Holiday Makers flock to new Leisure Resort in Chingola!

The Carlisle Hotel in Chingola, Zambia, recently opened it's doors to guests again after extensive refurbishment to the pool area.

Last year a major refurbishment programme was undertaken which included the addition of a new honeymoon suite.

"We've been coming here for a number of years now", said Mr Rex Carlisle, (yes! same name as the hotel!) "we find it a really relaxing place!"

Fellow guest Mrs Prue Carlisle commented "The food is excellent!"

When asked which room they were staying in they told our reporter that they were in the 'Honeymoon Suite' and both said they found it extremely comfortable.

"The nicest aspect is the double door opening onto a private courtyard" said Mr Carlisle.

Mrs Carlisle added "We can make our way straight out to the delightful new pool and jump straight onto the floating lilos, it's great!"

Mr & Mrs Carlisle having fun on the floating lilos

"Was it....Colonel Mustard, in the Library....with the Candlestick?"

No..........................wrong! It wasn't Colonel Mustard.....it was Justin & Linzi!
It was the Library....correct ! But it wasn't the Candlestick, it was a bottle of wine!


Our Library is finally finished and we're soooo chuffed with it! At last! Somewhere to put all our books, movies and stuff! So we've been hanging out in the Library of late and filling shelves as we sipped on chilled wine to keep us going!

"Bubble, are you there?"

"Bubble? We're getting into the pool now darling. Literally, as we speak, our feet are entering the pool! We've got the bolly stolly darling and we're going in.......!"

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Vegas Wedding!

A quick snippet here! My cousin Stef is getting married in Vegas next Tuesday! (5th September) She's marrying Darren. My Mum & Dad are going out there together with Peter & Margaret (Stef's Mum & Dad) & Andrew & Zoe (brother & fiancee).
So, wishing Stef all the best for a great day! Wishing everyone a great trip!
Apparently it'll be live online but I don't have any details............
Stef, if you send me a photo of the wedding I'll post it on here for you!

Our little piece of paradise!

Here's the latest pool photo and things are definitely looking better! The water's crystal clear, we're slowly getting grass around the pool, we've re-done all the rockeries and, as I type, Collins the new garden boy, is, under strict supervision from Patrick, vacuuming up the last 'dirties' in the bottom of the pool!
So we're all set for Saturday afternoon! Got the champagne chilling.................in we'll go, hand in hand, clutching the 'bolly' and two flutes...............and we shall then declare the pool officially christened!

"Blogging or Bragging?"

It's a good question isn't it? Are we bloggers just sad people who feel a need to express themselves in cyberspace to unknown hordes (hordes? who am I kidding!) of people? Or are we just complete show-offs?!!
Well....................................in this instant I must confess to a teensy bit of showing off......or maybe we could call it "self-appreciation of my artistic abilities"...........
Ok, enough of the rambling on, what I'm getting round to is that we've just fitted our new bathroom door which was completely hand-carved by a man called Chris. Sadly Chris isn't very well, like, REALLY not well, so he struggles to do work at all. (we're trying to rectify this with ARVs) The door has probably taken him about nine months or more to complete, using ideas from a photograph we took of a door at Timamoon. Have I mentioned Timamoon before? One of the most beautiful, romantic & creative places to stay in South Africa http://timamoon.co.za

So, Chris made this amazing door which is totally cool, funky & arty and .............. I made the handle! whooooo! go Linzi!
Well, yes, I'm pretty chuffed with my handle! I made it from thick rope threaded with hollowed out bits of bamboo and then I threaded beads and seed pods onto the copper wire I used to tie it with and also onto the frayed rope ends!

the handle!
the door!

So, there you have it, a fantastic door, we just need to re-do the whole bathroom now....................

Anyone for a swim??!!!

"Come on in the water's lovely!"

Hmmmm, well, after three and a half days of filling we're there......................only problem, we appear to have accidentally filled our pool with dark green sludge with a delicate hint of brown.....................lovely!!!!! But hey! It was still lovely to get in the pool again, refreshing, invigorating, we had a great swim! Come and join us! Ok, we're kidding.......the shock packs are in and we wait for clarity.....................watch this space!

