6 Months in South Africa

Going home, away from the weather

2007-06-11T09:49:00.000+01:00

I'm leaving Cape Town and Africa tomorrow. Anne is leaving on Sunday. People tell me that the weather in Oslo now is perfect, so I'm looking forward to see the sun again. This is how the weather looks this Monday:

Here is a live picture from Cape Town:

Hiking up Lion's Head

2007-06-02T20:22:00.000+01:00

One of the coolest things about Cape Town is that there are three mountains smack bang in the middle of the city. Everyone knows Table Mountain, the big flat one. To the left of Table Mnt you have Devil's Peak and on the right hand side a small round cool mountain called Lion's Head. This afternoon we went on a wonderful hike up Lion's Head to watch the sunset. Eleven Norwegians, a couple of Americans and my Swazi friend Mzwandile set off at about 1630. The hike is only 45 min and you have a fantastic view of the city at all times, as you walk around the mountain two times to get to the top. Once we reached the "summit" wine, cheese and Norwegian milk chocolate was served!

Hike up Lions Head

Enjoy the pictures and see for yourself why Cape Town is called the most beautiful city in the world!

Sharks!

2007-05-27T15:09:00.000+01:00

We just got back from an outing to Kleinsbaai close to Hermanus in the Western Cape. The reason for the outing was the great WHITE SHARK! The tour operator fetched us at home at 0600 this morning and we slept through the two hour drive to shark-country. When looking at the waves we started to imagine what the trip would be like and we were not wrong. Espen spent most of the trip looking pretty light green and feeding the fish. After a short boat ride the boat crew started attracting the sharks, called "chumming", by trowing out fish heads and blood in the water. After only a few minutes the first sharks appeared. They are BIG! We got into our wetsuit and jumped into the cage. The crew kept throwing out the bait and shouted "down, left/right" when the sharks appeared. Several 3-4 meter white sharks passed right by us, one even slammed into the cage. Amazing! The sea was quite rough and it was pretty intense to be put into a small cage while it slammed against the side of the boat. Even though we both got pretty sea sick it was worth the money and time (this is Anne writing, Espen might not agree:)).

Not everyone likes this business though and some has voiced that tour operators teach the sharks to associate humans with food. The guides assured us that they seldom saw the same shark for more than a couple of weeks and argued that it was not enough time for the shark to make this association.

Take a look at the pictures. There are not too many of them though, as we were both busy taking care of ourselves...

Double-me (Hey, thats my glass!)

2007-05-16T17:32:00.001+01:00

Double-me (Hey, thats my glass!)
Originally uploaded by esp0.

Been very busy lately, so no time to write a blog-entry. We are coming home to Norway in 4-5 weeks.

In the meanwhile, enjoy the picture of Espen and Me while we are watching TV.

(I think he is trying to steal my drink!)

Going on safari, is that all we do?

2007-05-01T20:31:00.000+01:00

That is what my mother asked the other day. She complained a bit about the pictures we have posted in the albums and said she was tired of elephants and giraffes and now wanted to see more pictures of people and of daily life. So if you find a picture of me making a sandwich or the high way in Cape Town, they are for her:)

Winter is arriving in Cape Town and the past few days has been a bit gloomy, rainy and cold. You wouldn't think that 13-14 degrees should be so cold, but when the house does not have insulation is makes you put on your woolen underwear inside. After a week of indoor-life, movies and hot chocolate things started to look better. Yesterday the sun came out again and today we have been on a diving trip to Simons Town with our friends Katinka and Anders. We had a really nice dive with warm water and good visibility. Espen and Anders even saw a small shark (thankfully not a great white!).

Seeing that this is a long weekend we tried to go on an expedition to Hermanus, a coast side village approx 2 hours outside Cape Town a couple of days ago. But with our good car karma one of the front tyres broke in the middle of the Winelands. A spare tyre and helpful petrol station staff got us going again and we ended up wine tasting instead.

Easter - People Pictures

Last weeks of April

More visitors!

