Bit of a catch up blog today.

Left Jo'burg on Wednesday, with 9am transfer to the airport and an 11:40 flight to Cape Town, which was all very uneventful. Picked up hire car and have to say not very impressed - 2 weeks car hire is costing as much as 4 weeks in the US and all I get is a crappy old polo, with a really small engine!!

Martin had sent me directions to a mall, as he & Maritha were both in day long meetings - so do not miss that at all - so he suggested I could waste an afternoon in the mall & then drive the short distance from there to their house when they came home. Got to the mall really easily and it's pretty big, so may waste another day there at some point - apparently it's got a cinema & everything, so could be worth a lazy day there.

Martin actually got out of his meeting early and came & met me at the Mall, where we picked up some stuff for a braai that evening. My first proper braai, after almost 2 weeks in SA!! The house is great and has an indoor and an outdoor braai, which is serious dedication to the culinary art!! I have a huge guestroom and bathroom to myself downstairs, which is lovely and I even have cupboards, so I can temporarily stop living out of my bags.

The braai was great, it was lamb which I don't normally eat, but the chops were really well done & crispy so they were nice. Maritha, Martin's wife is lovely and the 2 kids are really sweet and friendly. Misha practices her english with me, though has to check sometimes with her mom in Afrikaans and Morne jabbers away to me in Afrikaans and doesn't seem to mind in the slightest that I don't understand him. Martin thinks he can get us tickets for the Sharks/Stormers game in Cape Town on Saturday, so that will be great if it happens.

Not a great night Wednesday night - think the flight upset my ear again, so didn't get much in the way of sleep, so had a very lazy day just lying around reading, though managed to get washed & dressed around lunchtime. Had an early night as was pretty wiped out still and slept like a log a solid 10 or so hours, so felt much better this morning.

Florence, the domestic came in today and very wonderfully did all my laundry along with the family's, so I now have clean clothes (and underwear) again. Spent the day catching up with my blog and have decided I take far too many photos, it's pretty much taken me all day to upload & title all the photos, but it's done now.

Looks like we will have a pretty easy weekend and then Martin is off on his travels from Sunday evening, so will just be Maritha & the kids. Need to plan some sghtseeing for next week, Martin has lent me his satnav, so I can go visit some of the vineyards and the like, which will be cool.