lairdandjonelle

Had a lovely day yesterday.  Met Linda Durham, from Santa Fe, one of the three of us for the writing workshop — she’s going to be in Slovenia for a month.  We had late coffee at my place on the river (because I didn’t wake up until late morning — along with other things I find I forgot, like my back belt, I also forgot the NoJetLag, both missed greatly), then walked up the street to the funicular up to the castle.  Not much castle left, but it has become a cultural, arts, etc center for Ljubljana residents and a museum, which we didn’t see.  Ambled back to Macek, where we parted, she to go to her hotel to write and me to go upstairs to go back to sleep.  We met again for wine, then dinner.  We had black wine by the river and then went back to the restaurant I had been to last night, where we had orange wine — white wine made in the way of red wine, quite wonderful.  Another meal, the same thing I had the night before because I loved it so much.  Yummmm.  I think I might be able to live on carpaccio.  And the occasional donut, of course.  It was such a lovely day, beautiful autumn day, soft evening.  We’re in the pedestrian zone, no cars, people walk along the river, sit at outside bars and coffee shops, drink and laugh, such pleasure being apart of it just by being.  And what a pleasure meeting Linda!  She’s here working on her memoir manuscript.  I’m here to finalize my book of poetry that will be published, I hope, by Christmas.  Please, feel free to get your orders in for Christmas — or New Years — presents now!

So, I guess I’ve avoided enough and must get to packing.  Laird packed my suitcase so tight with everything I insisted I take that there is no wiggle room.  So I’ll have to be as neat about repacking.  Of course I brought all the wrong clothes! Or at least not enough of summer clothes and too many of colder.  Maybe when we get to our eventual destination it will be cooler and I will be happy I brought them.  Sure hope so.  As will everyone else who will see me in the same two pairs of pants and t-shirts if it doesn’t get cooler.

If you haven’t already thought you wanted to come to Slovenia, google it — it is a lovely, lovely place to be!  Happily yours, jm

What a gorgeous place!  Got here after getting up on Wed a.m. in ABQ at about 4:30, no hot water in the hotel for a shower, what the hell is THAT about???  I sure hope they comp my room (which was really lovely and big, but the lack of hot water is a no-go).  Flying to DFW, the Philly before leaping off the continent to fly for another 8 hours to Venice.  I won’t get to see Venice on this trip, but seeing it flying in  I know I want to come back.  Waiting 2+ hours before shuttle is due, boring as hell, the airport is being renovated, so nothing beautiful to look at while waiting.  Shuttle came, we were off a full bus of Slovenians and me, they slept, I looked at the countryside.  Of course, so lovely, Italian villas, vineyards everywhere, then Slovenia, mountains, green forests.  I was so miserable, back and legs hurting like hell, neck screaming, Iwanted to sleep so badly.  We get to Ljubljana, some soviet “inspired” buildings on the outskirts, but into the center, the charm circle — and boy is it charmed!  My shuttle driver helped me find my way in the pedestrian area, brought me to my hotel/hostel on the river.  Room is huge, but the bed is a BIG problem.  Modern, wooden shelf frame all around with mattress laid in.  I can get into the bed, but it is HELL trying to get out of it!  I’m going to be black and blue in the morning, I know, also probably whiplash, as I will have to climb out numerous times in the night, pay back for lots of water and two glasses of wine..  Nice nap, shower (finally!), dressed and go out the side door and see this interesting restaurant right outside.  I decide to eat there, white tableclothes, sparkling wine glasses, etc.  I choose outside, so they set me up there.  I said oh, my, carpacchio (sp?), and look, baked octopus — waiter says, let me suggest wines, I say whatever you think and I had a MAGNIFICENTLY DELICIOUS dinner.  For only a little over 36 euros.  Big tip, certainly. The waiter helped me through my assortment of universal and European plug conversions and damned if they effing don’t fit!  These plugs are too inset into the wall to let my universal plug plug in.  Shit!  Can only hope it will be better when I move to the Hotel Slon on Saturday and can charge everything.

Short walk up the street by the river before coming back, getting ready for bed.  My room is right over the street so it’s going to be pretty noisy — get out the earplugs I never travel without.  Need them even if my sweetie Laird isn’t traveling with me.

