Freezing in South Africa!!!!!

I truly have never been this cold in my life!!!!! Everyday since I have been in Cape Town I wake up in the morning freezing, put on layers of many odd combinations of my summer clothes to try to stay warm all day, wear socks in sandals, looking like I just got off the boat, and wear my green fleecy that has Victoria Canada embroidered on it over my red nightgown to sleep at night!!

Let's remember, that I am below the equator here! The "unseasonably" cold rainy weather continues. It isn't slightly raining, it is raining so hard that building an ark has crossed my mind.

Up this morning and when some blue sky and sun appeared we decided on an adventure day/drive. We drove the Western Peninsula around Cape Town. This included going to the Cape of Good Hope.

This was a place I was really looking forward to because I am a huge reader of "sailing on difficult sea adventures" books. I started a book just before I came by the title of Cape Hope - One Man's Dream, A Wife's Nightmare! I have read soooo many books on the terror of sailing around this big hunk of rock where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean - very cool (meant both ways!!!).

Today we saw a pod of 6 HUGE whales VERY close to shore - Tom must have shot 100 pix in rapid succession, CNN style. We also went to a shorleine famous for its penquins - too cute - I really think parrot Togo wouldn't mind if I brought one home. But they stink - we got up really close to them and the holes they live in - stinky!!

The most outrageous thing I loved was seeing all the baboons running around at the ocean at Cape Hope. They are nasty, mean animals, but I think they are cute. It's spring, so there were lots of babies running and tumbling around playing with each other!!! One mother baboon was still carrying her baby underneath her - it was tiny with fresh pink ears and clutched like death to her.

Lunched at a lovely restaurant at Cape Hope that had a very nice INTERIOR dining room, with a propane heater INSIDE (like the ones at Earls, or our deck!!), but the other 3 vetoed that idea and we dined OUTSIDE overlooking the water, where it was VERY windy, and, aside from the 5 minutes that the sun provided some warmth, bloody cold!!!!!

It took the whole day to drive the peninsula and see many interesting sites and a few shops we checked out.

Tonight we had a wonderful dinner at the beautiful home of friends of Gary & Denise. Lovely people with 3 grown sons and a daughter. Very bright, sophisticated people - very enjoyable.

And for the really SORE point - I am using their computer to write this post. I still can't get the wireless at the guest house. Had a few nasty words with the owner this morning - we were just trying to make the point that they are in the business of serving tourists from all over the world, and since we aren't paying a cheap rate, being cold was not great!!!

The guy who owns it with his wife is quite cocky. When we suggested this morning that it might be a nice convenience if they had some power converters and plugs for people from other countries, he said he wasn't there "to wipe our butts, and we were quite free to go somewhere else if we chose" - obviously graduated from some school of public relations!!!!!

The wife was really embarassed and put a portable radiator heater in our room - very nice of her. He keeps blaming MY COMPUTER for the reason I can't get on. Funny, it works at the cyber cafes, you turkey. He needs to upgrade his system!

I am sooooo frustrated about the computer - this blog was important for me to do and the pics are good. Don't know how this will resolve. Our friends are NOT big computer people so don't understand my frustrations with this.

I hope things will change when the weather changes - probably won't be until after we leave Cape Town on Friday. This all underlines what I already knew: I am very North American, have to have central heating,a plug for a hair dryer and curling iron, some tv channels (we can only get CNN on our room TV., I need to have the pleasures and conveniences of home, and next time I go to a third world country, can you spell H-I-L-T-O-N??????

Some of my friends told me this - any third world country is fun to experience if you have top level accomodations with all the North American luxuries. Some people scorn that, but I freely admit to being a person who likes creature comforts (LIKE HEAT!!!!),some luxury, room service, being able to easily take a cab (like to a cyber cafe, which is what I want EVERY stupid day now!!)I wasn't prepared for this, but Gary keeps telling me that this is a country with a 1st world infrastructure, but is a 3re world country. Gary & Denise tell us that it is too dangerous to take a cab here to go anywhere - could get mugged etc. Others say it IS safe if you use a certain company.

Gary is an awesome driver of the huge Mercedes van we have, and has given us a great tour with all info today. We have enjoyed meeting their friends. Were out at dinner last nights with friends - we found it most pleasurable to visit with their 2 20+ daughters and the finance - think I mentioned that. These kids were much more our contemporaries.

Ellen, when you told me to take my boiled wool sweater/jacket, why didn't you just go and put it in my suitcase??? Oh yeh, I remember, Tom said "we're going to Africa for shits sake, you won't need a huge boiled wool sweater - there's no room for it and you'll never wear it." Well, if I courier all my short-sleeve t-shirts and cute capri pants home, could you send my heaviest boiled wool sweater and some long johns, please - HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

I REALLY need to warm up before I am going to feel I like this country - I'm not just cold, I am freezing, as in, colder than I have EVER been at home even in the winter.

Today was fun, but I would still rather just be warm - I'm becoming obsessed with warmth - weird!!!!!!!!

Well, WARM thoughts to you all, N-J!!!!!