We awoke early – a combination of jetlag and the fact we were in bed by 9pm – and decided a café breakfast was the order of the day. It was our first opportunity to see the house in the daylight. The lingering legacy of South Africa’s past and the vastness of the country itself is that if you have some money, you can own a very large sprawling home. Space doesn’t seem to be an issue and the area where we are staying has some massive specimens – may with manicured lawns. Our temporary abode, while still sprawling isn’t nearly as ostentatious as some that surround it. And best of all it is incredibly leafy, with palms and other greenery making the outdoor areas extremely inviting. And if you were five, it would be all your dreams come true, with a truly impressive multi-level tree house.
Looking out through the greenery at the big sky, you could be forgiven for thinking you hadn’t left Australia. Pretoria’s climate is more or less like Perth and may of the home that are peering through the trees could have been built in Perth’s more affluent burbs, except for the security and the honking of the minivan taxis that DFAT warns you not to get in. While South Africa looks on the surface like everything is functioning well, it utilities are not always up to the task and the pace of fixing things is slow. The internet is out this morning and the pool is still being fixed. And even power is not always the most reliable of commodities.
When we awoke the household was also moving. Probably partly due to the desire to be at home after dark for security reasons, and partly the climate, the day, including the school day, starts early in South Africa. Everyone is at school before 8 and finishes at 2pm. The work day finishes at 4pm. (Nights into Days – Frank Turner – I had heard good things about Frank Turner but what really got me listening to him was when he was on the bill for the Dropkick Murphys tour a couple of years ago. I bought a CD for the five hour car trip to Newcastle and by the end of the show I was hooked.)
We were aided in our planning for the day by Lizzie, our hosts’ housekeeper, who is so enamoured with the family dog, Zach, that she takes him for a walk every morning. This morning she took us on the walk as well so she could show us how to get to the local café. It was about 8:30 by the time we left and while the traffic was slow as you’d expect in the suburbs during a work day, it was a hive of activity, with gardeners, workmen out and newspaper sellers on the corner, complete with copies of GQ. But what I noticed most were the spectacular purple blooms of the jacaranda trees that line the streets.
After a 10-minute walk down the hill, we arrived at the small local shopping centre that housed a cluster of shops including a café. Predictably Dan got excited at the menu prices. About half the price (or less) of breakfast back home. I had scrambled eggs and salmon for about 80 rand (or $8) and a flat white/latte was $2.50. The latte came partially deconstructed so you could adjust the strength by adding the coffee to the frothed milk. African coffee is strong and bitter so not a bad thing (although I still stand opposed to the general principle of deconstructed hipster food (although on an absurd Dadaist level I have to admit I slightly admire it). The eggs and salmon were served on rye bread with an accompaniment of crème fraiche. Dan had eggs benny with bacon – one of our hosts had warned us they drowned the eggs in hollandaise and she wasn’t wrong. He also asked for a side of cheese grills – just to see what they were. It turns out they were mini kranskys so no worries there for Dan.
After brekkie, we headed to the supermarket to have a look around. One of my favourite things to do when I travel is to visit a supermarket to see what odd foods we can find. The oddities in the Pretoria supermarket included cow’s hooves, lots of different kinds of brai salts and spices, a really large selection of mayo, rusks, a counter of various dried meats and jelly babies with a picture of a kangaroo on the front – surely there are enough animals in SA to pick something local? And of course, everything was remarkably cheap.
After our supermarket tour, it was back to the house to chill for a while and set up a data roaming pack on my phone, principally so we can use uber. I’ve never used uber in Australia because of the inequity faced by taxi drivers having to purchase plates from the government but am assured it is actually the safest form of transport in South Africa outside your own car. (Memphis – Rancid – Lighter than their usual fare but with a great rolling drum beat, it’s an awesome travelling tune – where lyrics and music invoke a sense of moving. Sure it’s no Wide Open Road but quite a good tune for trains, where much of my blogging is done)
After chilling for a short while, we decided to head out for another stroll through the jacaranda trees and down to the local shopping mall, called The Brooklyn Mall. It seems Canberra is not alone in pilfering American place names to make new apartment and shopping developments seem more cool. We headed back the same way and walked for another 5-10 minutes further along the main road to find the mall. The closer we got to the mall, the more people we saw selling stuff on the side of the road. Mostly bags of snacks but in one case what I presume was second hand clothes laid out on the grass and in another, it was straw brooms. The mall was quite large and confusing but in the end it was just a mall. Unlike similar places in Turkey and The Philippines, there was no security screening on entering the mall. And we didn’t really see many guards either – a few around the carparks but not as many as I had expected. It took a while to find a way in because, like most malls it is designed to be accessed from the carpark and we were on foot.
We looked around the stores although there was nothing much that really caught my eye to be honest. Dan, of course, was chiefly concerned about the price of things – the consensus seemed to be that things made locally were a bit cheaper but major brands, imported from elsewhere, such as Dan’s favourite sneakers or lego , was much the same price as in Australia. All that mall navigation made us thirsty s we went searching for the food court and eventually discovered the lower level, replete with outdoor dining square. Dan decided he wanted pizza so we chose a café with that on offer as well as a lighter dining option for me. He chose a pepperoni pizza and I a delectable haloumi salad that came with caramelised nuts and seeds, strawberries and greens) oh and red onion, which I promptly removed). The dressing was delicious but had quite the peppery kick. I was asked whether I wanted the haloumi grilled or fried – I said I didn’t mind, thinking fried would mean in a pan with oil rather than without – what it actually meant was coated and deep fried. Dan washed his down with the first beer of the holiday and I stuck with a very nice local peach iced tea. (Love Minus Zero – Bob Dylan – one of Dylan’s greatest love songs – poetic brilliance and yet another example of why he deserved to win the Nobel Prize for literature.)
We headed back to the house so Lizzie could let us in before she finished up for the day and I just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon in the glorious sunshine and breeze, while Dan had an afternoon siesta. We finished our evening with a barby and some wine out on the deck. We could have been in Australia.