Working 9 to 5

Hermann has a job. Yippee. Even better - he gets to work from home in SA. Double yippee. He's back working for Unilever. We're going to put the office in the kaya at the bottom of the garden. I've offered to bring him out his sandwiches at lunchtime - but you never know - I may just be having too much fun spending all his hard earned pennies.

Bunny Explosion 2

No sooner have we re-homed the baby bunnies then another 8 appear! Poor Bongile was pregnant only 2 days after giving birth the last time - phew - at least this should be the last batch as Phumuzile has now had her vasectomy!

Anya's Room

Mum - this blog entry is just for you. Here are a couple of photos of Froonchen's room, now that it has been decorated properly.

Eating in Bed

There aren't many restaurants around, that give you blankets to keep you warm on a cold night. It was freezing on Donna's last day in Durban when we decided to go to Moyo at the beach front. It was a howling gale outside but we were toasty and warm under our Besotho blankies. Even more bizarre, we were entertained by some Zulu men dancing in kilts. It was a blast from the past - the last time I saw blokes doing Impi in kilts was at my wedding.

Bunny Explosion

Phumuzila has turned out to be a little boy - and Bongile has 6 babies to prove it. They were born 2 weeks ago - 4 mini Phumus and 2 mini Bongiles! I want to keep them all but I think Hermann is going to make me take them to the pet shop. He has worked out that if we keep all the babies we could have over a 1000 bunnies a year.

Anyway, we picked the babies up for the first time today - their eyes have opened and they are now crawling about their little nest. We haven't named them yet, so please post all your suggestions - names such as Stu, Hotpot and Casserole will of course be ignored!

Is it a bird, is it a plane.....

No - it was Hermann, Rosie and Donna swinging through the trees at the Karkloof Canopy Tour! This was the highlight of our holiday - 3 hours of sliding down wires in between some very large trees. Also in our group was a film crew who were making a documentary on adventure sports in SA. They were under strict instructions not to film me, as I didn't fancy any shots of my arse disappearing through the trees, making it onto the telly. The slides were quite scary especially as I wimped out on the first big slide and put the brakes on. This meant I got stuck half way along and had to haul myself over to the other side - good exercise for the bingo wings but totally knackering. I also confess to having a small case of separation anxiety as the Froonchen had been left back at camp, but I needn't have worried as she hadn't even noticed we'd gone.

On Safari..again...

As we've had so many visitors we've been on safari every month since the Froonchen was born, and as usual, she slept through most of it! We stayed at Mpila which has no fence. The hyenas visit every night to try and steal your sausages off the braai. Armed with some Christmas stollen and the biggest watermelon this side of the equator, we drove around Imfolozi on the hunt for lion, cheetah and leopard. We didn't see any cats, but we did see elephant, a mini croc and the usual list of sightings. It was also a very good trip for spotting birdies, with confirmed sightings of a secretary bird (think large turkey but wth more interesting head gear), bee eaters and a blue waxbill. We also spotted some really colourful lizards. The only downside to the trip was the Froonchen peeing on my bed when we still had one night to go. As no-one was willing to brave the very creaky top bunk in our 4 bed rest hut, it meant sleeping on pee. Looking on the bright side, at least it wasn't a poo!

Donna Meets The Chief

It was a roasty toasty day for our visit to Shakaland - one of the few days of sunshine. Shakaland was good fun though, with Donna manouvering her way past the doddery old ladies to get a photo with the chief. After lunch we watched the Zulu dance show but were very disappointed to spot that all the blokes were wearing black pants under their little skirts.

Donna Does Durban

Its been a couple of hectic weeks on the tourist trail with Donna. Typically, the weather has been piss poor again! This did not stop Donna braving the pool - I've not even been fully submerged in it yet. Its far too chilly for that sort of nonsense! Hermann and Donna also went swimming in the sea while I very sensibly kept my feet firmly on dry land.

Smiley Baby 2

The last couple of weeks have been pretty quiet as we attempt to get the garden and drains sorted before Hermann returns to paid employment. We spent the weekend in Greytown raiding the gardens of Tante Inge, Tante Edith and Hermann's parents. We came back with a car load of botanical booty! Hopefully the garden will be looking lovely by the end of the summer. Right now it looks like its got plant acne - it'll be a bit spotty until the plants fill out a bit!

