Moving on...

So much has happened since I last blogged - we have sold and completed on our house. We have been to and returned from the Caribbean where we did a 10 day cruise and I am on the way back to Cape Town and my wife and family.

Our house was basically a miracle sale - buyers offered, we accepted and put tight deadlines in place and they held up their part of the deal nicely. We completed bang on time and we couldn't be happier!

On the holiday side - we had the most amazing holiday.. that is seriously "the life". We had no real expectations before going on it, but it was just awesome. We saw Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, St Kitts, St Thomas and Princess Cays. What a relaxing holiday - just what we wanted and needed! We went with http://www.princess.com and can't fault them - I'm sure experienced cruisers could but as far as we were concerned it was near perfect! I repeated said to my wife - it really doesn't get any better than this. What a life! We met some lovely people - two elderly sisters from Florida that had left their husbands at home and were clearly having a ball, Bruce(the barber) with his lovely wife Shirley, and four female friends from Toronto - Carol, Val, Barbs and I can't remember...

My wife returned to Cape Town on Monday, so I am alone here, the weather is crap and cold and I am missing her badly.. Just one week tomorrow until I climb on the plane and kick the salt of the sidewalk from my shoes :-).. counting sleeps.. 7 to go tomorrow..

We are ready to have another holiday for ~three weeks before I start my new(old) job! We will also start planning and building our house which has been in the "plan" for years..

Today, I heard on the radio that they are going to start giving the pill to twelve year old girls should they ask for it. It will be freely available from any pharmacy without the parents consent.. So now you have your local pharmacist deciding what's best for your kid.. What bullshit.. No wonder the youth in this country are in the state they're in.

On a really sad note - our friends dad is taking strain with cancer. It's just not fair and I battle to see what lesson comes from situations like this. It feels so helpless and we cannot do anything to help. My wife saw him last night and all she could say what - "it's heart-breaking".. We are praying for a miracle.

And there's a glimmer of hope...

So, we have sold our house - yet again.. well in theory anyway. We have yet to exchange contracts and until the money's in the bank I am Mr Eeyore...

We have literally two weeks before we go on holiday now and we've taken a leap of faith and are moving our stuff back home one day before we exchange! Hopefully it all goes through and we can relax on this holiday.

Work is just unbelievable - I am leaving soon, but it's just not easing up.. working tonight and then part of the rest of the weekend.. Hopefully this will be the last. I really shouldn't care but if no-one else besides my direct boss seems to!

A few days ago we heard that a close friends father's cancer has returned. It really puts things in perspective. We worry about the biggest load of shit under the sun, but when all is said and done, not much of it matters does it? Apparently it's operable, so we're praying and holding thumbs for him.

Speaking to another friend, a friend of hers is in hospital with bleeding ulcers.. is it really worth it? His pushing seventy, still runs his own company and works like a Trojan.. I suppose the question is, what are the options - to sit in an old age home drooling and muttering to yourself? Maybe he's chosen the lesser of two evils.. ;-).. They're going to see how he goes and operate if the bleeding stops.

I know it's an age-old clichéd question, but I still can't understand why bad things happen to good people. It would be great if those conniving bastard criminals got there due, but they don't or at least not in this life anyway.. My friends Dad has only done good and helped people when and wherever possible. Maybe my boet will blog the reason for this?.. hint hint - like - I want to know why my mother-in-law is still around?..oops did I say that out loud.

Anyway.. enough happiness for one night - I need to get back to work. On the bright side - hey, hey, it's Friday!

Still waiting... not so patiently

So, we have three weeks of work left before our cruise in the Caribbean, after which my wife, goes back to SA and I stay on to work for another two weeks before following..

Regarding the work issue, it's the oddest feeling - a cross between complete panic and numbness at the lack of control we have over our future. We just keep hoping and trying to believe that there's a plan somewhere in among the chaos.

