OK I'll admit it - (1) it's been a long time, and (2) I'm feeling little of meaning. damn.
But before I give myself a free pass to just keep on writing NOTHING, we just got back from a 10-day trip and I suppose that if nothing else, recapping said trip adds to my conviction that one reason my life has meaning during this "era" of my existence, is the flexibility and opportunity that my occupation/lifestyle avails to travelling and leaving home for extended periods of time.
So the trip.
First we started off in GNZ (or do I refer to it as "GZI"? I can't remember - that cow town out west by the Namibian border where we have a lot of work these days, anyway). It was a fun road trip with Doc, Mrs Doc, myself, The Mr, LJJ, and our newest employee, Cat. We all loaded up the 4x4 (with trailer, because that's a lot of adults and a choddler (my new moniker for LJJ since she's a chocolate toddler now, no more baby. Chortle)) and headed west. The reason Cat was involved on this first leg was because technically we were going out there for work (big meeting), which happened the next day. Prior to the work-day component of this trip though, we enjoyed a leisurely road trip with a hamburger stop and much banter and good time belly laughs on the lonnnnnnnnnnng drive. Stayed in a nice safari camp that we often frequent when out that way, ate some nice game for dinner, and drank a glass of wine or two before retiring.
The next day, after all work obligations were taken care of, we said goodbye to Cat and the rest of us headed for Namibia where we stayed at yet another awesome, quirky, could-use-some-TLC, quiet lodge on the fringe of the desert. Already being back in NAM was soooooo refreshing and wonderful. Just little things like how the staff at the lodge are POLITE AND CONVERSANT AND HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR AND ARE CLUED-IN AND DELIVER ACTUAL SERVICE really makes a difference. I loooove NAM. I pine for it. Anyhoo, good food, good wine, etc. the night we got there. Since Doc & Mrs Doc would be running the Cape Town half marathon within a week, they did a 16km run the next day, and The Mr. and I did about 12km (I had to seriously push him to agree to it as he is not exactly in peak condition running-wise these days) and we decided to just relax all day and stay for 2 nights before pushing south to the Fish River Canyon. R&R indeed.
The next day we drove (lonnnnng desert gravel roads the whole way) for hours and hours, heading southward, and the fuel filter started packing up and our top speed decreased over about an hour to about, oh, 30mph. Trouble. NO towns around here, NOWHERE to be saved. After about an hour or more of 30mph, we limped into a village where some cowboy mechanics (lovely, albeit drunken - see, I LOVE namibians!) patched us up just enough to limp into the next "major" town about 2 hours away (and also at top speeds of about, oh, 40mph) where we got the most amazing, excellent small-town Toyota service ON A SATURDAY NIGHT which fixed the rig up perfect and all in all the whole debacle only set us back a day - which didn't even matter because the 4 (5) of us could spend a month locked in a hole together and still get along and have good time belly laughs. So we swerved off schedule for 24 hours and stayed in that cow town at a crappy roadside motel but which just so happened to serve the most amazing food EVER (see? this is total Kul-d-sac-Krew luck) so it was all good. Plus, the lodges we were booked at for the remainder of the trip had no problem shifting our bookings with no extra charge or worry.
Next day we pulled into the Fish River Canyon (the world's 2nd largest canyon after that big ol' thing in the USA) way down at the bottom of the country and lo and behold it was like we landed on the moon. unbelievably gorgeous landscapes and boulders and vistas as far as the eye could see. The lodge we stayed at was super special and like nothing I've ever been to before. The chalets are built RIGHT into the rocks, and your room has natural boulders in it and everything. No place on earth I've ever been is this stunning. Ahhhh NAM and your beautiful STUFF!!! Again, amazing service, staff, scenery, environment, food, EVERYTHING was 100%. The swimming pool (and poolside bar) alone was a sight to behold. And since it's not peak season (well, even if it was, it's so far away from civilization you can see not many people are ever there at once) we virtually had the place to ourselves. It was glorious. Again more amazing food & cocktails & wine & games of Rummy at night after the choddler retired, runs during the day and a quick trip to the nearest Roadhouse for frosty mugs of Hansa beer. aaahhhh.
Then it was off down even-more-south-er, to SA and the Orange River Valley Wine Route, in the Northern Cape, SA. Or as I like to call it, "The Cape Winelands' poor hillbilly cousin!" There's only 7 wineries in this valley, so you can do 'em all!!!! Which we did!!!! We stayed in gorgeous guesthouses like this one in the area for 2 nights, and ate amazing food and drank semi-ok-have-drank-better wines. ahhhhh.
