Mac Moments

Do I even need to go there, it feels like the end of year speeches that you prepare for a graduation or farewell and I suppose that is what it is, we are all graduating from the year of 2011.  I know this year has taught me a lot about myself and those around me, it has brought me closer to the ones I love the most and realize what and who in my life are important.  So just what has happened this year in the McManus Clan household, well get a glass of wine, a comfy seat and settle in.... The most exciting part of my year, every year, is the travelling we get to do from here and we had a few exciting trips.  December 2010 / January 2011 we spent in Johannesburg and Jeffreys Bay. With Mom being diagnosed with cancer in July last year, it was lovely to spend a quiet Christmas with the family in JBay and see Mom recover a bit from the chemo and ready herself for her operation.  Moms op was a 50/50 success with the hysterectomy going well but the doctors leaving some of...

I have an odd relationship with moving in general, it is one of those love - hate relationships, the excitement of new, of change, of decorating and painting and renovating has always filled me with excitement and anticipation of what I can create out of what we have bought. I have been in love with many things throughout my life, from sweets to jobs to houses to men to moving, but I am getting to the stage where the love of moving is starting to wane. A standard joke with one of my best friends (who has known me since I was 6 years old), is that on the purchase of a house we time it to between 18 months to 2 yrs before we move on.  She finds the situation of our moving habits hysterical, especially when I adamantly state that this will be our last move, her laugh reverberates echoing through my head like an empty drum. Steve and I started off our lives together in Mmabatho / Mafikeng over 22 years ago, we moved to 2 different houses in the space of 2 1/2 years. ...