Packing and moving (J1)

I am sitting on some travel bags, while two guys from the moving company are wrapping everything to be moved. Their truck is arriving in 1 hour, which means we will not see our stuff until about 10 weeks from now. I suppose the pictures show what we have been busy with for the last few days (till 1 in the morning yesterday)















It is quite surprising how much stuff you gather in a few years. We had 7.5 cubic meters when we moved from Australia, it is 14 cubic meters now, and we are leaving stuff such as washing machine and dishwasher behind!!!

J1

Decisions (J1)

Just a quick update, as we are really getting into the last things now. We have signed an agreement with a rental and management company for renting out our house. We could not wait any longer for potential buyers. We will see how this works out, and will decide next year how to proceed, when all other things have settled. It is probably the best thing after all.

I just received an email from Johannesburg confirming the puppies arrived safe and are on their way to the kennels now. This is certainly a big relief. We also received some good news about a potential rental house in Gaborone, it is looking very exciting and promising.

Loads of packing to do now.

J1

House in Cork.....Anyone?

Just as we thought everything was organized, we were confronted yet again with the culture of lying and messing in Ireland. After a few weeks of all sorts of excuses we pushed our buyer to sign contracts for our house before Monday evening. He claimed he was not ready, so we have decided to cancel the deal, we can not wait any longer for something that might never happen. After the initial disappointment, we are seeing the positives. So far we had not come up with anything decent as investment, and the best investment is to probably just keep the house for a while longer. So maybe rent it out for a year or so. Property prices are still rising, especially in Blackpool. Then, as we had decided all this the estate agent threw in some confusion, he received an offer from someone who had lost out earlier, and had already come to see it before. It is a little lower then we sold it for with buyer number 2, and at this stage it is really hard to get excited. I have told him she needs to match the previous price, otherwise we will rent it out. We should see more developments during the day today. Anyone still wondering why we want to leave Ireland????

Luckily all this house trouble was not a sign of our fortunes, as our puppies have made the first leg of their trip successfully. We have dropped them in our little rental car to the shipping company in Dublin. They arrived in Frankfurt Germany before we even made it back to Cork. Here is some pictures of our last moments with them, before they were the first to escape the miserable weather for loads of sunshine.








They are now marked as 3pce / 60kg. They can be tracked on the Lufthansa website

J1

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

Chaos (J1)

I realize it has been way too long since the last update. Things have been pretty crazy as you can imagine, it is really getting close, less then 3 weeks in Ireland left! I will try to write an update as complete as I can, because part of why it took so long is that loads of things were happening to keep us busy.

We have started the packing a week ago, after our last visitor (Martin) the guestroom has been taken apart, so we have some room for packing. So far the attic has been cleared out completely, and many things out of the rooms and from the walls have been packed. It is very handy to have loads of packing materials at my company. Jill discovered another amazing thing, plastic bags to pack clothes etc into, after they are packed you vacuum all air out with a normal vacuum cleaner, which reduces the bag to half it's size, see the pictures below:

before:

after:

The other major news is that we will have to say goodbye to our second car real soon. We sold it in the weekend. It took a little more effort with advertising then the Toyota, but again the first people that actually came out to take it for a test drive bought it straight away, and for a pretty satisfying price too. We get to keep it until next week Monday, after that we do not own any cars anymore. I will have to rent or borrow at least 1 vehicle, because we both might need it for work, and more important, our dear puppies will need to be transported to Dublin next week.

We also received some big news 'on the ground' in Gaborone. After nearly 2 years of hard working our employee has decided to leave our company in the end of February, after things have been handed over properly to me and Jill. He is going back to university for a while in Pretoria, and will be moving back there. We both have a mixed feeling about this, on the one hand it is good news as his wage is a huge financial responsibility, which puts our company under huge pressure to get in loads of jobs. A graduate could do a lot of work for us under Jills supervision, for a lot less money. On the other hand he's a very very good landscape architect, and we are loosing very valuable skills. It is not easy to find landscape architects. Our company is environmental consultancy and landscape architects, and we definitely do not want to loose this last aspect of the business. There is only one other landscape architect in the whole country....I think there might be some opportunities for myself to get involved now as well.

The house contracts still have not been signed, this is the only real worry which we are left with, but it is quite a big one. Our solicitor told us this week though that she has not seen any contracts signed in the last 2 weeks. The reason for this is that the government presented their yearly budget today, and there were speculations that the stamp duty (tax a buyer has to pay when buying property) might be lowered. Therefore most buyers were waiting, and now that the budget is presented (no changes for the stamp duty) things should hopefully move on. I did speak to the buyer earlier this week as well, and he promised me we will have contracts for signing before the end of this week.

Last major problem we had to deal with is this health certificate issue, as Jill explained in her last post. Basically our 'friendly' government vet in Dublin contacted the vet in Cork who had agreed to sign the 'good' contract, and our Cork vet was now reluctant. Eventually, we agreed on a slight different wording for one sentence, and finally we have them all stamped and signed. A huge relief, I can not wait until we hear from the South Africans next week Friday when they have arrived. They are leaving Wednesday next week.

J1

Doggy Dilemma (J2)

The situation with our canine companions is currently this:

We have to have forms to accompany the puppies from Dublin to Frankfurt to Johannesburg. These forms must be translated in German (because of the Frankfurt stopover), and they basically say that Ireland is free from some 5 or 6 diseases, and that they've had their rabies vaccinations.

The "Dilemma" comes in about the time that we hit the all-important "at most 30-days-before-departure-but not-less-than-10-days" window of time that the forms need to be filled out (now). And we find out that there are indeed MULTIPLE versions of the all-important forms, hanging around out there in the universe.

Form "A" (we'll call it the "good" form) is short and to the point, and requires the signature of the puppies' vet saying that they've been vaccinated for rabies, and Ireland is free from X, Y, and Z; as well as the signature from the Government vet stating the same.

Form "B" (we'll call it the "evil" form) is 4 pages long and requires appx €1600 worth of blood tests to be taken from puppies, shipped off to a variety of EXTERNAL testing labs (Manchester, Liverpool, Belgium, etc) and pronounced negative at least 10 days before departure. Well obviously that ain't gonna happen. We were told that was anunnecessaryy form by the South Africans who are actually receiving the puppies, and would be the ones who would need to worry about diseases coming in. Since they're used to doing this sort of thing on a daily basis, we chose to go with their advice. However, there's some smart-arse Government Vet running around Dublin at this point in time, who knows who we are and what we're trying to do (only because we were stupid enough to call him and ask for his advice and make sure that we were doing everything above-board), and has even put a phone call into our own vet saying that heunequivocallyy, definitely COULD NOT sign such a form unless the blood tests were done. Even though the blood tests can not even be DONE in this COUNTRY. !?!??

Now the waiting game.
We have located a local government vet who will sign the "good" form for us. He won't go out on a limb and sign the "evil" form without having blood tests done, even though the "evil" form has the same text on it that the "good" one does, and is essentially stating the exact same thing (that Ireland is free of these diseases and therefore tests are unnecessary). So we're going to try and push them through with Form A. Fingers crossed nobody stops us.

