How. Very. Unattractive. Besides the sheer hilarity (I am loving the designer sneakers – they go very well with the traditional Zulu garb), this image makes my skin crawl – primarily because I think he has bigger breasts than I do. Just to clarify…this is not about me slagging a traditional Zulu marriage ceremony. My association with traditional African heritage is a part of what makes me a South African – so I would never make light of that. I don’t, however, regard the sneakers as traditional in anyway, so they are fair game in my opinion!

I have spoken at pains about what I think of Zuma, but again, he has prompted me to devote some more time to elaborate on my views. The fact that he has now been tipped as the next South African president got me thinking that I should blog about why I think he should DEFINITELY NOT be. I then got this comment on my previous Zuma post (my response follows Sanele’s 10 cents worth) which gave me some more encouragement to blog:

It was, however, the final straw when, whilst waiting to speak to my boss yesterday, I picked up the Herald Sun and was confronted with the above delightful gem of a photograph and the unbelievable news of him having a fourth wife.

This whole “Zuma to be president” affair is wrong on so very many different levels, that I thought I would list them:

Fraud, bribery and corruption

Mr Zuma was South Africa’s deputy president for six years before his sacking in 2005 by Mr Mbeki after he was implicated in a bribery trial that saw his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, convicted on fraud and corruption charges. He was also charged with bribery but the case was thrown out on a technicality. However, a High Court ruling last month cleared the way for evidence to be used against him in a possible future prosecution on corruption charges in connection with a multi-million-dollar arms deal.

When is fraud ever OK? When does it ever result in one maintaining a position of leadership? Mbeki fired him (and rightly so) and now he is coming back for more and nobody is in a position to put their foot down. He is playing dumb (which I understand is second-nature for him) about it all, but he is a crook and a tax evader, in my opinion. End of story. Now the fact that he may be buddies with crooks high up in the judicial system (similar to those who found him “innocent” of rape, for example) may result in him, once again, getting let off on a technicality. Just remember, you heard it here first: I think he is a crook, but they won’t find him guilty and they certainly won’t lock him away. Which sucks, but if everyone is in cahoots what can be done?

Rape

According to the Herald Sun, “Mr Zuma, a Zulu, was acquitted of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman last year. During the trial he told the court the sex was consensual.”

Ah the old “she really wanted it” line. Yawn.

Because I find it too boring to get into again, you can read more about this stupid trial, his sheer incompetence and shockingly unbelievable acquittal on my blog post devoted to the topic or at the “Jacob-Zuma -you’re-an-idiot-but-we-really-don’t-know-better-so-we-still-love-you” website.

Polygamy

Zulu tradition allows men to have more than one wife, but the practice is limited, because it is costly and against the Western norms that are increasingly pervading South African society. No legislative moves have been made, however, to abolish the practice, considered part of South Africa’s cultural diversity.

Now apparently one of his wives committed suicide, which is really unfortunate. He then divorced another. But hey, who is (and can) keep track of who he is doing the deed with at any given time?! I am not even sure he can. The point is that he, like many Zulu’s, condones polygamy. South Africa’s AIDS crisis is out of control and here he is carrying on as if it doesn’t exist and doing exactly what exacerbates the problem! The culture of polygamy is why South Africa is in the state that it is in (why is it that Kwazulu-Natal has the highest rate of infection?) – here we have someone in the public eye whom a great number of (unfortunately) very rural, uneducated people really look up to and he is pulling stunts like this. The mind boggles…

Gender Politics

Besides polygamy undermining gender equality, he seems to have an issue with gays as well:

He then incurred the wrath of Aids activists earlier this year when he told a heritage day rally: “When I was growing up an ungqingili (gay) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out.”

Great nation-building stuff considering a bill has just been passed allowing same-sex marriages in the country. He just can’t seem to keep his mouth shut. Again, he says this to “his people” and they just lap it up. It is known that he is hardly the sharpest tool in the shed, but stating things like that makes South Africa look like an uneducated shambles in the eyes of the rest of the world.

His Sneakers

Did I mention I found them funny?

In closing…

I haven’t spoken to that many South Africans about their feelings regarding Zuma and how they see their future under his potential leadership. I was half expecting people to pack their bags like so many did in 1993, but not so. Perhaps it isn’t such an issue after all, but it certainly worries me a great deal. I thank my lucky stars that I am not living there anymore, but unfortunately a large number of people who are really special to me, still are. I would really like to know what your feelings are about this. Please no racist remarks – I moderate them and they will not be posted.

