the adlards

We’ve had a wonderful few days. It’s a tough job getting all those dinners in in such a short space of time but we’ve once again risen to the task most admirably. Concentrating on cooking and eating is a great way to relax, not the healthiest perhaps, but very effective.

Josie left a cup of milk, a biscuit and a carrot for Santa on Christmas Eve. In the night Santa left fluffy unicorns On Josie’s and Sophie’s beds. On Christmas morning Josie called me into her room:
“Daddy! Daddy! Has Santa been and eaten his biscuit and had his cup of milk and fed the carrot to his reindeers?”
“I don’t know my girl, I haven’t been to see.”
“Maybe he has Daddy.”
“Josie! What’s that behind you?”
“What? [finds unicorn] Daddy-I-think-he’s-been-here-it’s-a-unicorn-to-play-with-in-the-car!”

She duly inspected the teeth marks in the carrot to check that the reindeer had chewed on it and Christmas morning began. We have loads of pictures that I will post when we get back to a broadband connection this weekend.

Merry Christmas all who wander here.

The Maj, that bastion of underage drinking back in the days when bars were bars and women weren’t allowed in, is now the Majestic Boutique Hotel. Until yesterday I’d not come across a boutique hotel that had the foresight to use the word in naming their establishment. It would probably help their Google ranking were they not situated 9,000 miles from the east London in which people might search for boutique hotels.

We loaded up clothes, kids and Christmas last Monday night and drove the twelve and a half hours to East London by way of a bouncy castle in Mossel Bay and the inevitable string of roadside facilities. When you pass the big sign saying “Welcome to Buffalo City” you can be in no doubt that you’ve reached the frontier lands of the Wild East. It’s a very different head space.

Since then we’ve been enjoying days starting at 5.20 as for some thus-far-unfathomable reason that’s when the girls wake up in East London and – as ever – if the girls are up then so am I. Well no, not really, but it was a good line.

We visited a new antique shop today and spent a couple of hours sifting through their stuff. As we turned to go Michelle saw a 6’x4′ enamel sign that had hung outside her grandfather’s trading station in the old Transkei. We knew because it had his name on it. Small (part of the) world.

We might just be passing through this place that seems so completely foreign, but we have history here. Well, unless the Maj really is a boutique hotel; then I got nuffink.

Drink-O-Pop Cream Soda ingredients:
E952, E954, E296, E551, E300, E133, E102, Dextrose, Flavourant, Anti-caking Agent
2 litres of nutritional mayhem for your little tykes …

Very, very late last night:
“Josie I’d like you to try very hard to go to sleep now.”
“How Daddy?”
“Well, close your eyes and snuggle down into your soft bed, put your dummy in your mouth and think of all the things that make you happy. Beaches. And penguins. And Grannies. And horses. And little bunny rabbits. And puppies. Then Daddy will wake you up in the morning with a big smile.”
[suddenly very alert]”Daddy!? What’s a pig’s smile?”

Beginagain

I had a terrible telephone interview yesterday. Terrible simply because it was a telephone interview and I find it next to impossible to gauge how it goes without the body language and visual cues that a face-to-face meeting gives. I had a good follow-up call today and am told it actually went very well. I say show me the money.

We were eating seafood last night and Josie was trying everything on my plate. One thing MGW and I never expected to have was a pair of seafood-loving toddlers. Perhaps we’d just never given it enough thought.
“Jo, do you know what those are that you’re eating?”
Looks closely: “Wow! They’re octopus tentacles!”
“That’s right my girl.”
“Yum!” she said, shoving another four down her neck. I guess the crunchiness was a good counterpoint to the prawns and calamari.

We’ve had a busy time. I’ve been off work for a full two months now and it’s not been a holiday … well, not in the lying-on-a-beach-without-a-care-in-the-world sense at any rate. Lots of planning and dreaming and arranging and managing – not to mention eating and sleeping – to be done. We’ve had a lot of fun along the way (and seen some beautiful things and eaten some excellent dinners) but most importantly have sorted out the purchase of a beautiful new house (which we’ll move into in February in good time for the Coxes to visit and test our new guest rooms), a couple of very pleasing motorised vehicular transporters, and what currently looks to be a choice of jobs to start in January.

The last six weeks would have been far more straightforward but for the banks to whom, it would seem, 48 hours is as a week, if not quite a thousand years. Banking is the racket to be in here (well, probably everywhere, but extra-especially more so here). Current accounts on the whole pay no interest at all, but charges are levied for every transaction on the account anyway. I had a great conversation with a banker on one of my very frequent visits during which I tried to explain the concept of a branchless, internet-only bank that levies no direct charges for their services. I was attempting to instill a healthy fear of the future in said banker, but she couldn’t get past the absence of transaction charges:
“But Mr Adlard, tell me, does the bank make money in some other way then?”
Which, had I been listening to her advice, would have been exactly when I stopped.

We would love to post pictures of the new house, but it seems a little presumptuous while the current owners are still living in it. We have great plans for it – some new doors and floors and walls as well as an extension at some stage down the track. We’ve been collecting furniture for it, which some of you will know is not unlike us, but this is good stuff and shouldn’t have to live in the garage. So we’re having fun; never a dull moment after 8.30am is what I say. You should understand that Sophie wakes at about 5.30am every day, leaving me with a 3 hour deficit.

