Slightly scary moment earlier when I thought I'd lost my blog! It had disappeared into the great white vacuum that is the internet, but eventually I found it lurking in the nether regions of www-dot land. So here's today's update.

The weekend was glorious again. It has got colder overnight, evidenced by the fact that I eventually realised the dripping I could hear outside about 8.30 this morning was actually the melted ice falling off our veranda roof and onto the terrace below. But the sun has a warmth to it you never feel in mid-winter in northern Europe, and temperatures rise quickly with the sun. Though of course they fall just as quickly at sunset.

We had been expecting a wet Saturday and so had planned to go into town and visit an exhibition at St George's Cathedral commemorating a huge peace march in Cape Town in the 1980's. Although Cape Town was always more liberal than many of the other South African cities, it is still hard to believe that only 20-odd years ago the area I'm living in today would have been 'Whites Only'. There's so little of that old South Africa left, though a whole host of social problems to replace the old regime.

In the event, we woke up to early sun bathing the mountains and decided it was far too nice a day to be inside. So we set off to climb Lion's Head, a smaller mountain to the side of Table Mountain. The Rough Guide describes it as 'unstrenuous', so we assumed we'd be up and down in time for a late lunch. Well......I'm not sure what that guidebook would call strenuous, but Lion's Head is no picnic.

The first bit is just a steady uphill walk, but to actually climb the rocky crag to the summit you need to ascend ladders and climb up bits of sheer rock face with the aid of chains embedded into the rock face. Despite a few wobbles about not being able to do it, the girls coped brilliantly. I managed to swing away from the rock on the way down and gashed my shin crashing back into the rock. But no lasting damage done.

Needless to say, we missed lunch, but I did have some apples and a huge slab of chocolate in the rucksack, so we didn't starve. We came down more quickly than we went up and rewarded ourselves with dinner in Camps Bay watching the sun slide down into the Atlantic.

Yes, that is a rose Martini in my hand.

On Sunday we headed down to the beach at Hout Bay again for a couple of hours of paddling (feet going numb in the icy water) and beach combing. Then after lunch we went to visit a new friend of Elizabeth's, a little girl called Emma. Emma's sister Amy is in Lottie's class, so we all stayed and chatted whilst Emma and Amy taught Lottie and Elizabeth how to use a J-Board, a kind of skateboard with a hinge in the middle so that it pivots and turns and is controlled by moving the hips, legs and feet. Basically, impossible, unless you're young and lithe and have a low centre of gravity. They are the craze in SA, and are now on our girls' birthday lists, so that's another thing to try to track down.

Emma's mum explained the school system to me. In theory, there is no free education here. All schools charge, with the basic cost being about 800 Rand / term (about £75 at current exchange rates). This is means tested, so no child is denied an education as a result of poverty. As a guide, a properly paid maid earns about R120, or about £10 a day. So school is a significant but affordable cost, as long as you've got a job of some kind. Of course millions haven't.

Schools like Rustenburg, where Lottie and Elizabeth are, then charge a top up, set by the governing body. They use this money to employ more teachers and so reduce class sizes, to fund better facilities (pools, tennis courts etc) and to offer additional subjects and extra curricular activities. As well as these so called Government schools there are a few private schools which charge considerably more. Everyone is encouraged to stay on to 18 and 'Matriculate', which sounds a bit like the I.B. - 6 subjects studied, harder than O Levels, not quite as tough as A Levels. No 'Mat' certificate, no job with any kind of prospects. Having watched a woman on Hout Bay beach who was paid to pick up dog poo left by those too lazy to do it themselves, the benefits of matriculating are obvious.

It's now after 10pm and the reality of another 6am start is just round the corner. Fortunately SA TV is so dire there's nothing to stay up for. Even the Ten O' Clock News is unreliable, as South Africa has 11 official languages and the broadcasters are supposed to do justice to all. One night it's in English, another it's Afrikaans, on a third it's transmitted in Setswana. Still, we'll soon be closer to school and have a shorter commute to contend with as we've found a house in a suburb called Rondebosch only about 15 minutes from the centre of Cape Town. We move next weekend.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading this so far, and to my Follower! (Pippa, I don't know what it means either...)

