This is Africa?!?

If you're in Johannesburg long enough (in my case three days) you'll here some ex-pat use these initials: TIA.  It stands for This is Africa.  It's a friendly reminder that no matter how nice a place Johannesburg is, you're still in Africa.  Rolling power outages?  Check.  Crazy driving with no respect for the law or red lights?  Check.  People bothering you at your car window for change or trying to sell you something you really don't need while driving?  Check.  Strikes by the municipal workers and the union for cleaning staff?  Check.

However, sometimes there are things that make you look up and say, "This is Africa?!?"  Yesterday we went to a park here, Mushroom Farm Park.  Nice little playground, decent walking area, not too far from home.  Next to it is a giant hot-air balloon sponsored by Hyundai.  You pay them and they take you up in the balloon.  It's very popular.

Next to the park is the Raddison Blu hotel, which houses the Planet Fitness Platinum Club.  Probably the nicest gym I've ever been inside.  That place made me want to start working out.  (Haven't joined though.  Yet.)

After we went to the park, we traveled to a new shopping area.  It's got a large grocery store named Pik N Pay Hyper.  I love that the large grocery stores here are called Hyper.  It makes me laugh everytime.  They also had a restaurant were we went for lunch.  The food was amazing, and my lovely Yorkshire lass had a hot chocolate made from Lindt chocolate that was to die for.  As I sat back and groaned after the meal and watched the man pull his Ferrari out of the parking lot, I found myself saying, "This is Africa?"