Here it goes; my first ever blog post!

It's been two weeks since I left London and time has flown by! I arrived in Port Elizabeth on the evening of the 21st after 26 hours of travelling (I left myself far too much time in Johannesburg for the stopover). My Aunt Sandy greeted me at the airport, and I spent an amazing few days at Sanjo (Sandy and John's). Their place is right on the coast, with a view of dolphins (and whales if you're lucky) passing by during the day and "chokka boats" fishing squid at night - the lights from the 70 boats meant we definitely didn't need any evening lighting! The first few days I made myself useful helping with the Christmas baking and jobs around the house: it's a constant work in progress and I helped waterproof the "Jacuzzi" which has been an ongoing project for the past 10 years!

When my cousins Leanne and Dean, Dean's ex-wife Lisa, and their children Daniella and Calvin arrived in Port Elizabeth we had a bit of a party to welcome the new arrivals, with a steady flow of Gammel Dansk and beer. The next morning, we went for a good run/walk along the coast to shake off the headaches, being joined by a few dolphin pods! Then I decided it was time for a Hammers-style induction with the core challenge. It was quite the sight, people scattered around the balcony groaning! Some of us headed to the beach at Jeffrey's Bay and did some last-minute Christmas shopping, while the rest recovered from their babalas (hangover in Afrikaans, there's even a film!).

On Christmas Day, as soon as everyone was awake, Sandy played Santa's Helper and handed out the gifts! After a lazy day, dinner that eve was a braai with more meat than any of us could handle and we had another late night sitting up and chatting, interspersed with some impromptu karaoke thanks to ABBA and Queen tunes! Another late night was had and I struggled my way through Boxing Day. Dean, Lisa, Calvin, Daniella and I drove to St Francis which is a beautiful, surreal community of white houses with thatched roofs, canals busy with jet-skis, kayaks, boats, and people jumping in from bridges! It's like an island of luxury in the middle of nowhere, and we hung out with friends of Dean and Lisa, who fed us and took us out on their boat to the beach. After a day of sea, sun, and sand, we headed back to Sanjo while Lisa stayed behind in St Francis.

Sandy and John had visitors who had stopped that evening, and I made the mistake of telling the two brothers that I can't resist a good challenge. The challenge became to drink them under the table and I won - but not before 4.30am! (You would be so proud though, I did turn down the suggestion of "naked snooker"!) The next morning, Leanne, Dean, Calvin, Daniella and I begun our road-trip down the coast along the Garden Route. We spent a night at Victoria Bay, which is a gorgeous little cove with great waves, and although it started raining as soon we arrived we braved it and headed to the beach to do some body-surfing. I could tell it had been a while as each one dumped me on the shore like a beached whale rather than the graceful gliding that I remember, and I had half the sea coming out of my nose all evening - nice! Calvin made us pasta for dinner, and we had an early night to prepare for a long day of driving. We got up early for a morning swim, then headed straight for Cape Town through dramatic misty mountains and arrived in the afternoon, settling in to a house that we were borrowing from a friend of Leanne's. The next morning we headed up Table Mountain, and I flashed my Hammers stash!

Calvin and Daniella flew to Durban and PE for their New Year's and I set up camp at Leanne and her girlfriend Natalie's place. For New Year's Eve Leanne and Natalie, Dean and Liv, a friends of theirs called Willie and I had a lovely low-key evening with beers and a braai at the house. Then at 11-ish we packed a cooler-bag of booze and some snacks into the bakkie (pick-up truck) along with a mattress and headed up to an awesome look-out spot overlooking the V & A Waterfront. We could hear the music pumping, and had a great view of the fireworks from the back of the truck! We weren't the only ones with that plan, and were kept company by a family and, as midnight drew closer, a whole bunch of people who arrived to sit on the mountainside to watch the fireworks. It was so beautiful and such a brilliant vibe!

New Year's Day I spent hugging the toilet bowl - a combination of mixing beer, jägermeister, and champagne, as well as stuffing my face with about 20 crayfish later that night which isn't quite what my stomach is used to! Luckily, I was all better yesterday and Natalie's friend Rhett took us out on his yacht with him and a few of his mates. Unfortunately, halfway to the beach we were going to the engine shut down and refused to start, and they put up the sail to take us back where we came from so that another boat could tow us in. On the way back, we had a visit from a small group of dolphins and a couple of seals - we even saw a whale with its massive tail rising out of the water! Although it wasn't the initial plan it was a brilliant adventure, and we braai'ed on the boat once we got back into port instead. -Nothing gets in between South Africans and their braai! Today is life admin, detox, and chill-out day: I spent a little while in the sun this morning by the little pool they have here and intend to do the same once it gets safe again for my ("pom" as it's been called!) skin. Natalie's dad has a farm that we're going to visit tomorrow, although by the sounds of it this isn't the type of farm that we get in Europe - watch this space!

It's been a great trip so far, and still feels like a holiday: I'm being so well looked after by family, spoilt to bits, and am going to find it very hard to leave! (I've been told by quite a few people how easy it is to settle down here!) Still, I'm thinking of London, especially when I hear about the severe floods and weather on the news, and hope everyone is well and has managed to avoid too much turmoil. I hope you've all had awesome Christmas and New Year's celebrations and have enjoyed the read, and please do comment below; I'd love to hear from you!