It was the Froonchen's birthday today - she's now 3 months old. Unbelievably she's managed to survive 3 months with us as parents relatively unscathed. We celebrated by attempting to take passport photos. We're off to Scotland for Hogmany but its debateable whether the Froonchen will make it - let's hope the British Consulate in Pretoria doesn't run on Africa Time.

As you will see, 2 weeks of smiling practise appears to have paid off!

Smiley Baby

Thank God for digital cameras. My attempts to capture a photograph of the Froonchen smiling (for the Huggies Smiley Baby competition) have ended in failure and 84 photos best epitomised by the one displayed above.

Unfortunately there is a bit of a delay on our camera and as smiling is a fairly new skill, the Froonchen can only sustain her smile for an extremely limited period of time, for example:
1) On production of the milk ducts
2) The switching on of the musical cot mobile
3) After long periods of parental absence

Things guaranteed to wipe the smile off her face and result in catastrophic tears:
1) The putting away of the milk ducts (unless the baby is so full of milk it is coming out of her nose and leaks incontrollably from her mouth)
2) The switching off of the musical cot mobile
3) Long periods of parental absence.

Unfortunately, this afternoon, I managed to lock myself out of the front gate while Froonchen was still inside the house. The door slammed in the wind while I was saying cheerio to Gitty. Luckily she had a mobile phone to call Hermann while I raced next door to see if I could scale the wall from Chippy's garden. Hermann's burglar prevention measures had us foiled. There was too much barbed wire to jump the wall so we had to wait for Hermann to get home. Luckily he was only 10 minutes away but when we finally got in we found the poor Froonchen lying in a puddle of tears. The poor baby has been a limpet for the rest of the day.

PS - those are not my knees

Baby Explosion

This morning was a bit hectic at Lize's house, when 13 of the 18 babies from our ante-natal class turned up for some tea and biscuits.

Cake now constitutes one of my major food groups (along with white wine)!
I'm the only person I know who is putting on weight while breastfeeding!!
Froonchen now has elbow dimples!!!

Froona is the second baby from the right....

Free Wheeling in Imfolozi

We're just back from 3 nights up at Hluhluwe and Imfolozi where the weather was great, we saw lots of game and had a fantastic time.

On our second morning we got up really early for a game drive through to Imfolozi where Hermann assured us that we could fill the car up with petrol which was running dangerously low. Needless to say, we arrived at Mpila Camp only to find that the petrol pump was out of commission with not a drop of petrol in sight.

Hermann managed to persuade some fellow tourists to let him siphon off some petrol from their Toyota, and after much running around to procure the essentials, Hermann was finally armed with a bit of hose, a funnel and an empty water bottle. Half an hour later, after much sucking and blowing, it became apparent that the petrol tank of the Toyota did not like being probed with a fooshty bit of pipe and was 'siphon' proof.

This left us with 3 options:
1) Wait for the petrol lorry - due the previous Monday but had not turned up. Supposed to arrive sometime today (Thursday).
2) Attempt to make it to Mtubatuba with an empty tank of petrol - 40kms away, mostly downhill.
3) Attempt to make it back to Hilltop Camp with an empty tank of petrol - 40kms away, mostly uphill

Hermann decided on option number 2 - hence the erratic departure from Imfolozi as we free wheeled down every hill at great speed. We eventually wafted into Mtubatuba on petrol fumes only and were able to fill up the tank. Turns out we only had 70 mls of petrol left in the tank!

Royal Natal National Park

Mum and Dad's whirlwind tour of Kwazulu-Natal continued with a few days up at 'the Berg'. We stayed in Thendele Camp with great views of the Amphitheatre. We went on a couple of smaller walks but left the big hikes to Dad and Hermann. Froonchen tried out the Kangol pouch for the first time but screamed blue murder whenever we tried to put her arms through the arm holes. As a result she did the whole hike with arms akimbo, and even managed to fall asleep. Please note that I refuse to accept that my boobs are that big - they were obviously being squashed into an unnatural underarm position!

