31st May – A year

The 31st of May marked exactly one year since we packed up our lives, said goodbye to a decade of history and moved to Ballito to start our new chapter. It’s been a hard year filled with many challenges but at the same time it’s been a blessed one.

Without a doubt our move here has been a good one and for the better of our family. I love this little village and have tried to explain it to “outsiders” what makes Ballito so special but I really don’t think you “get it” until to live here. Let me try explain:

• The weather here is superb pretty much all year! – we spent more time on the beach in June last year than we did in the previous decade! And what a way for a kid to grow up.
• Fish eagle – the call of Africa! I wake up most mornings and hear our resident eagle shouting a “hello”
• Still coastal…….. still small
• Guys wear slops to evening dinner’s….There are no airs and graces. There is a LOT of money in Ballito and people that we very well off but it is not thrown in your face and talked about at every opportunity and people are just down to earth. There is no keeping up with the Jones’s. It one of the things I just dont miss at all!
• And Community…. this is the biggie that I can’t explain I really don’t think you get to fully experience it until you live here permanently. People just stick up for you and look after you here.
• And hand in hand with that comes the friends we have made. In a short year we have made really solid friends and people I can really count on to be there when times are tough and that says a lot for the type of place Ballito is.

Here’s a video that sums up the place I now love to call HOME.

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Its been a bit of a Statue month

There’s been so much going on this last month I’m not sure where to begin nor which topic to tackle first.
So best I just write and I apologise in advance for the hodge podge of information that shall now be spewed forth.

So we’ve moved house… Again…. A mere 11 since relocating from Johannesburg to our new home Ballito. I don’t care how you do it, it’s not fun and it’s even harder when there is a little person involved. Thank heavens for our friends Marius and Kerry who took the ginger to the animal farm for a couple of hours. This allowed us to just get beds made and a little semblance of a house put together before he came home. We used a lovely removal service and will definitely use her again. But moving still sucks and my 11th move in the past decade was no different from any of the others.

There was the usual teething issues with having to get keys cut and of course the one that never ceases to amaze me, the replacement of bulbs!! Who lives with no lights? The pearler for me has got to be the main bedroom which didn’t have a single light in it and still doesnt….we’re getting there!!

But a week down the line the strife seems to be coming to an end.

The past month has been really hard and has come with a lots of kak. And daddy Abs and I are feeling really a bit beaten and a little like the statue at the moment ( you know the one that all the birds sh1t on!!)

To start with it was the Bi polar psychotic chick who was high on drugs when she reversed into me. Who then accused my husband of stalking her on FB.  It went like this: ” I told you I will pay you at the end of the month. Please I beg you stop harassing me. I do not have money. Why don’t you give me a break. What do you want blood. My God, I am unemployed. I had a medical bill. Don’t you have any feelings. Why is your husband harrrasing me 😦 please tell him to stop. I will pay I swear. Just stop stalking me please.”

All cos I kindly agreed earlier that day (a convo she’d forgotten) to let her pay to fix my car over 3 months and when I asked her if she’s paid she wrote this. Whahahaha so I’ve laughed that off as she’s not stable and following everything going on I don’t have the energy.

Strike two was when the body corporate in our old place turned off the electricity in our garage, as they were moving onto a metered system and informed the owners who didn’t respond so they just turned it off. Problem was we had R900 worth of food in our freezer that was destroyed!

Strike 3. We were given notice on our place and kindly accommodated the owners and found a place earlier than the expiry of our lease. We asked for permission to leave early and were granted it. Then when we asked for reimbursement for the days as we left prior to the end of the month, we were not so politely told to go get fried!!

Strike 4:Then on night two in our new place the neighbour above us played his music so loud the windows were vibrating. At
10:15pm we approached him. He was abusive and threaten myself and my husband. He then proceeded to play music just as loud and periodically he and his friends stood and jumped on the floor above our bedroom. Mature I know!

Strike 5. You know what? actually I’m going to stop there! There is a strike 5,6,7  but it really is exhausting writing about it and actually no one really cares!!!

It’s not all bad. There’s some really good stuff happening.