Start planning your trip to Slovenia — you’re gonna love it!  Tiredly yours, jm

I’m off tomorrow for Slovenia, going to a writing workshop with my friend Judyth Hill, with culinary sidelights with her partner Kris Rudolph. A couple of days early in Ljubljana, which I have now learned to spell, before we all meet. But Linda Durham, also from Santa Fe, is also early, so we have plans for drinks or dinner or whatnot. Never been to Slovenia, never been to Italy, so looking forward to it all. Fly into Venice, take shuttle to Ljubljana and get to see some of the countryside. Alas, I thought I had two days in Venice on the way back, but only overnight. Bummer. Do get to walk around Trieste one day, though, so that will be Italy. And I’m staying at an agritourism place on my one night in Venice. I might try to get to something of the watery part of Venice, depends on how tired I am.
Still packing — only the second time, so I’m doing pretty good, if a bit late at it since I’m going down to ABQ tonight for early flight tomorrow. Starting to get excited! jm

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!

Where was I?  The last was going to the winery, I think.  Now, what have we done since then?  Hard to remember after really good wine at lunch.  One day we drove what seemed forever, but was probably only a couple of hours, to see Monkeyland, Birds of Eden and Jukani big cats sanctuary.  All of the animals are rescued from zoos, breeding farms, people who had them as pets, whatever.  They, the facilities, have won many international awards for their work. The monkeys were in a many-hectare (no of course I don’t know how big a hectare is — Laird!?  He says 2 1/2 acres) fenced in area that was open to the sky.  They could have left, probably, if they had wanted, but since they are fed, they don’t.  We heard howler monkeys, but didn’t see any.  But we saw many, many ring-tailed lemurs; other lemurs; two gibbons that we were very fortunate to watch on the ground quite close to us, walking around, stopping to look for insects, etc. — one walked by us several times, so cool, even though he ignored us; and several other kinds of monkeys I don’t remember.  Great guide.  The birds were in a netted, also several hectare space with lots of water features and grottos and amazing plants — Sandy, you would have liked it a lot.  Beautiful, vibrant- , irridescent- and many=colored, what a joy they were: parrots; scarlet ibis; flamingo; crested cranes; ducks; several types of pheasant, including golden pheasant; Knysna louries, with their green-black feathered backs and the most astonishing flash of red underwing when they fly; maybe  golden breasted starling, but gloriously irridescent blue, green and gold; maybe a golden palm weaver, but not sure.  Their bird book doesn’t always jive with what we saw.  And we saw two blue duikers, which are tiny antelope-like animals.  At Jukani, the stories were mostly sad, big cats that were bred to be shot by big game hunters (use that term lightly, since they are guaranteed a kill); zoos mistreating animals or going out of business; cute little cuddly wild cat pets that grew up.  One beautiful white tiger was the result of multi-generational in-breeding and so, at only eight, he is about 80% blind — he’ll get to 100% fairly soon, they think.  He could live to be 25. Blind. There were wild dogs, a jakkal, a three=legged springbok, on and on.  And the most amazing sight, a thick line of black ants about a foot long and many ants deep — a big thick rope of ants crawling out of the tiniest hole, along the ground and up over a wire fence piece.  Moving by moving over those on the bottom. Our guide, also wonderful, told us they must have smelled blood from an earlier feeding. Yes, they bite — wouldn’t be pleasant to fall into one of their missions (or be one of them either)!

Sunday we had a braai at the flower farm — grilled snoek, yummy!  With Marita’s melktart, more yumminess and huzzahs.  Otherwise, I don’t know what we’ve been doing but we’re all having a lovely, lovely time.  I did go again to the miraculous Karina, the physiotherapist who has made me mostly pain free.  We took Mattie to her, too.  She has very bad osteoporosis and arthritis.  She said Karina made her feel better; hope that was true.  We’re both going again tomorrow.

