Just Checking In

Hello and merry Christmas to everyone who is checking in on us.

The good news is that we're still alive and all is going well. The bad news is that we're no longer in our own house with our own computer equipment and our own freedom to do whatever we want, so we'll keep this short as it's a whole new ball game now.

Anyway here's the skinny on the move so far:

We overpacked. We overpacked to the point that not only were we exceeding Aer Lingus's weight limit for flights from Cork-Amsterdam (per person), we were even exceeding our own 4 baggage items' capacity to fit stuff in!! At the last minute, some very lucky friends of ours got given some very nice bottles of alcohol and the charity shop definitely got a bunch of nice clothes!! On d-day, we were still way over the weight limit but decided to bite the bullet and pay the €8/kg extra that we'd surely incur at the airport. As luck would have it, being xmas eve and all, Mr. Baggage-Checker-Inner was feeling happy and jolly himself (even at 5:10 a.m.) and let us off with only a warning! Ace in the hole!!! Now we can unload some of our winter unnecessaries, leave them here in NL, and save a bunch of weight for the trip from Amsterdam-London-Joburg on the 3rd. whew!

Our last 2 nights were spent in the posh, swanky ´Presidential Suite' type-room at Cork's finest: The Ambassador Hotel. My office party was oFridayay night there, meaning we got a special group rate on rooms for those who wanted to stay over, so we just stayed the extra night as well... it was a much-deserved reward for the last 3 weeks of packing, chaos, and madness back at our own humble abode. It worked out great, too, because we could take advantage of the bed, sheets, pillows (such an improvement on the last week of air-mattress-living) as well as an official wake-up call at 4:30 am, and the night porter ordering us a taxi to the airport, etc etc. Great move.

The (more than a) week of goodbye after goodbye was hard. There were even occurrences of tears at times, lots of emotional heart-to-hearts, and so on (not my favorite part of moving) many presents, many email addresses changing hands. Probably the most difficult part was the fact that much alcohol was consumed at my office 'do, and that means the hearts were opened and the floodgates were bursting like crazy!! (and I'm NOT talking about myself, here!!) I just don't know what else to say in these situations other than "um, please stop crying? see I'm kind of looking forward to this whole thing and you're freaking me out, here...." Sounds harsh but seems to work. Nonetheless, a great time was had by all. Our last night we went out with the cream of the crop (6 friends) to one of our favorite Cork haunts (groovy chinese restaurant) one last time, and said our last goodbyes, in an extremely decent fashion. It wasn't too melodramatic, it wasn't too hard, and most of all it was just nice.

Christmas time here in NL is different.
The Mr. and I exchanged our presents alone at the kitchen table today and I was happy that we're going through all this together. I got my favorite tv series (LittlBritainan) seasons 1,2, and 3 on DVD (WAHOO!!!) and he got an Irish rugby jersey and some guitar picks. Why the guitar picks, you ask? Because that's part 2 of his present... when we get settled in at the new place. He wants to learn, and I think it's a fabulous idea. We'll see how many chords I can remember when it comes time to do the teachin' !

So there are my thoughts for the moment. We both wish you all a happy new year and can't wait to see you ''down south'' in the coming year(s).

J2

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