• Today we meeting with another guy who is hopefully going to cost the build for us. And hopefully we’ll be getting our approved plans back from municipality soon.
• We are finally in our house and the neighbour above is moving out at the end of the month. I new place is really lovely and will be nice home for us until our build is done.
• Work is good for me and I’m busy and finally doing proper marketing which I’m loving.
• The public holidays are finally over ( I know I’m happy about that, crazy right?) but I’m glad they’re done cos it’s been really disruptive and looking forward to getting back into a routine, especially for the gingers sake.
• And lastly I made my mark today for our country. I’m proud about that and I really hope that I was able to make a difference.

So its not all bad and hopefully the pigeons will disperse and the sh!tting on the Abdo Statue will abate for a bit 🙂

2013 A summary

 

Wow where has this year gone I thought to myself as I settled down to write this. Then I went through my posts and all of the sudden it wasn’t “Where has the year gone” but FLIPPING HELL ITS BEEN A BIG YEAR!!!!

If you don’t have time here’s the shorts version: Moved cities, moved house, unpacked rental house, bought land, New job, Daniel turned two. I’m exhausted!!!!!!!

If you have a little time here it is in a slightly longer version….

So over Christmas last year we seriously contemplated moving back to the coast. It was always in our bigger plan, but something we had always hoped to do in our 40’s. All of a sudden we found ourselves asking, WHY? Why only in our 40’s why not now? Then it all happened. Rich found a job in two weeks, we sold our house in 7 days and the reality hit. We were moving back to Durban.

What followed was a hectic time for the family. Even though we had a relatively smooth ride it still took its toll on the family and there was quite a large deal of stress placed on my shoulders…but I survived, us women are made of tough stuff  🙂

In February I headed down for the weekend to Durbs to chat to a couple of people regarding jobs and also for a few interviews. We also got to walk on our new land that we had recently bought and start the dream of the house we will build in 2014.

Moving cities is no joke and it came with lots of roller-coaster material. There are quite a few rambling about my time over these months which you can read here.

April proved to be the hardest month as Rich left us and headed down in his packed-to-the-brim car to start his new job in Durbs.

Empty cupboards I came home to….was horrid 😦

 

This meant six weeks of single parenting and Daniel battled a bit. What’s with kids that the minute they are going through something they DON’T SLEEP! Daniel did a bit of this.

April was also the month of Easter and this saw us getting a visit from Rich’s folks. It was lovely to spend a few quality days with them.

May was moving month and came with much stress, box packing and bittersweet goodbyes. We had a lovely photoshoot with our friends as well which rounded off the month well.

It again came with its stresses though as up until 10 days before we were due to leave we didn’t know if we had a place to live. But mom eventually found us a lovely place to live and things fell into place. In between that was a rushed and unplanned trip to Durbs again for a long weekend as I had finally gotten a bite on my CV. I interviewed with a company that looked set to offer me and then it went completely cold. Looking back tho it’s funny how things work because it would’ve been the worst thing ever ….more about that later.

31st May the trucks arrived and carted our belongings to Durban. We stayed with friends the night before and in the early hours of the morning of the 1st June we bid the city of smoke farewell.

Last JHB sunset

5th June was a sad day for our family, as my sister’s Dad passed away. Sal and Mally have been family friends for many years, even before Morne and Kels met. So we too felt as though we’d lost not only a friend but a family member too.

July was an eventful month….

I finally had another interview for a position very close to home.  This after a few months of stressing. And 10 days later I was finally given the call to say I had the Job as the new marketing manager at the Umhlali Country Club.

I had a serious scare in the middle of July. After eating a piece of Dorado at a restaurant I ended up in hospital with a serious allergic reaction. Apparently Dorado is incredible dangerous to eat from the amount of histamines that are produced if the fish are not properly chilled from the time of capture to processing and consumption.

This raised some serious concerns about my health as I had been chronically tired for a few weeks. I headed off to my sister for her to do an analysis. She raised some concerns about my stress level and also thyroid etc and also picked up that I had somehow picked up a hepatitis at some point. So I was off to the health shop and loaded myself with all sorts of things and I’m please to say I’m back to perfect health.

The Drakensburg couldn’t have come at a better time and we headed up to the beautiful mountains for some rest and relaxation . My in law’s joined us . It was lovely to see them again as we had last seen them over Easter.

At the end of July I headed up to JHB to hand over my projects. I relished in the fact I could lie in a bath , get room service and go to bed early.

August I started at the club. What an amazing place to work, not only is it beautiful but it beats the cr@p out of working in corporates. 🙂 It has also been such an amazing and rewarding role as I’m able to really add value here and also see the fruits of my labour on a daily basis

September our little Ginger turned 2. Again I was so thrilled how things had worked job wise as I was able to go to his birthday ring at school.

