Coming along

The humungous tatch lorry arrived this morning. I am really looking forward to seeing how our house will look with the thatch on. I had to move the car that I'd parked out the front, just so the truck could turn into our road. It is really long.

The roof is/was apparently built wrong, so there have been knocks and sawing to remove poles. I think now they are preparing for the thatch so they can get it on as soon as possible.

Minna flew to San Francisco last night via London. I think she is on her flight to San Fran now. She will be away until next Tuesday, just in time for James to arrive on Thursday. Sari leaves this evening for Brussels where she lives.

Milja is in the middle of her final exams, English and Maths today. She got 100% in her final art project which was a still life of her choice three objects plus a surprise object, with planning and written work included.

Birthday

Kato mitä mä sain! Hosted on Zooomr

More photos here.

There are also photos now up of our township tour.

Through the roof

Our ceiling collapsed while we were away.

And now, due to water and a builder's foot, there is a hole in our bedroom ceiling too.

Another birthday

Happy Birthday India!!

Weekend Photos

For photos of our weekend away, go to...

http://beta.zooomr.com/smartsets/danrowden/6478

Weekend Report (Sunday)

Sunday

Sunday started off badly. Minna and Heikki had been getting calls from ADT, our security company, reporting that the house alarm had been going off a lot during the night. Minna couldn't sleep well and had dreams of burglaries. In the morning, Heikki asked fellow Finn Teppo to go and check the house as ADT couldn't get in. He phoned back once he was in the garden saying that there was water running out from underneath the front door.

Cue shock and panic.

Joyce was phoned and she offered to go over and help clean up. Apparently one of the water tanks had been leaking all night into the kitchen. It wasn't until later when we arrived home that we found out that the ceiling in one corner of the kitchen had fallen in :O

After breakfast (which Milja and I didn't eat in order to save money and buy better food from a petrol station en route), we headed home hurridly. I noticed there was a train track right behind the B&B and had fun walking on the tracks and taking photos of the small run-down station.

We drove West, this time on the N2, which nearly follows the line of the coast all the way to Cape Town. On the way it was decided that we were to take a slight detour down to the most Southerly point of the African continent at a small town called L'Agulha. The scenery was lovely, it was a very hot day and everything was bright and cheerful.

We reached L'Agulha via a short stop in a small town called Bredasdorp. It was like a ghost town, there was noone around, (it was Sunday) but it looked really pleasant settled in between miles and miles of fields. At L'Agulha we went to the lighthouse there, but then headed slightly back into town for lunch. Noone liked their food, although my pizza was OK, so it was a bit of a disappointment.

We then went to the most Southerly point. I can now add that to also being to the most South-Westerly point down at Cape Point. We clambered amongst the rocks and had fun with India. The lighthouse was our next destination and we all climbed up the old ladders to the top and outside. It was quite windy and none of us stayed up there too long. I don't know how Minna and Heikki managed to get India up and down the four ladders.

Afterwards we started driving back up to Bredasdorp so we could then head to Cape Town, but we stopped off at a lovely beach for a quick dip in the much-warmer-than-the-Atlantic-at-the-beaches-near-us India Ocean. Milja, India and I stayed on the beach while the others had fun in the waves. Milja and I had a quick play with Sari's Nikon D50 camera and it was brill.

We then drove home, getting stuck in a long queue around Somerset West, but we made it back before dark and arrived at 7:15pm. Minna was worried it would be too dark to check what had been going on in the house to set the alarms off and what had caused the leaks. Then we discovered the fallen ceiling and everything seemed a lot more lighthearted.

Milja and I went out to see Borat in the evening with Jamie K and Sean. It was funny, but I wouldn't advise it for 13 year old, which is the age limit here in South Africa.

Around the townships

Today Minna, Sari and I were taken on a 4 hour tour around some of Cape Town's townships. Our guide was Tetile, the dad of two students at Milja and Matias' school, who's also a policeman (he told us some very interesting stories about kidnapping and drug and human trafficking).

It was a very interesting tour. We stopped off at some historic locations - where there were marches, shootings, etc. We were also informed of apartheid stories and struggles. It only struck me on the way home that Tetile had lived through apartheid, he was not just explaining the history.

