Happy Birthday Alan.

Tomorrow is Alan's birthday & I hope he has the best day ever & lots more.

Poor guy will be at the Durban airport at 05.30am (yes thats right )for the red eye to Joburg where he has a meeting with some importers & then home by 3 pm in time for a dinner date with Kylie & I as both boys will only be home on Saturday but he is quite happy to go out again !!!!!

He is an amazing man, who has a fantastic capacity to love, provide and nuture.
I love him more now than ever before and hope all his dreams come true.

Pics

Our little cottage on top of the hill.

A windy day & fire in the bush on the other side.

One of our views & where we swim.

We're back & its great but busy & I guess thats normal life.

Heres a few pics of paradise where we just chill out & enjoy.Thats one of the perks of not having to worry about school holidays.

Africa is Awesome.

We have been very blessed to travel extensively in & around the UK, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Australia, North America, Argentina etc & we love travelling still so many places to see.

But my best travelling is done in Africa, whether its locally in South Africa, or Swaziland, Nambia, Zimbawe, Lesotho, Botswana, Mozambique or futher afield Mauritius & Madagascar.
Africa is awesome, apart from the exquisite beauty and vast openess of the landscape vistas the PEOPLE of Africa are amazing.

We are in Mozambique, business done we are now in our cottage (shared by 17 familes) and I am always amazed by the people. They use anything, everything & carve out a living not an existance. They are happy & as their economy is starting to bloom so it shows. The government here is very big on schools, clinics etc & you can be in the middle of the bush and there will be a school and clinic. We have been coming here for 16 years & the changes are incredible - long may it last & I just hope that it blooms without becoming over commercialised. I walked to get fresh bread "pau" here - its baked in an open outside oven and is delicious......

friday at last & all packed to go.

Side view & Alan's old faithfull packed & ready to go.

A side/ front view without the garden area which is a mess.

I made it through the week(with lots of prayers & faith) & am so glad to say yay its finally Friday...... Am posting some pics of our newly painted house not a full front because we are redoing the tiny front garden as a combined anniversary plus DH's birthday pressie at the end of this month. Its long overdue & looks like a demolition site but the landscaper has assured us when we get back it'll be done !!!

So we will be away for a week or ten days & our youngest son runs the business ( I think he loves it when we are away) & we are leaving at about 4.30am and will overnight in Maputo and then be at Tofo (Inhambane) by lunch time on Sunday. Just a bit of paradise in Africa - its incredibly beautiful, the people so wonderful (dirt poor) and motivated. They use everything & create with nothing I am always humbled when I see how happy they are with so little.

On Sunday Mark turns 26 years old & I have sent off a care package because he's in Joburg. His siblings here in Durban thought that was crazy - he'll be home for the weekend end of Feb but still I am a "mom".

Should you worry over people who really don't care !!

I really needed to think this through before I blogged about this but its still bugging me & so here goes.
I learnt to scrap(about 6 years ago) & enjoyed many hours at a prominent scrapbooking shop in the northern suburbs of Dbn & like the majority of us spend more than I should but really loved it, the people, atmosphere, friendliness etc. Even my DH has been known to visit a certain someone on birthdays & Christmas time & has always commented on the friendliness.
This has changed really drastically & in the last three (yes 3 ! I am a slow learner) I have been stung by the unfriendly don't care attitude & thought maybe it was me ! Well on Saturday off I went because I needed a special thing for a RAK swop & knew I could get it there albeit at a higher price but I just thought of all the positive things - well I came out of the shop with my purchases a bit disgruntled but still thinking it was me & I was met in the parking lot by such hostility ( over a parking space LOL which I was vacating !!) and decided thats it!!! I came home my DH & DD took one look at my face & said whats happened - thinking it was something terrible - I told them the whole sorry story & both of them said they had noticed too.
Well I cried not sure why except I feel quite a loss !
On saying that there are many scrapbooking shops in Durban & I support them especially my local as I call it & please I am not in anyway labelling all the Durban & surrounds shops in a similar manner.
On a positive note my rak has been posted in good time & I am looking forward to this week as we prepare to go on a mixed business/ pleasure trip to Mozambique next week.

30 th Anniversary & life

Wow its come & gone our 30th wedding anniversary & we had such a relaxed enjoyable day just Alan & I. We went for tea ( as I had craft that evening LOL) & we always discuss where we are going, what we have achieved & how we go forward. Its just such a tradition for us to talk about us and our life together - it gives us purpose & the way forward for the next year.

Thank you for all the wishes we received.

We have had a really trying time lately and its been back to basics for us, and we have been walking so close to God & all I can say is its really been a learning curve in faith, trust & leaning on God.

Makiti found.

It boggles my brain to think that a shipment can get "lost" in transit & instead of being off loaded at Durban be transported to Joburg !!!! Anyway it was found & DH & I did one of our quick turn around trips to the big city to collect the lost assignment - it entails leaving Durban at 10.30am Friday with our huge heavy load trailer so its not a fast journey & overnighting in Joburg, picking up at 7am on Saturday morning & a very slow ride back to Durban. Joburg is only 5 & 1/2 hours away but the pick up point is in Brits about another hour away in the back of beyond, anyway all went really well & we are home ( I so love my home LOL) & we stopped to refuel truck, trailer & ourselves at a tiny place called Makiti - 23 kms from Warden ( sorry folks but in the middle of nowhere.) It was so unique - just have a look at the photos really lovely.