Embrace Technologies

That's the name of our new company! I think it's quite funky.

    We are really taking off as well, and things are getting quite busy, ready for our planned move in July when Pio will be finished with his current job and move over fully to the company. The really big EEEEEEEK in there is the fact that there won't be a regular salary coming in on the correct day every month .... It might be a bit of a shock to our system really lol but there you go. Bread and jam for a few months! 

    After the ArchiCAD Conference in Johannesburg at the beginning of May, we are now officially ArchiCAD resellers as well and that makes a bit of extra cash here and there which is good, but sadly not very regular. ArchiCAD is very exciting, and it also means that Pio and I have to put some serious hours into studying and learn the program which is actually proving quite difficult as we don't aren't architects :) but hopefully we will get there! If not, it just means that we will stay resellers instead of becoming Registered Consultants and earning more money ... 

    Now the struggle begins with learning new systems, trying to work out decent accounting systems and realizing that I really have to do an accounting course as I am clueless as to what half the stuff means in said accounting package. Pffft! Typically Windhoek, people don't respond to questions and their service is so shocking I can't find a course to do as I will not support idiots. That may mean that I will never find a course lol, as pretty much everyone in Windhoek is useless.

    We have 11 days left before Pio hands in his notice, and what a day of joy that will be! We are hoping that they will be so pissed off with him, and as he deals with such sensitive stuff, they will pack him up immediately and tell him to go so we can get a month's head start :) here's hoping! Knowing our luck they won't, although they have done it to every other manager that resigned, so we are holding thumbs! 

    On that day I will pop a bottle of champagne!!! 

    Well, so yesterday I got to sip soup and chocolate milk. What joy. 

    I love food. I eat all the time. If I could be a hobbit and eat five times a day without the massive weight gain, I would. However, as I am not, I settle for three times a day as often as possible. So, for me to be stupid enough to book the dental appointment to have my teeth removed for 08:30 in the morning was seriously stupid and I clearly didn't think very far ahead. 

    So, on Day 2 of two missing teeth, I woke up in almost no pain and quite happy, until I started getting hungry. I then had more soup and soggy bread for breakfast but even that aggravated the holes as I bit on them by mistake. By lunch I was again starving and tried a sandwich thinking I could chew very carefully and only right at the back or front of my mouth.

    Well, not entirely!!! Because my pallet and gums are raw and sore, chewing on my front teeth is difficult and painful and the two teeth that were removed happen to be right in the flipping middle of my jaw on either side and no matter what I do I can't seem to miss them. 

     So a sandwich was a very stupid idea but I was starving - kind of like I am right now. So I got the sandwich down and have paid for it for the entire afternoon with a throbbing face that miprodol was incapable of curing, to my dismay. It did make me even more sure that I won't be able to cope with the operation to my jaw. The thought sends me into shivering shudders of terror immediately.

    So, with an afternoon of pain behind me and my next painkiller 41 minutes away, I am making mashed potato for my dinner. Let's hope that I don't aggravate it again, but I am soooooo hungry!!!! I need food. Seriously. 

Bloody teeth!

    At the moment, they are literally quite bloody. 

    To start at the beginning, I have to have braces fitted to fix my overbite and the problems that has been causing, so three weeks ago I went to the dentist and began the work. So four hours and a week later, all my teeth have been filled, sort of like veneers, as they have been so sensitive and putting the braces on over suck sensitive teeth apparently would have been hell. 

    So lots of injections and pain and numbness later, my teeth are all filled and looking better. The next step however, was the pulling of two upper teeth so that my teeth have space to move back once the braces go on. 

    Good heavens above!!!! I went in at 8:30 this morning which sadly means my whole day has been screwed up. Had I thought about it, I would have gone this afternoon only and had a whole night to sleep it off lol, but there you go. Logic clearly didn't apply. 