Source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6, source 7, source 8, source 9.

Anne from “Anne’s Food” posted the following recipe for a Crunchy Salad a while back. It is really simple to make, and has become a weekly favourite in our home. Not only is it versatile in that you can pretty much add whatever you like, but it is really healthy (hopefully making up for my previous Macaroni and Cheese escapades). We often have it on its own or with some chicken on the side. My version is slightly different to Anne’s as we aren’t that keen on fennel, enjoy the sweetness of red apples (as opposed to the green cooking variety) and I prefer cashew nuts to peanuts. So behold the recipe that may change your life!

Crunchy Salad

For the dressing:

Mix all the ingredients for the salad. In a separate jug, mix all dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over salad (obviously!). Serve with chicken or crispy bread. Enjoy, and do let me know what you think!

Source

Ah it was tough coming to work today, what with the rest of the world being on holiday and all…but my three weeks of leave will be coming up in April and I am sure that will be well worth the wait. I saw that India wasn’t on holiday today either, when, on my arrival at the office, I discovered this little doozie in my inbox:

After my recent HP rant, I headed straight to the online survey page and completed the survey rather swiftly. I did, however, spend a bit more time adding some bells and whistles (it is Christmas after all!) to the “Additional Comments” Section. They go a little something like this…

For those of you who *really* care, I have included my “Additional Comments”:

You guys are pretty smart: You don’t include a “Super-duper Dissatisfied” radio button option because, given the opportunity, that would be the one that I would have chosen for all but one of your questions listed above.

I am so appalled at how poor your customer service in India is. They waste your time asking you to repeat your name and telephone number several times because they either can’t understand your accent or they cannot understand English. Then they put you on hold for ridiculously long periods to time so they can find out answers to some of the most fundamental hardware and software questions known to man!

For the record, I lodged my complaint with an Australian (Anthony), in your Melbourne head office as I was desperate to not have to deal with India and he was very helpful – hence my being “Very Satisfied” with that aspect of the process. Unfortunately he told me that my complaint would be directed to India – so, after experiencing a glimmer of hope, I realised I was back to square one.

“Hari Unnikrishnan” was assigned my complaint and he didn’t bother getting back to me at all. Apparently your “Lodged Complaint Response Time” (according to the lovely Anthony) is 6 to 8 hours. Well after three days of trying to reach him because he hadn’t bothered to make contact, he fobbed me off to some woman with a message to give to me – basically saying that they couldn’t help me. I wanted to speak to Hari and I was blocked. I find that incredibly rude and unprofessional. The fact that HP does not allow its customers the ability to escalate a problem in the event of the “lower level” clerks not being able to assist you is shocking.

The above is an abridged version of my very unhappy, unhelpful and superbly frustrating experience with HP customer care. For the whole bang-shoot you can toodle over to my weblog (http://www.footloosemoose.com/sam_wp/?p=305) where you can, along with the general worldwide public, read about the really juicy details of this incident.

In closing, I would like to say that I have only ever used HP products and, other than a couple of busted touch pads (and I can be rough!), they have always served me well. So it is a pity that the people you have representing your customer care division have gone right ahead and ruined the whole “HP Experience” for me. As a result, I will not purchase another HP product for that very reason and I will encourage my friends and family to do the same. I simply do not care for a repeat of the above experience and would not inflict it on anyone I know.

By the way, you may want to proof-read your survey: “Overall how satisfied were you with the way in which HP handle your Complaint” – there should be a “d” at the end of “handle” to make it grammatically correct. Furthermore, it may be a good idea to not have the word “Errors:” in red at the top of the survey page. Though I must say I am rather amused at the sheer irony of it.

So having written the above I attempt to submit the stupid survey. I press submit and the page just hangs – no confirmation page, nothing! Instead I get diverted back to my original completed survey page. This really is in true HP style, I think to myself. Irritated that I made the effort to fill in their stupid survey and to tell them how much they suck, I fire off the following email response to aucustomerexperience@hp.com:

From: Samantha *****


To: aucustomerexperience@hp.com


Re: HP Customer Survey

To Whom it May Concern

Your survey isn’t working properly. When you press “Submit” there is no “confirmation of receipt” page confirming that my survey has, in fact, been sent / received. Can you please confirm whether or not you have, in fact, received my feedback, as I really, really would like you to hear what I have to say.

