Post SA

What I miss about South Africa
- warm sunny days (like a nice Scottish summer's day - in the middle of their winter of course)
- tangerines that taste like tangerines
- stroking lion cubs and feeding giraffes
- the people (colleagues from the UK and SA, plus random strangers out and about)
- cheap food, drink
- cinnabons from the local shopping mall

What I don't miss about SA
- feeling wary all the time about security (are my car doors locked? are the windows up? what time will I be home? will I be able to go to the shops and get home before dark? what do I do if someone attacks us? should I go that way?)
- grey boring weather just like a Scottish summer's day
- hassles staying in touch - getting online (slow connection speed, unreliable 3G coverage) or making phone calls home (skype? only if the internet is working. UK Mobile? yes but £££. SA mobile? yes but RRR, from the office? not really, because one can't really call friends for a chat in the middle of the working day (mine or theirs)). The best option becomes emails and texts - all well and good but they're not as good as a nice chat.
- people with a chip on their shoulder about apartheid (Afrikaaners who get defensive and/or dismissive, black/coloured people who have a chip on their sholder about Afrikaaners people/culture). The whole issue is still an Issue - companies have to declare the race of the people they employ, so that they get government money for training. White people still seem to have all the senior jobs (probably because money -> education -> better jobs for a couple of generations until people have the chance to prove their worth regardless of background) and nearly all the low class jobs were being done by black/coloured people. The day after I got home I saw a group of children playing near me - a random mix of black, white and Asian and it seemed perfectly normal. On a tour of Soweto the guide made a very big deal out of how "it's even possible that a black boy might invite a white school friend back to play".