A Portrait a Week: 32/52 -Holiday in South Africa

Thank you to my sister, Simóne, for keeping my blog up to date with Isabella's weekly portrait. And for always reminding me to post a photo every Sunday, even though I still often only get around to it on a Monday!

This week's portrait: one of our beautiful sunny winter mornings on the beach.

We've had an amazing holiday in Cape Town with our family. The weather was fantastic, so good that I managed to get a bit of a tan from walking on the beach, more than I get over here in the UK summer! Even when it's really hot here, the sun is just so much stronger in SA.

Isabella has gotten used to the beach and having her toes in the sand. We had some lovely mornings just playing on the beach after an early morning walk. She also had no problem sticking her hands in the rock pools to pick out shells. Of course sand, shells and rocks all had to be tasted.

We saw all our family and after the initiall shyness Isabella became a little social butterfly. Even though she still didn't like being picked up by anyone but mum, she did start to tolerate it a bit during the second week, but mostly enjoyed friends and family playing with her on the floor. Ouma Estelle's coffee table was a favourite play spot, pulling off the table cloth, books and TV remotes!

Mornings were often spent in Ouma Estelle's bed before breakfast. Isabella enjoyed a few meals out with us at restaurants and tried so many new foods including snoek (a type of fish), calamari, quiche, droeëwors, guavas, oats and tasty wheat for breakfasts, and flings at a birthday party, another first for her.

Snoek in Hout Bay at Mariner's Wharf.

Calamari at Quay Four in the Waterfront.

We enjoyed a picnic at Kirstenbosch and Isabella loved her first visit to the aquarium at the V&A Waterfront.

The 'Boomslang' tree canopy walkway at Kirstenbosch.

In awe of the fish at the aquarium.

She learnt to wave, even though it is a bit delayed sometimes! People have usually given up getting a good bye wave from her and started walking away before she manages a wave! She's also high-fiving everyone now and manages to stand for a few seconds without holding onto anything.

Isabella has always loved bathing but now would stay for half an hour if I allowed her. She pushes your hands away if you try to lift her out the bath and turns away from you. Looking forward to our next visit to the pool where she can stay for half an hour or longer!

Even though we had such an amazing time in South Africa we both missed her daddy. Isabella has been giving him the biggest goofiest grins all the time and follows him around the house constantly. So sweet!

A Portrait a week: 31/52 - Enjoying the beaches in Cape Town

Isabella vacationing in Cape Town, South Africa.

Cats in boxes

This one's for you Meg!

And a blog post not about a baby or a garden for a change!

I was just reading a friend's blog about her cats and how cats like to get into boxes and I just had to dig out these old photos of our cat Shiva. Ah I do miss her and all her grumpy-ness! She was still a very loveable cat.

While none of these are in boxes, she also enjoyed getting into things resembling a boxed in space. I guess I never had many boxes around so she had to make do with what there was!

Meg note the CPUT homework!!

In my gym bag.

desk drawer...

And this is a small window. She's on the outside on the windowsill!

I'm looking forward to introducing Isabella to our part-time cat. As the weather is warming up a bit now we'll be able to leave the door to the garden open more often for the cat to come over for visits.

Boerewors, Droëwors & Biltong

Oh dear, I see it's been a week since I've last blogged. I will make up for it and post a few blogs today about our sunny weekend.

It's been so sunny and actually really hot all weekend and still is today. We went for a walk last night after dinner and only got back after 9pm. I love summer evenings! I also love summer mornings so we went for another walk through the forest this morning.

Anyway, on Saturday morning we drove to a deli in Farnborough that Andre heard about from someone at work. I think it's owned by Australians and they sell Australian and South African goodies. We didn't really focus on the Australian things at all and instead went straight for the South African section.

First I spotted Fizzers. I wrote about these sweets (candy) in one of my first blog posts about how my sister puts them in the freezer which makes them brittle instead of chewy. They're great!

