Catching Up and Moving Forward

Please excuse the craziness of the photos - I put too many for this post. The first group are of Emma on the journey beginning in Frankfurt. She is there being turned over to PetAir the very expensive freight cargo service. They took her to the "Animal Lounge". Her passage cost more than one of ours round trip! Ah but she seems pretty happy now.

There is a mixture of photos including the sweet little Cape Batis bird that sat on our patio door the other day. The delicate pink flower is a native gladiolus that grows wild on the hillside of our friend Jeni's home on Eagle's Nest.

The bouganvillea grows on a wall in our courtyard garden and there's a picture of Emma walking on Eagle's Nest with a view of Table Mountain in the background.

One of the first things I have learned about living here is that to become an official recognized person you must show proof of residence and proof of your credit worthiness. It is a real pain when you are the non-South African but we are slowly taking the steps necessary to get my name on some contract or other paying items so that I become "real" as I like to say. The other aspect that one observes quickly as an American is the much slower pace with which things are done. Initially, this is frustrating but I'm sure I shall get used to it and it does help one to stay in the present.

One nice thing we have been experiencing lately as Americans, is the ability to hold one's head high for our history making election. I show off my Obama purse regularly as I shop in the stores.

As we start our second week here all the suitcases are unpacked so we are almost ready to get the 5 boxes of things we left with a friend this past January. I am eager to get everything put away so it feels more like a home than a way station. We are also planning to have our own Thanksgiving celebration with friends here but will have to make a slight modification to hold it on a weekend since, obviously, no one here gets the Thursday as a vacation day!

The English guests who were staying with us and visiting South Africa for the first time left on Sunday. It was really a wonderful distraction from having to focus entirely on our chores. It allowed us to show off some of our favorite things - like walking on Muizenberg Beach and going to the Olympia Deli in Kalk (pronounced like caulk) Bay. We also benefitted from their excursions to learn about a lively local bar/restaurant at one of the beautiful Constantia wineries where we went for dinner last Friday night. We took along one of my niece Sophia''s friend's who has been studying here in Cape Town at UCT. Even with all we need to do, they were such easy guests that we were sorry to see them leave.

The best stories thus far are about our experiences with friends, nature, and the dog's reaction to the creatures here. We have been very warmly welcomed by our good friend Jeni who is like a sister to Michael and our friend Tim who returned from a long visit to England just recently. They both live here in Constantia and are great about giving us ideas for where to get things, have invited us over for a meal and such. We have walked at Silvermine Nature Reserve and gone to a local farmer's market. We even went to a Saturday night movie and have plans fora chamber concert this weekend. Our friends here are very social and go out together more frequently. We shall have to figure that into the budget! It is a much easier transition to already have so many contacts here.

On to the creatures: the first day we came to the house I was excited to see a lizard popping its head out of a yucca tree stump in a garden bed on the patio. His tree stump home is surrounded by the lavender we planted just before leaving that thrived since its planting. We were fortunate that the plants had a very wet winter so got well established during our absence. Everything we planted has grown and it has been good to see improvements in the garden overall. The gardener has been slowly but surely clearing out some seriously invasive plants that had grown up over the past 7 years. There are various flowers in bloom including a very showy bougainvillea pictured below.

the second morning here I came into the living room and saw a huge brown bug which was hoping about like a cricket - I still have no idea what it was but it was funny to watch Emma chasing it around the living room. Fortunately she has no killer instinct so we simply hopped it out the big sliding door.

Will sign off now as this is more news than even I could absorb! Please continue to send me your comments.

Arrival and settling In

Congratulations to all of us - we have a new President elect - Yea!

We were quite eager to get information on the election last night when it was still just your morning; it was odd to be so far from home with such an important and momentous election taking place there. I woke up early just in time to learn that McCain had conceded and Obama had won! Yippee. We met a woman while walking Emma this morning who recognized my accent as an American and asked whether we were glad to hear the results. Of course we said yes indeed and she was pleased on behalf of the world too. It was marvelous. Now we just need to find some Americans with whom to celebrate. I'm thinking that we might have an inauguration party on January 20, 2009!

As for us, we are settling in - and just today succeeded in getting the new mini mac computer hooked up with an internet connection. One thing I've learned quickly is that things take time here. I've also learned that to be "in the system" you must prove all kinds of things about where you live and whether you have money, etc. So we are getting those things going for me - the invisible one.

We have emptied all the suitcases but have not yet figured out where to put it all. The house is as lovely as we remembered it. The tenant moved out on Saturday after telling us how much he and his children enjoyed the house. Emma is trying to figure out what is going on but we keep telling her that this is her new home.

We had our first minor calamity on Saturday when I lost Michael's wallet with all his identifying information and credit cards at the Hout Bay Beach parking lot. It was truly a stupid thing but we are back in business with new bank cards so we continue along.

Pictures of the house and surrounds will have to wait for a next post when we get the camera photo uploading worked out with the new computer.

and for those who are interested it turns out that Emma is a true world traveler - she got out of her crate at Cape Town airport, had a long pee, a good shake of her head and has been just fine since then - amazing!

Less than 5 days left on Northern soil

Well, it has been a very crazy time. We are now half way through our journey. We are in Frankfurt Germany having the day to rest and refresh before the long flight to South Africa this evening. Michael, Emma and I are fine.

Of course, the final week had more surprises and worries than we expected. It began last Wednesday with the fact that Emma's blood work tests were done too soon so we had to worry about whether she would be allowed to arrive in CapeTown and be accepted! We also had to change our travel plan to fly straight through Frankfurt with Emma getting a day to recover, arriving in Cape Town on Friday.

Now that we are in Frankfurt Emma's passage will be taken over by a company named Pet Air, which is reassuring at one level because we know they have done it before. She is traveling as rather fancy cargo. And the best part, her travel one way is more expensive than our round trip airfare - ah well. We kind of expected it and of course would not have it any other way!

the next post will be from Cape Town. till then wish us safe travels.