I realised the other day I still haven’t properly explored Clarens, which feels almost comical. Two new girls arrived last week and they’re telling me about shops in Clarens and if I like them, and I can only reply I wouldn’t know! Determined to make my own homemade bread on a regular basis, and therefore decided it was nigh on time to finally explore the infamous Purple Onion deli. I can only describe it as a culinary Aladdin’s cave in a place like Clarens: sun-dried tomatoes, posh chocolate truffles, harissa paste etc. It seemed to have it all (besides the ever elusive goat’s cheese, sadly). As a result of a successful shop I was able to make a very tasty loaf of sun-dried tomato and rosemary bread. Not quite sure that Paul Hollywood would’ve approved of its texture, but it made marvellous cheese on toast! I also passed up the opportunity to try ostrich steak the other day, but after comparing someone one’s to my traditional steak, I was still content with a slab of beautiful medium-rare cooked cow. 

It’s been a busy few weeks with our first ‘Come Dine with Me’ styled evenings in Clarens. The first night was fantastic; although everyone knows everyone else it allowed us to have great banter, but we were all quiet when the English chocolate mints were revealed. Definitely a showstopper move, and impromptu entertainment was provided when two people I work with tried the After Eight Mint game where you have to put one on your forehead and wiggle it down into your mouth without using your hands. It will be interesting to see what happens when we see the final edited ‘episode’ as we are scoring one another in secret. The second night will be tomorrow and will be a marvellous end to the week that has included the school’s long-anticipated Cultural Evening (in no less than three different languages!) which included sea shanties, rainbow songs, Afrikaans pop songs, traditional dances, star-dances, poetry reading etc. and was super (photos and video clips to follow). It was also Heritage Day this week, which justified a day off work — though I have yet to fully investigate what it’s all about— lots of braais across the country, and afforded the opportunity of seeing the internationally known Drakensberg Boys Choir which exceeded all expectations and had a very diverse programme which included old European classics, traditional South African songs, and a good ole bit of welly slapping, stomping and clapping. The enthusiastic grandparents sitting next to us who couldn’t clap in time definitely added to my enjoyment of the performances!

To think that in all my time here I can count the number of times it’s rained on one hand (just)! I officially experienced my first proper African thunderstorm, though some locals would dispute this as it was puny in comparison to what it could be, a 2/10 for effort. However, it still meant unplugging everything from sockets and sitting indoors in comfort whilst watching multiple strikes of lightning bounce from one mountain to the other, hopefully my camera will have caught some decent photos !

It’s only one more week until term finishes now, and I can’t help but feel a week’s break between the terms is not enough when the existence of the half-term is but a myth. However, the promise of a short final term and a week of fun activities/class trips definitely makes it more palatable. Knowing that my holiday to St Lucia is very quickly coming up and affords the luxury of an extra week off is certainly the cherry on top of the cake.