The Last Day

Well, here it is! Wednesday 23rd August! The plastering was finished by about 2pm! We started filling straightaway! (It's Thursday 10.30am at this moment and the water's only just lapping against the shallow end wall!) We hope the pool will be filled by tomorrow night although the water will be quite dirty and we'll then have to treat it. The colour should actually be fine as it's already slightly darker when it's wet and has a nice look to it! Can't wait for a swim!!!!! We're now busy filling in around the remaining areas, above the piping, with red laterite, black soil and finally grass. So the next photo I post on here should show a sparkling clear pool with everything looking much tidier all around it!

Welcome back Gordon!

Before work began on the pool we traced our original 'Gordon the gecko' on massive, sellotaped together, pieces of paper! Thus, when the time came, the 'paper Gordon' was positioned in the new pool and a team of us traced his shape with chalk! Omari and his guys then sprang into action on day 17 of the job (which was actually Tuesday 22nd Aaugust!), mixed plaster, tinted it and produced a perfect Gordon for us!


The next day, Wednesday 23rd August, was D-Day! They guys started at 7am, mixing the plaster in the deep end of the pool and tinting it. We used pva paint for the tint, mixed with white cement and marble dust. We had a little difficulty selecting the colour as we actually didn't know we were going to need pva paint for tinting until the night before we did Gordon! So we had a last minute panic rush job, frantically trying to decide on the colours which would give an end result of "light grey rock colour....................with Gordon slightly darker............." Hmmm....tricky! Honestly? We probably didn't get it quite right because Gordon's definitely 'feeling a bit blue' and, as you'll see in the next posting, the rest of the pool is quite light, although definitely grey.

Happy Birthday Gaz!

It's my brother Gary's birthday today, 42!
Last night he & Kathryn (his fiancee) went out to dinner with Mum & Dad in Ma & Pa's new silver Toyota Rav4! Oooooeeee! Mum & dad are getting rather cool in their old age!!
Hope they had a nice time anyway!
Gary & Kathryn are actually getting married next year, 2007, on July 28th at Eilean Donan Castle on the beautiful Isle of Skye!
So, here's my little experiment..............sharp-eyed readers of my blog may have noticed the adverts at the top of the page..............they tend to be travel ads for Zambia due to my constant ramblings about our trips in Africa.
Suddenly they became a veritable feast of swimming pool construction ads - wonder why?!
So now, in one posting, I've mentioned: birthdays, the Toyota Rav 4, weddings and Eilean Donan Castle - wonder what turn the ads will take.....? It will be interesting to see.........................
Maybe I should just start blogging about the most odd things I can think about (shouldn't be hard I know!) just for the fun of seeing which ads come up!
Well at least if I start ranting about odd stuff at some point you'll know why!

Patience is a virtue................

Yeah well, we're not that virtuous and we started to get impatient after about a week!

So anyway, we decided to try and get some grass laid. The bottom photo shows Fred putting black soil down and the top photo shows Patrick (left) and Fred finishing one whole section of grass! (nicked from the front verge - we'll worry about what to do with the verge later!)

They did this from Wednesday 16th to Friday 18th August.

Hard to believe there were pool steps and the old pool right where they're standing only two and a half weeks ago!

So now we await the final stage..............................................!

Day 14....then.....nothing............!!!

At this point we've got the old pool walls bashed away at the top and red laterite filled in between the old pool walls and the new pool walls. The pool guys then pretty much did a 'disappearing act' as they're waiting for 'the boss' to come from lusaka with the white cement for the finishing. This was Tuesday 8th August.

Fast forward to day 12, Sat. 5th Aug.

Day 12

Day 13 (Mon. 7th Aug.)

Pool fever! The latest!

Day 9

(view from deep end, new steps will be where wheelbarrow is)

Day 9

Satchel inspects the day's progress from the shallow end!

Day 8

Base slab laid

Latest pool progress Day 8 - 1st August!

Day 8 early morning

(preparing the mix for laying slab in the bottom of the pool)


Day 7

Our new swimming pool!

