Thai Massage

Killing time at the park over the road - Nico was at home all of last week! His school closed for 10 days as there was an outbreak of Hand, foot and mouth disease

So my good friend Leanne, who I've known since we moved as a family to SA in 1984, and I went for an AWESOME Thai Massage for her birthday last weekend. I couldn't let her go alone could I?
Leanne and I went to primary school, high school and university together. We also worked together for a domestic airline for a bit too. We've been the best of friends all along and its been so nice seeing so much of her during this time in SA. She has 2 beautiful children - Holly and Aiden - and a great husband, Lynton. Nico loves seeing Holly and our dogs love it when crazy Pepper visits too.

Two sexy inmates! They gave us these cool karate outfits to wear upon arrival	And straw slops! It really was an authentic place, with only real Thai, non english speaking, people working there!
How we felt after our 2 hour massages - lazy Buddhas! Man it was a wonderful - they bent us and stretched us and pushed every nook and cranny	We were so relaxed after it all. They massaged us on firm mattresses on the floor. All the better for stomping on you with their feet apparently!

Our week at Mum's

So straight after my one nighter in Shermany, Nico and I went to Gaga's for a week. We flew down on the Saturday to George which is a LOVELY little airport where Gaga picked us up and we drove the 2.5 hours to Swellendam. Nico slept beautifully in the car as planned.

I'm now going to use my mum's summary of our week as its spot on... so I quote:

Just spent a super week with gorgeous grandson and his great Mum here in Swellies. What a team they make! Nico is growing up so nicely and is at such a responsive age where everything you say and do with him is immediately absorbed and returned to you a thousand fold. He is such a confident, well adjusted little boy. Well done to his Mum & Dad for the great job they are doing! If he carries on like this we will have the brightest, most content, extremely sporty, strong, chatty happy little boy ever.
In the week Wewa & Nico were here we achieved so much from little Nico whizzing around on his bikey indoors and out, including ramping the path steps & crashing into walls at great speed ( he LOVED doing this ) He also loved racing up down the roads around here too ( when they were free of traffic!! ) His little legs going at a furious pace. No fear at all! Shades of his Uncle Mark at the same age!! We had Mother's Day breakfast at La Belle Alliance ( just at the btm of Faure St ) where Nico just loved spearing all our food with a cocktail stick and eating vast amounts of humous, cucumber and carrots this way .I was so impressed with his eclectic eating habits the whole week actually and doing the "oatcha dance" with him whenever anything edible went in his mouth is just so special especially when he joins in. We went to the swings behind the "Old Gaol", did some shopping in our Mall, went to the Fairy Sanctuary, played with giant Lego, made sandcastles in the sand tub in the garden & the 3 of us went on a 7km hike in Marloth with King Nico being carried aloft in the "back pack". Sarah had a well deserved massage from Elizma, the yoga teacher in Faure St, after the walk which she definitely needed after carrying 10kgs (plus the backpack) of special cargo on her back for 2 hours! Very impressed with that feat! Sarah even managed to sneak off for a couple of runs during her stay which she enjoyed. Nico was asleep by 7pm each night of course so Wewa and I were able to curl up by the fire with our wine and vegan choc cakes ( divine) & watch "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy borrowed from the Greens. A bit too scary for me in places but well worth watching. Oh yes, on the Monday night we had William & Sigi for a vegan supper which was delicious & mostly put together by our very clever vegan cook.... Wewa, and it was loudly acclaimed by all.

Thanks for that Mum!

We also went for a lovely tea with about 100 German ladies that my mum is good friends with, where Nico stole the show. It was always very funny going about town with Gaga as she knows everyone in the little dorp!

Our flights both up and down were just amazing. I always dread flying with Nico alone as its so difficult to bolt a toddler to a seat for those hours, but on our flights he had free reign as the plane was half empty. Woohoo! He climbed on every spare seat, ran up and down the aisles, played hide and seek with the other kids and generally had a ball. Everyone was just so friendly too, which is also what you hope for when flying.
I calculated the other day that Nico has flown 24 times already and he is only 22 months old. What a JET SETTER. Wish he earned miles!

