NY.

After a far too long flight with Egypt Airlines (never again), we arrived back in the United States via JFK Airport. We had a departure to Albuquerque the next morning, leaving us with one night in New York. Obviously, we weren't going to spend our singular night in one of the world's greatest cities crashed in a hotel room. So in the spirit of our late night adventures in Taipei, we spent the entire night out, roaming the streets of Manhattan in search of a quick glimpse of life in NY. We ate black-and-white cookies, browsed at a Grand Central newsstand, watched skaters at 30 Rock, looked in on 5th Ave window displays, and stopped for a 2 am slice of white pizza and cups of coffee.

eatingCULTURE/eaten: Melkkos.

For a final breakfast in South Africa, we woke up early and headed out to Pretoria's Boeremark. We got there just as the sky was just starting to lighten, some of the late-coming vendors still setting up their stalls and laying out their produce. It had been raining the day before, and though the morning sky was clear there were still gaping mud puddles and a slight damp chill in the air. This made it the perfect morning to have a bowl of melkkos. A flour based porridge layered with strata of cinnamon and sugar, melkkos satisfies on all my requirements for a chilly morning meal: nourishing, filling, with just the right element of sweetness.

Offline in Limpopo.

After leaving Malaysia, we made our way back to South Africa. Instead of returning to Cape Town though, we headed to Limpopo province, to spend three weeks with the in-laws. After the rapid pace of life in Asia, the quiet Limpopo lifestyle was a drastic switch. Thankfully, it turned out to be really fantastic, and we managed to relax while still remaining productive. And though I'd had great plans of doing some serious blogging in that time, a combination of weak-internet and full days conspired to keep me offline. Instead, here are a few of the things that filled my time:
*Counting Marabou storks on a trip to Kruger park.
*Eating boerekos dinners of grilled sausage, braised ox-tail, and pap and sheba.
*Drinking coffee on the large patio outside, watching flycatchers and barbets mingling in the trees.
*Checking out hippo tracks in the lush Lowveld Botantical Gardens in Nelspruit.
*Finishing a portrait of Bordeaux in oils, and spending at least two hours a day sketching and drawing.
*Being woken up by the screeching of a bushbaby at 4 in the morning.
*Reading Ernest Hemingway's experiences in Africa, and wondering why I wasn't have impala liver for breakfast every morning.
*Making friends with the fat toads and quiet rain-frogs that have moved into the house.

And now? We've skipped continents once again, and I have lots to catch up on, but I know better than to promise more regular blogging...