We visited Vicky's B&B, the smallest hotel in South Africa, which is has only two rentable rooms and is right bang in the middle of the Khayelitsha township. You can even book online :)

We also visited a traditional healer. His 'shop' was very dark and dingy and had a weird and off-putting smell. There were parts and skins of animals hanging from the ceiling. It was very weird and a bit scary. The healer uses herbs mostly and he was a strange chap, difficult to understand with a low and husky voice.

We stopped off at a community project where they produce clay products - mugs, plates etc. They were currently in the middle of an order from Microsoft of all people. They train the workers for 5 months, who then go on to another college place to enhance their knowledge and skills.

It is definitely something that we have to do with James when he comes, maybe even to stay at Vicky's B&B!

For curry

Last night we went out to supposedly the best curry restaurant in Cape Town (so good I don't even know its name!! :P). It was tasty, but a tad expensive, but highly recommended. We also visited Clock Tower beforehand to get Matias another pair of glasses as his most recent ones are both broken and lost.

Minna is going for another conference, this time in San Francisco. She leaves tomorrow evening and returns next Tuesday.

It is India's birthday tomorrow. She will be three. We were shopping for presents yesterday and she was getting very excited about it all, but then was upset when she didn't get anything yesterday. She keeps going on about her "happy birthday cake" :)

Minna, Sari and I are off in a minute for a tour around a township in Cape Town. Milja's end-of-term exams started today with English and Business.

Weekend Report (Saturday)

Saturday

I think we all woke up very early on Saturday. Even after the amount we did the day before, we were all up before 8am when breakfast was served at the B&B. It was a simple cereal/toast/scrambled egg/coffee/tea breakfast, it might have only just been worth the 30 Rand. We took up 3 of the 5 rooms of the B&B so there were very few other people around, none down for breakfast.

We left at about 9:30 and drove to Knysna (silent 'K') Elephant Park the way we stopped off briefly at a market and Minna and Sari bought some bits and bobs. The elephant park is a sanctuary for elephants and they do the usual tour that all these places do. While waiting in the foyer, we heard some Finnish being spoken - a family of 3 Finns over for a holiday in the area, very weird randomly meeting people from Helsinki all the way down here.. We first watched a video about the elephants and then went out to the tractor-pulled 'buggy' which took us out to the elephants. I think they have 9 elephants in total but we were in a pen with 4 of them. When we pulled up, they all huddled around the feeding area - they knew the drill! We fed them for a while and chatted with the minders about them. They ate everything and we had a lot of fun putting pellets in the trunk and placing food in their huge mouths.

We then moved back and the elephants came round so we could stroke them. They weren't fully grown so they weren't massive, but still, it was quite daunting standing right up against a very heavy animal with a massive trunk swaying around. We were told we can't bend down as they could easily knock us over.

We were then driven back to the main building and we had lunch and India bought a bright pink elephant, now named Princess :)

The plan was then to drive to Buffalo Hills , a game reserve slash safari. It was a huge place, they had a lot of land. The drive was a couple of hours long, and we saw a lot of wildlife, much more than we did on our very windy tour around Aquila last month. We saw the only zebra in the whole of Africa with an 'X' shape made with its stripes - even National Geographic had been recently to photograph it. We also saw giraffes - there had been a new baby born 2 days previously, but the mum was hiding it when we went to see it. There were also wilderbeast, bush buk, rondebok, kudu, gnu, lots of African animals. We didn't see any of the rhinos or lions, but we still were satisfied with what we saw. Our tour guide looked a lot like Wayne Rooney which amused me.

After the drive, we were taken to the tiny little distillery they have there. They make strong alcohol liqueur type drinks, but with crazy flavours like Chili Strawberry. It was too strong for me, especially with the added kick of chili, but Minna, Heikki and Sari all enjoyed tasting the different flavours and bought some too.

After another packed day of driving and tours, we started driving back to Wilderness. We went to an oyster restaurant in Knysna, The Knysna Oyster Company . Of course Milja and I went for chicken salad and chicken kebabs, but Heikki and Sari looked to be enjoying the horrible looking slimy things.

We then headed back to Wilderness for some well earned rest and to watch some DVDs before bed.

Weekend Report (Friday)

We left on Friday for a short weekend break driving East from Cape Town.

[Photos will hopefully be up tomorrow]

---

Friday
We departed at 5:35am, too early for Milja and I - we had been out to Claremont for dinner and to Stones in the evening. Milja and I took our pillows so we could sleep. We drove out North-Easterly from Cape Town along N1, the motorway that connects Cape Town and Johannesburg. The road and scenery were familiar for about 2 hours as this is the same road we drove along to get to Aquila Game Reserve.

