Wednesday

Maxine - one of Mike's clients from the UK arrived yesterday. In the evening we went to Woolworths (M&S) and picked up a picnic, which we took up to Signal Hill to watch the sunset. We then went to the Waterfront for coffee.
Maxine is viewing lots of properties whilst she is here for her holiday homes business, the company she is working with are putting her up at the moment in an amazing house in Higgovale - just below the mountain. It is a 5 bedroom, sort of colonial style house, but very very nice. It sleeps 8 (max) and works out about only £80/90 per person per night, which is quite an average price in Cape Town at the moment.

We are meeting Maxine and her friend Barbara tonight, then they move to Camps Bay for the weekend, where we will probably head and show them the sites of Cape Town, and relax around their pool. Let's hope the weather is nice.

Florida

Wednesday up at 5 - holiday starts here! Arrived at Dallas Fort Worth airport at 2.15 pm local time. Through immigration, luggage pick-up and customs control in record time. Walked short distance and just handed trolley with luggage to airport personnel. So easy - no queues. Took Sky Train to our Tampa departure terminal. Pensioners in stetsons all along way to help passengers find their exit gates. Enjoyed ice cold medium sized Bud Lights at Chilli Too restaurant. (That's a Texan medium size - thank goodness we did not order a large!) Left at 5.10 pm for our 3 hour flight to Tampa where we caught up with Rose at the luggage carousel. Over an hours drive to Rose's condo. Lovely - 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, lounge/diner, large kitchen and balcony overlooking 2nd hole on the golf course. Only realised the great location in daylight.
Thursday morning off to Siesta Key beach. Cool breeze off the Gulf of Mexico made it too chilly to swim but glorious for sunbathing and walking. Back at the condo, Ed took a nap whilst Rose and I sat on the balcony enjoying champagne. Braaied a huge piece of steak which we enjoyed with a salad.
Friday morning Rose made sandwiches and put some bottles of water in a cooler then off to the aquarium on an offshore island. After, we sat at a bait shop, drinking beer and eating clams, shrimp and chips. Loads of pelicans diving for fish just a few feet from us. Rose & Ed dropped me off at a shopping mall for a couple of hours on way back from beach. Bought some bits and had a pedicure & manicure in a Vietnamese beauty parlour. Back at the condo Rose and I went for a dip in the pool whilst Ed enjoyed a siesta. Then went to a little pub on a waterway to watch the sunset.
Saturday I went down for a swim at 7.30 as no one else was up and about. The water is as warm as a bath! Rose went grocery shopping for an hour whilst I went to Michael's for scrapbooking items on sale and Ed went to the bookshop. When we got back, Ed took the car to go watch drag racing and Rose and I cycled to the mall. More shopping but limited by the fact that it had to fit in a backpack! Rose's niece Laurie and her partner Tom came over for dinner - Roast salmon, cheesy mashed cauliflower, broccoli and roasted herb potatoes followed by the local specialty Key Lime Pie. Lovely evening loads of talking and laughing - helped probably by the fact that Rose and I had finished a bottle of champagne as black velvets!

Sunday at Casey Key

SUNDAY MORNING

Up at 8.30 to clean the balcony, to avoid the sun - although very very sunny already. I swept and Mike mopped and hosed. This was rewarded with an ice lolly that i made (cape fruit yogurt ice lollies which are lovely). Will also reward my self with a swim - well a dip and then sit on the step and read my book - which is nearly finished and I can not join the library until I get my passport back from the visa people.

NEW TABLES

Our new tables arrived yesterday.
We have 2 10 seater tables & benches (although 10 would be a squeeze), one is for outside as you can see from the photo. the other one is in the lounge area (this one does not have an umbrella hole).

SATURDAY

It's very misty here today, I can only see the buildings across the road, past that I can see nothing.
We are going to Century City in a bit which is a large shopping mall, outside of town. Mike needs to find a Virgin mobile shop, and I might see if they have a scrapbook shop.
We then need to go to fruit & veg city for our weekly shop, as cupboards are now officially bare. Yesterday we only had potatoes, so for dinner I made potato wedges which were very very nice. I just remembered I took a photo I will blog it next, along with our new tables.

Mike & Fred Working

The pool man came yippee, we can now use the pool.

Boxes

We looked after Mikael & Chrissie on Thursday evening while Fred & Yolande went to the Doctors (baby will now arrive a few weeks early, as she is growing fast). Mike made forts out of all our moving boxes. We all had great fun.

SURFERS & WHALES

Whilst having supper on our balcony, Mike spotted surfers down the road from us, so we took a walk to the sea.
While we were watching the surfers, in the background we saw a whale. It is very exciting having a whale in your back garden.

New Car

We bought our car a couple of weeks ago, but here is a picture as dad wanted to see.