I’ve said it before. It’s such an incredible privilege to watch a little person grow up. We also had an aeroplane party for Daniel with a few friends and family.

In October I couldn’t take the heat anymore and chopped my long hair off. I’m considerably cooler now 🙂 We also decided not to wait on the house build and engaged an architect (who we subsequently fired due to him being a moron – sadly after paying him R8000). So we have now appointed our second architects and yesterday saw the first draft of our new plans 🙂 So it looks like 2014 is gonna be a another big year!!!

November has been a really busy month for both Rich and I. Richard working for an ad agency has been incredibly busy and working long hours. I have also been very busy at the club.

December got even more crazy with me practicing for the Carol Service tonight. We also decided to put Daniel into a big bed which has been largely successful.

And here we are 5 days before Christmas. Family arrive in 2 sleeps 🙂 And I go on leave in one more week Whoop Whoop!

So there’s not much more to say than Merry Christmas. I hope you have a very blessed Christmas and New Year and may 2014 be nothing but awesome!

Silence is Golden

I’ve been VERY quiet these past few weeks and it’s not because I haven’t had anything to say…..Anyone who knows me I’ve ALWAYS got loads to say….but you see I’ve been processing.

They don’t tell you how HARD a move is. And I mean REALLY hard. We’ve got a lot of blessings and we were really blessed with how easy our move was. It has however come with many sacrifices….some of which we never dreamed would come into play.

I think the biggest has been the financial sacrifice. We always knew we would move down here and move to lower paying salaries etc and we made the choice knowing that we would have to sacrifice, but it’s been hard because we’ve sacrificed a few dreams and wishes in the process and all the while I hear God quietly whispering into my ear: “You are exactly where you are supposed to be”

In many ways I look at these challenges as tests for Rich and I:

I am learning patience: I am learning that you cannot always have what you want when you want and that the blessing in that, is that you make right choices that are sound and based on the head not the heart.

I am learning that we have plenty: I am learning that we live a life of excess and abundance and that we are able to get by on far less than we used to.

I am learning to lean on God: Whilst there are many days that I fail horribly at this, this year has been a phenomenal year for me in terms of my faith. I really and truly have grown closer to the big man upstairs. And even though I have my days where I wonder where the hell the money will come from I know deep down inside we will be looked after.

So yes I’m quiet but that’s also ok for now. We are concentrating on settling and just being a family in our new town Ballito we now call home

Excuse me while I find my mo-jo

 I’ve been pretty darn quiet I know…..and it’s not because I haven’t had anything to say it’s just that finding your mojo is hard work man!!!

It’s taken us a good three weeks to find our feet and along with the usual figuring out how long it takes to get to work and therefore timing Daniel’s drop off we’ve thrown the Passing of our dear Mally in the mix, which involved a trip to Hermanus last week for me and then also an incredibly hectic travel week for Rich. On top of that there  is the washing and cleaning, which up until we left Johannesburg I had the luxury of my darling helper Samu doing.

Then to top it all off there is the never-ending stress of the JOB! Yes people I am still jobless after searching for almost 6 months! Can you actually believe that Durban is that dead! I mean seriously I know there a bloody recession but I cannot believe that there are no middle management jobs in Marketing!! I was thrown a lifeline however yesterday and asked to stay on for July to finish off my projects here, so at least I have a few month weeks grace, but I won’t lie this is starting to wear thin.

But I’m continually challenged to “Let Go and Let God” and some days I’m very good at it and others not so much.

On a positive note….the Ginger after no sleep for three weeks has really seemed to have settled. He is now only waking once a night and even surprised us two days ago and again this morning by having his bottle in bed with us and then rolling over and having another kip for an hour. His mother not so much as I’m the type of girl who’s brain kicks in the moments my eyes are open. But it is still nice to lie in and beats the hell out of getting up at 4:45am!!!

Daniel is also obsessed with his Granny and Grandpa and run arms open wide when he sees them. They are affectionately called Gully and Baa baa. Its so lovely that they are able to spend a lot of time with him and that he really gets to know them. I treasure this time he has with them.

We spend a lot of time on the beach, because its there , its beautiful and it’s a free playground for the ginger. He loves the beach. Problem is he also loves being naked on the beach. Working on getting him to keep his clothes on 🙂 But for now I reckon it’s ok as he has his whole life to have to conform to society’s wrong and rights!

