doorway

I would like to start this entry by apologizing for my terrible lack of blogging activity since the end of January, but then again I believe most of you are used to my lapses in writing by now. I know, very lame.

We have been rather busy since my last entry. We arrived in a very windy Cape Town three weeks ago, ready to begin a new chapter in our lives. After spending the past two years traveling around Southeast Asia and the US we decided to move back to South Africa. We missed living somewhere familiar and we have been inspired by our time in the East to start on new projects at home.

We were living with some friends while house-hunting, which turned out to be a nightmare of note. The highlight of these was a particularly nasty Wednesday when we found we were not getting our dream apartment. We discovered that doing freelance work and travel for a living does not make you an ideal rental candidate in the eyes of realtors.

We were getting ready to move in with our friends for good when Alexander finally found a listing on gumtree.co.za that seemed promising. A privately owned two-bedroom apartment in the city bowl, next to the Company Gardens, walking distance to most fun areas in the city and with views of Lion’s Head. We went to the viewing, loved the owner and space right-away and asked where we could sign. Three days later we arrived at our new front door with our boxes that traveled from Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, the US and Northern South Africa. (Look here for some before pictures.)

lions-head-view

After living out of bags and in other people’s homes for the past 8 months it felt incredible to finally have a space that was our own again. Of course our furnishings are still rather rudimentary and we still need to do a lot of work, but slowly we are settling in. We painted, picked up some stools, and even baked during our first week here.

shortbread

Feeling comfortable in our own place has also inspired us to make better use of our new city; climbing Lion’s Head at 5:30 in the morning, going to the Clifton beach and braving the icy waters, enjoying the invigorating Turkish baths and seeing owls getting chased by squirrels in the gardens in the evening. As things start falling into place I will continue to update you on how things are going and what we are up to.