Its been a long while since I made updates to this blog. Lets see what have we been doin in this time... watched movies - The new James Bond movie, Kabul express :), then joined up work - yea yea I ultimately started work from December. Now there are 8 guys for SAP and 1 person for DMS who have joined up the project team. I work on the elearning bit but need to work with these guys for the content :)

Time flies... its been 3 months on 4th of Jan that I got to Joburg! Seems like yesterday on one hand and seems like forever on the other.

We had gone down to cape town for a couple of days during the December holidays. Well! not really holidays ... took 3 days off :) and yea had the 25th and 26th (Boxing day) of december off. It was a trip to remember. Spent a good deal of time at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Tons of resturants and people and awesome views too.

We stayed at Moulli Point which was quite walkable from the Waterfront. The guesthouse is called Dolfin Inn and was owned by Paul and Tanya and Mthalllili worked with them :) It was quite cozy and homely. Paul told us that Tanya had infact helped an Indian movie crew shooting a Hindi movie with arrangements and stunt double stuff. The movie is due to release in April. Name not kown :)

We got to cape town on the 25th and that evening just walked down to the V&A Waterfront and dined and looked around. We even found an Indian resturant there.

On the 26th we went back to the waterfront and walked around. Saw a seal in the waters :) Then we went to the Two Oceans Acquarium. Saw not just fish but Sharks and Stingray and seals out there. Beautiful. We then took the Open top double decker and took a tour of the city. It also took us to the table mountian but the it was cloudy then so we decided to come back the next day. Went back to the waterfront had lunch and stayed there for a while. Then went back to the guesthouse and relaxed. Later in the evening we walked down to an Italian resturant down the road and had dinner.

On the 27th we did the cape peninsula and cape point trip. A tour arranger called Ganieef, he was a SA - Malaysian guy, took us around. It was a good long drive which took us to Camps Bay, Hout Bay, Chapman's peak, Cape Point, Cape of Good hope, Bantry bay, Kalk Bay, Muizemburg, and then all the way back to the Table Mountian. At the Cape Point we got to see the Atlantic ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean (at false bay) on the other. Incredible! Cape Point is where they say that the two oceans meet. We went down to Simon's town and Boulders beach :) here is where we saw the African Penguine :) They are soo cute.We also got to go to the Table Mountian. Unfortunately it the clouds kept moving in and out while we were on top. It was freezing and scary to be on top of the mountian... it was flat on the top :) It has Devil's peak on one side and Lions Head and Signal Hill on the other. We get to see Robben Island (where Mandela was kept in prision) from the Table Mountian. It was a long and tiring day.

On the 28th we did really nothing. It was our day to relax. Woke up late and went down to the waterfront. We tired to see if there were any tours to Robben Island available but got to know that all tours were booked till the 6th of Jan! Phew! I guess we had to save something for, hopefully, a next time:) We tried Malay food and found that their roooties with Mutton curry was soo close our our rotis and mutton curry :) We went first to the Green Point Market and then back to the guest house.. oh yea there are taxis there that run on meter. Took a long walk ... oh I guess I did not mention earlier, the guest house is on the beach road so we had a good view of the water :) Yea dipped our feet in the water too ..... it was coooolllddd.. brrrrr!

On the 29th we had a flight back at 2.30pm. Relaxed in the morning .. had a quick lunch at the Italian place and then got to the airport :)That was the short but just right kinda trip :) fun and relaxing!
Pics at : http://photos.yahoo.com/getsangeeta
Album: SA_Cape Town

The week of 6th to 12th November:

The week was qutie dull did not much from Monday to Friday.

Friday 10th Nov: Tried out khaana at an Italian resturant, for lunch. Was ok :) Then went down to Pretoria, had to do some Indian grocery shopping. We were too late though. The shops were all closed. Came back to gallo manor and pati made some yumm mutton curry, first time in Joburg.