 

Making friends has been tough one but we’ll get there. Last week I attended a birthday party of a kids in his class. The family have also recently moved down to Durbs from JHB and it was refreshing to see that hopefully we’ll be as lucky to have as many people in our home one day soon. I have also hooked up with an old school friend Belinda. Her son Connor is a month younger than Daniel. We do play dates regularly…..which is not entirely true as the boys don’t play together (they don’t do that at 20months) its more of a play date for us 🙂

I’m also going to visit Umhlali Methodist Church this Sunday. I’m hoping to find a church that both Rich and I can feel comfortable at. Rich is a catholic and I’m Methodist so we’re hoping to find an in betweener with a young congregation.

I’ve also realized that I have a REAL fear of monkeys. Ballito has quite the vervet monkey population. Its funny because they never bothered me before, but now that I have Daniel I am acutely aware of them and quite scared that they will attack him. I must research and see if my fear is valid or not, or if I’m totally overreacting….

Oh and last but not least… I’m thrilled it’s the winter solstice. Man I cannot get used how early it gets darks here. Its dark by like 5pm which is proving real hard to keep Daniel entertained before his 7pm bedtime….without TV!!! So roll on summer (although no doubt I’m going to be complaining about the humidity in due course – doubt I’m going to wax my first summer without some serious sweat! )

All in all we have settled in well and barring the stress of lack of job it has been such a great move for us.
Wishing you all an amazing weekend. Ours will no doubt involve a trip to the beach (ah gotta love the coast during winter)

The Move

Before I knew it the move had arrived!

It  came with loads of stress and resulted in me shoving stuff in random boxes. But we’re here. We’re finally in Durban!

The team at Biddulphs removal company were awesome! I not only were they my cheapest quote by far but all in all the move was a smooth one, albeit interspersed with a little chaos and a few hiccups.

They team of 6 guys arrived at 10am and by 1pm our house was a shell!
I kept it together until the van was about to leave, but then as I was saying goodbye I signed “thank you” to one of the guys who was moving us that was deaf. His face lit up with the most amazing appreciation as if to say: “someone has spoken to me” For the first time in the 5 hours , someone had spoken to him in his language and you could see the appreciation.

WELL!!!! I was tickets and quickly sat outside and had a good little cry, as only a women can do. It was finally over and our house was empty and quite frankly it made me a little sad L

Next was fetching the Ginger. Rich and I had chatted about whether we should show him the house or whether we should just leave. I was of the mindset that for him, even if he didn’t understand it, it was important for him to get closure and move onto the next step, so that even in his own little way he could understand that we were leaving and when he saw his stuff in his new room in Durban he’d get it. Rich said he wouldn’t care. Boys are so simple 🙂 Anyway we decided to show him and Rich was right I don’t think he cared. Well at least that’s what I thought until that night!

Anyway so we handed over the keys and headed to our mates Dave and Jen for our last night. It was awful as Daniel held me hostage in his room sitting next to his cot for over an hour. He was so unsettled and really upset. We got to bed at 10:30pm and by 2am I was up a and wide awake!! I left Rich to sleep until 3am because he was driving and then we got up and left. Daniel woke up when I transferred him into the car and was awake for 20min and fell asleep and I thought we were home dry. Until Villiers (100km out of JHB ) where we stopped for coffee. When I returned to the car my little ginger had completely lost the plot. I think he was so exhausted and didn’t know what was going on. Fortunately he passed out 20 min later and then woke at 6am After Villiers we pushed through all the way to Ballito. Daniel only had two wobbles after that. One when he woke and of course one when we were 20 min from home.

Our first KZN sunset…well the start of it at least 🙂

So we survived the first stint and next was the unpacking. This was where we hit a stumbling block…..the truck eventually only arrived at our complex at 2pm that afternoon as they’d had trouble at the previous offload and were delayed. So they eventually finished unpacking at about 7pm! I had to get Daniel down so had to leave Rich with them at 5pm.

The chaos that was Saturday morning. 6am!

Saturday I woke at 6am and headed straight to the house to start unpacking….and I unpacked and unpacked and unpacked. I sat down for the first time at 5pm that evening but at least the beds were made, the curtains hung and we were in our home.

The past two days have just been finishing up and making the house livable and I can now finally say we’re in! My mom has been incredible. She has really done a lot and we are so appreciative.