Friday we go to Cape Town for a week and already have a list of things to do that will take double the time.  Today, I went to get my hair cut.  She did a great job, but she curled it while blow drying and then teased — my head was all fluffy!  Then a walk on the beach, another trip to the mall to get yet more things we didn’t bring with us or the apartments are not equipped with.  Today it was dish towels and toenail clippers.  Lunch at Cattle Barons — an American company that is franchised here.  Delicious wine!  Nederburg Barone if anyone can find it at their local wine shop.  Sandy and Daniel, y’all might be able to find it at Total Wine.

Happy Days, as Marita always toasts

Yesterday, we went to buy Norman two beehives for the flower farm, our farm-warming present for them. Very nice man who makes them, though he is quite the sportsman, big hunter and fisher with pictures and mounted horns to prove it. He also had really nice legs in shorts and workboots — a killer look for some men. Afterwards, we went off wandering around the countryside, though with purpose. We drove to the gates of Gondwana, a private game reserve, but found out we can only schedule a game drive on the internet — and then when Laird went on their website, found that you have to be staying there to do it. Too bad, but there are at least two more reserves within a very short distance to try. Or go back to Botlierskopp, which we really like. So no game drive. On to wine tasting. Went through Herbertsdale, a town of no people from the look around — there’s not even a sign outside the church that says what it is. Dutch reformed, we found out. White. We got to Jakkalsvlie, which I have heard variously as Yakopsplace, Yakofsflay and slight variations. Marita says “Oh, Afrikaans is so easy, it’s pronounced as you see it. Well, except Beginning Js have a Y sound, beginning Gs have a phlemmy H sound — oh, except when they sound like G, or, to my ear, like Qu or Qw. “Googie more” is good morning/day. It is pronounced to my ear as Quia mora. Or Whea mora. I thik more has an accent n the e. And Vs sound like Fs.

Anyway, we got to Yakkelsflay (Jakkal’s marsh) and tasted several wines, most of which were delicious. I even found a white wine I liked! So I bought a little over a case (their cases are short, only 6 bottles); got a muscadel for Noekie who likes sweet wine, the bottle we had with our lunch of cheeses, ostrich carpaccio (do I have a letters missing? I must, it’s too short), ostrich pate, olives and figs. Looking out over a gorgeous valley, how perfect. Well, it could have been slightly better since it was quite cool with lots of wind. Still windy this morning and cold. Laird is gone with Norman to take Noekie to airport (she just got home last night from Pretoria, today off to Durban, poor woman!) in George, then to buy the remainder of the stuff for the beehives. Marita are going to drink coffee and read the paper.

How many ways to say, “another great day”?  This one was just a little cloudy, but still lovely and blue enough as we drove back down around Albertinia to explore whatever Stilbaai had to offer.  Laird and I had gone to Boggomsbaai, Vleisbaai (what a rip-off that was, just a damn gated community!) and Goritsmond [handing off to Laird, Marita is going to cut my hair](or “Goritzmond” on a few road signs — confusing). Goritsmond was kind of cute, but the sidewalks had been rolled up at noon. We saw one open window and five workmen. The 2-pump gas station was open and the country store. So we were not particularly excited by the visits. However, we then discovered “Rein’s Private Nature Reserve”. You can look this up on the net. 2,600 hectares (6,600 acres) with 20 houses built and 20 more approved. The German owner wants to find a lessee with enough working capital to develop a marketing plan and make a success of the place. The nature reserve has a herd of 100 eland and 20 mountain zebra, along with a lot a bird varieties. Any takers? Leaving Rein’s, we managed to put a hole in the muffler of the old Corolla we’re driving. It now sounds like the motorcycles that race up and down outside our flat at all hours. Literally. Last night, I was awakened at 3:41 am by a motorcycle. But then, we stumbled into Albertinia and found the Albertinia Hotel. This is a 116 year old establishment, with a restaurant. For 189 rand, you can get an 11-course meal. J & L were wimps and elected a small sample of dishes. J had roast chicken. L had greek salad and pork schnitzel. But the ambiance was wonderful. There was a fire in the fireplace and the wall decorations were old photos and event posters. Finding this place erased the disappointments of the day — even though we now have to figure out how to repair the muffler.

That was Thursday.

