(Dan’s comments are bolded and italicized)

Although most of our time thus far has been spent working on our home and driving through game parks, regular day-to-day living is typically spent between those two places. This is what that looks like…

As we leave our home, I want to share one last change we’ve made. For some unknown reason, I decided to paint a scene on the wall of the downstairs bedroom. For those artists amongst you, I should mention that I know not what I’m doing as I come from an education system where those who are deemed ‘academics’ had to take Latin instead of Art even though I suspect that Art would have been much more beneficial to me!

Many of you were worried that we were moving to Johannesburg as this city has a reputation for lawlessness, danger, and corruption. And there are parts of the city that exemplify all of that. However, just as in all cities, there are ‘good’ parts and ‘bad’ parts. We are extremely fortunate not only to live in a good part, but also (according to locals) to live in what is definitely the best estate in Johannesburg and, probably, in the whole of S. Africa.

Fourways Gardens Estate is in Sandton and has 24/7 security. You see children playing on the streets, young women jogging alone at night or early morning, and people walking their dogs along the streets or walking paths at all times of day.

It’s a bubble…a very comfortable bubble that’s a throwback to the way things were in the UK and US half a century ago. To top it off, it’s a beautiful estate…

We have a clubhouse that hosts lots of different types of get-togethers, a lovely, affordable restaurant, and a leave-one-take-one library. The people here (of all backgrounds) are extremely friendly. For example, Dan and I went to a Sip and Paint evening at the clubhouse a couple of nights ago and we came back with an invitation to a braai (BBQ) and two different invitations to visit people’s Game Farms (which are comprised of small predators such as jackals, hyenas, and genets and the grazers). AND we had created more art work for our walls…

But back to Fourways Gardens. The greenery is good for the soul, especially after living in arid Arizona for a number of years.

In fact, I’m so taken by the greenery here that I’ve taken photos from my throne (the master bathroom toilet) to share…

Stepping outside Fourways Gardens, the area (called Fourways) continues to have a lot of greenery and a lack of rubbish strewn around.

Having shared photos of empty store shelves in the past, you may like to see how well-stocked our local grocery store is…

Most prices are a lot cheaper than the UK or US…around one-third of the price. Petrol, however, is more expensive at the moment (but is supposed to come down R3 per liter in the next week so fingers crossed). Also, bedlinens, towels, picture frames and the like are more expensive so guess what our luggage will be full of when we return next year!?

If we want different types of stores, Fourways Mall is about 2 miles away. There, you’ll find everything you’d get in a regular mall in the UK or US. Apparently, there are some high class, expensive stores in there…but, being the frugal person I am, I haven’t experienced those stores. They have some familiar stores here such as Walmart and Woolworths (Woolies). The former is quite basic here, though, and the latter is confusing. In the UK, Woolies was the cheap store. Here, Woolies is a place you go for higher-quality things (from food to linens) as it carries some of Marks and Spencer’s items. Even after about 7 weeks, my head continues to reject this information; I KNOW Woolies and it’s NOT on par with M & S!!!!! One of the best things my friend, Marie, did for me when we’d just arrived was she whizzed me around the mall and pointed out cheap-and-cheerful stores, better quality medium-cost stores, and some of the good quality stores.

Perhaps our favorite store in this mall is Checkers as they sell decent, cheap electronics, necessary household items (such as clothes drier racks), crockery, groceries, and everything else you’d need…all at decent prices (for Africa) which would be considered extremely cheap for the UK and US. Unfortunately, in order to buy a television, here, you need to apply for a TV license, which in turn, will require the licensee to pay an annual fee. Once you are in the system, it is almost impossible to cancel. Even if presented with a death certificate, many people’s accounts continue to accrue fees and fines. They are worse than the IRS in the States.

So, as you can see, we’re not going without!! In fact, it’s so easy to live here that we have to guard against becoming lazy! For example, we can order anything we want from Checkers and have it delivered within 60 minutes…for just over $1 so it would be easy not to even leave the house!!

And talking about easy, after our housekeeper debacle upon our arrival, we now have an incredibly wonderful cleaner who comes twice a week (for about $21 per 8 hour day). Our fingers are crossed that this relationship continues as we’d love for Bongie to be part of our family throughout our time here. Yes, it would be a doddle to become extremely lazy if one wanted to!

Beyond Fourways Mall are the suburbs of Fourways and Sandton; it actually all melds into each other so we’re very unclear as to where one ends and the other begins. This whole area is considered safe, and although one could be pickpocketed here, violent crime is extremely rare. Sadly, this is not what’s happening in the US at the moment…including Tucson. The east part of Tucson, where we live, is considered one of the safest areas and yet, just this week, two people were shot and killed around Harrison and Speedway (where my first apartment was when I moved to the US). Thankfully, our current house is now about 2 miles east and 3 miles south of there…but this current trend of deadly violence is creeping closer.

As we meet people, we continually get suggestions on places to eat, and areas to go. However, they make the assumption that we know the places they’re using as referents and, sadly, I do not have a working model of the area in my head yet so much of these suggestions are beyond me. I have written down quite a lot of information in my notes, and soon, we will stretch out and experience those places.

It’s unusual to see people begging around this area, though we’ve seen a couple. Interestingly, one that we see pretty often is black and the other we’ve seen is white. Instead of begging, people here tend to become walking adverts (like the people dressed as the Statue of Liberty in the US around tax-time), entrepreneurs selling anything they can get their hands on, or they stand on corners advertising their trade.

As much as we’d like to offer work to someone who put themselves out there, we’ve not done it so far. We’ve been warned to be careful as, if we stop to pick up a person to help with something, four more are apt to squeeze into the car and won’t get out. So, at the moment, we do the work ourselves, but someday…!

We’re fortunate enough to be close to a number of theaters where we live and intend to take full advantage of that. We’ve only been to one show thus far; Pretty Woman the musical. It was a professional, all-South African cast and it was absolutely fantastic. We were allowed to take one photo at the end of the production…

We were truly impressed by both the production and the price (it cost around $18 each). To make things even better, the theater is only about 3 miles away and is part of a huge casino compound, which has been built to emulate an Italian town…

Basically, so far this has been a fantastic place to live. The house is beautiful, the estate is safe, the area has everything we could need, the people are friendly, and the social offerings are extremely appealing to us. Most importantly, we’re not far from game parks; in fact, I’m trying to write this post quickly as we’re off to Kruger Game Park tomorrow for 8 days. So, in a 3 week time span, we will have been to an excellent professional musical, to a fun painting evening, and to one of Africa’s best game parks.

How lucky are we??