Approved

We submitted an application for a mortgage/bond last weekend so that we can buy the house we have found. So we have been waiting for the broker to come back to us this week. Late on Friday they phoned and said that we have been approved by one bank. I guess I was not as excited by the news as the person on the other end of the phone would have hoped, because I asked if they had heard anything from any other bank; I wanted to compare interest rates! Anyway, we got one approval and the interest rate is -1.8% below "prime" here in SA. This is not a fantastic rate but it's not a bad one either.
And I am glad that we have a broker dealing with the banks for us. I don't like dealing with banks in general and especially here in SA. My problems normally starts at the door since I am not (yet) a permanent resident and I don't have a green ID book. You need your ID book for everything in SA and you only realize this when you don't have one. They are more fond of their IDs than we are in Sweden! I didn't think that was possible! I have however managed to get a bank account, thanks to some friendly bank staff. Someone must have realized that they can make money out of me too since they charge you for everything and anything. I really like one change that our bank has introduced for our overdraft facility. They charged you if you used it (the overdraft), but they have now decided to charge you even if you don't use it, but the charge is lower! Hey presto! This is good for me! They lowered the charge! But wait a minute... I didn't use this overdraft facility! Hmmm... I guess it sounded to good to be true. But you can get rid of the charge if you sign up for a special account that they charge you even more for. Brilliant!

I played golf at De Zalze in Stellenbosch on Saturday. I was supposed to play 2 weeks ago but it rained away (so we went looking for houses instead ;-) Beautiful course with fast and difficult greens. I really need to play and practice more; it is no fun to be cr@p at golf. The highlight was to birdie the number 13 par 4 (268m/295y) with a tee shot over water. You can be brave and try to drive the green but it is all over water! My final score? I rather forget about it! ;-)

Rene ran another race and broke her personal best for 10km! I better start running too!

We finished the weekend with a nice and relaxing lunch at Seidelberg wine estate. Absolutely beautiful, stunning views from there. We also tried some cheese at Fairview next door...