Friday, we stayed in Mossel Baai, visited the tourism bureau for brochures of things to do in the area. We had lunch at the Cafe Barnett. Jonelle got a dozen small wild oysters and I got a dragon roll sushi — least you think we’re roughing it in SA. We then toured the Dias Museum. The maritime museum houses the 1988 reproduction caravel built in Portugal from the original notes. (Plans, apparently, had been lost). The caravel originally took 6 months and a crew of 30 to make the voyage around the horn to Mossel Baai. The reproduction took 3 months with a crew of 17. A major difference, apparently, was the reproduction housed a diesel engine under the poop deck. No one indicated whether the engine was used, or was just for emergencies. We’ll return to the museum later to visit the shell museum with the largest collection of shells in South Africa (or so the tourist brochure says).

Friday, late, Noekie and Marita returned from a trip to Bloemfontein.

Saturday was pretty quiet. I solved my camera problem — having forgotten to bring along the charger for the Canon. I bought a new Canon bridge camera, with a charger, battery and SD card that are interchangeable with the underwater camera. The new camera has a 18x  optical zoom and 20.2 megapixels. This is more than twice the stats of the underwater Canon. Price was only $60 more than buying a replacement battery and charger for the underwater camera.

Today is Sunday. Jonelle is back at the keyboard.

Laird forgot to say we fixed dinner for Noekie, Johan and Mattie last night, so Marita and I did plenty, while Laird read or played with his new camera.  I made Morrocan lamb and chickpea stew and Marita made everything else: bread, roasted veggies fresh from the flower farm, rice and dessert.  Actually, Laird did do something — he had to go to the OK mini-mark three times.  It’s only a short way away from our apartment, luckily.  The people in there must think he’s strange, though.  Dinner was excellent  and we all had laughs and wine, which is the summation of what I think about when I think South Africa.

So as I was saying before I got Marita to cut my hair, we went to Stiilbaai today, a lovely little town, bigger than Dana Baai, we think, on the river as it feeds into the ocean.  Gorgeous beach, but not much in the way of sea shells.  Or not that we saw.  When we drove around, there was another beach, very rocky, but many families out, cooking on the braais, jumping around on the rocks, happy on a nice day.  There were fisherpeople at the harbor, but we didn’t notice how happy they were.

We took Marita to the Albertinia hotel and we all had yummy bobotie and she and I had wine.  Very good wine when we thought it was a pinotage/merlot blend; surprisingly delicious when we learned it was a shiraz!  The do a wonderfully heavy pour there, but then all you can do is go to sleep, which we (well, at least I) did promptly upon arrival back home.  Now it is almost time for bed again and my hair looks swell.  See, small pleasures, big grins.

We drove to Cape Town on Sunday, another beautiful day in South Africa. Our hotel was in Tyger Valley (wherever that is) with an outstanding view of Table Mountain and the lights of the city. After driving all day, we were all quite eager for gins and tonic with the view! Wine with dinner, oh yes.

We LOVE South African wines — if only they exported more of them to the US; if anyone has looked lately, you see that there is very little choice, at least in New Mexico. Noekie has decided I should become a wine importer, but I think I’ll leave that to someone else and will just keep hoping they will do it soon. Does anyone need a new career? Such good wine, always — I think there is no bad wine bottled in SA.

While poor Noekie had to work, the three of us took the hotel shuttle to the waterfront. Our shuttle driver was quite lovely and, of course, we were chuffed (as Marita says) to hear his political views that matched ours so well. The Western Cape, of which Dana Bay and Cape Town are a part, is DA country, not ANC. The only province that is, and also the only province that is really working. Cape Town looks very, very prosperous — hard to see any of the economic woes facing much of the country. We had a great time, I was on the lookout for ras al-harout and harissa for a chicken dish I wanted to cook for everyone. I found something approximating ras al-harout, but found only one harissa that didn’t look quite as lethal as licking the hinges of hell, but then I forgot to go back and buy it. With hot spices everywhere in Cape cuisine, no one had ever heard of harissa #1. Will go back when we have our week vacation in CT in June.

