Meet the Kirsteins: Claire

OK, so technically Claire is a Sandelson (nitpickers). In addition to Jacqui and Paul here at the house, Claire is mother to Stacy and stepmom to Dean and Barry. Her husband Neville is a golf instructor at the World of Golf and former South African champion. He's managed to produce three single digit handicapper sons, though I understand they didn't do so hot at the Houghton tournament on Sunday. They are apparently aquaintances of such golf dignitaries as Ernie Els, Tim Clark and Trevor Immelman, if those names do anything for you.

So, back to Claire. Claire is originally from Glasgow, Scotland, but moved to South Africa when she was very young. She converted to Judaism to marry her first husband, though there's not much evidence of it around the house apart from the odd yiddish phrase thrown into casual conversation. Claire helps Jacqui with her table linen business, which is actually starting to bear fruit in terms of sales and placement in stores (website soon to come, hopefully). She also volunteers at Children of Fire, a charity for child burn victims, though she hasn't had as much time since the business took off.

Claire has been etremely generous in helping us since we arrived. Non-citizens require a vehicle registration number to own a car here, necessitating a trip to the dreaded Home Affairs office. Our dealer hires someone to assist in the process, but he stood us up twice. She offered to take us herself, and several hours later we had our certificate at no cost, without a single bribe offered. When she found out that the dealer was going to charge us R750 (about $100) for what turned out to be a free service, Claire called the dealership and chewed them out. My kind of lady.