Regards

Sam

So now I would be interested to know what, if anything, will come of this. I wonder if they will even grace my last email with a response – would be strange for them to start treating their customers properly now…

UPDATE:

Shockingly unexpected surprise: It is now 7 February 2008 and I haven’t heard anything from HP Customer Service since 27 December 2007 – nothing about my survey feedback nor about my email explaining to them that, just like their attitude to customer service, their survey was stuffed. Perhaps it is all an evil plot: if the survey doesn’t work then they don’t get the negative feedback that, no doubt, would be coming thick and fast. So they may actually be thinking that they are doing a good job because nobody is complaining…wouldn’t put it past them.

Bonus: If my elusive friend “Hari Unnikrishnan” ever performs an ego search or a future employer wants to find out a bit about him on Google…guess what ranks as number 1:

THE END

‘Tis the Season to be jolly and I am pretty jolly…which is why I have been in two minds about even posting this rant. I gave into it though because I am only now moving out of the “fuming with anger” phase.

I have encountered some rather appalling customer service in my (almost!) 30 years of life, but usually the issue is eventually resolved and I figure that bad-mouthing said company and associated bad customer service levels will simply elicit bad karma. An example of this would be my migration lawyer, who charged me an abominable amount of money for time she spent rectifying her mistakes which, in turn, delayed my Permanent Residence application by about six months. I threatened to go to the press or Today Tonight (no, not really) and to write an especially scathing blog entry mentioning the firm and her name. I haggled with her regarding her fees for about a month and then decided that if she wants to offer unprofessional services to people and rip them off shamelessly, then she will get what is coming to her one day and that me harping on the issue was just pointless. So I told her exactly what I thought of her and her fellow solicitors and settled my account. End of story, moving on…

The following tale, however, is very different because I have gone to great pains to get an issue resolved with no success at all. To throw some extra annoyance into the mix, I had to contend with appalling customer service throughout my dealings with this company. So here we go with some slandering and name-mentioning:

Hewlett-Packard sucks in a truly monumental way. Their call center in India needs to a) learn to speak English and b) make an effort to actually solve your problem.

Brief overview of my issue: I Purchased an HP Pavilion zd8000 notebook two years ago (not a bad machine, though I know many people complain bitterly about their Pavilion range). I now need to reformat my hard-drive and reinstall Windows XP as it is running slowly and I like to get rid of all the junk on it and start afresh every year or so. I do not have Operating System Recovery Disks to perform this task in a painless way. Apparently they were bundled with the machine. Now I don’t remember seeing them and actually assumed that these files were on a hidden partition on the hard-drive. Either way, I understand that they could have been lost in the move etc. and am not blaming anyone for me not having them (except maybe myself). But the point is that I don’t have them and so cannot reformat my computer. So I called HP to ask how much a set of replacement disks would cost. Apparently they “do not have them anymore because my computer is so very old”. Two years is not old! The fact that HP does not support 2 year old machines is scary in itself. I was told this tidbit of unhelpful information after I had spent at least 15 minutes being transferred from one non-English-speaking person to the next, having to spell out my name over and over again.

I asked them if they are expecting me to throw my computer away now that I don’t have disks to recover it? They apparently “can’t comment on that” but I “can pay to have the notebook re-imaged”, which just goes to show that they don’t even understand how reformatting a notebook even works. So I lose it with them and tell them I want to speak to their manager. This is apparently only possible if I lodge a formal complaint. So I lodge a formal complaint (#CCHSAP123246 – should HP actually decide to begin to care!) and “Hari Unnikrishnan” will apparently get back to me in 6 to 8 hours. The next day I call back and ask why Hari hasn’t called me back. Apparently he is very busy, but will call me in the next 6 to 8 hours. The next day I call again and ask to speak to him again because he still hasn’t graced my lodged complaint with a response. Instead of putting me through, the woman on the other end puts me on a hold for like 10 minutes. Then gets back and says that she has spoken to Hari and he says “there are no disks”. So then I really lose it and tell her that I have a complaint number and that that gives me a right to speak to Hari and that I demand to speak to him now. She says that he can’t tell me anything that she hasn’t. I just wanted to get through to him to say what I ended up saying to her. I told her that I think HP customer care is sorely lacking, that I think I have been treated appallingly and that she can tell Hari that I will never purchase another HP product again and that I will be spreading the word far and near that everyone I know, shouldn’t either. Not because the actual products suck (although I have heard many stories that they do), but simply because of their useless customer care clerks and their inability to solve basic issues. She then thanked me for calling HP – AAAAAHHHRRRRGGG!

