Surprises

Hey everyone, I am so sorry I haven’t updated in over a week. I’ve just been very busy and I’ve had some surprises…

Last Wednesday was Valentine’s Day. It’s quite a big deal here, as you can send roses to different schools as well as Herschel. I was surprised to get a rose myself. I really hadn’t expected it. It came from Ashleigh and Kyle. Too bad Kyle spelled my name wrong though (the rose came from Bishop’s, not Herschel, so he probably wrote the card)… I felt a bit bad about not sending either of them a rose…

We had Lifesaving again on Thursday. This time we learned CPR… It’s really odd to be performing CPR on air. Especially if you’re doing it on your own while the trainers are watching your every move… When this part of the lesson was finished, we had only twenty minutes left, so we didn’t do the full (exhausting) water-routine. We did swim under water a lot. The pool measures 25 by 31 metres. The shallow part of the pool (along the 31 metre side) is separated from the rest of the pool by a lane rope. There is quite a strong current there, and we were told to swim as far as possible under water against the current… I decided I’d go last. Everyone only made it halfway. I made it to the end! I was very proud of myself. J

After Lifesaving I had one of the greatest surprises ever; my mum came to pick me up. At first I just said “Hi mum,” before I realised something wasn’t quite right. The next moment I stood there gaping at her with my mouth wide open. I remember thinking something along the lines of: “Why is my mouth hanging open, and WHY can’t I frikking close it???” It is the weirdest thing. Before that moment I always thought I’d never actually stand gaping at something with my mouth wide open… Apparently my face was very funny.

Turns out that they’d arrived the night before and that practically everyone knew they’d been coming. Even quite a number of the girls at school knew! Cally had even asked me earlier that day if my parents weren’t coming. I just brushed it off as her confusing me with Kirsten…

Anyway, I skipped school the next day (Founders’ Day, apparently I didn’t really miss much) and went to the craft market at the waterfront with mum, Jan (my step dad) and oma Wien (Jan’s mum)(they were here as well). After that we went on a helicopter (!) flight along the cost of Cape Town. It was really cool! We had lunch at the Radisson (fancy hotel). The Radisson had this metal thing hanging on the wall with the names engraved in it of all famous people who had spent some time there. There were really famous stars between there, and also Ajax Amsterdam… (There’s an Ajax in Cape Town as well. It’s independent from the Dutch Ajax, but is wás founded by it. They also swap players, or something like that.)

That evening I had something special for dinner. We went to a restaurant, where I decided to try the “Bushman’s Kebab.” It was a combination of Springbok, Kudu, Ostrich and Crocodile (!) meat. Ostrich isn’t really special, you can get it practically anywhere (nice in combination with Kangaroo in a mango sauce), but Crocodile… Crocodile meat is really weird, it tastes a bit similar to chicken, but the texture (I wonder if that’s the right word) is so strange… I wouldn’t order it again, but it’s really cool to be able to say that I’ve eaten Crocodile J

Saturday we drove to Cape Point. Cape Point is the most southern point of the Cape Peninsula. Slightly to the west is the Cape of Good Hope. We didn’t actually go there, but from Cape Point you can easily see the Cape of Good Hope. Anyway, the view is absolutely fabulous there! Cape Point is generally regarded as the most southern tip of Africa, and the point where the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meet, but it isn’t. That point is some kilometres to the east.

We went to Moyo on Sunday, together with Ash, Gail, Gavin, Kyle, Nicola (Kyle’s mum), Cyndi and Glenn (friends of the Comminses). Moyo is a restaurant next to the cheetah farm I went to earlier. There is a large buffet with African dishes, and there’s African music and people doing African dances and stuff like that. At one point this lady came to our table, to paint something on our faces. It was really nice there and the food was good.

After Moyo, mum, Jan and oma Wien were off to Hermanus (a holiday place a bit to the east). They stayed there until Wednesday. Wednesday they picked me up from school to go to the top of Table Mountain. The view as we went up with the cable car was absolutely fantastic, but as we got up we couldn’t see much anymore. The Tablecloth was hanging over the mountain, so all we could see was white. Everywhere. We had fun though.

Their plane left that evening. Or it was supposed to. There were some problems, so it didn’t leave. Then it also turns out there were no spare hotel rooms anywhere, so they slept at the airport… They probably could have spent the night here, but we only heard about it yesterday. Yesterday evening they did go home.

Yesterday Lifesaving was really nice. The trainers weren’t there, so we just spent an hour playing in the pool. Katherine got some of those weird floaty-thingies that look like body boards, but are actually smaller. I think they’re used to teach younger children how to swim.

Anyway, we used those thingies to sit/crouch/stand on and hold matches who could sit/crouch/stand on them the longest. They’re were no winners, because it’s just so easy. There were losers, though… But after one or two fell off, the rest wouldn’t anymore…

Today I’m missing school again. We’re going to Hermanus. We means Gail, Gavin, Kirsten and me. Ashleigh left this morning on water polo tour to - I think - Singapore. Somewhere east at least. Katherine and her parents are coming later, after school. Today we’re just going to relax, but tomorrow we’re going waterskiing. And then I come back with the Thompsons that evening to go to a house party. My last weekend here sounds good, hey?

So that’s it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.


Love,

Nienke