Our beautiful guesthouse in JB

View from my room terrace

The outdoor cabana

The breakfast room

View of back patio

View outside my room

I love love love our guesthouse. It's like a B&B but with lots more services. I was responsible for picking our accommodations so it was a change to our usual big hotels. It's in a very nice neighborhood and we drive against traffic to the plant. That's very good because traffic is horrible if you are going the other way, I think it's even worse than LA! Our drive is about 20 minutes and it's crazy to see the other side at a dead stop going into city center of Johannesburg. OK back to our guesthouse. The owners live onsite with their kids but you never see them unless you need to. The owner Jane greeted us when we got back from the office yesterday. She asked us our plans for dinner and like the night before we decide to order in. This sounds bad but it's such a nice service. I guess it's a standard service here in the city where you have menus from various restaurants with all kinds of cuisines but once you choose you call a centralized number where they take your order and then will coordinate with the restaurants and the delivery. Once the food is delivered Jane would pay and add to our hotel bill, put the food on a nice plate and silverware and put it out on the patio for us. What service! This way we get the food from a restaurant without losing the time of waiting for our food. AND we are eating dinner in a fantastic oasis. They have such a beautiful back patio with table and lounge chairs and a huge flat screen TV and a wet bar based on the honor system. The weather here is just like california in winter, very cool at night and warm and sunny in the day. I was expecting some humidity but had no idea it would be so nice. We are in the southern hemisphere so it's spring here. This means everything is starting to bloom.

Our breakfast is a beautiful feast. Everything is homemade and fresh. Even the jam and preserves are made by the owner's mother. Besides the typical cold breakfast and fruit they also make fresh cheese biscuits or scones and fruit smoothie and they will also make you a hot breakfast on order. My towels are soft just like at home and I wake up to a symphony of exotic birds. By 7am when I am skyping with Gary the birds have quieted down but he could still hear them!

However, because the city being what it is, the guesthouse, like all other nice houses in the neighborhood, makes you feel like you are in an embassy. You have to drive through 2 metal gates to get to the house and the walls surrounding the house have electrical wires on top. It's safe to be outside during the day but we are told to take a cab at night. The houses around this area reminds me of brentwood or beverly hills in cali, they are huge! Our guesthouse has 6 bedrooms for the guests and the owners and their family live in the detached "guesthouse".

Last night Jane's 9 year old daughter, Victoria, wanted to help out so she brought my dinner to me in the backyard. She is so cute, I'll have to take a picture of her before I go.

Right now, it's 7pm, dark and I'm sitting in the patio in my fleece and socks working on my laptop, listening to the crickets and frogs. Nice!