Tuesday, May 10, 2011

More holiday updates

So the time we spent in EL was over far too quickly and we had to drive up to Kokstad and then through to the farm. Well, let me tell you, the little towns in the Transkei/Natal/Eastern Cape that we either lived in or drove through in my youth have seriously deteriorated. Our old house in Umtata now looks absolutely dreadful, the once green street is now a churned up mess of dirt. The Transkei is a nightmare to drive through, will think long and hard before doing that again. Just getting through Umtata and Mt Frere added an hour to our journey. And so much for thinking master Mitchell would sleep through the trip! He nicely fell asleep when we were 1/2 an hour from our destination! And then woke up cos the road out to the farm was so bumpy, esp in my low profile tyred car!

But it was nice to see the family again, some have changed a lot, some not so much. But seriously, that place is COLD, bloody freezing! And winter hasn't even started yet. We were I think in the coldest room in the house. Mitchell stayed in bed with us as I didn't have the heart to put him on the floor all by himself. Branston slept in the lounge where it was warmer. Then we left the next day for the party place, after Gathry had to drive into town to put new tyres on the car after noticing that our front tyres were smooth.

Once again it was freezing! And the party was in a big shed next door to the house so it was in and out of the cold all night. I believe half the family was sick last week. Branston's throat was really sore and he was not feeling well at all. So I was running back and forth between him and the party and running around after Mitchell all evening. I wanted to take him in to the hospital but was convinced not to. Should have just followed my instinct as I ended up with a very sick, dehydrated boy. Had maximum 1 hour's sleep that night. Spent half the night cleaning up after a puky, runny-tummed, coughing boy. We took him to the private hospital in the morning and waited there for about 2 hours to get some meds, then left for PE. Anyway, it was nice to see the family and to meet some new family members. The house we stayed in was really nice and Diane and hubby were great hosts.

Sooo, back to PE, through the Eastern Cape. We went inland in the hopes of getting there sooner. Well, the roads were VERY potholed through most of the trip. I'm not sure if we took the best route but we got there very late on Sunday all extremely tired and miserable. Well, Mitchell was VERY miz for the last hour or so of the journey and once we got there he was full of beans. We left the next morning for Cape Town and got as far as Knysna.

Valentin and Mirjana twisted our rubber arms to stay over and with both kids (and us) not feeling so great, we decided to stay and visit with old friends. Even though the weather was miserable we had a great visit and great accomodation.

Next day was the long trek to Cape Town. We decided against stopping in Hermanus to visit other old friends St. John and Eleanore as by now we just wanted to get home and could not handle any more time on the road. Got home to find a clean house, well looked after - thanks Matthew! Soo happy to be home again!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Holiday update

As you can see from the pics below, we went away for about 10 days over Easter. Driving!! In my small car!! Never again - next time we fly or we go in a bigger vehicle, preferably the Toyota Hilux we hope to buy sometime soon.

However I am happy to say that we travelled over 3000km and kept the kids strapped in the entire trip. Quite an achievement with a 21month old, I must say!

We first drove up to PE, stopping in Knysna to see our old friends from Jhb, Mirjana and Valentin. Well, just Mirjana on the trip up, Valentin was gallivanting all over the countryside with friends. Why did I not take any photos, silly me!! Last time we saw their youngest 2, they were barely knee-high to a grasshopper, now one is a teenager and the other looking exactly like her oldest sister did at 9 years of age. Had a lovely lunch, Mirjana has not changed one bit, still cooks up a storm.

In PE there was the usual family drama, but we had a good time esp the kids on Easter day. The weather was amazing and the kids spent a lot of time running around and tiring themselves out totally. Mitchell fell asleep at 8pm on the way back to the folks house and slept through! Leads me to thinking I must renew my efforts to put him into a creche! He really enjoyed spending time with other kids. Gathry had a fairly quiet birthday on the 26th and unfortunately had to drive up to EL on his birthday. We were thinking of going out for his birthday but were so tired that it never happened. We took the kids with shopping the next day which was also exhausting and there is no decent baby change room at the biggest shopping mall in the Eastern Cape! Poor granny was also feeling rather miserable due to a bout of shingles but felt brave enough to look after the kids the next day so that we could go and do a bit of gambling ie throw our money away. Rather depressing watching some guy throw R10000 onto the table and gamble it away in less time than it took to count it while we put down our miserable little R100 note!!

To be continued tomorrow - running out of time....

More holiday pics

Having fun with Grandpa

More fun with the cousins in PE

Fun with Mommy's cousin's kids - what does that make them??

Cousins once removed? Second cousins?


Lots of tiring travelling - poor sick boy!

Stopping to enjoy the view in the Eastern Cape

Holiday fun

Keeping ourselves amused on the long journey...


Cousins ....



Easter chocolate - yummy!!




Eating choccies in the tent


Cousins connecting