And then we said goodbye to Doc & Mrs Doc who flew down to Cape Town to run their 1/2 marathon and meet their american friends coming to visit for a week. At which point The Mr. and LJJ and I made our way leisurely back to G-city over about 2 days, just stopping where ever we chose to, and finding digs along the way. WHICH, I might add, turned up the most unlikely awesome B&B in the most unlikely south african cow town you could ever imagine - obviously run by gay fellas (how do they exist there? seriously?) with amazing taste in linens and antiques and wine. weird-ass stuff.
Our leisurely family road trip back got us home during easter weekend so we even had the sunday and monday to re-coup from all that fun and decadance, and start the adjustment-to-the-real-world and post-holiday starvation and exercise regime. Which is quite pleasurable in the winter because I do love soup and do make very amazing and healthy soups, if I do say so myself. Combined with having an opportunity to go running and to the gym several times this week already, it's all good once again and all the pants fit like they should. whew.
Now the axe waits to fall, as when Doc & Mrs Doc arrive back here tomorrow (and will move into our house as they've handed their keys back already) it will be 4 days with them and then POOF, they'll vanish into thin air as they relocate back to the states. whimper.
But before I give myself a free pass to just keep on writing NOTHING, we just got back from a 10-day trip and I suppose that if nothing else, recapping said trip adds to my conviction that one reason my life has meaning during this "era" of my existence, is the flexibility and opportunity that my occupation/lifestyle avails to travelling and leaving home for extended periods of time.
So the trip.
First we started off in GNZ (or do I refer to it as "GZI"? I can't remember - that cow town out west by the Namibian border where we have a lot of work these days, anyway). It was a fun road trip with Doc, Mrs Doc, myself, The Mr, LJJ, and our newest employee, Cat. We all loaded up the 4x4 (with trailer, because that's a lot of adults and a choddler (my new moniker for LJJ since she's a chocolate toddler now, no more baby. Chortle)) and headed west. The reason Cat was involved on this first leg was because technically we were going out there for work (big meeting), which happened the next day. Prior to the work-day component of this trip though, we enjoyed a leisurely road trip with a hamburger stop and much banter and good time belly laughs on the lonnnnnnnnnnng drive. Stayed in a nice safari camp that we often frequent when out that way, ate some nice game for dinner, and drank a glass of wine or two before retiring.
The next day, after all work obligations were taken care of, we said goodbye to Cat and the rest of us headed for Namibia where we stayed at yet another awesome, quirky, could-use-some-TLC, quiet lodge on the fringe of the desert. Already being back in NAM was soooooo refreshing and wonderful. Just little things like how the staff at the lodge are POLITE AND CONVERSANT AND HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR AND ARE CLUED-IN AND DELIVER ACTUAL SERVICE really makes a difference. I loooove NAM. I pine for it. Anyhoo, good food, good wine, etc. the night we got there. Since Doc & Mrs Doc would be running the Cape Town half marathon within a week, they did a 16km run the next day, and The Mr. and I did about 12km (I had to seriously push him to agree to it as he is not exactly in peak condition running-wise these days) and we decided to just relax all day and stay for 2 nights before pushing south to the Fish River Canyon. R&R indeed.
The next day we drove (lonnnnng desert gravel roads the whole way) for hours and hours, heading southward, and the fuel filter started packing up and our top speed decreased over about an hour to about, oh, 30mph. Trouble. NO towns around here, NOWHERE to be saved. After about an hour or more of 30mph, we limped into a village where some cowboy mechanics (lovely, albeit drunken - see, I LOVE namibians!) patched us up just enough to limp into the next "major" town about 2 hours away (and also at top speeds of about, oh, 40mph) where we got the most amazing, excellent small-town Toyota service ON A SATURDAY NIGHT which fixed the rig up perfect and all in all the whole debacle only set us back a day - which didn't even matter because the 4 (5) of us could spend a month locked in a hole together and still get along and have good time belly laughs. So we swerved off schedule for 24 hours and stayed in that cow town at a crappy roadside motel but which just so happened to serve the most amazing food EVER (see? this is total Kul-d-sac-Krew luck) so it was all good. Plus, the lodges we were booked at for the remainder of the trip had no problem shifting our bookings with no extra charge or worry.
