weekend...

I seem to be getting into the habit of packed weekends. This weekend I did the Zandspruit Engagement program and then went to Constitution Hill with Simon, Amanda and the kids. Constitution Hill was once a prison that held both Nelson Mandela and Gandhi (not at the same time, obviously). On Saturday evening I went in to Pretoria to see a show at the state theatre called Karoo Moose. It was good - well produced and interesting. Rape seems to be a common theme in African theatre, but that's not to put you off. It was a well produced show and I enjoyed it! There was dancing and singing and drums and physical theatre - it was great. They also did this awesome thing to signify the character being a child or adult by having the actor peg or hold up children's clothes to signify their age. They also had a couple of the guys playing women - one guy (the whole cast was black) played a rather affected Afrikaners woman - he played her like a drag queen! It was hilarious. Plus some of the dialogue was in Zulu and Khosa - both involving the use of the clicky sounds which are just soo cool! One of the internet guys here speaks Khosa (which is said 'click-hosa') and has promised to take me to a traditional ceremony! How amazing will that be!

So after the theatre and failing to find an open and under 300db cafe in the main strip, we drove back to Jo'burg. It's only about 50km, so it didn't take long!

Then today I slept in, then tried calling some people (I have skype working - finally - in my room and so can call, especially early on Saturday or Sunday morning - the internet kinda works then!). After a quick snacky lunch we went to the Botanical Gardens (different ones from last time) and went for a walk. I bought hiking shoes and cargo 'action' pants, so I got to put them into 'action'! It was really nice out today - as always.

This is the Ementia Dam (I think that's spelt right) in the Botanical Gardens, from just outside the gardens (we walked around the dam). It's gorgeous.

Then the three 'Jacques' girls (after the three of us who travel around together using my gps - which I've named Jacques-Hendrik Pot Heater G.P.S) went to Melville for a coffee, which turned into a beer (cider on my part) and a shared Mediterranean platter. It was lovely!

Now back to my room to maybe do some work or just go to bed early! Hurrah!

(sans) Kimba... and nuncheon

I haven't had a chance to upload the piccies of giraffes, rhino, elephants and most of all, the white lion cubs until now. I'll try to get them uploaded, although the web is unbelievably slow! Seriously, you wouldn't believe me if I tried to explain how slow it is.
So here goes...
Ok, so the internet is just too frustrating. It's refusing to load photos. So you get a giraffe. More later, if you're lucky.

I did manage to find on the weekend, along with the help of Jacques-Hendrik Pot Heater (my GPS), a wonderful cafe in Greenside. They served this amazing buffet lunch with sweet chili pumpkin salad, amazing green bean, nut and cottage cheese (I think) salad, an awesome cous cous tartine and some other very delicious things all for under R60 (for my plate anyway!). Plus they knew how to make coffee - real coffee! In the tradition of the Italian espresso, neither burnt coffee grinds nor overboiled milk, but rather very, very delicious! I can see I shall be returning to the Wild Olive Store!

Now I have to write a lecture on postmodernism. Pity me, people, pity me!

P.S. I added some piccies... yay for internet in my room!

Just a quick one...

I now have internet in my room! Hurrah!
But more important than this is that el Brotherus Minimus, or Stevius Bigus as he prefers (I like the Greek myself, Stephevus Maximus) has a blog and OMG can the blogger write! Check it out - click here
So very awesome! It means I'm going to have to up the literary anti, I think!
Anyway, must go and play with the kids from Zandspruit.

I blame the lions... partial update

It’s all their fault really.

Sorry for the lack of posting, I’ve had my brother to stay and we went away for the weekend. The weekend before I was madly trying to prepare for the visit of el Brotherus Minimus, as well as utilizing the hire car I had to its utmost, and so there’s been a silence from Jozi.

So, the week(s) in brief.

I went on the ‘702 Walk the Talk’ walk on Sunday three weeks ago… It was great fun, although deeply exhausting. Jo’burg is about 1800 metres up and so walking around is really, really exhausting. But there were lots of us and we managed to do the 5kms.

All the blue things are Monash noise makers, whoever thought them up was a marketing genius! So many people asked me about what Monash was and where we were and how many of us were on the walk (about 350 including staff and students!). It was a beautiful day - I even got sunburnt!

Then two weekends ago I hired a car and went for a wander over to the Rhino and Lion Reserve, which is actually only about 20 minutes from campus. I saw lions, zebra, ostriches, cheetahs, wild dogs and a plethora of what I fondly refer to as “bucky- things” – that is animals that bear some general relationship to a buck of some description! There were many, many bucky-things!

They’re kinda cute too, but not anywhere near as cool as the Lions! We saw white lions too! KIMBA!!! I love that show as a kid, so it was great to see the lion cubs playing and being thrown around by their carer.

Then this last weekend my brother came to visit, so I took him along to the wonderous joy that is Gold Reef City – it’s hideous really, but still the gaudiness was amusing to dis if nothing else! We saw a show there called African Footprints. It was, to be honest, really awful. There was a great deal of Bollywood going on, but Bollywood gone wrong. It was too glitz and also far, far too apolitical. We watched them deal with Apartheid in one rather easy and comfortable song.

El Brotherus Minimus at the gaudy entrance to Gold Reef City - check out the bling! Oh, and for R40 you can check out 'Groovy Nights' which looked like an excuse for a girly show. Yuk.

Anyway, after that we went to Pilansberg National Park on Sunday and saw giraffes! And elephants! And buffalo! And hippos! And rhino! And zebra, many, many bucky-things and other animals of an exotic nature. We did not, however, see any of the big cats. So we headed (back for me) to the Rhino and Lion Reserve to see the lions for el Brotherus Minimus! And that’s when we got to play with baby white lion cubs! They were only 7 weeks old and while I feel rather torn over the nature of our exploitation of these wild things, I also really loved playing with them, they were SOOO CUTE!!!!!!

[There will be pictures of giraffes, elephants and white lion cubs as soon as I can get an internet connection that is faster than an ice age.]

Anyway, now I’m back to the hard work again, which, really, is not so bad. Plus I’m actually getting some research done! Hurrah!

I shall to try to be more regular in my updates – plan for this weekend – do some bush walking to get out and about a bit. I don’t enjoy being cooped up like one has to be here. So a couple of us are planning to go up into the hills and do some hiking.

Oh, and I bought a GPS!!! It’s great!!! Even though I’m sure el Brotherus Maximus might find it a little pedestrian, it tells me where to go and in this city that is an amazing thing!

PS. There are more photos but the bandwidth here makes a 56K modem look like rocket science. So I'm going to try and upload more piccies tomorrow morning before the kiddies slow the web down to a pitiful dribble...