The positives:
* Our "receiving end" company in Joburg has told us that just as recently as September, they successfully received puppies from Ireland with the Form A.
* Our "sending end" company in Dublin airport told us really all they need is Form A and we don't have to worry.
* Our local Cork Government Vet says we should be OK with Form A, he doesn't mind signing it, and needn't worry.
* The puppies official private vet says he'll be happy to sign Form A, and he sees it go through all the time.

The negatives:
* Some fruitcake, red-tape-loving, upper-ranking Government Vet in Dublin is going to try and do everything he can between now and December 4th (when the form needs to be signed = 10 days from their flight date) to make sure that all underling Government Vets (including local Cork-guy) are made aware that FORM B IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE FORM FOR EXPORTING DOGS!!! Mainly, all because WE got in touch with him and alerted him to the fact that there is a "good" and "evil" form floating around out there in the universe!! DOH!

* If, for some unforeseeable reason, we get stopped mid-way through the process and instructed that under no circumstances is Form A acceptable, we have no backup plan. The window of time will be expired for the tests to be taken and results to be returned (from overseas) and flight to be made.

Fingers crossed.....

j2

No more wheels (J1)

Ok, the cars appeared in 1 newspaper last night. I received exactly 1 phonecall today, about my Toyota, they insisted on seeing it tonight. Jill was driving it today so she rushed it through the car wash, as it was in no state to be shown yet. I had not expected people wanted to come around this quick, and look at a car in the dark.

Result: SOLD, and for a pretty good price too. I will have to say goodbye to my good old Corolla tomorrow, as they (two Lithuanian guys) will show up with the cash tomorrow to collect. Only one more to go.....

J1

Dwellings and Such. (J2)

A lot of thinking about living arrangements lately.... I guess it's natural, when you're packing your own place up (or getting ready to, in our case) and kind of "in between homes".

Anyway the jist of my story is that THIS is what you get in Cork City, in 2005, for +/- €320k:

Now, forget about what that's worth. Just think about this: in BW, you can get something like THIS for less than €170k!!!

I find that amazing. It also makes me sad that we're going to be renting when we first get over there!

Oh well, that's us exercising our "good judgement". :)

Cars for sale (J1)

Time is really going fast now, only weeks left and lots happening. First of all I have also handed in my notice last Friday, so finally no more secrets in Ireland. My boss took the news pretty easy, it took a while for him to sink in. He tried to convince me to stay longer, but after realizing there was no point he said he would give me a good reference, and that I would have a job if I would ever decide to come back to Ireland. He even asked if I would be willing to work for him from Botswana via email and telephone, while a new person is getting trained. I would love to do this, and have the chance to earn some euros while looking for jobs there. I do not think it will happen though.

Both cars are for sale, they will appear in 2 news papers this week. I have scheduled Jill's car for a NCT test (Irish roadworthy test) as this was expiring in January, and it might help selling. Hopefully we will be able to sell at least one of them quickly. We are both able to catch a ride into work with colleagues, and I could even use the train. I will sell both straight away if I can/ have the luck, in that case we will just have to rent a car for the remaining weeks.

The girl (she was South African....) from the moving company dropped by on Thursday, since we do not have that much stuff we will have to share a container with others. There are many South Africans moving from Ireland back to South Africa, and since our stuff will be shipped into Durban port, there should not be much difficulty. From Durban it will travel by road to Gabs.

Jill took our puppies to the vet again last Friday for blood tests and final vaccinations. Unfortunately there is a lot of confusion about the requirements, and the Irish veterinarian officials are telling us different stories then the South Africans. We have decided to play on the safe side, and carry out all possible tests. This might cost more money at the moment, but should rule out any possible problems.

This weekend we have had our last visitor in Ireland. Now that he has left we can start packing stuff, and taking things like bookshelves and guest bed apart. Many things like decorations etc can be packed already as well. The lucky thing is that we have loads of boxes and packing material here at my work, that we can easily re-use.

Our poor old tv is really on its last legs. We bought it second hand in Ireland when we first arrived, after a few previous attempts to let us down (which I managed to reverse by hitting and kicking it pretty hard) it went all purple last night. It still works, but the colors are all gone (except for purple), lets just hope it will hang in there for the last few weeks.

J1

Contracts (J1)

The contracts for our house were supposed to be signed yesterday. I received a phonecall from the buyer yesterday evening. He told me that he went into his solicitor to sign and everything, but that our solicitor had made a mistake. She had basically forgotten to include the rights of the advertising sign on the side of our house, which obviously needs to be transferred to the new owner. I am just back from dropping this contract to her, she promised she will have updated contacts back to the buyers solicitor today. The buyer mentioned he has a cheque with deposit and everything at his solicitor already. I am not sure who to believe, but just keep hoping for the best.

While talking to the buyer, he asked if I could please leave blinds and curtains in the house, as he is planning to rent it out for the coming months. I agreed to also leave the fridge and stove in the house (we had no intention to bring these, as they are very old), and in return for this I can have the two signs on the front of the pub. How cool is that? I am really happy to be able to take those as souvenirs.
Anyway, the bad news is that J2 discovered this morning that her car mirror was broken again, this is like mirror number 5 between our cars, due to vandalism. And then I have not even mentioned the dent in my car, the broken windscreen and broken headlight (all those in the last two years). Both cars are for sale at the moment, and will appear in newspapers early next week, so we better fix this very soon.

The moving company is due to visit here in an hour, to look at our contents and access, to they can make a quote and arrangements. I guess it was lucky I had an early appointment for work this morning, which was cancelled, so I have actually time to organize all this. Do not have my next appointment until this afternoon (both in Cork).

The dogs are going to the vet tomorrow for blood samples. These need to be tested for 5 diseases, and this needed to be done within 30 days of arrival in South Africa, so basically tomorrow is the earliest we can do this. Their flight has been booked and we are waiting for confirmation of times and flight numbers.

J1

Stuff

First of all, the mapping available online for Gabz-city is pretty bad. We're looking at houses for rent at the moment (some are really nice) and it's just so difficult to place in our mind's eye where they are. Finding the right neighbourhood means everything down there. T. gives us advice on where not to look, but sometimes a house comes up in "Block 8" or something, and we have no idea where that is! The problem is that many of the suburbs/city sections are called by their "Block number". So there's like "block 2, block 3, block 4.....block 11" and so on. We still haven't figured this all out yet.

While this map doesn't necessarily show all the block numbers, it does at least give the major fringe suburbs. Tlokweng, Gabane, Mmokolodi, Mogoditshane, etc. I'm having fun with it at the moment, comparing it with available houses. For the record, T.&L. live in Gabane. That's where we'll be staying when we first get there. Out with the monkeys...

...No really, the monkeys. Gabane is such a cute little part of the greater Gabs area. Really rustic, at the foot of a mountain, lots of thatched rondavels... basically all of the more "scenic" photos from our Gaborone photo album (see links to the right!) were taken here. But it just makes me laugh exactly how rustic it is out there. I was talking to T. on the phone the other day, and he was saying they've recently just gotten over their second break-in. Not of the criminal variety, rather they were away for a weekend and the baboons got in. OUCH! Basically they came in through a slightly open bathroom window and had the most massive party ever. Throwing their poop around the house, breaking dishes, eating food, etc.

