Africa Cafe

Hello again,

After I'd been in South Africa for a week or so we all went out for dinner - to celebrate our time together and the wonderful country that Aunty Gwen, Uncle Andre, Adrian, Rob, Simone and Danelle live in!

It was a bit of a 'farewell' and 'thank you' dinner but we had it a little early because Uncle Andre was going to a Medical Conference in Barcelona - a pretty good location for a conference, I must say!!!

I thought it would be cool to try out an authentic Africa restaurant - a rather touristy thing to do but the locals I was with loved it too!

They served what is called a Communal Feast - which is 15-16 dishes of traditional African fare such as vetkoek, Morroco warm lentil, chick pea and rice salad (brought back memories, Mel!), Xhosa spinach and maize balls, Channa fish and much more. As you can see the food comes from all regions of Africa, including South Africa, rather than simply SA.

We were also treated to an African handwashing ceremony, some face painting, some traditional music and of course plenty of delicious food. We were so incredibly full that night that many of us didn't really each much breakfast the next day...

Check it out on http://africacafe.co.za/ - the website is really interesting and tells you the cafe's story. And be sure to visit if you are ever in Cape Town!

Enjoy the photos, I'm sure your taste buds will be very tempted :)
Love Sarah xxx

True African style

Decorated beautifully

All ready for our feast!

Adrian, Simone, Danelle and I - we were seated in the Egyptian room (had me dreaming of my Egyptian escape!)

My fantastic South African hosts!

Rob enjoying his traditional handwashing ceremony :)

Mozambican sprout salad

Spiced basmati rice, Xhosa spinach and maize balls, Tanzanian spinach in ground nut auce

Sesame chicken kebabs

Aunty Gwen's face painting

Us girls with ours

and again slightly more clearly :)

Traditional music and dancing - plenty of rhythm and audience participation as well!

Our host, Teddy, and me

Almost all of us

All of us together just before leaving!

The menu

We had a fantastic night together! Definitely one to remember :) Even the people on the table next to us thought we were having more fun than they were! It was rather amusing for us to see them watching us intently throughout the whole night :)

All photos are compliments of Uncle Andre. His camera is WAAAAAAAY better than mine! Thank you for copying them for me Uncle A! Now I have some fantastic pictures to remember the fun we had.

Disappearing Act

Hello everyone,

Yep! I still exist and I am now FINALLY getting around finishing my blog :) It's a sad day. The end of this blog means the end of a dream. For the moment!!! There WILL be plenty more travelling where that came from for this girl. You can be sure of that :) The world is too exciting to not 'head back out there.'

I've almost been home for two months. Wow, time sure flies!! While I was away I set myself some challenges.

• Number 1 was to make my bed everyday. That didn't happen... although when I finally get my room totally sorted out, I will endeavour to achieve that!
• Number 2 was to not race around and make myself so busy. I'm working on that! Somedays I achieve it and somedays I don't. My percentage of success is well over 50% (in my opinion....!) so that means I'm on the right track. These things take time to develop :)
• Number 3 was to not worry if a week goes by and I don't get any of my clothes washed. I can 100% say I have achieved that! I do still run the washing machine a lot but so many weekends have gone by where my basket of dirty clothes just stays full. I have sooooo many more clothes to choose from now (compared to what my beloved backpack held) so washing isn't the necessity it used to be!
• There were a few more but I won't bore you with the details!

Since I've been home I've been applying for jobs as well as doing relief teaching. Relief teaching has been excellent!! I have really loved going into other classrooms and meeting new faces as well as seeing how other teachers 'do things'. I've learnt a lot from the teachers who have kindly been sick and allowed me to come in for the day. It's amazing how little opportunity we teachers get to see what others do - it's a great learning tool. I was fairly hesitant about relief as I thought 'those kids will just run rings around me' but that hasn't been the way at all! I've really learnt that I'm made of much tougher stuff than I first thought. Last week I had my first time in a grade 6 classroom (prompt mini freak out to myself that morning) and when I walked in to the room the boys said, "This will be fun. She won't know how strict Mr Levett is etc etc." By lunch a few were muttering, "You're not as stupid as we thought you'd be. I can't believe that we haven't gotten away with stuff." Was pretty happy with that! And now I don't know what I was so bothered about. It turned out to be one of the 'easiest' relief days I've had!

Since starting with reliefing I've been getting a fair bit of work. Not every day, but most weeks I've been working between 2 and 4 days. Brilliant! and it's turned me into a morning person. For those of you who know me, you would well remember my comment, "Getting out of bed is the worst part of my day." Now I wake up at about 6:30 and quite happily get out of bed a little after that, even when I'm not working - strange! - that is thanks to all of those early morning, "Can you work today?" calls.

The BEST thing about relief teaching is that I'm out of school between 3:45 and 4:15. The rest of the day is mine to occupy! Oh, and that little thing called reports....? relief teachers don't even realise they exist :) Good life, don't you reckon :)

I'm enjoying what I'm doing at the moment. We'll see what plans God reveals next.

Enjoy my latest posts everyone,
Sarah xxx

Stunning South Africa Part II

Hey all,
Well... this blogging thing isn't working so well for me at the moment. I seemed to have slowed down dramatically... I think it's due to the fact that finishing my blog means the end of a really huge chapter for me... I will get there!

