessful attempt to get in as students we got to go on a tour of all the wild cat areas. The first couple basically looked like regular house cats although they were wild African cats. We also saw some really cool spotty ones and ones with the cool ears. The last pen was of cheetahs. We were able to pat them and have them lick us. One genius on our tour even grabbed its tail… unfortunately it didn’t attack- scary to think he is going to the Kruger next. Afterwards we headed into Plett where we had lunch, visited the beach and then did a hike in Roburg which is a beautiful bit of land that juts out into the ocean. It was very pretty, especially with the mountain ranges in the distance and the beautiful beaches surrounding. We headed home and watched some excellent tv with the girls- including high school musical 2.

Wednesday morning we headed to George (biggest city around there) to do some shopping. Marina and I bough these beautiful coats (yes they are the same but hers is black and mine is red… “friendship coats” if you will). I has been looking for a coat ever since the temperature started to drop and it is really nice and classic and will be good for Canadian fall (and winter in england). That afternoon we headed out to a farm to go horse back riding- payback time. It was really nice since it was just the 2 of us and a guide (who LOVED marina and her horsewhisper-ness) so I didn’t make a fool out of myself in front of too many people. The walking through the forest part was fine. The trotting was quite painful. And then there was the cantering… the guide assured me that I would be fine since the horse would just follow the others and all I would have to do is hold on. Unfortunately the horses took it upon themselves to race on a small footpath suitable for one horse not three. Mine decided to take the undergrowth so I was being smacked into trees and bushes and screaming for dear life. The guide was trying to make the horse stop but was completely unsuccessful and I could hear marina laughing the whole time. Luckily we managed to get back on the path and I didn’t fall off (everyone was quite impressed) but needless to say my horse lost the race and I couldn’t sit down for a couple days.

Our last day was spent doing a hike to a waterfall in the Knysna forest. Afterwards we headed to Plett where we had a nice lunch and then a quick visit with Gail (from my Joburg visit) who has a house in Plett. We spent the late afternoon relaxing and has pizza with everyone after they returned from golfing.

Friday we hopped on the bus to Stellenbosch which was a pretty uneventful trip. When we arrived we were picked up by our co-worker Sonia and her brother Matt and taken to their parents beautiful house on a golf course in Stellenbosch. After dinner and a little wine sampling we headed out on the town and got to experience some of the Stellenbosch nightlife (pretty decent considering there is a huge university there).

Saturday morning we headed to a beautiful outdoor market with tons of free samples- including some killer brownies, pesto and pomegranate smoothies. We also took advantage of all the wine farms there doing their free samples and ended up buying a bottle and sitting out in the sun eating baguette and pesto. Next we headed to a couple other wine farms to do some tasting and finally to a store that sold wine for super reduced prices. We managed to do some damage there. That afternoon we had a great big nap, watched some rugby and had a terrific braai.

Sunday was raining like crazy so we hung around the house all morning and then went into town for an amazing pizza lunch. Then after doing some clean up for the return of the parents we headed back to school.

Now we are done our second day back and it has been a little difficult adjusting back. Sad to think our school holidays are over. Luckily we have a pretty good week. Today is both Kady and George’s birthday so we are headed out for dinner for Kady’s tonight and then tomorrow for George’s. Then on Friday we are heading out to town to celebrate George’s birthday- it is themed “P” so everyone has to dress up accordingly. I am being a pirate. Then this weekend we are heading up to the head of sport- Sarie’s cottage on the coast which is meant to be beautiful. Will take pictures. Kady also leaves next Wednesday- hard to believe its time- when I first arrived I remember thinking it was ages and ages away.

In other news- hotmail has recently been blocked so please e-mail me at my school account: hartleyh@stcyprians.co.za if you want to get it touch- it also does not work very well so it could take some time. I however did find a proxy so maybe send all e-mails to both accounts and then i will get it one way or another- Thanks!

Much love to everyone- Thank you for those who continue to comment!
Xx Heather