After a few stops for breakfast and petrol, we reached a small little place called Matjiesfontein . It was a quaint hamlet-type settlement, but with restaurants, hotel and a railway station. It seemed quite touristy, but it was in the middle of nowhere.

Further on we turned off the N1 towards Prince Albert to go down a road between the mountains. Suddenly it was rocky and bumpy and Milja and I rose from our dozing. We reached this amazing gorge and drove through in between fantastic rock formations and patterns for a kilometre or so. The track then rose (on Swartberg Pass) high above and over the hills and mountains. We were treated with some brilliant views, and eventually reached "Die Top" which then spat us down the otherside of the hills.

We headed to Cango Caves . It is a very cool place with tours through the caves. We had some scones before going in as it was lunch time and we were getting a bit hungry. Inside the caves was really cool. We had a funny and enthusiastic guide who told us of the history of the caves and how it was was formed and discovered. Very interesting. The tour lasted about 2 hours and by that time we were hungry.

We drove for abit longer towards Oudtshoorn , the "ostrich capital of the world". The town was quite rural, but we were going to one of the ostrich farms, Highgate , outside of town. We went to one that Minna and family had been to earlier this year. We had a spot of lunch and looked at the ostriches. Then the tour started. We first learned about the feathers and eggs, and then went into their tiny feather factory and watched a worker make a feather duster in about 30 seconds! Then we went outside to see the young ostriches. There were 2 week, 1 month and 2 month old babies, who were all fluffy and much cuter than the adults.

Then it was time to feed the adults. I was a bit hesitant as they peck similar to chickens but are the largest birth on earth :S It was fun, though, feeding them, although sometimes they nipped you and were a bit intimidating coming on the fence towards you with their huge eyes and tiny heads. Milja managed to have her whole hand nearly bitten off by one of them (there's a good picture of it), but I don't think it hurt.

After the feeding we all went over the road to another area of the farm . We went into an enclosure with a male adult sitting on eggs (the females sit on them at night). We were invited to stand on the eggs as they can withstand our body weight. None of us did as there wasn't much time, but other people on the tour did.

There was also pen with ostriches in and a stand thing they use to de-feather the ostriches. There was one strapped up in there when we got there and it looked very silly with a bag over it's head (to calm it down). We were invited to sit on it, and India, Matias and I had a go. Then I rode one. Very fun even though they can run anywhere they want and you have no control! Matias and then Milja also had a go at riding them.

Then it was time for the big race... 3 jockeys riding ostriches down a simple course. It is mainly for show but it is a fun way to end the tour.

After the ostrich farm, we went down to the coast to Wilderness , a small town right on the coast. It was nearly dark and we had to find somewhere to stay. We found a road where every house was a B&B and we eventually found one with vacancies (and an indoor pool :P). We headed out for dinner at a local restaurant and returned for a good night sleep.

Back home

We're back.

We had a wonderful weekend and did and saw some amazing things.

A full post (and photos!) tomorrow.

Heading East

Tomorrow morning at 5:15 am (7 hours from now :S), the whole family and Sari, Minna's friend who's over at the moment, are heading for a little road trip East. The school has a day off due to Thanksgiving and we are taking the opportunity to have a glimpse of other parts of the country.

We have a few things lined up including elephants, ostriches, beach, caves etc. and it should be a fun little excursion. We head back home on Sunday and will return in the evening.

Have a great weekend, we will be back posting on Monday.

Llandudno with the kids

India's creche/daycare/pre-school 'class' had a trip out to Llandudno beach today. Minna, Sari and I joined India and her buddies on the beach. It is a gorgeous day. The sun was so hot when the breeze wasn't around, and I'm hoping the 1 hour 30 in the sun has enhanced my tan sufficiently. If not, then it was a good way to spend the morning - listening to the waves, watching surfers go out to their ocean, smiling at the children running past and relaxing on the white sand.

