Building

    Well, wasn't I depressed last time I wrote! How dull and miserable. 

    We have our builder here now for a month and he is working away like a little bee. We thought that we would start by building a large retaining wall so that we could have a flat spot on our mountain. Then I will pave and out grass in, put shade net across it, and have a lovely area for summer where the pool can go and we can sit to relax. 

    The foundations have now gone in for the mofo of a wall that looks like it's going to be the same height as the electric fence (I miscalculated slightly it would seem lol). Whilst they're drying, James is making pavers and painting the igloos. They managed to get up on the roof and seal it so that's going to be brilliant - no more leaking come rainy season we hope. But the colour choice is very limited when you're buying roof paint, so I chose green, but it's awfully dark :( am hoping that it lightens slightly with time. I thought that I almost might frame the windows in white to break it and make it look prettier. 

    When the flat area is done and the wall up, it means that all my plants can go out in proper pots and make it look really nice with flowers and pretty things again. I can't wait. Speaking of, I must water my plants this morning and see how they're surviving. They aren't happy out here - its either too hot or too cold and they're struggling in the bags so it will be great to get them out into pots again where they can live properly. 

    Then at the end of the month James is off home to Katima for a month, then back to Marius and Nadia to finish their bathroom before he can come back here. So it's going to be a while before he gets back here to start building the garage, but it gives us time to get the architects in to measure up, correct the igloo plans and to add the garage so we can start with that when James is back. It will be great to have a garage where we can store the bikes and cars. 

    There is so much to do and I just wish he could stay longer to get there quicker, but everything comes with time and we mustn't be hasty. Let me go water my plants and see what they're doing :) 

Time

At the moment I seem to have too much time on my hands and not sure what to do with it - which is ridiculous as I always have so much to do but just no motivation to do it. Damn medication. I am trying to take it in a different way to see if I feel better about things, so will see how it goes.

Back to the issue of time. I sit here looking around me and have so much to do but just can't seem to get there to do it because I am being lazy. Today I bought a little chest at the market and put it in the bathroom. I have packed all the medicines and and toiletries into it, which gives me more space in the bedroom cupboards by a little, and means that I don't have to have tubs in the bathroom with things in. Now I need to go through and sort out the bedroom cupboards, but also want that to be a job for tomorrow when we go through and clean - repack cupboards and get that sorted. Gives the girl a bit more to do as well.

The weather is so weird today - wind is howling and the dust is driving me mad but I hate having the doors closed so am living with it. I cleaned twice over the weekend to try and keep on top of it and now have given up. It can wait until tomorrow now.

I feel like I want a change in life. I'm not sure that I am happy out here on the plot. There is so much to do and not sure that I can face dealing with builders and graders getting out here just so that we can try and build. Not that we'll ever have enough money anyway, and I don't want to live in the igloos forever, they're too small and cramped and we have to share a PC and share a table and there's nowhere to go away. I think we did the wrong thing moving out here and it should go back on the market, but we will see. Maybe Pio will finally realize that I can't manage out here on my own so much.

Tomorrow I want to work on the roads, which may help getting the soil that is sitting out the front door away and help a bit with the dust, and then we have a meeting with accountants in the afternoon so it will be a busy day. We have to sit this afternoon and get all of the accounting stuff up to date and sent out when Pio arrives home. I did some of it this morning but he needs to help me with the rest.

Anyway, not much more to report. I am as bored as the dogs are and have nothing to do - I should take them for a walk maybe and then if I have time go ride this afternoon with Frankie.

It's been a while...

It has been a while since I last blogged - again. Its' amazing how life gets so busy that we don't get to the little things that we love doing and they get left by the way side. 

Everything has sort of flown out the window lately. I was diagnosed with bipolar and medicated for it, but its taking time to sort out the medication and to get used to living on meds. Its not an easy adjustment and although the first few months were bliss, it seems like they are now wearing off and life is becoming a little more difficult to deal with again. Its time to go back to the doc and speak to him again about everything, but its so expensive that it really has to be thought through properly. 