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1 (above)
We finally went ahead and started work on our new pool this week!
Our original pool was a 1950s monster and we really wanted something smaller, of a more natural shape and warmer!
So, for all of you out there who have a major interest in the building of swimming pools.......(which might not be many of you!).....I've decided to post photos of the progress!
Well I think it's interesting anyway!

Wild dog spotted!

A wild dog was recently spotted in the undergrowth in a Chingola garden. She was behaving in a very fierce and frightening manner. This is the first recorded 'Wild Dog' sighting for years and could be very exciting for future wild animal viewing trips to the Copperbelt!

***stop press***

Hopes of millions of wild dog fans were dashed just before this went to press when local woman, Linzi Carlisle, came forward and informed us that the 'wild dog' in question was, in fact, "My cute, sweet, little pet dog Talitha!" she went on to say "She wouldn't hurt a fly! She just gets a teensy bit agitated when anyone goes near where she's hidden one of her bones!"

Photos of Rex's 70th

Rex is pleased with his surprise!

Say "cheese"!

The magnificent man in his flying machine!

Lunch at the Westcliff!

Justin's Dad's 70th!

'Tis the time for turning 70 it appears..................Justin's Dad, Rex, also turned 70 on April 24th but we couldn't actually get down to South Africa right then.
We flew down on Sunday 7th May and stayed at The Melrose Arch Hotel (www.africanpridehotels.com/melrosearch) where we stayed on Justin's 40th. We decided to treat ourselves to three nights there as it's so cool! (plus I got a great rate through my prokard -
www.prokard.co.za - worth getting and paying R300 for if you want even one night there plus you get discounts at loads of protea hotels and with Budget car rental!
So, on the Monday we picked up Rex & Prue and took Rex on a little magical mystery tour!
All he knew was that we were going to Rand Airport so he was pretty nonplussed!
Justin had arranged for Rex to be taken up in an old Boeing Stearman Biplane and he was absolutely thrilled when we told him! (Prue was actually a bit fed-up that she wasn't going too!)
He had a de-briefing, was kitted out in flight overalls, biggles helmet, the whole toot and up he went!!!
He had a great time, flew the plane himself a bit and experienced some 'mid-air acrobatics', all of which he thoroughly enjoyed!
After all the excitement we moved on to the Westcliff Hotel for a 'posh lunch'! www.westcliff.co.za
They have fantastic views from La Belle Terrasse!
So, it was a great success and we met up again the next day for lunch at Hyde Park before Justin & I headed off to The Drakensberg Mountains and Rex & Prue headed off to Plettenburg Bay!
We stayed in Gallery Suite at Acorn Cottages in the central 'berg area www.acornsinchampagne.co.za for just four nights and we had an excellent little holiday!
The view from our verandah was amazing, the weather was beautiful during the day and we went on two really long hikes. It got freezing as soon as the sun went down so we had to have strict planning in place: Get back from hike, light braai, shower, put on all warm clothes including thermals, light fire inside, eat on verandah, go inside as sun drops, close doors and sit as close to fire as possible! It was lovely and cosy and we just really enjoyed ourselves.
In addition we visited Baz, Justin's great friend who owns Thokozisa and went round for dinner to his & Tracy's house where we had a great evening!
We felt as if we'd been away a lot longer than we actually were - that's the amazing power of the 'berg - or any mountain I suppose.
We ended up at The Indaba Hotel for our last night in Jo'burg itself - near Fourways Mall - for last minute shopping - www.indabahotel.co.za - we find it a very handy hotel for the Fourways area and although it's large and geared for conferences it's very efficient on the whole, food's good, rooms are pretty nice - we had a room with a verandah by the dam and the grounds are large so you can really have a wander around.
We spent our last night at the airport at Southern Sun Garden Court (the old Holiday Inn Garden Court) and flew back home on Tuesday 16th May to our babies!