The Mystery Midnight Rustle

Last night, just after we had gone to bed, both Milja and I lay awake listening to a strange rustling sound coming from one of the corners of our room. Milja instantly feared the worst and was worried that her bags in the wardrobe were being munched on by a rat. I was not sure what was making the noise, and I decided to call for backup (I wasn't up for diving in our wardrobe after a rat myself). I went to get Megan from Minna and Heikki's room, who were asleep, but knocking on the door made Megan bark (apologies to M&H). Back in our room, Megan refused to have a sniff in the cupboard, but Heikki came with a torch. I couldn't find anything in the cupboard, but Minna said that she'd heard a strange noise earlier from this end of the house. The mystery was wide open.

So back to bed we went, and the noise started again. I had the torch still, so I shone it around the room. I spotted a beetle/bug thing buzzing around (we've had trouble with these specific things before when about a million came in through an open window one evening - Raija came to our aid and helped us remove each one).

One flick of the light switch and it headed for its death along with its (maybe) relatives in the lamp. That was easy.

Mystery solved.

Zooomr Hits

A Zooomr member, Chris Sansbury, runs a photolog of the better photos he finds in the many galleries around Zooomr. Yesterday one of my photos, Matias on a roll, made it on the site... http://zooomrhits.com/2006/11/21/matias-on-a-roll.

Thank you Chris!

Workers working

Our new roof is taking shape. It is much higher than the old roof, a lot more than the 40cm as planned! Minna has been busy upstairs thinking about where the rooms should go. A tough job when it's carnage up there :)

Last night we had lots of rain and I was woken a few times by clunks, bangs and footsteps upstairs (very strange to hear as noone has ever been up there really) as Minna and Heikki scrambled to keep the house from leaking again. I don't think there were many leaks (if any) - good job M&H.

The thatchers were supposedly coming this week but I haven't seen them yet. It looks as though the outisde might be finished by the time James arrives in 16 days.

Brill results

This weekend has been full of great results for the teams I follow...

QPR (English football) - In front of Sky Sport cameras, QPR beat top team Cardiff 0-1 away from home. They are now 5 games unbeaten and are just 5 points off the playoffs, after a poor start to the season.

Santos (South African football) - Santos beat the Man Utd of SA football, Orlando Pirates, 0-1 in the Telkom Knockout Cup.

HIFK (Finnish floorball) - Janne's team beat OLS 7-9 away from home No points for Janne though. HIFK are consolidating a solid mid-table position.

Espoo Blues (Finnish ice hockey) - The Blues continue to do better than any other season I have followed them, this time beating top team Karpat 1-2 in overtime (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1) away from home. They are still 4th place and hunting down the top three of big players Karpat and Jokerit, and last year's winners, HPK.

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Uh oh

It is raining and thundering outside. Due to progression in the roof work our near-waterproof makeshift plastic sheeting set-up has been disrupted, and there are apparently large gaps left by the builders. The rain is quite hard, and I am anticipating a fun night running around with towels again.

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A milestone

Within the last hour I had my 10,000 viewer on my photos on Zooomr. This number has doubled in the last 29 days, as I had exactly 5,000 views on October 19th. I joined Zooomr in early July, so it is easy to see that as Zooomr grows so does the popularity of my photos.

View Dan's photos

Here's to another 5- and 10,000 views! :D

39 days to go!

The roof men are here (for the first time in about a month) and it's noisy. Minna has just gone up to look at the roof to inspect. I wonder what she'll find.

I want to take some photos (I have an itch) but I don't have anything to take photos of. I am thinking of going for a quick drive around Hout Bay - we'll see if I can be bothered or not. My Zooomr is looking a bit bland, although nearly at 10,000 views!

Jamie K's Jay-Z DVD is stuck in my comp and I can't get it out with conventional methods.

Nearly at the hungry stage.

Java is going OK still. On Chapter 5 this week, we're going through quite quick, but I'm still keeping up. We're drawing shapes and stuff this week! I still haven't done any of the assessment, but I still have 18 days, and it's only 11 questions. I am planning on doing 4 questions a week for the next 3, including this one.

Milja got 100/100 in an English debate. I'm not surprised :)

More news

To add to the news of recent days there has also been (another) stabbing of a school kid at school and a man being killed in a machine on a boat in Hout Bay. There have been numerous reports since we've been here of children being in fights at school, and every time someone has been stabbed and/or taken to hospital.

Also yesterday a bill was passed in Government to allow same-sex marriages starting on December 1st here in South Africa. There was a lively debate on the radio this morning. It seems that most people are for the new law, but that most gay couples won't go out and get married just because it is now legal. There was also a mention of Cape Town, as an already popular marriage location, being visited by more and people who want to get married here. There are also those against the new law who say that this new bill goes against the culture of the continent and the beliefs of most of the country's citizens.

