Say Goodbye to Sunninghill

Recently I wrote about the Sunninghill Guest Lodge but today's post is about the neighborhood where the guest lodge is located called Sunninghill Gardens. Every weekday I run and/or walk around the neighborhood. When I run, I focus on trying to stay alive. Joburg is over 5500 feet above sea level so breathing and running at the same time is not easy. When I walk I notice lots of things about the neighborhood. Mostly it's gates, walls, landscaping and dogs. We are moving to our house on Wednesday April 1st so look for pictures soon from our new neighborhood!

Here are some pictures taken over the course of the last month in Sunninghill Gardens. 

Pretty tree lined street view

This is a house that has a traditional African thatched roof. 
Pretty sure that big pole is a giant lightening rod.

Gorgeous pink flowers are falling quickly. Fall is coming! 

Everywhere there are walls and then on top of the walls is an electric fence. 
It's strange at first but you get used to it.

Many dogs behind gates throughout the neighborhood. They would bark when I took their pictures so I tried to be stealth as to not have anyone think I was casing the home.

Why so sad?

Gorgeous plants and landscaping everywhere!

Baseball, Hot Dogs and Tipping

First, I want to assure you that back in the U.S. I'm not some extravagant tipper. I don't throw dollar bills up in the air at restaurants and bars.  If someone else is paying a check I don't double check to make sure he or she tipped enough. I tip like you tip, 15-20% at a restaurant, a dollar or two per drink at a bar, a dollar or two per bag at hotel, a dollar or two for the valet. 

I know that tipping practices vary depending on what country you are in. When we went to Costa Rica on our honeymoon we learned that people there don't tip. When we go to Miami and eat at restaurants, the tip is often included in the check because so many people visit Miami from other countries and they don't know the American tipping customs. 

Here it's totally different and I am having trouble getting used to it. We could argue about why I'm having trouble assimilating. Maybe I secretly yearn to be the American big shot who comes to town and is the best tipper Joburg has ever seen? I hope that's not the case and I don't think that it but I guess anything is possible.

In South Africa the suggested amount to tip waitstaff at restaurant is 10%. I have had less of a hard time getting used to the restaurant tipping because it's a rule....10%. For someone with weak math skills (not naming names) it's easy to remember and calculate. So o.k. I can live with it.

Other customs around tipping are less clear. At the hair salon I have watched other people and it does not appear that they tip. There are no little envelopes at the cash register for you to use for tipping. When you pay in cash they don't give you tip friendly change. I have read several websites which suggest tip percentages and it seems like you can tip your hair stylist 10% but they also says that a lot of people don't. 

Here's the reason for my current obsession with this topic. As I have mentioned we are going to be leaving the guest lodge soon after staying here for six weeks. I asked a native South African for advice on how much I should tip a few select people that work here. I won't give you the boring details but there are a few staff here who have really done a lot for us. She replied that I needed to know that a tip was not expected but that if I really wanted to I could give R200 to each person who had gone above and beyond. That's about $20 each.

You've watched t.v. shows about addiction like Intervention and Celebrity Rehab? The sobriety experts always tell the addicts things like, "that's your disease talking and telling you to leave rehab." Well my addicted to tipping American brain is telling me that the person I asked for advice has no idea what she's talking about and her input should be completely disregarded. I'm positive that the woman who gave me a 20 minute scalp massage (don't judge) at the hairdresser was thinking the whole time "rubbing this head better be worth my while."  So yes, it's hard for me to imagine people don't expect a tip. But then I remind myself that I'm in a different place and my American values may not apply and just because I feel the need to tip or to give more than what was suggested doesn't make it right to do so and that it could be wrong to do so. Then I ask myself how can being generous be bad? So I'm the heroin addict who tells the doctor she just needs to step outside of the rehab facility for ten minutes for some fresh air because I can't trust my own brain to know what's right.  

I will tip a few of the staff from the lodge when we leave and somehow I'll figure out how much to give. I'm not going to tell you what I end up tipping because I know it won't be correct. It will be either the right South African thing or the right American thing or some hybrid tipping scale thing that I make up. I need a Budweiser and some apple pie. 

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The Sunninghill Guest Lodge

Remember Eloise the children's book character? She was a little girl who lived in the Penthouse of the Plaza Hotel. I am sort of like her except I am an adult and I live at the Sunninghill Guest Lodge. My husband and I live here temporarily and we live in a regular room which is not the penthouse.

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time in hotels. At one time, for my job I traveled about 40% of the time. However, I never stayed in one place longer than a few days and I didn't spend much time during the day hanging around the hotel. We've been staying at the Sunninghill Guest Lodge since February 18th and we'll be moving into a house that we rented on April 1st. That means six week of living at the guest lodge. Mr. Deep goes to work everyday so I spend a lot of time here by myself. 

Fortunately, the Sunninghill Guest Lodge is really lovely. Of course we are excited to move into our house as it will be wonderful to have more space and to be reacquainted with all of our belongings and furniture. But in a way I will miss the lodge. 

What will I miss? First of all, breakfast is included in the cost so every day after Mr. Deep goes to work I go and have breakfast by myself. While you can order eggs, I eat this every week day morning.

That bar thing on top is called Weet-Bix and it's like a brick of cereal

I may have also indulged in the occasional croissant.

Second, the staff here are so friendly and nice. When you are alone in a new country smiling people who say hello and ask how you are every day is really appreciated. Living here, I notice how hard the staff work. Once, around the time people were rocking out to Nirvana, I worked as a chamber maid at an Inn for the summer. It's a hard job and it can be yucky to clean people's rooms. Everyone here takes so much pride in their work. Unemployment is really high in South Africa so they probably are truly happy to be here. In addition to the maids, there is a gardening/maintenance staff of men.  While they do use an electric lawnmower and a sprinkler system, everything else is done by hand. Raking, using a pitchfork to pull up weeds, trimming foliage, all by hand. The grounds here are so pretty and it's due a lot of hard work on the part of the staff to keep everything looking so nice.  

Keeping the pool free of leaves is a real challenge now that autumn is beginning

Third, the neighborhood. Security is a big concern in South Africa so there is a main gate you have to pass through to get into the neighborhood and then in addition the guest lodge has it's own gate.  Every weekday I run and walk around the neighborhood which is called Sunninghill Gardens. I'll do another post about the neighborhood before we move. 

The main gate to get into the neighborhood

Here are some additional pictures from the lodge.

That's our room #21

They put pretty flower arrangements on the tables

Isn't yellow and white a great color combo? 

Behind the dining room there is a lime tree 

Also behind the dining room a small garden. I recognize pepper and basil plants. Not sure what else. 

My What a Big Box of Q-tips You Have

We are currently living in a guest lodge. It is a nice place and I should know because I spend a lot of time here. We still only have one car and I'm not at the point in my driving (too scared) to where I can drop Mr. Deep off at work and keep the car for the day. So most days I am home during the day hanging out in my little one room "apartment" or outside on the grounds.

One day, I got to chatting with the lodge housekeeper when she came in to make up our room. After talking for a little while she asked me where I was from. When I replied the United States, she said "oh I thought so." It turns out that it wasn't my accent that gave me away it was the giant box of 500 Q-tips. She said Americans always have big boxes of Q-tips. I asked if Europeans and Africans use Q-tips and she said they do but they "would probably only have a box of about 100 at one time." She then asked me why we need so many Q-tips - did I use them for putting on make-up or something? I really didn't have a good answer for this one. I wish I could say that I stocked up thinking maybe they wouldn't sell them over here but that's not it because Mr. Deep and I have been using this box for over a year. I mean let's face it, using up 500 Q-tips takes time.