    It took eight injections to get my mouth dead; apparently the metabolic rate of your body and nerves play a big role, and clearly I was panicking!!! The noise and pressure when they actually pull the tooth is something else; they hold your head down and then basically tug and loosen it before twisting it out. The pressure is fierce and the crunching kind of sent me into panic mode at the end of the first one!

    My dentist though is absolutely amazing and so understanding of my total panic and stress, talks me through everything and stops if she thinks I am going over the edge lol. So they came out, were stitched up, and wadded up with gross balls of cotton wool which I then sat with for two hours, unable to talk or drink :( wahahaha - not talking was a little difficult :)

    They are still bleeding badly which is a pain, and now that the anaestethic has worn off my whole face is pounding. I was trying to wait til 12 before taking the first painkiller as I can only take one every 6 hours, but lasted til 11:30 before popping the first one! Hopefully I will be able to last til 6pm tonight before popping another one or I am going to be as high as a kite!!! :) 

Johannesburg Trip, May 2013

    The planning of our little trip began with an invite from ArchiCAD South Africa to join them for their 15th Annual Conference and the launch of ArchiCAD 17. So, we decided to drive down instead of flying and  and make a little road trip out of it.

Day 1, Sunday:

    We hit the road on the 5th of May. I got up at 2:10am and began making coffee and toasted chicken mayo sandwiches. We all got dressed and ready and were on the road by 3:05am and heading for Botswana. Joani and I slept mostly until Gobabis, where we filled up with fuel and hit the border just after 6am.

    It was a long day - we pretty much drove all day. We made good time until we got to Kanye in Botswana, and then between the animals in the road, taxis, and people unable to drive in anything higher than 2nd gear, we got through Skilpadshek eventually at around 3pm and then, to our utmost delight, the South African government had decided to put a toll road up. Well, that 1.3 kilometers in almost stationary traffic took almost two hours to drive, before having to pay an extortionate R71.00 toll fee!!!! And all that to drive on a rubbish road and get stuck in traffic!!!

    Highly disgusted and frustrated, the sun was almost down before we got moving again, and kept driving int he dark. We passed by Hartebeespoort Dam and landed up driving through Diepsloot, which momentarily scared the crap out of me! A township after dark is not a pleasant place, but we blindly followed the sat nav as we had no other choice. We did eventually decide that the sat nav was taking us in the wrong direction, and pulled over to try and figure out why; oh joy, there are four Smit Roads in the greater Johannesburg area and I had picked the wrong one! Of course I had, why on earth would I be so lucky as to pick the right road the first time??

    We finally found the right road in the right area, and headed out again. We found our guesthouse, arriving just before 9pm, which gave us a total of 18 hours of travelling. Needless to say, we were exhausted, grumpy, stiff, and starving. This, only to discover that the only restaurant we could find after having the quickest shower in history was MacDonalds! How, in a city the size of Johannesburg, could we only find the crappiest take away on the planet???

    This experience only increased my resolve to never eat MacDonalds, and I have gone for all thirty years of my life without ever having Mac D's, and after this first experience, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my life.

Day 2, Monday:

We had Monday off as such, and because of the time difference we got going a bit later than we wanted to. Our first stop was Gold Reef City, but they were closed for the day and so we headed over to Monte Casino, which was great. we wandered through the "town" and casino, which has the most beautiful old Italian style architecture, before going for a trip up the Hyundai balloon for views of the city. 

Monte Casino shops and restaurants

A beautiful river near the casino

    After the balloon ride, which left me with tingling feet and slightly panicked, we decided to try hit some shops and look for a camera as mine had broken and we needed one to take photos for the company functions and installations etcetera. And also, on the sideline, to take pics of our mini-holiday! 

Hartebeespoort Dam after the sluice gates.

Hartebeespoort's sluice gates.

The bridge before you drive through the tunnel.

The Drinking Arm.

     It took a couple of hours, but we found a neat little Canon 1000D that serves the purpose and it was on special which was great too. After not having a camera for so long it was great to be able to take photos again!