Next day we pulled into the Fish River Canyon (the world's 2nd largest canyon after that big ol' thing in the USA) way down at the bottom of the country and lo and behold it was like we landed on the moon. unbelievably gorgeous landscapes and boulders and vistas as far as the eye could see. The lodge we stayed at was super special and like nothing I've ever been to before. The chalets are built RIGHT into the rocks, and your room has natural boulders in it and everything. No place on earth I've ever been is this stunning. Ahhhh NAM and your beautiful STUFF!!! Again, amazing service, staff, scenery, environment, food, EVERYTHING was 100%. The swimming pool (and poolside bar) alone was a sight to behold. And since it's not peak season (well, even if it was, it's so far away from civilization you can see not many people are ever there at once) we virtually had the place to ourselves. It was glorious. Again more amazing food & cocktails & wine & games of Rummy at night after the choddler retired, runs during the day and a quick trip to the nearest Roadhouse for frosty mugs of Hansa beer. aaahhhh.
Then it was off down even-more-south-er, to SA and the Orange River Valley Wine Route, in the Northern Cape, SA. Or as I like to call it, "The Cape Winelands' poor hillbilly cousin!" There's only 7 wineries in this valley, so you can do 'em all!!!! Which we did!!!! We stayed in gorgeous guesthouses like this one in the area for 2 nights, and ate amazing food and drank semi-ok-have-drank-better wines. ahhhhh.
And then we said goodbye to Doc & Mrs Doc who flew down to Cape Town to run their 1/2 marathon and meet their american friends coming to visit for a week. At which point The Mr. and LJJ and I made our way leisurely back to G-city over about 2 days, just stopping where ever we chose to, and finding digs along the way. WHICH, I might add, turned up the most unlikely awesome B&B in the most unlikely south african cow town you could ever imagine - obviously run by gay fellas (how do they exist there? seriously?) with amazing taste in linens and antiques and wine. weird-ass stuff.
Our leisurely family road trip back got us home during easter weekend so we even had the sunday and monday to re-coup from all that fun and decadance, and start the adjustment-to-the-real-world and post-holiday starvation and exercise regime. Which is quite pleasurable in the winter because I do love soup and do make very amazing and healthy soups, if I do say so myself. Combined with having an opportunity to go running and to the gym several times this week already, it's all good once again and all the pants fit like they should. whew.
Now the axe waits to fall, as when Doc & Mrs Doc arrive back here tomorrow (and will move into our house as they've handed their keys back already) it will be 4 days with them and then POOF, they'll vanish into thin air as they relocate back to the states. whimper.
Labels: holiday recap, Meaningful, work trips
So I suppose it goes without saying that LJJ turning TWO (today) is surely classed as Meaningful. I mean, again my philosophy on celebrating these things is that until the child is old enough to know what the hell a birthday is, any partying to be done should be done by the parents, in celebration of the fact they successfully kept said youngling alive for two years! So, tonight we will have Doc & Mrs Doc over for The Mr.'s world-famous lamb vindaloo (hot hot), perhaps some cornhole or skip bo and some sort of cake with peanut butter frosting (myself & The Mr.'s favourite), open up the presents sent to LJJ by her grandparents, and throw her in bed and continue with the wine and revelry. Anyway, my commentary on the fact that the "meaningful" in this post is my kiddo entering her third year on planet earth is that I think she's turning into a pretty quality human being. Even though there are a number of "terribles" that are indeed already bubbling up to the surface with the onset of The Twos (which believe me, I am wrestling with - temper, contraryness, etc) there are a number of things that at this age you can also see coming through a kid's personality, which I know are a combination of nature and nurture and I like to think on account of what they are, specifically, a larger portion of which are simply the nurture she gets in our home environment over these past two years. To name a few: Love affair with the piano, cowboy songs, singing, dancing; Unmeasureable amount of love and affection for 4-legged animals (and even inscects now, whew!); Almost comically (for a toddler anyway) diverse pallet in terms of foodie-ness (mmmm, curry! mmm, herring! mmm, more green-olives-stuffed-with-jalapenos, please!); Good manners, please & thanks in both languages, etc.; Love of people, strangers/new acquaintences/old friends, social with everyone; Independant occupier of time; Laughing, joking, humor-filled personality Affection, affection, affection.... kisses & cuddles for one and all! Anyway, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything because you never really know where these things come from (plus horn tooting would take all the meaning out of the Meaningful) but am rather just mentioning the things that specifically mean something/are important to me, and give me the faith that the youngest member of the clan is turning into a special kind of person. One who makes you happy in some way or other, every day, even just a little. And I'm grateful for all the extra happiness available to me no matter where it comes from because... well, obviously it's just something to be thankful for.
