just a Saturday in the Cape

We have the new builders at our house now and they've changed my opinion on local builders.

The guys are great. They do a wonderful job with great finishes. They come to work early and work hard all day with the record so far being until 9:30 PM. They don't finish midday on Fridays - yesterday they stayed until 7 PM. They also work if it's raining - they bring their wellies and rain coats. The thing is, that we pay them per week, and they still work hard, they still work late and come to work at weekends!

The builders came to work today (Saturday). They had built a carcass for the concrete staircase this week. They wanted to pour the concrete today so the stairs would be ready by the time we get family over from Finland in the beginning of November.

It was a nice, warm day. Sathi and Sheylen came for a visit. Heikki had bought swordfish and prepared a Braai (BBQ). India swam in the pool a couple of times while waiting for the food. I watched the builders work.

The staircase was cast in the late afternoon. Sathi had offered to take us Jet-skiing in Cape Town. India, Heikki and I went while Matias stayed at home, keeping himself busy, working on some remote-controlled cars he wanted to fix.

Sathi, Sheylen and I had a nice long ride on the Jet-ski. It turned out to be even longer than planned as when we started heading back to the boat house we spotted a whale. We had gotten very close to the huge animal before noticing it. We stayed for a while, watching it roll in slow motion from side to side, lifting the head up, then a fin, then rolling again to the other side, then continuing the movements in random order, as if just basking there, enjoying the sun.

By the time Sathi took me back to the clubhouse and Heikki to the whale-spot, the whale had moved on. When they returned the sun was starting to set. We had a drink at the club's bar while India popped in the pool, and then headed home.