Suppers in South Africa (11)

Tonight we had a very nice braai!!! Before I came to South Africa the first time, I heard that a braai is almost like a religion in South Africa. And I understand that ore and more for every year that I am staying here...

Whatever meat you put on the braai (in our case, the gas-braai), may it be beef, pork, lamb or chicken, it is such a wonderful quality of meat!

The traditional braai, with pap and sheeba, and some pumpkin or any other vegetables is just wonderful!

Tonight we had some very nice lamb steaks/chops, but for myself I had chosen a "man-size" T-bone steak! I think it was between 0.8-1.0 kg.... But I ate all of it... It took some time, but the soft meat and the fantastic flavors!!!!! And with a bottle of our own house wine... Chateau Augusta, which is a very nice Cabernet Sauvignion from the Cape. WOW!!!!

Correction!!!

It was of course served with BEANS!!!!

Suppers in South Africa (10)

These are some of my favorite dishes!!! Shame that one cannot upload the flavors... It tasted much better than it looks!

This is Chicken Schnitzels with Cous-Cous and a Honey-Mustard Sauce, served with beens... Yummy, Yummy!!!!

Pork Shanks... Cooked for 5 hours in the slow-cooker and then under the grill to make the rind crackling...

Served with a kind of Ratatouille and rosted potato wedges... Very nice indeed!!!

Not for Arachnophobiacs!

A few days ago we found this spider in one of our bathrooms... After checking in my spider-book I think it is a Wall Spider, which is completely harmless to humans.

Stormy Weather

Last week we had two really bad tropical storms. The first one on 10 November which was our 9th Anniversary. Very strong winds, a lot of thunder and lightnings and heavy rain. 44mm of rain in 20 minutes! The total precipitation was close to 100 mm over night. And three days later another storm with the same effects. It's good that the water reserves are filling up so we can irrigate our garden later this summer, but the immediate effect on the garden is not nice.



Parts of Nelspruit lost electricity for 18 hours. We only lost the lights in the upper part of our house, but since we were expecting guests we called an electrician on Saturday afternoon who was able to fix the lights.

Another Snake...

Yesterday our Boerboel, Diva, was barking intensively and when Leona looked out through her sliding door she saw a snake's tail disappearing behind some bricks. She noticed the color which resembled the color of a Black Mamba. So she phoned the snake rescuers who arrived within a few minutes. It didn't take them long to catch the snake. However, it was not a Black Mamba, but a totally harmless Spotted Bush Snake, but it was at least twice the size of the previous snake of that kind we have seen! The snake is easy to identify if you can see the front 1/3 of it because of its characteristic spotted color, but the other 2/3 has about the same color as a Black Mamba.
Just in case it was a Black Mamba I was ready with my .38 revolver loaded with "snake shots". They look like miniature shoot-gun ammunition, containing a lot of small lead pellets. Luckily no shots fired. The Spotted Bush Snake is actually quite beautiful.

WOW!!!

Yesterday I received a puzzling email. I booked my flights to Sweden about 3 weeks ago, with Air France as usual. For the last 3 years it has been a Boing 777 which is a nice airplane.
The email told me that I have been re-booked. I checked the dates and times but couldn't find any changes... But then!!! I noticed that the flight was not on a 777, but changed to an Airbus A380! That will be very exciting!