2007-04-17T07:46:00.000+01:00

We have just sent the last fraction of Espen's family home to the cold north and now we have a new visitor! Mari, our friend from BAUS (the diving club at University of Oslo), is working as a teacher in Kenya this year and has come down to Cape Town on holiday.

Life is back to normal after the Easter holidays and I spend long days in the lab at university to keep my head above water... Cape Town is experiencing a real change of weather now. Two weeks ago we were wearing shorts, shades and sun block, now we go to bed with woolen socks and freeze. Temperature is definitely a relative thing. I see pictures of people wearing t-shirts and drinking beer outside in cafes in Oslo, while in the same temperature here people are putting on scarfs, caps and big jackets:)

PS:
Some of you probably know, but my sister gave birth to a beautiful boy two weeks ago. His name is Even and he is the cutest little nephew! We can't wait to meet him in June!

Easter, Addo and Schotia

2007-04-11T08:12:00.000+01:00

This Easter Espen's family came down to South Africa. We did a lot of things, but time will not permit me to write about all of them. Instead you can see some of the pictures we took in Schotia game park and Addo Elephant National Park.

Click picture to view album

Flying

2007-04-09T12:34:00.000+01:00

Some new pictures coming up...

One of the guys working on the project I'm doing my masters on is currently busy getting his pilot license here in Cape Town. Yesterday we were invited to fly with him on one of his training flights. Calle and his instructor took us safely from Cape Town to the small airstrip in Swellendam and back to Cape Town along the coast in a 4-seater plane. It was really nice to fly low (max 5500feet) as you could see a lot. We had to wear a head set to talk to each other and we could listen to all the messages from other air crafts and the tower at CT international airport- pretty interesting!

Enjoy the photos...

New photo-album published

2007-03-24T18:34:00.000+02:00

See/Click attached photo-album for a quick summary of last weeks activities.

16-24. Mars 2007

A nice weekend

2007-03-13T08:44:00.000+02:00

We've had a really nice weekend so I thought I could put out a few pictures of what we've been up to. On Saturday we had a braai (braai= a South African bbq) with our Information Systems master class at my classmate Simon's house. As you can see from the picture we are not a lot of people, we could all fit nicely in his pool:) From left to right: Professor Mike Hart, Mzwandile (Swaziland), Len (SA), Flora (Malawi), Me and Simon (SA). One other person was not able to join us and Espen is hiding at the bottom of the pool somewhere. After a dip in the pool we enjoyed some very good meat and South African wine!

On Sunday Mzwandile, Len, Flora and I went on a hike up Table Mountain via the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. We followed a route called Skeleton Gorge where you walk next to a riverbed/ water fall, climbing up ladders and generally giving yourself a good workout! Neither Flora or Mzwandile had ever been on a hike before. As Flora put it; "In Malawi, if you have a bike people don't expect you to walk. If you have a car, people will think you are crazy if you use your bike!" Walking seems to be an activity for the poor in some African countries, but we all made it to the top and was able to enjoy the views of the southern suburbs in Cape Town.

Update from South Africa

2007-03-06T21:22:00.000+02:00

After receiving numerous complaints about the update-frequency on this blog, I figured it was about time to write something. Here's what's been happening lately, mostly in backwards chronological order:

