Way back and wordful Whensday - woman's day at Cullinan.

Playing along on a Wednesday (as per usual) with Cheryl at Twinfatuation and Angie at 7 Clown Circus:

Ok, so this is not so way back, but I have a lot of catching up to do. The 9th of August is National Woman's day in South Africa. Historically it commemorates 9 August 1956 when women of all races participated in a national march to petition against pass laws (legislation that required African persons to carry a document on them to ‘prove’ that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’). In practice it has become a day when woman are honored by the men in their lives. We didn't have fixed plans for the day, but as Monday was a public holiday (if a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday becomes one) we decided to go for a nice drive out and have lunch wherever we happen to end up.

We ended up in Cullinan, a historical mining town about an hour away from Pretoria. The Premier diamond mine is still a working mine and you can tour it (we will do that when the kids are a bit older). The mine is famous for producing the biggest uncut diamond ever mined in the world on June 25 1905 (3108 carats!) the Cullinan diamond, now cut into 9 diamonds of which the biggest is the feature in the British crown. It still produces 25% of the world's gem quality diamonds.

Not the greatest picture of my princess but check out the size of that stone - off course a copy!

The historical area is a delightful street filled with restaurants and antique shops.


This huge chicken is made from wood.

We chose the restaurant next to the children's play park- filled with jungle gyms and old mining equipment to play on. The kids had fun, we all relaxed and had lunch and took a walk through the town afterwards.


One of the most interesting places is Jan Harmsgat se Agterplaas ( Jan Harmsgat's backyard translated). It is a theatre in a very creative surrounding as the photos will show.
Entrance to the house facing the street.




Signpost for the theatre in the backyard.

Entrance to the theatre

Theatre inside.

We all had a great time, and to boot, Hunter sent me off to the movies for the 5 o'clock show and bathed and put the kids to bed. I went to see "My life in ruins" just because I'd love to see Greece again, but ended up enjoying the movie tremendously.

On the pest side of things - feeling slightly better but still down and out.