While I try not to laugh thinking about it, it just cracks me up to picture. OK, said T., the first time it was pretty funny, but they were obviously interrupted during the festivities by a neighbour or L. coming home or something, because there wasn't too much damage. Just a few broken things, and some pee and some random missing shoes (or something). The second time, they were there for probably more than a day. The biggest mess ever-- everything ruined. Did I mention how they love to throw stuff? Including their own poop? T & L had to clean for days.

Anyway, just as well we're looking for places in the city centre.

Blackpool (J1)

As promised, a few pictures from our neighborhood in Cork.

Our street

Our house
Kingston Butchers across the road

Our favorite neighborhood pub 'The Groves'

The Glen Valley Park

For all our Blackpool pictures click HERE.

J1

Irish people (J1)

Let's start with some 'fun facts' about Ireland today, just bits and pieces I picked up in the newspaper in the last few weeks. a) Ireland is one of the most corrupt Western countries recent research has revealed. b) Ireland is the worst country in Europe with regards to CO2 emissions effecting global warning, and the government is making very little effort in tryin to change. 3) Ireland has officially the worst record when it comes to traffic accidents and casualties in Europe. 4) Irish people think on average more often about suicide as an option to solve their problems then any other European country. 5) Ireland has officially become one of the most expensive countries to live in, and Dublin one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Of course we knew all of the above already (unfortunately by experience), maybe I would like to add to this list that they probably have the worst weather in Europe as well. Does anyone still want to ask why we are leaving?

Ok, the whole house thing. It was supposed to be signed a week ago, but this has obviously not happened up to date (as has the paying of a deposit). We are dealing with a real cowboy here, as mentioned before. The good news is that he has reached an agreement on the pub next door as well, and has given me 'his word' it will be signed next week Wednesday at the lastest. I will believe it when I see it.

We have been checking on this property website for rental houses in Gabs, and unfortunately there does not seem to be much choice out there at the moment. They used to have like 5 pages, now they can not even fill 2. There is loads available which is not on this particular website, but it does give an indication of availability. Our friend there also informed us that most rental contracts are yearly renewed, this usually happens in December and January, meaning that this is the time people move around. There will be no problem finding something, we might just have to compromise (that is what renting is all about I guess....)

I have sent out my job applications, so will have to keep my fingers crossed on that one. I have not written my resignation letter yet, and decided I might not quite next week yet, and leave it until the very last minute, the week after. I am obliged to give 4 weeks notice.

Other things to organize: the puppies will have to get their blood taken for tests and certification next week, we really need to get their crates as well, the cars will go for sale. During all this poor J2 is very busy correcting reports again to help the company making deadlines.

One last small thing: I realized that I can not remember certain things from my old neighborhood in Melbourne anymore. Simple things like the milkbar on the corner, and the entrance to the park where we used to take the puppies. Last weekend we have gone around our good old Blackpool to take some pictures for later memories. I will upload them this weekend and link it to this blog.

J1

Terrified in Ireland (J2)

Today I will be quitting my job.

I am so very very very very nervous!

Likely because I've been scarred before by psycho employers who take resigning as a personal insult. But regardless, I know I'm going to let some people down and I feel bad about that.

Wish me strength for walking into A's office and saying the right thing that (a.) doesn't make me look like a jerk for leaving the section in the lurch; (b.) is easy enough to come up with to say, that I don't get a stomach ulcer before 10:30 a.m. I know I shouldn't be nervous-- I haven't done anything wrong and I have a fairly good excuse (how many people get to use "moving to Botswana" an actually mean it?) but I know that when they interviewed me I made it sound like I was in Ireland "indefinitely", and now it's been 2 years and I bail. I do have some guilt there. Is that what's giving me the shakes?

I also know the workload that will subsequently fall on PW and others' heads because of me bailing. Guilt again.

I guess my fear is seeing A. slap herself on the forehead and do the whole "NO! NO! NO!!! NOOOO!!!" thing. Which will make me feel soooooooo bad. And I'm not speaking as a raging egomaniac, I just know what kind of workload I'll be leaving behind. That's all. There's the guilt again.

I think I'll do it after coffee break, around 11. Then I owe it to PW to let him know first.

Then the boys and I will go to the Chinese restaurant for lunch at 1pm, and I'm going to tell them, then. Now that's going to be the hard part. For a different reason, of course.

Out of the office (J1)

This is turning out to be a pretty nice week, Monday was a bank holiday, and Wednesday, today and tomorrow I am driving around Ireland with this work contact visiting pharmaceutical factories. This means nearly one whole week out of the office, so I do not have to face my boss and his usual nonsense.

I have really been going over the whole handing in my notice regularly in my mind. I can not wait to see his big ugly surprised face. This one moment will make up for the last 4 difficult weeks, which I am sure he will create for me. I do not think he will take the news very well.

Anyway, to stay on the job front. I have heard absolutely nothing from my job applications I have submitted so far. On one side I am very glad about this. There are plenty of opportunities out there apparently, and I would like to end up in a position which I like, and can hopefully benefit our company in some way as well. I have found a list of engineering consultancies active in Botswana, and will start sending some resumes in the coming week. As time is coming closer they might be interested, and it gives me something to follow up once I get there. Time to start selling myself, instead of stainless steel equipment.....

No signing contracts on the house sale yet. As expected the buyer is dragging things out. We really have to start pushing this along. I will consult our solicitor on Monday on how we can do this the best.

On the dog moving front everything is getting organized. We tried to get a date booked with the airline, but unfortunately they do not accept bookings more then 30 days in advance. I also spoke to an official in the department of agriculture (Irish). The dogs have to be bloodtested in the last 30 days before shipment, to show they are free of 5 diseases. The diseases to not exist in Ireland, but internationally Ireland is not official recognized as FREE. More hassle, but at least we were prepared for this.

Besides writing my resignation letter and some more applications, I might start to prepare some advertisements for selling our cars the coming week. It would be nice if we could sell one pretty soon. I think we can survive on one for the last few weeks, and that only leaves one to worry about in the end. It is also nearly time to make contact with the moving company, for them to visit our house and list all items to be shipped.

J1

That's what Bank Holidays are for... J2

Yes yes yes I suck at posting these days. Too much action in la casa de Westra for me to sit down at the computer.

At any rate, here are some things on the list of "stuff to report":

1. There is another blog out there that we've been having a really fun time reading, for a few months. It's by a couple around our age who's living in Molepolole (about 50 km outside Gabz), stationed there with the Peace Corps for 2 years. They've wrapped up year one and are well into year two, and have kept their online journal for the whole time-- starting even before they left the US. Really neat to read all about their experiences, and know we'll be going through the same, shortly. OK, without the support of the Peace Corps, but still. Also being that my best friend Heidi G is an ex-PCV, I have a really soft spot for reading all about everything PC, having heard the same sort of things from her, only out of Ukraine instead of BW.