I found out the bisquits is spelled "biscuits". We blame Betty Crocker for that mistake.
Anne's grandmother called.
We test-drove a Toyota Tazz, owned by a friend of our landlord.
Anne and I went to town to say good bye to Kjetil and Merete who just got back from a very exciting and fun overland tour.
It was very cold and the rain was poring down this weekend, so we cleaned the all the floors in the cottage. A very satisfying smell of citrus cleaner could be sensed miles away :)
We went to the big "Community Chest Carnival" in Wynberg. Could not find a good link explaining what that is, but it was basically about a wide range of food outlets many of which are organised by particular national groups such as the Dutch, Swiss and Irish who offer visitors their own national dishes and delicacies.
We went to another concert at Kirstenbosch gardens. This time we went with Emma, a Swedish girl that also studies at UCT.
As Kjetil and Merete did not have many days in Cape Town before going on their overland-tour we went on a tour around the Peninsula.
There was a very strange sound coming from the car, so the auto-repair shop recommended that we buy new back-wheel, new shock-absorbers and replace some thingies that has to do with the gear-box. A total of R5000 was paid (NOK4500, €500) and the sound is still there. We have now given up repairing the car and have placed an ad in the news-paper hoping to get a good price for it. We will at the same time look for a new car without scary sound and other defects.
I met a guy in Anne's class that believes in voodoo and black magic. It was very fascinating to hear him talk about spells and creatures he had seen himself.
After waiting at The Department of Home Affairs for a total of 12 hours, I finally got my Visa extended. I'm now allowed to stay here until my plane leaves on the 13th of June. Whoohoo!
We went to Stellenbosch with our Norwegian visitor Merete for some wine-tasting. This time we had focus on "Wine and Cheese". A very fun day (this time Anne was driving and I was drinking), but not all the cheeses met our expectations. The time Merete and I both tasted the same cheese (and liked it) and Anne yelled out "This tastes like puke", we decided to move on the the next place.
I bought myself a Polarizer Filter for the camera. The big advantage about using such a filter, is that it filters out reflected (polarized) light, and as such you are able to take a picture of the skies, and the actually look blue. Take a look further down for an example of a picture taken with the polarizer.
It's getting late now, and I'm running out of things to mention. I probably missed some important thing, and Anne will say "How could you NOT write about THAT?", so this list may be extended after a few days :)

One of the farms in Stellenbosch

University life

2007-02-21T17:19:00.000+02:00

Slowly but surely my university life at UCT is getting started. Semester start here is something quite different from home, where we can sign up for classes online and have a time table ready before lectures start. To sign up for courses you have to approach the professor/ lecturer in charge of the course to get approved, but the academic staff are of course swamped with work and are not always very easy to get hold of. Times or venues are not set before the first lecture to make sure that everyone attending the course can fit it into their time table. On top of this you need to stand in long cues to get administrative matters like student cards and passwords sorted, so whenever I meet other exchange students they seem to be running around like headless chickens from office to office to find the right people to talk to. But hey, maybe that’s the way exchange students feel when they get to University of Oslo??

Even though the admin at UCT is not the very best the academic part of it seems really promising so far. I’ve joined a sociology course on public health issues to get some background information for my master thesis and both that and my information systems course seems interesting and challenging. The courses are quite a lot smaller than I am used to with only 6-7 students in each and they also seem more work intensive than back home with continuous assessment and no exams. I’ve been given a work space in an office with a few other master students where I have my own desk and computer plus a fridge, microwave oven and kettle. All kitted for those long hours of studying...

UCT’s unique location at the base of Table Mountain/ Devils Peak makes amazingly beautiful! I really enjoy strolling around campus looking at the nice buildings, the view of the city and the mountain. On saturday we (Espen, Kjetil- visiting from Oslo, some friends from UCT and myself) conqured Devils Peak, the mountain you can see behind UCT in the picture above. We will try to post some photos from the hike soon!

Pictures from South Africa

2007-02-15T09:00:00.000+02:00

This post should have been made public some weeks ago, but better late then sorry, right?

Espen in the townships
(Click picture to view album)

The township pictures where taken on a trip we went to with my photo-class down here.
A very interesting experience.

19-25. Jan - Kruger Park
(Click picture to view album)

We went to the Kruger park together with Anne's parents. A very nice trip and we saw lots of animals!

Back to school!