Klara's Christening

It was the Christening of Udo and Agi's daughter Klara, up at Elandskraal, a couple of weeks ago. We went for the whole weekend and stayed in the chalets in the church grounds. It was a fantastic weekend, despite the torrential rain and thunderstorms. On the Saturday we visited Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana. We even squeezed in a little game drive on a neighbouring farm.

It brightened up on the Sunday, so we had perfect weather for the christening. Here are a couple of photos of us dressed in our Sunday best - Froonchen in Jasper Conran and me in 'New Look'!

Walkies

The bunnies have been in training. We're aiming to be able to take them for a turn round the Botanic Gardens. At the moment it's them taking us for a hop around the garden. I just about peed my pants laughing at the sight of Hermann running after Bongile - he's going to shoot me for publishing a photo of him wearing socks with sandals but I'm afraid it just has to be done!

The Mackays Have Arrived

Mum and Dad arrived 3 weeks ago for their maiden voyage to SA with a kitchen cupboard in their luggage and a suitcase full of pressies for the Froonchen. This means that they are travelling light and only have a couple of pairs of pants to their names.

They must have brought the weather with them as it's been pissing down. Hermann had to install the tumble dryer, especially as Froonchen has a habit of vomiting down Dad's limited supply of shirts.

Their first trip out of Durban was to Greytown where we managed to get a photo of all the oldies together.

Bathroom Bizarre

Yesterday I finally came face to face with my nemesis - Kevin from Bathroom Bazaar! I offered to take his photo for the blog 'Hall of Shame' but he told me not to be so nasty - guess we won't be shopping there again.....

The saga started back in May when we were told by our builder that the coverplates for the shower and bath taps were 'missing' when we bought the taps and were therefore on order. We thought that this was a bit odd (given the rest of the taps were intact) but had much bigger and leakier things to worry about. In the meantime you just had to guess which taps were hot and which were cold.

By July, I was getting fed up with the non arrival of the coverplates and phoned Bathroom Bazaar myself - first contact was made with Kevin! The story then took another twist: apparently the blank coverplates had been ordered because our bathrooms had been plumbed with with the hot and cold pipes in the wrong place. For those of you not aware, we had just had the bathrooms re-tiled, posing the very sensible question - "WHY NOT FIX THE PIPES AT THE SAME TIME".

Anyways, we were assured that the bank coverplates were on the way so for the next 2 months, poor Kevin was hounded by weekly phonecalls pertaining to the whereabouts of the elusive blank coverplates

Finally, on Froonchen's birthday we got the call from Kevin - they had finally arrived! Full of anticipation we went to collect them only to find they didn't fit. Instead, we have retrieved the original coverplates from Kevin and installed them upside down so that the hot and cold labels are on the right taps - a suitably African solution!

Going Crabby Over Tiles

This week we have been traumatised by the tilers. First of all it took 2 days for them to chip off the crappy tiling in the downstairs bathroom. The phrase 'Chip Off' does not do justice to the amount of DUST and NOISE which we have had to endure. The poor Froonchen spent most of Friday looking like she was having an epileptic fit whilst sleeping because she jumped everytime there was a loud bang. Obviously the in-utero building site experience had held her in good stead, as she didn't actually wake up that often.

Now that the old tiles are off, it means more tile shopping is required. Unfortunately both Hermann and I like the really expensive tiles - perhaps a bit unnecessary in the downstairs loo as this is where Hermann stores his mountain bike and tools. There is usually a machete and an axe kicking around there too (burglars beware). Much debate later - OK, I had a strop because I wasn't allowed the really really really expensive trendy black and grey mosaic tiles - Hermann is going back to Tile Africa to buy the same (boring) tiles as we have upstairs.

The kitchen is also getting tiled which means that it is now a no-go zone. Any excuse to go out for lunch. We decided to go Portugese and as you can see, there is finally a restaurant that recognises Hermann's need for a bib

Flower Power

Now that the house is nearly finished, focus has been shifting onto the garden. We've been visiting nurseries and garden centres to buy the plants needed to fill in the gaps between Hermann's cycads. Can you guess which flower I chose!

