lairdandjonelle

Well, we’re back home in hot New Mexico, though thankfully the 100 degrees plus heat spell has broken.  It’s rained a couple of times, good thing.  We got home to dead trees and dead house plants.  We need to water ASAP, but Laird was on the mountain Tues and today, also tomorrow and the water truck had a dead battery.  Perhaps tonight.  Ooops, no, tonight we get to see THEODORE and SIA!  Chris and Alexandra, too. And bringing dinner, now that’s a great welcome home! I don’t know where we’ll put ourselves, given that the dining room table is loaded with a mountain of mail and everywhere else is a mess, too.  My bed is now piled high with clothes I just grabbed from the suitcases and threw there.  But at least the suitcases are emptied — well, maybe not; there are only two standing here in the library and we had three.  I guess I must go hunt it down and empty it as well.  I hope it holds all the things I keep saying “where is it?” about.  I look forward to seeing all my friends again and hope to fill up my calendar with lunches and dinners with you all.  Alas, some are leaving very soon for long summer vacations in Nantucket and Michigan — lucky them!  Though I guess I shouldn’t complain — I have another vacation coming up in the fall, going on a river cruise from Zurich to Amsterdam, with Noekie.  I better start saving for the unfortunate dollar conversion to Euros.  Even Brexit can’t make the dollar more than the Euro — unless I’ve missed something in the news; quite possible, since the newspaper delivery hasn’t kicked in yet.

HAPPY DAYS to you all — until we travel again.  And if you get to travel, we wish you HAPPY TRAILS!

OH, NO, IT’S COMING TO AN END!  We’re so sad our time here is almost over — what a wonderful time we’ve had hanging out with Marita, Noekie (definitely not enough time with her as she kept having to travel all around the country training revenue folks about economics), Matty, Johan, Norman and Juanita (pronounced You-a-nita).  This last week is a blur of activity — going over the Outeniqua mountains (glorious!) to Oudtshoorn to  Canga wildlife ranch, where Kate and Sean volunteered for some months a few years back.  It was terrific and we got to pet a cheetah and listen to her purr like a medium sized engine — how swell!

We had a GREAT time at Garden Route game lodge — our game drive was magnificent, in large part because our game driver was so wonderful.  Wessel (Vessel) taught us — or should I say old us — all sorts of survival tips.  Like getting Bushman’s bedding, a fynbos plant, to sleep on so the ants and other insects wouldn’t bother us; how to catch guinea fowl by putting out brandy or whisky, getting them drunk; how to catch a pheaasant (?  Marita says that was the name; I’m not remembering that) by digging a tunnel and putting corn or something edible for them on the trail into it — they get stuck and can’t turn around — and did you know that birds can’t walk backwards?  He also told us survival traits and tricks of the animals we saw.  We saw lots of game:  sprngbok (black racing stripe on side), impala, gemsbok (remember, g is h), eland, gnu, kudu (the ones with the gorgeous spiral horns), waterbuck (the ones with the target on their asses), buffalo, elephant, rhino, giraffe, ostrich (god, they’re everywhere!), golden mongoose, lion, burchell’s zebra, beautiful birds and NO SNAKES.  Yea on that last one!  We saw lots of bokmakieries, little green and yellow birds that sing so lovely — we had a most magnificent concert from them 2 years ago when we were in Addo elephant park, outside our cabin.  We told that to Wessel and he said no, bokmakieries can sound like any other birds as a survival mechanism and in all likelihood they were singing swear words to say, “We are big and tough and not good to eat, this is my branch and you get the hell away, and don’t even try to get any closer or I’ll knock your block off!”.  After a moment, Marita and I looked at each other and said, “Nah, they were singing sweetly to us!”

Laird had another load of pictures put on canvas — we ended up giving away all the others.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear the guy about sizes as we were looking at them on the selector — we thought he was saying the size of the one we picked for Noekie’s picture.  OH, NO.  We were agreeing to a LARGE size.  When he got home with them, we were all gobsmacked at how dramatic they were in that size.  There were 8 of them, so after a couple of gifts, there will be pictures for the four flats where we are staying.  I also painted a picture for somewhere.  Two more canvases, but not enough time.  Marita will have them and all the paints, so she can make those.

