~ Hip City Guide ~

For all my friends and readers in South Africa... click on THIS LINK and it will direct you there....

You can find the hot spots in Cape Town, Durban, Joburg and Pretoria... isn't that nice of me to give you new suggestions for eating, drinking, partying, shopping, chilling and sleeping!!

But don't forget to invite ME when you are going to PARTY!! You know where to find me ;-)

Have a lovely day,
Mireille

A day trip to Jacaranda City

Last week we made a school field trip to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, or sometimes called JACARANDA CITY. And you can guess maybe why? There are lots of streets lined with Jacaranda trees. This tree is not indigenous to SA, but was imported from of subtropical regions of South America. These trees flower in October, so the trip was worth doing, just alone to see all these streets full of Purple blossom! An amazing view!!!



But of course we had a full program and our first stop was the Voortrekker Monument. This 50 year old granite construction commemorates the pioneers who trekked from the Cape in 1835. Inside the story of the pioneers are told with magnificent tapestries, paintings and a huge wall with the world's longest historical marble friezes that depicts the story of the women and children during the Great Trek.





The monument is a reminder of the courage, determination and persistence of the Voortrekkers. Inside is a huge long wall build out of marble with the whole story of the war of the Boers against the Zulus.





But not only is it shown in marble, another floor has the whole story on painted panels and another level of just embroidered tapestries, just amazing to see how well this part of history is being documented!







After that we had a stop at the Kruger house museum. The last house in which President Paul Kruger was to live, between 1883 and 1901, before he left South Africa to go into exile in Europe. The interior of the museum is exactly how he lived there, and the furniture reminded me a bit of my grandmothers era. This is how the houses looked like in Holland as well...

His living room...



Bedroom...



and Kitchen.



Next stop we did was Church Square, the historic centre of Pretoria, but when we stopped with our bus I saw this small strip mall and had to smile...
A pawn shop where you can trade in your gold for cash to have surgery and then when the patient is recovering you can come and visit him/her and buy some fresh fruit. A 3 stop in 1.... how funny!!



The Square is surrounded by many historic buildings, some having been erected as early as 1891. Among them stand the old Raadsaal (council chambers), Palace of Justice, Centenary Building, Netherlands Bank and a few others.



Old historical buildings but also many Jacaranda trees...



In the middle of the square stands a large bronze statue of former president Paul Kruger, surrounded by the statues of 4 other Boers. This SA couple was posing with one of the Boers and I thought it was a nice shot, since the lady is dressed in an original ShweShwe dress.



After this it was time for a picnic in the beautiful gardens of the Union Buildings with its magnificent view of the city and its terraced gardens. We sat under a tree in the shade and ate our lunch.



But also celebrated a birthday of one of the ladies in our group, Orit, with Mimosa's and chocolate cake...



And while driving back home we came by a few more streets lined with the gorgeous Jacarandas...



A nice relaxing day, met some new women, chatted, laughed, ate all together and had great fun while learning some history of Pretoria. A good day!!

Mireille

Halloween '09

We had so much fun this year with Halloween, first the party at school which was fun, creative, hot and lots of kids in great costumes!! They had all kinds of activities planned and of course a parade with trick 'r treating at the end. They even got a toothbrush and toothpaste sponsored by Colgate, how thoughtful is that!

Then on Saturday we first went to the Theatre to see CATS! Wow, that was so much fun, the show was amazing and the girls just LOVED it!!

Then in a rush we got dressed and went to my friend's house where the kids did their rounds of trick 'r treating with the nannies/maids and the adults had fun at the house with all kinds of international food and drinks, since we did a potluck party while in the meantime lots of kids entered the house to get some treats.
Dirk joined in later with the Halloween fun, he first went to a Rugby game in Pretoria, they even do tailgate parties before, but here they call it a braai with Boere rol and steak. And the Bulls won, so he was a happy camper as well!

