The blog challenge on Female2Female is about your favourite city - where you live or where you want to live.

I am a Cape Town girl and until my husband was transferred to Johannesburg almost 14 years ago I never thought that I would leave Cape Town.

Because it is my home town and I have an obvious connection to it I love Cape Town.  I love the sea - to walk on the beach or just to sit and watch the waves roll in.  In the first year that we were in Cape Town I really missed the sea.  Each time that we got take-away we had to stop ourselves from thinking that we could go down to the beach to eat.  No more going to walk on the beach while debating important issue - like the house that we wanted to put an offer in for.  Before we found our rhythm in Johannesburg, we were a little bored on the weekend.  And unfortunately the botanical gardens is no substitute.

One of our rituals in the first year of being married was to have a Monday evening drink.  Much needed after the first day back at work after the weekend and a good way to ease into the rest of the working week.  We either went to a pizza place at the V&A Waterfront to have pizza and share a bottle of red wine, or to a pub in Tableview that overlooked the sea.  On the weekend, going for tea at the Rhodes Memorial and walking up the mountain afterwards was a great end to the weekend.

When we moved to Johannesburg I missed our rituals and the places which were a part of those rituals.  I missed knowing where things were and recognising names of schools.  And most of all I missed my family.  I was a stranger in a strange land.  A land that was strangely devoid of wind and endless drizzle.

The weather must be one of the pluses of Johannesburg.  I appreciate not being blown off my feet  - I used to work on the Foreshore in Cape Town so I know just how strong the wind is in Cape Town.  I enjoy not having drizzle for days on end - I love the fact that it can be rainy and sunny in Johannesburg in one day.  The downside of the weather in Johannesburg and the one thing that I really hate is that it can be overcast on a summer morning.  One summer it seemed that we hardly saw the sun because it was overcast when we went to work and dark when we drove home.

There are so many positives and negatives to each city and you can enjoy both if you appreciate the positives, but my favourite city must be the city that I have left my heart in and that is my hometown, Cape Town.

My vent about traffic and the people in it

For two years all I had to do to get to work was to drive about 3 blocks.  It was absolute bliss not to have to spend hours fighting through traffic in the to get to and from work.

Recently I have started a contract position that requires me to drive a long way to work, thankfully mainly on the freeways (one of which has almost no construction work happening on it) and as result I have understandably lots to vent about traffic-wise.

Where to start - well there are the roadworks which slow down traffic, the slow drivers who insist on driving 80k/h on a freeway, the numerous truck with dubious loads - parts of which may be falling on the road - and the fast drivers (going above the speed limit) who think that you will magically disappear from the fast lane if they drive 5cm from your bumper.

But driving home today I realised that all of the about does not upset me as much as those drivers who consider the road to be their personal dustbin.  It really gets to me every time I see someone throwing a ciggie but, a tin or some kind of wraper out of the window.  I also start hearing voices saying 'Who do you think is going to pick that up'.

I may have a less tidy car than those who dispose as they drive but I take some pride in having listened to the lessons of my elders when they taught me to not litter and to treat property outside of your home as my own.  You would not thoughlessly throw rubbish in your garden so why do it to public property?

And now that I think of my dear car, I must give her a little tidy up and throw the papers and other rubbish that I have collected in the car - and of course correctly recycle those items that I can recycle.

If only ....

There are not enough hours in the day or rather the day and the night.

If one makes allowance for a full 8 hours sleep, there are 16 awake hours in the day. If we are lucky we will spend only 3 of those 16 hours travelling to and from work, which leaves us with 13 hours.

If we work from 8 to 5 we are left with 4 hours! Me thinks there must be something wrong with my calculation - 4 hours left in each day to do what we need to do.  Well 5 hours if you actually get to take your lunch hour.

If we take away the good stuff, like watching our favourite tv programme we have 3 hours left to make and have breakfast and supper, and generally do the usual weekday household chores and spend time with our family.

As much as I love my sleep, I wish I was the type of person who could survive and thrive on way less sleep than the average person.  I would have so much more time to do the things that I put off again and again because there is just not enough time in one day.

The huge plus for me as a working mom would be that I would have a good couple of quiet hours just to myself.  Now that would be bliss!