Day 60: Hanging Out like Locals – Gym, School, Playground, Cooking at Home

Day 60! Wow.

Margaret got up and took an Uber to the “Drenched” boxing gym near our place. We did a couple hours of school, had lunch at home and then headed out to the playground at Green Point Park.

My old friend Zak Siddons’ South African wife’s sister gave us a heads up that this was the best playground in the city. It didn’t disappoint: a swing / seesaw combo was a Willa favorite. We were there with several local school groups and it was fun to watch our kids interact. James kicked the soccer ball with a few different boys.

We then strolled through the park’s “biodiversity walk” on our way back to the car. We stopped for a quick smoothie snack at a health food cafe, then headed to Gardens Shopping Center to stock up: groceries at Woolys, cheese at a cheese shop, gin at a liquor store and games, lego, puzzle and art supplies at a toy store. A solid haul.

We came home at sunset, fed the kids pasta while we drank G&Ts and started making dinner with the garden doors wide open. With zero plans for the following 10+ days, Margaret and I both agreed that THIS was the ultra-relaxed feeling we were aiming for during this trip.

We decided to have grown-up dinner after putting the kids down. But I’m such a rookie on the braai (charcoal grill): First I started the fire too early, so it basically went went out before it was time to grill; so I fired it up with more coals, but they didn’t get hot enough fast enough; it was getting late so we turned on the oven and tripped a fuse; after finally figuring out how to turn everything back on (10pm!) the fire was actually in decent shape. Threw the salmon on and it actually turned out well.

Dinner took so long to put together that we had 3 G&Ts during prep (I’m blaming Margaret) followed by a glass of wine at dinner and her new favorite Amarula beverage for desert. Felt a bit foggy in the morning.