Drive On!

Drivers in Kwa-Zulu-Natal appear to be getting younger!

Free Range Rabbit

This morning resembled the Great Escape when Bongile went 'over the top' of the veranda defences and spent the best part of two hours running riot around the garden. I can now confirm that bunnies WILL EAT cycads.

Unfortnately for us, there is still no cover on the ventilation hole for under the house - it made a perfect bunny bolt hole. We're hoping that she hasn't eaten any of the alarm cabling which is down there....

It took ages to coax her out from under the house with an apple. She finally bopped back onto the newly barricaded side veranda and with some strategic backfilling of the big hole, it was possible to corner her and then pop her back into her hutch, where she was happily reunited with Phumu.

We're pooped - is it too early for a gin & tonic? (8.33am)

Beautiful Bunnies

We also have the most beautiful bunnies!

Beautiful Baby

Obviously we're biased, but our baby is the most beautiful baby on the planet.

Thank You

Froonchen has received loads of pressies - she is already the Imelda Marcos of Morningside (those baby shoes just keep on coming) - so she'd like to say a big thank you to everyone for their generosity.

Bag Lady

Kath & Jonny got home safely, and true to their word, have sent over a photo of me on safari in my nightie. Not my finest hour!

Are we sleeping comfortably?

At least someone is getting some sleep around here!!

More Lala

Kath, Jonny and Hannah had a fantastic week in Durban. We went on holiday for the week too - although it was knackering. Highlights included hanging out at the beach; the aquarium and water park; the Shark's Board boat trip (Hermann & Jonny only); shark dissection (we had pre-autopsy drinks to get in the mood) and then a weekend up at Hluhluwe.

Hannah's vocabulary is very advanced for a 'not quite 2' year old, so we were subjected to a never ending stream of "more giraffe, more zebra, more rhino, more goat (buffalo), more impala and more lala (nyala)". When not on game drives Hannah was mostly obsessed with the baby (more baby toes), smoothie juice, ice cream and jelly.

She was very cute and very well behaved but even Kath had problems keeping her entertained for the duration of our leopard sighting. Hannah must have been wondering why we were looking at a bush for 30 minutes. But the safari trip was excellant fun. We braai-ed in style every night and even made it for the early morning game drives although I pretty much disengaged the baby from the milk ducts, rolled out of bed and went on safari in my nightie. I may have looked like a bag lady, but it didn't scare the animals away - we even had a fleeting glimpse of a cheetah!

Does my bum look big in this?

The Froonchen has officially been declared an environmental hazard!

I'm afraid the experiment with reusable nappies was a bit of a disaster. Not only did they give her the physique of a sumo wrestler, but they were so hot that there was more sweat than pee - and that was on a relatively cool day!

Viva la Pampers!

Hermansburg School Reunion

The last weekend in August saw us all traipse up to HMB for Hermann's 20 year school reunion at HMB. We were staying in the Kindergarten Hostel which was very cute - pint sized sinks and toilets - you could just about see your belly button in the bathroom mirrors. The days of travelling light are obviously long gone - we had duvets, pillows and microwave squeezed into the back of the car. There was just about enough room for the baby!.

On the Friday night we went to 'Happy Hour' at the church - yes, German churches do all have bars attached. The boys got right royally pissed (Hermann says it was inevitable) Holger passed out in the car park whereas Hermann fell into bed at some time past midnight, attempted to romance me (or should that be molest me) by pinging my nursing bra and then asking in disgust what type of underwear I had on (cannonball holders) before snoring himself into oblivion. Luckily he has few recollections of that evening so cannot remember all the names I was calling him.

Saturday was a lazy day - a morning stroll, chilling out in the sun, followed by a braai and slideshow of dodgy school photos. The class of 87 did themselves proud and we had a fantastic weekend. Breastfeeding is much more fun with a beer in your hand!

10 Day Update

10 days in and I can confirm that having a new baby is like starting a life sentence with a pirhana attached to each boob.