2. Starting to get the butterflies. Quitting time is just around the corner. I tried not to think about it until now. Here's what I figure: I need to give RPS 1 month's notice, which means if I'm planning on finishing up around the 21st or so, I need to quit at the latest on 21 Nov. I was figuring that since I'm not too worried about getting the ice-man-frigidity-treatment from this boss (as per my last job), I could do the nice thing and quit a little bit before the 1-month-mark. That would at least give us some extra time to get things sorted & settled before I leave. Which means it's coming REALLY soon. Hence the butterflies. I don't really know what I'm going to say or how I'm going to deliver it... something nice, I guess. . . something along the lines of "well it's not that I'm unhappy in this job, it's just that...." (insert random touchy-feeley reason). I've toyed with the idea of blaming it on Hannes? Like "oh well see Hannes isn't happy here", but that would ensure that they never hire another foreigner again, because they're already worried about imports hating Ireland and shipping off after a year anyway. (Why should I care?) But basically I don't have a plan yet. Even considering the "It's not my fault, we got headhunted" route or something. I really don't know. They're all going to freak out anyway. I'm the only person (that I know of, at least) in the country who does what I do, so I really have no idea what strategy they're going to try out to get someone else in, or how they're going to shift my duties. Which makes me feel guilty a bit, but I just try not to think about it. Not my problem, right? But since I like my job so much, I do feel bad. To an extent.
Whatever.

3. Minor sadness going through all the "lasts" over the coming weeks, and the recent ones. Last trip to the cliffs, last Cork Jazz Fest, last Franciscan Well Oktoberfest, last meal at Banna Thai, last pickup & dropoff of visitors at the airport (Note: just found out this is inaccurate, Martin is actually coming for a weekend in Nov! yeah!), and last work halloween party. Still haven't told many friends about our move though, so I'm sure the REAL emotional discomfort is still yet to come, but that's part of the gig. But everyone else outside of Ireland is being so excited and enthusiastic for us that it will surely balance each other out. Really, we've had about 10 friends tell us in the last month or so "I'm already looking at holidays to BW for next year!", which is really cool.

4. NEWS FLASH TO ALL AMERICANS! Delta is launching a new direct flight to Jo'burg starting December 2006! (that's less than 2 months away!) Making it the only US airline to service Africa, there launching Atlanta-Jo'burg direct (via Dakar)! Mark it in your favorites. South African Airways already operates two daily flights to the US, one each to Washington Dulles and New York's JFK airport. I seem to remember Delta doing one Atlanta-Joburg (via Cape Verde) some time ago, but it seems that was stopped and now it's coming back again.
(if anyone's wondering why this is such a complicated flight corridor, here's some free info courtesy of a very informative website: Johannesburg International Airport is regarded as a "hot and high" airport. Situated some 1680 metres above sea level, the air is thin. This has implications for the performance of aircraft at altitude. For example, a flight from Johannesburg to NYC, currently operated with an Airbus A340-300e, must stop in Dakar for refueling, since the aircraft is not able to make the run on one tank of fuel. This is because of decreased performance on take-off from the airport, where an aircraft cannot take off fully laden with fuel, cargo and passengers, and must use a longer stretch of runway to reach take-off velocity. By contrast, the return leg of the flight from New York to Johannesburg used to be a non-stop 14-hour flight, with better performance of the aircraft in New York because the city is at sea level. Interesting, no?)

5. Setswana lesson for the day: "ga ke thaloganye" = "I don't understand". "g"s prounounced with a gutteral dutch-like throat. More like "haa". But you'd know that if you'd ever hear anyone say "Ghhhaaborone". Very similar to afrikaans/dutch sounds. Everything else is pretty much phonetic. (Obviously I broke the CD ROM out again)

Can't think of much else for now, but excited that we booked our Amsterdam-Joburg flights. Stopover in London Heathrow included, so we don't lose all connection with the British Isles just yet.

More news and stuff (J1)

First of all, please do not worry about my last comment on the financial performance of our company. Some of you were worried about this (nice that you are concerned). It is the nature of consultancy business, and this was one of the reasons we stayed in Ireland ourselves for so long. This was why we had two (Euro) incomes to support and get things started. The problem with these big projects is that you might be working for months before you see any money. But when we get there we should be in good shape, as planned.

Other big news: We have just booked our ticket from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. We are leaving from Amsterdam after Christmas and New Years with family, and hope to spend a few days in Pretoria with our family Polson, and visit our dogs (will be in the Joburg kennels then). After these few days we might fly or drive to Gaborone.

Gaborone airport - hopefully we can come and pick many visitors up from here!

I know we have a link to a website with details about Botswana on this blog, but dear mother (in law) just forwarded this one which was pretty good. Especially the map and the flag, which you can see below are pretty nice.

That's really all for now, nearly time to start thinking about quitting our jobs and stuff. That will be interesting. Definitely time for J2 to make a contribution to this blog, don't you think??

J1

Last visit (J1)

With our friends from JC visiting us this week, we did a few small daytrips this weekend to show them some of our favorite places around Cork. Places like Kinsale, Novohal Cove, Cobh harbor etc. The strange thing was that J2 and I realized it might be our last time there. Kind of weird.

The house thing is still slowly moving on, too slow really, buyer already dragging things out, as expected. I won't waste anymore of this blog on this at the moment.

Our dogs had their first visit to the vet, in preparation for their trip over. They are now microchipped, rabies vaccinated, and also had their yearly booster. Back in a few weeks for blood tests, but the vet said we might not need to, because Ireland is disease free. I have to find this out from the department of agriculture.

Our poor little company down in Botswana is in cash flow problems (again). A few very big outstanding invoices which are not being paid very quick. This is usual stuff for Botswana, but makes things pretty difficult sometimes. This means our private funding will have to temporarily cover for things like office rent and wages. Not too big of a deal (done it before) except for that we need $$$ for the move etc as well.

J1

SOLD (again) J1

The big news: the house is sold again. We agreed a deal with the builder who also bought the derelict pub next door. It is hard to get excited until everything is finalized, but we end up getting a little more then with the first deal, so that's good news. We are signing contacts in 2 weeks, so after that it will be a sure deal. One good thing: he is buying 'as is', so no more engineers with strange findings.

I suppose the sad thing is that within a year or two some bulldozer will go through it to make space for apartments or shops, meaning our beautiful bathroom, garden and decking area will be destroyed. But it is his now, and he can do with it what he likes. The good memories of our first house and the many small renovation projects will remain.

To stay on the property subject, I found this article online about Gaborone property. Prices have increased 550% in the last 10 years. We are looking for investment opportunities, and this looks tempting. We decided not to take our money from the house to Africa, and will probably stick with that.

















phakalane golf course and housing estate

Hopefully this will be the last about all this house sale, real estate stuff. We probably completely bored everyone with this. I am sorry, but it was / is a huge worry.

Coming Saturday morning our puppies will go to the Vet, they will get their microchips and also their rabies shots. Also a good opportunity to discuss all paperwork and blood tests that need to be done at a sooner stage before their travels.

Also, I found some very good airfares on ebookers.com from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. Our man T. On the ground in Gabs confirmed he would be there around the 3rd of January, which is handy to know as we kind of invited ourselves to stay with them the first week or so. The plan is to stop in Pretoria for a few days on our way to meet up with the Polson family, and then move on to Gaborone.

That is pretty much all for now, we might start thinking about packing some stuff soon maybe? That will be a big job, which we will probably do after work and weekends, since both of us are still very busy working. I really wonder what will happen after handing in our notice in about 3 weeks. I am looking forward to it, just to see my boss' face. Not sure if J2 feels the same.

J1

Slacky Slackerton Returns

I'm about to get in trouble with the husbanator for not keeping up with the blog, so here I am to write something about something.

How about my feeble non-existant attempt to learn Setswana before we actually arrive in 3 months?