In Francehoek (I’m pretty sure that’s misspelled, there should be an s somewhere, but I can’t figure out where and nobody is here at the moment to ask — I even looked on the 9 bottles of wine we have and not a one with address from that misspelled place! THAT’S FRANSCHHOEK, NO E, THE S IN ITS PROPER PLACE AND 2 Hs. After all that looking at wine bottles the paper Laird picked up there was right across the table from me. Duh.), we looked for the Bacon Bar, a place we loved two years ago, but, alas, out of business. Sorry, Sandy, I was going to buy you something piggy. It’s where I got your wire pig. We had lunch there, pretty lackluster I thought. I ordered shrimp and avocado salad, never dreaming I’d have to pull the heads off and shell the shrimp and the avocado came like guacamole, except without the interest. Mashed up avocado on greens with too much dressing is not my idea of good. Nor were the shrimp, which had been cooked so much I couldn’t get all the shell off and kept having to spit out pieces. Not lekker! as we say in Africaans.

Coming back, Noekie had to pick up some talapia fingerlings for the flower farm — they want to do aquaculture as part of the farm. Laird and Marita sat with the cooler of baby fish, 106 of them, between them on the way home and they worried that the little portable pump wasn’t pumping in enough oxygen, so Laird would blow into the hose every 10 minutes or so to make sure they were oxygenated. I wondered how anyone knows how much oxygen 106 talapia fingerlings need and whether they were gooing to get an oxygen high from two oxygen sources. Once when we stopped to buy wine, very cheaply, Noekie was moving the car to find shade and the ice chest turned over to a wet result — but at least she didn’t have to pick up fish and fling them back in. After all that, we got home about 7ish last night and this morning Norman called to say there had been only one fish casualty. Hooray, Laird and his fishy CPR!

Noekie and Marita are off again today, traveling to Bloemfontein — about an 8-hour trip, which I am so thankful I don’t have to do. They’ll be back on Friday. Laird is just coming back from his walk, so I have to give back his computer.

What a swell day we’ve had! This morning early, we had to take Allister and Lucinda (workers) to the flower farm we thought we’d drive to Oordshoorn for an adventure — not that we expected so much adventure in a town. But when we got to the flower farm, Laird asked Norman where Botlerskop, a game reserve we had been to 2 years ago. Turns out it was quite near the flower farm. Have I told you all abut the flower farm? Noekie bought it this year, after looking at it for several years, wanting, wanting, wanting. So Norman, her son, and Junita his wife, are living there now and loving farming. So much more fun for them than the hardware store or construction work. They grow roses, just planted something like 5000 bulbs, have other flowers, like bouquet fillers. House is an old school house.
Anyway, back to Botlierskop — we went there instead and had a wonderful game drive with Silas, our guide. Saw Gnus, rhinos, eland, springbok, bonterbok, lions, zebra, impala (two black ones, but Marita hates that they are being bred; she thinks they are freaks), nyala, water buck and I’m sure, more. Ahhh, the fenbos, with protea trees and lovely, lovely flowers everywher. We had a lovely lunch, with an even lovelier SA wine. Oh, the wine here!
When we got back, and found that it is only about 25 minutes from Dana Baai!, we went to see a couple of houses. I fell TOTALLY IN LOVE with one — the “mansion” the estate agent called it. 4 bedrooms, all en suite, 2 of which were ginormous and looked out on the ocean, with private balconies. Also a 3-sided sunroom on that floor. Off the living room, on 1st floor, there are 2 office rooms. Going upstairs, there is another sitting area on the first landing. Huge kitchen, with yet another sitting area and a little bar, with bar stools and mirrored back and shelves of liquor bottles — enough room for my liquor cabinet! Big skullery, too, because they don’t wash their dishes in the kitchen here. Plus a big enough pantry. Large laundry room. God, I love that house! I want it! R3,350,000. Short term rentals could be maybe R5,000 or so a day over holidays and in season — makes it sound doable, huh? And at a little over 15 cents to the dollar, actually almost affordable! And whoever wants can come for vacation, guys. Oh, and it has an unfinished little apartment — the maid could live there, for sure. Then we saw two pretty old houses that needed to be depersonalized BIG TIME. We couldn’t actually tell anything because there was so much furniture and stuff! I can hear y’all snickering and see you rolling your eyes at me saying that someplace has too much stuff, but these did! At least our house is big enough to kind of mitigate the amount of my stuff. Stop laughing, Chris! The yards were lovely though — Sandy, you would swoon at all the succulants! The aloes, blooming away, the protea, the hibiscus and all the things I haven’t a clue about.
HAPPY DAY, as our friend Marita always toasts — jm