We hope to have house plans and final interviews squared away in time to have a full month’s proper lying-on-a-beach-without-a-care-in-the-world holiday, only with a pair of toddlers – even a pair of seafood-loving toddlers – I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to have a lying-on-a-beach-without-a-care-in-the-world holiday. I think we’ll go for the manically-active-no-time-to-give-a-stuff package with the dog-herding option for Sophie and the sofa-climbing option for Jo.

We’re back in Cape Town by way of an eco tree house in the canopy of indigenous forest near Knysna. It was spectacular (specially the dry composting loo) and a very good break in just two days. We were surrounded by the very tops of ancient Milkwoods and Yellowwoods. The birdsong in the morning (before the girls woke up) was incredible. Once the girls were awake the birds – with the exception of the resident Cape Robin – ran for cover; we didn’t exactly find tranquility in the forest.

We highly recommend stopping off if you’re passing by. Their website is Teniqua Treetops. The Eyrie is toddler friendly if that’s important to you. Pics in the gallery.

Our last few days in East London were cracking. We saw more whales, the Linstrom brothers, and other East London institutions. We’ll no doubt be back before long.

I dreamed about Myles last night (again). He had a new joiner responsible for surveys of electrical plant at clients’ sites whom he had instructed to answer the phone: “Good morning, Her Majesty’s Infrastructure Services how can I help you?”
I’m sure I laughed out loud in my sleep.

We feel a bit like we’ve returned to the wild. Everything seems very new and exciting – the snake falling from a tree in the childrens’ play area, the pod of whales off Nahoon beating their tails against the water to chase sharks. Long may the honeymoon last …

We went out to see Pete & Ros’s new place yesterday. It’s going to be great – it’s in a beautiful location and their enhancements to the property look a lot of fun. I dug a hole. For a short while. When the ringing in my ears and dizziness got too much we went to visit Gareth and Kerry and the boys.

We’re going to have lunch with them today – more swimming and playing and good conversation.

We took Josie’s plasters off last night ahead of snipping stitches today/tomorrow. Less traumatic than the stitching up. Just.

Very frustratingly can’t access email in East London via either dialup or Vodacom. Driving me absolutely nuts (and it’s only 7am).

I’m up early on a misty East Coast morning with a little girl who seems incapable of sleeping beyond 6. She’s also very nearly walking. Some people have seen her take eight or nine steps unassisted. Not me, but I’ve seen her take three. Pretty soon she’s going to be fully mobile and dominating (in the Unreal Tournament sense of the word).

It’s beautiful outside. Not the same kind of beautiful as Cape Town – a wilder, more subtropical beautiful. There’s been lots of rain this season and the countryside is a mix of lush green tones. The groves of thorn trees at the Fish River crossing are all brilliant green, which we’ve not seen ever before. For those of you for whom thorn trees (especially groves of) are not the norm, the other seasonal extreme is full of browns and greys and the thorn trees are silver.

Really. You can hardly see the front numberplate.

We decided on Monday that with my next interview set for the 8th of November we would take a leisurely drive up the coast and visit family in East London. The girls travelled exceptionally well, unlike their father who was almost terminally grumpy on the first day. Perhaps a little better the next. We overnighted at Keurbooms where we rented a place right on the beach and watched a school of dolphins frolicking (read mercilessly hunting down schools of passing fish) while we had breakfast.

We arrived in East London yesterday by way of the Wimpy at Humansdorp, site of my most bizarre interview ever. They’d changed the building since, so I took a picture of us in the car instead of the Wimpy at Humansdorp.

Shortly after leaving Humansdorp behind Sophie threw her breakfast up spectacularly all over her car seat, causing some little delay and some great discomfort – not least because Josie took those trainers off too. We travelled in a cloud of nearly-new lamb sausage and whiffy shoes. Just a short four or five hours …

It was good to get back to East London and the weather obliged by not raining for the first day in a while. Josie met the dogs and has spent this morning grooming them with a nail brush. Ros popped in to visit just about the time Josie slipped in the pool and split her right eyebrow on the edge. Good to have a doctor on hand … she very coolly suggested I get some ice. Josie had three stitches at St Dom’s A&E last night. Very traumatic for all concerned – especially MGW and I. Josie screamed a lot when the needles went in (“Daddy, I didn’t like the pokey bits with the injeshin”) but was a little trooper. They’d fed her enough sedative to knock out a baby rhino but the only noticeable effect was that she stopped her, “But I don’t like seeing the doctor,” incantation. Otherwise she was her usual bouncy self. She’s a girl wonder.

Her somewhat uncertain expression is a recent unwillingness to pose for photographs (not agony/PTSD). I regret not just having her taken to theatre and knocked out – the stitches would have been easier and the trauma would have been less.
Anyway …

I had a great day on Saturday – thanks to all of you who sent presents, pictures of presents or got in touch. 35. Ouch.

That’s it towards the left in the middle, we think. We drove up Signal Hill to watch it sail in this morning carrying the greatest part of our worldly possessions.

I have added pictures – thanks to Ben’s timely prompting. Five new albums in the gallery.