Location: South Africa : City of Roses
It has been a long time since we updated the blog, but that is only because we are having the times of our lives in sunny South Africa.
We left Bangkok on the 26th September and after an interesting stopover in Abhu Dhabi (interesting in the sence that we landed at around midnight there were people literally lying all over the place – on the floor, in the corridors and even in the bathrooms) we landed in Johannesburg at 08:15 on Saturday the 27th. Our connecting flight to Bloemfontein was only at 15:00, so we started our SA visit with a long visit to the good and faithfull Spur Restaurant. Marizanne’s whole family greeted us at the airport in Bloem and it was so nice to see everyone again.
Marizanne’s parents took the first week off work, so we stayed with them and spent every day catching up, eating mom’s home cooked food and just relaxing. When they had to go back to the work the second week, we checked in at Sune and Werner’s (M’s sister and her husband) place – not too far from the parents. They live in a wildlife estate on the edge of the city and every now and again you see a springbuck or osterich strolling about.
Werner is quite a cook and we were spoilt with huge steak barbeque’s (or “braai’s” as we know it in South Africa) and all sorts of exotic dishes. He especially went all out on Marizanne’s birthday with a South Indian prawn and pumpkin curry.
It was amazing getting to know Marizanne’s little niece, Anesia. She is now 9 months old, too cute for words with her first 4 teeth and we had the pleasure of being here for her christening on Sunday, 12th October. After seeing our photos of the trip, Jan was the obvious choice of photographer on the day.
We cannot believe that 3 weeks in the City of Roses are almost over. It was awesome spending every day with the family and being here for 2 special occasions – M’s birthday and the christening. The time went so quickly, but at least it is not the end of it all.
Next week we will be celebrating another very special occasion in Cape Town – Jan’s nephew, Nikolai, has his first birthday party on Saturday, 18th October. We will visit Jan’s sister and her husband, Anree and Brad, and their 2 beautiful boys, Luca and Nikolai, for a week before we head off to Jan’s Mom in Port Elizabeth for the last 2 weeks in South Africa.