Kirill was here

A good friend from my office, back in the UK, came here for a long - awaited visit.

Heikki was able to spend the first days with Kirill, but was then off to Japan for a week's conference. Meanwhile, as we're still renovating at home, instead of sightseeing every day, we also did some building work: painting, plastering an laying tiles.

It was lovely to have a friend over. Most evenings we chatted and had some wine.

We did get out of the house, too. We saw the whales at Hout Bay and Hermanus, Cheetas at Spier (Stellenbosch), flowers at Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, penguins at Boulders, and a cockroach in the kitchen of an Ethiopian restaurant in Cape Town.

We did some things that are not in everyone's to-do list while holidaying in the Cape. We got a ride in the back of a pick up truck with the builders. (This is something the whites don't do, and especially not women). We went to a Muslim house in Grassy Park to see a family who's off to the pilgrimage in Mecca on the 3rd of November. They have friends visiting and saying farewell each night before they go. We also had a wonderful opportunity to hear two choirs at the Finnish consulate: a Finnish male choir on their 100-year birthday tour and a South African youth choir. At the end of the evening, after everyone had left the consulate and we had almost tidied up, the 50-man choir came sining up the mountain. Their bus had tried to make a tight turn and had collided with a tree.