I've been trying to persuade Hermann to let Anya latch on to his nipples so that he can experience some of the pain first hand. Funnily enough, he is having none of it.

8 ladies from our ante-natal class have now had their babies - and ours was the heaviest!

Homecoming

Froona came home on Thursday 16th August. We're managing about 5 hours sleep a night - but that's only if you count from going to bed at 7pm. It appears that Froona is nocturnal and likes to be awake between midnight and 4am.

She's still a right wee chubber. Not only did she wear her own lips out (nipple cream now appears to be acting as a lipsalve) but she's also worn my nipples down to the core - an occupational hazard when you bruise like a peach.

Better go, can hear ominous sqeaking - here's a photo of us before the sleep deprivation kicked in........

Mission Code Name: Froona

For some reason, the theme tune to the A-Team is going through my brain, so today's blog has to be read with this in mind...

na nana nana nana....

Date: Monday 13th August
Mission: Safe arrival of Froona Kistner

0100 hours: Status of Uterus: irritable. Status of Rosie: even more irritable. Likely cause: an evening spent watching terrestial SA TV in empty labour ward.

0800 hours: Induction started
0830 hours: Dr Dave in danger of losing arm in internal examination. Cervix is firmly closed. Rosie perfects new range of facial expressions as befits the occasion.

0900 hours: Hermann arrives for tour of duty. Telecommunications centre set up (i.e. laptop) for international news updates.
1100 hours: Hermann begins work on UK Tax Return! Rosie sucks ice and retreats to 'happy place'.
1200 hours: Mission not progressing well. But UK Tax Return figures are complete. Nurses prohibit ingestion of all food and liquid. Blue Zoo curry is now a fading memory......

1300 hours: Rosie's lunch arrives which Hermann eats. Rosie manages to steal one passing lick of her chocolate brownie.
1400 hours: Dr Dave called in to assess mission status. Mission has stalled. Plan B officially called into action (or should that be Plan C)

1645 hours: Rosie prepped for the chop.
1700 hours: Rosie suffers hormonal attack of the King Kongs (aka uncontrollable crying as witnessed on the 3 day cry fest that was King Kong the 2005 remake). It would even have put Ronald to shame!
1705 hours: Spinal block administered (first pain relief of the day, unless you count a brief encounter with a chocolate brownie)
1727 hours: Safe delivery of Froona. Clean up operations commence.

1900 hours: Baby officially named - and its neither Freya nor Oona
2100 hours: A morphine shot, cup of tea and a biscuit are finally administered to Rosie - yippee


Mission Stats:

Name: Anya Kistner
Weight: 3.645 kgs
Length: 52 cms
Birth Head Circumference: 37.5cms
APGAR 1 Min: 9 (blue tinge to fingersand toes)
APGAR 5 Mins: 10 (perfect)
Innoculations: BCG, Polio

Identifying Features:
Looks Like: Hermann
Feeds Like: Hermann

To Pee Or Not To Pee

That was the question on waking up the morning after the wedding...

Had too much dancing rendered me temporarily incontinent, or had my waters actually broken?

Next came the second question - to sniff the pants or not to sniff? We decided not to sniff and instead went for a curry at Blue Zoo.

Finally, 4 hours of debate later, we thought we should phone Parklands and seek a slightly more educated opinion. Luckily I passed the litmus test, thereby saving my blushes, and resulting in an overnight admission, while Hermann went home to tend to our other little babies.

ps - how cool is this... I'm writing this blog while hooked up to a drip being induced

pps - yes, it does hurt!

Wedding Fever

We had a fab day at Dieter and Melanie's wedding in Wartburg. Hermann had to go suit, shirt and tie shopping the day before and then again on the morning of the wedding, but as you can see, he scrubbed up well! My frock was the stretchiest frock in the shop, but so cheap that ironing was hazardous. I made sure not to stand too close to any naked flames either.

There was a buffet dinner then dancing. I was officially the fattest person on the dancefloor but drew the line at Impi!!

TDK - Day 2

This pic was taken early on day 2, which was billed to be a very long one, as it contained considerable climbing in sandy tracks - little did any of us know what was ahead of us!