My mum and other Grannys in Swellendam rotate a cot, a high chair and lots of toys for visiting grandchildren - very handy	Nico's COOL motorbike. He whizzed around on it at high speed but always seemed to brake in time thank goodness
Our lovely mothers day breakfast walk to a nearby restaurant which over looks the river	Sandpit fun - it was pretty chilly when the sun wasn't out - I loved the weather because of the log fires and electric blankets my mum spoilt me with!
Swellendam's mountains were burnt to cinders in January this year - it was funny to see everything so opened up. And sad to see a lot of black still. Poor wildlife that must have died!	Nico showing off with his hands in his pockets
Nico LOVES his Gaga! The two of them re-bonded :)	My Mum cross stitched this AWESOME height chart. Nico measured in at 81cm. So he has shrunk 1cm since February!
The hard life of an almost 2 year old. Watching TV is SUCH a novelty!	On the phone with Dad who was still in Germany. Nico LOVED 'speaking' to him every day
Playing with Gaga at the enchanting Fairy sanctuary that people come from far and wide to see.	This Asian lady took about 1000 photos of our lovely blue eyed blond boy at the airport - weird!

Germany for one night

So I'm sitting at Munich airport right now, using the free wifi on our fancy new iPad. We only arrived on Tuesday and its now Thursday and I'm heading home! So this is officially the shortest overseas trip I've ever made. Benedikt is staying on for another week for work.
We left Nico at home for obvious reasons- this sleep shortage is hard enough on us without a sleep deprived ratty kid in tow. Aunty mandy looked after him on Wednesday and this morning, while Gampa is looking after him right now. Am feeling slightly anxious re the latter baby sitter! But Pops has just sms'd me saying he ate a good supper and is now fast asleep for the night. Good, they survived the afternoon together. I just hope Nico sleeps through as Gampa may not hear him cry!! And good luck dad for the hectic 45mins before school at 8am tomorrow morning!
So on Tuesday we went to the bank and signed for the finance for our new house. Then went and signed for Life Insurance. On Wednesday we spent 2 hours with a lawyer doing the house transfer. Then went to see our actual house - its coming along nicely and may just be ready in time for our arrival - woohoo! We spoke to the tile guy and specified what we'd like and where. Such a pleasure when everyone from the tile guy to the estate agent to the building manager are all so capable and helpful.
So the garage on the right is ours. And next to that will be the carport, so basically joined onto the house. Apparently they drive the garage over ready made! Nice to see the house without the scaffolding. And we went for a quick interview with a little people school for Nico that is just 200m away from our house. Its really nice and would be IDEAL. But they have 55 kids on the waiting list! So lets see. Apparently they do take everyone into consideration. And most of those kids are 1 year olds, so we do have a chance. Fingers crossed cos we really liked it and it would just be SO handy - its no more than a 2 min walk away.
We stayed with Nina and Thomas and the cute little Milla on Wednesday night so it was great to see them again.

Nico's burnt hand

So we were supposed to have gone to Mauritius last week but Nico burnt his hand quite badly the day before departure... What a palaver! He burnt it on the stove top - EINA! The hot plate was actually off and when it had been on, it was only for about 30 seconds or so, (Nico had been playing with the dials) but clearly it was still hot enough to burn his hand when he leant over to grab something. (I had him on the kitchen counter while I made his lunch)

He didn't stop crying after 30 mins of running it under a tap so I figured it must be bad, although his hand was just red at that stage. So my dad took us to the local emergency hospital where the staff ushered us straight in to see a doctor - it was amazing. In Nairobi we would have had to have waited hours!

The doctor and nurse put a cooling gel all over his hand and wrapped it in cling film, followed by a bandage. The gel (burn shield) bought immediate relief for the poor little guy who had clearly been in a lot of pain. They also gave him strong painkillers which made him sleep for 3.5 hours! The doctor told us that we'd have to come in after 24 hours and have it assessed. But regardless he said, it would have to be in a dressing for the next week or so and we wouldn't be able to get that wet or full of sand. So Benedikt and I made the decision to postpone our Mauritius trip to the end of June. Which turned out to be not so expensive thank goodness. It just would have been completely pointless taking him on a beach holiday when he couldn't swim in the sea or the pool, nor play on the beach. And we weren't sure how good the local hospital would be for the re application of the dressing. It was totally the right decision.

We have only like 9 weeks left in SA! So we are making lots of effort to see as much of friends and family as possible. And making sure we go to all the places we want to and get all the necessary shopping done too. Some things, like clothes, are cheaper here than in Deutschland so it's a great excuse to clothes shop! Because of not going to Mauritius, we had a long weekend free which was great. We took Nico to the Jhb Zoo, the bunny park and to friends in Pretoria who have a little boy slightly older than Nico. which he loved of course - new toys and big trampoline! We also took Nico the dogs and met up with Mandy and Collin at this great place called Walk Haven. Everyone goes there with their dogs of all shapes and sizes and they all run wild! There is a dam and open space for the hounds to go mad. Malawi, my sister's dog, did not stop socialising for the entire 3 hours! He was very funny to watch. Horse and Mahindi on the other hand were happy to sit in the shade under our table after their one hour of mutt butt sniffing! Its such a great place, just a pity its an hour away.