Ouma Rusks. (Ouma = Granny) I prefer home made rusks, but if you're not going to bake your own, these are the next best thing. I'm not baking or buying rusks because I like it way too much and won't be able to stop eating until it's all finished. Looks like they're popular here too because the shelves were quite empty.

Lots and lots of SA biscuits! Romany Creams, Zoo animal biscuits (I can't even remember when last I saw these in SA actually!) and Nuttykrusts. Of course I didn't buy any of these either for the same reason as the rusks.

Pronutro! I used to like the chocolate Pronutro flavour when I was younger. That was before I realised it would be wiser to just have All Bran with low-no-fat milk for breakfast.

Mieliepap! This I don't like much but it is definitely South African. Or just African. I think the whole of Africa probably eats mieliepap.

Koo guava halves. You probably get this here I'm sure. I haven't looked yet. But it was just good to see those familiar tins on the shelves. I tried to pretend I was in Pick 'n Pay. Just for a second. Then I turned around and saw the wooden floor and wooden shelves of this tiny deli and remembered where I was.

And then there was biltong. And droëwors. For those not familiar with this, biltong is cured meat and droëwors is literally dried sausage. You can read some more interesting facts about biltong and how it originated here. And about what droëwors is here.

I just had to go fetch some droëwors now to snack on. Writing about it made me want some.

We walked out of this small shop with three bags of shopping. One with just biltong and droëwors. One with boerewors (thick sausage, translated literally means "farmer sausage") and beers and ciders. (One of the packets of boerewors was made with Castle Beer!) And a third bag with cheeses and Mrs Balls chutney. I wrote about the best chutney ever in the whole world here.

Other things they had which we didn't buy: koeksisters, lemon meringue pie, various South African beers, Robertson's spices. And they had Old Brown Sherry. Which in South Africa probably costs around R25 or so? Do I remember correctly? Anyway, it is the cheapest sherry you can get in SA but it is not bad at all. I liked it because it's so sweet. At this deli it was £9 which equals R101,70! I think we can now get cheaper sherry than South Africa's cheapest sherry at the local grocery store here!



I am sitting outside in the garden now. It's too nice outside to be inside. I just saw a HUGE tree fall down!! There is one house behind our friends house and then there's forest. I've been hearing a big noise but didn't think about it. Then the tree just fell with a loud BANG! Sounds like they're either busy taking down another one now or chopping this one into pieces. Shame. Poor trees.

Lost seagulls?

Andre and I both grew up by the beach. We were used to seeing seagulls all around us back in Melkbosstrand. Seagulls live by the sea. That's why they're called seagulls. Right?

We have seagulls here in Switzerland too though. 

It's bit confusing since we're not close to the sea anymore. Are these birds confused too? What do they think they're doing here? Especially now that's it's winter they look really out of place here. More like snowgulls than seagulls I think.

Cats

I just read this blog on Juanita's Blog about Cat Blogs. How lucky are those cats to have their own blogs! It made me think of my cat. A ginger persian. She was beautiful and she was tiny. Fully grown, but tiny if you can imagine her without all the hair. We did feed her, don't think that's why she was small. She got a good diet recommended by the vet, but she just happened to stay quite small. Petite I guess.

When we got her she was really scared. She would run and hide under the bed when the doorbell rang. We thought it would pass, that she just needed time to adjust. But it did not get much better. She was a very stressed cat.

And she didn't like to be cuddled.

Oh this? A VERY rare moment.

This was more like her- staying out of reach:

She had to be groomed regularly. We would brush her, but she wouldn't allow us to do a proper enough job. So she did not love us very much for taking her to the groomers.

But like other cats she did like to be close to us.

Like most cats she liked to sit/ lie on the things you are busy with.

I spent (still do) most of my time at home at my desk preparing lessons for school or making teaching materials so Shiva, that was her name, would casually join me.

But try and give some attention and show some appreciation for the attention she is giving you? She acts all "I'm not really here to be with you, I just happen to feel like sitting on the table next to the flowers." Or "Don't touch the hair with your dirty hands you."