The Drinking Arm.

Squire's for dinner.

Inside Squire's for dinner.

  

Armed with a camera, we hit the road to Hartebeespoort Dam as it was always so beautiful there, and spent the afternoon wandering up and down the dam wall and through the town. We stopped at the Drinking Arm for a quick drink which we washed down with some interesting and rather vile jello shots that came in a bunch of different flavors.

We then moved onto Squire's for dinner where we sat out on their deck under a nice gas heater.  There was a lovely man with two beautiful Labradors that we got to cuddle as well. Dinner was good although expensive for the amount that you got and we mostly came away hungry, but we really enjoyed it.

The drive back to Johannesburg at 10pm was a bit daunting, and we were sad to leave Harties behind, as it really is a lovely place. The village is quaint and the people very sweet and helpful. The lake itself is really beautiful, and we wished that we had instead chosen to stay there instead of in town!!

Day 3, Tuesday:

Our first day of the ArchiCAD conference, and we arrived horrendously early as neither one of us had read the details clearly enough so we had 40 minutes to kill. We went for coffee at a little place around the corner until we could safely go in.

    

    Meeting the ArchiCAD people was a little daunting at first but they were all absolutely lovely and really helpful. I stupidly managed to lose a contact lens for the first time in my life, and they got me off to an optometrist and had me sorted out and refused to take payment. 

    The conference was held at The Venue in Melrose Arch, a beautiful place with fascinating decor. They fed us breakfast, tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and snacks at the end, really lovely food.

    The first day of the conference was really interesting and we both realized that we still have a lot to learn regarding the processes and how ArchiCAD works, but we have been given the training material and will be starting as soon as possible. 

    That night the guys from ArchiCAD took us out to dinner at a lovely Chinese restaurant with terrible service which gave us a good laugh. The food was OK, although Pio seems to think that it isn't as good as our Yang Tze here in Windhoek.

    We mostly discussed the progress of the business and where we want to be versus what they want us to do, and had a few bonding moments with the girls (Karlien and Mineshree). They are all from Durban, so it really did make me miss Durban a little as I haven't been there in so long.

    We had a reasonably early night and made it home for a good nights sleep.

Day 4, Wednesday:

    On Wednesday there was the actual launch of ArchiCAD 17, which was interesting up until the time when their presentations stopped working correctly and then it just got boring. They had a few different people in to do presentations of the different businesses linked to ArchiCAD like Auto Spec, but they weren't hugely informative.

The bar at Parkers.

    Luckily, before we all fell asleep at the tables, they called it a day and we were treated to some gorgeous cocktail canape's and drinks. They then had a presentation where they handed out various awards, and I got one as a Reseller for ArchiCAD which was quite sweet of them. We left rather late, and only got to pick Joani up from the guesthouse after 7pm.

The evenings host.

Rob Van Vuuren

    We raced like mad to get to Monte Casino again as Pio wanted to go to Comedy Central and see the comedians, so we didn't have the time to do dinner before. Parker's was great - I didn't expect to enjoy the evening but the comedians were really quite good. It was improv night, and the guys had to really make things up as they went along. 

     

    After the improv, Rob Van Vuuren came on. I didn't realize, but he had a cameo in the Leon Schuster movie about the world cup, where he turned the game on Leon. He was absolutely fantastic and a laugh a minute. I really am glad that we went to see him as it was great fun, although their drinks were absolutely extortionate!! R40.00 a glass of wine or draught was scarily over-priced!

Comedy Central.

    

    After it ended we took a walk through Monte Casino again and as all the restaurants were closing, we had a quick dinner at Spur before heading home to the guesthouse. It was really surprising that Johannesburg really had so little to offer and it all closed so early.

Day 5, Thursday:

  
    The final day of the conference was training, so I got to skip it but Pio had to attend for a few hours. Joani and I wandered around town and looked at a few shops, before begging Pio to call it quits!! He eventually got out of there and we went to Sandton City Mall to get a few things to take out to Marcel. We managed to get out of Johannesburg just after 2pm and drove out towards Marcel's place.