Sat 11th Nov: Went down to "GAME" the store at FourwaysMall. Its like costco - Makro here. Hugeee! Fourways Mall itself is huge with all the stores and also the cinemas. Then went to Montecasino. My first visit to a Casino, ever. The buildin itself was beautiful and the roof had the look of a blue sky with clouds :) Had lunch there and tried to watch the movie "Grudge -2" horrible thing. I could not stay there beyond 10 mins. Oh the first part is the original on which the hindi movie "Bhoot" was based on. Got out of the movie and got back home. I made real horrible chicken curry that night :)

Sun 12th Nov: Went to Rhino park which is near Kruger's drop. This park had Rhinos (2 of them we could see), deers, Tigers - Siberian and Bengal tigers, Hippos :), Lions - oh we got to see them at lunch time, when food was dropped off for them, some process it is. These Lions were perched at a certian spot and were facing the path which came from the entrance. Everyday they get lunch at 1pm. When it was close to 1pm, they seemed to be gettin restless. There were a lot of cars parked right in front of them at a lil distance. A couple of them actually got up and went towards the path, bang next to the cars. That must've been some scare for those people in those cars. Then the food car arrived. Infact there were 2. One was quite far away (1st car) and the other drove on this path (2nd car). The 2nd car infact seemed to be drivin the lions away from where they were sitting. It was a circular kinda space. Then the 1st car came down that way, super fast and the lions were runnin almost along side it. Suddenly, it dropped the food it had at the back of the car and then sped off. The lions were all over the food. Seemed to be a dead buffolo or something... not sure!
Phew! that was something. Quite an experience.

Week of 29th to Nov 5th: This week kept me quite occupied. Nolita (sukanta's co-worker) was away so I got to use her machine for the whole week. She's back on the 6th so lets see how it goes.

Ok... so Monday and Tuesday I spent away my time catching up on chats and email... and orkut and not to forget Harry Potter :) Been reading the books all over again :) I seem to discver new stuff that I somehow never endedp reading earlier. Unless I find a job soon I might as well get membership at the Rivonia library.

Wednesday I stayed home, was to go for my driving class but did not. It also rained quite a bit on that day. Was a good thing.. or maybe bad thing that I did not go. Might have gotten the hang of drivin in the rain too :) Oh I made chicken pulav... it came out the best of all the times I tried here but due to the lack of a pressure cooker I had to make it in a regular steel bowl and the bottom was burnt quite bad. Luckily, my pati salvaged the top part and once the burnt smell was out of the window.. :) it tasted quite good :)

Thursday and Friday I went to the office. Friday, around 2.3pm we walked down to Rvonia Square from the office. It was a 10-15min walk. Pretty cool. Grabbed some lunch...at KFC and spent time walking around the stores there. They had woolworths, PicknPay, HealtPharma...clicks and other stores.
The guys came back quite late and picked us up from there. Came home, freshened up and went to Village Walk for a movie. Some diaster movie about some race car stuff. Phew! had dinner at an Indian resturant there - New Delhi it is called. The food was not really good. The resturant Raj, at Rivonia junction, had too much garlic and this place had no spice. They put black lentils in the Biryani :) It looks like setting up an Indian resturant here would be good business.

Saturday, the guys came over home for lunch and then we went to Makro to pick up a few things. I picked up a pair of slippers and now regret it :) they hurt and I really cant walk very well on them :) We then went to the airport and picked up our tickets to Cape Town (goin in December). Oh yea.. the JNB airport is now called "O Tambo airport" (Oliver Tambo) after the Vice President :)
Then we wanted to go to the OttoAfrica show. We drove towards it - N1 South. Nice long drive. :)Lost the way and went ahead :) Then the car broke down :) we had to call for a Taxi and the tow truck :) First time experience :) Was a lil scary but interesting too. We got back home from there (din get to see the show...sad!).

Sunday, we went to our drivin class.. missed mentioning this before.. the drive was awesome... very beautiful scenary. Saw a couple of horses grazing away on what seemed to be a horse farm.. :) Was nice. Saw great cars too. Our instructor is going to take me to drive on the regular streets this wednesday..and also on the highway.. All the best to the rest of the drivers around :).

Ok... so what else has been on....

* Oh yea! We bought a 4L pressure cooker here and the damn gasket is gone and now we dun seem to be finding one to replace it. Phew! I keep burnin many a dinner... like last night.. made chicken pulav but the damn thing was burnt a the botton... for once I was happy that the masala was allright... anyways.. pati managed to save some of it and it was ok.