She showed her love by sitting in my gym bag. "I actually do like having you at home. Don't go to gym." Ok, I'll stay just for you Shiva. I didn't want to go to gym really anyway.

The day we got a teensy little dog almost smaller than her she was not a happy cat either. The dog was scared of her and she was scared of the dog. Here's a once in a life time moment. This was not really the relationship they had. Well not while I was at home anyway. Who knows what the cat gets up to when the mouse is away.

We did love our little Shiva. We felt honoured when she chose to lie on our bed. And she acted very happy, excited, almost silly, when my mom came to visit from Germany. I think she did love us back too. In her own way :-)

I wouldn't mind having a cat again some time. But apparently my husband is allergic to cats. Did he just act non-allergic to impress me while I had a cat? I wonder...

Our second first anniversary

On 30 August 2008 Andre and I got married. Then we got married again on 3rd January 2009! I would do it again it was so much fun but Andre says NO. He says the big one on the 3rd was too stressful for him.

On 30 August we had a very small ceremony, so small that only our parents and my sister knew about it. We decided not to tell anyone because we already had our "big day" planned for the 3rd of January and we didn't want to spoil the excitement of that day. We didn't want our family and friends to think, "They're married already so it's not such a big thing." It was not easy to keep it a secret. But we knew if we told one family member we'd have to tell all of them and the same with our friends. Otherwise it wouldn't have been fair.

So we still had our big day with flowers, wedding dress, cake and all on the 3rd of January and that makes today our second first anniversary!

Here's a video of wedding dance. We had lots of fun learning the dance and others at a dance school a few months before our wedding.


Our wedding dance from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Melkbosstrand, South Africa

I haven't gotten very far with the photography studying last night. Instead I've finished a video I've started some time back already. It's about my last days in South Africa before coming to Switzerland.

I read this quote on Kathy's blog:
"The loneliness of the expatriate is of an odd and complicated kind, for it is inseparable from the feeling of being free, of having escaped."— Adam Gopnik

This is so true for us. Although we miss Cape Town, the lovely summers days there, and mostly our friends and family, it is that feeling of being free, of having escaped that makes us feel happy/ lucky/ fortunate to be in Europe. To have been given this opportunity.

I look forward to some holidays in South Africa in the future, but I am happy living in Europe.

So I just wanted to share with you a little bit of the beautiful country I am from. The video clips in the beginning are of the beach at Melkbosstrand. This is where I grew up and where I lived for 26 years. Melkbosstrand is about 30 km up the West Coast from Cape Town. The rest of the photos are of weekends away before leaving.

Click here to watch this video on vimeo.


Melkbosstrand, South Africa from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Weddings...

Hi there my dear friends and family!

Hope you're all doing well? I was browsing around on the internet as I do most days and thought I'd look up our wedding photographer. I just love looking at wedding pictures... A while back he mailed us and asked if we would write up a short piece about him, our photo's and so on for his new website. So if, like me you have times when you've seen all you can on facebook and whatever else you do on the internet (like read my blog of course ;-) then go take a look at this: http://www.rcphoto.za.net/default.asp

To Meghan, Angela, Pieter, Simone and Juan: There's a picture of you too on his website!!! Click on portfolio, then Reception, it's picture number 30. There's another picture of me and Andre doing our wedding dance and one of us when you click on 'Couples'.

You can also see some of our wedding pics under Recent Weddings (if you haven't already seen enough after the 100's I posted on facebook! ;-)

Have a fabulous day! Miss you all lots.

Anneliese

xx

Earth Hour Braai

On the 28th of March it was Earth Hour. I hope you switched your lights off during that time! We did and here's what happened!

Earth Hour Braai from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Langebaan

We had a wonderful weekend in Langebaan. A very relaxing camping weekend with the most perfect weather.

Langebaan 13 -15 March 2009 from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

The things we do for love

Andre's mom occasionally makes stuffed chicken for a Sunday lunch. Andre said I would need to learnt how to do that, but I always said I would never make stuffed chicken. It looked like so much work, took all morning and then you had a whole kitchen full of dirty dishes. And I don't like the idea of touching a whole, raw, dead chicken.