   

 It took a couple of hours and we got there around 4pm. It was so fantastic to see San-Mare again after so long, as well as Domino and Fugly who I remember from the last time we visited them at Predator World in 2006. Theyhave since left the zoo and bought a lovely little plot 75 km's away from the Lost City.

    

Sitting around the braai.

    

We had a fantastic evening, braaiing with San-Mare, Marcel, Uncle Andre and their two veterinary students that are there from Germany at the moment.

    San-Mare made us a fantastic dinner of pap, gravy, salad, and some awesome meat on the braai.

        Marcel made a huge bonfire that we got to sit around until late after eating. Earlier on, we were introduced to Bob, the crazy little meerkat, but as he seemed quite feisty we left him alone. I had to use San-Mare's bathroom  as I couldn't find the light for the main bathroom, and got charged by a very vocal and fierce Bob. However, after scratching him behind the ears he calmed down and I got to cuddle him all evening.

Bob hiding in my jacket.

    

He spent the evening cuddled under my jacket around the fire, going off at anyone that tried to touch him or come near him which was really sweet. He is an absolute sweetheart. It would have been absolutely amazing to have one as a pet; and I am sure we will still get there one day.

    

    After dinner the new camera came out and Pio and Marcel spent ages playing with it and taking some really weird and whacky photos which was a lot of fun. The photos below of the stars are absolutely amazing, and we learnt a lot about the camera which was fab.

    It was a great night and we got to catch up properly and for me it was fantastic to be there. They have a fantastic plot, so much potential, and so much work, but it could be well worth it in the long run. The farmhouse is just that, a real old-style farmhouse and they have these fantastically authentic things throughout, like hanging rails made from logs and a basin made out of an old tin bowl. Anyway, night over, move on to the next day!

Day 6, Friday:

    We woke up early, had a fantastic breakfast made of leftover mealie pap, wors, gravy to which San-Mare added eggs and made little tartlets in the oven. It was very different and very nice :). After that we hit the road to Sun City. The German's booked themselves onto the elephant experience that afternoon, and then we wandered around the welcome center, playing on the machines and having a laugh.

Setup for the SAMA awards.

    Sun City was in the process of setting up for the South African Music Awards that evening, which would have been amazing to watch! All throughout the day there were lots of arrogant music type people wandering around, and later on that afternoon whilst at the shebeen there was a rather full of himself star of some kind being followed by his reality cam's as they set up for his enormous after party!! 

    We went across the bridge and were too early to have it shake, so we did that much later that afternoon and were dismally disappointed by how pathetic it was. You could hardly feel a thing. I'm so sure it was a much bigger shape the last time I was there! But anyway, it was worth the wait lol.

    San-Mare and I decided to do the monkey pose on the fountain whilst people looked on as if we were crazy, and then from there we took a long walk around the golf course and through the aviary's. We stopped at the Waterfront by the lake for a drink before going to the petting zoo and then on to the Shebeen for lunch. We got fantastic burgers and managed to get them down inbetween being attacked by chickens!!

    The cheeky chickens actually jumped on the table and stole off our plates, which was hysterical at the time. San-Mare ordered the vet students some mopane worms, and I have honestly never seen anything so vile in my life! Give it to the German girls, they took it and tried the worms! Much braver than me!! I tried to feed the leftovers to the stray cat, and after eating chips he wouldn't touch a worm!

   

    After lunch at the Shebeen we walked down to Kwena Gardens and got to look at all the crocodiles, big and small! The largest croc there was Arnold, but sadly you can't tell his absolutely enormous size from a photo!! He was massive! On the way out, San-Mare greeted one of the guys that she knows there and he gave us all the chance to hold a baby crocodile. They have really soft and supple skin at that age, was really odd. 

Mopane worms in tomato sauce.

