Our new neighbours

Well the good news is that we finally moved into our new house a couple of weeks ago. It’s in a place called Ezulwini, which is a valley between Mbabane (the capital, where I was living before) and Manzini (where I work). The photo with The Beast, aka my new car. It's pretty simple but we like it. Furniture's a bit of a challenge though. Skillshare are supposed to kit us out with the basics, and basic is the word for it. My favourite is the stained old mattress they gave me. They bought a new one for me when I complained but it was so cheap that you could see the sun through it when they took it off the van. So I've stuck with the stained one and I'm trying not to think about it too much. I won't bore you with the other complaints...

The house is joined to a backpackers’ hostel and at the moment there is a group of 22 builders from India staying there, apparently working on a project being run for the King’s Office. Why the King is employing workers from India and not Swazis is a subject of much speculation in the house. They’re pretty noisy but entertaining, or annoying, depending on how you view it. Slaughtering chickens Halal style in the garden certainly hasn't gone down well with my house mates (but then they have been able to hear the whole process). They turned the garden into a barber's shop last weekend, which was nicer than using it as an abattoir.

Our other neighbours are a group of vervet monkeys, who visit in the mornings and evening to eat mangoes off the tree in our garden. Certainly a bit different from sparrows and squirrels.

Con's been here for the last couple of weeks so we've been doing a lot of exploring. As well as eating our way round Swaziland (old habits die hard!), we also went away for a couple of nights, to Mkhaya Game Reserve. Mkhaya was set up to try to conserve the rhino population, and as you can see from the photos, we managed to see some rhinos - a little too up close and personal for our liking. We also saw giraffes, zebra, impala (and lots of other types of antelope), elephants, monkeys etc etc...but no lions (there aren't any). We'll be off to South Africa for that...

The accommodation was impossibly romantic, open to all sides, and really private. Highly recommended if anyone fancies a trip down. We also had some lovely visitors - the picture of the nyala and her baby was taken from our bedroom.

Well, I've probably made it sound like I'm on one long extended holiday so far, I'll make sure I tone it down next time (Mike Havard - that's for you).