2007-02-09T17:18:00.000+02:00

After quite a long holiday I'm ready to start studying again. University started this week with a hectic orientation week with all the international students. Around 700 international students are attending courses at University of Cape Town. If you include students from other countries in southern Africa (like Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe etc.) the number is about 4000. The university has done a great job when it comes to welcoming us; we've had talks about everything from diversity and politics in South Africa to personal safety. We've also been on sightseeing around the Cape peninsula and on an excursion into the townships to look at projects organised by UCT students. We are a few European students, one Japanese girl and a trazillion Americans:)

During this semester I will be attending two classes. One is the course module for the students doing a master in information systems, the other one is a sociology course called "Human resource development". I met with my information systems class and professor yesterday. We are only 6 students so you really have to do your work here (no way to hide at the back of the class!) :) After an introduction lecture we had a function with food and drinks in the department bar (!) that we share with the accounting people. (Where are the department bars at UiO??) Met lots of nice students and staff. Proper lectures will start next week.

Gaborone, Botswana

2007-02-03T21:58:00.000+02:00

When writing this I've spent almost a week in Botswana. "Why would anyone want to go there" one could ask... Well, as part of my masters degree at the University of Oslo I am going to be part of a project called HISP (Health Information Systems Program). It is a combined research and development project that aims to improve the quality of health information in developing countries by using a specific software. In many countries you find that information about health care (say how many children under 5 years has been diagnosed with malaria or how many people show signs of malnutrition in a certain area) are being reported several times to different projects/programs and authorities. To make a long story very short, this is what the project aims to improve. To keep all data regarding health services in one place makes it easier to access and the data are more likely to be correct and updated. The idea is that this will serve as a better basis for making good and informed decisions in the health sector.

Botswana is a quite large country (bigger than France) but with a population of only 1,8 million. It largely consisting of semi-desert and savannah. Major industries are cattle and diamonds and with excellent nature- and game reserves and they also attract a fair share of tourist. Botswana is relatively rich and politically stable country, but is severely hit by the HIV/AIDS-pandemic. It is estimated that over 30% of the population is HIV positive.

We, being myself, my supervisor Johan (to the right) and the local project members are based in the IT department at the Ministry of Health in Gaborone. Gaborone is the capitol, but not much of a big city. My guide book states that about 230000 people live here. It's got the atmosphere of a being a small town that has grown large very quickly. To quote my guide book again: "Due to it's phenomenal growth from an obscure village in the early 1960's to home to more than 230000 people in just 40 years, Gaborone has neither a long history or an established African character". The city is pretty flat, dry and there is not much to do.

Even though the city itself is not the most exiting, the people I have met here are fantastic. Most people are very friendly, inviting us to go with them, have supper etc. Johan has even been offered Batswana wives and cattle in a small village close to Gabs:) We have stayed at the University of Botswana in graduate student housing looking pretty much like a "studentby" in Oslo. There are five exchange students here (compared to about 4000 at UCT where I study!) and we've spent some time with them as well as local students. The picture to the right shows Lovely Daniel(yes that is his name), the local HISP worker and me having lunch outside the office building.

This week made me get a better grip on what the project is about. I've done work related to the software, attended a couple of meetings and visited a district office and a clinic that are part of a pilot project. I'll be back in Botswana in September and stay 2-3 months to conduct my field work.

A small world

2007-01-12T19:17:00.000+02:00

Guess what? Walking up Kloof Street in the city centre two days ago, I passed a cafe and saw a face I recognised. It was Tone, a girl I used to swim with in junior high school. What a small world! She was here on holiday with her boyfriend so we decided to go for a drive together around the peninsula together with my friend Ismaiel the next day. The trip was very nice, we had a swim at a nice secluded beach close to Simons Town called Seaforth (luckily no sharks this time) and even got to see penguins. A colony of African penguins (we are quite close to the South Pole:) ) live in False Bay and it is quite amusing to observe them as they walk with their tiny feet. The plan was to go all the way around the peninsula but then our car started making a very scary metallic noise. We seem to learn one new car-thing every year as we are involved in different break downs. After going to a few different mechanics the problem is now located to some joints on the steering rack (ooo the pleasures of buying a cheap old car...) It will be fixed on Monday so until then we are sticking to the neighborhood.

