Sneak peak!

We went to take some photos of our new house last weekend... It still gives us a great feel and we can't wait to move in now. Check out the photos below. The TV and furniture is not ours; do I have to point that out?! :-)

New house - Madison

It has been a hectic but good week: Had my yellow fever vaccination done on Monday so that I will be let back in to the country after our holiday to Zanzibar.
I played squash for the first time in 2-3 years (sore? oh, yes!) and we had our new neighbours over for dinner on Tuesday. Very nice and too much wine.
Wednesday night is now wine tasting night - it use to be hill running night - guess which is more fun? ;-)
Thursday we went running with Pinelands AC as usual.
Friday we relaxed with a movie, A Very Long Engagement.
Up 5:30 Saturday morning to do a 15km run in Ravensmead. Last night our friends Martin and Kelly had a great engagement party! I have a hangover but it is better now! Great party! I had some sushi and and vodka, so it is not only at Swedish parties you mix raw fish and vodka, but there was no singing when drinking! ;-)
We have also started to watch season 4 of 24 on DVD. This is not good since it is very addictive and you can't just watch one episode at the time and nothing else gets done!
Rene have also been working this weekend, with typing reports, to clear her desk before our holiday.

One more week, then Zanzibar!

Oh, I almost forgot: Congratulations to Monette and Tom who got engaged this weekend!

Knysna run and more...

I did it! I ran my first half marathon in Knysna last weekend! 21km!
It was OK and my least problem was the distance. (I am not trying to boast, or perhaps just a little bit ;-) But let me explain; on the plus side is that the run starts in the forest and is situated quite high up so you have a fantastic view when you come out of the forest, after about 10 - 11km. The race is also well organized with transport and a big tent at the start which serves fruit, muesli-bars, coffee, hot chocolate, tea etc. You don't need to eat breakfast beforehand! There are also gas heaters at the start since it normally quite chilly in the morning. The atmosphere is also good.
On the negative side is that you have to be there a long time in advance, 2 hours according to the organizers. I would try to arrive later... It is not chilly; it is freezing cold, -1C someone said. -1 for 2 hours, standing still, not being properly dressed, i.e. not wearing a polar Gore-Tex and fleece suit, is no fun. Running stuff and a tracksuit doesn't cut it. The gas heaters are a good idea, but there are thousands of runners and about 10 heaters... So, you are lekker stiff when it is time to start running! Thankfully all walkers had gathered at the starting line so you couldn't run anyway until after 1km. Worst was that I had to do 2 "pit stops" during the run. This is best to avoid. Luckily most of the run is done in the forest, if you get my drift! (Were do you go if you have to stop in central Göteborg?) I don't know how to blame the organizers for this... wait perhaps the long wait at the start... ;-) Seriously; it is a very good run and I did enjoy it (except for the cold). It was also Rene's 3rd and fastest half marathon so far.
That local beer Mitchells after the run was also GREAT!

The BIG reward after the run was that we had a braai to look forward to. (Note: braai is SA talk for barbecue)
So later, at Janet and Pete's place we had a food and drinks. Bridget and Dewalt who also lives in Knysna was there. It was great to see every one!

I also played golf at Simola. Had a lie in, with a tee off time at 7.50. It is an absolutely stunning golf course. And it is a very playable course for the normal golfer, but it not easy.

Thank you Janet and Pete for letting us stay with you!
Check out the photos from Knysna. It is Jan and Pete's little daughter Erin, 6 months, who is on most of them.

Weekend in Knysna

Running shoes and golf clubs

Running shoes and golf clubs needs to be packed in.
We are going to Knysna this weekend to run the Knysna half marathon and I am going to squeeze in some golf at Simola too!
This is my first half marathon so it is a bit exiting. I hope I will make it. No time pressure, just make it! That is my goal.
We are taking the BIG car to fit everything in (i.e. golf clubs and wine bottles... BIG car = the Silver WV Polo classic got a boot :-)
What I am really looking forward to is seeing our friends from London who also have "moved back" to South Africa; Jan & Pete and Bee & Dee + all the new babies! (I am sying "moved back" even if I have moved here for the first time being from Sweden!)
The biggest challenge will be to not pop any of the wine bottles on Friday night when we arrive, since that might have an effect on my ability to finish my run.
So I hope to stay off the wine to Saturday. Sleep is not on the schedule but golf is so I will have to get up early (again) on Sunday. It is not every day you get to play a course like Simola so it should not be a problem.

