Hi peeps!

It's been another couple of weeks already and I'm settling into Cape Town life very easily thanks to Leanne and Natalie making me feel so comfortable (you should see the makeshift bedroom they've set up for me!) and a daily routine of morning runs along the shore!

Nats and her friend Loni have a job taking photos at outdoor concerts at the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens every weekend, and a couple of weeks ago I went to one with a group called the Parlotones. It's basically a bunch of friends and families having picnics and watching the music, such a laidback atmosphere. Last weekend was another one but I was too tired from all the excitement of the weekend that I didn't join them, but we're going to see Johnny Clegg tonight!

"Why was last weekend so exciting?" you ask. WELL, the farm (which isn't Natalie's dad's - I was confused - but where Leanne and Nats used to work) is actually a cheetah conservation and nature reserve in the Karoo/middle of nowhere! We stayed with Wilna, the manager of the reserve, and she took us to see the baby rhino that were still being kept separate from the main reserve while they grew a bit bigger (not that they were small exactly!). I also managed to get a spot on the safari for the next morning, and sat in the front next to the ranger - we saw everything on the reserve, including lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, springbok… It was amazing! When I got back, we went to the dam for a swim and prepared the braai - the wind was pretty harsh, but nothing stops a braai.. It did seem to stop the cheetah from taking the bait and that evening's "cheetah run" was more of a "cheetah stroll". Living on a game reserve has it's influences, as Wilna and Carmen had an owl that they had found abandoned when it was little and decided to rehabilitate, and had just said goodbye to a baby baboon that they had also taken in! There were quite a few baboons hanging out along the side of the road on our way back, you know you're in Africa when the road signs warn "beware of baboons".

Other than the weekend outings, I've been generally exploring the cape and keeping out of trouble. I took a train with Natalie, their flatmate Tish and her boyfriend Dries to Kalk Bay, the cutest little coastal town with one main road and surfers wiling away the hours on the waves. We had lunch and a few drinks and then grabbed the train back, trying to avoid the weirdos! I've been getting to know the city centre here too, doing the touristy things like the Castle of Good Hope, built by the Dutch back in the day to protect their settlement. My favourite so far has been the District 6 museum, set in a part of the city that was a melting pot of working class people of all colours, until the apartheid government stepped in and evicted all non-whites out to townships on the outskirts of the city so the area could be re-allocated as a whites-only area… The museum was located in the actual area of District 6 and the floor of the museum was covered with a map of the area, so it felt really personal. (Apart from the fact that the name made me think of the film District 9 and Soph's awful SA accent - "Christopher, the prawns"...) I also had a picnic in Company Gardens, going to the National Gallery there. That day I walked right past Julius Malema! -He's the expelled former leader of the ANC Youth League, current leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, and generally the butt of many a joke over here for his ridiculous hate speeches! I won't lie, I would never have recognised him if Natalie hadn't pointed him out, and he wasn't wearing a strange uniform… It's not hard to see why he's such an easy target, and there's a comedian here called Trevor Noah who loves to poke fun at the guy's expense! I can recommend Trevor actually, for both a study of current SA society and an entertaining laugh!

Out of the charities here that I e-mailed before leaving London (none of which replied), I went to see the one whose offices are located in central Cape Town (and so realistically accessible to me). It is called the Scalabrini Centre and already at 9:30 there was a queue of migrants there waiting for help doing job applications, information on visas, etc etc. I was really impressed with the efficiency of the centre and totally understood when the receptionist said nobody had time to speak to me. In the hope of another strategy being more successful, I am planning to spend the next couple of weeks here reaching out to charities in my future destinations to hopefully get something sorted before I arrive. Fingers crossed!

That's all to report for now. Although getting used to not getting up for work was easy, I still can't help feeling that I should be preparing for a rugby game every Sunday morning. I have been trying to keep fit with some running but somehow when it isn't shuttle runs and I'm not secretly racing people, motivation is scarce: time to start racing the other joggers on the beach promenade!