Heather

Today was the hottest day of the week, but although it was sunny with blue skies and reached 26C, it was not too hot this morning, so Xena and I had a walk to Oxshott Heath to see the heather. The heather is looking lovely at the moment and makes a pink splash of colour across the heath.

I started packing today but only placed a few things to one side rather than actually packing. The weather is going to be so changeable - it is winter there now and Cape Town may be in the mid teens but the game reserve will be quite extreme, very cold in the morning for game drives but up to 29C or 30C in the middle of the day - which means I have to take so much stuff to cater for all weather conditions!

There has been violence in Cape Town arising from the taxi drivers squabbling over their turf, and a British man was killed last week when he got lost going from the airport into the city and inadvertently ended up in a township where he was killed. Last week there were warnings about travelling to Cape Town but today Meriel checked the Foreign Office intel and nothing has been flagged up. We are not using a taxi we have a private driver booked to collect us from the airport as there are so many of us. 

This afternoon I went for my routine mammogram - never comfortable but just one of those things you have to get on with. Good to get it done and it was all very efficient, thank you NHS.

I have been getting things ready for Fiona arriving to stay tomorrow, and hopefully Xena will be fine in our absence.