A Guid New Year tae yin an’ A’ and mony may ye see!

So, another year begins! We did not make it to “the bells”, we had been out for dinner and sat out on the patio waiting for midnight… I got to 11.05 and had to call it a night, or a year, in fact. Les was not far behind me, so we woke to a sun filled 2008. Instead of New Year Resolutions, which I seldom keep to, I’ve decided instead to take stock by thinking about things I never thought I’d say/hear/do. So here goes:
I never thought I’d say, “It’s only a moth!” as I picked a big, hairy, bug-eyed monster out of a bowl of pasta on Christmas Eve to the grateful and astonished relief of a Russian man in front of me at the buffet.
I never thought we’d need to stop the car to allow a troupe of baboons to cross the road and this was not in a game reserve, just on a rural road north west of here.
I never thought I’d join a gym, go three times a week and actually enjoy it! I also go to yoga there once a week, but I did that in Scotland so that doesn’t count.
I never thought I’d feel at ease driving a BMW 320i automatic on a motorway where cars “undertake” as well as overtake.
I never thought I’d spend Christmas morning looking at elephants so close I could have touched them, seeing zebras outside the hotel room patio, watching as wildebeest and kudo roamed the bush at the roadside, rhinos posed for the camera and hippos wallowed, down in the hollow, in glorious mud!
I never thought I’d sit in the dark on a hotel patio and hear various animals grunting and monkeys chattering just in the gloom in front of me!
I never thought I’d wake up in the night to spectacular thunder, lightning and torrential rain then get up a few hours later to brilliant sunshine and no trace of bad weather!
Yes, it really is an experience living here and after 8 weeks I am still enjoying it all very much. As you will have read above, our holiday at the game lodge was fantastic and we both enjoyed it. I even went in the pool a couple of times, which as you know I usually hate (it’s sooo wet!!!). Hogmanay, as I already said, didn’t happen! We both fell asleep. On New Year’s Day we were invited to afternoon tea at my friends’ Anne and Raymond’s house. There were 10 of us and it was a lovely afternoon, sitting in their garden round the swimming pool. On the second, we went out to dinner with Ria and Ray from Les’s work, which was a great laugh. The rest of the holiday we spent variously sitting in our garden and seeing a bit more of Joburg while it had less traffic due to the holidays. We also went to see “American Gangster” which was a bit violent but a good film nonetheless. So tomorrow Les goes back to work and I will continue my gym routine, which will now include water aerobics, starting on Wednesday, (more wetness!), yoga on a Friday and a general workout on a Sunday and Tuesday when I walk on the treadmill, increasing the gradient and the speed each session, go on the bike then “trudge” on a cross trainer thing which is a bit like cross country skiing (not that I’ve ever tried that!) Sad to say I am not yet any thinner; I may soon resemble a Russian shot putter, though! The schools go back on Wednesday 9th so I will try to crank up a gear, put on my professional hat (and a skirt, for goodness sake!) and get in touch with all my contacts to set up some links for GHS. We are now on the countdown for the arrival of our Very Important Visitors, Dave and Jen arrive on the 20th and on the day they leave, Janie and Peter get here. We will have the day all together as J&P arrive morning and D&J depart night time. That will be great fun and we are looking forward to “showing off” our adopted country to them, sights, sounds and all. Our friend Ray always says, “Africa is NOT for cissies” and by and large I agree with him!