1. The woman farm workers cover their faces in what looks like calamine lotion as a sunscreen. Apparently stems back from village life when they would use a white clay like mud which did the same trick. Picture if you would, a black woman with a white face standing on the side of the road waiting for her ride. It's pretty humorous.
2. The egg yolks here are so pale they are almost white. The kids didn't recognise their scrambled eggs because it was such a white scramble. The milk is whiter too.
3. I adore having a maid. I thought I would find it weird, but I am embarrassed to say that I so love it! She only comes one day a week but if we can stretch the budget, (NZ $20.00 for a full day) then I'm keen to have someone come mid week too. She is a honey and been a great help with local knowledge. I do all the day to day stuff like the bed making, washing, cooking, bed making etc and she does all the things that I would never get around to like the dusting, ironing, sweeping and mopping, oven cleaning and she even sweeps out the fireplaces.
4. I have been driving Amy's Jag (Marcus' bosses wife) until the car we have brought gets all it's maintenance done on it. I am not a car person, ask anyone, I notice colour and that's about it. BUT I must say I have enjoyed driving the jag. The power in that thing when you accelerate is pretty awesome. I have been passing cars just for the fun of it.
5. We have brought a ford territory for NZ $8,000.00 I didn't realise how cheap that was until I compared the same car and same mileage on trademe. Click here. Suffice to say we couldn't afford this car back home but we can here.
6. Which leads to the next point that things are cheaper. The local french guy at the cafe down the road was apologising away justifying the price of his croissants and why they were more expensive because they are brought over frozen from France and prepared over there by a top french baker daily. All this apologising for NZ $1.40. I didn't tell him that back home I had and will pay up to $4.50 for a decent croissant.
7. I think I am finding everything so cheap because I am still thinking in NZ dollars. Things are cheap here because the majority of people aren't paid much so it is all relative and I need to stop going on about how cheap it is to live here because most of the African population is struggling to make ends meet so I just end up sounding like a brat.
8. I feel completely safe. I wouldn't go walking the streets at night but then I wouldn't do that at home either. I have a feeling that all the crime stories we hear are their way of keeping people away. I'm pretty sure Franschhoek South Africa is the world's best kept secret, and the people are so friendly.
9. Capetown is 45 minute drive away and amazing city. Picture the wealth of Auckland, the culture of Wellington and the scenery equal to Queenstown. I really enjoyed our day trip there and once we get our wheels hope to spend a lot more weekends there.
10. Lucy and Oliver have started school and are fitting in so well as the 'new kids with the funny accents.' They have awesome teachers who are very impressed with their abilities (Yahoo Future kids and HCS! Miss you guys! )
2. The egg yolks here are so pale they are almost white. The kids didn't recognise their scrambled eggs because it was such a white scramble. The milk is whiter too.
3. I adore having a maid. I thought I would find it weird, but I am embarrassed to say that I so love it! She only comes one day a week but if we can stretch the budget, (NZ $20.00 for a full day) then I'm keen to have someone come mid week too. She is a honey and been a great help with local knowledge. I do all the day to day stuff like the bed making, washing, cooking, bed making etc and she does all the things that I would never get around to like the dusting, ironing, sweeping and mopping, oven cleaning and she even sweeps out the fireplaces.
4. I have been driving Amy's Jag (Marcus' bosses wife) until the car we have brought gets all it's maintenance done on it. I am not a car person, ask anyone, I notice colour and that's about it. BUT I must say I have enjoyed driving the jag. The power in that thing when you accelerate is pretty awesome. I have been passing cars just for the fun of it.
5. We have brought a ford territory for NZ $8,000.00 I didn't realise how cheap that was until I compared the same car and same mileage on trademe. Click here. Suffice to say we couldn't afford this car back home but we can here.
6. Which leads to the next point that things are cheaper. The local french guy at the cafe down the road was apologising away justifying the price of his croissants and why they were more expensive because they are brought over frozen from France and prepared over there by a top french baker daily. All this apologising for NZ $1.40. I didn't tell him that back home I had and will pay up to $4.50 for a decent croissant.
7. I think I am finding everything so cheap because I am still thinking in NZ dollars. Things are cheap here because the majority of people aren't paid much so it is all relative and I need to stop going on about how cheap it is to live here because most of the African population is struggling to make ends meet so I just end up sounding like a brat.
8. I feel completely safe. I wouldn't go walking the streets at night but then I wouldn't do that at home either. I have a feeling that all the crime stories we hear are their way of keeping people away. I'm pretty sure Franschhoek South Africa is the world's best kept secret, and the people are so friendly.
9. Capetown is 45 minute drive away and amazing city. Picture the wealth of Auckland, the culture of Wellington and the scenery equal to Queenstown. I really enjoyed our day trip there and once we get our wheels hope to spend a lot more weekends there.
10. Lucy and Oliver have started school and are fitting in so well as the 'new kids with the funny accents.' They have awesome teachers who are very impressed with their abilities (Yahoo Future kids and HCS! Miss you guys! )
Love hearing about what it is like over there, I have been thinking of you guys. xx
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