Fellow Visitors

Having unpacked and settled in to our room -and flooded the bathroom trying to shower - we headed out to get some lunch. As we wandered the streets we noticed quite a few people with direction signs and welcome messages and even more in large groups - all with the similar badges on different coloured ribbons. Assumed they were a tour group and thought little more of it - except that there appeared to be hordes of them wherever we went.

All became clear on our second morning. when we learned that the city is hosting a worldwide convention of Jehovah's Witnesses and that there are more than 45,000 delegates - so much so that they have hired the Boca Junior's La Bombonera stadium for the gathering - must need a huge supply of The Watch Tower.

I'm sure Jimmy C will regret not being here!

Travelling

While our British Airways flight to Buenos Aires was free of delays and any technical problems, the cabin service was extremely poor.  They had reassigned our seats - and many others - so that they could close off one cabin and reduce the number of cabin crew. As a result, the remaining crew seemed unable to cope with providing their normal service - nothing close to the level of service on our recent Qatar flight sectors.

Linda found herself next to an expatriate Scot who had left Ibrox 40 years ago and worked in a winery in Mendoza. I think their conversation began with complaints about the cabin service but by the time we landed she had heard his life history.

Arriving 30 minutes ahead of schedule should have been a bonus but meant that we reached the immigration hall at the same time as all the other overnight european flights and spent 90 minutes queueing to get our passports stamped - at least the baggage was sitting on the carousel when we got through.

We're staying in San Telmo which is one of the older parts of the city in a boutique hotel where design appears to have won the battle with function. It all looks very smart but doesn't work as you might expect. Still, the staff are very friendly and helpful and it is in a great location. 

Post-Election Post!

While the battle of wills between BoJo and the wee sweetie wife may provide plenty of soundbites and press coverage, we've decided that we've heard enough during the election campaign. Did the decent thing and stayed around to vote but winter has arrived in Edinburgh and I'm sure the battle will continue for at least 4 or 5 years so we'll be able to catch up when we get back in January.

This year, in a change from our usual routine, we are setting out on an expedition to Antarctica where it will definitely be colder than Edinburgh. We're off to BA tomorrow - sunshine, lots of red meat and Malbec, and a bit of culture. Then at the end of the week we fly to Ushuaia and join an expedition ship for three weeks across the Southern Ocean. We're going to the Falklands, South Georgia, and South Shetland before crossing over to the Antarctic peninsula.

While Linda has settled on the hi-tec thermals and polar top layers, I've decided to follow the example of Scott and Shackleton - Oiled wool rollneck, sheepskin jacket and a large hip flash - I'm sure it'll be fine.

I'll definitely be writing the blog as we travel but I'm not sure how often there will be access to the WWW. The story may have to be published after the event but as usual........

Watch this space

What's my problem

Just noticed that Mississauga is expecting -14C this week so not really fair to complain that it's a little cool here. Hope Mr Page and family and our friends there are all keeping warm!!

Anyway, Ahmed - our Egyptian heating engineer - has promised to come on Sunday evening to try to sort a temporary repair.

While Jimmy C's suggestion that we find a local hostelry with a warm fire and spend the weekend there was attractive, we settled for a warm yoga studio for a workshop this morning and we're off to the Lyceum this evening for 'The Barbershop Chronicles'  which should continue our African connection - and hopefully be warm as well - and it's rumoured that they also have drink!

Home Sweet Home

Six weeks in our new holiday home at Pearl Valley seemed to pass by very quickly - It hardly seems a day or two since we were collecting the keys and dealing the bureaucracy which surround every SA transaction.

We had a great time, caught up with old friends, made a few new friends, did a bit of exercise, yoga, wine tasting and quite a lot of enjoying ourselves. 

However, as we packed up yesterday and headed back to Cape Town airport, we were both looking forward to getting back to the new Edinburgh home which we had only lived in for 3 weeks before we left for SA.

The journey was fairly routine - no hiccups - we even negotiated the 55min connection at Doha with very little stress. However the journey seemed to go on longer than the last time. We were greeted by freezing temperatures as we landed in  Edinburgh, and an Indian minicab driver who may have been finishing a 12 hour shift but still drove poorly and tried to access each of three different phones during the 20 minute trip. Despite all this - and the aftermath of 22 hrs travelling - we were both excited about being back in Gardner's Crescent.

Before we left we had decided to turn off everything while we were away and just in case of cold weather, we had even turned off the water at the stopcock. So as Linda commented on the great job Ali T had done looking after the plants, I turned the water back on and fired up the central heating boiler.

Before I had time to adjust the thermostat I could hear the sound of running water and then noticed the stream of water coming from the void above the boiler. Managed to shut off the supply again before the puddle became a lake and got on the phone to find an emergency plumber.

Call number three connected me to a real person rather than an answering machine and we were promised someone would be here within three hours. Unfortunately. this proved to be untrue and by the time I chased them again they had to admit that the man assigned the job had called in sick and nobody had thought to let me know.

Luckily we found another plumber who was with us an hour later, found the leak, replaced the pipe joint and took a bit of time to check that everything else was OK. As we waited for the boiler to start heating the flat, we heard the sound of water dripping again. This time the leak was coming from the boiler which had to be shut off and may require major surgery or perhaps replacement. Neither of which are possible at 4.00pm on a Friday afternoon.

So while we now have a fully functioning cold water system it is not much use when the outside temperature is heading back to freezing, and it looks like staying there for the weekend.

Despite all this it is good to be home 

Right time, right place

While I can sympathise with my English friends who rightly thought that this was their chance to win the World Cup for the second time, it has been tremendous to be here as South Africa won in such style.

 

The excitement and fervour which preceded the game has been matched by the joyful celebrations which followed the win.

We watched the game in a local restaurant with Sue, Ally, Cam and a crowd of our neighbours. Amazing atmosphere. 

Another birthday

As we sit on our deck surrounded by the remains of our Braai, listening to the toads in the lake, we can hear Ronan Keating singing up at the clubhouse - a charity event celebrating Gary Player's 84th Birthday.