Hello to anyone who keeps checking this site — we’ve been in South Africa now for a couple of weeks now and our wifi refuses to connect my computer. Asking Laird to give up his is like pulling teeth since he’s working, still working, ever still working on the oil and gas report. But I have a few moments, maybe to report. We are in Dan Baai, suburb of Mossel Baai, staying in a wonderful apartment — sure beats Prague, let me say. I’ll try to see about posting pictures. Speaking of which, I bought a lovely picture of the Indian ocean, with Kraals. More to buy and then have our lovely friend at the folk art cooperative, Hein, ship for us. It’s coming on winter here, so it’s cloudy a lot, but warm and still love looking at the ocean. We, Laird, Marita and I, went to Port Elizabeth last week with our other best friend Noekie. Not such a lovely place, though the beaches outside of town are gorgeous, but the town itself sorta sucks. Laird was thrilled he was asked to do a short presentation at the opening of the conference and by all accounts he was his usual star. Sunday we’re going to Cape Town for more training work by Noekie. We LOVE Cape Town, so expect to have a great time. Then Laird, Marita and Noekie are going to Bloemfontein for more work. Poor Noekie works so hard! I’m staying here — too much car driving for me.

Will try to post pictures, but not much text to add. But pics are so much better! Happy days to you all (as Marita toasts whenever we drink — which is often!)

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After a grueling 38 hour trip, we’re home — god that was long!  We started at 5:30 Saturday afternoon, going to Tambo airport in Jo’burg — the Amazing Duo of Marita and Noekie took us, and thank god Marita insisted that I use a wheelchair.  We went out to dinner on Friday night, and there was some outdoor event near our restaurant and Laird and I danced and I don’t know what I did but it was HIDEOUSLY PAINFUL!!  Holy shit, it hurt!  I think somehow I must have pinched the sciatic nerve — and I mean pinched!  I could hardly walk, certainly not on my right leg, every movement of it a white hot stab of pain – and of course, we were on the second floor of the restaurant so by the end, having to walk down those stairs was a real adventure.  We got home, Marita gave me some Magnesium Inflama Spray (which I recommend highly), which Laird sprayed on from my waist to my ankle; I slapped a lidocaine patch on, took two pain pills and a muscle relaxer and laid on an ice pack.  Amazingly, in the morning the pain was mostly gone, but, alas, came back in the afternoon just as we were going to the airport.  Let me tell you, wheelchair is THE way to go on international travel — you go to the head of the line for security, immigration and customs, boarding, the whole shebang — and your traveling companion gets to cut in line, too, if he (or she) can keep up with the transporters.  Suggestion:  you might want to keep your eyes closed when being wheeled around by the transporters — they make NY taxi drivers look like Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy.  I did have to walk down the long, long ramp to get to the boarding area for Eithad in Jo’burg because another transporter “borrowed” my wheelchair when I went to the bathroom — that was pretty damn hard and painful — but other than that, there was a wheelchair waiting to pick me up at every stop.

Before leaving for the airport, Marita cooked up the Last Supper (actually dinner, meaning mid-day meal), a braai, for us and Noekie and Mattie.  We had boerwors, salad, mealie pap with tomato gravy (or what I think of as that — maybe it was Monkey Gland sauce.  Marita?) and I’m sure more things that I have forgotten to mention — oh, like fresh made bread, the largest loaf I’ve ever seen.  After what I’ve told you, I’m sure you already know it was divine.  If you don’t — it was.

It was so sad to leave them.  And South Africa, which we love, and knowing that it won’t be the same because Marita has sold her house and will be moving to Bulwer to be with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter, the famous Empress Zoe who some of you have heard us talk about.  Her new mission in life, besides being with Zoe every day, is to clean up Bulwer — or to make the people who live there clean it up.  A huge mission and task it will be, too.  After that, she will move on to finding ways for the Blacks there, particularly the women, to make money, probably through a crafts co-op.  She has every intention to accomplish a Grand Makeover for Bulwer and since she is a force of nature when she has a task ahead of her, we expect big things for that little town.

