Sunny in Cape Town this winter

At the risk of boring people, although I won't know who they are so it probably doesn't matter, I have to say that we are having day after day of glorious winter sunshine here in Cape Town.  Those who come from Jo'burg think that Capetonians are very 'cliquey' and that is probably true because we do have the mountains and the sea, don't we? That doesn't mean to say we are hiking up them or swimming in it, but we have the comfort of knowing they will always be there when we suddenly want to do these things. In the meantime, we are happy to sip our cappucinos in the coffee shops and take in the views.

The thing about Cape Town is, it seems, that everyone was at school together, went to university together, possibly worked together and generally live in the area they grew up in. This provides the perfect breeding ground for our laid-back lazy lifestyle where you can leave off and pick up friendships again without a hiccup and which is mistaken for 'cliquey'. We are in fact warm and welcoming to all outsiders and are always excited to show off our city. We even apologise when it rains or the south-easter is blowing too hard. We probably prefer a braai to a dinner party and are not great when it comes to dressing up for parties; as long as we don't go shopping in our slippers, we have made the grade.

I just came back from a short walk along the seafront and have to confess that in mid-winter the sun is just too strong to be enjoyable - without Cape Town's inevitable cooling breezes, that hole in the ozone becomes very apparent. It is even possible to get a tan at this time of the year if you don't use sunblock!

Tomorrow is August and a daytime temperature of 27 degrees Celsius is predicted. Time to bring out the sunhat!