Mac Moments

A bit late I know, and very few posts this year.  Better late than never though :) A belated Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends and we hope everyone has had a wonderful festive season and restful holiday. Creative Commons This year saw us landing back on the 4th of January to a very empty Johannesburg, where our wonderful friends Aline and Rohan graciously picked us up from the Airport with 6 suitcases, 4 hand luggage bags as well as our laptops and an enormous box to see us through the next couple of months until our container arrived from the Middle East. It was great to be home and to know that my friend was just down the road again!! We had to say goodbye to the many friends we had made in Doha, and it was more difficult than I imagined it would be. We have made so many friends from around the world and each farewell lunch, dinner or party we went to left us feeling that little more empty inside but with a reality that being an expat is a life changing expe...

As the next half of the year runs away with us and before we speed off on our next holiday adventures, let me update you on how fabulous it was to be a tourist back in our home country, South Africa, for the July holidays. The first two weeks were spent helping Dad out at home, so less tourist and more family time was spent in Jeffreys Bay. We managed to sort out a lot of admin issues from Mom's estate to funeral policies. Menu's were set up, shopping lists created, Margaret taught what and how to cook and grocery shopping outings with Dad accompanying us and then going on his first solo run. We ate pancakes, chocolate and carrot cake on the beach front; played mini-golf and cycled in the soft sand along the breakers. Mom was missing though and we all felt the void. The  Tsitsikama Canopy Tour  down the coast just past Storms River towards Knysna, was our first Tourist outing for the holiday. Between the shrieks echoing from ours and othe...

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. ...