Local Shopping and Puppies

The busy week of Nothing ended on Saturday with a trip to a couple of Farmers Markets… here, in South Africa, it is all about the FOOD!!!


We hit the one in Hazelwood first. It’s in an upscale area of homes, and there were about 40 stalls of food; from bakeries to olives. We skipped the sweets, but I did get some olives that have been brined in red wine, rosemary and garlic. They are very mild in flavor, but tasty, of course that was at 8 in the morning… might not taste the same in a day or so. Most of the vendors had tastes of the food available… but again, at 8 in the morning… some just didn’t sound good. DH found a vendor that roasts his beans on Thursday and sells them on Saturday. Talk about fresh. At the market we also bought some (East) Indian Samoosa’s… (East Indian food), 4 flavors; chicken, a potato and cheese, cheese and onion and a cheese and corn. All were delicious!!! We also bought a dozen frozen (chicken), for another day. The other items we purchased were, package of granola, some peanut brittle, a chicken roll (completely deboned and stuffed with tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese), and some fresh pesto too. While there DH suggested we split a jaffel. When I was a kid we made these when we were camping and called them Campfire Pies, and almost always made them sweet. These here are more savory, and the one we had was made of ground beef (mince) and spiced with curry- just a bit on the warm side for DH, but just about right for me.

I had a flyer about another outdoor market to the east of home, and since I wanted to see the another store out that way, we added the other market to the plan. It must be a new one, with fewer vendors and lots of junk/flea market stuff. Didn’t buy anything there… The one vendor I approached, bread, was stocking a rack and didn’t stop to answer my questions nor try to sell me anything so I left.

Next we went to the store. It’s called Makro and it is sort of a Sams Club/Costco….. -but- not really. You have have a membership, but it doesn’t cost anything. Stuff is warehouse shelved… and prices are a bit better than at regular stores. We did find a deal on some small appliances… so we picked up an iron, a toaster, an electric tea kettle, a coffee grinder and a coffee/espresso maker and a few other odds and ends. These items will replace the appliances provided by the welcome kit.

On Sunday we took Linzy back to her home grounds for some training, actually just down the road a bit from her former home. It is a German Shepherd Club, and the only breed of dogs you see there are GSD. It is about obedience and Schutzhund training. Saw some fabulous specimens of the breed. Next week , I plan to get there early enough to find the shadiest place to park the car so I can kennel Linzy for a bit in the shade -then I can take some pictures of the dogs working. I saw 2 dogs that were doing the ‘bark and hold’ and the fierceness of the face is something to behold, (and they think they are only playing).Today, Linzys breeder was there, so she totally lost interest in me, so our training session ended early. It also did not help that I fed her breakfast, she was not hungry either. We will have to do most of it at home… She was doing spectacularly until, Dee arrived… and after hearing Dee, Linzy was only looking for a way to get to her, darn. I had been working with her a bit during the week with the “sit” command, which she has down. And since yesterday have been working on the lie “down” which she is doing… but only after a reminder as to what ‘down’ means. I will need to leave Axel in the house to work on the come and stay commands. He would be too much of a distraction… especially since she is teething and wants to play more than work.

Today I must see about finding a shortcut to High Speed Internet. The person(s) at the Embassy that are responsible for getting the “Data” switch turned on with Telkom have changed the story from 5 days to whenever! So I will be contacting 2 companies that will least the lines as part of the package and see which can get the job done fastest. It’s not a matter of cost anymore!!! We must have the Internet!

One other note… about living here. The agency my DH works for provides a work vehicle, not many of the agencies do that… partially because they work exclusively in an office setting and DH must be out in the community. So of the 4 families in the compound (all the houses have residents now, and I don’t know much about them yet), we are the only one with our own ‘privately owned’ vehicle too. Here cars are still a privilege to own… and are rather expensive compared to the US prices for the same vehicle. We purchased ours, (2006 Hyudai Tucson), from a departing diplomat before we left the states, so it was waiting for us when we got here. Having at least one dog at the time, we certainly couldn’t transport him around in the “G-Ride”

Hopefully… I will be able to report that the Air Shipment arrived on-time and in good order in my next post!!!

More Later- Beth

Busy Week of Nothing...

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity and no results for the effort. When you have a puppy, housebreaking and scheduling are the BIG jobs. Linzy is learning, but not as fast as Axel did. Not sure why. Could be that I am not able to contain her to a single room… so she can sometimes wander out of sight. Fortunately the floor is tile. The other part is getting used to being on call and watch … remembering to take her out about every 60 minutes and monitoring what she does.


She is very smart. She has already learned to sit and drop it. She sleeps in her kennel, and likes it well enough to just get in. Most nights we get to the wee hours before she wants to go out. Sometimes we need to go out around midnight or at 5. So my days are starting really early, even though I don’t get much done.

We thought we were going to have a really big problem. Axel for the first 2 days was great… but then he had a change of heart and was not happy to have another dog in the house and gave her grief every time she came near him. It was bad enough that I thought we were going to have to send Linzy back. But something changed again and Axel is back to being the great dog he is.

So we have been here in the house for nearly a month and in Africa for almost 7 weeks. Do we have our Air shipment yet? NO. On Friday morning we got an email wondering if we were aware that our stuff was here and had been in South African Customs long enough to begin accruing storage fees. What? I have been emailing the person at the Embassy responsible for this for at least 2 weeks, maybe more. And all I have gotten in response “is that it takes time” and the last we heard maybe delivery in the middle of next week, but she would let us know. Well we didn’t take that sitting still. We sent an email to the company that moves it through Customs asking where it was and lo and behold, it could have been delivered Friday afternoon, but I was not home, so they are telling us Monday at 10 a!!! It will be like Christmas.

I have been trying to remember what is in the 3 very large boxes. Ok I know I packed toiletries, personal medications (vitamins and supplements), some books, clothes, towels, my down comforter and cover, some dog toys, bowls, gates, and my sewing machine and projects that were supposed to keep me sane!!! It’s too late for that. We have a preliminary date for the Sea Shipment as 9/23… but we’ll just have to wait and see. No bets though

On Sunday we will be taking Linzy back to Jo’burg to spend the day with the German Shepherd club- where we may participate in some of the exercises. The breeder thinks that she will do well in the show ring… so we will give it a try and see. DH will be going out of town for about 3 weeks so it will help fill up the time.

Well that’s about all for now, of course since we still don’t have high speed Internet, so no pictures … but as always there will be more later.

Beth