March 29, 2025
Today had fun moments but was challenging. This video best sums up the day as a “soft” fight or perhaps it would be better described as “mild” listening. Either way we survived it and learned a few things.
We skipped home school to embrace the Saturday feel and let the boys watch some extra TV this morning while Kayleen and I did some life admin. We got our act together and headed back to the Oranjezicht Farmers Market for lunch and fresh produce. It was much busier on a Saturday then the Wednesday night market.
Parking was hard to find, even in the garage, but they let people wash your car in the garages so we made a deal that we would take a car wash if they could help me claim a spot. Great deal for a $8.50 wash.
I could write a whole post about the parking in Cape Town. It is very confusing if you don’t read about it before hand. There are people in vests on every street at busy times of the day. A small few are official city employees that charge you for parking, basically what a meter does. The vast majority have no affiliation with anything and at first feels like you are getting ripped off. Or they chase you down the road trying to help, once we drove away from being freaked out. I now look for them…
They tell you where to park, help you find a spot, help you parallel park, and “guard” your car. All for ~1 USD (20 Rand), if you come back and a new guard is there it might cost you another 20 Rand. You could also pay them nothing if you don’t have any cash but they have always been quite pleasant and thankful for the 20 Rand so we have been happy to give it now that we know the system.
Anyway back to the market. Lenny was jacked up to get back into the “Beaver Nest” at the entrance. I bought a button down bird shirt that I’m sure will make some good photos in future posts. Kayleen got a rooibos tea Arnold Palmer and the boys shared a coconut.
The boys got waffles to eat, Kayleen got a vegan cape Malay plate w veggies, salads curries and roti, & I had a burger with an egg and hot peppers. Then we got our produce, fresh pasta, and some parm cheese which as been hard to find.
Next we headed to the V&A waterfront to run off some energy at a park and try some light home school by writing postcards at a Starbucks. It was not super pleasant but we got them done and mailed. There was a man on stilts making balloon animals for kids so we caved and they got a red/blue sword and a green/purple dinosaur.
Lenny and Kayleen went to get mani/pedis and Ollie and I watched some rugby on a big screen they had setup in the harbor. It was fun but Ollie had about a million questions and I tried to answer them from my memory of the game at UConn but would glance around as I answered to see if any true fans were shaking their head in disgust.
We headed home and Kayleen made the fresh pasta with tomatoes. Even the boys opted for two bowls of the fresh pasta, minus the tomatoes.
What did we learn today?
Going anywhere crowded with the boys is not pleasant.
Mobile home schooling is not effective or fun but sometimes needed for a change of pace.
Balloon animals are fun to see for 2 minutes but they cause a full day of aggravation for us.
I was quite happy when the boys went to bed this evening.