Well I still don't like touching a dead chicken but I did! With the help of my mom!

I decided when Andre returned from Switzerland the last time that I will cook a big lunch for him and I wanted to impress him by making my first stuffed chicken. I don't really like the normal bread crumb stuffing and I like to try new things (not always a good idea but anyway). So I decided to stuff the chicken with dried fruit. I knew Andre's not so keen on dried fruit, but I like it and a stuffed chicken is a stuffed chicken. 

It was delicious!! I'll tell you what we did (my mom and I). You rub the chicken with some salt, pepper and oil. Oh and trim off some of the excess fat. Then you soak some raisins and dried apricots and prunes in Rooibos tea or hot water for about 40 min. You can chop the dried fruit before you soak them. Drain the fruit and stuff it into the chicken. Not too much though. You can leave some of the fruit around the chicken too. Also chop and fry an onion to add to stuffing. Oh and you can add a finely chopped apple and saute with the onion. We forgot about that but it should be nice. We then placed the fruity chicken in a roasting bag. Roasting bag in a dish. And dish in the oven at about 180 C or 200 C I think for about an hour or until cooked.

Everyone enjoyed it! :-) 

Next time I want to try stuffed chicken with spinach and feta.

Into the Wilderness

Before I can write about something else I better finish the honeymoon story now. We went to Wilderness after our January wedding for a few really relaxing days. It's so beautiful there. So green. We stayed at a lovely guest house called Slanting Acres. I can recommend the honeymoon suite with a jacuzzi in the bedroom. The guest house is up on a hill with a view over the ocean.

The highlight of our stay at Wilderness was canoeing on the Touw

River. We rented a canoe for 5 hours.

After about 30 min rowing

we left the canoe on a little beach and walked 40 min along a

stunning walkway through the trees to a waterfall. Then also

went down the Serpentine River where we saw 13 Malachite

Kingfishers. Andre got some great photo's there, I'll get one

from him later to add. We enjoyed it so much that on the day

we had to leave we went for another trip down the Serpentine

for some more photo's.

On our way home from Wilderness we stopped at Andre's dad's farm

near Abertinia for a few days. Always great to be on the farm.

.

Honeymoons and honeystars

So Andre and I recently got married again, just to be sure. But more importantly to share it the second time round with our friends and family and to have a great party of course.

Now getting married so often naturally means you need a honeymoon each time too. Wedding and honeymoon just go together. So the first time we got married was 30 August 2008 (surprise surprise for those who still didn't know!! ;-) With it being such a very small ceremony we had a very small honeymoon to go with it. We had a lovely night out at a lodge just outside the town of McGreggor. It didn't start out so lovely though...

It was a rainy day, which was actually good since they say rain on your wedding day means good luck. Anyway, the rain wasn't that bad. On our way there Andre's poor bakkie (he'll call it more than just a bakkie) got properly sandblasted. The wind was so strong and it was like driving through a sand storm. So we get to the lodge, struggle against the wind, to hear the manager explain to us that unfortunately due to the storm the power is out. And also due to the strong wind we can't make a fire in our cosy romantic fireplace in our cosy romantic cottage because these cosy romantic cottages all have thatch roofing! And that's not all, he then continued to tell us that due to the power being out their restaurant with their famous chef who was supposed to make us a delicious romantic dinner will not be open.

So there we sat in the half dark cold cottage. We took a drive to the town. But usually when there is such a storm outside, everyone stays inside their houses so the town was deserted! After walking around a bit in the drizzling rain and buying a beanie for the cold we went back ready to pack up and go back home.

After praying all the way back to the lodge, we got back and the power was back on! We got to have a fantastic multi course meal from the above mentioned chef. And in between courses we got to sit in front of a huge fire, defrosting and sipping our red wine. AND then we even go to make our own fire in our own cottage after dinner!

And that is where this story will end for now... I'll try to add a picture and next time I'll tell you about our second honeymoon (there were three!)

xx