Love to you all,

The Huttons

It has been the most glorious week in Cape Town. I know we're missing the best summer in England for a hundred years or whatever, but we have at least had clear blue skies, brilliant sunshine, and a freshness to the air that means it is lovely to be out and about.
Still chilly at night, but Neil and I did manage to sit outside one evening with a glass of wine, listening to the frogs. They make an extraordinary singsong sound - not at all like a British frogs croak.
Apparently porcupines come into the gardens in this area (we're a good way out of the city centre here, in the foothills of the Steenberg mountains). We haven't seen any though.

I started work with a vengance yesterday. Had to remind myself that this wasn't just one extended holiday and that I actually have to do something with my time. The office is located in quite a funky part of town, and as Cape Town is a small city, nothing is too far away. I got the train into town, a pretty simple act which has provoked much comment amongst my colleagues. One person summed up the attitude of the better off in the land where the car is king, for Whites at least: 'You used public transport? How European!'

Sadly, we had been warned off the train repeatedly. However we're operating with only one car and a school day that finishes far early than the working day. Unless Neil and the girls are going to spend their whole time collecting me from the city, we needed to find another solution. So, with a bit of encouragement from one apparently sane estate agent who told us which suburban stations to use and which to avoid, we decided to give it a go. And it was fine. The carriages are a bit grubby and run down, the train users 90% Black, but everyone was at best helpful, at worst indifferent to my presence. It is extraordinarily cheap (about 40p for a 40 minute journey). The man selling tickets asked me if I wanted a 1st or 3rd class ticket. As I have yet to see a train with a 1st class carriage I opted for 3rd. Just as well really - I'm not sure 1st class exists on these local services.

Lottie and Elizabeth start African Music lessons tomorrow. Elizabeth in particular can't wait. She has asked for an animal hide skirt of the type some tribes still wear for her birthday. Not sure I'm going to be able to rise to that particular challenge!

Hopefully we'll know where we're going to be living more permanently next time I add to this blog. House hunting is rather dominating our lives at the moment.
More soon....

Being a complete novice at this blogging game, I've no idea whether this will ever see the light of day.
Anyway, here goes for a quick re-cap of our first 10 days in South Africa.

Highlights so far:

1. Amazing, astonishing beauty of the countryside that surrounds us wherever we go. 'Countryside' is a rather drab, everyday sort of word really. The Table Mountain National Park which is always visible wherever we go in Cape Town and on the Penninsula isn't countryside in the English sense. There are mountains everywhere we look: Table Mountain, the Twelve Apostles, the Hottentot Hollands, Lion's Head and Devil's Peak. They are majestic, dramatic, and they govern our lives in as much as they dictate the weather locally.

2. The wildlife. We're a long way from the nearest safari park, but we've already seen African penguins, rock dassies, baboons and their babies, and Cape fur seals. Long billed ibis birds dig up our lawn for worms each morning. The girls are thrilled with every new sighting, especially the baboons which was a real treat, just as it was getting dark last night.

3. The welcome. We're staying in a cottage in the grounds of a bigger house for the first few weeks until we get settled. Charlie and his family couldn't be nicer, or more helpful and generous. The girls are loving the fact that Charlie has 3 horses and 3 dogs and a big garden to run around in. We were offered our pick of produce from the vegetable garden this morning, until the youngest and naughtiest pony gained access and ate much of the crop.

4. School and the way Lottie and Elizabeth are settling in. The girls have been amazing, taking to their new surrounding with barely a wobble. On day one the only person to shed a tear was me. They are making friends and getting to know their way round quite a complicated school site. Afrikaans and Xhosa are proving very challenging! African Music starts this week, which they are both looking forward to. Elizabeth has a new friend called Pagan. She introduced herself to me very politely, and told me her name then said ' and that's funny because my religion is pagan too.' Well well. I've never met a pagan before.

5. The upside down nature of the seasons, and the constantly changing weather. It has been bloody cold at times, especially in the evenings and early mornings. Having to scrape ice off the car windscreen last week at 6.55 am so that we could leave for school was particularly notable. But the weather doesn't stay the same for long and this weekend has been glorious with really warm sunshine. I love the fact that every mention of 'winter' and 'July' in the same sentence remind me that we're 6,000 miles away from home and that this really is the other end of the planet. Once you reach the end of the Cape Penninsula as we did yesterday, the next land is Antartica.

Right, time to try to post this and see what happens....