Settling In

We have been here 8 days. It feels longer because of everything we have achieved in that time. We have not had time to act like a tourist other than a very brief 3-hours on Day 2.

So far we have:

• Registered in our village as residents
• Received our temporary papers (which means I can work now too)
• Moved into our home
• Put up a fence
• Found the correct bus routes from home to the city
• Opened a bank account
• Applied for internet at home
• Got a Cell phone no.
• Have a Mobile Wifi for home (until internet is installed)
• Welcomed our dogs (last night)

The language thing is still fun. Some days I understand a bit of what is being said, and others ... not so much and we have great fun playing charades!

Shopping is another adventure.  For all I know I am washing my hair with dog shampoo...  (Don't say what you are thinking!!!)    There are vegetables I have never seen before.

We were laughing about this last night, saying it was like being newly married. We have to build up our food cupboard - things like spices, tomato sauce, mayo etc, you kind of take for granted that you will always have them... try suddenly cooking something that you have bought all the ingredients for, to suddenly realise that you don't have SALT!  Yip, we lived with no salt for about 5 days.

Until we get the car, we have to take a bus to the nearest shop.... you can't just walk there. Even though its not far, about 1km, its through a part of a narrow winding forest road with no pavements - so its impossible to walk there.  The result is that if you forget to buy something, you go without until your next trip, you can't just pop back to the shop.

We have also met stinging nettles. Well, My Girl met them first, and a day or two later, while busy with the fence, My Man had an epic encounter. Apparently not much fun at all - so I have decided to avoid them at all costs. 

Our furniture has not even started the journey here yet - disappointing, but there is nothing we can do about that. We have bought 2 beds, a couch and a cupboard and that is pretty much what we have in this rambling house at the moment.  It echoes like crazy and all of our voices seem to be magnified hugely!  

The agent that I was corresponding with, and his wife and son, have been amazing and helped us with so many things and I think, (I hope) are becoming friends. They popped over on our 2nd night in the house, bringing with them meat, a braai, champagne, cutlery, plates, and great senses of humour, and we sat on the balcony, braaiing and chatting till almost midnight.  He is a local and she is from Cpt - it was such a lovely evening and good to be able to have company so soon in the move.

The next step is to paint. The house is not in great nick inside with lots of holes in the walls and grubby patches everywhere.  So I figure that the best thing to do while waiting for furniture is to paint the most used areas and get it ready for when our stuff does come.  So that is on my agenda for when My Girl goes home.

There is SO much going on, I wish I had blogged more beforehand, because I feel as though I am leaving tons of stuff out.... but so far, it's been pretty amazing and I am so thankful for the opportunity for us to live this adventure!

It's a Dogs Life

How much smoother this move would be if we didn't have dogs...

How much smoother it would be if we didn't feel that we really WANT our dogs there.

You would never have heard that last sentence come out of my mouth 5 years ago. If anyone had suggested spending the amount of money it's costing to get the dogs there, I would have laughed at them and told them they were daft. They are providing us with HUGE challenges since it seems that no-one there wants people to have pets in a rented house, and if they say "Pets Allowed" - suddenly it's only a "mini-pet"....

Truth is, our dogs are "home" for me now, and while we are away, and My Girl is not home, and My Man is at work, they are my company often - I can't imagine them not being there. I love them. They have their own characters and quirks, and they are our "kids".

We have pretty much run out of options for houses to rent there. We basically have ONE house left as an option. It's been there a while, and we have avoided it because frankly, it's been there so long - I am wondering what is wrong with it!

We have an agent there who has been - honestly - an angel. He is going to look at it for us this afternoon. I don't know what we would have done without him.  Funny story, we started speaking to him there in February about property, and it turns out he is married to a Capetonian lady, and we got together when they were here on holiday and had supper together... How amazing is that? Such cool people!

Annnyywaaayyyyy.....Too late to make a long story short - I know He knows what we need as a family, so I need to breathe and clean cupboards.

"It will all be alright in the end, and if it's not alright, it's not the end!"

Hitting Home Time

I've known at arm's length for ages that it was coming, but last night it hit me. Hard.

I suddenly realised that in exactly one month's time we will no longer be in our house, in our city, in our country or even on our continent.

It was as though a fog descended on my thoughts. "What the heck are we doing! I am terrified. Is this a mistake?"

I don't know if I am the only person that this happens to, but the middle of the night is not the time to start thinking like this. The enemy seems to love to take a small thought like that and drag up every mistake you've ever made and replay them to you. This makes the night long and miserable.

Eventually I just had to sit up a bit, open my eyes, give myself a good talking to and remind myself of precisely how present God has been in this whole event and that even the Main Manne in Scripture who were asked to move must have felt scared at some level, whether physically or emotionally - the fact that they were scared didn't mean that God didn't lead them, nor did it mean they didn't trust him, and nor did it mean that what they were doing, was a mistake.

