Setting up in Cape Town

So we've arrived in Cape Town and have now been here for almost 2 weeks. It's been a busy 2 weeks for us, and a big change from our chilled out beach life on the islands.

We've been staying with Nic's folks who have been really lovely in dealing with our mess and my annoying vegetarian habits. They have a beautiful house in Simons Town.

The view from Nic's folks house

As we have decided to stay in Cape Town for about a year, we need to get some basic but essential things sorted out pretty quickly. Things like a bank account, a car and a place to live. It has been a bit of a challenge to sort out these things as we don't have an address. South Africa is strangely bureaucratic about some things (they all have ID books!) and it has been interesting trying to get a bank account without an address (or an address without a bank account!) But we are getting there. The bank was quite sweet really, and eventually one of the bank employees drove over to Nic's mum's house to check that Nic actually lived there, so we could bypass a bit more bureaucracy.

We have managed to buy a car already which is brilliant as although there is public transport, it seems that it is only used in an emergency (by people who have the money to buy a car). Nic's mum was very kindly lending us her car which was incredibly useful but luckily now we have our own wheels!

Terry the car at the beach at Hout Bay

I've never bought such a grown up car before, we got it from a proper car place and they put balloons on it when we came to pick it up! As the rand is pretty low right now we got the car for about 4 grand, result.

Free balloons!!!

To be honest, buying the car was also a bit weird. After we had picked it up and had been car owners for almost a full 5 hours, the man we bought it from called us in a massive panic as he didn't have any proof that we had paid for it. I think this is exactly the sort of thing that he should have checked before handing over the keys. Anyway, we have paid for it and it's all worked out now (I hope).

It's quite a nice little car. I've only driven it for about 3 minutes so far, partly because I don't know where we're going, partly because I've forgotten how to drive, as the last time I drove was about 5 years ago and partly because Nic is a nervous passenger and doesn't seem to like it when the car judders about because I can't find the biting point straight away.

We have also possibly found a flat that is quite nice and in our budget. Actually it's very nice. Nicer than our proper flat in London. It has 2 balcony's! One is completely private, so we can sun bathe naked there (the estate agent really thought this was a selling point). It's a bit grey and soulless at the moment, but we're going to print up loads of our photos from Thailand and stick them all over the walls to brighten the place up a bit. We've also seen an awesome purple beanbag that we really have to get.

Oh, we even managed to get our hair cut - this was quite stressful for me as I want my sister to cut my hair, I ended up in an ok place where everyone spoke Afrikaans the whole time. At least now our hair doesn't look like we've been cutting it anymore.

Other than all the admin type stuff we've been doing, we've also been having a lot of fun here. We've been on a few lovely walks up some mountains and been to some beaches to see some amazing sunsets.

A nice bit of beach

We've also been to the World of Birds where Nic used to work when he was a kid. It was great, there were a lot of birds and monkeys and stuff. A lot of the birds were in big cages that you can walk into so you're with the birds and they fly at you.

Colin (not sure of his species)

Market!

Red Ibis

We have also done a wine tasting which was fun, I don't know much about wine, but I do like pretending that I do. I like to swirl the wine about and sniff it then say things like 'ah yes, I can taste the raspberries'.

I'm learning a lot about South Africa. They say weird things like 'Yorr' (like a pirate) and they drive on the same side of the road as us. They are very friendly to each other and people will talk to you in the park or supermarket or anywhere. They have car guards. There is definitely a big social divide, but now there are white people who are also poor, so it's a bit different than the bad old days of apartheid. It's a very beautiful country and it does seem pretty chill to me (so long as you're careful, especially at night and never go out alone). No, I'm sure it's fine. I'll give it some time here and make my final judgement later, so far I am very happy here. Today we're going to walk on a mountain and tomorrow we're taking Grandpa out to lunch with Uncle Charlesie. How cute are we?