Home Alone

Today marked the final preparations for the week ahead: Oupa and Ouma are going to be in the vicinity of Cape Town for the next week, visiting beautiful places like Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. They leave tomorrow morning early with time to spare for ‘beauty preparations’ before Stefanie and Kobus’s wedding on Saturday afternoon. So, that leaves us ‘home alone’ for the next week.

After almost finishing Young Fu this morning, I headed into town this afternoon with Oupa and 3 of the children. The plan was to get new library books, so craft supplies and stock up on the fresh veggies and bread we’ll need for the next week. Oupa and Ouma will be driving to the Cape in the car they’ve so generously been sharing with us for the past 2 and a bit months. The only wheels we’ll have for this next week are on the bicycles we own, and if we run out of anything or need anything desperately, one of us (probably Dieter!) will have to cycle to the nearest supermarket and pick it up. We’ll walk to church on Sunday morning and possibly to the evening meeting next Thursday. We walked last weekend and I think it took us 15 – 20 minutes each way and is a really nice walk.

I think the biggest challenge will be getting to football for the 3 practices next week. Ethan attends the Monday and Tuesday practice, and I think it will be a big challenge for him to cycle there. Its not that its far, its actually not too far at all. There is, however, a HUGE dip one has to go down into and then up out of on the other side. (The golf enthusiasts have turned the area around it into a golfing challenge supreme!) I don’t think I could cycle up the hill – I’d free wheel down with a firm hold on the brakes so I don’t catch a speed wobble – and then get off and walk up the other side. Instead of leaving 5 minutes before practice begins, I think we’ll have to leave 25 minutes earlier!

Dieter might be able to cycle on Thursday with Ryan, and free me up altogether. We’ll cross that bridge when we cross it!

Oupa will also be taking his internet dongle with him. It makes so much sense to get a dongle if one isn’t going to use the internet that much as it is much more cost effective – and offers the user the opportunity to travel with it and use it almost anywhere in the country. We do have a dongle of our own that Oupa gave us when he recently renewed his contract and could buy prepaid internet time (which is not very cost effective at all!) if we find we need to. We’ve decided that we will do without it for the week. That means that I won’t be able to post my blog for the next week and it means that we’ll have a good dozen emails in our inbox when we check next week instead of the one-a-day we have become accustomed to! LOL!

So, if you notice we are scarce, know that we’re having an absolute ball! We’re safe at home, eating lots of curried food (Oupa doesn’t like spicy food at all, so we’re planning a pig-out!), doing lots of painting, baking, playing with freshly made playdough, relaxing and just enjoying each other while we take walks and cycles around the neighbourhood.

We’ll be back next weekend or so – so watch this space! In the meantime if you desperately need to get hold of us, you can do so on our home or mobile numbers. We’re just one call away! Oh, and by the way, please don’t do anything BIG in the next week – we don’t want to miss out on your news, LOL!