Oxtail

More good food and this time it's home cooking. My coworker Glenda makes the best oxtail. I was treated to her famous meal when another coworker from Cape Town was visiting. That meal would go so well with the weather we're currently having...

Has Fall arrived in Joburg?

I'm not sure what Fall weather is supposed to be like but the weather turned to cool and rain this past weekend and is continuing through the week. Reminds me of SF winters. I am told this is atypical and is only a passing phase. And although the weather report indicates 70 deg temperatures, it's more like 50 deg. We are freezing! AND, I spoke too soon re: load shedding. Because of the cold weather, people have started using more power for heat...So, here's to lights out. In fact, our Joburg office has no power as I write. And I will not be surprised if the power turns off in Sandton (where I live) at 10am (in 30 minutes). Update: Yes, I just experienced the OFF switch of my power. Ugh.

2 more trips to Cape Town

THIS WEEK! I think it's the first time I made 2 trips in the same week. A bit tiring but no complaints here when you get to see Table Mountain as you drive toward the city center and the Hottentot Mountains when you drive east toward Somerset West. Massive natural beauty... Although business trips are not the ideal way to see Cape Town, I'll take it. I at least got to enjoy 2 great meals. One was at Salero for a late lunch at the V & A Waterfront with a wonderful afternoon view. The second was dinner at an italian restaurant rated one of the top in Cape Town called Magica Roma in the Cape Surrounds. (The pictures are the view from Salero and shows how fast the afternoon weather and clouds changed while we sat.)

The return of load shedding

Rumor had it that load shedding was supposed to resume starting March 1. So, in preparation for this, I bought a gas cylinder with a grill/braai set. So far, no load shedding yet! But, I did get to try this setup out and it makes some pretty good grilled chicken :).

Happy Birthday to me.

Birthdays are pretty big here in South Africa in the sense that it's important to remember to send wishes on people's birthday. You either phone or SMS a bday wish even to your customers or clients. The irony, with everyone wishing you a happy birthday, you would expect someone to supply a cake. But, the tradition here is that you supply your own cake. So, someone can come up to you and wish you a happy birthday and in the same sentence ask, "Where's the cake?" (People don't really do this, but the concept is quite funny.) Well, I didn't get a chance to make a cake, but went out for a dinner and a movie with some coworkers and enjoyed a Frangelico Dom Pedro.

The "new" Chinatown

I took a colleague visiting from overseas to Cyrildene, the neighborhood (actually just one street) known to have a lot of hole-in-the-wall really good chinese restaurants. Many of these restaurants moved from the "old" Chinatown on Commisioner Street which I still have yet to visit. Unfortunately, most of the owners don't know any English so I once again had to struggle to bring out my limited Chinese food vocabulary to order. We ended up with pan-fried pork and delicious green onion and ginger crab. So for the record, you CAN get good chinese food in South Africa!

Mkuze

The second trip was to Mazi pans, another body of water not too far from Sodwana. This time, we got lost and overshot the turnoff by 25km (looking for a sign which did not exist) which usually is not a problem except for the fact that 2 of the cars had less than 29km left in their gas tank. The nearest city with a petrol station was 25km away. They managed to fix up their cars while we ended up finding uMkhuze. We sat near the water with the sun behind us until it was dark. Very relaxing. Sundowners in South Africa are the best!