Today is medical day.  I went to Carina at 7:30 this morning, going to Dr. Jacobs (Ya-cops) for an injection.  I am certainly hoping it will make the trip home much easier.

Tomorrow we take everyone out for one last lunch — to the Albertinia hotel, where if you’re hungry, you can have everything on the special menu for about R195.  That’s about a 16 course meal!  At least I will be opting for something less than everything.  Who knew I had limits?!?

We hate that it’s basically over.  We start for home Sunday morning.  Looong wait in the Joburg airport (yes! one more chance to buy!).  Another looong wait in the Paris airport, but not long enough to go into Paris.  Stupid, but I didn’t even see that we were going through Paris — if so, I might have tried for longer layover.  Oh, but Laird has to be on the mountain with a bunch of teenagers on Tuesday, teaching them how to maintain forest trails.  So back home, back to regular life.

Other than we won’t be here, we’ll be happy to see everyone!  Happy day, as Marita always toasts.

What a bummer — we drove half way back to Cape Town yesterday to go to this national park to see bontebok and other animals.  Boy were disappointed!  After driving and driving on a dirt road, with lowering, dark clouds and some spitting rain, for a long time, as we looked first left, then right, then near, then far, way off in the distance, our first sighting of wildlife.  We saw some buck.  Well, we didn’t exactly see them because they were very far away.  What were they?  Who could see that far?  They weren’t colored like bontebok, it seemed, but their horns looked similar to bontebok.  Anyway, it was a sighting and Laird saw them first, so he won and had to buy us lunch.  He took a long lens picture and we went on, looking, looking, on and on we went, the fynbos all around us, no more open areas where antelopes are likely to be found, further along the bumpy, noisy dirt road.  Right in front of us! Bontebok, beautiful bontebok, so close, right by the road, beautiful with their distinctive horns — swept back, then up, the dark hide along their sides, lovely tan along the top, a wide white streak up their face, not separated with black above their eyes like the blesbok.  Laird snapped and snapped, we were encouraged as we drove on.  There were supposed to be mountain zebra, greybok, other kinds I can’t even remember, the place was supposed to be teeming with wildlife. Ha!  There was nothing to be seen, no matter how hard we looked, left, then right, far, then near, we looked so hard our eyes were sore!  Nothing but a beautiful pink haze of ericas in the fynbos, waving in the wind.  They would have made us happy if our eyes had also seen bok.  Nothing, nothing.  I swore that the government must have sold off all the animals and just pretended.  We left spitting at the name of the park!  I said I wanted to stop at Garden Route game park on our way back, to see if we could do a game drive without spending the night, like the other game park we had stopped at near Herbertsdal.  Back we drove, a high spot, having roosterkoeks for lunch — me with boerewors with smoor (roasted tomato and peppers); Laird and Marita had sloppy joe roosterkoeks.  Roosterkoek is this yummy thick bread, but not like regular bread, cooked on the grill.  I like it best with butter and apricot jam, that’s so tasty, so lekker.  We drove some more, the sky lifting as we got nearer to Garden Route, blue showing through whiter clouds.  There was hope and hope fulfilled!  Yes, we could go in and make a reservation, the gate was opened and the first thing we saw were several springbok, just off the road!  Towards the reception area, there were impala, just there (a direction in SA).  Already, wildlife!  We will go on Tuesday for a morning game drive, then lunch and I will have a massage.  Marita refuses to have a massage.  We got home, happy and best of all,  Marita’s laundry was dry on the line — it didn’t rain until later.

