The Comrades weekend

Well, this had been a very exiting weekend! My brother came all the way from Nieu-Zealand to run the Comrades Marathon (for those that is wondering, it's a 90km marathon held yearly in South Africa and it attracts people from all over the world). He was joined by my two sisters and my brother-in-law. They came on Friday and on Saturday we drove the route he was going to run to Durban. We also went to the marathon expo, which caters to all the needs of the runners. On Sunday, very early, my husband, sister and brother-in-law took my brother to the start while my other sister and I watched the TV on the couch (with mugs of tea, very nice! :)). We also got to see him on TV! A while later we all jumped into the car and started the long way down to Durban. Our first stop was in the middle of nowhere next to the highway. The picture was taken just as the 10 o clock 'bus' went past. Basically this is a group of people who will cross the finish line at the 10 hour mark.

We waited there for a while and managed to find him in the crowds (there were almost 13000 people running). We had three more stops along the road, these pics were taken at the last stop. The top one is my brother, sister and her husband, with only about 33km to go and the bottom one is at 20km.



After these we made our way to the stadium in Durban, and waited there for almost 3 hours before he came in with a time of 10 hours and 51 minutes. He was number 6583 of 12951 to finish. :) I am considering doing it in about 3 years, though I would really like to be pregnant at that stage. Will be deciding on that. This is a pic of the finish line:



Other news is that I live in a really stupid country... The temporary contract job I was supposed to be staring this week is now going to be a volunteering thing cause they can't pay me as my husband is also working there. Now I have to wait for three months so that I can apply for the position and actually recieve payment. Sheesh, it really sucks.

The new job approaches...

Well, I got the news today. Starting somewhere next week, I will be a working girl... :\ Not that being a housewife was not a full time position, but this is going to be my first full time job ever! I am appointed on a three month contract at first, then I can formally apply for the position. I will now be a Senior Research Technician I think... hehe. I guess its time that I use my degrees for something, but only for two years minimum, then I will be trying to start a family :D. Until then I will be busy entertaining my family this weekend. It will be the first time in almost 2 years that me, my brother and my sisters will be together under one roof. And this time its my roof :). I will be going to Durban on Sunday for the Comrades, even though I think we will be spending an amount of that time down by the beach.

Good news is that my flu is almost gone. Still got some body aches and a few fever sessions going but the worst is over. I saw the coolest thing yesterday! About 20 Hummingbirds landed in my garden. Usually there is only one or two, so it was interesting to see so many of them here at once. Wanted to take some pics but they moved on... guess it would have been a blurry photo in any case. :) Well, I got to get back to cleaning, there is always a bunch of little things to do when people visit.

Stupid flu...

The weekend was supposed to be very active, with discoveries of new places. And in the end... I sat on the couch almost the entire weekend, with an aching body and very sore throat. Ah yes, the joys of flu :\ Luckily not all was lost! We had another dinner with our new friends on Friday, plus I made a new Afrikaans friend! We have almost the same interests (though she is in a relationship with another girl) hehe but I had such a nice time chatting to her. In a city where everything is English its nice to find someone who speaks the same language as you do. And frankly, I can speak two languages if that counts for something!

Not much else has happened seeing as I was on the couch watching movies (Australia is really a nice movie and Mirrors is actually not that bad!) Hopefully I will be fine again by Friday when my family arrives for the Comrades Marathon. It's starting in our city this year so we don't have to make an extremely early drive down to Durban. Wow it really feels as if I was run over or something, my body is aching everywhere! We had a bit of a run in with some bad viennas, after eating two and wondering about the funny burning sensation we realized it had expired two weeks ago! We went right back to the shop who gave us a fresh packet. No symptoms of food poisoning have showed yet so thankfully we skipped that.

Lots of alone time...

The months of June and July has a total of 61 days and I am going to be on my own for 29 of those days. My husband has a bunch of workshops and conferences to go to and I will be stuck at home. Thankfully I may be working at that time so I will not be completely devoided of all human interaction which does include the internet and telephones. The thing is, I don't mind being on my own. Sometimes I even enjoy it. It is the idea that my husband is not here, and no amount of time with other people can make up for that. It just does not feel right when he is gone. I have this permanent, nagging feeling over me the entire time cause, well, he is my whole life. He is the one person who finishes my sentences, actually know what I truly mean when I say something (cause strangely, not many people here really grasp the idea of sarcasm, which is my second, sometimes first, language lol). We also know exactly what the other is thinking with just one word or look. So I am not so keen on missing that for an entire 29 days.

