November 3rd,

Yesterday and today were just laid back, take it easy days!!! We went to couple local grocery stores; but did not really get out for much else. Both days were cloudy and windy so not really a beach scene. Also both yesterday and today we made all our own meals. (We did this some on Reunion, but this will be more standard for the next month, here.)

I find it fascinating to watch people out and about. Today due to the wind there were quite a few surfers, one wind-surfer, several kite surfers (yesterday was just surfers). People were out at 07-0730 surfing, then doing a rinse off and changing, getting a coffee, and loading up to go to work or start their day. Pretty wild.

Now we have also experienced “load-shedding”, which is, as I understand it, basically sharing electricity. South Africa does not have enough power generation since apartide. So the country has made zones and each zone is cut off some – in like two hour blocks, scheduled randomly throughout the day, this enables everyone to have power most of the time. It's more complicated than this, but that is the jist. There are a couple of apps – of course – to help the South African people, and anyone visiting – like us, through this. It is really bizarre and weird!

We really like our twelfth story apartment. One definite downer, though, is when the elevators are not working – yesterday after load-shedding they did not work proper for couple hours afterward. That is a HIKE! But our apartment is all windows on the west side with a balcony that can be accessed from our front room or bedroom. Also it is clean and up-to-date. Kitchen is mostly stocked. We enjoy it, quite a bit.

Last night we watched, on Netflix, a Tom Hanks movie (A Man Called Otto) and tonight we rewatched Toby Maguire in Spiderman. The TV/apartment comes with Netflix. It was nice – we actually had popcorn with tonight's star feature!

Anyway, hope to get out tomorrow. Don't want to get stir crazy!!