Marita made bobootie for dinner and we opened a South African malbec.  Noekie came in with presents, a beautiful flannel shirt for Laird (it’s quite cold now, but will warm up, I’m sure, for our last days here) and what I couldn’t believe:  this painting I had seen at Jannie and Frieda’s house two years ago that has haunted me since.  There is something magical and mesmerizing about it to me.  A picture of their daughter when she was quite young, on the beach, and painted, years later, by that same daughter.  I couldn’t believe my eyes, my heart jumped with joy!  It wasn’t the original, of course, but Jannie had taken a photograph and Noekie had it put on canvas.  It’s still perfect to me!  Johan came in and we had a great time, eating bobootie, drinking wine and talking, listening to a CD of our friends Hein and Noxolo (the x is a click, she’s Xhosa) and her late husband who were singers long ago when they were young and on their way to being famous, except the husband died.  What beautiful voices and harmony, Noxolo’s crystal clear soprano and coloratura mezzo against the baritones of Hein and her husband.  Wait till you see what I bought from their shop — everyone will squeal like little girls when they see!

Luckily, Hein will ship that stuff and other stuff for us.  As usual I have gone overboard on buying presents.  Oh, but I still hope like hell that I can find these astounding handpainted bowls that I found at Cape Point and didn’t get — my last hope is the Out of Africa store in OR Tambo airport in Joburg.

Today is a holiday, Youth Day, to observe the Soweto uprising.  We’re going for a braai at Noekie’s house.  Matty is a great cook, so it will be delicious, and we have Marita’s melktarts to boot — a yummy day coming up!

What a terrific week we had in Cape Town, went all around False Bay, great seafood, to wine country with the BEST food I’ve had in a long time — maybe since Moe and Rose, in Robertson, which we didn’t get to eat at because they don’t serve lunch anymore, BIG DISAPPOINTMENT.  Anyway, a place I’ve been intrigued by whenever I go to Franschhoek, Allee Bleue, I finally got to go to.  Marita, Laird and I had a so-called “burger”, the most profane name of what we ate.  It is skaapstertjie (sounds like scarpstackie to me), a “little tail”.  It was springbok venison and lamb’s tail in a creamy mushroom sauce on a bun.  Each bite was like knocking on the doors of heaven!  And being let in.  Noekie had the famous Turkish dish, Imam Baylid, means “the imam swooned” — which is supposedly what happened when he ate this eggplant dish.  And a fabulous wine to boot (of course — and by that, I mean of course we had wine and of course it was divine).  It was Allee Bleue’s L’Amor Toujours, which the man who last bought the winery made and named for his wife.  Now how romantic is that, I ask!?

On the way back home, we decided to go 110 kilometers out of our way to go to Cape Agulhas.  None of us had ever been there.  Now, Marita, Laird and I have been to the highest bar in Africa in Lesotho, the southern most point in Africa, Cape Agulhas and the most southwestern point, Cape Point.  I wonder what the lowest point in Africa is.  (I know, bad grammar, but I’m beyond that point.)  Laird, being the intepid tourist he is, climbed up all the quite steep ladders to get to the top of the Cape Agulhas lighthouse — stupidly, none of us was outside when he got there and wanted to wave at us, so we didn’t get a picture of him.  But he did do it.  He is the only one who earned his certificate.  I bought one for all of us because I thought it only said we’d been to the southernmost point of Africa; instead, Noekie, Marita and I had to cross out the part about climbing to the top of the lighthouse and say only that we had been there.

YEA, NOEKIE for driving us all over the show and for using her time share points or whatever it is for our place in Cape Town.  Ahhhh, a cleaning woman who washes all the dishes from the day before — it can’t get any better than that.

It was rainy and cool coming back, but now it is COLD.  The apartments have no heat since they are mostly rented out in the summer, and we have a heater, but I have on heavy socks, long pants, shirt and jacket and two scarves.  It’s still cold.  It’s supposed to warm up tomorrow.  I sure hope so, because we don’t have much time left.  Only two weeks and we have to fly home.  Damn.

OK, short break while we had a delicious lunch of onion boerewors and roasted vegetables.  Dessert of pudding with brandy-cooked apricots. Wine?  Really, do you need to ask?  So, there goes the afternoon!  Marita is such a wonderful cook — we are going to be so fat when we leave, we might have to buy extra seats on the airplane!  Laird bought the charcoal and sausages to do a braai, but it is way too cold outside for that.  As usual, Marita to the rescue.

