The Move

Fair Ways Guesthouse - our new home for

the time left in SA.

The time has come to move out of the house. We almost filled a 6 feet container with our stuff, two ex-pat families sharing! It's mostly arts and crafts and Elle's toys. It was really sad to see the house emptied. On Tuesday, last week, our stuff was out, on Wednesday and Thursday we had to let in the cleaners and the handymen. After Friday we were completely out of the house.

On Tuesday night we arrived to guest house and had pizza. But no need to worry, we have plenty of friends feeding us and make sure we're not locked in here. Thursday we went to the De Wet's, Friday at the Freel's, Saturday was a frenzy at Böhmer/Sterling Residence and the Mattysen's had us over for coffee/tea on Sunday.

This week is a school holiday, Elle and I have some activities planned but mostly it feels like we're waiting for leaving SA. We've ended all the accounts, phone, electricity, garden service etc. Fred's dad had an inspection of our flat in Stockholm, we rented it out and we're glad to know it's still in good condition. We will move in on the 18th already. "Quick sticks", to quote Elle's swimming teacher.

Commotion in the Kruger Park and foul language!

Sunrise in the Kruger, maybe our best spotting

this weekend!

Our favourites - a snuggly moment.

For the long weekend we went to the Kruger Park, for the last time. We might come back. Seringa Lodge in Whiteriver with its lovely surroundings, lush garden with big avocado and banana trees is definitely worth going back to. Cecilia is a marvellous chef and her husband Roger a brilliant guide. We really enjoyed ourselves. We had awesome sightings, got to see a pride of lions in action, hunting impalas. Unfortunately for the lions the attack was not a success. That would have been something. We saw all the animals except for the leopard, we're saving that for another time.

The hunt we witnessed. This girl was not

prepared when the commotion broke loose.

The impalas slipped trough her paws!

This guy spends a lot of his time flexing his muscles!

I know you guys with kids will probably understand me when I tell you about our daughter. I know that children go through different phases, and I really hope this is a phase. She has developped this sense of language and attitude. The newest thing is the use of "duh". You know when something is very clear and obvious for her and she just wants to emphasise it. We don't really have that in the Swedish language and I don't think she understands how very ugly it sounds. I'm telling myself: "It's just a phase, my dear, it'll pass..." I'm not convinced but very much hoping so. "Duh"

We came pretty close to this guy. He also had

a serious attitude problem!

Junior School's Walk and Run

On the 15th of June all junior girls of DSG had a fund raising. All the girls were made to walk, or run around the sportsfield. The parents and others could donate a sum or sponsor each lap the girls ran. Fred and I, not knowing how long a lap would be, gladly put down R20 per lap, each!!! Grade 0 also had a theme, they dressed in pj's and takkies and dressing gowns.

Well, when Elle had ran 4 laps in the first 25 minutes we panicked a bit. We made her take a break, a donut seemed to be in order. She and her friend ate it with a good appetite and then sort of lost interest in the running. All and all, Elle ran 7 laps times 20 times two ended up in the sum of R280. Not bad and we still had a decent budget for our holiday during the long weekend. :)

The girls are preparing for start

Full throttle!

We started the day with the girls in Chapel. They sang and there was a short sermon, at the right level for the small girls. We really enjoyed it. Afterwards we walked around the schoolground and took some photos. It's such a beautiful school. While waiting for the little girls to arrive to the sportsfield, The Old Girls, women once attended DSG set up a table with coffee, tea, cakes, donuts and savoury pies. We had a wonderful morning in the sun!

Main building at S:t Mary's DSG

Bags are stacked

Unseasonal Rains

We have had some depressive weather lately. Pretoria is in the Gauteng Province, an area which has cold (warm and sunny days and cold nights) but dry weather in winter, and summers are hot with powerful thunder storms followed by heavy rains. Cape Town on the other hand, has dry and hot summers and winter rains, very much like the Mediterranean countries. This year has been funny, this summer was not too hot, it was very wet too. We had days with drizzle.

Now winter came early this year, it's been cold. I know coming from Sweden you would be able to cope with cold! That's the thing, the houses here are built to keep the cool inside, so you're cold inside and outside, except if you're in direct sun. I've been so cold it actually hurts to leave the bed in the morning. Last week it was -2 degrees when I took Elle to school. Today was 11, and what a difference it made. The only thing is that we have rains. I woke up in the middle of the night by thunder and lightning. The weather guys call it unseasonal rains.

Pretty depressing!

Enough about the weather. This weekend we had a dinner for friends and we went shopping, serious shopping. We bought a painting. I ordered it from the artist and we picked it up at Rosebank Market in Jo-burg. It is so big we had to take the seats down in the back of the car. Elle and I squeezed in together in the front seat. All for the sake of art, hey?

A few weeks ago I framed the little cloths with stitching work on them, bought in Namibia. They did a fantastic job. We are also going to frame another painting we bought at the market last year. It's a lot cheaper here. Our walls in the flat will be covered with african art. Looking forward to it.