How The Other Half Lives

[an account of the weekend of the 1st /2nd May]




This weekend both Liz and Lisa were away and were kind enough to let us house sit :) We arrived on Friday to a note from Lisa outlining the house rules and reminding us not to lose the key, something that Sam and I have a bit of a reputation for around Zithulele...



Friday night we had a quiet night in, enjoying the novelty of an oven that doesn't take a century to heat up and watching Army Wives, a series that Lisa has been trying to get us to watch for ages. It's pretty addictive and we ended up watching three episodes in a row. The basic idea is Desperate Housewives with soldiers and what it's like when your other half is away fighting a war – makes some very decent points, but also made me nostalgic for the good old days at cadets :( Either way, if it's ever on in the UK, it's definitely worth a look.



On Saturday I got up very early for an Mthatha road trip with Anita and Etienne who had got up at the crack of dawn to make homemade burgers for the journey :D After the 1.5 hour drive down the world's greatest [sorry, I actually mean WORST EVER] road we arrived at Spar which was to be our only stop in order to avoid Mthatha syndrome, where you end up spending the entire day there no matter how many things you actually want to buy.



The shopping was actually quite successful until we got to the check out and there was a power cut. Luckily, Anita and Etienne had got their receipt so bailed out of there as fast as possible. After some extremely inept technical assistants came in to look at the tills, used the tried and tested 'switch-it-off-turn-it-on-hope-for-the-best' technique, hammered the enter key about 1 zillion times, looked confused then ran away, the tills magically started working again. However, something strange had happened with Anita and Etienne's bill so the cashier had a mild aneurysm and decided that the R3000 bill was mine. I tried to explain to her that my basket of flour, yogurt, cocoa, bread and apples couldn't possibly come to that amount and after a lot of conversation [you know, the kind where you aren't actually talking about the same thing] they decided as long as I put my phone number on the back of Anita's till reciept, I could pay for my own food then go. There was some fumbling about with my credit card, more repeated pressing of the enter key, but finally they decided I had paid and I got out of there. And that's why no one likes shopping in Mthatha.



I opened the post box on the way home, good times. Contents of this week's bundle:

1.A letter from Mum detailing Dad's birthday at Carrick

2.A letter from Grannie detailing Dad's birthday at Carrick [I'm really not missing any news!]

3.A postcard of Gatehouse of Fleet, must have been here too long as it looks idyllic

4.A letter from Hannah with a minute by minute account of her watching RENT :D

Did I mention that I love getting post? There should be a big bundle of replies making its way to Scotland at the moment :D



At the house, we sat on the sofa [a real sofa! :D] and watched House and Army Wives for a few hours, then I made some biscuits [and managed to chargrill them]. I went out for a run for the first time in ages – I'd forgotten how much better it makes you feel. You couldn't ask for a more stunning place to run than here, especially with yet another spectacular South African sunset taking place as you come back in towards Zithulele :D



The other major news on Saturday was that the student rondavel [the one next door to us where medical elective students stay] was broken into. A man climbed in through a tiny window, stole 2 phones, a camera, cash and, rather bizarrely, underwear, a vest and my shorts from the washing line. Luckily he wasn't armed but it was still highly traumatic for the two students currently staying there! There's been quite a lot of crime targeted at the local white population lately[they've successfully stolen a car, a motorbike, a trailer and tried two more cars] which is a bit disheartening since everyone here is trying to benefit the community.



On Sunday we watched House all morning – I think that programme is starting to take the mickey, I mean, seriously, every episode follows the same format: patient comes in, House takes one look, prescribes treatment, treatment is wrong, the team chat, they pick the first diagnosis someone thinks of, House prescribes treatment, repeat, House tries to kill himself, has an epiphany and they solve the case with some paracetamol or a drink of water. Mind you, I still manage to find it very entertaining...



I went for another run and had a profound encounter with a local boy while I was sitting on a rock resting:

Me: Molo bhuti [Hello]

Boy: Give me a bicycle.

Me: Huh? You want a bicycle?

Boy: You give me the bicycle now.

Me: *looks around for bicycle* I don't have a bicycle, I'm out running.

Boy: Oh, give me a muffin.

Me: I don't have a muffin! I'm running! *makes a show of emptying pockets*
Boy: I want muffin.

Me: *withering look*

Boy: *thinks of something else he wants* Give me fkasfhadhfkfh [random Xhosa word I take to mean my sunglasses]

Me: *runs off in opposite direction*

Talk about taking begging to the next level!



Dinner was a very civilised affair – Sam and I made our homemade pizza with any random toppings we could lay our hands on. I think I ended up with cheese, tomato, onion, pepper, garlic and butternut, a pretty tasty combination. We also made our own garlic bread but managed to burn the bottom so it was a bit coal like, a minor fail. We sat at Liz and Lisa's nice kitchen table and had candles and wine – makes such a difference to live in a proper house! We watched Army Wives until quite late then went to bed.

Sam and I reaching untold heights of civilisation

Thank you Lisa and Liz for letting us stay x