Mac Moments

Merry Christmas – 2008 Happy Christmas everyone…and a very very Merry New 2009….. Where do I begin to describe our year, insane would be a really good word. The McManus’ finished 2007 in Jeffries Bay with family and enjoyed just chilling on the wonderful JBay beach, with daily walks and swims in the sea, what more could a busy heart wish for. Our walks concentrated around figuring out what and where we wanted to be in a year, 5 years and 10 years time. We were convinced that Joburg was no longer an option and that we needed to work out how to move away from the rush of the city for a quieter lifestyle. Our discussions led to Steven resigning from 21st Century as a consultant in February and working full time on our website, which was fully launched by January 2008. However, once we found out that it usually takes up to 2 years to get a website up and running Steve decided to continue consulting but with the result that he was overrun with work almost immediately, he did not want ...

A very busy week, which it has been mostly since I got back from SA. This week was about going to the SA Embassy to get Sean's Unabridged Certificate sorted out, and the property at the Vaal sold. But it was good to meet the people there and get to know what they can help out with in the future. Then I applied for a job at the school and went for my interview on Wednesday and got the position, with the option of studying next Sept for a year to become a fully fledged teacher, yet another career.....what fun! Sean got over his gastro, Steve got it, then me, then Jess.....at least that is over. Parent's evening at the school, gave us insight into where the kids are at the moment in their schooling and also that we need to put Sean back onto meds. He has been on for 2 days now and what a difference, a good decision and Sean definitely will benefit from it. Also went to the Psych department to get Sean's meds and figured out the ins and outs of how they deal with ADD and othe...

Well quite an eventful day!!! Sean stayed at home from school due to having gastro since Friday night, the puking and pooping was something to behold and the crying and moaning even more so....girls are definitely tougher! We had quite a nice morning together though and he seemed to be much more relaxed after being so sick for 2 days. On fetching Jessica, I decided to try my luck and asked whether there were any Assistant Teacher jobs available. Apparently there is and I spoke to the owner Susan to find out more. She is very keen and I am going to drop my CV off with her tomorrow for further discussions. We spoke about my becoming a Trainee teacher and we will look into that next year September when the new intake occurs. In the meantime I will in all probability start helping out at the school towards the end of this week. Yay, a new job and a new career, I am so looking forward to it and it will allow me to make new friends and get out of the apartment at last. Then we went to ...

Poor Sean has Gastro and struggled through the night and today with it, he was so sick of wretching and feeling awful and kept wishing the awful day to be over. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for him. Steven also came down with it on a milder level, but had nails in his stomach. They both have medicine now and hopefully will be better tomorrow.... Jessica and I went to watch the Sony Ericsson WTA Champs - woman's semis between Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva, where Zvonareva won... it was wonderful and I realised how much I miss the game and watching it! Needless to say Jess became a bit bored but wow her first ever major tournament, what a lucky girl. Leonie from upstairs Floor 16 came with and entertained Jessica when she got bored....

The week was spent getting back into routine, washing clothes, sorting out the hospital bills to be paid back to us, Getting the Vaal Dam property sold and Seans unabridged birth certficate docs going with the SA Embassy, getting the kids physical forms filled in to get to the American School for their applications to join in Sept next year and trying to get an appointment for Sean at the hospital to assess his ADD situation for school. I also needed to change Jessica's one mattress and took the one that was too big back to the shop. As I was reverse parking some idiot comes screaming past me and hits out car on the side. He stops, I continue to park and get out and try to ascertain what happened. He starts ranting at me: did I not look in the mirror and see him; actually I had looked in the mirror and there were no cars coming, then I looked on the side that you reverse into to ensure that I did not bash the cars on either side of me; he must have come screaming past, not think...

The plane trip was a lot easier on the way back, we probably got to the airport far too early but that was fine, we left at about 8pm and managed to swop seats with another passenger which gave us 4 seats this time to sleep on. the middle arms did not come up but Jess could lie across 2 seats and I could do the same. We both at least managed to sleep so on arriving in Abu Dhabi we were well rested for the flight home. it was so great walking into the airport in Doha and seeing our boys there to greet us. Before we went through though, our bags were scanned again and we were stopped to have a look into one of our hand luggage bags. There were round little balls everywhere and we eventually figured it was a toy that Aline gave to me to give to the kids....it was quite funny. We spent the rest of the day, unpacking and giving Steven, and Sean some of their gifts and clothes. They had so much fun!

