Nick is at a deacons meeting tonight, he left home at 5:15. Today was his day off, and he did some more work in the garden, tearing out dead bushes and clearing a spot to be filled in and paved or grassed. Wish I could send some photos! I went to the shops this morning as I discovered we had no flour, so I couldn’t make macaroni or many other easy dishes. Also needed bread as we were caught short yesterday with no bread or flour in the house. All shops are closed on Sundays, and Saturday and Wednesday afternoons. Why Wednesday afternoons I couldn’t tell you, but that’s the way it is. Apparently it used to be like that in the UK too, but has changed.
Started preparation today for painting in my craft room - moved furniture out, sanded walls in some rough spots, wiped the walls with a cloth, put some masking tape in necessary areas. Still need to apply filler in some spots, but that will be quick. It’s quite a big room though and the ceilings are high, so it’s going to take a long time.
I started getting prices today as well of all our necessary monthly groceries. So far I have got most of the prices from Spar, and will continue with Thorpes another time. From the few prices I got from Thorpes though, it is quite a lot cheaper than Spar. It’s very interesting doing these comparisons. I also have my old Pick’n’Pay prices on the grocery list, and have put in a formula to convert it to pounds (more or less, I’m using R12 to 1 pound) so I can see how prices compare to SA. It also gives me a good indication of what I used to buy that I can’t get here. So far I’m not lacking any major necessities, but it’s unfortunate that bulk packaged goods are not easily available, eg Pronutro and other cereals, flour etc. You have to buy smaller boxes which tend to be more expensive.
Yesterday afternoon I was getting sick of the weather and being at home, so we all went for a drive down to the waterfront/wharf. I don’t know which term is best to describe it – basically where sea meets land. It was nice, as soon as we were a bit beyond our mountains we could actually see the sun. Although it probably only sets after 6 pm, it is fully shaded in our house by about 4.30 or 5.00 because of the mountains. Was good to see the sun. We walked along the seafront a bit and found a spot where we could sit right close to the water. There were a whole bunch of fishes floating around, they looked dead but weren’t. We suspect there is a sewerage outlet there, it looked like there were bits of toilet paper floating in the water and the fish were very happy indeed to be there. There were some funny long fish which looked like eels but had pointed snouts, grey in colour and about 40 cm in length. Most peculiar. Also saw lots of crabs again, this time some big red ones as well. Came across a superb rock pool where the water came in and went out constantly, so the height in the pool changed by about 2 m every 20 seconds. Very powerful pull of the tide. Sea living can have its bonuses – we get to see all kinds of interesting stuff. By the time that little outing ended, it was almost 6 pm so we had to go home, made some scrambled eggs and beans for supper (very meager!), then we all got ready for church. We bathed the boys before supper (wow, this is really minute detail, what a lot of ramble) so it was easy just to brush their teeth and then take them along to church. Nick decided that they should get into the habit of sitting through a service, instead of going to bed at their usual hour. Well, it really wasn’t too bad! I sat right at the back, and took along plenty of books. The boys did fidget quite a lot and moved around and whispered and generally were a distraction to me, but I got the message anyway. The church was quite empty, only about 20 people including the four of us!!
Tonight I am going to tackle the butternut soup, since I am home alone. It’s not at all scary being here on my own, even though the house is so big. It’s very safe here. Apparently the crime is so low not because the people are nice, but because they fear the social stigma if they are caught doing anything criminal. Also, in such a small community, it would be difficult to get away with crime. Crime is generated because of alcohol, so I think is more localized around the drinking places.
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