Noekie is also hoping to sell her house there so she can move to Danabaai — although she will probably have to rent or buy a smaller place in Pretoria while continuing to work there –though she is hoping for a transfer to George or Capetown, which will make everything much easier — her husband and son/wife live in Danabaai now and it’s past time that she gets to live closer to them.  She is an economist, works for South Africa revenue service, a natl govt agency.  Plus, she wants to buy a flower farm, which I think I wrote that we had seen — just the outside of.  To that she wants to add a tea garden and several other things, too.  I’m ready to go live in Danabaai and help there or in the hardware store.  Even if only for a few months a year, it would be so wonderful to live by the ocean.  I’m also considering medical vacationing, since I know I’m going to have to have a couple of dental implants sometime soon.  I’d think of going to a pain doc there, but really, 38 hours on a plane after a pain treatment — how long do we think that might last?  

After a glorious morning at Sammie Marks museum — a house that is ideally suited for me, I must say, though the location is a little far from Santa Fe — and then an afternoon massage, I’m waiting to see if it’s swimming and steaming with Noekie before dinner.  Noekie and Mattie are coming for dinner and Marita is making babootie — I know it will be oh so good and I might have to cut short sitting in heat, wet or dry, to get back to gins and tonic, babootie and a wonderful wine we found.  We are going to come waddling home after all the grand breakfasts, dinners and suppers Marita has made — along with the gins and tonic and wines, of course.  Did I tell you about the dinner at Elsje’s last week just after we got back from Dana Bay?  Kudu pie, mashed potatoes, pumpkin and, I think but can’t remember, something else.  Crowned with Malva pudding with custard — a doubly wonderful way to end!  It was all so delicious, I can’t even say.  I have not had a single bad meal here — oh, there was one, a hamburger at a Wimpy’s — but no bad meals from Marita, Elsje or Mattie — what fantastic cooks they are!  Daniel, Dona and Judyth, y’all would be in hog heaven with these three.  The night we got back, Mattie made us a delicious lentil soup and chicken curry w/rice — and just-made bread — yummy.  Every time, YUMMY.  Laird and I are sure going to miss them when we’re forced to fall back on our own cooking skills much too soon.

Now I’m going to see if I can convince Laird to upload some photos, so you can see what we’ve been up to.  Happily yours, jm

Yikes, this is our LAST MONDAY of vacation!  Bummer.  We have so loved the last two months and had just a wonderful time — it’ll be hard to get back to the real world, methinks.  This weekend was nostalgia — Marita, Noekie, Laird and I went to Hartebeestport dam on Saturday, where we’ve been before, and Sunday was Monte Casino bird park, Noekie’s sister-in-law Mattie added to the roster.  The bird show is quite astounding — amazing that birds can be trained since surely their thought process is so alien from us.  Oh, the scarlet ibis! We got to walk around in their very large cage.  Alas, the lorikets (anyone know how to spell them?) were gone — it had been so much fun to go into their cage, where they would sit on your head, your shoulder, finger, whatever.  They loved to peck out the wax in your ears — a VERY funny feeling, believe me.  Then back, for a spaghetti dinner and lots of wine with them — the people, not the birds. 

Today we went to the natural history museum to see the winners of the National Geographic Photographer of the Year competition — as you can imagine, they were all astounding pieces of art. 

This is also Jonelle Makeover week.  Elsje gave me an excellent, wonderful feeling facial, manicure and haircut; tomorrow I go back for a massage — so yummy!  Then Noekie is going to take me swimming and then steam room and sauna — more yummy!  I’ll be a total noodle by the end of the day!

I also think we’re going to the Sammy Marks (probably spelled wrong) museum tomorrow — it’s a beautiful house out in the country.  So much to pack in before Saturday.  Speaking of Saturday, we also have to get our souvenirs packed and mailed — presents will be a later arrival than we are, so sorry.

I’d say “lately yours”, but I’m not fond of the connotation there — so nostalgically yours, jm