My Year of Meaningful (2011)

OK so we're back from Botswana and South Africa and now I have like 3 weeks of diary-able events to catch up on and it's going to take forever. ROCK AND ROLL this is going to take awhile.

Well we were in Pretoria for the First weekend. Arrived in Jo'burg airport at something stupid like 7am and it was my own damn fault but I didnt sleep on the plane ride. oops. no, instead we decided to do something much smarter which involved drinking champagne. Which, as always happens when I drink too much wine, makes me wake up in the middle of the night on a sugar high and not be able to get back to sleep. FECKIT. I always get a couple hours of sleep on this flight, but it was not to be this time around, Because I'm getting old and alcohol does new and different things to me which I do not appreciate.

Yeah so anyway we got there and Leith picked us up and immediately we were transported to KampQuality on Hartebeestpoort Dam which is this program/annual daycamp for kids with terminal cancer that I used to help volunteer for when I lived there and since it just happened to fall on the day we arrived (which was my sweetiepie's birthday) we go help serve lunch to these 5-10 year olds (all terminal) kids which was great but we were WRECKED. and it was HELLA hot. Those kids were loving it. I remembered that about KCampQuality... you look at these kids playing in the swimming pool and listening to hip hop, dancing around, running riot, and they look FINE... then you think, "hey, theyse kids aren't going to DIE"... but they are. All of them are. They love the day out though, some of 'em have never been in a swimming pool before (most are really poor, in from the townships), a lot of them don't even get to leave the hospital on a normal day, but this weekend they get to do just that-- have a "normal day". Eat hamburgers, something besides hospital food.

blah blah blah home to P-town by 3pm, no big deal, beers, nap, shower, hang out, dinner, etc. socializing with the P's, it was rockin. a couple days.

Monday up to Gaborone, where the bid'nez is. Gabz-city. Or rather, GABZZZZ- Cit-TAY. 3 and a half hours north of P-town. Had to check up on the office and of course T. Their apartment is awesome, it's set in a gorgeous garden of tropical plants and of course the obligatory swimmingpool and braai area.

Note to self: record +s and -s of Gabz-city at some stage. In writing. you know you have a tendency to glamourize stuff when you're back at the ranch.

A week with T. and Lovely L. It was great to see L. Whereas T. still drives me nuts. At least when he was working for me here, we said goodbye at the end of the workday and went home. Most of the time in G-city we were STAYING with them. It was like T-RAMA. But I really miss L and since they're there because of me, I really wanted to make sure she was doing alright there and enjoying stuff. Turns out she likes it, they like being closer to home, they like the people they've met so far, they like their apartment, and they can definitely do this til H. and I get down there in a year. -whew-

T on the other hand is a drama yet still a good LA. We just had to straighten him out a bit, as he was slacking on the marketing side. Nooooooo, T., the work doesnt walk up to you and throw itself at you like a 2-buck slut. Yes T., you might want to actually pick up the damn phone and CALL the engineering firm next door to see if they have anything that looks like WORK for us. ugh. I won't get into the dirty details. Being a boss is hard. Especially when your employee is your friend.

Oh yeah, and T. PLEASE no more foxers on the side. Like, DUH. Do some work for the damn people who are paying your WAGES for a change? Right?

But all in all, no reasons to freak out. which is what both H. and I needed. To see that this was working. Of course we didn't expect the promised land. And didnt find it either. But it was fine. Alles goed.

I like Gabz because of how integrated it is, compared to South Africa. You can tell there was no apartheid here. Of course there's also no white people here. :-) Well in comparison, of course. Seriously, this is the most integrated african town I've ever been in. Shack over there, millionaire ex-pat mansion next to that, shack next to that, shabeen next to that, decently-constructed apartment complex next to that, shack next to that, SOCCER STADIUM next to that.. . . and all surrounded by high-quality electric fencing atop a 3-metre high prison-style wall. Aaaahh, just like good old Pretoria.

The heat was great, H. will be much happier. We'll be able to have a pool, the puppies will be able to have space, but most of all we'll be able to slooooww the fuck dowwwwn.

Besides T & L's apartment, we also stayed at Bernard the friendly architect's rondavel (photo), about 15 km outside of G-city. It was the most gorgeous place we've ever stayed in. Literally in the middle of the bush... pain in the ass baboons and all. Donkeys on the road, bird calls to wake you up. Bernard alternates every 3 wks in between England and Gabz, so whenever he's not there, everyone uses his rondavel for mini-honeymoons. Again, the perks oh the perks. Sitting out on the front stoop, under the unbelivable shitload of stars, eating braai vleis and drinking beer with my baby.... listening to the sounds of the bush and seeing the twinkley little lights of Gabz on the skyline
.... it just settled everything.

I'll be doing my own Teach-Yourself-Setswana course over the next year, and one thing's for sure it will definitely come in handy. AGAIN we nearly got arrested leaving to return to S.A. on the last day (what is it with us nearly getting arrested every time we come to Botswana!?), and of course the smart-ass cop who was giving Hannes a bunch of trouble greeted us in Setswana. L. and Jo and Karl and a bunch of our peeps there are pretty good in it and it definitely gives you a leg to stand on, even though everyone there is fluent in english.

Went kayaking on Gaborone Dam, which was at 20%. YIKES. Man, major water issues there. Nevermind the fact we're talking about the Kalahari desert ecosystem, but seriously, those poor bastards are experiencing a shitty drought at the moment.

Anyway, the work got done, we went back off to Pretoria for the last few days to actually get some bloody peace from the office (on our so-called HOLIDAY, duh) and sponge off Leith and Nor for awhile longer. Met up with Dr. Bill from the university days, drank more beers, got better tans, ate shitloads of awesome food and experienced the nostalgia of our old stomping ground some more. I love P-town. And Leith &Nor. Why couldn't they have been my parents? Why is god so cruel? Oh shit yeah we even took Kalceeeey to the circus. I had never been to a circus before. I liked the contortionists. I still can't help but look at them from a yoga perspective though rather than a freakshow.

Whate else? Man this has got to be the most boring blog i ever posted. But I won't remember all this stuff in 2 years so whatever. Get it done.

I like holidays because I like spending every minute of the day, every day, with H. It's so much easier without the stress of life and puppies and cooking dinners and work. I hope retirement is like holidays. Then I would have something to look forward to about old age, instead of fearing it so much and freaking out every time I think about turning 30 next year. Shit.