Rambles from World's End

My dearest Life Long Friend In a few days you will be heading back home for good, I have such mixed feelings about it! Silly really after all it’s not my life. I am juggling happiness, sadness, apprehension and anticipation all at the same time. We have never been "in your pocket" friends but I'm going to miss you. The SKYPEs and random thirty minutes phone calls for no reason what so ever, just having someone close that knows exactly how we feel as we make our way through the process of settling.   In some ways I disagree with your decision to return home, but I also know that you never really left, not emotionally anyway. You have been out of your comfort zone, felt alien and unsupported and were never able to settle. Immigration has to be the hardest thing for anyone to do, I know what you have been through and I am sorry I could not provide the extra support you needed. Africa it seems was willing to release only one of us, she still has your soul, it i...

In a run of generosity my eyes only opened at half past five this morning instead of half past three, an extra two hours sleep really fills the energy bar up. Usually I'll use the quiet of the early morning hours to write or read but this morning as the sun was up I thought I'd get up and use the time to do my chores and a few secret things before the girls began to stir. I got off to a good start, hung out the washing emptied the dishwasher, sorted the rubbish bags and recycling for collection, made the Mauritian's breakfast and switch on the kettle for coffee. Then it all turned to custard! With the rising of the offspring came the carnage! It was a silent attack at first, both trying to fit onto one beanbag to sit and look at the newly acquired fishes in a tank. With the growing rivalry came the whining which prompted mediation, separation and breakfast. Apparently it is not wise for the mediator to have a shower at these fragile times, on emerging clean and refreshed...

Recently on that all-consuming social website we all call FB a lot of people have been posting articles and blogs by "expat" South Africans and having their say. I find myself muttering at the screen that the author is either being a tad harsh or has no idea what they are talking about or my favourite line is that they moved for the wrong reasons. So as my youngest is curled up in her bed nursing a horrid bout of flu and the rest are at school and work, I figured in the quiet, I'd take the time to put my opinion as an expat out there in cyber space. If I knew then what I know now I would've left when I finished school. I miss my family and the few friends that are left there but so many of my family and most of our closest friends left South Africa before us anyway so further distance between us makes little difference. I don't miss the food except maybe a decent rump steak now and then. I don't miss the weather expect perhaps during those few bone chilling we...

  Yes I'm back, at last! I'm still trying to work out why I seem to have not had much time to "blog" recently. What's been happening? Well, the Lollipop started "Kindy" but you all knew that already. I can even say with some confidence that I made it through chicken pox with a minimum of fuss. Oh, we moved house too, under duress I might add, but now we are so happy we had to. The Butterfly missed two weeks of school having navigated through chicken pox, flu and a chest infection one after the other. I was amazed I made it till the end of those two weeks with what sanity I have still intact. Basically it's been life as usual with a few changes and yet no "blogging" time. Perhaps, if I am honest, it boils down to the fact that I haven't had the need to vent or share lately. Until today that is! The end of September marked twenty five years the Mauritian and I have been together and on Friday we celebrated sixteen years of marriage. When ...

Thursday morning was continuing along its regular routine when out of the blue the telephone rang heralding in an exciting yet saddening change to our weekly routines. Our Lollipop is officially starting her school career with her first three hour afternoon at preschool. I am bracing myself for a myriad of conflicting and confusing emotions because even though our Lollipop is ready for "school" the prospect of leaving my "baby" girl in the company of untamed smelly masses of small people controlled by just a few strangers is daunting. We have spent the last four days talking happily and excitedly to the Lollipop about "Kindy" and all she has to look forward to. The Butterfly has been fabulous, having been at the same "Kindy" she has first-hand knowledge of what goes on there, coupled with some good memories her excitement for her sister is genuine. The Mauritian and I have been making all the right noises about how much fun she'll have and al...

It is amazing how many seemingly unimportant and almost instinctual things go into running a smooth household. Not that the running of my household goes smoothly, it would if I put all the seemingly unimportant things into constant practise. With my departure for the tropics, just on a week away I have been obsessing over making sure the Mauritian knows how things are done and most importantly how the girls like it done. Not that they get their way of course but there are some concessions made occasionally. Silly things like where I store the dishwasher powder, or which draw the Butterfly’s socks are kept in the Mauritian has absolutely no idea about these things. I know, the girls know but the Mauritian is clueless. It’s funny only because they are such minor things that everyone thinks everyone should know. But it makes perfect sense; he has no clue because he never loads the dishwasher or folds the Butterfly’s socks. I did have a good giggle though when he asked me to show h...

Grumpy old men on mobility scooters, should be locked up! Man, oh man I have had my fill of them this summer. Perhaps I should be more specific and say one grumpy old man on a mobility scooter being the exception rather than the rule. However, he does spoil it for all the elderly charging about our small seaside town on those magical scooters. Last year some time, I had a run in with an elderly gentleman on his mobility scooter while crossing at a pedestrian crossing. We almost collided because I wanted to go left and he wanted to go right. No one’s fault really but I stepped back, allowed him to continue, smiled and apologised as my parents raised me to do. My smile was not returned, my apology was not acknowledged and he avoided eye contact as he drove off mumbling profanities about the youth of today. What a grumpy old man I thought then brushed it off as someone having a bad day and hey, it was nice to be classed as youthful! Then a number of weeks ago the Lollipop and I we...