Last day at the Thulani lodge - moving tomorrow

Today was a busy day at work as I was trying to push the remote work that I was doing to a better state so that it can be shared with the country director.

At lunch, one of my fellow coworker, a former VolCon Sarah, introduced me to this area that's right behind our building called 44 Stanley.  Unfortunately she had to run, so I just got take outs at this little store called boot.  I got a Tricolore sandwich with mozarella, avocado and balsamic reduction. A very delicious sandwich for R26 (~$4) and got a sparkling drink called Appletizer (R11) 100% pure apple juice drink.

44 Stanley had a bunch of cute little cafes and a lot of shops in it. I have to bring my camera there and spend more time there next week.  Once I get my rental car tomorrow, I'll have more flexibility with my work schedule.  Hopefully I'll make the 8am work ;)

Sarah gave me TechnoServe's GPS as she's a bit more oriented around here.  She then invited me to dinner with her friends at a restaurant called Bottega in the Parkhurst neighbourhood.  She was running late so she suggested that I take a taxi there.  She recommended Rose taxi.  My lodge keeper lady - Bungi ended up suggesting a driver from that company who's her friend and his name is Chippa.  A short ride (15mins) over to the restaurant costs R70.

I met Sarah's friends: a MCK guy named Brooke who splits his time between the South Africa and Nigeria office, a girl named Bianca from Houston who's quit her job and is travelling through Africa right now.. then their friends (1 MCK consultant who's quit his job to do cell phone air time distribution start up and his british gf) and one more guy that i cant remember his name nor what he does.


Dinner was delicious.  We ordered a few appetizers to share: 2 springbok carpaccio (springbok is a type of deer), risotto balls, caprese salad.  Then I took the server's and Brooke's recommendation and ordered ribs.  Others ordered lamb racks and tuna.  The ribs were delicious (I will post pictures!).  I wasn't able to have wine because I was too hungry, hence it was not a good idea to try to drink.  It was definitely nice to eat dinner and meet people =)

Caprese Salad @ Bottega

Springbok Carpaccio (with the best cheese) @ Bottega

friend's rack of lamb with veggies and mash @ Bottega 

My ribs with veggies (yum!)

Fried risotto balls @ Bottega 

The decor @ Bottega

Tomorrow is a big day for me.  I will receive my rental car (as mentioned above) and move to another apartment (or they call those cottages here) because it is essentially a separate building that has 1 floor/1 unit which is the apartment.  Then I will be attending my friend Jeanette's friend, Kanya's baby shower (which is about a 20-30 mins drive).  Hopefully I'll be fine driving on the other side of the road.


Look out South Africans, I will try to drive safe and stay on the right side of the road, which means you need to try to drive safer to make sure you don't hit me... (There are apparently a lot of unsafe drivers here.. including those minivan drivers - who are worse than the ones in HK).

Good luck to me!




On a side note, here's the breakfast that Bungi at Thulani prepared for me. I thought it was cool that they had "cream soda" flavoured yogurt (not in the picture) - but no i was not brave enough to try it

from left to right, Strawberry, TOFFEE apple, and banana strawberry