My Story

Hello there,

Welcome to Living Hillcrest.
This is a space for me to share my thoughts and experiences on everything 'Hillcrest' {and pretty much the Upper Highway Area and sometimes Durban too}.

I am a born and bred Farm Girl and grew up on a farm in Eston, KwaZulu Natal. If you don't know where that is then Google it!
I went to an all girls independent boarding school in Pietermaritzburg when I was 8 and finished at the same school at 17.

Brace yourself because this is where my life gets interesting...
Fresh out of High School I started dating my first 'real' boyfriend and then at 19 had a beautiful baby girl, Rileigh. Things did not work out and I soon found myself as a single mom.

Fast forward a few years and I am happily married to 'the husband' Geoff Abbott. I could not be more proud to call this delight my husband. He is everything and a bag of chips. My claim to fame is that I am married to a former South African hockey player. Geoff went to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then retired from International hockey {everyone knows there is no money in SA hockey} and moved to England to play there. Now with his career 'on track' and life too {married, settled, house, cars etc} he decided to once again represent his country doing what he does best. In 2013 he played in Kenya at the African World Cup. It doesn't look likely that he will be selected again because a new coach came in, changed things around and needless to say he is now "too old and too white". BUT he has been selected to play for the SA Mens Indoor Hockey team so hold thumbs BEE doesn't ruin that for him too...

I digress.

We first lived in Pietermaritzburg. When I finished my Honours degree we packed up and moved to Umhlanga. We just HAD to leave PMB. Umhlanga had its perks but I was traveling to Hillcrest everyday and we just love the suburban feel of Hillcrest. Hillcrest has always appealed to me as both of of brothers went to boarding schools in Hillcrest so I was here quite a bit growing up.
We started house searching and after several months found our perfect 'first home' in Assagay. We put in an offer and moved in on the 4th of November 2012.

Being new to the area I found that Hillcrest is a great place to explore and I was so excited to try out all the new places. I just battled to find much online. And so Living Hillcrest was born.
This is my space to share what I find, and what I find exciting, in Hillcrest as we live and grow here.

I hope that you can live and grow with me. Trying new things and places can be scary for some. Lucky it's not for me!

If you have a restaurant, venue, shop, market, business that you want featured on Living Hillcrest please drop me a line.

Thanks for reading!

  

My beautiful family! 

I had to use this picture as we don't have many of all 3 of us.

This picture was taken on 19 May 2012 by photographer 

Neil Cuninghame

I LOVE:

My husband and daughter, my family and friends, my 2 "best dogs in the world" (we have an American Staffie and a Great Dane), our home, Proteas, my favourite colours: green and yellow, fresh linen, reading, pizza, food photography, coffee and Coca-Cola (even though it is bad for me), salads, trying out new things, living on the edge, traveling and adventure...

I have visited the following countries:

England, USA, Bahamas, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Thailand, Bali (Indonesia) and Vietnam

Places I dream of visiting:

Morocco, Mexico, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Greece and a few more...