Many of the camps had been set up close to local villages, the empty 5l water bottles (see 2 in the pic) were prized possessions!

The route for the day was a fantastic 16km single track (mostly along an elephant track) with tea at a look-out 100m over the Shingwedzi River. The next 33km were fine - albeit quite tough, but the 20km thereafter are a whole own story...

TDK - Home Sweet Home

and did we make ourselves at home! when getting into camp, we parked our bikes in the bike park (if they were not needing any other mechanical attention), headed off to find the Team 10 avenue of single dome tents (with a mattress in them), picked up our luggage, fetched a beer, or two (see Hermann's hands), and ran off to de-dirt ourselves in the showers - mostly with hot water - nogal! We were also able to tuck into a snack of shwarmas with different fillings - when there was anything left - being Team 10, and only having one smaller group behind us, meant that we often nibbled at the scraps that were left (after a brainwave suggestion, we got the organisers to let us get to the dinner buffet first on the last 2 nights - so don't expect any of us to look much leaner and meaner - except for some lacerations on lower legs from close encounters with thorn scrub en route).

A couple of snorers (as always) added to the symphony of the night, and by 04h30 the low rumble of trucks and generators starting the day's proceedings rudely pulled us from our deserved resting states.

TDK - Where are all the animals?

We were warned in all pre-publicity for the tour that we should not expect to see many animals en route, and that the final stretch on day 4 would be the best opportunity to do so. We stumbled across this herd of elephant (look carefully in the background, about 200m into the bush), and did not see much else, other than a couple of dogs and other domestic animals when passing through the numerous villages en route. Hermann saw a donkey in deep conversation with a zebra once, and that was about it.

TDK - First Stretch

This picture shows the first stretch that we travelled on - the main road from Giriyondo border post into Mozambique, turning right takes one to Massingir Dam and central Moz beaches (like Xai Xai), our first tea stop was after 36 kms of undulating, at first, and then gentle downhills - a comfortable start. Mark Huxtable, came a cropper on this gravel - falling off his bike trying to catch his dislodged water bottle - and badly cutting his elbow. He shrugged it off, and continued - winning the team prize later that evening for perserverence.

After tea, we had a 16km stretch on a nice undulating jeep track which was mainly hard sand and a bit of rock, going through a couple of dry (small) river beds. A similar 32km jeep track took us to our first camp situated close to the dry Shingwedzi River. A full 85km and we were home. Holder unfortunately hit a serious sand patch in the road at considerable speed (x his not inconsiderable personal load) and managed to badly buckle his front tyre - which meant he had to retire for the day (bike was fixed by the 4 very able bike mechanics that evening). He ended up driving in a land rover with Gerald de Kock (watch out on Supersport soon). Everyone passing Holger had asked if he had seen a doctor yet - and when the doctor passed, the diagnosis was that Holger 'was just dirty'

TDK - First Tea Stop

Each of the four day's rides were divided into three legs. For breakfast - if one can call it that, there was porridge and/or cereal, fruit and snacks. After about 3hours (on day three this was more like 6 hours!) we had a tea stop, to fill up with water and 'bionic juice' which was sponsored 'energy drink', that caused some cyclists to fart, splutter, and others to stay on the road.... biscuits, delicious fruit cake, woolies hot-cross buns, and energy bars rounded off the snack. We would then cycle the next stretch to lunch - which was called brunch. One of the cyclists on day 1 cycled passed this sign, thinking that is was pointing out a branch which should be avoided, and he missed a midday feast all together! The 4 of us never missed a meal!

TDK - Team 10

We were allocated to team 10 with 18 other cyclists. In total about 205 registered for the tour, and were divided into 11 teams, each with a dedicated landrover (and driver) to see to most of our needs... Our fixit man was Paul Sagales - a greek with large belly, dry sense of humour, and absolute dedication to keeping our show on the road. We nominated him for a team prize on the third night - the only group to nominate one of their landie drivers. This pic was taken at the beginning of the tour (note, NOT race) - without a km behind us - rear ends, cycling outfits, bikes still fresh as a daisy....