Daniel has taken serious strain and hasn’t really eaten for 3 days and sleep has been nightmare with a pearler on sunday night of 2 and half hours of crying followed by vomit…lots of it! But last night he finally slept through again and I’m hoping he has had a good day at crèche today. Its a lot for a little guy to take in.

Looking back, the pain of the move is still a very real one, but its good to be able to say it’s finally behind us!

What’s the saying? Onwards and upwards!!!

Hope your weekend was less stressful and hectic than mine 🙂

Moving house…..Don’t do it!

So I’m pretty much done. 41 boxes and a whole lotta little bits shoved into random boxes!!

Spent the whole weekend packing…AGAIN and really neglected the Ginger which really sucked  The bonus was daddy Abs got to spend some time with him, but seriously, I cannot wait to just spend quality time with him again, playing ,drawing, whatever that may be!

They don’t stuff around when they say that moving ranks in the top ten of strefful things to do in your life…… Let me give you my take on moving.

STAGE 1
You start packing…a little out of fear but mainly because you’re excited to get this party started. At this stage you are in COMPLETE DENIAL.
The first few boxes go well lulling you into a false sense of security.
It’s easy. You keep a beautiful list of what’s packed in each box and systematically go from room to room where each room is neatly packed in each box.
You think to yourself.
“20 boxes max at this rate!”
“What is everyone on about? packing up is not that hard”
A few boxes a day and I’ll be done in no time”

STAGE 2
Then you hit the kitchen….and you hit the crossroads of hell, where you are not able to fill a box because they get to heavy before they get full. So you end up with the hodge podge boxes that I have right now. (which doesn’t go well with my A type personality) and quite frankly is F#$%^ING UP MY LISTS!

So you end up with this:
Box 36:
Description: Kitchen
Contents: Plates, Pyrex dishes, Leather jackets, Bedside table , drawer and spare room pillows!!!

Eventually though even this A type had to get over it and quite frankly get to the next stage

THE FINAL STAGE aka I- DON’T –GIVE- A- CR@P- WHAT- GOES- IN- WHICH- BOX STAGE.

This is what starts to happen after days and days of packing. You reach the stage where it is all going to the same location and all gonna be unpacked , so really it doesn’t matter what goes in what box. And seriously you just wanna get done so that your hands are not stained with the black ink from newspaper.

The random pile of stuff that doesnt really fit into any box arrrrrrgh!

Dont judge me! I’m over it! I will find a place for this stuff when we get to the other side.

 So tonight I will pack the last few things…..only 3 more sleeps and then our new adventure begins!!!

Watch this space!!!

Two weeks to go

Can you believe that in two weeks time the removal van will have arrived and we will be Durban bound.
I’m a mix of excitement and sadness at the moment…..

It’s the funny things I’m going to miss:
• I’m going to miss being able to fetch Daniel and for the two of us to walk home. Takes us half an hour to cover 500m but it such fun and we explore all sorts of things on the way
• I’m going to miss my helper. Samu has been with us for 8 years and when she’s been on a Tuesday we call our house “Hotel Samu” she is the most amazing cleaner and I’ve really developed a friendship with her.
• I’m going to miss our home – I’m starting to get really sad. It was the first house we bought together and we had our first child in this home and so when we close the door on Thursday there will no doubt be a few tears.

But there is SOOOOOOOOOO much I’m looking forward to.

• I’m looking forward to being close to my nieces. These two are like my second kids. I have missed so many birthdays and special occasions and I get to be there for them
• I’m looking forward to being close to my folks – Nothing beats family and I’m looking forward for us to be able to get together for dinners.
• I’m looking forward to being a stones throw from the beach – summer evenings after work we can go down and play in the waves for a little bit before bedtime – man that’s awesome
• I cant wait to break ground build our new home – Its going to be an exciting journey (wha ha ha watch this space, no doubt I’ll be ranting how kak it is building your own house is a year’s times )

So good news FINALLY on the news front…..

We have a rental!!! My mom found it advertised in the local newspaper (wow they do stuff so differently down there 🙂 Its small and old but its ours and we can move in on the 31st May!!!

It has a little garden for the Ginger to run around in and a gym, pools and tennis court in the complex. So chuffed and its such a weight off my shoulders!

