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The JUNK drawer...yeah, you know what i am talking about

In every house i ever lived in new life seems to sprite from a drawer, normally somewhere in the kitchen.  Loose stuff just seem to gravitate there, and soon that is the go-to drawer if you do not know where to put things, or are too lazy to take it to the right place.  Whole blogs are dedicated to creating order in your junk drawers.  Our house even has two, one is called the junk drawer, and the other the catch-all drawer... Tackling these drawers today feels a bit like a metaphor for my current life.  A little bit messy, filled with sentimental stuff and a lot of half-finished tasks.  Little sub-compartments with semblances of order.  Newspaper clipping carrying memories and sentiment.  One half of things you hope some day to find the other half.  Sometimes you just close the drawer when all becomes to much and for the outside world all looks fine. Talking of that, it seems i might have a fascination with lip balm as well.  I am not known to use lip balm, but working systematica
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It's getting real

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February 2020 The frustrations with the process and the delays are finally over.  We received our passports back with the all important vignette, allowing us 30 days to get our backsides over to the UK and collect our Bio-metric Residence Permits.  This will be our visa for the next five years to enter the UK. As we are getting onto the plane, the moment is not as big as I thought it would be, as we are only going for the week.  So does not really feel like we are leaving our heartland and family behind.  During this week Hennie will meet with his new colleagues, and i have to meet with the relocation agent as well as view a few potential properties to rent. As with most companies, we cannot elect which airline travel with, and have to go for the cheapest option.  In this case it was Turkish Air via Istanbul.  Due to the extra luggage allowance for international travel, it was in our best interest to travel with one carrier to our final destination.  Well, low and behold, the che
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Saying goodbye is never easy...

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 As our day of leaving was fast approaching is started dreading having to say goodbye.  It felt like I would rather avoid people than having a million go-away parties. But saying goodbye to elderly parents brings about the worst heart ache.  You do not know when you will see them again. I was fortunate to have a whole week to visit with my parents, and we treated this rather as a holiday together, than a "good bye" visit.  My father booked a week at Sondela, close to Bela-Bela.  I absolutely LOVE the bushveld, so this was super special for me. Every meal together was savoured, and we had a ritual where I put cream on their hands after washing.  But the whole time I had a knot in my stomach, and it did not want to think about leaving at all. It felt so good smelling the wet soil after the rains, being woken by birdsong, and just getting still and silent at sunset.   Where we LOVE is HOME - home where I feet my leave, but not our hearts (unknown)
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We are going where????

We moved from Gauteng to Langebaan just over four years ago.  It is called semigration - for a reason.  It is a whole different world from where we used to live.  A lot of things worked better but, face facts, this is a SMALL town.  We had no Woolies Food - and that is the general accepted standard for comfy living.  Well, 2 years ago Woolies Food arrived, and i hear a traffic light will be erected within the next year... After taking 3 years to adapt to the wind, getting used to the 8 hour commute on Mondays to KZN, and appreciating the cool breeze that is always blowing here, hubby started making noises that we have to go "North".  North is about 3 hours away, and very hot. North is Vredendal/Lutzville/Koekenaap and would add at least an additional 2 hours to my already long weekly work commute. Then Richards Bay was mentioned on and off again as a potential destination. And finally, one Friday afternoon, driving back from Weza to King Shaka Airport for my flight back h
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Should we go or should we stay?

January 2020 I am pondering this question since Hennie dropped the bomb. In 2007 we briefly considered emigrating, and visited Australia.  Partly to see if we want to move and work there, and partly to visit friends.  On my first visit to Australia in 1997 I just LOVED Australia.  I went as a tourist and was in awe of the beautiful East Coast and especially Sydney.  I felt everything "worked".  I felt safe, there was public transport and everything was clean.  A decade later i took off the rose tinted tourist glasses and found things in Australia over controlled, property prices astronomical and faced the fact that we would have to probably settle on the West Coast.  Miles from the rest of Australia (or that is how it felt), and miles from the rest of the world.  Suddenly it did not look that attractive any more. New World Immigration recently published the results of their survey, stating the top 10 reasons why people emigrate.  On that list that includes "impr
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