After seven exciting months, I finally have medical insurance, have registered the car in my name, and I'm now totally ready to be hit by a bus or catch on fire. This hopefully then means the end of boring introductions to these posts*. I'm also back only one hour ahead of the UK timezone (and one hour behind Finland again).
Month started fairly standard, with a trip to first Thursday, a trip to a gin bar that also sells decadent chocolate, and this delightful banana and cocoa cake. Starting to eat bananas again last year after a two-decade break was a good move, and has evidently made me very happy:
Alcohol consumption was kept fairly casual, since I had a busy day on the Friday, followed by a sporting weekend involving a 120 km cycle (broken up by a 10 km row) in preparation for the cycle race the following weekend on the Saturday, followed by a triathlon of sorts at the yacht club on the Sunday, involving a 3.5 km run, 16 km cycle, and finishing with about 3.5 km of rowing, and luckily culminating in a bottle of champagne and Dairy Milk for me, plus the 'bone of contention'. The downside from this is that I have to organise the event for next year...I'm planning a 50 km row a la Boston marathon in the UK, but this may be shot down.
Continuing with the sporting theme, the next weekend I met one of my sporting heroes; Jens Voigt. If anyone ever tells you not to meet your heroes, do not listen, they're lying, he was amazing! A nice, down to earth guy, and an absolute pleasure to meet. I do have to get a new cycling jersey courtesy of his signature, and wore it on a ride with him, but at least I had it ready for the world's biggest cycle race, the Cape Argus coming up on the second weekend of March!
So yes! The cycle tour! The culmination of all the effort of bringing the bike here, actually getting in shape for cycling, forcing myself up hills, ensuring every link on my chain was cleaned and lubricated to perfection, waking up at 5 AM in order to force down a breakfast of pasta...the stage was set.
The stage was blown away. Nothing more to add, still bitter. The day wasn't wasted; I got a sympathy vote and convinced TK to venture down to the beautiful Steenberg vineyard, which is the oldest farm in Cape Town, and has an excellent bistro to boot.
Moving swiftly on, I made it up more mountains! Having done Lion's head a few times now, I made it to Signal hill for the sunset with friends, which gives a perfect view of the city at dusk on one side, and the expanse of the Atlantic on the other. I also made it up Table Mountain too! Having not visited until now, I have no excuses as to why, as it was breath-taking. Catching up to friends who had left earlier, I ran and scrambled my way up to 'tranquillity cracks', and could not have been happier that I did. In many ways it reminded me of Brimham rocks back in good ol' Yorkshire, which is always nice, and was an exciting path up too.
To finish, a quick mention the Cape Town carnival. Fun, colourful, slightly annoying as we were on the opposite side to all the food/beer stalls, but a nice night none-the-less. Favourite photo has to be this yellow submarine, due to the very peculiar scuba diver who was absolutely loving it:
Otherwise, the usual; a couple of braais, a few drinks, and work, all with the usual fantastic views, but somewhat cancelling out all the fitness efforts earlier in the month. This has been compounded by a couple of good Airbnb guests, with a lovely Polish couple from London, as well as a fellow Yaaaaarkshire girl and Dutch-Scot.
I wrote most of this on the evening of the 30th, since I'm at a regatta today, and since then (although it was widely rumoured) Zuma has sacked Gordhan, the finance minister, who has seen the Rand be the strongest emerging currency of the last 18 months. When he was recalled earlier in the week, it fell by nearly 5%, and even with the triggering of Article 50, the fall hasn't arrested. It seems that wherever you are in the world, politics is played as a game without the people being thought of at all. A depressing note to end on, but it's a point of which the repercussions I feel I may be discussing during next month's post quite a bit.
Song of the month: Galway Girl, by Ed Sheeran, because he's got a new album out, and all the songs are pretty darn good.
*At some point I will apply for a passport here, and I'm quite sure that will not go smoothly