I am still writing, and that is going really well. Its the only thing that I have managed to keep on top of, and I think its because I have a deadline to work to and other people in my group, so its a really motivating factor in my life. I am getting good feedback from the others and its such a creative release, so look forward to it and am ahead in my submissions now. Let's hope that the latest feedback is good. I also managed to work through everything that I have submitted and create a master copy, so hopefully I can keep adding to that and have my final draft when I am done with everything, although it will take time to get that far. I'm hoping that I will have the money to carry on with it in July. 

Other than that, I have stopped writing in my diary as I think that my life isn't interesting enough to even keep track of, and started drinking and smoking again, so its all gone out the window and I am disgusted with myself. It's very hard to have kept up with everything and to not keep cheating. I must find the courage to start again though, as I can't carry on like this, it's not what I want out of life. But we will get there again, and hopefully stop using the excuse of not putting so much pressure on myself to do everything; but I'm pretty sure that its just an excuse. I'm too tired and lazy to keep up with everything and I blame it on the meds and the bipolar and am hoping I come out of my funk really soon. 

The Plot is becoming a burden as well, because we don't have the money to renovate and its becoming a plague! We still walk every evening, so we enjoy that with the dogs and with the sunsets, but winter is now setting in and it gets dark really early. We're hoping that if we can sell the Swakop house that we will have some money to push in, but there are no bites on that at the moment and its leaving us with a big worry that we will be stuck with it standing empty and not rented out or sold. Its going to cost a lot of money that we don't have, so its panic stations all round. Not much we can do about it though, just keep plodding and pray that something comes up and that we have the money to keep it going. We are in a bit of a financial bind at the moment - maybe I can make a sale and have enough money to carry us for a month or two again. 

So nothing happy really - I sound like I am just grumping and everything is miserable, which it isn't I suppose, but it probably just feels like it at the moment. Oh well, got to go do some work so will stop my miserable moan and get back to it!

What wonderful weather...

Finally, the news forecast has been correct. It took them two months to get it right, but it seems that it finally is! This means that we are having wonderfully overcast weather, which is absolute heaven after the terrible heat, and thunder storms every evening. We have the most amazing sunsets and sunrises because of the clouds and the mist - so beautiful. It just makes me want to sit and write and create - it's that perfect weather that is so different to what we're used to that it's like a holiday and I am struggling to work in it! Look at the storms rolling in - we have the most amazing views from the top of our mountain!

It almost looks as if you could reach up and touch the clouds, they're so close!

So, in the midst of all this rain, we have leaking ceilings (oh wait, an igloo doesn't really have a ceiling, it's all just round ... ) lol but they're still leaking. So no painting until the rainy season is over! The cats hate being inside as they have serious issues with Cady and Coda, so they hide outside. This means that when it starts bucketing down, I have to leave the bedroom window open so that they can get in should they choose to make the mad dash through the rain and inside.

The changing colours of the red evenings at sunset - everything goes a weird shade of orange or pink. 

Rain drips everywhere and depending on the wind and the angle, the bedroom gets flooded because of the open window. Of course, unless it is just a super bad storm, we leave the front door open so the dogs can prance in and out, dragging mud throughout and getting wet dog smell all over their couch. I have washing come out of my ears with the towels and blankets and covers!

Yesterday afternoon we had blue sparks flashing up in the lounge twice - we thought that the power lines had been struck by lightning but nothing was fried, so it couldn't have been. It was a serious pop and a big blue flash - something would have been fried. We're also sure that had it been lightning hitting the house, our hair would probably have been standing on end. So we have no idea what it was, but are of course extremely grateful that nothing was fried and we still have a TV - with no drinking or smoking there isn't much else to do!