Rick

Ha! Did I get you worried there Rick?!!!! You're thinking, "whaaaat? An article about me? Oh no!"
Do not be afraid! There is nothing to fear! Trust me.....................................
So, what about Rick then? Oh yeah, I was just going to say that Rick was over in Zambia with Mel over Easter for about a week (they also indulged at Siankaba!) and we ended up round at Mel's for dinner, with Michelle too (Donald was fishing I think?), a couple of nights before he went back to the States.
We had a lovely meal prepared by Mel & Rick and downed plenty of vino (of course!) and had a great evening with good company!
Rick, thanks for the absolutely lovely photo book you gave us on America, it's really lovely and only serves to whet our appetite all the more for a future trip!
And while we're on the subject of Rick, we hope Mel arrives safely in the States (any minute now presumably?) and that you guys have a brilliant time together! We'll be thinking of you!
And don't worry Mel, if anything shocking happens in Eastenders I'll blog it for you!
There, I told you there was nothing to worry about Rick!

Some photos of Dad's 70th

The start of the adventure - on the boat crossing to Siankaba!

Justin & Linzi having sundowners during mokoro trip!

Mum & Dad on sundowner cruise!

Enjoying!

Dad's 70th - 30th March 2006

Well, my dear Dad turned 70 on 3oth March this year so Mum & Dad came out to us for a nice long visit.

Mum & I came up with a nice trip as a surpise for Dad: A two day drive, with an overnight at the Chisamba Safari Lodge, to Livingstone. Two nights at the Islands of Siankaba http://siankaba.net/ followed by a night at the Royal Livingstone Hotel then two days drive back, overnighting at the same lodge again.

We had a wonderful time, the best of all being Siankaba - we would recommend it to anyone as the place to go for absolute relaxation. The setting is superb, amazing views, delicious food, excellent staff, extremely tasteful decor in the tented chalets and the view from your bed in the morning is one that you will not easily forget.................the river flowing past your verandah.......sights and sounds of Africa right under your nose - nothing better!

We truly felt that we'd been on a much longer break, that's how brilliant it was!

In addition to the trip we also hooked up with the indomitable twosome "Pat & Amy" who were staying with Mel! We saw them round at Donald & Michelle's where Michelle aka 'superwoman' dished up enormous platters of finger snacks and the like for a great crowd of us! Also again when superwoman dished up a three courser for us all so we were spoiled well and truly!

Other than that we all just lazed around an awful lot, went out for plenty of meals - always nice - and did lots of planning for Mum & Dad's new apartment that they should be moving into soon!

All in all a very relaxing time and very enjoyable.

We also did research into caravan parks for Mum & Dad as they also planned to buy a caravan so that they can spend some time there when the weather's nice.

we settled on www.dogandduck.co.uk it's lovely apparently - as I type they are living there in their new caravan until their apartment's finished!!! They moved in last Friday.

Well, I'm struggling to type anything that makes any sense as there's this woman in England called Julie Haywood who won't stop messaging me!!!!!!! I obviously have to reply each time so my blog is suffering..........

Oh yeah!

Oh, Mel & Michelle came round the other night.Did I mention it?...............

No? Oh, ok, well, nothing to report anyway, just thought I'd mention, it you know?.........

Blogger's Guilt

Oh dear....................I appear to have joined the ranks of the anxious, guilt-ridden, conscience-swamped, shame-filled bloggers who have failed to keep their blogs up to date and are now suffering from feelings of total inadequacy! (brought on in no small measure by people - who shall remain nameless - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! - who make comments that make them feel that they have FAILED..............)
Can I go on? Will I muster up the willpower to continue blogging? Do I have anything worth saying? (now there's a question!)
Well, check back some time soon and hopefully I won't disappoint!
Bye for now!

"Mystery couple cut the cake!"

Local paparazzi snapped this photo of a ‘mystery woman’ and ‘mystery man’ posing for the camera as they ‘cut the cake’……..
In true journalistic style the reporter wondered if this could be ‘the big break’…”Are they famous?” “Is he an American oil tycoon?” “Is she a Zambian actress?” “Just what exactly have they been getting up to….?”
Fellow diners who were interviewed at the scene had this to say:
“No comment”, said Mrs Carlisle, “People have a right to privacy, next thing you know this’ll be plastered all over someone’s blog, it’s just not right.”
“Don’t ask me”, said Mr Carlisle, “I was busy with my chicken madras and garlic naan, and very nice it was too.”
So no-one’s giving anything away…….for now!
But rumour has it that the ‘mystery man’ will be back in town before too long so who knows?
Until then we’ll have to leave it as yet another ‘small town mystery’ (we’ve certainly got plenty of those…..)
p.s. thanks for a great evening guys ,and, Rick, it was great to be able to spend some time with you, we look forward to the next visit! (Oooops! Did I just give the game away there? Not a mystery anymore!)

