South African junk food, and the AWESOME Goldrings

Today was like the freakin' greatest day EVER. It was so insanely/ridiculously awesome that I hardly know where to start.

We started off the morning at the mall, and got to hang out a whole bunch with our cousin James, which totally roooocccked. We spent a good 7 HOURS at the mall. :) It was totally glorious - we got almost everything we needed for Granny (based on our visit to her a couple of days ago and our scouting out of what she needed). We found lots of good stuff that she's gonna love and will also be super useful.

I got an awesome hoodie at a place called Marshall and some nice jeans from a place called "Mr Price Clothes", haha how random.

We schlepped around the mall like crazy for quite some time, went to lots of cool stores and bought tons of Appletiser and Grapetiser, cookies to take home, etc. We eventually got tired and got a super nice burger at Steers, a hamburger place.

We finished up the rest of the shopping and then went to a great Biltong store and then to Wimpy Burger to get a coffee. Also awesome. We headed back eventually and I finally got Skype working on James's computer.

This evening, my Mom's cousin Marcus picked us up, it was the first time we'd ever met each other. He is SO nice. We went to his house, and met a whole bunch of amazing/awesome people, wow it was just unbelievable. We met Marcus and his wife Ilana, who's house we were visiting. Marcus's mother Thora was there, and her late husband Roswell did the baruchas at my PARENT'S WEDDING. Amazing. Marcus's children Ryan and Candice are just too awesome, and I can't believe I have such great cousins who I'd never met. Crazy. Then we met Zelda, who is Marcus's sister (and daughter of Thora), and her husband and son were there too. She told us some funny stories about how she wore some bright short shorts to my parent's wedding and her mother always will remember my parent's wedding because of this, haha!! These stories were so interesting and just unbelievable... amazing!!

Everyone was just so different and unique and so much different than us, but at the same time we shared such an unspoken common bond - it was like we could speak instantly as if we'd all know each other for ages. It's almost 2am and I had to stay up to blog this, I'm just way too excited. We actually have family from my Mom's side in South Africa!!

AMAZING!!! Anyhow, now onto the photos. :)


This store looked a lot like Old Navy


Huge amount of languages on the ATM


James and Norm, and the escalators are on the opposite side here


Steers, a tasty burger place where we went for lunch


Lunch time!!


An insaaaane amount of Appletiser


Choc-kits and Romany Creams, we loved the cookies ages ago


Mmm... Liqui Fruit


Haha!! The diapers (or "nappies") have funny cartoon African animals


Funny breakfast menu, you can get Beurowors for breakfast!!


Me, James, and some big "Cuppas" of Milk Coffee at Wimpy


Awesome Biltong shop


Water boiler/instant flask and a down duvet we got for Granny


New garbage bins for Granny


New multiplug and dustbuster for Granny


Sweet new jeans I got, they were 100 Rand... like $12?!!!


Funny/weird chocolate bar


Siiiiick new hoodie I got


All the junk food we bought to take home


Candi and the Goldring's cat


The other cat going crazy for catnip


Haha


Zelda, Norma and Marcus


Thora, Keiran, Ryan


Thora, Kieran's girlfriend, Kieran, Ryan


Candi and the others trying to fix the computer


"now we've figured it out!" :)


The funny Moose ("Meese") cork we brought from Canada :)