    We then dropped the German girlies off to go on there elephant experience and spent our moment on the bridge, waiting for a shake that was rather pathetic or non-existent. When we met up with San-Mare again we popped down to the Shebeen to wait for them. We spent the hour and a half watching them set up for one of the "stars" after party - so ridiculous lol but it was quite amusing.

Me with the baby croc.

     We got back to the farm after dark and Marcel had made us a fantastic poitjie, we ate til we were stuffed and then sat around the fire chatting til late.

Day 7, Friday:

    I woke up early and scooted into the shower; there are benefits to getting up early! By the time the early birds had showered everyone else had a cold one wahahaha! 

Pio with the baby croc.

    San-Mare was taking the girls off to Hartbeespoort to do the curio shops and the dam, but I wanted to spend some more time with Marcel so we stayed. We got to chill and drink coffee with Clyde, a friend of Marcel's, Marcel and Uncle Andre before we started working on his fences for his sheep so he could inject them and whatnot easily.

Booger, the 69kg Boerbul cross Great Dane :)

The boys working on the farm.

Bob cuddling in my arms.

     Booger is an absolutely enormous girl. She is a real gentle soul, although has apparently already killed two other dogs, so maybe not so gentle, but if she could have climbed on your lap to cuddle she would have, bless her. 

    Rodriguez is gorgeous, a little Spaniel cross mutt that spent the night with us, cuddling on the bed and under the blankets til the next morning. He really is a sweet little thing.

    There was also Domino and Fugly, whom I know from years ago the last time we were there, of course little Bob who is super feisty and did nip me twice before I left, drawing a wee bit of blood. It was always when there was food around, so that was my own fault as I shouldn't have stuck my fingers in when he was around food lol :) 

     

    Two very cute cats and another odd little dog, plenty of chickens, ducks and geese and 12 sheep make up the menagerie on the  farm.

    We had an awesome day of working on the fences and then made a wicked dinner before getting an early night.

Marcel and his bull-ring.

All of us :) 

    Up at 2:30 the next morning and drove back with a vengeance, arriving shortly after 5pm that night. We will miss the farm, but was happy to get home and be with our dogs and our family again!

Well, as usual I have been quiet for so long that I have almost forgotten how to use Blogger. Adding to that I am totally disgusted with Blogspot for allowing spamming to go on - I was reading through old posts whilst trying to find a new template, and was horrified to find how many comments have been left on some of my posts by spammers - and of course it's all lewd and porn and the like. I honestly think Blogspot need to pull their finger out and put an end to that as it will definitely result in me going elsewhere if it carries on. 

Over and above that minor rant, I have been very busy. Building, which of course has been hindered hugely by a stupid builder being totally incapable of turning up for work, so we just sit and wait and listen to a million excuses, one after the other. So that has ground to a halt, and we also have to wait three months AT LEAST for the municipality to authorize the plans - TIA!!! For those of you who think that means a stroke, it really means This Is Africa, and it's very likely that it will give you a stroke, so maybe that's where it come's from :).

I also decided as now that we have two houses and we want to speculate on a few more, I should do the estate agent's exam, which is this afternoon, and I have been studying like absolute mad as I really don't want to fail and didn't give myself very long to get all the work done, so it has been study study study like mad for the last three weeks and am now so sick of reading the book and writing notes that I have now totally given up and am blogging instead. 

I am a little shocked at how they teach you and what they teach you - I found many things that to me blatantly imply that estate agent's are money-grabbing s.h.1.t.s but I suppose that is personal opinion. Their excuses for insisting on sole mandates are pathetic, and the clause's that go into a contract just to ensure that you get your commission, whether or not you do the job, has kind of put me off totally. Besides, lets be logical, it doesn't cost much to do the exam versus paying an agent an extortionate amount of money for very little work, when three weeks of your time and some cash will enable you to do it yourself and never have deal with an agent ever again. What I have just done is a classic breach of the Code of Conduct .... blegh!!! At least I won't be working as an agent and will only manage my own properties. 