Juliet's class


The girls only


And the boys


Juliet in action, filling a pumpkin with popcorn as fast as possible


Jasmine's class


2 of her friends, Emma & Jeongwoo


Jasmine in action as well


The nice thing about celebrating Halloween in a warm country is that you don't need layers underneath your costume, makes it a lot more fun! I was wearing a funky dress and my 'infamous' purple wig, went as a Wacky Woman! Unfortunately have no picture ;)

Do you celebrate Halloween? And how did you enjoy it this year, were you dressed up?
Enjoy the weekend!
Mireille

Xmas cards finally printed!

(by the way, this is not the card that made the cut, the original is even better!!)

I worked hard to get my cards done, being just a few months here in SA I didn't know where to go for cards. It is not so ready available as in the US having many outlets and online studios who design and deliver, so a lot more work and dedication went into this card than the previous years. Much more effort to get the same result. But I made it, it is done with the help of a beautiful team at Pixel Pro in Pretoria. Albert and Stella helped me with the photographs and design of the cards. A young team that has a lot of talent who work together and use both their strengths and capabilites to make the most of it. I am glad I found them! The cards came out just wonderful! If you live in Joburg or Pretoria, go and check out their website and book an appointment you won't be dissapointed!

So if you are on my address list you will get one very soon. And I am hoping you will like it as much as I do ;-) If you are not on my mailing list yet, but we connected this year through our blogging or Facebook connection, please send me yours and I will add you to my list....isn't that nice of me ;-)

Monday I will go to the post office and mail them and I am hoping they will arrive on time or at least at all! Because I don't hear good stories about the mail system here...unfortunately. We will give it one more shot, if most of them don't arrive this year, than I will switch completey over to digital next year. Since I am mailing out 150 cards, we are not talking about a small issue here!!

And I am hoping that we are on your mailing list to get a Xmas card this year from you, I LOVE to receive a card...hint hint!! But please don't use our home address, the mailsystem doesn't deliver to home addresses, so please send it to this address on the right hand side of my blog. And here it is as well:

Dijkstra family
PO Box 5588
Halfway House, 1685
RSA (Replubic of South Africa)

I am looking forward to receiving many new ones ;-)
Love, Mireille

Jasmine and Juliet meet Sinterklaas

So finally the girls see the 'Goed Heiligman' Sinterklaas for real at the Dutch school this morning. All the anticipation is finally over....

But first we celebrated 'pakjesavond' last night. We came home quite late since we had a photo shoot in Pretoria (results you will see later) and traffic is hurrendous between Pretoria and Johannesburg, but the girls had a great shooting and I think we will have a great result! So around 8pm, we were just finished with dinner and we're singing the Sinterklaas songs and suddenly....a loud bonking on the front door.
The girls rushed to the door, but the Black Pete's and Sinterklaas were gone... however, we found gifts laying all over the front step. Excitement galore and although we peeked on the street, nobody was seen. Too fast gone, but the girls didn't mind too much, they wanted to see what Sinterklaas had brought them. A letter from Sinterklaas for each JJ and Jezz. Which Dirk had to read for them, but in it said that Sinterklaas had heard they were both good girls, not naughty and he had brought them some nice gifts. A chocolate letter for each of us, a dinosaur egg that hatches after you keep it in water for a while, a pez candy disney figure and a bratz book with dress your own bratz girl. And of course a lot of typical Sinterklaas candy like pepernoten and such, I explained before.... The loud singing into the chimney had paid off!


Then this morning off to school, Sinterklaas arrived with a horse and carriage, everybody was waiting in anticipation. Smaller kids were crying... too much excitement. But finally the kids sang a lot of songs for Sinterklaas and the black Pete's were throwing pepernoten all over the place. And each kid had to come up on stage to receive his/her gift personally from Sinterklaas. How much fun!!

Jezz on Sinterklaas' lap.
JJ on Sinterklaas' lap.

They each got a mermaid Barbie from Sinterklaas, and Jezz commented on the wrapping paper: 'Hey, it is the same paper as last night?!' Of course sweetie, because it is from the same person' I replied ;-)

Sinterklaas is going back to Holland and then off to Spain again with his steamboat and all his Black Pete's and we're starting to decorate our house for Xmas ;-)

Funny and busy season with all these celebrations....
Mireille