With the rains the roads are of course washing away, which is such fun - IF you have a bakkie. Joani is getting more and more depressed as the road disappears into a mess of rocks and mud puddles, whilst I have fun sliding through the mud and ramping over the rocks. One of these days I am going to miss and land in a tree down the hill - that will not be an amusing explanation to the insurance! Well, it probably will be after it's been done and over with lol. I will have to get Wilbard out and have him do some work on the road, but I am more interested in getting my house sorted. 

These next two photos were taken on Sunday morning just after 6am - I got up and found that the mist was drawing in around the house or pulling back into the hills. It pulled in and out twice - shrouding the house and we had absolutely no visibility out the windows, then hanging in the hills. It was really beautiful - and the same again this morning. It stayed misty for hours and has given us a much needed break from the terrible heat and humidity that's been plaguing us! It is such wonderful weather after months of sun!

And the final one of the mist hanging in the hills - and now I am off to do some work as I can't spend the entire day blogging and writing as it doesn't pay the bills!!

Have a happy day!!!

Changes!

As it's been so long since I updated the blog, a whole hell of a lot has happened. Life has changed rather a lot, and I am just not sure where to even start ... Firstly, we got rid of shitty Stelzen Street and as usual, it caused a problem and was sold for 400 thousand less than what we wanted for it. That house was never anything other than a problem, and it is still giving me grey hairs as the person that bought it won't pay his water and electricity account. I can't wait for it to be out of my life permanently and to never hear or see it again. 

We bought Plot 69 and moved out here on the 13th of February. As usual, we are cursed lol, and the truck dumped everything at the bottom of the hill and we had to drive it up in bakkies. The mountain is REALLY not that bad, people. If Joani can drive up here with a Polo, you lot can drive up here with a truck, you dumb twit. The move took ALL day even with about ten guys helping, as they were all useless and lazy and by that night, there was still half a household standing outside and the rain was building. In a panic, we desperately tried to cover everything with plastic in the dark, and a thorn from the horrendous hak-dorings outside the door went straight through my nail. Blood everywhere. I burst into tears like a proper girl, hated everything, and that day still clocks as the worst of my life.

So we settled in slowly - it hasn't been an easy adjustment. We are far out of town, the dogs give me grey hairs, our petrol bill has doubled, the white bakkie kept breaking and leaving me stranded with no car - and so it went. It is also a huge adjustment to go from a big three-bedroom with two bathrooms and plenty of space to a one-bedroom, one bathroom igloo in the middle of the bush. And yes - it's an IGLOO. Like the ones in Alaska. Round and all. 

Anyway, so here we are. In the first week, Bear decides to tackle a cow on YWAM, which is the 900 hectare farm next door. There I am, running through the bush in my yellow silk pyjamas chasing a dog that's hanging off a cow's ass and praying that the neighbor who owns said cow won't come charging down from his house to find out what all the hullabaloo is about. Luckily he didn't we caught the dog, gave him an enormous hiding born out of fury for him not listening, panic for him being almost gored by the cow, ME almost being gored by the cow and having to run through the bush in my pj's, and whatever else pissed me off that day. Pio had to phone the neighbor and tell him what had happened. It was a dark day - but Brian was quite chilled about it and there seemed to be nothing wrong with the calf and cow after their drama-filled day. Thank heavens.

Then he jumped out the car window and chased the whole herd of goats - Heaven help me. There we go, running through the bush again, although this time I was luckily not in my pj's, but I had just showered and dressed to go see a client. Up mountain and down dale until the shit simply got bored with chasing them and trotted home. I wanted to take him to SPCA then and there, but first had to shower again and get dressed to go see my client. 

THEN he and Coda ran away and spent seven hours chasing and barking at something on Christmas Eve. I didn't sleep, as we had no way to catch them, and no way even to tell where they are as noise echoes in the mountains. It was hell, but they eventually came back at 2:30 in the morning full of blood. We still have no idea what they chased and killed. I don't see them giving up on an animal unless it's dead, so I can only imagine that it was something big if he took seven hours to bring it down. He took a sheep down in less than a minute. 