I will leave in twenty minutes for the exam, and then afterwards I will be going for a drink to celebrate the fact that I don't have to study anymore!!!! Whether or not I fail or pass, the information has in some senses been worth it (when it's not called simple application of logic) and might be helpful. 

We have been very quiet and haven't left the house a lot lately either; we are trying very hard to save money and to get all bills and accounts and everything paid up so we can buy another house, that we have been chilled out and rather boring. People come over and braai or whatever, which is so much cheaper than going out these days; although I must say going out doesn't seem to hold the same thrill it used to, the drunks and idiots annoy me lol. 

What gives you the idea I am either very frustrated or everything annoys me!!! :-P

The babies are all good, except for poor little Lucifer who has started picking up skin damage from the sun as he's snow white and now has to be sun-screened, and I keep forgetting to do it so am very worried about him. He also has gotten gum disease and plaque so has to have very expensive food ... oh joy! Little bugger :) and all the cats absolutely hate the food and eat it with very long teeth which I find quite amusing as Zazu is a hoover when it comes to Friskies and now is highly disgusted that his favorite biscuits that he devours by the bowlful three times a day (and isn't overweight at all mind you - what a shock!) are now no longer in sight and he has to eat Hills ... 

The garden has been coming along nicely, and we planted seeds everywhere as the roll-on lawn wasn't growing as we have had no rain and are in the midst of a drought. I then planted seeds which have to be watered twice a day, only for the Windhoek Municipality to decide a month later that we are on water restrictions and can't water the garden anymore - awesome!!! Bye bye little seeds ... 

Anyway, got to get going and write this exam! Here's hoping I pass!! 

Turning 30

Has not been wonderful for me. I had a very small night out with my girls that drove up all the way from Swakop, which was great, and we had fun, but due to age instead of staying out until the sun rose I was home by 2am and got myself into bed very quickly. It took me two days to recover.

So first things first; after turning 30 you can expect miserable hangovers and adverse reactions to alcohol that you never used to have any effects from. Yippee. So now I approach a bottle of wine or a shot of Jaegermeister with extreme caution and thought; how much of my time do I want to waste the next day by lying in bed???

I can't even drink Coke anymore - it must be due to the caffeine or sugar, but 4 glasses of coke will be enough to have me staring at the ceiling all night long, unable to sleep. There goes my favorite drink!! I also can't drink Hunters Extreme as two of those will have the same effect on me.

I need sooooo much sleep too! Gone are the days when you could be up early and party until the following morning, sleep for a few hours and do it all again - oh no, now you need at least eight to ten hours of sleep and ten liters of water to restore your system to normal! Staying home in a warm bed is now vastly more appealing than venturing out to socialize, as at the least I know I will be able to get up in the morning!

I have never been someone to get up during the night and go for a pee. I could do long haul flight without peeing once as I hate public toilets. Now??? Pfft! Every night without fail I am up to go to the bathroom ... problem is, then I have an additional problem - once I'm up there is no way I will sleep again. So I get to lie in bed and contemplate life from anywhere between 2m and 4 am until it's time to get up. The things that you can come up with at that time of the morning when you can't make a noise or do anything constructive is quite impressive. However, it does tend to make for a grumpy day when I have only had 5 hours of sleep ...

Oh - and then I put my back out. Fabulous! Turn 30 and you lose your back as well! So that has resulted in severe pain and many visits to the doctor and osteopath only for it to get better on it's own eventually, although now I have to be very careful when lifting or carrying ... no more gardening, painting, moving, and doing everything myself as I have always done. Joy!!! The up side to this is that I am allowed to have help for cleaning and gardening when it get's too much for me, although standing by and watching is not really my style.

