May 21 – Spier with Marisa & Brunch with the Gründlingh’s

This morning Jaco & I were up early & left for Stellenbosch. We were meeting Nico & his parents, Marten & Marianne, for brunch. I hadn’t seen Nico since April of 2009 & I hadn’t seen Marten & Marianne since the summer of 2009 when they stayed at Mom’s place with Karen & Werner on their Western Canadian tour. I was excited to see them! Talia, Nico’s girlfriend (now fiancée!), was flying in on Monday & I was disappointed that I missed her!

We had a wonderful visit about Nico’s last contract & Marten & Marianne’s visit to the ship when Nico & Talia were working on the Diamond in Asia. It sounded like the trip of a lifetime!

Nico had to go to a bachelor’s party that afternoon, so we left just after lunch & drove out to Spier to meet Marisa.

Marisa & Anine met us just outside at Spier. I hadn’t been here before & it is quite the place! There were birds of prey, big cats, a large pond with plenty of picnic spaces, and a massive restaurant where we had a drink in a treehouse! How cool is that?! We also had our faces painted in a traditional African pattern… See images below!

After we left Spier, we drove to Marisa’s to download her Roxette photos. We were greeted by a gaggle of Chihuahua’s, a Bischon, a MinPin & a few cats. And a whole lotta noise! Too cute!

Her father was home, busily fixing things up for the engagement party Neill & Marisa were having this coming Friday. Her mom arrived shortly after & the 5 of us had a great chat. I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so much with 2 people I’ve just met! I’m very sad I’ll be missing the party on Friday. Especially when I saw the menu!

Funny story – When Nico & I were working together on ships, we worked a contract with Marisa. Nico & Marisa were both from Stellenbosch, but they didn’t know each other prior to this contract. Or so they thought! One night Nico was scanning old negatives & the roll was shot on a night out at a pub. And there in the background was Marisa! Can you believe it? What are the chances!?

xxxxMaria

(photos to come one day!)

Joyride All The Way!

Wow. What a night. What a show. What an experience! Roxette was brilliant! Jaco & I left Hermanus early in the afternoon, as I did NOT want to be late! We found our way there fairly easily & to my surprise it was a very beautiful venue!

Grandwest is a massive area featuring a casino, hotel, movie theatre & 7,000 person arena. Additionally there are many fast-food/dining options along with a kids arcade & a skating rink! Jaco was impressed by the skating rink & said he should visit a few times before he moves to Canada!

We wandered around the property & checked out the different areas. We found the meeting spot where we would soon find Carmen, Marisa, Charlene & her boyfriend, David. I stopped to use the 'facilities' & found a cellphone in the bathroom. Not wanting someone to go without their phone, we hung around the area outside the bathroom & managed to call the contacts in the phone to see if they were with the owner of the phone. 

I managed to call her husband, who was going to drive to collect the phone. I suggested rather, that he call the friend that she was with & they find us at the venue. Then her Mom phoned. I thought the husband had called the Mom, but no, the Mom was shocked to find out that her daughter's phone was missing. Then the husband called again & said he was leaving. Two minutes later the phone's owner called & asked if I had her phone. She seemed a little annoyed - come on lady, I'm doing you a favour! I told her where I was & she came straight away. In the meantime, I phoned her husband & told him not to bother coming, as his wife had contacted me. She did seem grateful to get her phone back. 

Now for the main event...

What can I say, but, ‘Wow!’ Roxette was amazing. Not only did they sing all their amazing hits of the past, but they blew us away with several of their new hits from their latest album. And, best of all, they did 2 encores! They played for about 2 hours & every moment of it was fantastic! High energy & a lot of sing-a-longs by the crowd!

I didn’t realize it before hand, but when I googled Marie later on that night, I found out that she had suffered from a brain tumor a few years back. What a tragedy to overcome! She has quite a hectic schedule planned for the coming year – she’s definitely retiring with a bang!

We met up with our group near the coffee shop where we had initially met prior to the concert. Marisa & Anine had Golden Circle tickets, whereas the rest of us were General Standing. We enjoyed another quick visit before we left for home. What a brilliant night. It was so much fun to sing the songs of yesterdays & relive the ‘glory days’, as they say. Does that make me old?

xxxxMaria

 My view! :o)

Day 550 - Warmer At Home

Wow. It was a stormer last night! It was so windy & rainy I thought the roof was going to lift off! I woke up a lot through the night thanks to the rattling wind hammering away at the building. 


And it is officially warmer in Canada than it is in Africa! How rude! In fact, I heard 4º mentioned on the radio today! Yikes! No snow yet, but they did talk about snow on the mountaintops potentially! Crazy! I'm going to have to get some warmer clothes! Tank tops & yoga pants aren't going to cut it!


This afternoon found us back in Cape Town at Dr. Singh's again. I must say, this guy is good. Even Jaco didn't bat an eyelash! Usually (not always), when I would include Jaco in some of the other 'Doctors' appointments, he would scoff & criticize what was said. But not with Dr. Singh. 


He's incredibly knowledgeable about so many areas surrounding health. I mean, that's why we picked him, but I guess we're getting more than we expected, which is always a bonus! He reviewed Jaco's bloodwork, which showed a few deficiencies. I think Jaco was surprised & I am hoping that will make him that much more eager to comply with Dr. Singh's suggestions. 


