Nico is now one and a half and has just started school

Well, not school school. Although they do call themselves a school. Its more like a play school. Or kindergarten as Benedikt calls it.
His first day went quite well - he didn't even cry when I said goodbye! Although his teacher did call me to please collect him at 10am. Apparently he had been crying a fair bit. Jungle Tots is about 1.5kms from home and is within our secure (boomed off) suburb so its very quick and safe to get there. They only take kids up to age four, so its all very geared up for the little ones. The playground is just amazing! Perfectly sized slides and swings and a big plastic aeroplane and lots of push bikes with a track all the way around. Then they have a wooden puzzle room, a main dancing/music/activities room, and 2 classrooms. Nico is with 9 others, he is the youngest I think as they only take kids from 18 months onwards - he just made it.

I've made friends with one other mum so far, her and her family have just moved up from Durban. Her little boy, Max, and Nico are in the same class.
Its funny this whole school / classroom / teacher / rules / bag packing / writing Nico's name on everything business. I felt nervous myself going there on the first day!

Days 2 and 3 were nowhere as easy as day 1. He cried hysterically when I dropped him off. Well more like wrenched him off me to hand him over, his eyes big with fright and him crying the loudest ever. That didn't bother me too much as I know he was ok, just out of his comfort zone. Its when he looks around during play time later in the morning and doesn't see a familiar face, that's when I want to be there for him. To encourage him and look at whatever he has found.... instead he probably just cries some more because he doesn't recognise anyone. Poor little thing!
I've had to pick him up at 10am every day so far. So I have a measly 2 hours to get things done which is nothing, this morning I spent the entire time at the local home affairs which is always a joy. And I need to work! Nico has to start surviving at school until 12.

On Nico's 18 month birthday I took him to the Bunny Park in Benoni. He loved it!


PS. Nico survived until 12 noon on his 4th day of school. Yeeeeeeeeeeha! I didn't know what to do with all that free time. AND he slept until 3pm when he got home. So thats like almost a whole day. Lets hope this keeps happening

Braai at ours and the Dischem 21km

Its been really great hooking up with all my friends here. Its been 3 weeks of me looking after Nico ALL DAY and boy does it get tedious. Benedikt has started his new job and thats going well so far. Its a good challenge for him. I'm keen to get going with my web development work, but am waiting for Nico to start at nursery school. Its impossible trying to sit on my computer with him around. He climbs all over me, and presses all the keys and kicks the table etc etc. So instead, I try to meet up with friends or go on excursions daily to get out of the house. Even if its just to lurk at a local toy store :) 3 of my good friends have kids now so our visits are play dates for Nico too - bonus.
So last weekend we entertained for the first time in our temporary rental house. We have only basic furniture. And lots of mismatched stuff that my father has... He is living with us while we are here so that he can be chief babysitter, dog sitter, furniture and car provider! He and I are sharing his bakkie so that I don't have to get a car. Its all working well so far.


I am REALLY trying not to get sucked into doing too much exercise while I am here. It won't help our pregnancy cause. But its SO hard. This country is a sports mecca! I couldn't not enter a 21km that started 700m for our house could I? The announcments alone would have woken us up! So Mandy and I ran it last weekend.
So our good friend from Nairobi came to stay with us yesterday. He did the half ironman in East London. His first big triathlon. He did super well in the swim and bike but absolutely died in the run! Was SO good to see him. He and I shopped up a storm for him to take supplies back to Nairobi!

New Years in Brits the Pits

So my sister and her husband are in the middle of a 2 year stint of living in Brits. They are there while Collin specialises in embryology. So my sister does a LOT of driving to get to joburg and its surrounds in her new job as a Veterinary rep. She got very tired of the hard lifestyle and stressful job of being an outpatients nurse at Ondestepoort.
So after our week in Swellandam, Nico and I went and spent 5 days in Brits. Benedikt joined us on the fourth day as he'd been back in Nairobi to wrap up things at his old job.

Kreeeeesmaaas in Swellies

Its been very funny to hear the strong South African accents again and all the south africanisms...its entertaining Benedikt and I no end. Things like 'eish' and 'seriaaaaas' and 'kreeeeeesmaaaa' and 'aswell'... I love this place.
So we all spent a week in Swellendam in the Western Cape over Christmas at my mum's lovely house. My sister and I flew down to cape town with Nico and my mum picked us up. It was really nice that it was just us 3 for the first night. Then Dad drove down the next day with my sister's dog, Malawi, or 'Malawa' as Nico calls him. Then Benedikt arrived the next day as he'd had to spend the week in Germany for his new job. Then Collin arrived the next day, on Christmas eve. We just missed having my brother and Nicola there.
It was a very social week, we visited some of my mum's neighbors and Swellendam's one and only vegan (who grows amazing salad veggies hydroponically) came to visit twice, we had a a visit from an old school friend of my brother's and met her twins and we met up with a family we know from Kenya who were holidaying in Cape Town and did some wine farms and went for lunch with them.

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.