Life does change after 30 - for me anyway. I feel that now I can't be out and about and irresponsible. I must behave myself, act like a lady, and basically, be my age!! There are days when I would love to forget responsibilities and people that rely on me and fly off the handle and go do something crazy. Then I look around me at some people who don't act their age and hold to their responsibilities and it tends to disgust me, so I ignore those urges and do the correct thing. This may possibly be because of the way that I look at other people, and know how I dislike what they do or how they look, and so do my best to not be judged.

So here's to being 30 and a new chapter in my life; it may take a bit of getting used to. I am very nostalgic for the teenage years when you have everything in the world at your fingertips and don't see the advantage in it or use it to the fullest. I think that may be the biggest regret for most people. But you have to take everything in your stride and live it to the full (even whilst trying to avoid a hangover) and hope that one day you will look back on a life filled with love and happiness.

Technologically challenged ...

I honestly didn't think I was that stupid when it came to computers and finding my way around new pages, purchasing items online or getting used to new things. It seems I am wrong.

It began with having to get used to a new online banking system when we changed banks. So that took a little while, but I got there and am finally comfortable with and understand it. Then our savings bank changed it's entire layout and process of internet banking. It's now been months and I am no closer to knowing how to get a statement or make a payment - although apparently a lot of people are moaning about how useless it is so although it makes me feel a little better it still isn't great. 

Then my own bank changed it's online system and there I am, back to square one and totally lost months on again. Again, people do say it's a daft system, but seriously - how can I not manage to figure out and remember any of their stupid systems???

So onward with the monthly struggle of making payments and printing statements ... then this morning I decide to try a blog again after many months of not doing so. I am lost. Blogspot used to have a little dashboard button where you could update all your info, and now for the life of me I cannot figure out where to go and change all my details, as I am no longer 27 and no longer live in Swakop, etc etc. It's beyond me. I have clicked on everything you can click on and still cannot find it, so am missing something big somewhere. 

I also have no idea how to use paypal, which in this day and age is daft as well - but looking at it just confuses me. So it seems that once you turn 30 it really is all downhill ... and understanding technology is a thing of the past ... 

Seriously ...

I sometimes cannot believe that people have the audacity to do what it is that they do! I can't understand how they think that they are correct, have done nothing wrong, or do not deserve certain things happening to them and play at shock or horror or whatever other emotion they choose.

Example 1: We have a house in Windhoek that we have rented out for the last four years to a family. In the first two years the property seemed well-maintained and cared for. I was recently there to view the house and discuss them moving out as we are moving back to Windhoek, only to find that the property has been all but destroyed. Some bedrooms are painted awful colors, bathrooms mirrors are broken, the stove is broken, cupboard doors missing, and to top off the disgusting mess that the garden has been left in (full of rubble and shopping trolleys) they have burnt a gigantic hole in the solid meranti wooden deck ... 

I am quite proud of myself, I didn't lose my cool on the spot and jump up and down, nor have I since. The house is so disgusting I am shuddering at the thought of having to move back into it, but am out of choices really. Even the estate agent was shocked when she saw it and suggested that some repairs be done before attempting to sell, so I asked nicely for the lessors to mend the damage done and to ensure the property is in a fit state by the time that they move out.

Pffftttt!!!! We all know how that's going to go.

So now we live in Swakop, and after being here for three years we decide to buy the beautiful old house we are living in, as we can afford it if we rent out the 3-bedroom flat. This we do, and the people that move in seems just as lovely as anyone. They even warn me up front that there is the POSSIBILITY that they might not be able to pay the full rent for a couple of months due to a financial situation, but if it in any way is not possible they would pay in full, all I had to do was say. They would also then pay all outstanding money as soon as they received their pay-out.

So, I agree. The first two months are super, rent paid. After that it goes down to less than half the rent and no electricity. They are nice people and I don't bother them but rather try to help. Then comes the day I need to say, please pay your rent in full now as it's affecting my budget - I get an email simply saying they can't pay and want to move out. Sod the contract, sod two months notice as agreed, sod everything, just a flat we cannot pay and want to move. 