Never a dull moment.

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The Grudge 2

Milja, Sean, Jamie K and I (the usuals) went to the cinema on Sunday evening to watch The Grudge 2. We first went to Blue Route, our top choice because of the price, but they weren't showing it, so we headed to Cavendish, where is it nearly 3 times more expensive, but still only about £3 each.

I wasn't looking forward to the film at all as Milja had dragged me to see the first one when it came out 2 years ago. I remember sitting in a packed cinema in Helsinki with my hand over my eyes, but still watching the film. It scared me to death and it 'haunted' me for a while afterwards. But I kind of enjoyed it too.

This time around I was not really in the mood for it (I wanted to watch Borat). I didn't even watch the film, but listened to it. I didn't fancy being scared for a few days post-film :P Eventually the other 3 were also covering their faces and in the end I was the one who jumped the least :) It looked like a decent film although there were too many random parts and loose ends. I want to watch it again, but this time some morning when it is far enough away from the dark and bright and sunny outside.

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Sauna night

Oh the sauna. What a great invention (well in to the Finns).

It has been on quite frequently since it was finished a few weeks ago. I have been in it maybe 4/5 times now, each time it has been better than the last.

Yesterday after school Sean and Harrison came over. Matias had some trouble putting the sauna on and it would be ready about 8 o'clock. Milja, Sean and I decided to go out to a lovely little cafe in Mainstream for a little bite to eat. It was a great place, Milja loved it, and we came away stuffed.

Back home we jumped in the sauna and beat eachother with the ... beater (I don't know what it's called - I think it gets your blood flow higher). The sauna was up at 70 degrees, which is the highest it's been for me, although it could/should be hotter. Sean and I refreshed by jumping in the pool and finally Milja came in on our last visit, and was happy she did. We all felt very rejuvenated and fresh. It was a great night.

Oh the sauna.

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Eventful day

I am writing this in the car on the way home from M&H's work. Aren't I cool.

This morning there was a craah involving a train and a truck near Somerset West. 19 people are confirmed dead and 12 more are injured. I don't know the full story, but it sounds quite bad (UPDATE - here is a link to the news story).

Just now, driving home, there is news of a cash truck heist, where some people have tried to rob one of those money-carrying vans. Apparently it has been overturned. Again I don't know what happened, but it's all happening here today!

We just dropped Heikki off at the Land Rover garage to pick up his, you guessed it, Land Rover. It was in today to replace brake pads and disks.

Minna, very generously, gave me her old iBook on Friday, after she was upgraded by her work. I'm so happy to have a Mac finally - it has been at least 1.5 years since I first wanted one. Of course a nice new MacBook would have been great (I had saved some, but wedding funds were more important in the summer!), but a free iBook? Cannot complain :D Thank you very much Minna. I have been configuring it this weekend and is now running like a charm with all my favourite programs.

Today has been hot inside. It is kind of cloudy/hazy out, but it's quite sticky. In town it is sunny, but we just crossed over Kloof Nek below Table Mountain and it is colder and cloudy the other side (Atlantic coast). Milja rang earlier and said that it was going to rain at home. Looks very likely that it has.

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A quiet Friday

I am at home this evening. All the other usuals are out as usual at our usual place, but I decided against going out and have instead opted for a relaxing evening online (with Ice Age 2 on).

I was out with the boys, Jamie K, Jamie B and Sean earlier. We went to Jamie K's house, and then to a place nearby called Jakes, where we sat and chatted with Jamie's dad. The chatting turned into debating about Iraq and America and Sean and I got bored so we went to get some food. After Jakes we tried to play some Fifa before the guys went out but the PS2 didn't want to work. Sean dropped me off at home when he went to pick up his ID.

Milja has had a girly night tonight with Roxi and Charlotte. I think they went for a meal and then out to Claremont. She will be back later.

It's nice to spend time at home once in a while. I'm not up for a night out today and I will grab some extra sleep while I can! This is likely to be a rare occurance, a blog post on a Friday night, so enjoy it while you can :)

She's back

Minna returned from her 6-day trip to Baltimore this morning. She was at some conference. On her way through London yesterday she managed to get to Camden, where she bought some nose sleepers (I've had to make do with a ring since I lost my last sleeper in September time). She is now sleeping I guess, with a 8 hour jetlag to deal with.

