Time flies. The time working in joburg has been totally eye-opening and a refreshing break from my Beijing work routine! I took Duncan to my favourite vendor stall for breakfast this morning and we had pap – African maize meal porridge - for the first time topped with homemade chicken curry – boy was it delicious. Washed the whole lot down with coffee for me and rooibos tea for Duncan sitting streetside under the morning sun. We watched the England-South Africa test match cricket this afternoon and I really needed to pair up cricket terminology with baseball ones to understand what it was all about: bowler is pitcher; bowl is a pitch; batsman is batter; a six is like a home run…and that stump looks more like a stick….you get the idea. And I finally understood why they call the England-Australia Ashes game – that little bit of bale at the top of the sticks….we watched Invictus and absolutely recommend it!!
By the way, Cape Town was magnificent – a younger feel than Nice, less ritzy than Monaco, reminds me of San Francisco in some places and definitely more Beverly Hills than anything South Africa or Africa. It is a very tourist friendly city and the sights and ocean are spectacular – we made it down to the cape of good hope but whale watching season had ended so we didn’t get on a boat during our short weekend getaway.
And for the record, joburg is alright. Yes the high walls suck but it’s not as scary as it had seemed before I got here.
