Another List

Since I’m having such a grumpy Monday morning which hasn't been helped by beautiful photos of Plett, I’ve decided to have a good wallow and list all the things I really miss now that we live in Paradise:

Plettenberg Bay, South Africa: This place is hard-wired in my soul and today I'm missing it

So here we go: Apart from my friends, my family and Woolworths, I really miss:

1. Electricians and plumbers who actually turn-up within about a week of when they said they were going to and then actually do the job. As in finish it and get paid. Genuis

2. Lunch at Assagi on Friday’s

3. Walking the dogs at Delta Park on a winters Sunday afternoon

4. EFT’s and all those straight forward banky things that one takes for granted. They dont exist here

5. Sitting on Lookout Deck eating Mossel Bay wild oysters with a glass of Thelema Sauv Blanc

6. Saturday breakfast at the Woolies in Hyde Park Corner

7. Fynbos. All of it

8. Dunkeld Flowers. Oooh, I really-really miss those huge, gorgeous big bunches of flowers that I used to get for the house every Friday

9. Portuguese fish sellers. Also the bakery at Dunkeld which I can’t remember the name of (eeek)

10. Snuggling under a down duvet in Jojo’s house in Shepherds Bush, although last night I did wake up about 3am completely frozen as I’d fallen asleep directly in front of the AC turned on full blast on the coldest setting.

11. Lovely ladies in matching Johnson doeks and aprons. Black and white ones for dinner parties (I think I may weep now)

12. Sloane Square. Kings Road. My London spiritual home.

13. The view of the Thames from Victoria Bridge on the train

14. Ille le Pain in Knysna. The lunch tasting plate with those pork rillettes & cornichons on wood-fired sourdough.....

15. The Saturday Organic Market on the Plett-Knysna Road

16. All the little shops along Fourth Avenue Parkhurst. And Parkview. And Greenside

17. Driving through the Ttstiskama

18. The whole of the Winelands and all the wine

19. Driving through the Karoo. But not Colesburg

20. Driving back from Hermanus - the view of Cape Point from Hangklip

21. The view of Joburg driving from the airport. I've always coveted the Karl Becker painting of this

22. The Jacarandas on Pallinghurst Road, Westcliff

23. The Ridge

24. Martini’s at the Polo Lounge

25. The Bush. All of it

26. The view from my brothers Rorkes Drift farm stoep looking out over towards Isandlwana

27. The fountain in the middle of Zoo Lake

28. The view from the Ambassador Hotel, Bantry Bay. Seagulls, crashing waves, seaweed.

29. 44 Stanley. Not the parking

30. Salome Hurwitz

31. Garden Centres: Lifestyle, Craighall Park and Parktown North Keith Kirsten. Oh golly golly I miss those places so much. Three of my vases were broken last week. Heartbreaking because probably wont replace them now

32. The War Memorial view down Saxonwold Drive

33. Sportsmans Warehouse. Can you imagine howmuch sports clobber we are going to have to buy on the Internet for 3 boys?

34. Ribbons, goedetjies and Akhalwhayha’s at Oriental Plaza.

35. Weylands on Thesen island…

Actually I’m now thoroughly depressed, so I’d better stop. It’s not that bad here.

Read the top line carefully

Summer 101

"Can William come and play please?"

Being new at long summer holidays, I hadn't entirely appreciated that all it meant was kids, kids, kids and more kids. Till you almost want to scream. No need to point out this was Week One. Also no need to point out that this was the life I longed for (Tyler already has, at his peril).

So I really know I'm not going to get your sympathy vote when I say that 'Living in Paradise' is now playing havoc on our summer plans.  The very last thing that I want to do is (1) See a palm tree and (2) Sit on a white sandy beach drinking mojitos.   

What I really want to do is (1) Have my hair done in a proper hair salon (2) Buy shoes that arn't Brazilian, gold or have dingle-dangles (3) Catch public transport, preferably underground (4) See a painting that consists of more than primary colours (5) Listen to some music that has a minimum of  30 professionally-played instruments (6) Eat something which dosn't have scales, like venison for example.

I have actually noticed that many, many people from here seem to decamp to the North West states at this time of the year. Vancouver and Seattle must be throbbing with recovering Caribs, all drinking in the good coffee and pavements. The occasional frosty morning. Some Nirvana, maybe?

Anyway, suffice to say, we should have planned all of this at least 6 months ago like everyone else, but we havn't. We've already got a week in a little rented boat to trawl around the islands and play pirates. This is of course the part that Tyler and the boys are looking forward to and it will be lots of fun, provided no tropical storms or hurricanes interfere too much.

The second leg of the holiday is the Culure & Shopping part, and requires travelling to some shops in a city ( yes yes yes yes). Problem is we can't decide on which city. There are many boxes to tick, but primarily we need a city that will still feel like a holiday (boulevards, good food, glamour) but wont bankrupt us (New York). We're also not very good with cold anymore and nobody welcomes extended inter-continental travel with 3 young kids.

It's sounding suspiciously like San Juan (Puerto Rico) Notorius Capital of High Bling, but I'm still doing my due diligence on this.

Next year of course I'm going to start planning our summer holidays right after we get back from skiing at Christmas, but for now we have a few days to work out which city has the best Gap but the least amount of palm trees.