Christmas to start of a new year in Cape Town

Its been along time since I've posted on the blog. I'm going to go for the short and the long approach (as promoted by Eddie Armstrong, cheers Eddie!)

The Short: Back, legally, in Cape Town, after a people full Christmas, Birthdays and bureaucracy. Running a marathon in March.


The Slightly Longer:
I've been back in Cape Town a week now after the holidays in Johannesburg. Christmas was busy with a 7 guests plus 4 Biles' (guests included Rachel,elective medical students from Edinburgh, a TAC volunteer and another family). Christmas eve we went to the midnight mass church service at the church that is currently home to a few thousand Zimbabwean refugees and where by Mum has been working (I think I blogged about the church when I first arrived in SA). The experience deserves a whole blog post really, but the service was hot, busy, spontaneous and with the church now doubling up as people's home, a huge proportion of the congregation were sleeping - heads nodding on the pews and bodies strewn down the aisles. Following Christmas we went down to Cape Town to celebrate New Year and my brothers 21st!

I then briefly went back to Jo'burg to deal with visa issues. My visa was running out. UK people get 3 month permits every time they enter the country. So one way to get another permit is to go over the border and come back. A plan recommended to me by Home Affairs person in Cape Town among others.

So I drove to Swaziland, where I waited and read my book for 2 days while the visa ran out and then came back into the country.

However, they have changed the rules and I only got a 7 day permit! If you stay over your permit you get deported, banned, finned, or a combination. I very nearly had to fly back to England on the next flight out. It would definitely have been great to see everyone for a few days! Instead, I spent a very stressful 3 days charging round Joburg, getting medical checks, forms and finger prints; filling out a mountain of paperwork and trying to understand the cryptic rules of Home Affairs. I am now the proud owner of a receipt for an application for a type of visa. Hopefully this will keep me here for a while!

So, with my status legal (well as legal as I can be, an actual visa would be nice) I am back in Cape Town. I have moved into a new house I am sharing with Rachel and some UCT students. Its in Observatory, the bohemian/student part of town and really enjoying the change from living on campus.

Not having any photos of me running around Home Affairs looking stressed, this is a picture of the next marathon I started training for this week. The reason I did the Winelands marathon in November was to qualify for this one, the two oceans. It's an "ultra marathon" and so has an extra 14 km on it, making it 56 km (34.8 miles). Starts early on March 22. The route winds its way around the mountains on the Cape Peninsular sweeping past the Indian and then the Atlantic ocean.