A 'Good Karma' Gift

Well, just a little story about a poor little old man in town..... Shame, he sells (or tries to sell) wooden carvings that aren't particularly good most of the time but he's always got a smile on his face.
I've bought the odd thing from him over the years.
Anyway, the poor old chap wasn't well and needed some medicine from the chemist which he couldn't afford so I took him into Stubbs chemist and we got him sorted out.
Bless him, as I got into the car to go, he appeared with this wooden duck and gave it to me!
It might seem like a small thing but it's a big thing to me, I mean, he really hasn't got anything and he still gave me something!
So I call it my 'good karma' gift and feel sure it's bringing some extra little piece of goodness into our home..........

Justin's 40th & a surprise trip to awesome Namibia!

Justin turned 40 on October 27th 2005! We had agreed that I'd plan a surprise trip for him so I had the pleasure of spending many happy hours online perusing travel sites, accommodation, flights, etc! So, here is what we did..... (the good and the bad!)

("whoops! photos appear to be completely and utterly back to front regarding the order of the trip!" sorry about that!)
I ended up using Tshokwane Safaris for the Namibian part of the trip and Johann was fantastic, so helpful, I'd recommend him any day! www.tshokwane.co.za He basically took all my requests and put a perfect itinerary together, right down to getting the dates right so that we were in the right place at the right time for Justin's birthday!
First we stayed in Melville, South Africa, for the weekend http://www.saffronhousebnb.com/ which was nice but they gave us the wrong room for the first night, something about a leak in the roof....but there were other people in there so I was a fed up as I'd already paid in advance and it was the most expensive and the guy had even recommended it to me! They moved us the next day for the last two nights but we found it wasn't very private, it was very arty decor but the doors had loads of coloured glass in and you could actually see into the rooms! So it was a bit embarrassing getting dressed and stuff! To finish off, on our last night there was an awful fight outside our room! It was over the wall in a car park but we laid in bed flinching as we heard all this shouting and punching, we could 'feel' the punches, hear the people falling over and smacking into the ground and everything, they were really shouting aggressively so it wasn't great! (It turns out that Saffron House has been taken over by a company with various properties - it used to be personally owned by a lady and was probably more thoughtfully run) Nonetheless while we were in Melville we met up with Justin's folks for lunch and also went to his sister Jane and Tracy's for lunch in their new townhouse on the Sunday for lunch which was really nice. We had a couple of meals out and did some shopping.
Then on the Monday we went to the airport and Justin assumed we were flying to Cape Town or something so it was a great surprise to go to International Departures! We managed to check in without him seeing where we were going and I finally told him as we had something to eat about half an hour before we boarded that we were off to Namibia!
So we were in great moods and had a good flight but when we arrived at Windhoek my bag didn't arrive, only Justin's!
This really knocked us flat! Anyway, we transferred to the guesthouse for the night www.tourism-africa.co.za/namibia-accommodation/hilltop-house which was really nice. I had to wash out my clothes as all I had was what I was wearing - t-shirt, cargo pants and slip-slops. The guy there made us some toasted cheese sarnies and got us a big bottle of wine (there was also a mini bar which we pretty much emptied in our stress!!!) so we had a nice evening on the verandah outside our room and it was ok except for the worry about my bag. Next morning we had breakfast in our room but instead of it being leisurely as was my plan, we had to get up early and cab it into Windhoek town centre to get me some clothes and toiletries!
Luckily it's like Jo'burg so there were normal shops (I'd been a bit worried thinking it might be like Chingola!!!!) So I got a few basics.
One of my worries was that we were about to board the Desert Express and you're supposed to dress up quite nicely for dinner on the train, you know how it is, and I'd had nice clothes in my bag so that we could enjoy the opportunity of getting dressed up.
When we got back to the guesthouse with about ten minutes to spare before we left there was a message that they'd found my bag and it would arrive a couple of nights later!