Dr. Singh suggested a one month detox for us both, using only 4 products & of course, gulp, a strict diet. After that, he uses only 4 supplements. It will be wonderful to have such a simple program! No injections, crazy juices, dash of this & splash of that... Of course, I already KNOW my biggest hurdle will be the commitment to the diet. No self-sabotage allowed. However, one of the best things I think anyone has ever said to me, I heard today. Dr. Singh said I would have to eat an alkaline diet 80% of the time. 20% of the diet would be acidic. Now, I'm sure he would strongly encourage me to eat a *healthy* acidic food vs. a slice of pizza, but he did say, if I did eat something acidic, I would have to balance it out by eating a much larger portion of alkaline food. No, I'm not looking for a loophole to allow myself to eat rubbish. But the idea that I can live & eat without feeling guilty about not attaining perfection may just be the missing link in all my quests for health. 


I don't have to throw in the towel because I caved & had a bit of chocolate? I don't have to feel guilty because I ate some chips? I'm not a failure because I just had some nachos? What a concept! Of course, I think I'm going to have to tattoo 'Will this harm me or heal me?' across my head & hands so I'll see it every time I look in the mirror or reach for food!


Wish me luck - it will be a challenge, no doubt. 


After our appointment with Dr. Singh, we headed to the Waterfront. Or at least we tried. It was meant to take 20 minutes. With Jaco's interpretation of the map, 58 minutes later, we were there. I was very excited, as we were meeting Marisa & her fiancé, Neill. I worked with Marisa on ships back in 2005/2006 & I haven't seen her since 2009, the last time I was in SA. At that time, she'd only been dating Neill for a short while. 


I'm pleased to report that, in my humble opinion, she's chosen wonderfully! Neill is handsome, charming, a gentleman & affectionate. Not to mention, he's a VERY lucky guy, as Miss Marisa is GORGEOUS, incredibly talented & her smile matches her stellar personality! 


We had a wonderful night catching up on the past two years, wedding plans, life, friends, food & everything else in between. I'm hoping we'll see each other again before the end of May! In fact, we miss their engagement party by a mere days! Boo!


We went out for dinner & enjoyed a wonderful Thai meal, followed by Italian desserts. Mmm... gelato! 


What a great day! (albeit chilly, but great...) xxxxMaria

Dr. Singh & Jaco. In case you missed Dr. Singh, he's 6'8"!!!

 Delivery truck - SA Style. Wait 'til I catch a photo of their tow trucks!

 Clouds rolling in.

 Neill's a better photographer than I am. I'm retiring. He took this photo.

 As good as I could get it!

 Hot cocoa & Amarula

 Melon Sorbet

 The newly engaged couple! Yay!

 Good times!

 Being silly!

 Love you girl!

Cape Town's version of the London Eye

Day 536 - Caledon

Today we actually got up a little earlier. I won't elaborate exactly how much earlier, but we managed to get out & get something accomplished. 


I did 30 minutes of yoga first thing & Jaco went to get his passport photos taken. By the time he came back, I was nearly ready. I would've been ready a little sooner had I not had complications operating the stick blender Petro gave me for my birthday. Operator error. :o) Whoops. In any case, we were off to Caledon.


Jaco needs a new passport & the office we needed to apply at was in Caledon, about 30 minutes from Hermanus. We took the wrong turn & ended up on a dirt road for 1/2 the drive. It was actually a very pretty drive. We drove past many vineyards, olive groves, sheep farms & gorgeous eucalyptus & cypress trees. It was a wide valley & today was a cloudy day, so the clouds were wrapping & twisting around the mountains as we drove along. 


The passport will take one month & unfortunately we were planning on applying for 2 visas. One for Europe & one for New Zealand. We only have 6 weeks. I don't think that we'll be able to make it fly. Boo. We'll see. We'll try our very best!


When we came back to Hermanus, we stopped in a little section of shops & found some trays to grow sprouts in. I also picked up a pill organizer & then we went to the grocery shop. I'm finding that you need to visit all three or four grocery stores in order to find what you need. One shop has this, the other that, this one cheaper, that one cheaper... It's a bit of a mission to get all that you need!


After our grocery stop(s), we drove down the road to a turn off called 'Kwaaiwater' - crazy water - kw-i-vah-tur. We passed several stunning houses. I picked out a few! We parked by the water & I got out & took some photos. It was a very eery sight. The waves were quite aggressive & the shoreline was very rocky. I watched a lone seagull now & then swoop down along the water, barely missing the waves underneath him. As I walked along the beach, mussel shells crunched under my feet. The mist was heavy & I couldn't see too far out to sea. In fact, the horizon line disappeared not too far in the distance. 


Soon the light had waned & I couldn't take a steady shot, so I returned to the car to find Jaco in agony. He had just downed 1L of juice in the few moments I had been gone & was feeling slightly uncomfortable. Sigh. I'm trying to understand his dietary habits. Give me strength. 


We drove back to the house & had dinner. Marisa called & we're going to make plans to get together sometime next week. I can't wait to see her, as she's engaged now & I'm very excited for her. Petro helped me suss out the stick blender - it's  actually quite powerful! We blended the almond milk & her & Jaco gave it a taste test. Tomorrow we'll have protein shakes! Hooray! 


xxxxMaria

 Wide open views

Open road 

Into the mountains (5 minutes later) 

Sheeps 

 Vineyards

Into the mist 

 Blossoms

 More vineyards

I LOVE cypress trees. Makes me feel like I'm in Italy. 

More vineyards 

Turning colour 

 Oranges on a tree

Beautiful flag! 

Waves & rocks 

Moody 

 Relentless

 Shells

 Weathering the endless waves

 Formations

 Crunch, crunch.

 Eery

 Water, rock, sand, shell, mist

 shells turning to sand

The waves roll in.