So, on we go, and now we walk only when there are no animals in sight, and we don't go up the mountain but rather down the road where there have been less animals sighted. Every day is a bit of a stress as we expect them to go caning off at the drop of a hat to try kill something. We pray it doesn't happen again, although I am quite sure it will as there are just too many animals around.

Oh, the latest was of course a porcupine, but there all the dogs seemed to show a modicum of respect for it so at least used their one combined brain cell. This happened one night when Coda and Bear decided to sleep outside, and I was woken up with a bark from Coda at 2:30 am. I kicked Pio awake and we bolted up, as out here, when the dogs bark there is something there and you don't wait for the second one. Pio tried to shine a torch out the window to see if it was possibly a person with a gun - although that would have gotten him shot anyway. He doesn't have much logic at that time of the morning - at least until 10am anyway. 

So I give up on him, and can anyway hear something in the bush that is our garden - there is no difference between the inside of our fence or the outside at the moment. I open the door and charge out onto the deck, which is a death trap as with the recent rain the wood is rotting and falling away at a rate of knots. I manage to miss all the gaping holes, and see a flash of black and white underneath me. The last time I saw a porcupine I was a tiny scrap of a thing that was probably too young to remember it. I shriek "It's a porcupine!" and dash back inside for my slops. Once they're on I fly back out, down the broken deck stairs and into the bush. Again in my yellow silk pj's, might I add. 

Pio rather thoughtfully stays on the deck shining the only torch we own away from me, and then suddenly realizes at my snap of annoyance, that I am in the dark, in the bush, and have slops on. He tosses me the torch and I dash after the dogs and porcupine. I find the poor bugger nose to the kitchen wall, flinging his tail in Bear's direction. At this point in time, Kita and Coda must have realized that my yelling at them was for a reason and had disappeared. Bear chooses when he wants to listen and when he doesn't, and so totally ignored me but did show that he isn't all that dumb and didn't try bite the porcupine, just hovered and went at it occasionally. With me screaming at him, he stayed at a distance, and the porcupine shuffled back to the fence, me and Bear behind it, and zipped through.

This is what happens when you turn your electric fence off and forget it off. We turned it back on immediately. 

Then there's Coda running away, but now he stays with me pretty religiously. There's Cady coming to live and her story - that will be posted on Dog Bless You's page. There's the daily happenings, snakes, warthogs, bugs and dead goats. Spiders the size of my hand and definitely too big to squash with a shoe without me screaming like a three year old girl. 

Frankie and I are working well together but I have taken a rather slow start to this year - I am taking things easy at the moment as have had too much stress lately and struggled to cope a bit. So we are working through our list slowly and getting things done bit by bit. She has been amazingly understanding of everything. 

It is fun - I love my evening walks with the sun dropping and the rain coming in across the valley. I love that I am alone out here and no one will knock on my door when I want to be alone. I love that I can look out my window and see nothing but a mountain and bush and the odd animal pottering by. I just love the peace that I have found out here even with the worries of the crime and shootings and whatnot. It's a happy life and we're enjoying it despite the down side of longer traveling and larger fuel bills and and and. It's no longer a quick case of "Pop into town". But we're working out the kinks with time and we will get there. 

Plot 69, Brakwater

    I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but we are very keen on moving out of town and on to a plot to get away from the mad city life and to have some breathing space. We also want to become self-sufficient and to have as many animals as we can possibly afford! So we have been looking for some time now, and even went as far as to make an offer on a five-hectare plot on the outskirts of Brakwater, a good twenty kilometres out of town. 

    That was plot 170, and it was five hectares, had a riverbed which was great, a borehole, a natural spring that we never actually saw, and four or five little "shacks", of which there was only one liveable and it had no ceiling, no hot water, and no kitchen. It was three tiny rooms with no cupboards or counters in, and the guy wanted 2.3 million for it. 

