Kimmy’s comments : Things are looking up

What a lovely weekend I’m having. We have come to ‘Hole in the Wall’ which is about 20min drive from the hospital and sits in a pretty bay with the big ‘hole’ in the wall being the featured attraction. I was never a huge fan of hole in the wall, it has a tatty hotel and oozes the remains of colonialism. The beach has lots of local kids begging for money from the spattering of tourists who stay at the hotel. The geographical feature that is the hole in the wall is quite nice, but one visit is enough.

However, we’ve struck gold by finding this little gem of a holiday home owned by some South Africans who rent it out when they’re not staying there. Normally SA holiday homes are a bit kitschy and tasteless with florals and doilies everywhere and old veneer furniture. However, this place is LOVELY. Firstly the location –tucked away just about 100m from the lapping waves on a beautiful quiet beach just round the corner from the more populated ‘hole in the wall’ beach which has a hotel etc. The place is made from a rondavel (roundhouse) with a square bit on the side making more space. All the sea facing walls are covered with big windows, letting lots of light in and the views are spectacular. You can sit with a cup of tea just watching the waves roll. Not a soul in sight. The whole interior is whites and pale blues, shells, marine themes. This owner must be an interior decorator me thinks. Lots of candles and lovely touches, a nice kitchen with everything you could need. It has such a positive vibe and is a great place to recuperate after a weeks work.

We arrived Friday night and were just about to settle down and watch a DVD (our favourite escapism pastime -thanks Al+Tori for the new material). Anyhow, just as we pressed play the electricity cut out (it’s been doing this a lot lately). This ruins all plans of DVDs and cups of tea and dinner as we hadn’t brought our camping stove and the oven works on electric.....bugger. Then Pete had the genius idea of driving over the green hills about another 20minutes to coffee bay, the home of Papazellas pizza place. So we called the owner to check they were running, he cooks on gas so all stations GO. We drove over and ordered our favourites...Papazella for Pete (mince meat, peppers, onions) and Mammazella for me (chicken, garlic, peppers). Funny how we like those named ones best...pappa and mammazellas. These pizzas are DIVINE, even by UK Italian restaurant ratings. Thin bases, nice toppings, mozzarella and even homemade chilli sauce if you can take the heat! It was delicious (are you hungry reading this?). We sat right by the big brick oven that was cooking them to keep warm.

We drove back to our haven at Hole in The Wall and the lights were back on (yippee) so settled down for a DVD- The Last Samuri, which of course I fell asleep watching and missed the end...think he gets the girl which is all I’m bothered about. Pete sold it to me saying there was a love interest in the film, he failed to remind me that that was in between extreme violence fight scenes! It was fun though.

Yesterday(Saturday) we fashioned a game of boule from some sort of round small boulders on the beach. It was fun until I lost miserably, despite my training sessions in the UK during Als wedding week I got my butt kicked twice by pete, who was sure to gloat a ridiculous amount. I blame it on the bloulders not actually being round.

We had a brunch of fried eggs and bacon on a savoury muffin with a cuppa. Brilliant.
Watched The Springboks beat The All Blacks at rugby up at a local restaurant called Whiteclay (the one with the calamari). Then had a pork belly for dinner washed down with divine oaked chardonnay (costing only £3 a bottle). Great stuff.

Today is Sunday. Some friends are coming over to us and we’re having a braai. Winter is here, and it is chilly by South African standards, but by uk standards it is definitely warm enough for a braai. Happy days.

Although being half way through our time here has given us a lull in enthusiasm, this weekend has brought a nice feeling of being settled and knowing our area. Awesome weekend, not much achieved on the surface, but actually underneath that lots done on a mental level. The cost to stay in this paradise for the weekend you ask? £7 per person per night including someone doing the dishes for us. And you know how we Brits love a bargain!