We have yet to have another offer on our house - we've had a couple of viewings and they all say the same "you have a lovely house".... It makes me want to puke and say "you do know it's for sale don't you? Go figure. Yes, I know they're trying to be nice, but it would be nicer if they opened there wallet and made us an offer!

The support we've gotten from our family and friends has been great as usual and without them it would be even more difficult.. all the more reason to go home ;-).. It just makes us appreciate them all the more.. I'm going to end up in jail if my Dad passes away before me, he along with his PA( Mom ;-) ) looks after our tax and generally the running of our SA lives while we're living here...The taxman would be after my ass if it wasn't for him.. eish - it's just too confusing!

All I can say is that if our plane goes on the way to the US, I am going to be thoroughly PO. The last few months have been to say the least - pretty stressful. We both need a "do nothing" holiday and that's what it's hopefully going to be aside from one or days snorkeling and swimming with rays :-)..

The weather here is now winter and with the daylight-saving time change happening last Sunday, it's just about dark by 16h00.. what a lovely place to be..

...and so the happy story continues... ;-)

Trying to stay positive...

Well, what can I say - hooray - we won the rugby!! What an absolute cracker of a game.. Quite strange how sport can affect a country and it's people's outlook on life. If only the government would use it and build on the huge positive vibes that come out of things like that... Truth is -they won't. They have their heads so far up their own arse it unbelievable, they are too busy worrying about balancing the quota's in the rugby team and forget about the people getting shot dead every heaven knows how many minutes..

In the UK there are literally thousands of camera's and people feel they are invasion of privacy.. I believe in a little pain for the benefit of the greater good, so what if the police and powers that be can monitor your movements, you shouldn't be concerned if you're a law abiding citizen anyway.. Here, when filling up your car at the local petrol station, your registration is run through a database verifying that the car is not stolen etc.. Why can't we bring systems like that in SA? Even criminals need to fill their cars ;-).. unless they hijack and petrol tanker..

Our house is still not sold, and with literally four weeks to go until we finish our jobs, we're seriously losing hope of selling anytime soon. It really sucks. We're due to go on a twelve day cruise and return to SA four days after that.. The reality looks like an extended stay in this cold, sun deprived place.. and all because people are so pathetically flaky they can't stick to their word. I can't face staying here and away from our family and friends especially over December, but unless a miracle happens quickly, we screwed..

Sorry - no happy stories tonight ;-).. read http://fromthetipofafrica.blogspot.com/ - maybe he's got some happy news ;-)..... waiting patiently for the next chapter.. come on...

Heading towards shit street...

People say time flies when you're having fun... I think it also flies when you're heading towards shit street at breakneck speed.

Well, at least we have some hope of selling our house - we have a viewing on Saturday, not to say that they'll even offer or, if they do, pullout a day before exchange as the last clowns just did. What a crap system... and we thought SA was a third world country!

On a positive note - yes I have one - we went to Grand Designs show (http://www.granddesignslive.com/) last Friday and besides getting some good ideas for our house we hope to build (when some numpty buys our one in the UK), we met Sarah Beeny (http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/property-ladder/index.html and http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/presenters/sarah_beeny.html).. Must say she is very cool ;-) and like she probably says to everyone she meets - she asked why we don't come onto her show? :-) Depending on how arse-up this sale goes, maybe we will!

Have I mentioned it's almost Friday... and England play France and SA play Argentina :-)...

That's all for now... roll on Friday

Mr Pessimistic

After a really good weekend with some of my wife's family, we heard yesterday that the sale of our house had fallen through, basically two weeks before we were due to complete. People are so irresponsible and it drives me mad.

We were due to return home early December and unless a miracle happens, there's no way we can. It's one of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced. My wife is always on at me being pessimistic, but I would like to think of myself as a realist.. It's things like this where we have no control of that solidify my sometimes not-so-positive outlook on life!

In the scheme of things, no-one has died and and we're all healthy, so I suppose it'll be ok -we're just struggling to be optimistic at the moment. We have friends and family who care and that carries us through. At the moment all we want to do to finish our jobs, go on our cruise and go home..