So now I have to manually reformat my hard-drive, try and find a copy of XP to buy (retailers only sell Vista now and my machine cannot support it), install it and then install about 30 drivers before my notebook can be used again – hopefully. All because of HP’s ineptitude.

So people, try and avoid HP unless you want to go through the above even for an issue as trivial as replacing your system recovery disks.

For further Hewlett-Packard bedtime stories, you may visit some equally disgruntled users here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. For the other 98757 million complaints, simply Google “HP Sucks”.

UPDATE:

Mission accomplished: It has been about 15 minutes since I posted the above story and I am now ranked on page 2 when I run a search on Google for “HP sucks”. Take that, suckers!

As promised in Macaroni and Cheese Part 1 – A South African Recipe, to follow is a recipe for the traditional or “Béchamel” Macaroni and Cheese.

Just a couple of notes before we begin:

You will see that the recipe encourages you to prepare all ingredients first and set them aside. The reason for this is that the white sauce is by far the most important component of the recipe and it requires your (my!) full attention. Sucky white sauce = sucky Mac and Cheese! Now I taught myself how to make white sauce and it is probably the one thing that I have really struggled to perfect. Fluffy rice is the other. I purchased a rice cooker to solve the latter issue, but I have yet to find a “White Sauce Cooker”! My problem was that in the past it my white sauce would end up with a grainy grainy consistency…not very pleasant at all. I asked around and everyone had a different theory: some said that I overcooked the sauce, others said that I let the butter and flour get too hot before adding the milk. Yet others said that adding flour to very hot butter would cause it. So, having done my social research, I went did some nerd research online. I looked up some forums on the issue and, whilst I have still not nailed down exactly what the problem is, I have succeeded in incorprating some suggestions people made and it seems to have worked!

So here is the recipe with a rather detailed white-sauce section:

Ingredients

White Sauce

Topping

Preparation

The White Sauce

The Meeting

If you would like a truly South African experience, dice about 6 Peppadews and add them along with the onion and bacon. This wonderful African fruit lends the dish a sweet and peppery flavour that I adore!

You can read about Peppadews here, purchase them at any South African shop or order them online here. Please let me know what you think of this unique addition to the dish!

Image Source

I love Macaroni and Cheese.

I find it simply amazing how a bowl of Macaroni and Cheese has the ability to make better an otherwise bad day. I am equally amazed that, out the many comfort foods known to man, my favourite is one of the most fattening. Either way, I have made peace with this calorie-ridden reality along with acknowledging it to be a ridiculously unsophisticated dish (does anyone ever serve this at dinner parties or eat it with proper cutlery?) and that it should never be consumed by anyone without comprehensive coronary health cover! Don’t get me started on how it contradicts my efforts in trying to get in shape for our wedding!

Now I understand that some of you may be thinking that Macaroni and Cheese is hardly a South African dish. To clarify, I call it South African because it is what my South African mum cooked for us when I was growing up (and still does I guess, but I wouldn’t know because I am a million miles away from her!). The name also succeeds in drawing a distinction between it and the traditional béchamel sauce recipe. To clarify; in my cheesy, carb-tastic world, there are three distinct types of Macaroni and Cheese:

I think that the South African Macaroni and Cheese recipe is very versatile. One can convert it to low-fat by using low-fat milk and reduced fat cheese as it doesn’t require any of the butter or flour that the traditional version calls for. It is also significantly quicker to prepare than the traditional white sauce variety that requires a fair bit of time just to prepare a lump-free sauce! With this recipe you just throw everything together in a baking tray and pop it in the oven – as simple as that! Enjoy!

SOUTH AFRICAN MACARONI AND CHEESE

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Serve with All Gold Tomato Sauce or Mrs Balls Chutney.

Still to come: “Macaroni and Cheese Part 2 – The Traditional Dish!”

I have a confession to make: I drafted this post a week ago and haven’t published it until this evening because I really don’t know what sort of response I am going to get from you all! It is a little off-the-wall, but I am sure you will all be kind with your comments…

I thought that I would write a little about our avian friends this time. Not because I am particularly interested in birds…I mean, I love all animals, but short of parrots that talk (like my Aunt’s one) they don’t really do it for me. I am more a dog and cat kinda girl…but for some reason bird “things” have just punctuated my relatively bird-free existence during the past couple of weeks…

Bird topic No. 1 – Duck Feet: I ate them. On Friday. Not fun. Here is how it happened…

While on our way to get some Yum Cha after going to a wedding expo 2 months ago, my friend from Taiwan explained to me that some people ate chicken feet. I was quite surprised, a bit appalled, but strangely curious! I really didn’t know that chicken feet were…well…“tasty”. I was assured that there would be many other things on the menu that would not involve ingesting animal extremities. I was relieved, but my curiosity remained!