I have just been out to help Heikki with the pool pump. The pool had gathered quite a lot of dirt and bits of tree and bugs, but now hopefully it will be clean again.

Last night I went out to Claremont with Sean. He was going to have a day off today so could afford a Thursday night out (he was going to have his driving test but there was a mix up so it will have to wait). We planned to go to the beach today but he is at school as normal.

There is a bee man here in the garden. There is a large bee nest in one corner of the garden and Heikki called in specialists to remove it. I can see lots of bees buzzing around outside from where I'm sitting. They look pretty angry.

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A little mention

I was reading through my feeds today and was pleased to see in the latest post on the Zooomr blog, they had given a small mention to Cape Town of one of the places where they have 'noticed activity'. The post was about the localisation of the site (it is now in 18 different languages) which makes the site more accessible to far more people than other, less multi-lingual, photo sharing websites.

I am glad to see that us guys down here have been noticed by the guys who run the site. Cheers Kristopher.

• Tracy Booysen
• Ray Booysen
• Juergen
• kap
• Danny
  

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Just the usual mob

Ervo, Raija and Vieno returned to Finland today. Their flight took off at 7:50am. We had a wonderful time with them. I am happy that the weather here has recently returned to Africa-type warmth so they had at least a few nice days to sit out in the sun and swim.

Last night, to mark their last evening with us, we went out to eat. We tried a sushi place I had never been to (in actual fact I've never been to any I don't think) near the East end of the beach in Hout Bay. It was a great evening. Milja and I tried vegetable sushi, but we also ordered beef so we could eat 'real' food as well :)

It has been boiling here this week. I am sweating inside right now as it happens. It must be nearly 30 degrees. It is so nice having a pool and jumping in (with Matias, it's too cold for Milja!) when they get home from school.

I really want to go surfing today once the school is finished, but I doubt anyone else will want to go. Maybe at the weekend. We haven't been for about a month now I reckon. Now it's much warmer I can't see why we aren't there more.

There is still no work going on with the roof at the moment. Heikki and Minna have been talking with the neighbour who is adament that the new gable will should have no window in it. Heikki came up with the idea of turning that room, therefore, into a movie room and put a projector showing against that outside wall. Good idea. Although it will be a bit dark without that window.

I am at M&H's work today so I have more bandwidth freedom. I am in the middle of doing Java exercises and have just now figured out why the compiler would compile the code but then I couldn't run the file without errors. So now I'm good to go.

I am also hungry and will try and sort that out soon.

Street painting

Street painting Hosted on Zooomr

Isn't this cool? I was browsing around Zooomr this morning and I found a selection of these street paintings. This one's my favourite. How long did it take? And I wonder how long before it got washed away!

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Finally fixed

The windscreen on the car is now fixed. I drove to Plumstead this morning after dropping M&M at school and waited for it to be fixed. I only just got home about 15 minutes ago - I waited 4 hours :S 4 hours is a long time to wait for something, especiaIly if you can't go anywhere or do much during that time. I did, thoutg, managed to find a small, but slightly dodgy cafe, for breakfast (a 55p cheese and tomato toastie and Sprite) and then read my new book for a few hours to pass the time.

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Penguins

On Friday after the guys had come home from school, Milja, Matias, Ervo, Raija, Vieno and I left to Boulder's Beach in Simon's Town to have a look at the penguins there. As was usual, the day wasn't too bright (all three times Milja and I have been, it has been cloudy and cold!). Chapman's Peak Drive was closed so we had to take an alternate route through Constantia and up over the hills from near the end of the M3. It was a great drive, we had amazing views from various high vantage points along the way.

On the way back, Milja spotted some whales very close to the shore as we left Simon's Town. We have only seen them from high up above Muizenberg before, but these ones were swimming and having fun about 100 metres from us. Quite a sight!

Cubanas

There is a great restaurant/bar in Claremont called Cubanas. In the afternoon/evening it is a good place to sit and talk and eat, then in the evening the loud music starts and it gets real busy.

On Friday evening, Milja, Sean, Jamie K and I met Roxi, Hattie and Charlotte at Cubanas. We sat for a couple of hours and enjoyed the amazing Mexican food. They have very cheap shots there (Sean and Jamie got up to at least 19 shots each by the end of the night). After eating we headed to the usuals - Tin Roof and Stones - for the evening. There was a "XXX" party in Stones, including a mechanical bull, but it didn't seem worth the 10 Rand ticket!