Well, my "Teach Yourself Setswana" CD ROM hasn't really been broken in yet, needless to say. In fact it's only made one or 2 appearances on our computer screen since we bought it. So I need to get up some resolve to tuck into it, soon.

If only it were a CD and not a CD ROM, I would load it onto the ipod and listen day in and day out. But I'm only ever at a computer at work (not an option), or at home (usually busy working or actually doing something FUN or otherwise non-work-related for a change, so studying doesn't really appeal to me.

Also I have this fear that spending 2 weeks in Holland over Christmas is going to take all the Dutch knowledge I can possibly muster and I hate having multiple languages floating around in my head at once. That's why most of my spanish has floated off with the clouds....

Either way the point of this is that I need to get my CD ROM out and start putting some effort into it.

J2

real estate and stuff (J1)

Well, did not get much time to get back into things after coming back from such a nice break. The biggest thing keeping our minds a little worried and occupied at the moment is obviously our house. After a week of not much action on this front, our estate agent had a second viewing with people who had already viewed it when it came on the market in the very beginning. They own an accountants firm and are planning to turn it into offices. They told him after the viewing today that they will be putting an offer in tomorrow. Good news hopefully.

But......I heard a rumor in the neighborhood during the weekend that the empty and soon derelict pub next door to us might be sold. On the other side of the pub a developer just put down foundations for apartments, and the story was that he might be buying the pub for re-development as well.

I decided to do some research (google proved helpful again) and found his name and address, and then the phonebook was all I needed. I made a call this afternoon just to let him know that our property is actually on the market as well, just in case he might be interested. I told him who the estate agent was etc etc.

He rang me back very soon, telling me is is very glad I made him aware of it, he wants to view the house immediately, and do a deal direct with me, without the estate agent. He is already talking about 'I think we will come to an agreement, which will suit both of us' etc, etc. We know the history of his planning application for the apartments, and how he was taking care of the site in the meantime, and are skeptical about any of this being true.

There is a dilemma now, what to do further? We have decided that if we risk going with this guy, instead of the accountant, he will need to offer very serious money. The risk is if he and the owner of the pub do not come to an agreement, then he is likely to pull out of our deal as well. Where as when we have a buyer that has nothing to do with the whole pub, our chances are much better. He is coming over tomorrow night, wait and see.

Even everything written so far is total speculation, the accountant might never put an offer in, and developers in Ireland are usually pretty shady.

Besides this J2 is very busy again with an airport report for the business, this time Maun airport. I believe it is due pretty soon, so pressure is on yet again.

We are hoping to take our dogs to the vet this weekend, to discuss blood tests etc for their move, so hopefully no big surprises there.

That's a short update for now, I am going to check out some flights from the Netherlands to Africa for after new years now.

J1

Silly J1

My husband neglected to add
"The Full Cupboard of Life"

Number 5.

Which I am currently reading.

J2

(thanks Dan!)

back in Ireland (J1)

After probably one of our last little European trips (we have really failed to see all of Europe before leaving) to Greece, we are back in Ireland again. During our holiday we were both reading a series of books by the author Alexander McCall Smith. There is six books in the series in total, called:

- No 1 ladies detective agency
- tears of the Giraffe
- Morality for beautiful girls
- Kalahari typing school for men
- Blue shoes and happiness
- In the company of Cheerful ladies

It is all about an African lady, who has started a detective agency in Gaborone Botswana, and her adventures with this company. It is written very very funny, and we recognize loads of small things. I would definitely recommend these to anyone who has ever been in Africa, or is interested. Eventhough they are fiction, there are some wise lessons for us to be learned from them, such as: never get on the Gaborone roads on pay day (end of month) as there are so many drunk drivers that it is an absolute chaos, and accidents everywhere. Never say anything bad about anyone, as all people know eachother somehow, and are related many times. It is a very polite thing to ask people if they have slept well, when greeting them.

Getting back into reality now, with house sale etc. I will update soon.

J1

House for sale.....again (J1)

J2 beat me to it! (see post below) Anyway:

Bad news this morning, or disappointing news. The buyer of our house decided not to go through with it. They have made such a big deal out of absolute nothing. We had an engineer looking at it and writing a statement to convince them otherwise. The bad thing is that we wasted nearly 3 weeks of time with this whole thing, and are now back where we started.

I should have listened to my dear wife, instead of to the auctioneer, and we should have chosen a harder line straight away with this buyer. This could have saved a week or 2. Anyway, there is still loads of time, the solicitor has done all groundwork already, which means we can close a sale within 4 weeks. This leaves a whole 2 months to find another buyer. Who knows, maybe we might end up selling it for even more.

Not looking forward to having people going through and inspecting the property again, having to keep it clean and tidy at all times etc, but I guess we have no choice in the matter.

J1

Unsurprising Nonsense

Well the sale of our house fell through.

I'm not really surprised though, because it all seemed just a bit too easy.

So this prospective buyer-guy rings up the estate agent today and (apparently) says that he's "been advised by some people not to go for it", and that the engineer's report we acquired to combat HIS engineer's report (the one that said our roof was shot) "didn't really prove anything one way or another", so he's pulling out.

My initial reaction is to beat the snot out of the prospective buyer, particularly because it all leaves me feeling cheated-- how he held us hostage for three weeks by having put down a deposit, which effectively takes our house off the market and prevents other prospective buyers from seeing it. That's 3 weeks of employing a real estate agent who isn't actually doing anything, 3 weeks of waiting, and 3 weeks of jumping through his stupid hoops of getting engineers' reports re-written etc etc etc for nothing.

If it sounds like much ado about nothing, consider the potential impacts:
A) No one else wants our house for that price?
B) Someone else wants it and sends their engineer in to evaluate, who ALSO has issues with some completely different aspect of the house not even related to the roof-- subsequently causing us to jump through more hoops & them to back out at the last minute as well?
C) 30 other interested people want to come in and have a look, making us clean the bejeezus out of the house each time, only to drive ourselves insane with cleaning and still no one's seriously interested?

Whatever. Anyway. I only make myself frustrated by thinking about it but I suppose since everything else seems to be in order, we just move along.

In the words of my old friend Ralf Waldo Emerson: "Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you should begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense".

J2

Some pictures (by J1)

I meant to do this for a long time.....For those who do take the time to check our blog, but can not be bothered on all the links (I can imagine this very well, could be me), a few images of Gaborone.

The Main Mall

The main shopping mall in the centre of Gaborone. This was one of the more successful features of the original city design. This picture was taken on a holiday and is thus uncharacteristically empty. (source: University of Botswana website)

The African mall

The African Mall is an another shopping centre in the original 1960s part of the city. A more modest place than the main mall but a centre of many practical necessities: restaurants and fast food shops, electronics shops, fresh produce, etc. (source: University of Botswana website)

Kgale Hill

A Gaborone landmark, located where the main road from the south enters the city. Across from this hill is the biggest shopping centre in town, called 'Game city'. It was constructed approx 3 years ago, and our company did all the landscape design for it. At the moment we feel this might be the side of the city we would like to live. Lots of baboons on Kgale hill.

Sunset over the Gaborone Dam



The Gaborone Dam, the water source for Gaborone, is in a sense the foundation of Gaborone itself. In a dry region water is of crucial importance, and the fact that a large dam could be successfully created here was a necessary precondition for the growth of the city. The dam has a yacht club, and also the splendidly named Kalahari Fishing Club. Fishers can be seen by the Old Lobatse Road, where it passes the dam, selling fresh fish to passers-by. (Source University of Botswana website)

Our friends have a canoe at the yacht club that they take out on the dam once in a while.