Jess and I spent the last week, doing the last shopping, seeing friends and my turn to see doctors....the week went very quickly but included having Dinner with Julie and Andi, Taryn and Jason on Monday night; A talk on Cyprus and dinner with Mags on Tuesday night; Wednesday Aline took me to the Westcliff for afternoon Tea, such a treat and then we had dinner at Les and Paul with the family and the Lairds!!; Thursday was a quiet night at home with Les and Paul and spent packing and lastly I sorted out the bills with the hospital and spent the morning with Aline saying goodbye....it was a sad day, but I also realised how much I missed my family, and the feeling of being safe in Qatar. I was forever watching my back, hanging on to my bag and had a constant feeling of being unsafe. Jessica also got to spend time at St Teresa's with her class on Tuesday and Thursday and loved every minute of it. We visited Betty again and also got to see Belinda and Acacia & Barbara, Kevin and Jen...

Jess and I flew out to Jeffries Bay on Friday 24th to spend the weekend with Mom and Dad, they met us at the airport and it was of course wonderful to see them. It was probably the most relaxing time we spent the entire trip and it made us realise how much we love JBay. Mom and Dad are looking so great and well, walking on the beach has done them the world of good and Dad was up earlier than we were every morning..... They are looking after a little dog from across the road and I must say it suites them to have a pup around the house....should get one permanently I think. I set Mom and Dad up on Skype, no excuses now and Mom on Facebook! Welcome to cyberspace! The weekend went past far too quickly and we are looking forward to our trip in July!

19 October - I got to see Mags and find out how everything is going, Les and Paul had organised to see Jimmy and Elaine, Charlie, Tracy, Nicky and her family, so we had a wonderful Dennison braai which was fantastic....Paul always knows how to do the prawns and meat just perfectly. It was also wonderful to see the crowd as we had not seen them for over 2 years. Magdel also joined us and stayed until 10pm that night, it was great to catch up and hear all the going ons. 20 October - Saw Jess and I at the hospital at 6:30am, getting her registered only by 7:30am and up to the ward at 8:00, she however went in for her op by 8:45 and was out by 9:00. She did her usual Jess thing, woke up, ate, drank and wanted to leave. As Lauren was not at home, she wanted to do something else, so I took her shopping for a new wardrobe...she was in her element. What can I say, girls definitely know how to do it right! Prof Friedland, said that the doctors here are barbaric and she should never have ha...

So after much waiting and smsing to Steven re the car, we got an automatic to see us through the week. Then off we went to get some rest, on the way Les phoned to say that they wanted to go shopping for Lunch on Sunday, Aline was not at home , so we went through to Debs and Dave who were on their way out too....oh dear....we chatted to Debs and Dave for a short time then went back to Aline as Les and Paul were not home yet. On reaching Aline's house (she did not know we were coming), we buzzed and told her it was a delivery from DHL in my most afrikaans voice I could muster in English. I could hear she was suspicious, she came walking down the driveway and stopped short when she saw Jessica standing at the gate. Then she saw me and just stood there, it was quite funny to see the shock and disbelief on her face and then just happiness that we were there. It was so nice to be back in SA and to see my best friend again and to just chat and chat and chat...... After a long visit, I...

Jess and I set off for SA on Friday evening, it was quite a flight and she was amazing to travel with. The flight took off 2 hours late which was my waiting time in Abu Dhabi to get the connecting flight to SA, needless to say I was a bit concerned about the connection. We bought a few gifts at the airport for everyone and then flew the 55 minutes from Doha to Abu Dhabi. Jess at this stage was still awake - 1:30am, we were so late for our connecting flight that we ran (Jess in tow) to the next terminal and gate, to find that we had to run back to where we had just landed as the gate was next to the one we had landed on, they had changed it..... Once on board, we realised that the plane had come from another city and people had chosen their spots already, by laying things over the seats. There were grown men lying across 4 seats, ok won't bitch on about this but really.....Jess lay across my lap for 8 hours and we squeezed into 2 seats....ok that was all we paid for but that was...

This is the week in which we decided to take Jess back to SA for her operation. She was just not getting better, after 16 injections of anti-biotics and straight back into an infection....I lost my confidence with the doctors here. Then we started chatting to a couple of people who have lived here for a while and every person we spoke to advised us not to have any operation here, but to go back home where you know the doctors. My week was spent communicating with the doctors in SA and setting up registering for her operation with the ENT doctor and the hospital and ensuring she was on the theatre list. Prof Peter Friedland and his receptionist Jeanette were amazing, and were so quick to ensure that we got her onto the list. We had to rush to get air tickets, sort Sean out with how to get to school and where to go after school until Steve got home from work....we eventually got the taxi driver to take and fetch him every day, bought him a cell phone to let us know where he was all the ...