I guess my initial revulsion and subsequent intrigue was as a result of not having encountered very much Chinese food until I moved to Australia. In South Africa, the Asian population is less than 1% and, as a result, you aren’t really exposed to true Asian food to the degree you are in Australia – there is simply no demand for Asian Grocers and authentic Asian restaurants there. Sure you get sushi spots and Westernised Thai and Chinese takeaway joints but, unlike in Melbourne, even they are few and far between.

Ever since my chicken-foot conversation with my friend, I have been pondering why people eat what they do a fair bit (this topic will be addressed in a future post!). I think, as a South African, I am very open-minded about food. I am always up for trying new things and there are several South African dishes that my Australian friends find totally off-putting. For instance:

Peri-Peri chicken liver stew is amazing!

There is nothing like some chicken livers floating in some spicy sauce to hit the spot. After you pick out the livers, you soak up the remaining sauce with a bread roll or toast! It is also a ridiculously cheap meal to have. You can order this dish at many restaurants and even Nandos in South Africa sells stacks of it. Nandos also sells peri-peri chicken neck, heart and stomach for the more adventurous!

Marrow bones rock!

Another treat (that Michael can’t cope with, but I made him taste it and he has eaten it in Mum’s soup without even knowing it!) would be the famed “Marrow bones on Toast”. This involves getting big cow bones (still containing marrow) on a plate – by which time they will already have been expertly prepared with spices and garlic. You then remove the marrow from the bones with a fork and spread it on your toast. Very rich, but probably one of my most favourite dishes when I visit South Africa!

Tripe and Trotters – a little less tasty…

Then we have the infamous “Trip and Trotters”. Now this I don’t find very nice, but I have eaten it. I guess watching mum physically cleaning out the sheep’s tummy and shave his hooves (all lined up on the kitchen table) before popping them all in a curry stew may have caused this aversion. Otherwise it was the smell of it cooking…not very pleasant! I feel that I must say that I have NEVER eaten a sheep’s head (for all of my Australian friends that think because I am South African I must have!!) or any animal’s brains…well knowingly anyway. Again…I am rather curious about the latter.

Skilpadjies

I tasted one of these babies once. Not too bad…and I would definitely be up for it again. Now the word “Skilpadjie” means “Baby Tortoise” in English…but they are not tortoises, people! Not that the local African people don’t eat tortoises…they love them. They stew them…just chuck ‘em in a “potjie” pot and that is dinner! Mum and I always found it terrible and as a result we have rescued many a tortoise on its way to being a dinner. We would spot these black dudes carrying the tortoises while walking down the road (I lived in a slightly rural part of Cape Town when I grew up) and pull over, give them R10 to buy another dinner and rescue the poor little sods from their doom. I think at one stage we had about 6 tortoises and all their babies in our back garden! All saved from a rather hot ending!

I digress! The “Skilpadjies” I speak of is an Afrikaans “invention” that you “braai” (barbecue) along with your chops and sausage. They involve taking lamb liver and wrapping it in the fatty membrane that surrounds the lamb kidneys. Post stuffing, they look remarkably like baby tortoises (sorry no pics available on the Internet). This little tidbit of info should ensure that no Ozzies ever come for a braai at my house!

Now I hear you asking: “Well if you grew up eating sheep and chicken hearts, livers and stomachs, then why the hell not throw in some feet?” Well, the answer to that is “I really don’t know!”. I guess I was kinda up for a good ol’ “chicken feet chow down” until I actually saw them. That stopped me dead in my tracks. As the Yum Cha cart rolled around and stopped at our table, I think it was seeing those long, knobbly toes hanging over the edge of the plate that made me realise I would have to mentally prepare myself to take the big step.

So I did….

The big day would be two Fridays ago when Michael and I decided to grab some Yum Cha before going to see the amazingly craptastic “Superbad” movie. As it happened, the restaurant wasn’t doing Yum Cha that evening and we had to order off the menu. As usual, we decided we would go for one conventional dish and one adventurous one. We saw “Duck, Pork and Abalone Hot Pot” on the menu and thought that it would be good for the “adventurous” dish. Our Chinese waiter explained to us that it was an authentic Chinese meal and that we should be warned that it may contain things like…duck feet! It felt like it was meant to be…so we bravely said that we would be cool with that…all the while getting our cameras warmed up for some blog-worthy photographs.