TDK - Mopani

We got to Mopani camp in Kruger Park around 14h00 on Tuesday, picked up our 'goodie bag', unpacked out stuff in our chalet, had a bite to eat, handed in our bicycles for truck transfer to the Mozambique border post (Giriyondo). The next morning we had to have our luggage for transfer at the reception at 05h15, and at 06h15 our bus left for the border post where we were reunited with our bikes.

Tour De Kruger - Roland´s Story

The boys have successfully completed the Tour De Kruger and are now on their way back home. They should be back in Durban tomorrow. Roland has started emailing tales from the tour - so the next few blog entries are from him.

Hermann appears to have survived relatively unscathed although he says his bottom has gone a bit crusty.....

Boys on Tour

Here´s the last correspondance from the boys - Roland, Holger, Thomas and Hermann before we lost contact with them:

Hi - just a quick greeting to say that we have survived the trip to Mopani, picked up useful tips at the pre-race briefing, packed our bags and bicycles and have set alarm clocks for 04h00 tomorrow morning (our luggage needs to be loaded at 04h20 - sharp). We then head off after breakfast at 06h15 to Giriyondo, and after all formalities, are likely to be on the saddles at around 09h00. We have been assured that the landrovers will come looking for us 20minutes after sunset - that is around 19h00 (and 85kms later)

they said that we should expect the sand after lunch on day 2.

corresponding from Mopani Camp, Kruger National Park.

It´s emergency contact by satellite phone for the next 4 days. I´m keeping my legs crossed!

The Mysterious Disappearing Laptop

Those of you glued to the internet every day whilst pretending to work from home (you know who you are) may have noticed a slight decrease in my presence online. Alas, this is the result of the mysterious disappearance of my laptop.

A number of contributing factors came together last Saturday night which resulted in this mysterious disappearance.

1) Post baby shower party, my hands were too full of pressies to take laptop upstairs
2) Post baby shower party, boys are very drunk, impeding decision to switch on our very expensive alarm system due to the potential for night time snacks and toilet stops.
3) Perimeter wall defences are not yet completed - see recurring complaint regarding building work
4) Thief with very nice trainers and coathanger wire just happens to be passing by.

The disappearance of the laptop was not noticed for quite some time. It then took several hours to eliminate the possibility that the laptop had been put "somewhere safe". This involved checking on top of cupboards, in the freezer, behind mattresses, under beds and other well known Hermann "safe spots".

Finally the trail led outside and sure enough, there were footprints up the wall and the discarded coathanger wire that our thief had used to force open the window. We can only assume that the presence of a pregnancy impaired bladder spooked the burglar therefore saving the DSTV box from a similar fate.

Hermann has now spent the week transforming the house into Fort Knox. We have a delightful trim of razor wire decorating the top of our perimeter wall and the windows have locks top and bottom to stop the catches being forced. The front flower beds have even been planted with spikey plants! Every man and his dog is now phoning to check on me while Hermann is away and I have strict instructions to put on the alarm and press the big red panic button should I require any assistance during the night.

Nevertheless, the following questions immediatly popped into my brain:
1) Will the Chubb Security Man pop round to take the very stiff bath plug out of the bath?
2) How adept is he at catching naughty bunnies?
3) Is it an emergency if I can´t reach to put my shoes and socks on?

Answers on a postcard please......

Frequent Showers in KZN

Massive floods have been spotted in Montcalm Road - it is now very hard to find our bedroom under a sea of pink baby clothes. I had 2 surprise baby showers last week - one held by my German School and another by Brigitte. I now have 57 separate outfits in the 0-3 month age range. It appears Froona has already morphed into the Imelda Marcos of Morningside. At this rate we won´t be needing the washing machine (which is just as well because it still leaks).

Mental note to self: do not turn up at surprise party and tell host "its a minging night for a BBQ".

Craptastic!

The solution to our elevated toilets (the pipes are too high so the toilets don't reach the floor) - appears to involve sticking them on an inch of concrete and then covering them with orange grout.

Lovely - our toilets now have 'go faster stipes'!

You need to be able to run fast

luckily Hermann has long arms!