Holidays in Morocco

I recently read a book called The Caliph's House where the author writes about his first year living in Casablanca after moving from the UK. I picked up the book knowing I would be visiting Morocco this December/January. One of the descriptions on the back cover says that Casablanca is "where Islamic tradition and African folklore converge". I am so excited to leave tomorrow to visit this seemingly foreign country with my family and friends. It will be interesting celebrating Christmas in a Muslim country... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

More good food

I of course took the liberty to try some more good food in Switzerland. To go along with fresh croissants with nutella and nice creamy yogurt for breakfast, here is a sampling of the other cuisine:

Montreux tea with rum served from a boiling pot.

Gaufre with grand marnier and powdered sugar.

Pikeperch probably from the Lake.

Rosti with "raw ham" and egg.

Let it snow, Let it snow - In Switzerland

I made another trip up to our Swiss headquarters last week. There is something about snow and the Christmas season. They definitely go hand-in-hand. I was welcomed to Switzerland with a delay in Zurich as the connecting plane waited to be de-iced before taking off to Geneva. And the snow/rain/gray clouds continued in Lausanne throughout most of my trip. Regardless, that did not stop me from doing some exploring and wandering. This time I took a train around the east side of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) to Montreux and walked 3km further to the Chateau de Chillon. Montreux also had a wonderful Christmas market with good food and trinkets which was most enjoyable to walk through. Although the holidays is often too commercialized, I think some of that helps set the mood for celebration of the season.

A day to remember to be thankful.

I hope all of you celebrating have a big piece of dark meat turkey with gravy for me! Remember to think of all the things you're thankful for. I'm thankful for my time in South Africa and the chance to learn from people from different parts of the world. Also glad I've been kept safe. Still can not believe I've been here a year. The thought did cross my mind to invite people over and cook a big feast including a turkey. However, I took one look at the frozen turkey in Woolies and decided that it's too much work. If I were going to have a party, I think I would go with chicken which is much more manageable...Cheers!

Ahhh. the traffic!

It usually takes me 20-30 minutes to get to work. I had to travel a bit the past couple of days to various hospitals and have spent just under 6 hours which really should have been 2 1/2 hours on the road sitting still in traffic. I know that the summer brings construction and road works but this is ridiculous! And on top of that, there are always accidents. Today, I sat still for 2 hours because of a motorcycle accident where they decided to close the highway for 3 hours. One of the only times I actually wanted to get out of the car and runaway.

Another try at it.

The rain finally broke and we had 2 great days of sunshine this past weekend for water skiing. This time we went to the Loch Vaal which is south southwest of Johannesburg. Good times. And, i finally got up on skis after all these years! The sport is quite enjoyable when you're not crashing hard on the water all the time.

More pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/backroads.traveler/LochVaalWaterSkiing?authkey=aKBqrlXttcw#

Absolutely Fabulous

Once the Jacarandas started blooming again, I knew that my one year anniversary was approaching.

I spent last weekend "celebrating" with Laura who was visiting from the States for a week to finish up some work. We went to the Brayanston Organic Market to eat and shop. Tried on some "fabulous" hats but decided not to buy them.