Now just have to find a job. I’m kinda calm about that too and really believe something will happen. (fingers crossed behind my back just in case )

So the packing has begun in earnest and tonight I will pack some more. Really hoping to be able to knock the bulk of it this weekend. We have 14 boxes already. There’s a debate on how many we’ll end up with. Rich says close on 40. I reckon 25……the jury is out, will let you know.

One more sleep and Daddy Abs is home for the weekend. I’m so looking forward to the weekend. I have dinner tomorrow night with my person (a real adult, no kid dinner with wine and everything ) and then on Saturday I’m having a back massage and pedi as well while Daddy Abs spends some quality time with the Ginger.  Yay me 🙂

I hope you’re all having an awesome week!

The past two weeks

After a great weekend in Durbs I returned home on the Monday prepared for two weeks without daddy………..but it turned out very differently!

 I received a call from a recruitment agent on the Thursday in Durban to tell me I had an interview! Finally a bite on my CV! So within hours I had put in for leave and booked a flight back down to Durban.

With the public holiday on Wednesday  1^st May I thought to myself why not take and extra day and stay for the holiday…..so I changed my flight and headed down to Durbs for 6 days.You would think it would be relaxing but it actually turned out to be rather hectic.

I managed to fit in:

• Two rounds of interviews
• A visit with an old school friend
• Saw Daniel’s new crèche – He didn’t want to leave when it was time to go. I think he’ll be very happy there.
• Got him enrolled at the local school – whether he’ll get in is another story…he’s over 100 down the list.

 

Cool cat in his new sunnies to protect the beautiful Blues!

Check the gorgeous weather and view from my friends house

Last week was a short week for me yet it felt like days on the back of a busy Durbs trip!!!  Bonus was that Daddy Abs had to come up for business so we got to see him this weekend. Our poor ginger is so confused though and is so clingy. One day daddy is there then he’s gone for two days then he’s back! Poor little guy really misses his daddy so roll on the next three weeks so that we can be a family again.

The weekend was good. Daddy abs played golf on the Saturday and I took the opportunity to see my good friends Lyds and her gorgeous little guy Joshua.Also hooke up with my BFF Sal and Jon for Pizza at Tony’s. Sunday we chilled in the morning , then while Daniel slept at lunch we started packing , and followed it up with a lovely braai with our good friend Dave and Jen.

Daddy Abs and Luke and Dan (Dan calls Luke ‘go luko’ ?!?!)

The boys bathing (Sad that this will one the lasts times for a while)

Joshua and the Ginger

It  was a good weekend with friends….starting to kick in how much we’re going to miss the small things like braais and pizza evenings…..

Weekend back home

So before daddy abs headed out last week Monday I totally woes’d out that I’d be alone for the weekend, and booked a flight home.

So on Friday the ginger and I headed out to Lanseria airport and boarded a flight home.

We were 45min delayed due to the dreadful weather sitting right over the airport and it proved quite interesting keeping a tired toddler entertained  right over bedtime. 

I must say my little guy is just such a pleasure on a plane. I’m very lucky.The ascent was interesting with the turbulence but true to form my ginger LOVED the bumps and was in fits of giggle right before he zoned out and passed out! Problem is when we got to Durban he was surpercharged from his 40min powernap and so eventually only crashed at 9pm.

Saturday was miz weather and we had to contain him inside. We did eventually bundle him up so that he could run outside. Saturday evening we went to my sis and watched the rugby.

 

Daniel with his cousins. (Its going to be so great to be so close to family!!)

Sunday what the most glorious day and we took advantage by heading down to the beach. I ran from my folk place down to meet Daddy abs, my Dad and the ginger. I’m going to LOVE being at the coast , it was such an awesome run and i was filled to the brim with good endorphins and even more excited about our move.

Another highlight was being able to walk on our land that we’ve just bought. It’s  still very overgrown and needs to be cut, but it was exciting to have a look at it again and envisage our new house on it.

Granny did find Daniel some gorgeous bright blue gumboots and on Sunday afternoon he had so much fun playing in the puddles from Saturday’s rain. The ginger loves nothing more than to puddle jump (and so do i) I figure he’s got his whole life to be serious and do the right thing,so when there are good puddles around its essential he makes good use of them! And he does a good job!

  

Sadly the weekend was over too quickly. I had booked the red-eye flight out on Monday and man alive that flight always looks SOOOOOOOOOOO much better on paper than in reality. NO way you look at it, is a wake up call of 4:40am good. So it was early to bed monday night.