I am also happy to inform you that Espen is slowly but surely getting into the concept of "African time". A little translation;

"I'll do it just now" = I might do it some time. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow or maybe never.
"I'm coming now now" = I'm coming in a while, but sooner than "just now".
"I'll be there at seven" = I'll leave my house around seven, but most likely a bit later.

Shark bisquits

2007-01-05T16:59:00.000+02:00

...that's what they call surf boards around here...

Cape Town's water's are home to many great white sharks due to lots of yummy seals. Still it's apparently a really nice city to surf in. A couple of days ago we were sitting at Llundadno beach on the Atlantic coast and watching a group of body boarders and it looked like so much fun. Yesterday we decided to buy each other Christmas presents so we got two boards, flippers and Espen got himself a wetsuit.

Cape Town is situated with oceans on two sides; on the one side you find the Atlantic, and on the other the Indian ocean. The Atlantic side is freezing cold (about 11-14 deg) due to currents from the South Pole while the Indian side is warmer as the currents come from equator. The best thing would obviously be to surf on the warm side, but unfortunately that's where the sharks live... A few sharks have been spotted on the Atlantic side as well, but they are very rare there.

This morning we decided to give it a shot and went to the light house at Milnerton in Table Bay, that's on the Atlantic side. The spot seemed popular with other surfers and there were also life guards on duty which is a good thing. The waves were not too big, just perfect for us rookies:) It's a lot easier than surfing because you just lay on top of the board, wait for a nice wave and kick as much as you can when the wave approaches you. We kind of got the hang of it but there is still room for a lot of perfection!

I had good fun singing "tadah tadah tadah" (the theme from "Jaws" /"Haisommer") while we waited for the good waves.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T16:34:00.000+02:00

First of all, Happy New Year to all of you!

We just got back from a relaxing long weekend at the west coast. I went to a school camp there when I lived there and always wanted to go back. My friend Wendy and her boyfriend Craig decided to join and they found a lovely little guest house in Saldanha. Saldanha is a sleepy little town an hour and a half outside Cape Town. The town is reliant on steel and fishing. There's really nothing to see or do in the town itself except walking on the beach and watching the huge ships that that transport steel out of the bay to various destinations. About thirty minutes south of Saldanha you find Langebaan, a popular holiday destination for South Africans. a big lagoon and plenty of wind makes it a perfect spot for kiting. We even bought our own kite. It was not too big and after playing with it on the beach for a while we really wanted to go back to the kite shop and buy a bigger one:) Close to Langebaan is the West Coast Nature Reserve consisting of a big lagoon (same lagoon enters the ocean in Langebaan). These wetlands are supposedly a heaven for bird lovers as many migrating birds flock to this place. We only saw a few so I guess it's not the right season at the moment...On new years eve we had a nice braai (a South African BBQ) and cocktails at the guest house. It has been a very nice and relaxing weekend
.

Christmas pictures

2006-12-26T23:37:00.000+02:00

Here are som pictures from our Christmas celebration!
(Click the picture to view the complete album)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Concert and Christmas feeling

2006-12-23T14:52:00.000+02:00

Until now Espen has been the keenest blogger of the two of us. Now its about time that I (Anne) give it try. Today is the day before Christmas eve and I can't say that the Christmas spirit is too strong... You can sense that it Christmas here, mainly because shopping malls and beaches are packed with holidaymakers and capetonians. It's kind of amusing to see how people in warm countries have a romantic image of snow, rain deers and santas around Christmas. We even encountered a husky sledge and an ice rink while doing some shopping yesterday! Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, we are moving into our flat in Rondebosch, a suburb close to UCT. Seeing that it's a special day for us we've invited a few friends over to our new place for supper. Our Muslim friends even promised to do their best to bring along some Christmas spirit :) Looking forward to that! Christmas Day will be spent with my old host family.

