Good morning South Africa

And the journey has begun...Damon and I flew together on the first flight to London, only to realize that we are actually on different flights to SA, which ended up working perfectly since we took off and landed at the same time, and may I add, ON TIME, despite our 1 hour delay at London Heathrow. Damon flew with Virgin Atlantic.... My brother "G" asked on the phone "So Damon is a Virgin eh?" Ha. Yes, I had to go there.

We ended up meeting Fiona in the afternoon but prior to that we braved it in the -5 weather with snow on the ground to do some sight-seeing. Before we even got on the express train to London we already dreaded spending 32 pounds for a round trip ticket and it hadn't even gotten us anywhere. I was freezing, jet lagged and for some reason we didn't have any place that we could chill out until we met Fiona. Thank you Starbucks for providing us with warm air and hot chocolate. We ended up going to a pub - surprise, surprise - and I had the old traditional pie and mash meal. Delicious! I used what must of been a bathroom stall for a hobbit, because I could barely fit my body in the stall, let alone sit on the toilet seat without having the garbage can stick half way up my backside. Everywhere we bought coffee, or food, the server was NOT English... and for some reason I could barely understand what they were saying - I forgot how many foreigners live in London. Thankfully we both made it back safely to the Aiport where I could unfreeze myself and meet up with Phil and his folks at the gate for our next journey. The flight was EMPTY and I had 4 seats to myself that I slept in for about 9 out of 11 hours. We were on an ancient SA flight where we had the old school TV's coming down from the roof instead of the brand new top class personal touch-screen TV's. I didn't mind since Phil and I chilled for a bit and most of the people on the flight were Afrikaans, including the flight staff who were absolutely hilarious and for some reason played jokes on Phil all night. "Sir you don't look good, you have a fever...put this under your armpit and keep it there".

From the sky SA looked super dry, but we've had rain in the last two mornings. My brother Reinhardt picked us up from the airport and took us to say hi to Mama Bear at work as we proceeded to pick up booze right after. We were barely in the car for about 10 minutes when we were already bombarded by child beggers at the first traffic light. I love you South Africa. Rein forgot his car keys in the freezer in the liquor store so we were very close to being stranded outside of the mall. Ha. We took a drive through Durbanville to give Damon an idea about where we live in relation to Table Mountain and said hi to big Brother G at his office. He looks good. In the spur of the moment we drove to Blouberg beach and got a perfect few of the cloudy mountain, walked on the white sand, and drank a milk shake at the Blue Peter Hotel right on the beach front. Thanks Reinhardt.

Mama Bear cooked up home-made lasagne which she thought was too soggy but DELICIOUS, and we had dinner outside by the pool with G and his Fiance Helanie, Damon, Mama Bear and myself. Reinhardt had to meet some friends at his flat but ended up coming home around 1 am because he had no pain killers in his flat and slept on the couch. I had the cat and dog sleeping with me at one point during the night. Nothing beats waking up to the sound of the doves, the neighbour's annoying dog plus an allergic reaction to both animals. Fun fact: Don't feed the dog feta cheese because he will clear the room with his farts.