"Ditsem" to Dischem!

As you may have worked out by now, ulricha and I are on a week long holiday in Cape Town.

So you can imagine how we panicked slightly when we realised that we had not gone to the Northgate Dischem to get the next month supply of a course of medication that has been prescribed to Ulricha.

So unsure of what might happen, we went to the Claremont branch of Dischem and enquired about whether we could get the next course of medication. After a few clicks of the mouse some swift hand movements over the keyboard and a confirmation of the personal details on file, we were getting ourselves the medication we needed - 1500 kilometers from where the actual prescription is situated.

It is a credit to a company like Dischem that they have a national database of scripts and perscriptions on file that allows travellers to get their medication when they are far from home.

Many thanks to the good folk of Dischem!

Road trip to the Mother City #1: Holiday by the sea

Usually one goes to the coast to enjoy high temperatures, but this holiday is a little bit reversed. For a local that has just returned from the UK, the recent high temperatures experienced on the Highveld feel REALLY warm, and so Ulricha and myself are taking a week out and visiting my parents in Cape Town.

We started off very early on Friday and were already approaching Bloemfontein by the time the sun rose. We continued extremely well, making good progress until Colesberg, when the car developed an emission system problem, which caused the engine management system to limit to power being delivered. As a result our progress was significantly slowed, though thankfully the problem is not serious enough to have caused us to stop.

We arrived safely late in the evening, welcomed to Cape Town by strong winds, but clear and sunny skies – something quite unusual for Cape Town recently.

However, along the way we managed to get some good photo opportunities – especially when we got into the Western Cape, and caught sight of some snow that has accumulated over the high mountains of the Boland. The scenery in the Cape is magnificent, with the recent higher than usual rainfall having left the flora blooming magnificently.

And no matter how much time you spend away from Cape Town, somehow the glimpse of Table Mountain from Blouberg always gives you the feeling that you have returned home.