Our driving skills are picking up and we are now exploring the city at our own pace which is just wonderful! Yesterday we went to a rock concert with a South African band called Just Jinjer. The venue was the stunning Kirstenbosch Garden. It's a botanical garden situated along the mountain side behind Table Mountain. It was such a wonderful experience to listen to a good band while looking at the mountains, starry skies and views of Cape Town. My friend Wendy had packed a nice picnic basket with samoesas, chutney, homemade biscuits and a bottle of champagne. What else can one ask for?

Christmas this year will without doubt be a little different than usual, but if we wanted usual we wouldn't have come here!

Wish you all a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy your ribbe, pinnekjøtt and presents!

Bought the car (finally!)

2006-12-20T07:58:00.000+02:00

Update: By popular demand, here is a picture of our beatiful car!

We now have our very own Honda parked outside the backpacker place we are staying. At first, we will only drive when the sun is up, but eventually i think we might have to drive at night too. The problem, is that the people in this country are driving on the wrong (left) side of the road! And also the steering wheel is mounted on the wrong side, along with the pedals.

We have also bought full-cover insurance on the car just in case we hit some(thing/one). The insurance also covers theft and hijacking(!).

Today the temperature is predicted to be 29 degrees, i can't wait!

BTW: You can subscribe to this blog

2006-12-19T07:55:00.000+02:00

This is just a little note, telling you all that if you want to "subscribe" to this blog, this is now possible. If do not want to visit our first-page to check for updates every day, subscription is the thing to use. (It requires Firefox or Internet Explorer 7.0). Just find and click this button on the top (or bottom) of this page, and follow the instructions.

Before and after

2006-12-18T16:15:00.000+02:00

We are now finally starting to realize that we are actually here. Today was my first day at "Work" and it was actually not as bad as it could be. The Internet connection here is very slow, but it's OK for the 3 days that i will be using this Internet Café. I have had several phone-conversations using my Telio ip-phone (+47) 852 10 855. To Norway (and probably all other locations as well), there is a 500 milliseconds delay, but i think that will be better when we move into the apartment at Christmas eve.

Some of the other things that has happened:

We went to a party on Friday at Wendy's house. At about 11.45PM the squatter-camp close by started burning. No-one was injured, but the fire was pretty big and several shacks must have burnt up. That was not a very happy moment, so Anne and I decided to go home. Luckily Wendy's dad drove us home, so we didn't have to take a taxi or hike.
On Sunday we went to the beach and stayed there pretty much all day. Later that day we ate a HUGE meal and when we woke up today, I was still full.

At this very moment, Anne is in Kensington, fetching our newly bought car. I still haven't seen it, but I hope the deal will not fall through like it did the last time. Can't wait to get it, because the public transport here is really bad (or non existing???).

Oh, and one more thing: Last night, for desert, we ate at at place called "Sinful". They served one of the best ice-creams i have EVER tasted. It was so good, but later that night we both regret it, because we got so full we could hardly walk.

Backpacking in South Africa

2006-12-15T10:22:00.000+02:00

At last, we are finally in South Africa!

This will just be a short entry, telling everyone that we are alive and that (almost) everything is as is should be. Out flight yesterday was Oslo->Frankfurt->Cape Town. Off course when we took off from Frankfurt, Lufthansa forgot Anne's backpack. BUT: Ismaiel, that has allready arranged with the car we will receive later today, works for the airport with delivering luggage. We hope that it will be arriving today.

Some facts:

We have turned off both our Norwegian phones, and bought new SIM-card with South African phone-numbers. (Beware: From Norway it's about 10NOK pr. min (But i think SMS is pretty cheap, so please don't hesitate to send them)

Anne: +27 7265 13002
Espen: +27 7657 09740

We are now staying at Cape Town Backpackers, but will move to "our" apartment at 24/12.
All our letters are forwarded to that apartment from Norway, so you do not need to spend much money on sending us letters. Just use the old address, we'll receive it someday ( say about 5-10 days)
We still use our existing gmail-addresses:

Anne: athorseng *at* gmail *dot* com
Espen: powerpoint *at* gmail *dot* com

That's all for now,

Bye-bye Norway!

