Thursday, March 19, 2009

cozy home

It's about time I introduce you to my new home in South Africa. Jason is working on a project in the Umzimkulu settlement so our home base is Ixopo at least for a few more months - it's in the KZN Province where there is TONS of rain and things to do on the weekends - a bit different from the dry somewhat dull life in Limpopo . We live on Shamrock Farm - Nick, the guy who lives here is setting up a camp for troubled youth so there is a lot of property that we are able to explore. He has a granny flat that we live in, which has 2 bedrooms, is furnished and for the most part is quite comfortable. When I first got here it rained non stop - for every 3 or 4 days of rain (and I mean constant rain), there was maybe a day or a few hours of sun. It was a bit isolating and after a few days of being stuck inside, I would start to go a bit stir crazy. But it seems that the massive rains have abated and now we have at least even number of sunny days to rainy ones.

This is Jason's office/the spare room/camping gear storage/place where I have all of my extra stuff that doesn't fit into a bookshelf or a dresser drawer. I don’t spend much time in here but Jason does.
Our living room that is my base of operations during the days. I usually spend many hours glued to my computer doing various things. Or I read on the couch. Or I work on crossword puzzles. What I wouldn't give for some Law & Order or CSI reruns!
As you can probably see, the only thing that is wrong with this little kitchen is the lack of counter space. We LOVE cooking and so preparing the meals is mostly a dance around each other and fighting over who gets the surface for chopping vegetables.

This is Sheena, she's usually outside when we open the door. She's a slut for love and barely let's us get our shoes on before a jog - she jumps and licks and gets terribly jealous if you give Tango any love at all.
And Tango - he's a ridgeback, hence the weird fur ridge on his back.


And the other rooms explain themselves. The truck though, is special - a 1970's Landcruiser. This is the beast that Jason drives for work and currently, until we buy another car, what we use to get out and about on weekends. She doesn't go above 110 km/h so we generally are never in a hurry, which is nice. He likes that it has a wench and has even had to use twice to get himself unstuck. Good times.