As a friend said to me the other day "Fortune favours the brave" - I need to be brave this month.

I think being a little scared is probably human, and if I wasn't a little scared..... maybe that would be more worrying.

As scared as I am, I am completely at peace that this is not a mistake but a gift - a gift from One that knows how often we have dreamed of doing this and who is kind enough to help us do it.

Yes. Scary.
But good.

Cool Runnings....Peace be the Journey.

Funny Mom Memory

I was driving with my mom along the highway this afternoon and the raining was pouring down.  I had this flashback to when I was probably about 9 and we were driving along the same highway, my mom and the then 3 kids, and it was also pouring with rain but her windscreen wipers decided to pack up en route.

I reminded her of this while driving this afternoon and commented that I remembered how scary that was and that she had reassured us that she could see fine and that we were not to worry.  

After telling her the story today, she laughed and said she vaguely remembers and she was pretty scared herself.

*****

In 2005, My Man, My Girl and I went to Europe for the first time and My Girl was about 11. Due to a bit of a planning glitch we ended up in Alicante later than we expected and couldn't get to Calpe by train as planned. We had to find a taxi driver to take us. He spoke no English and we spoke no Spanish. After vigorously pointing at maps we got into the taxi and off we went. Driving on the wrong side of the road (to us), at a million miles an hour (it seemed), during some festival, my daughter sitting next to me asked anxiously "Are we going to the right place? Does he know where to go?" I reassured her that he lived there and knew exactly where we needed to go and that everything would be absolutely fine.

At the same time I was busy sms'ing my mom back home "Mom, I don't have clue where we are and if this bloke even knows where to take us and he drives like a lunatic!"  Within a minute I had received an sms back from Mom saying: "It's going to be fine Lis, he knows the place. These are the stories that make great memories one day. Don't worry about it, everything is going to be fine!"

It was fine and it did make for a great memory.

PS. I have to add that My Man, as always, took everything in his stride and wasn't in the least bit concerned about anything.

The Wordpress Blues

I am having a huge issue and I really need a solution.

For about two months now I am unable to comment on any Wordpress Blogs.  It's never been a problem before and now suddenly WP wants me to log into my WP account before I can leave a comment.

I think if I can't get this sorted out soon, I may need to create a "Fake" Wordpress Blog just to comment from!

Eish!! Any suggested solutions will be appreciated!


* the next day: I left a comment on our School's WP blog and it worked. Since I am the administrator of that Blog, I know that I have not installed any of the latest plugins and upgrades.... maybe this could be a problem if one has?

Journeys & Destinations

We were in McGregor over the weekend and I took this photograph at the top of the mountain overlooking all the surrounding valleys.

The journey up the mountain was beautiful and unspoiled and the destination was worth every moment of the trip in the car. However, as I looked at the sign, I thought to myself (not about life so much, but more about waiting!) ... "I really do love the journey.... but sometimes getting to the destination is really good!!"

Possibly, Woe is Me?

Beware... this may come off as a "Woe is Me" post.
It probably is.

I am feeling sorry for myself. First off, we sold my car, and to put a stop to all the questions, here are the answers:
1. It was a petrol guzzler.
2. Yes, we will get another one.
3. I don't know when.
4. I don't know what make.
5. I don't know.

That, in itself doesn't make me feel sorry for myself, it's actually quite interesting realising how much one relies on their own transport, and I am thankful to family and friends for their offers to help, although, with the exception of my ride to school and home, I have not asked anyone to take me anywhere.

What I REALLY WANT to do, is haul that bicycle out of the garage and use that - because, I think this will solve the reason why I AM feeling sorry for myself.

The main reason I am feeling a bit miz, is that I had gotten so into going to gym, and it was going so well and I realised how much I enjoyed running again. I got to the place where the treadmill wasn't enough, and went back to the street.  Together with some friends and colleagues, we ran three times a week, and did a couple of races, but the BIG race that I really wanted to do was the one through the historic part of our city.

Long story short, ( a bit late for that now I think!), about 2 weeks before the race, the arch of my right foot became an issue and was really sore, affecting my knee as well. I bought new shoes, thinking that perhaps I needed something better. It didn't help, I stopped running in the hopes that it would be better by the race, but it wasn't. Then I slipped down my front step and twisted that same ankle. Not badly, I can walk on it OK, but if I turn my ankle in a specific way, its pretty sore.

I missed the race.
I was sad and just so disappointed.

I guess my frustration is just that I am not getting to run at all.

Which is why I need the bicycle.

I just need to get out there.

OK. That's all.
Sorry about the pity party.