So, we transferred to Windhoek station and checked in for the train http://www.desertexpress.com.na/ and it was great! We had SUCH a laugh! The cabin was gorgeous and it was just so surreal to be slowly chugging along watching the scenery change out of the window. The food was great, the drinks were great, we had to walk along to the end of the train for a smoke and sit in the conference room which had a little dance floor even and some chairs and tables arranged for us smokers!! There were only 15 of us on the train so it was quite empty which was also nice. We stopped for sundowners and got taken on a drive and saw white rhino and then had drinks laid on. The train pulled into a siding after dinner and we could get off and stretch our legs then go to bed. It started moving about 3am and I remember waking at about 5am and looking out of the curtains to see the desert passing slowly by! It was just too amazing for words! It was all like some adventure -Enid Blyton famous five or something!!!! We had breakfast in the dining car and then the train stopped in the middle of the desert and we walked across the sand to "Rand Rifles Dune" and climbed up it - pretty high! Quite hard walking up a dune as you keep sliding and sinking!! Apparently they filmed there, Dennis Quaid I think? Flight of the phoenix maybe? Knowing me I've got that all wrong, but something like that! IF YOU DO ONE SPECIAL THING IN YOUR LIFE, TAKE A TRIP ON THE DESERT EXPRESS!!!! We will never forget it!
We arrived in Swakopmund and had an hour or two to walk around and have a drink then we transferred to the airport there and boarded our light aircraft! We were the only two passengers so it was extra cool! The flight over the desert was amazing and we landed after about an hour and transferred to "Little Kulala Desert Camp" www.wilderness-safaris.com/camps (then click on Namibia camps and you'll see it).
This was beautiful, your own star-gazing deck, front deck and plunge pool (so hot there you needed it to cool down) lovely room, outdoor shower, brilliant view and very private, only nine 'kulalas'.
The first night we had dinner on our private star-gazing deck and also slept up there in the special beds they put out for us! Duvets and everything! It was great! Fab! (oh, my bag arrived that night, someone drove it there all through the desert from Windhoek, about five hours drive!) My bag had been broken into and straps cut and locks wrenched open so we did panic but found that they only nicked our small 'emergency' whisky bottle. They had put other people's stuff in my bag though so had obviously been rummaging through loads of people's bags. We have now heard that this happens quite a lot so advise anyone flying via Jo'burg airport to get luggage security wrapped - R50 per item of luggage - worth it for peace of mind). So the next morning we got up at 5am and went hot air ballooning! Yay! It was Justin's actual birthday 'day' so perfect! It was a bit windy and we nearly couldn't 'take off' but then we were ok! A great experience, surreal again!
We landed after an hour and had champagne brekkie in the middle of the desert! Surreal yet again!!! A long table laid up beautifully just sitting there waiting for us all to arrive! Weird! But brilliant! So we can never forget Justin's 40th that's for sure!
Back at the camp we chilled out for the rest of the day, lunched, had dinner on our little front deck that night, relaxed the next morning and transferred by game-viewing vehicle to our last camp for one night - Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp - website as above, you'll see it there as well.
We had lunch there and then spent the afternoon dipping in and out of our little plunge pool, drinking wine and drinking in the view! Amazing! It got really windy in the afternoon and was actually hectic, like a hurricane, apparently the wind gets up every afternoon and everything has to be closed up. It made us realise that the desert is not actually meant for man to live in, we can visit and see it's beauty but it's not ours. Yeah, ok, I'm sounding a bit poetic here or something I know!!!! It makes you feel that way though!
So the next day we had to hang around until about 3pm for our flight back to Windhoek by light aircraft again - just the two of us again! There was a storm coming - the first! The pilot pretended not to be scared -French guy, young, scruffy, long hair, with his chick in tow!!!! It was a hair raising flight for an hour or more! We flew into the storm, through thick clouds with no visibility, through rain, bumped all over the show, had lightening flashing all around us! At one point we were so low and so close to a rocky outcrop that I really thought the wing was going to smash into it and we were going to crash! I was not exactly the most happiest of bunnies at that point! I felt pretty grotty too I must admit! Was very relieved to land in Windhoek! Then when we boarded the 'big' plane for our flight to Jo'burg the pilot announced "there will be turbulence all the way due to storms"!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaargh!