Some of the very modern buildings in Gabs

Gaborone might not be a huge city, but it certainly has some very modern architecture in the city centre, pictures are buildings belonging to BTC (Botswana telecommunications Corporation) and Debswana (Diamond mining company). Unfortunately there is also large areas with much more basic and poor buildings, you don't find many pictures of this on the internet, but some of those are in our online picture album.

The wildlife parks

Botswana has many game parks and reserves, even around Gaborone there are 2 or 3. How does that kind of wild life compare with Ireland, the country without snakes.....

Check out the Mokolodi game park website.

Slowly getting there...(J1)

After a week of not even being able to get any time behind the PC because my dear J2 was working till midnight on that airport report, finally I have a chance to write a small update. Believe it or not, parts for a report for a second airport job start coming in already, we also have to do a similar thing for Maun airport. Hopefully it will be easier after having already done one.
I am in the middle of checking invoices etc for the first project, because after all this effort it is time for the client to show some Pula!!!!

The saga with the house sale has continued. We managed to get our engineer to check out the claims about the roof, basically he confirmed they were bogus and our roof is in perfect condition. He is writing a letter to confirm this. Our estate agent needs to put pressure on the buyer now to either take it or leave it, because we are loosing valuable time if they decide to back out. I still feel they will proceed, my dear other half J2 is less confident and feels like we should approach the buyer more aggressively. Only time will tell who is right.

On the job front for me things are quiet. On the one hand I am kind of happy about this, I would really like to get there, then see what my options are, and get into an engineering /project managing role of some sort, which I could later bring into the company. Reality is that a solid income to go to would be a very nice feeling, this makes me apply for jobs that sound interesting, but not the ultimate dreamjob. I guess fate will decide. People keep telling me about the lack of educated and experienced people there, and we could leave some 'buffer' money from the sale of the house.

Other news is that the dog move is completely organized. We have even received the import permit to South Africa already. In a few weeks we will need to take them to the vet for first shots + blood test. The only other thing left is buying some carriers. I am hoping the vet might have some suggestions for that as well.

That is in real short the update at the moment, hopefully more to follow soon.

J1

Sublime to the Ridiculous

Hello from J2.

I suppose since The Mr. is so good at keeping the blog up to date on the more "fun" stuff (importing puppies and selling houses, etc) it's kind of fallen into my lap to handle the work (bleh) side of things.

Basically the long and short of it is we just keep getting more and more. I find this bittersweet because
A) I know how much our struggling office is doing to keep stuff on track with the amount of work we have on its plate
B) A year ago we were worried about the business's cash flow because we weren't exactly getting any jobs in (growing pains of the management handover), and now look at the situation: we're over-pricing work to strategically NOT get it, and they give it to us anyway! What the....?!

So anyway, the saga with the extension of the Sir Seretse Khama Airport EIA continues. Drafts and more drafts back and forth between The Office and I for the last few weeks, and finally it looks like we're nearly ready to put a wrap on it. I still have work to do on it this weekend but apparently he tells me he has some components of it already printed and bound (?)
Our little airport proposal: (proposed extension/new taxiway indicated in dark brown)
Prepare to be landing in a great big 747 on this baby, someday!

We'll be starting on our next biggie: MAUN AIRPORT EIA, immediately. That's right, this means our little Environmental consultancy will have had our hands in 3 out of what, 5 tiny little botswanan airports in the whole country, after we're done with this one. Due date: end of september. whew.


Funny clip from their latest email: "I stuck to doing 'EIA' and not the 'EIS'. You can try and convince them otherwise when you come over. For now I rather keep things simple, especially with this client"

They know it drives me crazy when people confuse the term "Environmental Impact ASSESSMENT" with "Environmental Impact STATEMENT" (EIA & EIS, respectively). Apparently in BW they've not quite grasped the concept of the fact that the former is the actual act-of-studying-the-project, something completely non-tangible. Whilst the latter is the actual touchable-feelable-DOCUMENT that you type up with your own hands and deliver to the client. If I drive out to a proposed quarry site in my car, and have a look around, THAT is an assessment. It stops BEING an assessment as soon as I turn the findings into a physical form, thereby morphing into what's called the impact "statement". Ugh. Pedantic, yes. Forgivable, no.

Whatever.

Other work/news from the man-on-the-ground:
"More good news (that I think I can't really handle at this stage)- we were actually successful in that over priced proposal for the Softening Plant near Lethlakeng.
All I can do now is to mobilise the sub consultants (Princess and Ratang) to start ASAP.

It is in this spirit that I (reluctantly) submitted a proposal for Lobatse town park last week...
Last minute the proposed team's efforts kind of came together- so I had to try !I think we made a good effort (within reasonable time limits)
The cost associated with this is not fixed and will be based on rates. As a possible conflict of interest I got another company in to do the EIA. Let the company only focus on the landscape design.
There are many restrictions on the site, so I we can rely on them to come up with the tough answers."

The park he's talking about is an ART PARK. We got that job, and I'm definitely excited about that. Something good for our portfolio, and a good fun reward for Them to undertake. The design and maintenance regime proposed for the Lobatse Art Park should consider how best practise principles can be applied to create a sustainable, user-friendly, interactive and stimulating environment that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Our submission included the following proposal:

Embracing all forms of art including music; visual; and drama, should be an integral design theme carried across in the design of a Park for Lobatse.

Another theme that can be explored in the various activity zones in the park is so called “Land Art” (Design of sculptural elements, earth sculptures, landmarks and features etc.)

Create a Information and Technology driven artistic experience, in conjunction with providing educational tools.

Cultural Heritage of Botswana (in response to the requirement for cultural shelters, mentioned in the terms of reference).

Public participation is also key when attempting to make a cultural statement or establish a unique identity for the park; especially in the vital location that this park is situated.

One can imagine many activities in a park of this size, our design team would like to suggest additional activities (not listed in the Terms of reference) that may enhance the usability of the proposed park in Lobatse:
• Multi function play area or pitch
• Multi-function car park, which incorporates shade, structures for informal market stands and crafts to create an attraction to the Park
• Kiosk and curio shop and Information desk
• Gym-trim activities included in the jogging trails
• Permanent educational display areas
• Cultural village incorporating a “kraal” “kgotla” “masimo” and other areas on a miniature scale (1:4)
• Areas dedicated to passive recreation (quite areas for relaxation)
• Land Art features in and outside the park to create visual interest creating a new “entrance gateway” for Lobatse Town.
• Conservation education areas, incl. wastewater treatment site, recycling bay, school activity centre etc.
• A MUSICAL FESTIVAL event venue may be designed as an amphitheatre or an open-air theatre that also provides a stage/ backdrop, and make best use of the topographical slope on the site.

That's all for now.
J2

Frustrations (J1)

I promised myself this whole house sale, buyer complaining about the roof thing was not going to stress me out. That it is normal Irish stupid procedure. I managed ok during the weekend, but yesterday it was driving me crazy. After us denying their claims, they came up with other claims about how bad the roof is, our real estate agent wants us to spend money on an engineers report, and or drop the price. He is not really working for us at the moment, he just wants to close the deal, so he can collect his fee. Our engineer from 3 years ago confirmed the good condition of the roof, and is willing to put in on paper. We have instructed the estate agent to tell the buyer we will put it back on the market if he keep going with this rubbish. I still have the feeling he will proceed with it, he is just desperately trying to get us to drop the price.

