December Already (J2)

The focus of my attentions on everything Botswana has officially shifted from work (who can think about work in December anyway? Seriously!) to personal life. I have enough to deal with at work in Cork that it's getting less and less fun to think about things in the Gabz office, and more and more fun to think about:
- houses
- houses with swimming pools
- dogs laying in the dirt with their bellies in the sun
- seeing the P's in Pretoria
- hanging out with Jéan in Joburg
- having another summer
- kayaking on Gabs Dam
- Braais, Castles, and Biltong
- learning Setswana
- meeting new people

...and generally just opening up a new chapter of our life. This one is getting a bit old and tiresome, not to mention the incredible monsoon conditions we've been experiencing for nearly a month now, which make everything down there appear even more enticing.

So far, the wind-down program in Cork looks a bit like this:
8th: Farewell party with friends @ Pádraig & Tadhg's house
9th: Farewell dinner out with Scott & Linda
13th: Drop puppies in Dublin, dinner at Saba restaurant after
14th: Last appointment with physio for knee checkup
15th: Goodbye/xmas lunch out with favorite subcontractor
17th: Goodbye dim sum brunch with Paul R.
19th: Environmental Section farewell/xmas dinner
21st: My last day at work
22nd: Office christmas bash
23rd: Sleep off Office christmas bash
24th: Departure for Amsterdam.

In the meantime, 'tis the season to be shopping, fa la la la la, la la la la. And I have no idea how I'm going to handle that one, particularly with no wheels! But c'est la vie, there's always the internet.

Still no plan of attack for the 2 days between the house being loaded up into the moving van, and the christmas party night (we're staying over in the hotel where the party is, for our last 2 nights). But there's always someone's couch to crash on if need be.

The Husbanator is being his typically amazing self, letting me have our 1 remaining car during these last dwindling days of being a 1-car family, and taking the train/bumming rides to and from work himself. I'm extremely lucky to have married the most generous guy in the world. But it is a bit sad to drive the old trusty Golf, knowing our days together are numbered. It's been good to me for 2 years now and quite possibly ranks as my favorite car ever. Definitely my favourite car stereo/CD player to date.



BLOG SUB-ENTRY: "HOUSING ISSUES"
It's interesting how much things change if the right catalyst comes along. Til recently we've been bound and determined to find a house in Gabz-City that is right in the thick of it all, close to all amenities and set well within the hustle and bustle of the urban centre. This probably stems from a mixture of things, mainly our refusal to go down to "old age" without a fight, combined with the fact that it's just what we've been used to ever since we met. Back in Pretoria, Melbourne, even here in Ireland as well as all our various college towns prior to meeting, and so on, we've always been where the action is.

So we've got our girl Pauline on the case for us, (our dear real estate agent on the ground in Gabs) and she's doing a great job of bringing us back down to earth (with a thud) when it comes to what we can get INSIDE the city, for what we want to spend. This lady wants to put us in some sort of Graceland out in the 'burbs or something, when what we really just want is a nice stable shack with a FABULOUS garden. How can that be so hard to understand? But evidently the lesson she's trying to drive into our [thick] heads is that you can have 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 garages, servant's quarters, a pool, and a small garden... outside the ring road in a suburb of clone houses 15 minutes' drive in gridlocked traffic, next to _whatever_ school of your choice, for 5,500 per month. What you can not have, is a small 3 bedroom (or less?), functional house with security in a good area, A/C in at least one room, and a massive fenced in garden for 3 dogs, INSIDE the city, for 5,500 per month. Go figure.

But good old Pauline, always there to throw a spanner in the works, brings out the biggest harebrained idea ever, the other day... an outrageous concept that we'd surely never in a million years agree to, but still: 'would you not just look at this one house over there???' ("There" being a small semi-bush village-gone-swanky on the other side of the Dam which is technically outside the city, but at least on the right side of the bypass and less than 15 minutes' drive from town, at the foot of the hills, and on the banks of the river...?) After I shook my head in disgust at such a nutjob suggestion, I clicked on it anyway-- I mean, obviously if we wanted to live out in the bush we'd stay in Gabane with T&L and the baboons, duh!!

But as is usually the case when I get my one-track mind wrapped around a certain inflexible plan, Murphy's Law kicks in, and of COURSE the place is unbelievable. It's the nice, humble, basic house we're looking for, devoid of cement walls and electric fences, a GINORMOUS plot of land complete with pool and thatched outdoor bar area, even a traditional stone+ thatch rondavel (apparently used as servants quarters) on the property, fruit trees everywhere, with views to Kgale Hill, the Mokolodi game reserve, and adjacent to the lion park. But the kicker is that it is in a little commune/neighbourhood/village, so it's not necessarily completely removed from society. And did I mention less than 15 minutes from the nearest mall? Oh the confusion!

I won't even post the link to the house up here because that could jinx it, but needless to say we're sending T&L out to look at it for us and we'll see what they come back with, before we get our hopes up too much.

On top of it all, in Pauline's war against our future as city dwellers, she finally gets the first property she's had in 3 months that happens to be IN our favorite inner-city area (Maru-a-Pula) that we can afford. However, we get the news with a note attached that amounted basically to: MaruaPula house "decent". No trees. Cement yard.

So it looks like things are changing by the day. Even our outlook on potential residences. Amazingly enough we find ourselves waiting on pins and needles to hear what T&L come back to us with, after they go to see the place! Watch this space....

J2