My Parents' Visit to South Africa

My parents arrived in South Africa to visit us this December. While they were here we did a lot of outings and got to spend lots of quality time catching up and enjoying the holiday season. South African style of course. I was able to put my fear of monkeys aside so that my parents could enjoy Bush Babies, the beautiful monkey sanctuary in Hartbeespoort. I did, however, let them take to cable car in Hartbeespoort to the top of the mountain without me. My fear of heights is apparently greater than my fear of monkeys.

 Mandela Square

 Memorial for Nelson Mandela

 Hard Rock Cafe, Johannesburg

 Glen Afric feeding elephants

 Cable Car, Hartbeespoort

 Hartbeespoort Dam

 Baby Hippo

 Lion cubs at The Lion Park

 Elephants at Glen Afric

 Bush Babies

 Anthony the Cheetah at The Farm Inn

 Mandela memorial at Rosebank Rooftop Market

 African tribal dancers

 Nelson Mandela Memorial at Mandela Square

 Live broadcast of the Mandela funeral.

Thanks for visiting us Mom and Dad! Can't wait to see you on US soil later this year!

Black & Veatch Christmas Party, South Africa 2013

To celebrate the holiday season, we attended Matt's work Christmas party at The Blades, in Kameelsdrift. It was a very nice venue and a great party. We really enjoyed ourselves and I survived my first night in heels in almost three years, lol!

Dave Matthews Returns Home...

I have been a DMB fan since high school and have seen him a few times in concert. I have also been able to sway my husband into being a fan. So, when I heard the news that he would be coming to South Africa for a concert, while I am here, I of course jumped at the chance to go. 


Since moving here, I have learned a few things about Dave. If you happen to be a biography fanatic like me, you'll enjoy these few facts about Mr. Matthews. First of all, I never knew that he was born here in SA.  David John Matthews was born on January 9, 1967, in Johannesburg, SA. He traveled around the world a bit with his family. At the age of two, he moved to a suburb of New York. After his father passed away from lung cancer in 1977, he moved back to South Africa to stay with family. Dave then moved back to the US after high school to avoid South African compulsory military service. He later became a bartender at a jazz club in Charlottesville, VA, which lead to him creating his dream of becoming a musician.

After I learned that he was from here, I remember discussing with people when and if he would come here for a concert while we were living here. "Wouldn't it be cool?", I thought. That is when I learned that he had never performed a live show here...ever. I was dumbfounded and said, "Well, now looks like a good time to come, haha". Low and behold, a year later, he announced his tour dates and a stop right here in Johannesburg. 
We had an amazing time at the concert with a large group of friends. We took a double decker party bus, (Like most people in the 30's do going to a concert, right? LOL) and we had so much fun! The performances by Dave and the band were spot on as usual. The best part was at the beginning, he made a little speech and admitted that he was a bit nervous to perform in his home country for the first time and that he surprisingly remembered some Afrikaans while here. My only regret was, that he spent so much time focusing on the instrumentals, which, I can truly appreciate, but I would have liked to hear him sing more. Especially my favourite DMB song, Satellite, which I still have yet to hear him perform live, after seeing him in concert a few times. But, the Ants did go marching, and we crashed, so I was happy overall. (DMB fans will get that reference) Ha ha ha. Here are some pictures from our fun night.