I finally finished reading Marley and me yesterday and I think I started crying at least for the entire last 2 chapters. I don't know if I will even last through the movie! It was sad because whatever people say, an animal are as much part of the family as any human relative. A dog is not just a dog, and that goes for a rat as well. I don't even want to think of losing one of my ratties, as they are my company during the day. Yesterday in a book shop I saw the sweetest picture ever. A little rat paw resting on a human finger with the caption TRUST. Only yesterday morning my shy little girl Pan came up to me on the bed and did the exact same thing. She just looked at me as if saying "Ok fine I trust you!" Just after that she did hop away like a demented bunnie but she came back every time I called her. What can be more nicer in life than to gain the trust of a rat? It feels easy with dogs, I'm drawn to them and they are drawn to me. Even more difficult ones. One time I was at a friend's house when his Boston Terrier came up to me. She was usually very jealous of women but she jumped right onto my lap and stayed there the rest of the evening. I can't wait to have a dog again...

We finally went to watch Star Trek last night. I have always been more of a Star Wars fan but I really enjoyed this movie. The only problem is I kept seeing Spock as Sylar, and was waiting for him to steal people's powers hehe.

The sock mystery...

Hmmm... what is the greatest mystery on earth... why I am shorter than everyone I know (yes, my sister's almost 14 year old daughter just passed me in length :\) or is it... the disappearance of yet ANOTHER sock. I don't know where they are going to anymore, it's the seventh one! I now have a beautiful collection of odd socks and I have looked everywhere for the others. They have simply vanished. I don't have the equipment for this solution:


seeing as I am missing the cat. This is going to bother me for quite a while still... Apart from the fruitless search I am having a really productive day. My spare room is now so open and clean that I am wondering whether some other items have joined my socks as well hehe. It's amazing how many things can fit into a closet...

We are planning on going back to the nice little place we went for our anniversary dinner. We have been invited there with some friends. When we were last there it was raining and I could not get all the photos I wanted of the place so please hold all thumbs that this time we will be seeing some sun. :)

I am starting to discover that I can't really stick to a topic in my blog anymore. I just start and then whooosh I am talking about something else. Oh well, I guess that makes me unique. :)

Random ramblings...

I saw this on another blog and I thought it would be a good way to share the small, not so noteworthy things happening. :)

1. Last night I got slapped... not on purpose! I was bored, my husband was concentrating too hard and I gently blew on the back of his neck. :) The next thing a hand came swinging by and hit me on the side of my jaw. :) hehe
2. It's amazing how many times someone can say they are sorry... :P I now know how an insect walking on your neck feels when it is discovered.
3. I don't even have a bruise to show... would have been cool to show people haha
4. Our landlord people are coming to do inspection this week, meaning I have to make the place look spotless. I don't feel to good about people looking in my closets though, don't even like it when people I know do it. It's just wrong... Plus the dining chairs in the spare room closet may be weird... lol
4. I am having some family over in 2 weeks. My brother is coming from Nieu Zealand for the comrades, accompanied by my 2 sisters and my brother-in-law. Should be fun.
5. I thought of starting running as well... Will need a new sports bra...
6. Jericho and The Mentalist are actually good shows.
7. And... I have to do some ironing today... :\

And I am back...

I am finally back at home after a week in Bloem. It was a great visit but it is really nice to be back in my own home, though still not on my own computer... :( Hopefully we can get it fixed in the next month else I will finally take over the husband's computer (perhaps lighten it up with a nice Hello Kitty background... lol). I think I managed to see everyone I wanted when I was in Bloem, strange how a week can actually be so short sometimes. The ratties also tastes their first cheese curls there, wish I had taken a photo of their orange faces. This is just a pic of my favourite place along the way, Golden Gate.

Some good news.. My husband got his new job! :) He went for the interview last Tuesday and heard the same day. This must be the reason for this silly grin...

I now have the job of sorting out the house for once and for all before I have to start working. I did manage to sort out my spare room\storage room yesterday. Still got some box tearing to do (only have 3 broken nails so far :\) but I did mange things well so now all the dining chairs are in the closet... lol that's is actually quite weird but I have no choice. I hate cluttered areas and they are taking up to much space. Hmmm.. I can swear I could not see one cloud out just a minute ago, but now there are no more blue sky... This will make laundry interesting. I better get back to work, want to finish today if I can.

Just something to make your day, this is a cat living in our complex, a persian, that met the shavers lol I just love that look saying, I will kill you...