Farm Fun with a Durban Excursion

Friday finally came and i said Sinara! to good ole Joburg! Kate picked me up and we headed off to fetch Ed from work and hit the road. We were just driving along when this odd looking building popped into view so we made a quick exit to check it out.... yup those are emus made out of metal and those are tire chairs not to mention the chickens pecking around while inside it sold jams and jellies, random souvenirs and also had a butchery. The first 200 kilometers were flat and lets just say...borrrring. But don't worry we had Shakira to keep us in the proper south African spirit. And then the landscape started to change... we arrived a little later than amy had anticipated..haha but we made it!! Met amy's mom and dad and made homemade pizza from scratch - bekah you will be proud. We left after dinner to check out the local hangout with AMy's brother and his mates, then came back and crashed. Day 2:

We got up in the morning had coffee and headed off for breakfast at the farmer's market and met Amy's old hockey coach. We got a tour of howick which of course includes Howick Falls. there were some crazy boys trying to rock climb up the rock face....

they maaaaaay be there all day. We continued on to see the area of a thousand hills with little lookout areas here and there... Kate reenacted some bollywood for us haha. Then made a few more stops and kept on until Durban which was about an hour away. Durban....hmmm. Let's say this place is Africa with Indian flare. There is this whooole HUGE indian market with all things indian and i made lots of friends!!

they were mostly from south india which was still fun to chat about.

There was an endless supply of interesting items to see and buy and well try on of course!

Amz - i found our new profile pic...handsdown.

After the market we headed to the beach for our picnic lunch and here's the urban scene from the beach - to the far right is the durban stadium where all the world cup matches were played here..then we challenged some kids to a soccer match - we lost 2 -nil.
THEN we walked about and took pictures and relaxed before heading off to catch a movie. This was also the Durban International Film Festival weekend so we went to see "A woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" ---- ummm liked it a lot! so funny!
See the Trailer with reviews

after the movie we grabbed dinner - A famous Durban meal - Bunny chow. Its an indian curry inside a bread loaf. you can get chicken or mutton curry and order a quarter/half/or full loaf of bread for it to come in. We headed back to the farm.

In the morning we got a tour of the farm which was breathtaking! We came back and had breakfast then tried out our riding skills....

for the record english saddles are trickier than western saddles. Just sayin. =)
We then went on the Midlands Meander and checked out a lot of fun little shops and then said goodbye to amz and headed off into the sunset back to Joburg.

world cup fever - lots of photos for ya

I would like to thank my dear friend Tally for working her magic and for Visa for being a lovely FIFA sponsor..... so thank you for allowing me to be apart of the crazy world cup fever that has literally taken over every street corner...THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Game 2: USA vs Slovenia (yup that's the one where we were robbed of that goal...you know)

Me and Tally at the Spain/chile game
famous people come to these types of events...

ya never know who tries to hand out a yellow card... Lauren, our waitor, tally, and me with a bunch of fun visa peeps watching the england game at Melrose Arch after the USA game.

GAME 3: Brazil vs Coite d ivoire it was at soccer city - amazing...

sorry hayley has those photos... went with her fam. =)

GAME 4: spain vs Chile

Ames came up from the boonies (love you!) and we went with the visa gals.

(who luckily got to go to the USA game on wednesday

and ended up partying it up with the USA team and their families!! lucky!!) anyways we met up with the girls at their hotel and rode in the sponsor cars to the stadium with parking permits. (bless you for not doing park n rides!)

Me and Ames at the game, VERY thrilled and thankful for our visa friends and surprised us with new tickets which included a suite and all the perks that go with it!! This is richard, our new friend - Ames taught him how to play the vuvuzela.
Chile fans were by far the most excited

more random excited fans The official world cup song - i hear this 20 times a day!!!

RUGBY!!

Finally a nice day that wasn't cold! Amy and Nick picked me up and Amy presented me with a fabulous welcome gift (see picture). My first go at making the proper sound wasn't too bad!! Then we headed to their favorite pizza spot to have lunch with Nick's sister, brother, and cousin. It was so fun! We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful day.

Afterwards we headed to the Keg and I met more new people to watch Rugby.

(this was serious stuff friends)
South Africa (that would be the Springboks - you're welcome Doug) vs Wales.
It was intense - green springboks jerseys everywhere, the seating was outdoors with tables and chairs smooshed together while flags for the world cup waved from the ceiling. About 5 large tvs blared the game. With every mistake a wave of groans would ripple through the room and with every score, arms and bodies shot through the air with shouts of approval. i loved it!

photo credit

Amy and Nick taught me the rules and the jargon i needed to know:
Springboks: south african team - the only one to cheer for. :)
Backs: the seven player line behind the Pack (8 forwards)
Conversion: 2pt kick from where the try was started

scrum: when two sets of forwards lock together to restart a play
try: when a player puts the ball down over an opponents goal line (5 points)
maul: players from each team around the ball off the ground
ruck: players from each team around the ball on the ground
only pass backwards and kick forwards.
ok that's all that i remember. =) and that south africa won 34-32

As we left, the sun had set and the clouds were the most brilliant pallette of deep oranges and pinks i've ever seen. It was absolutely incredible.
Afterwards we wandered around the nelson mandela square and went shopping. I finally got a phone to call locally. I was told it was going to be quite an ordeal but it was super easy.
thanks friends for a great day!