* Went over to Pretoria a couple of times. Once to go to Laudium (pronounced Lodium). This is a very desi place. All desi stuff we get out there. Pati got a haircut ! Phew! Atlast. It was a small place run by a Bangladeshi and had a few Pakistani haricutters :) cool eh!
Then we went to this resturant - a desi place ofcourse - and had food packed and got it to Gallo manor.

* Oh yea! we started takin drivin lessons out here. Been pretty cool. Just got to complete a few more to get the hang of all the rules around here.

* Randburg Waterfront - this place was recommemded to my Pati by someone who told him there are water games and what not. Well ! the place had shopping, food courts and some kiddie entertainment. Oh yea! It also had a water fountain... I guess standing in front of that water made it a "Waterfront!!!" lol.

* Oh yea! Pati and I have gotten pretty decent at makin some stir fried mushroom :) He made it the other day too with some sauces and the red, yellow and green peppers :) I am gettin the hang of experimenting too :) When the requried stuff to make Indian curries is not there then how to manipulate :) hehe

* Been makin plans to go to the Rino Park... doesnn seem to be workin out at all :) Oh yea.. we saw that movie "Jaaneman" coz we din get tickets for "Don!" I heard we should thank our stars that we did not get tickets for Don ;)

Week of 16th - 19th Oct: Pretty nice week. Went to a Budday party of a lil girl out here. An Indian family. The guy is also working with Sukanta's company. Met lotsa Indians there - mostly southies - Telugu and Tamilians :)

The rest of the week went off with nothin much to tell. Except for that a new dude came into town. He is from AP too.

Just gettin set for Diwali now :) And yea... goin huntin for the gasket of my pressure cooker. Its out and not finding one easliy! phew! Wish me luck!

This was an interesting weekend!

Oct 13th: Friday: Came down to the office today and quickly did some email'ing. We then set out to Pretoria to submit my copies of my educational certificates for SAQA evaluation. This is the first step in the work permit process (oh prior to this we got a copy of my passport attested at the Police station in Jo'burg).
Pretoria is quite different and older than Jo'burg. In Jo'burg you will find a mix of all kinds of people - Africans, English, Dutch, Our very own Desi's and more. Pretoria is more African dominated :) and seems a little older and more popolated. Its the capital of SA and all Govt offices are located there. We will go back there someday to look around. It was damn hot that day.

Sukanta is good with maps and we managed to find our way to Pretoria quite easyily after droppin off Haricharan ( a SAP dude from Hyd) to the Joburg airport(He went back to Hyd). Yea, locating the office on Arcadia road was a bit of fun coz I bungled the building number :) it was 1067 and I kept lookin for 1068 :) lol. Luckly pati noticed it and we managed to go and submit the papers. It hardly took 10 mins and sukanta got back his certified papers.

We then went to an Indian store called "S Jivan", and then went looking to find Harinath (another dude who works on SAP, from Hyd and stayed with sukanta in the guest house at gallo manor). Picked him up and got back to Joburg. It was 4 something Pm already and we were starving. Had some food at Mac Donald's and then came back home. We were dead tired. Had dinner and crashed.

Oct 14th: Saturday: I made roti's with bread flour :) lol. Came out pretty decent :) We then went to Sandton City, which is a huge shopping mall :) and office building. Spent sometime there... there seem to be a lot of sales on Diamond stuff out here :) lol very pretty stuff :)
Later we went to Makro (which is like costco but not as reasonable as Costco :) ) and did some home shopping. Went back to Gallo Manor and spent the rest of the evening there.

Oct 15th: Sunday: We went to Lion Park :) It was a very nice place to go :) Lions roamin around and going right next to the car :) he he. I will post some pictures soon :)

Oct 10th: Tuesday: Nothin much today.... I think I should keep my blog smaller going forward else people who read it will be living my everyday life :) Oh yea... I did notice a good amount of differences in things out here from in India .... I will list them out.. like for instance a "traffic signal/light" is referred to as as "robot"! :) cute!