feelin' the heat in cape town

hi everybody! apologies for the delay in communication, but we've had some technology hiccups along the way. more on that later though. we are now in sunny, beautiful cape town, and have been since last wednesday. it was such a change to come from the chilly london weather to this, but it's not something i'm going to complain about! it's hot but the sea breeze is cool - we're not far from the city, and the sea is just round the corner. it's blissful.
re-cap on the last days in london - we made it to the behind-the-scenes bbc tour fifteen minutes late, but were able to join up with the group in the newsroom. the tour was great, got the old longing to to do fillum or tv writing happening again. at the end of the tour we went into an interactive studio and did a quiz show thing - i volunteered to be ine of the contestants because there were prizes on offer! they showed a clip of little britain and asked questions after. yes, i won, and was duly presented with a bbc breakfast mug (more on that also later...). anyway, in a question-and-answer session i asked which studio goodness gracious me was shot in, and one of the tour guides said he'd worked on the show. later in the gift shop (befpre i bought the full series of goodness gracious me on dvd), i cornered the tour guy and gave him some of my business cards... though i forgot to ask him for one of his! dooofus... anyway, one degree of separation now between me and meera syal. that's good enough for me (for the moment! ha ha.). after the tour we went on to the national gallery, where we had 'high tea' before wandering through looking at paintings. we managed to get lost in the labyrinthine building and spent the last fifteen minutes running around like mad people trying to find *the right cloakroom* (they had a few). we then made our way back to will's place, and went out for a drink at 'ye olde mitre tavern' (appparently queen elizabeth used to get drunk there and pick up boys), then dinner at a thai place down the road. all in all, lovely last day, and a great stay in london (though i want to go back already and stay for a while). thank you will and cam for taking us in for the week!
travel to cape town went as smoothly as can be expected, except on landing we realised that a) we let the power chord for the laptop at will's place, and b) i also seemed to have misplaced my ankles somewhere. we'll save you the trauma of photos of another pair or malfunctioning feet, but th swelling went down after a couple of days. now on the last long-haul flight between jo'berg and sydney i'll be sporting a pair of very fashionble taupe flight-tights. i think i'll wear trackies and sandals to complete the look...
anyway capetown is lovely, been meeting up with mark's extended family here, and it's been great. we've been to boulders beach and had a swim with the penguins that wander about freely there - really makes you question why people wait in the freezing cold to see the phillip island fairy penguins waddle past in the dark, really. as soon as we can sort out our iss-yews with picasa, we'll upload penguin pictures for you, and you'll understand! i have also had my hair braided in the market place - it should last a month so i will most likely be able to bring it back with me to melbourne (i like useful souveneirs!). yesterday we spent the day touring wineries, which was just scrumptious. then last night we went to the beach to see if we could spot comet mcnaught - and we did! it was amazing, larger than any of us had expected, and as the night fell its tail got longer and brighter. it was a magical thing - we got photos of that, too. so will let you have them as soon as we can.
going out dancing tonight, and out and about with cousins over the weekend. next week we are off on safari to kruger - looking forward to that! must start malaria tablets today. we'll be back on the first of feb, but will try and blog one more time before then. have fun! see you soon!