2006-12-10T22:34:00.000+02:00

There has not been any posts for over a month, but that does now mean we have been sitting around and watched TV for 30 days!
This is what has happened since the last update:

Espen has been sick
The kitchen has been ripped out
Anne has been reading for her exams and writing papers all day long. (All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy)
We have been cleaning out our closet so that it's ready for Anne sister Kristine to live her with her family when we're away.
Ismaiel in Cape Town has found a Honda car that we can buy when we get down there. Thank you!

Tomorrow night (11/12) we have invited many friends over to a local pub to drink beer and say goodbye. Because of all the things we need to get done before we leave, we found this to be a great way for us to say goodbye to many people at the same time.

Departure is closing in fast, and on the 13. December 18:55 we will take off from Gardermoen (OSL). Many hours later, including a transfer in Frankfurt, we will arrive at Cape Town International Airport at 11:20 on the 14. December.

Broadband connection - not so easy

2006-10-30T18:15:00.000+02:00

Trying to get a decent broadband connection to our apartment in Cape Town was harder than imagined. After searching the net for xDSL providers in Cape Town, I soon figured out that no matter where you buy you broadband-connection, you have to pay Telkom. Telkom seems to be the largest (and only) telecommunications-supplier for landlines to private homes in South Africa. To make a long story short, 1Mb ADSL-line from Telkom costs about R1500 (€179)/month. That's 1000% more expensive than in Norway(!)

Bank transfer and renting a Flat

2006-10-17T16:53:00.000+02:00

We finally found an apartment that we could rent in Cape Town. After many hours of searching, mailing and looking, we found a "Garden Cottage" in Rondebosch. It’s very close to UCT where Anne will be attending, and the price was good. But, before we can move in we have to pay a deposit to confirm that we are actually staying there, and to pay for any damages we make to the cottage. (US!? Damage???)
Trying to transfer money from Norway to South Africa though, is not easy. My usual bank (Skandiabanken) did not have any ways to this, neither did my credit card company. I also have an account in DnB NOR, and after spending 20 minutes looking up IBAN/BIC/blabla codes I finally got the bank to accept my money transfer. I wonder when it will arrive, according to their web page, it could be as much as 10 business days. Gawd!

UPDATE: I got confirmation today (20. aug) that the money had been received by our lovely host Lorraine. That's 3 days for transfering a manual money order from Norway to South Africa, not bad!

Blogging from flickr

2006-10-05T07:28:00.000+02:00

Picture by fanz

I’ve now connected my flickr photo page to this blog, and to make sure it works, and that the design is good i'm posting this to see what it looks like.

Buying an apartment before leaving

2006-10-05T06:53:00.000+02:00

At the same time as we are preparing all the papers needed for visa and trying to get the stay in SA to go as smoothly as possible with regards to my employer, we are also looking for a new place to stay. We have pretty much given up finding one, but this looks very promising and it will be the last apartment we will consider before we leave.

The apartment is 86m2 and the view from the roof is great. We only have to climb/walk 1 floor to get to the top, as the apartment is on the 3. floor.

Bought a Safari Lens

2006-10-04T22:05:00.000+02:00

Today, I bought a new lens for my digital camera. It’s from Sigma and is a 135-400mm lens. The primary use will be for safari and other moments where a big zoom is needed, but as I experiment with it at home I find it funny to take “macro” photos with it too.

I have only taken just under 100 pictures with this lens, but so far I’m very happy with it. If you’re on the lookout for a “Safari Lens” please don’t hesitate to contact me, as I have done extensive research on this subject for some months before this purchase.

Blog created, plane-tickets booked

2006-10-03T21:43:00.000+02:00

This is my very first post in the blog called “6 Months in South Africa”. Both Anne and I will post in it, and hopefully there will be lots of pictures and updates. We’ll se how that works out…

We have bought tickets to Cape Town, and will arrive 14. December 11:20 with Lufthansa flight# LH576.

South Africa, here we come!