Rusty has decided to buy a car so I'm not stuck at home when he has the company car. He's hoping to find a tiny one for under $10k that we will be able to sell before we leave. If Miranda's preschool wasn't a 30 minute hike, it wouldn't be a big deal. But I've been told the rainy season will start in September. I have met a couple of my neighbors. The family right next door moved into the estate a few months ago and have a son who is 3, and a daughter who is a week younger than Jackson. They have lived here their whole life, so they will be a great resource of which local activities to do. They also have two giant dogs that I want to play with. The other neighbor lives just down the street and has two boys, one looks to be around one, the other is in Miranda's preschool class. She has helped me get her to school on the days I'm without a vehicle. They also have a dog, a tiny little dachshund puppy, that I can't wait to cuddle. We saw a 9-month-old black standard poodle at the park yesterday. She wasn't as friendly as Crissy. I miss my dogs.
We have to go to the store a lot because you can only buy milk in 2 liter size which is about 1/2 gallon, and it expires quickly so you can't stock up. Although there is something called 'long life' milk that you can put in the back of your pantry and it will be fresh for about 6 months or so. Once opened, you have to refrigerate it and use within a few days. But it's nice to have in case you run out and can't make it to the store. The loaves of bread are really small, about half the size of a loaf of Iron Kids. They also get moldy quickly but I manage to go through 2 loaves before they go bad. They're also really crumbly, I keep trying different kinds but it doesn't seem to matter. I have a couple loaves in the freezer just in case. That is one thing that I really don't like here: you can't go shopping in the evening. You cannot run errands after work because all the stores are closed. The weekends are bad too because the stores close super early. Car dealerships are the worst because they close around 1pm on Saturdays, and they aren't open on Sundays. I don't know when people buy stuff here. I have yet to do my grocery shopping online, but it will be happening very soon.
Our trash pickup company is called "Piki Tup". Get it? They're very literal here when naming stores/companies. I found a new chiropractor here in the estate that I can actually walk to if I need to. Her sessions cost the same as my chiropractor at home, but instead of just coming in for an adjustment and being worked on for about 5 minutes, she spends an entire hour on me. It's amazing. I'm finding that you can pretty much hire people to do anything for you. There are dog-washing compaines who will come to your house with a truck and will wash/groom your dogs right there in your driveway.
I have been to my gym a couple of times now, but I'm not impressed - yet. The registration process has been quite a headache, but I think I finally have all the paperwork complete. I took what was supposed to be a hip-hop aerobics type class, but it was very elementary compared to Jazzercise. As I was doing my initial orientation today, I was told I have a very nice accent. Not used to being the one with the acccent, I notice I turn heads when I'm out in public, just like I would turn around to see who was speaking in a foreign accent if I were at home. I'm anxious to use the pool, I bought everything I need this weekend, including a nice Speedo costume. Yes, a swimsuit is called a costume. So what do they call a Halloween-type costume? A costume.
The gas strike is still going on, but we have managed to fill up the car. Right now the fuel price is R9.76/litre. After converting that to gallons and figuring out rand to dollar, that comes to about $5.36/gallon. The price of fuel is the same at every petrol station, you can't run around town looking for somewhere that has it 3 cents cheaper. The price is set by the government. The driving age here is 17, but that's only for a permit, you can't get a full license until 18. When you first get a license, you have to drive with a big red 'L' on the back window of your car for a year.
I joined a knitting group called "Hip to be Square". We are part of the 'Knit-a-Square' charity that knits/crochets squares for South African orphans and child AIDS victims. The squares are sent down the road to another group who sews them together to make blankets. The more skilled knitters will make hats or edging on fleece blankets. I have made a nice start on my first square and hope to have it completed before our August meeting.
Miranda still likes preschool, but gets sad when the bigger kids won't let her play with them in the sandbox. There is one group of kids that are older than her, but they will 'graduate' in November and then Miranda will be in the oldest class. But she likes her teacher and the other kids in her class. She got to go to a princess-themed birthday party on Saturday with other kids of Rusty's co-workers. She dressed as Snow White, and the 'real' Snow White was there, as well as Cinderella. She has been talking about it constantly and planning her own birthday party that won't happen until March. Jackson started taking his first few steps last week, but he still prefers to crawl because it is much faster. He is still suffering from a cold, and today he has a fever. He was checked out at the doctor on Saturday, and they think he might be teething again. He was supposed to get his measles vaccine, but now we're going to wait until he's healthy.
The weather has been very nice lately, I've only had to wear 1-2 layers of long sleeved shirts instead of 3, and I actually wore short sleeves one day last week. Today it is very windy and cloudy, it might actualy rain. It has only rained once since we've been here. There is a lof of field burning and it creates a yucky yellow haze that I think may be causing my asthma to act up. The rain would sure be helpful right about now!
I've been baking a lot of different breads lately because Jackson likes them so much, and the oven warms up my kitchen. So far I've done banana, apple, butternut, lemon, and banana/orange. I also baked some cookies using the chocolate chips I found at a baking store and the Nestle recipe. They turned out perfect. And since I can't find brown sugar, I used treacle sugar, and it worked out just fine! The No-Bake cookies were good too. My next goal is to find a good vanilla cake recipe.
We had the milk you described in Iraq. The expiration was super-long, and it was stored outside. It tasted almost like normal milk (after a few days of it). Guam had milk that was ulteapasturized so it lasted over a month (I think it was almost 2 months).
ReplyDelete- Charles