The fact that South Africa stands a fairly descent chance of winning the world cup, goes a little way to helping...

Let me stop writing on before I get even more depro... At least tomorrow's hump day.

At least Monday's over..

Thanks heavens Monday's over.. Admittedly, I've had worse, but it's always good to have it behind you.

Spoke to my brother this evening and a friends father passed away after a short battle with cancer. I say short, but to him and his family, it must have felt like forever. We met him just late last year. He was around 70 years old, but worked like a Trojan on his business and was so positive about life.. Life is short. Too short to worry about the shit we worry about like acquiring as many earthly possessions as possible.. This is not to say that it's pointless to have ambition and to work towards a better quality of life, but more to do with figuring out what "quality of life" means.. We have always been cautious and made reasonably good decisions financially, not too say we're wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we're comfortable, at least by our humble standards. I often think of what I have contributed to the greater good of human life.. I work in a technology field and my job is as abstract as they come. I look at people who have contributed to saving lives, easing human suffering and actually make a difference to someones daily life and think to myself.. At the end of the day what will my life have meant? At the moment, I sorry to say - not much.

Hey, at least Monday's over.

Hey, hey it's almost Friday..

Thank heavens it's almost the weekend.. Work has been manic for the past month, upgrades and more upgrades. I feel brain dead and exhausted and I can't seem to sleep properly.

It's strange how people affect your life without you actually intending for it to happen. When we came to this country, my initial intention was not to make real friends, but to travel and see as many places as possible. My working environment was incidental to the plan, but it didn't really turn out that way. I have made two genuinely good friends. One Indian lady living here together with her really genuinely good husband for 6 years, and an Irish lady married to a great English, rugby loving guy.. The rugby banter is great ;-).. Work permitting, we go for coffee almost daily, meeting my wife at lunch time at the local book/coffee shop.

It's almost become a ritual and a time of the day I have grown to love. Somehow, no matter how crappy the days been, the coffee and company soothes and seen my wife brightens my day..

Last week the one friend had a baby boy.. one week and one day old today :-). We saw him the day after he was born - absolutely perfect. Another chapter in their lives begins.

The other friend, has been trying to have a baby for as long as I've known her.. It seems so unfair how people who are indifferent to having children end up with them, and people who yearn for them cannot, for whatever reason have.. She's had two miscarriage's and is understandably shattered by them. Her family doesn't even support her and seem to engrossed in their own lives to give a shit.. If that was us, half our family would be on the plane to support us.. Life stinks that way.

My wife and I never always agreed on the children issue, but sorted our differences out by compromising, before we got married. It confuses me how people just don't bother to discuss things like that.. I suppose, then again, to some people marriage is nothing more than a casual convenience.. go figure...

Back after five years

So, after 5 years of registering this blog, I have finally decided to start publishing my rambling and rants. Not sure why, as it no-one will probably read it anyway, but somehow it gets it off my chest. Before I start, I'll apologise for my amateur writing style, I don't profess to be and probably never will a descent writer - I'm just here to tell my story..

Where do I start.. well I am 33, happily married and a Cape Townian living in the UK (for now).. The idea was to do the UK for a few years and see where we got to, in terms of travel and life experience(yes - all to cliché). Somehow living away from our families has redefined what is important and what's just "noise" for us. In many ways I think my wife and I have grown so much closer and independent in our thinking.. It's not that we weren't allowed free thinking at home, but living here has opened our perspective somehow.

Even after living here for almost two and a half years, we are still really close to our families.. My brother and I used to gym daily together and are still best friends.. It's the weirdest thing, but against the odds and distance, we still talk almost daily. Being human, we don't appreciate what we have until it's taken away, and I struggle to conceive how people can survive years and years of family feuds or just resign themselves to merely tolerate each other.. What is the point of our existence, without loving or been loved by other people?

Ok, enough puke for now...