Thank god the trip part is over!

Well, that was brutal! From the time we woke up on Monday morning until late Thursday afternoon, we had almost no sleep, so you can imagine how ecstatic we were to have the journey part over with.. We got almost no sleep on Monday night before the trip even started and it went downhill from there. Laird can sleep on planes; I cannot. I finally got an hour or so in OR Tambo, waiting for our flight to Dana Bay. Oh, how glorious it was to get off the plane in George, knowing we were done with flying for months! So very, very happy to once again get to hug Marita — and, oh, the first sight of the Indian ocean on the way to Dana Bay was magnificent! The weather is cool, but the flat is cold because for some weird reason many houses and flats in Dan a Bay don’t have heat or air conditioning — even though it gets quite hot and quite cold here. Makes no sense, but that’s the way it is. We have a couple of heaters, but I’m very happy that I brought a couple of heating pads as presents (another mystery is why South Africa doesn’t have heating pads, though they do have electric blankets). A nap until dinnertime then we; went over to Noekie and Johan’s house for dinner — Marita made oxtail and samp (no known analogue in US) for us and it was DELICIOUS. A couple glasses of wine and we went straight to bed when we got home and slept until about 3:00 the next afternoon — ahhhh, bliss! Today, we planned to go to Mossel Bay for the 2nd annual Soul Day festival, but when we got there, I couldn’t stand the thought of being in a crowd of people so we went off for late breakfast instead, then went to a couple of stores to get some life supplies and now I ready for a nap again. At least we now have shampoo and conditioner and will get a hairbrush from Noekie so Laird might be able to brush his hair in minutes instead of trying to comb unconditioned hair. But what the hell was I thinking — I didn’t get any wine. Marita had Inverroche gin waiting for me, which I haven’t had a drink of yet — might take it over to Noekie’s tonight for before-dinner cocktails. Still, I need to have some bottles of wine here. So I’m off to the liquor store across the street to get some and a bottle of rum for Marita to have hot toddy for her cold — guaranteed to fix her right up! After that, dream time. Talk to y’all later.