The meal arrived and I was scared. To get the whole thing over with, I quickly fished out a duck foot (there were 4 in total) and popped it on top of my rice to start exploring it. Here is a pic…webs between the toes and all:

Then I took a bite:

I have to confess, I only ate a toe and nibbled on the leg part. It wasn’t very tasty and I didn’t fancy the texture. At. All. So I “ducked” (couldn’t resist) out of the challenge and watch Michael bravely eat a whole one. I am marrying him for his heroism.

So now that the duck was out of the way, I started exploring the other bits of the hot pot. I tried a couple of things and I had no idea what they were. After a while I called the waiter over and asked him to give me a run down of the content of our dish. He promptly explained that I had eaten bone marrow (I am ok with that as I explained before), but also sea cucumber (not cucumbers. They are underwater worm things!), pig skin and…my personal favourite… “black fungus”. It was around then when I decided that I would focus more on eating the bits of of bok choy that I could manage to fish out from between the bovine, pork and poultry livery that was our dinner. During my mild revulsion, Michael merrily waded his way through the remaining contents of the dish. I couldn’t watch…but he is still my hero, and I am still marrying him…

Because it was rather embarrassing having the camera flash going off repeatedly in the restaurant, I wasn’t able to take any more pics. So that you don’t feel cheated, I have scoured the web for some extra pics of chicken feet, sea cucumber and black fungus for you all to enjoy:

Dried Black Fungus:

Sea Cucumber:

Chicken Feet Soup:

So after the above avian experience, I have had to make peace with the fact that neither Michael, nor I, will ever be able to read the following Dr. Seuss book to our kids without feeling like we have lost all of our innocence:

Bird Topic No. 2 – Comic Relief: My second bird topic for today, you will be happy to know, is much more pleasant. I have come across two humorous bird pics that I have been meaning to blog for ages now. I thought today was most fitting. Here is the first one:

Ain’t that the truth yeah?

In closing, here is the second pic (look at his face!):

Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

But that was a long time ago…

and it was just ONE day.

The End

Around 1pm most working days you will find me making my way from my office in Fitzroy to the local sushi shop on Brunswick Street. I generally do this in a bit of a daze having stared at a computer for the first half of the day. Whilst going through my lunch time routine, who would have guessed that I would have had the opportunity to meet a very handsome boy called Pablo!

As I approached him I though to myself “that is one massive poodle!”. Yeah I know I had a lot to say about these sorts of confusions…anyway…what gave Pablo away as I drew nearer where his…yes you guessed it…his hooves! So there I was standing before an Alpaca in the middle of Fitzroy…and he certainly was attracting some attention and causing a bit of a stir in the Brunswick Street lunchtime hustle and bustle.

Apparently Pablo hails from Tasmania and his dad is the man in the photograph below. Pablo is also allowed in the house, which I agree with because what is the point of having a pet if you lock them in the yard all day and let the sleep in the cold. I call that bad parenting!

Pablo is also apparently a busker…well so his dad explained. He had a donations pouch around his neck and that seems to cover his transport costs and then a little extra. I know many would question this (not least of all me), but Pablo looked like a happy boy with a lovely thick coat and was nibbling on some nuts while he did his busking.

So it is official…I want an alpaca…I want an alpaca just like Pablo!

Apologies for my scarcity during the past month! Michael and I returned to Melbourne on Tuesday night after a wonderful 3.5 week African holiday!

Whilst we had a great time enjoying a rather wet 2 weeks in Cape Town and a stunningly warm week in Mauritius (we stayed at The One & Only Le Touessrok hotel there – pictured above – which was incredible!), we are glad to be back home in Melbourne (I guess my positivity may dissipate somewhat once the jet-lag sets in!!).

Seriously, it was wonderful being able to catch up with my friends and family after being away from them all for over 1.5 years. It was also a time of engagement celebrations, and wedding planning which was great fun!

Some of the best news of the holiday is that my oldest friend (we have known each other for 25 years!) is having a baby – Congratulations, Delia and Oliver! What’s more is it is due on my Birthday – after which she has agreed to be a bridesmaid at my wedding!

We have some wonderful photographs that Michael will be uploading shortly (hint, hint!). I will post the online album link as soon he is done!