Anyway, it is getting to me, I have been stressing all day yesterday, and woke up with a terrible headache today. I have decided to not even go to work. I usually always go to work, even when I am sick. Today I do not feel so guilty, I have put huge overtime in (unpaid) over the last few weeks. Also, last weekend was the hurling final. Hurling is this stupid Gaelic / Irish nationalistic sport. My office is obsessed about it, talk about it all day. I absolutely hate hearing about it, have no interest in it. The fact that my car has been damaged the last 3 years during the hurling final weekend, by the scum leaving the pubs drunk after an all day session while watching their 'fantastic and skilful sport' probably does not help either. This year it has cost me the passenger side mirror. Today one of my colleagues who was at the final would be coming back to work, and I could not bare the idea having to listen to all their stories, them trying to force me to like their stupid game.

Enough of the negative. On the positive side, it looks like arrangements for our dogs or coming together. Both companies involved are very helpful, and we are on time arranging this. The idea is to fly them around the 15th to 20th December. As late as possible, but apparently airlines have a cut off date before Christmas. They will fly with Lufthansa, with an overnight stay in Frankfurt Germany. Then we will leave them in the kennels in Johannesburg with GlobalPaws until we get there. Once we are in Botswana, Global Paws will transport them to us. To give an idea of cost, approx €2200 for the flight from Ireland to joburg, and approx ZAR5700 (€680) for collection at Joburg, clearing them through customs + transport to Gaborone. The kennel costs will be extra. We will need to buy the kennels for transport ourselves, buI i have found some good ones online already.


The procedure is much easier then when importing pets to Ireland. Requirements for pets entering South Africa are:
- Import permit (Global Paws is arranging this on our behalf)
- Valid Rabies vaccination
- A South African health certificate for dogs, signed by our vet less then 10 days prior to
departure
- Government vet clearance (this needs to be signed and stamped by the state vet in Ireland)
- Microchips
- Blood tests

For Botswana all the above is required as well + an import permit for Botswana, which we have obtained already. I have asked Global Paws when I need to do what, but it is probably time to visit the vet soon.

Besides this (if the sale of the house will go through) there is not that many complicated things left to arrange:
arrangege removal company to take our belongings to Botswana (during the last month)
- give notice at work (only 5 to 6 weeks before we leave)
- sell both cars (they are for sale as soon as we give notice)
- buy a ticket from NL to Johannesburg - there are some really good deals on the internet,
might do this soon
- Find myself a job, this would be a bonus if it happens before we leave, but I am not really
worried about it

I think this is giving a pretty good overview of where we are at the moment, it has actually helpe organizing my own thoughts.....

Climbing in the attic (J1)

I received a call from our estate agent last night. The buyer had an engineer going through our house. This is standard procedure in Ireland, usually for piece of mind, plus most banks want an engineers report before approving a mortgage. Anyway, the engineer had come to the conclusion that our house was in fantastic condition, except for the roof. He had told the buyer that the roof was about to collapse. The buyer then called our estate agent, saying that he is still interested, but want to see compensation by us reducing the price.

When we bought the house 3 years ago our engineer examined the house, and concluded the roof was in 'good condition'. Just by looking at it you can tell it is perfectly straight, unlike a lot of roofs on houses in our area. I seriously doubted the story about the framework being 'totally rotten', from the moment they told me, but I just came back from climbing in the attic myself. I saw the piece of wood they are probably talking about (lots of small woodchips broken of), it is redundant, and does not have anything to do with supporting the roof. When the previous owners at some stage did work on the roof, they left some of the old parts in there, and put new supports right next to them. The new supports are as solid as it can get. I am obviously a little annoyed about this.

I guess the engineer is trying to make a little money for his client, the buyer. This kind of 'messing' is not unusual, and was kind of expected. We have no intention at all of dropping the price, and will tell them on Monday that the house is going straight back on the market if that is a problem to them. Somehow I have the feeling they will still proceed. They paid a deposit within one day after agreeing sale, and sent an engineer within a few days.

Still, to try and get us to drop the price, they could have come up with better things (like power outlet we installed in the bathroom, totally against all Irish building regulations. I will keep you updated on the progress.

On the Landscape Side of things...

We've been doing lots of writing about the big Environmental Impact side of things down at our little business lately. Now for a brief stump on our landscape services, as we've just recently had a little milestone.

This is reportedly the next booming town in Botswana: Serowe, "Botswana's largest village". The combined budget for government upgrades/ new development in the area was over 1 billion, in the last financial year.

Here are some photos just in, of our contribution to building "Serowe City". This was a small design for landscape in one of the town shopping centres, now 90% installed, and we are at practical completion stage. (6 month maintenance phase now starts...)

Maybe note the use of rock features and native aloe plants. Something a bit radical to the eye of those who live in a world where water is plentiful and "landscaping" basically means "varying combinations of lawn, flower beds, and water features".

More to come...

-- J2

p.s. I'm playing around with the format of the blog. I hope you like the new look-- and new links have been added to the sidebar...

Champagne (by J1 and J2)

Who would have thought this: we have accepted an offer on our house today. Less then 2 weeks after it went on the market, it is now 'sale agreed' which means contracts can be drawn up. This whole process usually takes around 2 months, and lots of things can go wrong, but let's not worry about that.


We accepted the offer on the condition we can stay in it until the 20th December. A reason for celebration.... champagne for everyone....... !!!

J1 and J2

crazy week (by J1)

This must have been the most crazy week so far, after having gone to some small 'situations', poor J2 has spend pretty much every evening since Sunday night behind this laptop. We have this deadline for this huge report for an airport extention, and she has been helping them to put things together. Unfortunately, all this happened during an incredible busy time at her day job, at the same time. The good thing is that she finished everything as far as she could on Friday, so we have had a nice weekend to relax and recover.

On Thursday this week we had another viewing of the house. Cleaning the place from top to bottom again, all by myself....The same people rang the agent Friday morning, and asked if they could come back Friday afternoon, also asked if they could buy some of the contents, it sounds promising. In the mean time I have made contact with the solicitor already. The papers belonging to the house, are stored away in some safe place by the bank, when selling the house these need to come out of storage for exchange of contracts. Sometimes it can take weeks to get them, that's why it is smart to get this started already.

By the way, I have added a new link to the blog website, it is the Gazette newspaper, one of the main Botswana newspapers. They update their website edition once a week, on Wednesdays. I usually check it to kind of keep up with what is going on.

Ok, I started writing all this on Sunday so far. Now it is Tuesday, we have received a really good offer for our house. We are trying to agree something on the contents as the purchaser is interested in taking most of our stuff over too. This would mean a very 'light' move. I am going to make a list of all stuff now.

One small other thing: the move of our dogs. So far I had been getting no-where with the company from Belfast. No service and reply, definitely no faith in them handling it. I started ringing around and found that a company from Dublin called multicargo were also able to do it. Great response from them, and a quote half the price of anything I have seen so far, also experience in moving dogs to South Africa. All I need to do now is find an agent in South Africa who can receive them and maybe arrange transport to Botswana. I have contacted a company called global paws who seem to be able to do this.