That night we stayed at African Dreams Guest House near the airport which was ok. We were pretty tired as it was getting late by then. We went to bed quite quickly.
The next morning Justin's sister phoned to say she was sick and her and Tracy wouldn't be joining us for lunch. I was devastated! I felt like it was all going wrong! I'd got a limo arriving (www.limohire.co.za) to pick us up and then we were on to pick up Justin's parents and Jane & Tracy! He kept saying 'what is it babe? Tell me', so I had to tell him and he'd kind of guessed he said! Anyway, it was all fine, the limo was BRILLIANT! We just ended up the four of us but had a great laugh in the limo and had an amazing lunch at Bellgables Country Restaurant. www.bellgables.co.za The food was gorgeous and the restaurant was just beautiful - owned by two gay guys and had lots of glamourous diners (including us of course!!!).
The limo took me and Justin to Melrose Arch Hotel after dropping Rex & Prue home. http://www.africanpridehotels.com/ (then select melrose arch) which is the most hip and trendy hotel in South Africa (so they say!) I got a discount because I have a protea hotel prokard (www.prokard.co.za) which helped with the price! (I also got a discount at Budget car hire with the card!) It was excellent! The room was so cool! M & Ms in a bowl on the desk for you to munch on! A mini bar stocked like you wouldn't believe with even lots of chocolate and in the cupboard pringles and nuts and stuff! The tea tray had proper milk and even packets of biscuits! Under the TV was a drawer with five DVDs in it for you to watch! It was a very cool place, the decor was fab, very modern and funky, a nice change from the 'traditional african look'. We didn't go there but outside they have a bar with giant flowerpots in a shallow swimming pool and tables and chairs so you take off your shoes and paddle out!
We hung out in the lounge and had a few drinks - a real smoking lounge - funniest thing was - all smoking - nowhere for non-smoking which makes a change!
So that was a really cool night!
The next day we flew to Cape Town and the apartment was nice but the website had made it look much nicer that it actually was. (I think it had just seen better days)
http://www.campsbayapartments.com/ (then click on Rutland Place). We were having a great laugh and in high spirits, planning to go out for dinner all three nights. We had some bread, cheese & salami which the girl there had organised for me and I had a glass of wine, Justin had a couple of beers. Then we walked into Camps Bay, about five minutes, stopped for a sundowner (I had a whisky sour, hadn't had one in years and saw it on the menu). We decided to walk back and then checked out the video/dvd store on the way. While in there I felt odd, hot and uncomfortable and we had to hurry home. I had a dodgy stomach and wasn't feeling hundreds so we decided to drive back down, pick up Nando's and a dvd for the evening.
So something made me really sick. Justin was fine. He ended up having to go out to a late night pharmacy in Sea Point - dodgy area - and get me medicine as I was feeling so terrible.
So that was the end of that! Our short stay in Cape Town never amounted to much thanks to me! Or maybe thanks to the whisky sour! I never really got back on my feet properly. We had a couple of drives out but that was all.
On our last night, having flown back to Jo'burg, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Garden Court (about ten minutes from the airport by shuttle and our favoured place to stay for an 'airport overnight') and had the afternoon so that was quite leisurely and I was feeling much better. We had a couple of drinks at McGinty's Bar and some food, then went to our room where we watched Mr & Mrs Smith and thought it was pretty good!
And that was it!
We arrived home on the Friday 4th November afternoon to be welcomed by six absolutely gorgeous babies going mad with excitement!
I then gave Justin his forty presents which I'd been slowly buying, some online, some in England when I was there! He couldn't believe it!
The 'piece de resistance' being a cd that I'd had made for him, totally personalised with basically the 'story of us' with lyrics including all our 'babies' and their foibles! Alan, the guy who made it, had incorporated lines from poetry that I'd sent him as well as words from our favourite songs, all adapted to fit in but with great meaning. www.give-a-song.com
So all I can say in closing is....."roll on my 40th!" hmmmm, wonder where Justin'll take me.....?!