And there is an Oyster festival on in Knysna too so I might try an Oyster or two too.

Time to run!

Thursday again and it is time for the weekly time trail with the running club in Pinelands.
I managed to finish in to the top 10 for the first time last week! It must be the result of all my training that is showing... or it could be that it was heavy rainfall and cold; we were only 15 runners in total. I think it was a combination.
Strengthen by this, Rene and I decided together with Rene's sister Julie to participate in a trail run last Saturday, between Hout bay and Fishhook. It was organised by Pinelands running club and it is "only" 20km and a beautiful run we were told. It is true; it is beautiful...

Hout bay to Fishhook trail run

My aches and pains are almost gone now. Going over the mountain was hard but fun. (I didn't think it was fun at the time ;-)
I am also wishing Craig and Lil good luck in the official race, on the same trail, this weekend!
Today will be a slow jog!

Under Siege!

Perhaps "Under Siege" is an exaggeration but there was a hostage drama taking place in central Cape Town during the weekend and the police sealed off a street or two. We are almost never in central Cape Town during weekends so we only read about this in the paper. The best part of the story is that the people who happened to have parked on the street (that was sealed off) got parking tickets! Someone must have seen a good opportunity to fill their monthly quota of issued parking tickets! :-)
On a more serious note: The police ended up shooting the man who had taken the hostage. Thankfully no one else died.

We have seen the "White Zulu", Johnny Clegg in concert this weekend. It was great and much better than I thought it would be. The atmosphere and music was fantastic! A great live performance with interesting talk between the songs!

15km. That was how far I ran on Saturday. This is all in preparation for the Knysna half marathon Rene and I are going to run on 14th July. I have not been training regularly lately since I have had a bit of a cold and a sore throat... So we decided to get a "long" run in. I have to thank Rene for dragging me around all the way through this practice run. I think I had had it after 12-13km. My blood sugar levels were very low and I was longing for Winegums and a Coke. I survived and today I ran another 10km! Crazy!

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...

Golf and Mothers day

I like golf but I have not played as much as I would have liked since I arrived in South Africa, despite the good weather. I even played more in the UK were I was a member at Surrey National GC.
However, I have played and I did so on Saturday at Mowbray GC with Martin and Fraser. The golf was very, very slow but it was enjoyable since we had fantastic weather; not too hot and sunshine. The golf itself was the opposite to the weather: bad! But we are not giving up and are playing again this weekend at De Zalze which is supposedly in beautiful shape.
I also played at Atlantic Beach 6 weeks ago and enjoyed some stunning views. Check out the photos from Atlantic Beach and Mowbray

Golf in SA

It was mothers day on Sunday and we celebrated Barbara (Rene's mom) with tea and scones together with Rene's family at her sister Julie's house, which is only a stone throw away from us. (All other mothers was also celebrated!)
We later went house hunting again together with Joggie & Barbara. We saw quite a few houses but nothing that was worth putting in an offer on. We finished off with an early dinner at The Ocean basket! Yummy prawns and calamari!

My running practice have been going well and I have not had much problems with my calves as I have had previously. I have also been thinking about running my first half marathon, but it is not going to happen this coming weekend since I pulled a muscle in the back of my thigh! :-( Not very nice at all! So I have to play golf instead. Poor me! ;-) The race I am practicing for is not until 14^th July in Knysna, so I got time to heal.
My friend's Peter & Jennie ran their first half marathon last weekend in Gothenburg; the Göteborgsvarvet! And they did finish with very impressive times; 1.43 and 1.57!