I got some lovely presents in Cape Town, and I got myself the most beautiful beaded rooster — baie lekker!  Everyone who sees it will swoon, will want it, I tell you.

Tomorrow, I’m so happy to have another treatment with Corina, the miracle worker while Marita goes to the dentist, then we need to go by Hein’s shop, the African crafts workshop, to see if he is willing to ship the 40 pound leopard statue in leopard stone that Laird bought, and for me to buy more presents for y’all, and me.  Theodore and Sia, I think I shall start you on your lifetime collecting of art, with wonderful folk art.  How’s that?  I hope it will make you happy.  You can’t have the grandmothers and mother you have without becoming fervent art lovers!  I sure hope it is warmer — did I tell you how cold it is?

Hope you will all have a wonderful Sunday — ours is already in the afternoon.  Marita is waiting, quite patiently, to Skype with her grandson Enzo in San Diego for his birthday.

Oh, and I have learned two new words that I’m sure will hold me in good stead.  All the politicians talk about something being done timeously.  It’s used in all the newspapers we read.  I don’t think it’s Afrikaans.  I assume it means timely.  The other, my favorite, maybe so far, is snotklaap — the name for slapping someone so hard snot flies out their nose.  I’m changing my desired vocation from designated slapper to designated snotklaaper!

Wow, the weather in Cape Town has been just perfect, as have our days here. Saturday, after buying groceries for our braai party on Sunday, we went downtown, where Laird, through his amazing memory, found Green Market park where there is a permanent vendor market. I bought a couple of presents, but was greatly hampered by having given all my cash to Laird earlier. I did pick up a couple of presents, but saw many more I could have gotten. Maybe it was good I didn’t have any money; I depended heavily on Marita and Noekie to drive down prices. I had to borrow money from Marita, so I definitely listened to her. Afterwards, we drove to Sea Point and a couple of other beaches. Oh so gorgeous, bright blue sky, with many kite surfers or whatever they are called, flying over the waves, light breeze, that wonderfully soft feel to the air — and my skin, not like in NM! Went to Hout Bay for fish and chips on the waterfront. Drove through Constantia on the way home, where the really, really posh folks live. Sandy, just think of our drive around Monterey, CA on that coast road, that’s the idea. RICH. There is a house in Upper Constantia I saw in the real estate section of the Cape Times several times that has me drooling. It has 5 bedrooms, at least, plus a cottage and staff quarters, so there will be enough room for all of us — we could all pitch in, what do you think? It is R29 million, but it’s been on the market for a month, so I think I could get the price down some.

On Sunday, we invited our friend Elsje and her sister’s family for lunch. I love that family — we met them when we were here two years ago, had dinner at their house. What a great meal we had, laughing and laughing, drinking and eating and then, the three daughters sang for us — god, what great voices they have! I think they have lots of other talents as well, I know one daughter is a painter — a very, very good one. I saw one of her paintings that I still think of after two years. I really want it! So Sunday, The sister, Frieda, her husband and two daughters allowed us to return the hospitality. How swell, the same thing happened again, laughs and laughs, drinking and eating — who could have predicted such a thing????

Today, we went to the Strand and either up or down the coast (I have no idea where any direction is here — I miss my Audi’s rearview mirror compass) to Bettysbaai (Betty’s Bay) where we happened to see a sign for penguins. How much fun to see formerly named Jackass penguins (because their call sounds like a donkey’s bray), now called African penguins. Also a colony of Dossies — you’ll have to look them up. They look like they should belong to the rodent family, but I think they are related to something astonishing, like elephants or similarly dissimilar mammal. Back down (up?) the coast and home — so thankful that we were driving in the opposite direction of most people flooding out of CT in the daily traffic jam from hell. A glass, or two, of Amarula, cheese sandwiches and now it’s time for bed. The western cape coastline is breathtakingly beautiful! We still have to have high tea at the Lord Nelson hotel, go to Stellenbosch and Franshhoek, go back to green park market and I’m sure a host of other things for which we won’t have time. I can’t tell you all enough: YOU MUST COME TO SOUTH AFRICA!