Yesterday, Milja and I went Cubanas for dinner. We shared a side portion of chicken-topped nachos between us (that's how big the portions are) and we were joined breifly by the guys who were out in Claremont already. We came home after though, dropped Baker off in Hout Bay at a friend's house, and went to bed.

This morning, Heikki and the rest have gone to the Greenpoint Market, and will then head down to Cape Point. Minna left to Baltimore last night. Milja and I have stayed at home, mainly because with India's car seat there would have been no space in the car, and for such a long journey it would have been murder, but also because we have essays and Java to do.

The sun is finally out today. But it is very windy, much like it was when we visited in February. I might have a dip in the pool later depending on the sun, and maybe we will fire up the sauna for the evening.

My friend is a sport superstar

OK, well maybe not a superstar, but here's a picture of Janne playing for his new team HIFK of Helsinki. He plays professional 'Floorball' and was in the team that won the Finnish League title last season, Espoon Oilers.

(Janne is on the left)

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Photolog

I have set up a photolog today where I will post a new photo for each day. If you don't want to have to trawl through all my photos but still want to see what we do or where we are etc. then this is the site for you :)

Dan's Daily Photo

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James is coming!

James e-mailed Milja yesterday saying that he'd booked flights to come visit us. He will be here early December will stay for about 10 days. Looking forward to it!

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Please sun, come on down to Africa

The last few weeks we seem to have had way more rain and cloud than we have had sun. I think that it is a poor show for the books seeing as this is Africa.

The rain has, as I have written before, come at a huge price for us. The roof work is at a standstill and there is *still* plastic sheeting acting as our protection from the elements. The workers haven't touched the house (apart from fitting new sheets) for something like two weeks now.

This week we have had rain nearly, if not, every night. Minna, Heikki and Raija have been very busy each night trying to stop the leaks, which thankfully are not as bad as the leaks we had last Tuesday. They are all exhausted. It has been windy too, but apart from last night, Milja and I have slept through, only being aware of leaks in the morning as we come out of our room to carnage and lots of towels.

On Monday, trying to move some sheeting atop a ladder, Heikki fell and badly hurt his ankle. Thankfully nothing is broken although he needs crutches to get anywhere. We have also been getting a lot of grief from the neighbour about the new roof, which is the reason for the lack of work going on here. Although now apparently he has been in the right all along and it is our builders who have been messing things up.

Tomorrow Minna leaves for a week to America on a work trip, leaving Heikki with his foot and crutches and two children (I can take care of Milja :P ). Raija, Ervo and Vieno leave back to Finland on Wednesday, and our blue car's windscreen is still not fixed. We have also had a number of false security alarms during the night this week.

Minna & Heikki's recent posts...

• Humpty Dumpty at 3 AM
• Wet and windy
• The last drop

The sun is trying to shine now. I can see the wet leaves glisten outside my window. I am hoping it will stay for a while and plans fixed so we can get on with our roof. I would love for it to be finished already.

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New trick

More photos at Zooomr

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Missing the snow!

Back in Finland, the first snow has fallen marking the real start to winter. It is only warm for about 4-5 months a year, the rest of the year being mostly below 0 degrees.

I have been tracking Daily Photo blogs for Helsinki, Vantaa and Oulu (up North) so I can still see a piece of home. The last few days posts have made me miss Finland due to the snow that has been falling, and that I will be missing this year.

Helsinki - helsinkidailyphoto.blogspot.com -

Vantaa - vantaadailyphoto.blogspot.com -

Oulu - ouludailyphoto.blogspot.com -

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Plans

We have been planning to make a trip to Europe in January to both Finland and England to see respective familes and friends. After finding a lovely route through Amsterdam (3 nights - little holiday!) to Helsinki (about a week) to London (about a week) and back through Amsterdam (where Milja has another Model UN conference), we decided it would be much more sensible to save the hundreds of pounds for another time. When we return back to Finland we can fly around Europe much easier and pretty much anytime we want. Plus the fact that we are here for only 10 months, it wouldn't make sense to be away for nearly one of them.

We are sad that the plans didn't happen, as we would have both loved to see people and places we miss, but we will instead have a stinking hot January and a free house to look forward to! :P

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