Hello South Africa!

So we have been here a week now and have settled in just dandily. I am surprised at how much I am enjoying being back home. Could it be the AMAZING roads and really civilized drivers? Or the cleanliness and orderliness of the suburbs and surrounds? Or the to-die-for-doll SHOPPING?! Or the fact that I will be seeing my sister every week and my Dad every day. And my mum every 2 months?! hmmmmmmm... or could it just be because its an amazing country with great weather and friendly people and its all just so familiar? And I'm not even scared like I thought I would be. The security aspect of things is not freaking me out at all, even with Nico in the car with us. Lets hope that I stay this relaxed and that nothing bad happens to us.

My sister kindly picked us up from the airport last Saturday after a not so pleasant, delayed flight (plus we had mild hangovers after a late night with Naoko and others). We did the handover with the estate agent at 2pm for our house that we are renting, had our dogs delivered from the kennels where they had been the previous 2 weeks at 3pm, went out and bought a bed at 4pm and went and picked up Benedikt's temporary car from his new company at 5pm. We also went to Woolworths food for some groceries - WOW!!!! That store is just amazing. Such beautiful fresh produce and really healhty ready made meals. We were like kids in there! My sister was really laughing at us. So we had a yummy picnic supper on plastic table and chairs. By 7pm (8pm kenyan time) we were shattered! And so was Nico which was a good job as we put him to sleep on the floor on a cushion, barricaded in with our suitcases! We had run out of time to buy him a cot that afternoon.
Sunday morning the 3 of us woke up at 4:45am!!!! It gets light here SO early and with no curtains or anything we were doomed. So we took the dogs and went to the playground and park 200m away and let them run wild. There is also a km long, wide green stretch of grass parallel to our road which is just perfect for the dogs to run on, so we walked down and up that and we were still back by 6am! So we went off and did some more shopping: a cot, some toys for Nico, some more groceries, various bits and pieces and some bedding.
In fact, thats what we did every day this week: SHOP! Nico is now very sick of being dragged around the shops, so its a good thing we think we have everything we need now. There were so many things to get, like water filters, iron and ironing board, glasses, mugs, cutlery, tupperware, a vacuum cleaner and cleaning stuff, toiletries and bath mats, chlorine for the pool.... etc etc!
So tomorrow we are RELAXING. Nico is now sleeping well again - we bought black out blinds for his room and my dad put them up for us - he is very handy to have around. Nico also knows his way around the house now which makes him happier and more independent, it helps that its all on one level.
I've been running every morning with the dogs which is a great way to get to know the suburb we are now in (we used to live on the other side of the highway) and its really nice round here. We are all very happy with the house and the area (Essexwold just near Bedfordview). Its very central.
Our air freight FINALLY arrived on Thursday after lots of problems and delays on the Kenyan side. It was very frustrating. So that meant Benedikt eventually got his road bike and he promptly built it all up and joined our old cycling group on Friday morning for a hard 90kms. I am SO jealous not to be riding with them! Its all our old buddies and they are a fun crowd. Plus the cycling is really hard and intense and just what we enjoy. But I am fat and unfit these days so would never be able to keep up! Doctors orders were to put on weight and back off from exercise to help me get pregnant again so I am trying it.... although I hate it!! I just want to be fit and in shape on fast on my bike again. BUT, I keep telling myself, its just another year or so (hopefully) and then the having babies thing will be over!
So I am just running every morning and doing some yoga. I will do some cycling with my sister now and then - we can have fun social rides!

Benedikt and I can't believe how many cyclists and runners we see here. The roads are full of them. Like this morning, during my 13km run I must have seen about 200 runners and about 100 cyclists!! CRAZY. I love how sports orientated South Africans are, its so motivating.

We went a saw my good friend Leanne on thursday morning and we met each other's little boys for the first time, its crazy that we had'nt seen each for 2.5 years. Its so nice to have old friends here... instead of trying to make new ones. It makes the move so easy... we just slot right back in. We went for dinner on Thursday night with our coconut friend, Sudheer and the conversation was so similar to before that it felt like we'd never even been gone!

Bye bye Kenya!

So we have 3 days left and those 3 days are going to be spent packing our stuff, including my PC. Most of our furniture is going straight to Zurich and then going into storage until we get there in approximately April. Then things like our bikes and car seats and curtains, clothes, bedding, toys, certain gadgets and toiletries are going air freight to SA. Then we pack the rest in our 5 million suitcases that we fly with.
Its been a real mission sorting what goes where and what is up for sale.
This last Friday we had our farewell party at the sundowner deck in our compound. We picked possibly the worst night ever weather wise as Nairobi had monsoon like rains from about 6pm till 9pm. The whole city was flooded! So about 20 people didnt make it. But the remaining 40 of us had a GREAT time. I'd made a great punch (of which I think I drank most of it) and we had the same caterer who did our wedding, so the food was excellent. He also took care of the bar and set up the cocktail tables etc. So we had very little to do. Plus the sundowner deck was cleaned for us before and after. My kinda party - zero effort! Benedikt and I said a little speech telling our special friends how much they meant to us - Hem & Paul, Sabine & Mike, Ashe & Kiran, Roland & Naoko and Debbie & Malcolm made the top 5. And how much Kenya had meant to us, it really has been a special time for us too. We did afterall have a baby here and we get married here! A lot of our friends had gotten together and made a really cool news bulletin type magazine with loads of photos of us and them and had all written something special inside it. Sabine presented it to us at the party along with an amazing present from Savannah Sun. Thanks guys, we love it!
On Saturday, after just 4 hours sleep, we had the German Business Association's Christmas lunch to go to. Benedikt has been on the committee and I've been doing their web site, so we were quite involved. It was a pleasant afternoon. Benedikt and I went to bed straight after putting Nico down at 7pm, we were exhausted!
On Sunday I had organised a farewell ride with a lot of our mountain biking buddies. We went for a short 1.5 hour ride as it was raining, then everyone stayed for brunch at the lovely restaurant in our compound (which had been totally flooded on the Friday night!). And on Sunday we had a garden sale of a lot of our cutlery and crockery. So a busy final weekend.