    We put in an offer of 2 million at that point, based on the sale of the house here in town. We put in a lower offer as the place needed so much work and there wasn't even a fence around the property, or burglar bars, so there would have been no security whatsoever.

    By that point, as it took us a little while to put the offer in, the owner had already upped his price to 2.5 million, and so he immediately refused our offer which was OK with us, as if it wasn't meant to be then it wasn't meant to be and we moved on, thinking we could take a break from rushing to complete this house and go a bit slower.

    Then, two weeks ago I found a 25 hectare plot for 2.8 million, which we thought was because it was so mountainous. We went to look at it, and really do like it. It is very mountainous, but we can make a plan with that. It has two very funny little igloos on it; they are literally made by blowing up bubbles and then spraying them with concrete, and you can add on as much as you please to make your house as big as you like. 

    

    This one to the left is the back of the small one; as I said there are two. Both are one-bedrooms, but the bigger one has an enormous bathroom, a medium-sized lounge and a massive kitchen which is just fantastic.

    The smaller one has a lounge, a bedroom, and a bathroom and isn't huge but a nice size. Joani has agreed to move into it and rent it should we actually get the place and it all goes through. 

    We will then put a fence between the two so that she can also have her animals there and we can only hope that they leave my cats in one piece ... 

    They both have fire places, which will be great in winter, and when we walked in we were shocked at how cool it is inside. The day was a good 26 degrees and we have the aircon in the car on, but it was almost cold inside. Hopefully they'll be just as cool in summer than they are in winter! 

    Although, I have already said that should we move in, I will be buying a porta-pool (how do you spell it??) whilst we fix up the little places and maybe put a nicer pool in. We will have to put a new teeny kitchen in the small one, and maybe new bathrooms in as the current ones are a bit grotty.

    It's definitely more liveable than plot 170, and with a good clean to sort out the muck and grime the local farrier who lives there has left, it will be fine to live in until we can sell the Swakop house and use that money to build a big house for ourselves.

    Apparently there is a borehole that hasn't been used in fifteen years, so we are hoping that it still works and has water in, as currently you are not allowed to drill boreholes and have to use the municipal water, unless there is an existing one already on the property. 

    Thank goodness there's one there already!!

    The views are beautiful, and whilst it is hilly and not ideal for planting or animals, we can work around it on the smaller areas that are flat. We can plant lucerne trees for the animals as they require minimal water and can live in rougher conditions, and work on smaller projects around the 25 hectares. 

    Goats are easy to look after and also require less work than sheep, so that will also be an option to look at. 

    The agent that is selling the plot, Frankie, is a fabulous woman from the UK that has been out here for many years.

     We have a lot of the same interests, and on Thursday I went to sign the formal offer. Her own plot is just behind Plot 69, a 3 km drive which is great. We spent over an hour chatting, whilst she showed me her three beautiful horses. She says that her neighbour, Debbie, has a horse that she needs to find a home for, so I will most likely score him too for free, as well as taking on the SPCA horses that need looking after til they're re-homed.

    This will also mean that Joani will be kept busy working with the horses, and it will be great to be able to ride out in the mornings.

    We then also discovered that we both have a love of writing, so spent ages chatting about that too. The entire area seems like a really nice crowd, and Frankie kept saying to me that they want someone like-minded to move in.

    She gave me a hug goodbye and said that as she is the only agent that is showing it, our chances are good. It is selling for below evaluation which is fantastic for us, and so the only thing that is delaying us is this house. Time is against us this time, and not money, as with the sale of both houses we will afford it and have some cash to renovate and clean up with.

It all looks good; let's hope that we can keep it together and that we're lucky enough to win this one! It would be a fantastic opportunity for us, and although we aren't trying to get excited about it we are. If we lose this one we will be upset, unlike we were with the other plot.

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!