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!