At the end of my first week in South Africa Adrian had a day off work so we headed out on a road trip. We planned our route to include some of South Africa's finest scenery and entertainment :) hee hee! It was up on time, a quick breakfast, throw an overnight bag in the car, fill up with petrol and head off, toward the Great Karoo area of SA. Twas brilliant!

The rest of my time in SA flew by, filled with plenty of adventuring, plenty of good company and plenty of laughs. Oh, a wine or two featured somewhere I think.... :)

Enjoy the photos!
Love Sarah xxx

The start of a trip filled with loads of amazing South African scenery.... I just can't get over it!

Bottling my own wine! On the way we stopped at a winery (ahem) or two, just to get the full Karoo experience. At Excelsior you are allowed to create your own blend, so cool! They have a 'tips' sheets with a series of blends that work really well - I tried a few different ones and also developed one of my own, which unfortunately was not as good as I had expected it to be! I then chose my favourite to bottle. It's such a fantastic idea! Super fun for tourists like me. That bottle is one I took home to share with my family on the night of my arrival back in Tasmania - too special to drink in a hurry :)

Can you think of a better way to spend a Friday afternoon?? Enjoying a glass of South Africa's finest while taking in another amazing view

Pretty sweet driving conditions!

The most useful gate I have EVER seen!

This was found in Montagu, the little town where we stayed for the night. We stayed in a guesthouse that we found on hostelbookers.com - I'd had withdrawals from the website so we thought it was the best way to find our accommodation :) It turned out to be a gorgeous place, run by the nicest English couple who gave us heaps of local tips. And the breakfast was really good too! We were stoked with our 'hostel' - another win for hostelbookers!

The hot springs in Montagu, during the day - it also opens at night time so Adrian and I headed there after dinner on Friday night. We spent a glorious few hours paddling around and enjoying the spa (that you can see under the thatched roof). It was such a relaxing night; needless to say, we slept very well! (my night shots weren't clear at all)

Along our walk through the back of Montagu on Saturday morning

Can you see Adrian up there???!!!

We travelled back to Cape Town via the coast road in the hope of seeing some whales! We did see some but they really were just specks of black in the water and very hard to distinguish with the naked eye. My camera zoom gave me a tiny idea though! Spot it?

This view certainly made the drive worth it!

After arriving home we pretty much headed straight back out to go ice skating with Danelle and her friend. Here's Danelle showing us how it's done!

And me... rather pleased that I could still do it! The last time I ice skated would have been when I was about 13 I reckon. All was going brilliantly and after about half an hour on the ice I thought, 'This is going incredibly well, I'm pretty good, I think I'm going to get away with this without a fall! WAHOO!' About 15 minutes after this cocky moment it all went rather wrong :) My skate got stuck in a ridge in the ice and I went splat on the ice that hard that I winded myself! One of the marshalls had to help me off because I couldn't breathe. I did have a pretty sore chest for the next few days and every time I coughed/laughed/rolled over in bed etc I felt it! Like an old granny..... It was lots of fun though :)

Table Mountain

What a view! Aunty Gwen and I went for a walk along the beach to make the most of the glorious weather and to catch a glimpse of Table Mountain at its finest

Danelle at her weekly horse riding lesson - I took the chance to take some pictures of her in action

Mmmmm... time to start planning my next trip.... Rio de Janeiro sounds pretty tops to me :) Anyone in?!?

A view across the V&A Waterfront - I explored there with Uncle Andre and Aunty Gwen

Out for some delicious lunch

Absolutely love it!

On Friday night we went to Stellenbosch to listen to Simone playing in her orchestra - they were brilliant! Flute is just one of Simone's many talents :)

I went into Cape Town a few times to explore. Here is a picture looking across towards the city from the Castle of Good Hope. Can you see the little peak in the background? That's Lion's Head, which I climbed with Adrian later on in the day

The Humpty Dumpty canon that I saw exploding at the Castle. Do not let its size fool you. The BOOM was massive!

Some girls I saw dancing/busking in the mall

Views over Cape Town from Lion's Head

Adrian and I at the top with that famous mountain in the background :)

Looking out across the Twelve Apostles

The peak of Lion's Head

Good walkers deserve a drink so we headed down to the waterfront to enjoy a cocktail before going home :) Perfect ending to a fabulous day!

On my last full day in Cape Town I went to Robben Island. The tour was fantastic, I loved it so much. Definitely one of the many highlights of my trip

The school on Robben Island that is still in operation. Unfortunately there aren't any vacancies...

One of the cells that housed 80 prisoners. It would have been so cramped. The rugs you see on the ground are the extent of the bedding the prisoners received

The cell Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in

With one of my tour guides. All of the guides on the Island are ex-prisoners. The fact that they happily tell tourists about their experiences, which were horrific, is so unbelievable. I was amazed at how open and comfortable the men were talking about the worst parts of their life. That wouldn't be easy, but it made the tour so real and so powerful.

The table all set for my last dinner

One last shot with the family! Aunty Gwen, Adrian, meeeeeeee

Rob, Simone, Danelle (Uncle Andre was away in Barcelona at a medical conference)

Two very special events have been omitted from this post... they were so much fun that they are worthy of a post of their own... stay tuned for more South Africa!!