I am not overly impressed and say fine, move out mid-September, at least that gives me 2 weeks to renovate the flat yet AGAIN because they have badly damaged the paint and heaven only knows what else. I get ignored, and only after threatening a law-suit do I get a response, only to say that they have paid a little of what is owed and I must take the rest out of the deposit and they will then pay the remaining amount when they can. Amusing, as they never even paid a full deposit and seem to be full of righteous indignation that I have dared to ask them for rent!

So the story goes. I am going to make best buds with my lawyers soon enough!!

 

I Did It!

Ok, it's not much, I just made my first sale on the plants I have taken out of my garden. I take babies and cutting out of the garden and have had them sitting in neat little black bags for months, trying to get the courage together to sell them. I have Arum lilies, Spider plants, ferns, and some kind of cactus thing that I don't know the name of. 

 

I keep them separate for so long just to make sure they haven't gotten worms or snails or any other bug in them that people might be annoyed about and then come back to complain! I know for a fact that these haven't, are healthy and growing like bombs. Poor things aer growing out of their bags and I have roots creeping scross concrete and between paving stones.

My garden is a big and ongoing project. I thought I was clever and allowed some beautiful ground cover to grow inbetween my grass, not realizing that it would indeed take over and kill said grass. I have since had to butcher my lawn and chop out all the grass that was infected with evil ground cover and start again; this has taken weeks on hands and knees digging up the soil to get every last root out, as the evil stuff grows out of nowhere it seems. There was also no distinction between grass and flower beds, so I moved the flower beds right in, took some plants out, and have been planting grass all around them as well.

I had the palm trees shaved, and now with them all clean and nice, the beds shaped, and grass planted (although not yet growing) it is starting to look like something. It still needs a lot of work, and a lot of moving around, and if we stay here in Swakop and don't move to Windhoek I am going to put in some beautiful vegetable and herb gardens. I have already planted everything I want from seed, and am praying that they grow! Seeds are a little more difficult than seedlings already grown.

As I now have made my first sale, the money is going straight back into my garden. I need more grass seed, and would love some bright flowers as my garden is very green at the moment, especially just outside the back door. Some beautiful color wouldn't go wrong at all! So I might make a trip to the nursery this morning and see what I can spend my first sale on!

Do they honestly need all that????

I mean really, do they???? 

Yesterday morning I finally bit the big, scary bullet and phoned three different numbers to try and find out if I could apply for a 5-year family visa to visit the UK. This means that I would then be able to fly in and out on holidays and not have to worry about applying for a visa every time, and if there should happen to be an emergency I wouldn't have to go through months of an application process before being able to fly. 

I phoned the British Council - no answer ten calls later. I phone the British High Commission - please phone back after 10am. I phone back after 10 am - please phone our visa office. I phone the visa office - they can't actually tell me if I can apply for the Family Visa or much of anything really. Pretty useless. So I go print off the forms and have a read through - all ten pages of them that must be filled out in blue or black ink. 

So I make a cup of coffee and get started ...  details details details .... parents, brothers, sisters, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, telephone numbers, addresses, passport details, residence details, and so the list winds on ... my poor Mother has been tasked with getting copies of everyone's passports as well as details of their own private lives and letters saying that they would love to have me come stay!

And just try explaining in a 2cm square box that your boyfriend supports you, you don't work as you are not living in the country of your passport, but in another country altogether and don't yet have a visa! I can sense a ten-page letter coming on which will have to be attached to said visa form, which undoubtedly won't be read and sadly means I might not be lucky enough to get my Family Visa ... sigh. The box that they give you to fill in for other things that they should "consider" whilst looking at your application is rather small too.

So Mother has been sent a list of things that she needs to do and then courier to me before I can even send in my application, and in the meantime I will try and take on the Home Office here to at least give me a letter stating that I have applied for a visa and am legal here. It's all rather daunting really - here's hoping tomorrow it won't seem so bad!