The house !

A professor in the Dept. of Physics kindly lets me use his house in Jo'burg while he is in Germany for a few months. And when I say house, I mean house ! A real house, with a garden.

Entrance of the house, 131 on 16th street, Parkhurst.

High walls, electric fence, alarms ... In the "nice" neighborhoods like Parkhurst (the northern suburbs of Jo'burg are usually quite safe residential places), the houses are really (over-)protected. It is a very strange atmosphere : no-one is really walking in the streets, and you can only see the high walls on both sides of the roads.

16th street, Parkhurst.

This wall is like 5 or 6 meters high ... (still in Parkhurst)

To add even more safety, and apparently because the police is not well-enough trusted around here, everyone has a "private police" which can act in case of trouble. If the alarm goes off or simply if you press the "panic button" because you "have a crisis", armed guys will show up in a few minutes.

Armed response, in case of "crisis".

Panic button - there is one on almost all doors in the house.

In addition to all this, many people add extra-security : video recording of the surroundings, dogs, ... To us, Europeans, it looks really crazy, it looks paranoid ! But crime here is a reality and people have learned to live with it. If you can afford it, you will protect your house with these "gadgets".

Anyway ! Assuming you can pass through these walls, doors, etc., what will you find in 131 on 16th streed ? You will find a very nice house, and especially a very nice garden.

Garden.

An avocado tree !

Lemon tree.

Garden.

Garden.

A nice terrace.

Some parsley ... I can't wait for the avocados and the lemon to be ready !

Roses.

The avocados ! Come on, guys, fall !

A strange plant, with extremely large leaves.

Some more lemons.

The garden is quite cool, huh ? I don't even want to start to imagine who could afford a house with such a garden in Lausanne ... But hey, that's South Africa ! ;-)
Just a quick look into the house : a nice kitchen and a lounge, two rooms and a study.

The kitchen. So nice to cook in a real kitchen !

So, that's the house I live in for a few months. The only drawback - but it is common to all South African houses - is that there is no heating. Heating ? Come on, it's Africa (even South), it can't be cold ! Well, it is cold in Winter. When the wind blows from the snowy mountains, the temperature really drops to a few degrees above 0 during the day, and it can be negative during the night. Therefore, nights are cold and short here !

Allez ! Next post will be about the car (a.k.a. the wreck).