SA day 5: laundry, decorating, and pudding

This morning we breakfasted at home – I tried my first rusk! It’s sort of like a biscuit but denser and with all the water sucked out. The idea is that you dip it in your tea or coffee to soften it up.  They are pretty good, as long as you don’t try the muesli flavor – raisins should keep themselves out of baked goods. Period.

Our friends are just getting settled in their new home and the furniture situation was kind of a hodgepodge. 

Just kidding, it was nowhere near that bad, but the layout lacked any real direction or functionality and the walls all lacked pictures.  We spent the morning shoving furniture and rugs about, and deciding where all of the pictures should hang.  It looks so much more like a home.  I'd post a photo, but let's be honest - would YOU want me to post a photo of YOUR living room on the interwebs if we stayed with you?  Didn't think so.

After a long morning of that and laundry (yee-haw!), we decided everyone needed out of the house, so we set off to the nature reserve down the street for tea.  Between the time we left the house and the time we arrived at the nature reserve (roughly 2.78 minutes), the weather had gone from partly cloudy to completely ridiculous with gale force winds.  We ducked into the little café for our tea (or a “tall decaf cappuccino” in my case.  Also can anyone name that movie?) and scones.

After seeing that the weather was getting no better and much worse, we decided to go out for a little stroll in the park before the rain came in earnest.  We saw some lovely flowers…

And snapped a few family moments as well

Here is the view we saw as we drove away – gorgeous!

Just as we arrived home, the rain began to pour down, and it rained steadily for the rest of the evening.  There’s nothing quite like lying down and listening to the rain, especially when it’s a little chilly. *sigh*

Good thing we were all ready for our barbeque! FYI barbeques, both the event and the object are called Brai here.  Odd.  And equally as odd is that everyone here has one… inside.  Yep.  Just like a living room, family room, or kitchen, homes here have a “brai room.”  Rain? Wind? Pitch black outside?  No problem.  I think these South Africans are on to something here. We threw a few shrimp steaks on the barbie brai, and one of our hosts made some cheese and onion toasted sandwiches with some kind of chutney (don’t knock it ‘till you try it!). So we all settled down to our BBQ dinner as the rain and wind howled away. 

There was even a bit of sticky toffee pudding for dessert!

The resulting food coma sent me over the edge and straight to bed!  Tune in tomorrow to hear about how we drove into a cloud, visited “little France,” and how I had the best crème brulee (and worst heartburn – thanks baby boy!), of my life.  Good night for now!