With a little luck we should have the house sold next week, the dogs move arranged, and most furniture sold. I guess something is destined to go wrong, this all seems to easy.

J1

For sale (by J1)

It has obviously taken a while before I got myself to sit down and post a little update. Lots of things have been happening in the last week or two.

First of all, the house is now officially for sale. We have decided not to put a sign up yet, and keep the advertising down to internet only for a while, for the obvious reason that we still have not told anyone at work about leaving. Most people only search for property on the internet anyway, so this should be ok. The third real estate agent is taking care of things, it is on his website but more importantly on one of the big property sites. We had one viewing on Thursday already, exciting, see what happens now.


The company is still as busy as ever, struggling to keep on top of everything. As soon as I am done writing this Jill will take over, starting some kind of new report. Two smaller projects finally paid up their outstanding bills this week, which means at least we do not have to worry about money coming in.

What has kept us so busy this week, was most of all cleaning this house from top to bottom for the pictures, organizing / contacting the solicitor who will handle the sale, applying for another job for myself. This is actually pretty exciting, it was a job as manager of a plant hire place (caterpillar, Komatsu - bulldozers, loaders etc, every agricultural engineers dream. The recruitment consultant came back asking me to make a few small changes to my Cv, because he wanted to put it forward to his client. See what happens from here.

We have also spent quite a few nights in the pub this week, birthday parties, Holland - Ireland soccer friendly (we beat the Irish 4 - 0!!!!!) and other excuses. It gives me some kind of feeling like we are already starting to say goodbye here and there, even though no-one knows yet.

All right, that's about it for me now. I am going to start measuring our dogs now. I have found a new company in Dublin that has experience in shipping dogs from Ireland to Johannesburg in South Africa. I have wasted so much time with another company, definitely not very organized, and never getting back on my questions. Hopefully these guys are better, because I would really like to get things organized for this.

I promise a next update sooner.

Updates from Down-there

I had a long conversation with the office yesterday (Sat.) and it was a good thing too, because he's feeling a bit overworked and stressed. I think it was a helpful hour on the phone, though, because his spirits seemed to lift by the end of it. This reminds me to ring him more often, over the next 4 months.

Major issues include:

1. Having no help on the public consultation for the airport EIA. What with Ratang (obviously) taking a compassionate break from work for the next week or so, the main man had to handle the whole kgotla thing by himself. This is difficult for him, not speaking Setswana. When these major issues cause a bit of argie-bargie amongst the locals ("will the proposal bring benefits to the community?" "Will there be an increase in pollution/employment/AIDS/anti-social behaviour/services etc. due to the proposal?" "Will we be compensated for our trouble & strife throughout construction phase" and so on) they launch into discussions in Setswana with no warning, and they're off like the horses, not an english word to be heard. The main advice after experiencing this is that when attending these things is: 1) Have an interpreter; 2) Have a fluent motswana there to take notes in setswana & translate later 3) Have someone there who can bring the conversations back to english, diplomatically, without stepping on anyone's toes.

2) Bad news. The Lion Park thing didn't work out. I am obviously dissapointed, but as our friend says, maybe it's just a huge relief, with all this other work on the table at the moment. The client concluded that the Water Park specialist will get their own planting guys to do the landscaping. In my opinion, not very wise. They normally have a very short term view on how to do planting, and may not fully appreciate the local conditions. Anyway!

3) T: "Please, please please please come earlier than January?" J2: "We can't. Don't worry so much. You'll be fine." T: "I'm drowning down here!" J2: "You're not drowning. You'll be just fine. If you need to take a break, take a break." Situation tricky, as he's really trying his best to drum up enough work to keep himself on, when we get there. But:

4) L. (wife of T.) working too much. Woolworth's (her company) pretty much owns her soul at the moment. Apparently there's no time. No time for family, no time for holidays, no time for socialising, no time for personal sanity. Apparently she'll be working over Christmas this year AGAIN. But they pay her well. So: what to do, what to do? Is there any compromise, like working 1/2 time? No. It's all or nothing. She's the manager, and they expect her to be responsible for 100% of everything. Working Sundays is probably the hardest on her, as she's a good church-going girl whose had to give up on their congregation out in the suburbs because she's working every sunday. T still attends there, but L is now going to an english Baptist service somewhere else, on another day or at night or something. Which she likes, but not as much as being able to go to their "own" with her husband on a proper sunday morning. I think if we can keep everyone employed once we get there, she'll just quit and they'll just survive on 1 salary. Probably start popping out babies then, I think. Anything is better than being in Africa for "the lifestyle" and then living a life of stress, unrest, and overworked-ness.

All for now......
Number 2.

BOOKING REF: 2536FW

That's it. . . . Our ticket out of here.

Let the record show that 23 December 2006 will be our last day in Ireland.

If you come hunting down the wayward westras. . . .
. . . we won't be here!!!!

-J2

Slowly getting closer (by J1)

We were just talking last night, one of the reasons we wanted to take over a year to prepare ourselves for this whole move, is so we would not have any panic situations in the end, and we could finish Ireland in a proper and calm way. Now there is less the 5 months left, do we have everything under control?

The third estate agent came around valuing our house. He was much more serious about the whole thing then previous ones, and was also recommended by a friend. He does not know it yet, but I think he will be selling our house. His valuation was around the same as the other two. Here is a nice statistic (no matter how well you plan, what can you do about this?) One in every three sales of property in Ireland falls through after the sale is agreed. That could create serious problems for us time-wise. But then we could always rent the house out when we leave. I will put a link on this website for the sale advertisement, once the house is on the market. We will probably go forward with this next week. One last thing we need to decide: are we putting a 'for sale' sign on the house. This would raise many questions, I think we might start with internet advertising and newspapers first, and see what interest we get.

I applied for this job in Gaborone, or actual with a USA organization, but the job was based in Gaborone, working as a TB manager on some health / aid projects. It was closing yesterday and I received the following reply:
Thank you for your interest in employment with Comforce. Although we do recognize the skills and abilities of all of the candidates for the position, it is necessary to select candidates whose qualifications best meet the needs of the organization at this time. We wish you continued success in your professional endeavors.
What does this mean, does it mean I am still being considered, or that I am out? It is really bugging me. I guess I am not getting it, even though I was convinced my experience was a perfect match.

I finally received information about shipping our dogs, a package with vet papers etc should be in the post, and I received a cost estimate by email. I will be able to tell more about this when the package arrives. We are also considering booking our last tickets out of Ireland, usually it is crazy expensive to fly around Christmas, but Aer lingus has a 3 day special on at the moment. Will need to book tomorrow though.

Last thing I wanted to share this time: when we move to Gaborone we hope to probably stay with our friends for the first week or two. The plan is to find rental accommodation for the first year. After this we might buy something again, but I would really like to get familiar with the area, neighborhood etc first. One of the estate agents has a wonderful website, I am checking this site once in a while, and it gives a pretty good idea about what is available for rent. The exchange rate is approx 7.5 Pula for a Euro at the moment. So for approx 650 euros per month (euros) you can rent something pretty nice.

That's my update for now, we will try to get a few more links safari camps) and maybe some photos on this blog soon too (maybe J2?)

J1