West family

Table Mountain with it’s hat of clouds. The cloud flows like a stream down the gorges

Cape Point on a foggy morning – this taken way out on the tip of the peninsula

I usually format the photos too small to see much detail, but this time I couldn’t do it – these photos demand to be sized large. Unlike other photos on this blog – you can click on these two and get the larger photos. Try it.

Sirpa and I hiked out to the end of the peninsula this morning in dense fog, no wind and no people -  just fog. The fog and the lack of wind (not used to that here!) gave the whole area a magical mystical feeling. Nice. Many lizards and millions of sea birds and two seals. And a mouse.

Noticed this street name on way to the university.
Linköping is a miserably boring city in Sweden.

Probably the most beautifully located university in the world. On the mountain side overlooking the city below the old university is magnificent. It is small though. I was there trying to get inspired enough to write my application to the Ph.D program at Lund university. It would be fun to do some research. After walking around and drinking huge amounts of coffee I think I worked out a good idea for a research project. We’ll see in May if it is good enough.

Way out on Cape Point

Posing in the very strong winds on Chapmans drive

A week after our first visitors Karin, Kalle and their two kids left our next visitors arrived. Nathalie an old friend from waaaayy back and Omer her ex boyfriend from Israel. Omer is cool, though he constantly gives me a hard time because he is soon a Ph.D psychologist (me = just masters level) – on the other hand he is still stuck in Freudian therapy stuff and hasn’t yet realized that it is sooo passé. I guess that evens things out; he has academic volume and I have more of the quality…

Anyway we are enjoying great sunny weather – but horrible winds. As soon as you get out of the wind it is a very nice 25-30 C.  Nathalie who was so taken by the elephants at Addo Elephant Park keeps finding ways to somehow weave in facts about elephants into just about any conversation. While talking about music: “did you know that the African elephant’s ear is bigger than the Asian elephant..”

Idag var det gymnastik på schemat för Elsa. Alla barnen måste ha likadana gymnastikkläder, dvs vit pikéttröja och marinblå shorts. Det finns ingen möjlighet att byta om eller duscha så barnen har dessa kläder hela dagen.  Idag var det löpträning på schemat.

We planted a garden about 4-5 weeks ago; the paprika and the artichokes died; guess they didn’t like the steady Southeasterner wind. The basil and the tomatoes thrive in the dry heat. Picked a bunch of basil today and made a big batch of pesto. The cheese is made from one of the few good cheese producers in this country; though Sirpa bought the wrong kind. Oh well Pesto it shall become nonetheless!

The art on the walls of Olympia Café is made of scrap tiles and other small stones etc; they’ve done a great job. Sirpa fits in with the stylish decor; she about to order her favorite dish – something with goat’s cheese. I however cannot eat anything goat after spending too many summer days with the kids at Fredriksdals trädgårdsmuseum and their stinky goats.

Yesterday a man was attacked by a shark in Fish Hoek beach which is really close to where we live. They are still looking for the guy who was a tourist. People who saw the shark said that it was as big as a dinosaur. It was only two meters deep where he got attacked. Many beaches in False Bay are closed today. The shark spotters in False Bay have spotted up to 16 sharks in one day. No more snorkeling for me…..

Blenda, Isaac and Elsa in a pool

Today was a special day for the wine nerd in me. I got to visit my favorite winery in South Africa: Cape Point Vineyards. They are the southernmost winery in the country and the grapes are grown where they probably shouldn’t survive on the windy cape peninsula.  Duncan Savage the surfer wine maker spent the morning with us; we rode in the back of his pickup straight up the mountain, tasted all the wines in their new tasting room and then he took us to the winery. The winery itself is situated on an old mine and the facility was an authentic “not open for wine tours” kind of place.  Duncan climbed over the wine barrels and took some samples of wine to be released next year; for this he used the must have glass utensil called a wine thief to steal samples from the barrels. Their Sauvignon Blanc is great, but the Semillon and the flagship blend Isliedh is awesome. The 2009 vintages is supposedly going to be even better! Here is the wine at systembolaget.

This cloud likes to hover above the mountain by Kalk Bay. Simple and beautiful.

We went on a little tour of the rural S.Africa with our guests the Thorslunds. The Robertson Wine Route and the beautiful mountain desert town of Montagu. I captured the kids on a bench outside one of the guest houses waiting for us to leave. They both love to read. And they have even started reading English.

My next book will be about chronic headaches and migraines. For a decidedly non-scientific take on head aches I interviewed the natural healer pictured here. He has learned about traditional medicine from the black healers. He told me that headaches and pain were caused by people feeling too important. And that the best cure are some drops of extract from the humility plant. This bush grows around here on the peninsula and he makes the extract himself. I bought a small bottle of those drop. He also recommended Sceletium Tortuosum. I also bought a small bottle of that. I wasn’t feeling any pain so I opted for the Sceletium extract. <Users also report increased personal insight, interpersonal ease and a meditative, grounded feeling without any perceptual dulling. Having such properties Sceletium is classified as an empathogen type herb. Others have noted enhanced tactile and sexual response, as well as vivid dream inducing properties.>

Sirpa and i met the healer again the next day at an organic market; Sirpa bought a shoulder massage from one of his assistants. The healer after a quick diagnosis told her that Sirpa she had a dragon in her back blocking the flow of energies. It was apparently not your typical European dragon  – he was certain that it was the more exotic and precarious asian dragon.