Quilt shop and the rest of the week

Monday of course was a holiday, for the US personnel and that included us. One of my DH’s co-workers invited us over for dinner. James said the cost of admission was a 6 pack of beer, so we took some Windhoek beer. It is brewed in Namibia, a country to the north and west of South Africa. The beer has a very light but deep flavor and tastes very good. James and Mar started us with appetizers, and dinner was Pulled Pork BBQ and Burgers plus dessert. It was a very good meal.

Tuesday, my DH went off to work. While he went to work the mouse was off to play. One of the quilters here offered to come by and take me out for some girl time. So at 9:30 I was ready and waiting near the lobby for Jan to arrive. We hopped into her car for a ride out to a local quilt shop!!! It was about 20 miles from the hotel in a village called Irene (I reee neee). As you can see, it has a thatched room and not very big!! Just 2 rooms and full of fabric and notions.

It was a very nice quilt shop with a nice selection of US fabrics, notions and books. There were some Australian things too. I did bring some little things to work on, but of course in my haste and confused packing… they got stowed in the ‘Air shipment’, so I picked up a small ruler, some needles, a leather thimble (my favorite kind for hand piecing), and a spool of thread. The ruler was from Australia by a company called Sew Easy. There were some other sizes at the shop. All together I spent about R127, about $16 US.

For dinner we dined at a place called Café 41. On the menu was Ostrich Medallions in an orange and port sauce, which DH ordered. I had the special of Impala in a honey mustard sauce. DH and I shared the meals, so could each have Impala and Ostrich. It was very good. I would have either one again! Someday I will remember to take a picture of my meal before I start to eat it. (We have been back and have determined that the specials are better than the regular menu.)

Calla Lily

Wednesday- was getting registered at the US Embassy. We will be issued our Diplomatic Cards, which are similar to the Drivers License in the states… Official Identification and the ID Card for entering the Embassy with less difficulty than with the passport, which must be scrutinized. It pretty much identifies us as personnel or attached to the Embassy. We also had to meet with the Security Officer for a ‘Safety Meeting’ where they discuss personal safety tips. Theft is high here, purse, cell phone, camera are really high targets.

We tried to meet with the shipping coordinator, but she is out today… and maybe tomorrow. But without her, the Air shipment or Sea shipment will not be arriving. DH did bring home the welcome packet and we went through it last night, reading and looking over some of the information. Some won’t be relevant until you have the

Poinsettia Tree

item discussed- such as a house. Word has it that the house will be accepted today by the housing officer, (it’s brand new) and then hopefully soon we will have possession. (We won’t get the house until the end of July). Of course the next step will be the furniture and arranging it, which is all provided.

Thursday I stayed in and did a weeks worth of laundry. Ok… the washers work pretty close to normal, but the dryer… can hardly be called a dryer… over an hour and the jeans were still pretty damp. So jeans are hanging over the back of every chair in the room. I also got to visit the pets again. Not sure it doesn’t do more harm than good… Axel gets very upset when we leave. I just might start only going out once a week. It will just about kill me, but Axel might not feel so anxious… about seeing me leave if he doesn’t see me vistiting.

It is winter here... and I have found these flowers blooming around the hotel... More about them another time... but you can see there is lots of color here in the winter!!!

As Always more later.